Shocking Outcome From Qatar On All Counts; Especially On Hostages

 Nadene Goldfoot                                               

                   Minister for Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs Fares is regarded as one of the principal architects of Fatah's 'young guard' movement, who briefly formed the al-Mustaqbal or "Future" list (2005) before joining with Mahmoud Abbas to form a united Fatah list for the upcoming elections.

Qadura Fares, head of the Palestinian Prisoners Affairs Committee, who is responsible, among other things, for the issue of terrorists held in Israeli prisons, reportedly went to Qatar to meet with the negotiating team and prepare the list of Palestinian prisoners who will be released as part of a hostage deal. Fares claimed yesterday that more than 3,000 Palestinian prisoners will be released in the first phase of the deal.  Have we been waiting all this time for this result of the deal?  It's unbelievable!!!Israel has been doing a pretty good job of putting an end to Hamas terrorism and Fares's deal is to let out all the terrorists from prison !!!Where is it that the hostages are all returned?  Nowhere!!!

Qatar has reportedly handed Israel and Hamas a "final" draft of a cease-fire and hostage release agreement after a breakthrough was reportedly reached in talks in Doha late last night. 

Officials in Israel denied receiving the draft and said the final agreement is dependent on Hamas.                         

         IDF soldiers uncover a tunnel near the Philadelphi Route shortly before the disengagement

Some of the issues that still could derail an agreement include the status of the Philadelphi quarter and northern Gaza, the number of Palestinian prisoners to be released and veto power over that process, and the number of live hostages to be released in the initial 33 set to be freed in phase one.

JerusalemCNN — 

Hamas is expected to release 33 hostages during the first

 phase of an emerging ceasefire agreement being finalized by negotiators in 

Doha, two Israeli officials said, the first positive sign in months that a truce in

 the Israel-Hamas war may be in sight.

Officials have expressed cautious optimism that a deal could soon be announ

ced to halt 15 months of fighting that has destabilized the Middle East and 

devastated Gaza,

 allow for more aid into the besieged Palestinian enclave, and ensure the

 return of dozens of hostages held by Hamas since its attack on Israel on 

October 7, 2023.

Hamas and its allies still hold 94 of the 251 hostages taken from Israel, 

including at least 34 of whom are dead, according to the Israeli government.

Israel believes that most of the 33 hostages to be released in the first phase of

 the deal are alive, a senior Israeli official told reporters on Monday, but the 

bodies of dead captives will also likely be among those released. The first 

phase would take place over an initial 42-day ceasefire.

Meanwhile, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said he could not support the deal because he believes that it is catastrophic for Israel's security. He tweeted, "We will not be part of a capitulation deal that would include the release of arch-terrorists, stop the war and dissolve its achievement won in blood while sacrificing the lives of many hostages," he said in his post. 

"This is the time to continue in full force, conquer and purify the entire Strip and finally take control of the humanitarian aid from Hamas and open the gates of hell until Hamas is defeated and all the hostages returned."                                                    

President Biden spoke with Prime Minister Netanyahu yesterday by phone. They discussed efforts underway to reach a deal to halt the fighting in Gaza and free the remaining hostages. The White House said that Biden "stressed the immediate need for a cease-fire in Gaza and return of the hostages with a surge in humanitarian aid enabled by a stoppage in the fighting under the deal." They also discussed "the fundamentally changed regional circumstances following the cease-fire deal in Lebanon, the fall of the Assad regime in Syria, and the weakening of Iran's power in the region." Netanyahu also thanked Biden for his lifelong support of Israel and "the extraordinary support from the United States for Israel's security and national defense."                                              

The battle in Gaza is not over, and the casualties mount up for the IDF.  "The IDF announced that 4 soldiers were killed in battle in Gaza’s Beit Hanoun by an explosive device detonated near their vehicle:"

- Sergeant Major (res.) Alexander Fedorenko, 37, from Bat Yam, a truck driver in the 79th Battalion, 14th 'Machatz' Brigade.

- Staff Sergeant Danila Diakov, 21, from Ma'ale Adumim, a soldier in the 931st Battalion, Nahal Brigade.

- Sergeant Yahav Maayan, 19, from Modi'in, a soldier in the 931st Battalion, Nahal Brigade.

- Sergeant Eliav Astuker, aged 19, from Ashdod, a soldier in the 931st Battalion, Nahal Brigade.

Five more soldiers were wounded in the incident. 4 + 5=9;  nine young men in one day.  

The IDF struck multiple locations across southern and eastern Lebanon, including areas far away from the border, last night. Targets included a rocket launch site, a military installation and transit routes along the Syria-Lebanon border used for smuggling weapons to Hezbollah.  

IsraelAM

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qadura_Fares

The World's January 1st Celebration of New Year's Day

 Nadene Goldfoot                                                  

A shofar, pomegranates, wine for kiddush, apple and honey – symbols of the Rosh Hashanah holiday, except the wine is not our traditional Manischewitz grape wine

A bulletin just came out about the history of New year's Day being January 1st being a new phenomenon.  It listed the earliest recording of a New Year celebration was believe to have been in Mesopotamia around 2,000 BCE and was celebrated around the time of the vernal equinox, in mid-March. They can't come out and say that this could have been the Jewish people on the Exodus following Moses' directions?  

 I guess they hadn't ever heard of the Jewish New Year High Holidays that are celebrated around the world wherever there are Jews in the autumn.  It's called Rosh Hashanah 'head of the year') which is the New Year in Judaism..   Leviticus 23:23–25, that occur in the late summer/early autumn of the Northern Hemisphere. Rosh Hashanah begins ten days of penitence culminating in Yom Kippur, as well as beginning the cycle of autumnal religious festivals running through Sukkot which end on Shemini Atzeret in Israel and Simchat Torah everywhere else.

Though it's a Jewish holiday, and the world only has 0.02% of its populations as Jews,  it is listed on many calendars in the USA where the population shows 2.4% of the population were Jewish.  

School Principals who have Jewish teachers in their school would be aware of this holiday, however, as they would need a substitute for 2 days.  It's a 2-day holiday.  

The article did go on to mention that a variety of other dates tied to the seasons were also used by various ancient cultures.  The Egyptians, Phoenicians, and Persians began their New Year with the fall equinox, and the Greeks celebrated it on the winter solistice.  Nary a word about the Jews, though.  All this information probably came from an encyclopedia. In those days our ancestors were called the Israelites, and that word isn't used, either.  

How could they not list Jews separately?  Phoenicians are an ancient people, without anyone living today as a country which Israel is the only Jewish country in the world.  Egyptians continue with a country and Persians have reclaimed their old name of Iran and continue on as a country. Greece continues as Greece.  

The reason I'm miffed is that the history of the Jews and their New Year celebration is found right in the Bible, the "Old Testament" of course, straight from Moses' directive to celebrate 3 special festivals.  Moses gave Jews their religion called Judaism from the name of their state of Judaea, the southern part of ancient Israel, a break from the polytheism going on in the world at the time from which Christianity and Israel became off-shoots of Judaism, certainly borrowing much to monotheism.  Leviticus is part of the 5 Books of Moses;  the first section of the bible. It's given the big snub;  not even mentioned.  

  

 

A Plague Almost 3,000 Years Ago Turned Back Jerusalem's Enemy

 Nadene Goldfoot                                             

Jerusalem was under siege in 701 BCE by the Assyrians, yet they suddenly turned back.  Why?  

 Yes, a plague likely struck the Assyrian army during the siege of Jerusalem in 701 BCE: In the Bible, the angel of the Lord killed 185,000 Assyrian soldiers in the night, forcing Sennacherib to break camp. The Babylonian historian Berossus wrote that a plague devastated the Assyrian army.                             

Sennacherib, until 689 BCE, was busy fighting with Elam and Babylon.  The kings of Phoenecia and Israel, led by Hezekiah (720-692 BCE) , rose in revolt, Sennacherib,  the Assyrian, invaded  Judah in 701 BCE.  he captured 46 cities but not Jerusalem.  He took many prisoners.  A plague broke out in his camp, causing him to retreat.   

In 720 BC, the Assyrian army captured Samaria, the capital of the northern Kingdom of Israel, and carried away many Israelites into captivity. The virtual destruction of Israel left the southern kingdom, Judah, to fend for itself among warring Near-Eastern kingdoms. After the fall of the northern kingdom, the kings of Judah tried to extend their influence and protection to those inhabitants who had not been exiled. As they were about to lose a battle with Sennacherib, the Assyrians were hit with a terrible plague that ended their war.  

Although Judah was a vassal of Assyria during this time and paid an annual tribute to the powerful empire, it was the most important state between Assyria and Egypt.  Hezekiah didn't pay  during the plague, though. 

It is more difficult to know the role of disease in biblical times. One area where it may have had an impact is the Assyrian war led by Sennacharib against ancient Judah in 701 B.C.E. Though the Assyrian armies were mighty, and conquered most of the kingdom, they departed after a siege of Jerusalem, without invading and destroying the city. In the biblical account (2 Kings 18), an angel killed many of the soldiers, and so they departed. 

Could it have been some form of flu-virus, like COVID?  It's mutating now, and people are still catching it.  Being angels were thought to be the cause, that means they had no way of seeing the cause, I would think.  Suddenly soldiers were getting ill and dying.  It sounds like WWI's plague.                                       

The 1918 influenza pandemic, also known as the Spanish flu, was a plague that affected the U.S. Army and other armies during World War I: The virus originated in Kansas and was likely carried to Camp Funston by young men leaving the area for military service. The virus spread through the Western Front in France, Germany, Austria, and the Slavic nations. Soldiers constantly moved between camps across the country, which helped the virus spread. The pandemic killed an estimated 50,000 U.S. soldiers, and may have killed up to 100,000 soldiers overall. It also rendered millions of soldiers ineffective.  The pandemic shortened World War I, and it's unclear if it had an impact on the course of the war. However, the cessation of fighting in the fall of 1918 may have prevented battle casualties from exceeding the deaths from influenza. The pandemic also had a significant impact on the U.S. population, infecting over a quarter of the population and killing about 675,000 people.

Herodotus wrote  the army was overrun by mice, a possible reference to mouse-borne diseases.   Some Biblical scholars take this to an allusion that the Assyrian army suffered the effects of a mouse- or rat-borne disease such as bubonic plague. More recently, historian William H. McNeill speculated that cholera, due to lack of access to fresh water, weakened the soldiers. He felt this may have saved Judaism from annihilation, and thus also saved the still-fledgling concept of monotheism.

The Antonine Plague, also known as the Plague of Galen, was a severe epidemic that struck the Roman Empire between 165 and 189 CE. It's believed that soldiers returning from fighting in the Near East brought the disease to Rome. The plague is thought to have been smallpox, based on the skin eruptions that appeared on the body. 

The Antonine Plague had a devastating impact on the Roman Empire, affecting the economy, military, and population. It's estimated that the plague killed between 5 and 10 million people, which was about 10% of the empire's population. The plague is thought to have contributed to the decline of the Roman Empire, and some historians believe it may have even hastened the empire's collapse.  

Resource:

https://jewishbubba.blogspot.com/2023/07/how-assyria-in-721-bce-took-over-10.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assyrian_siege_of_Jerusalem#:~:text=Herodotus%20wrote%20that%20the%20Assyrian,disease%20such%20as%20bubonic%20plague.

https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/ancient-cultures/daily-life-and-practice/plagues-pandemics-and-biblical-history/

https://www.kumc.edu/school-of-medicine/academics/departments/history-and-philosophy-of-medicine/archives/wwi/essays/medicine/influenza.html

What Are Pogroms That Plagued Jews?

 Nadene Goldfoot                                       

A contemporary illustration showing the expulsion of the Jews. Image shows the white double tabula that Jews in England were mandated to wear by law.

The Edict of Expulsion was a royal decree expelling all Jews from the Kingdom of England that was issued by Edward I on 18 July 1290; it was the first time a European state is known to have permanently banned their presence.  Jews were banned from England for 365 years!  

    Gathering of a Jewish family on a Friday night (Shabbat) before a pogrom commences.  

Pogrom in Russian means "DESTRUCTION."  It's an organized massacre for the annihilation of any body or class, especially with governmental collusion;  more specially one directed against Jews.  

The term, Pogrom, was first used in English at the time of the anti-Jewish outbreaks organized by the BLACK HUNDREDS IN RUSSIA IN 1905, but is often applied to earlier Russian outbreaks from 1881 onward.  

My paternal grandmother, my Bubbie, Zlata Jermulowske, born in 1880s, had been in  a pogrom in Lazdijai, Lithuania and in Poland  where both her legs were broken.  She lived with bowed legs thereafter, and went from about 4'9" to 4'6" tall;  very very short. She arrived in Idaho before 1900.   Bubbie was kept from any education in Russia/Poland, so was illiterate.  She produced 2 grandchildren with PhDs, and many other grandchildren who were teachers.  One male was in charge of his whole state's hospital finances by keeping them in the black. One worked for the VA in finances.    

In the nineteenth century, much of the region was under Russian control. Antisemitism and official anti-Jewish policies often interrupted the growth of the Jewish community. Tensions escalated when the Russian government blamed the Jews for the assassination of Tsar Alexander II in 1881. As a result, three years of anti-Jewish riots—known as pogroms—ensued. These and other antisemitic outbursts in the Russian Empire dealt a massive blow to Jewish communities in the region. Many Jews were killed and their homes were plundered; in response, thousands of Jews looked to leave Lithuania, with many emigrating to South Africa and the United States. Their goal was freedom and economic security. More ideologically driven younger Jews emigrated to Palestine, spurred by the dream of establishing a Jewish state in their ancestral homeland.

Significant pogroms in the Russian Empire included the Odessa pogroms, Warsaw pogrom (1881), Kishinev pogrom (1903), Kiev pogrom (1905), and Białystok pogrom (1906). 

The pogrom in Fiddler on the Roof is based on the real-life Kishinev pogrom that took place in 1903. The pogrom was a violent attack on Jewish people in Kishinev, a city in imperial Russia, that resulted in the deaths of 49 Jews, the rape of many Jewish women, and damage to 1,500 Jewish homes. The pogrom was prompted by rumors of Jewish ritual murder, and if they knew anything about Jews, Jews do not eat blood or use blood in any way, so these rumors are based on absolutely false lies so far from truth that it makes me shudder!  

In the musical, Tevye, the dairyman, receives news of pogroms and expulsions from a bookseller while delivering milk. The news is delivered as Tevye asks God, "Whom would it hurt 'If I Were a Rich Man'?".

The author, Sholem Aleichem,  and Leo Tolstoy, author of War and Peace, worked together to raise funds for the victims of the pogrom. Aleichem also drew on his experiences for Tevye and His Daughters.  

Samuel Joel "Zero" Mostel (February 28, 1915 – September 8, 1977) was an American actor, comedian, and singer. He is best known for his portrayal of comic characters including Tevye on stage in Fiddler on the Roof.

During rehearsals, one of the stars, Jewish actor Zero Mostel, feuded with Robbins, whom he held in contempt because Robbins had cooperated with the House Un-American Activities Committee and hid his Jewish heritage from the public. (Mostel, conversely, was admired for his confrontational testimony before the committee that led to his blacklisting in the 1950s.

After the collapse of the Russian Empire in 1917, several pogroms occurred amidst the power struggles in Eastern Europe, including the Lwów pogrom (1918) and Kiev pogroms (1919).

 The most significant pogrom which occurred in Nazi Germany was the 1938 Kristallnacht. At least 91 Jews were killed, a further thirty thousand arrested and subsequently incarcerated in concentration camps, a thousand synagogues burned, and over seven thousand Jewish businesses destroyed or damaged.

 Notorious pogroms of World War II included the 1941 Farhud in Iraq, the July 1941 Iași pogrom in Romania – in which over 13,200 Jews were killed – as well as the Jedwabne pogrom in German-occupied Poland. 

Post-World War II pogroms included the 1945 Tripoli (Libya)  pogrom, the 1946 Kielce pogrom (Poland) , the 1947 Aleppo (Syria)  pogrom, and the 1955 Istanbul (Turkey) pogrom. 

On July 1, 1946, a nine-year-old non-Jewish boy, Henryk Blaszczyk, left his home in Kielce, without informing his parents. When he returned on July 3, the boy told his parents and the police, in an effort to avoid punishment for wandering off, that he had been kidnapped and hidden in the basement of the local Jewish Committee building on 7 Planty Street. The Committee building sheltered up to 180 Jews, and housed various Jewish institutions operating in Kielce at the time. The local police went to investigate the alleged crime in the building, and even though Henryk's story began to unravel (the building, for example, had no basement), a large crowd of angry Poles, including one thousand workers from the Ludwikow steel mill, gathered outside the building.

Polish soldiers and policemen entered the building and called upon the Jewish residents to surrender any weapons. After an unidentified individual fired a shot, officials and civilians fired upon the Jews inside the building, killing some of them. Outside, the angry crowd viciously beat Jews fleeing the shooting, or driven onto the street by the attackers, killing some of them. By day's end, civilians, soldiers and police had killed 42 Jews and injured 40 others. Two non-Jewish Poles died as well, killed either by Jewish residents inside the building or by fellow non-Jewish Poles for offering aid to the Jewish victims.

The term Kielce pogrom refers to a violent massacre of Jews in the southeastern Polish town of Kielce on July 4, 1946.

Aftermath of pogrom in Kielce(Film)

A pogrom took place in Kielce, Poland, in July 1946. Forty-two Jews were massacred and about 50 more were wounded. The event touched off a mass migration of hundreds of thousands of Jews from Poland and other countries of eastern and central Europe. A clip shows Jewish refugees, survivors of the pogrom, waiting to leave Poland and crossing into Czechoslovakia.

Credits:

• National Center for Jewish Film

Heresay, lies about Jews, caused violent mobs to attack the Jews in their area.  In other words, gossip.  The Jews have been accused of all kinds of bad things ever since a country's  religion, both Christianity and Islam,  has given the green light to hate and accuse Jews .  As evidence, emperors and kings have thrown Jews out of their countries after inviting them in and getting the results they wanted from them.  Spanish Inquisition is a good example in 1492.  Pope Alexander VI did not expel Jews from Spain in 1492, but rather, King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella did:  But it was the Pope's edict that caused the royals to kick Jews out.  

• Explanation: In 1492, King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella expelled Jews from Spain. Most of the expelled Jews fled to Portugal, where they were able to avoid persecution for a few years.  Then the same thing happened to Jews there.  

Resource:

https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/the-kielce-pogrom-a-blood-libel-massacre-of-holocaust-survivors  (a clip) 

The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zero_Mostel

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiddler_on_the_Roof#:~:text=Tevye%20is%20delivering%20milk%2C%20pulling,Tevye%20does%20not%20like%20Lazar.

https://www.facinghistory.org/resource-library/jewish-life-lithuania-holocaust

The Jewish Rebellion and How They Lost Jerusalem

 Nadene Goldfoot                                               

      Arch of Titus in Rome: a way of bragging how the Roman Army looted the Temple,  forcing the Jews, now slaves, to carry the precious articles from the Temple

 The Roman emperor during the Siege of Jerusalem in 70 CE was Titus, who ruled from 79–81 AD:  He was the son of Vespasian.  Titus took over command of the Roman army in Judea from his father in 70, when he destroyed Jerusalem after a 5 month siege that included starving the occupants.  According to Josephus, Titus endeavored-although unsuccessfully-- to preserve the Temple, but other sources relate that the destruction was deliberate with the object of eliminating the national religious center of the Jews.  Jewish tradition gave him the name, "Titus the Wicked." 

Despite the bitter battle in Judea, he did not interfere with Jewish rights elsewhere and refused to accede to the demand of the people of Antioch to abolish Jewish privileges there.  Antioch was a wealthy and thriving Jewish community in one of the largest cities of the first-century Roman world. The city's population was made up of Syrians, Greeks, Jews, and Romans. The Jewish community in Antioch were granted citizenship rights equal to those of the Greeks by Seleucus Nicator, the founder-king of Antioch. The Jews in Antioch were guaranteed the right to practice their religion and customs from the second century BC. The Jewish privileges were inscribed on brass tablets and carefully guarded. In 71 AD, when the citizens of Antioch requested that the Jews be expelled, Titus instead displayed a copy of the Jewish privileges in Alexandria in public. After Antiochus IV Epiphanes plundered the Temple in Jerusalem, his successors restored brass votive offerings to the Jews to keep in their synagogue.

                                      "Juive de Tanger" by Charles Landelle, Musée des beaux-arts de Reims

This may have been due to the influence of his mistress, Berenice, a Judean princess, daughter of Herod's sister, Salome.  In the year, 60, she rejoined Agrippa, supporting his efforts to prevent the outbreak of the great Revolt in 66, and later fled with him to the Romans. That's when she became Titus's mistress.  Then she was forced by Roman popular opinion to leave him.  When Vespusian died, she tried to reconcile with Titus, but failed.  Berenice was a member of the Herodian Dynasty that ruled the Roman province of Judaea between 39 BC and 92 AD. She was the daughter of King Herod Agrippa I and Cypros and a sister of King Herod Agrippa II.

Trajan was the Roman emperor who reigned from the year 98 to 117 CE/AD.  His oriental policy led to a major clash with the Jews of Judaea.  In 105/6 he annexed the Nabatean kingdom including the Negev and Transjordan.  In 115-117, while he was involved in his Parthian war, Jewish risings were happening in Cyrenaica, Egypt and Cyprus, and in Alexandria the Greeks attacked the Jewish population.  As a result, in 116;; he ordered a preventive massacre of the Jews in Mesopotamia.   Judea itself was kept under firm control by his general, Lucius Quietus.  The suppression of the many risings ended the prosperity of the Jewish settlements in Egypt, Cyrenaica, and Cyprus.                                        

Hadrian;  Aaelius Hadrianus, was a Roman emperor from 117 to 138 CE/AD.  Hadrian assumed control over the vast Roman Empire in AD 117 following the death of his adoptive father, Trajan. As emperor, he broke with the expansionist policies of his predecessors to focus on securing the Roman Empire within its existing borders.

His most impressive statement of this policy was Hadrian’s Wall – a monument that still influences the landscape of northern England today, some 1,900 years after it was built.

He removed and executed the savage governor of Judea, who was Lucius Quietus.                    

Lucius Quietus was a Roman Berber general and 11th legate of Judaea from 117. He was the principal commander against the Jewish rebellion known as the Kitos War (Kitos is a later corruption of Quietus). As both a general and a highly acclaimed commander, he was notably one of the most accomplished Berber statesmen in ancient Roman history. After the death of the emperor Trajan, Quietus was murdered or executed, possibly on the orders of Trajan's successor Hadrian.  What most of people ignore is the fact that behind the Greatness of Emperor Trajan lays the  African Berber, Lucius Quietus, who was Trajan’s military Deputy and Chief of staff of his armies… Many history manuals will not tell you who was really Lucius Quietus, how he became the Deputy of the Greatest Roman Emperor of all time and why many people really know nothing about him…

The Diaspora Revolt/or Jewish rebellion, a series of major uprisings by diasporic Jews, occurred in 115–117 in Cyrene (Cyrenaica), Cyprus, Mesopotamia, and Egypt. These uprisings involved the ransacking of towns and the slaughter of Roman citizens and others. When the inhabitants of Babylonia revolted, they were suppressed by Quietus, who was rewarded by being appointed governor of Judaea. There, he faced a period of unrest later known in rabbinic sources as the Kitos War, a name derived from Quietus. Quietus took the city of Lydda and methodically set about defeating the rebellions.

At first the Jews may have thought well of Hadrian because he supported the Egyptian Jewry in disputes with the Greeks and this created a favorable impression on the Jews.  

Then He came along with a prohibition against sexual mutilation which extended to circumcision.  This was an attack on a fundamental rite of Judaism, and they changed their minds.

As a result of his visit to Palestine in 130 and the implacable attitude of the Jews with whom he negotiated, he decided to commence the hellenization of the country by converting Jerusalem into a Roman colony and named it after himself, Aelia Capitolina. 

The Jews rebelled under Bar Kokhba and the ensuing war from 132 to 135 ended with Bar Kokhba's death.  It was the most difficult time of Hadrian's reign.   Bar Kokhba held Jerusalem for 3 years with his army of young men, an impossible feat in those days to dare to take on the Roman army.                                   

After Hadrians's victory, he received the title of Imperator.  Judea became a consular province called Syria-Palaestina.   The ruins of Jerusalem were reconstructed as a pagan city and an equestrian statue of Hadrian was erected on the site of the Holy of Holies.  

During the siege of Jerusalem during the Roman War, the Temple had served as a center of military activity, and was destroyed by the conquering Romans in 70 CE.  A Roman temple was later built on the site, and since the Moslem Period, a mosque has stood there called the Mosque of Omar.  The area around the western and southern walls of the (Herodian) Temple compound was extensively excavated in 1968.  

Research:

The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia

https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/1586-antioch