Nadene Goldfoot
President Clinton-born 8/19/1946; with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak-born 2/12/1942; left, and Palestinian President Yasser Arafat-born 8/1929-died 11/11/2004 at the Camp David during peace talks, July 11, 2000. Ehud Barak was an Israeli general and politician who served as the tenth prime minister from 1999 to 2001. He was leader of the Labor Party until January 2011. Barak was replaced by Ariel Sharon from 2002 to 2006, a commander in the Israeli army since 1948. He was a member of the Likud Party. A millennium meeting in 2000 of the UN.It was September 8, 2000. 150 world leaders attended the United Nations for the largest summit meeting ever held. The Middle East as the main topic was the draw for so many. The center of the topic was the Temple Mount, a small area no bigger than a few football fields. The question was: who had control over the Temple Mount? It had come back into Israeli hands at the conclusion of the Six Day War of 1967. From 1948 to 67, Jews had not been able to enter.
Israeli paratroopers seeing wall for 1st time at end of war
The custom is to put a slip of paper with a prayer/hope in the crackThe Western Wall or Kotel is the only place where Jews are allowed to pray. It's the Muslim religious group in Jordan who rules the roost here. This is part of Herod's wall that enclosed the Temple that still stood in the Old city of Jerusalem. The 5 lower courses, each over 3 feet high, date from the time of Herod; the wall continues over 60 feet underground. Because of its proximity to the Holy of Holies of Solomon's Temple, where only the high priest was allowed, at the West end of the Temple, this part of the wall was regarded as sacred in popular legend as far back as the 10th century. And the UN thought they were going to dictate who ruled over the wall!!!
Jews were kept from the wall and the Temple Mount from 1948 to the end of the 1967 War. The fact that they won the war gave them the right to enter Jerusalem here and view the wall. On Shavuot 1967, the 1st day the Wall could be visited b the public, 200,000 people went there, and since then it has been a focal point for Jewish tourists from all parts of the world.
There were 3 proposals for this religious center to parcel sovereignty over it that once held Solomon's Temple. One was to have someone over the outer wall; one for the building sitting on the outer wall, and the 3rd was over the country-yard in between.
They ignored the fact that it was the chief site for Judaism, both his 1st and 2nd Temple as the 1st was attacked by the Assyrians in 721 BCE, and rebuilt after the Babylonian attacks happening in 597 BCE and then again in 586 BCE by Nebuchadnezzar and rebuilt in 538 BCE by the returning captives. Then the Romans attacked and burned down the 2nd Temple in 70 CE, and place a Roman Temple in its place which later was destroyed and replaced by a Moslem Temple.
Barak was the 1st Israeli leader to acknowledge Palestinian ties to Jerusalem, which was a very new tie with the mosque now sitting on the Temple Mount. Many thought this was an unwarrented giveaway and that it wouldn't soften Arafat up at all, but only show weakness. Barak declared that the city was sacred to Moslems and Christians and cherished by their Palestinian neighbors, and that a true peace would reflect all these bonds. He appeased people for the moment, never carrying through with such a promise. So far, the Palestinians had shown no peace, and had only been attacking the Jews. When Israel goes overboard, the Palestinians have only hardened their hearts and never have gone along with anything like peace with the Jews. They took the oath of the 3 NO's in Africa's Kartoum meeting, and haven't changed their minds.
Arafat spoke. saying that Jerusalem was the cradle of Christianity and the site of Prophet Mohammed's ascension to heaven. Then he omitted any Jewish connection to the city on purpose. Now the city was again in Jewish hands. The 1967 Six Day War's outcome was that Israel had won against all the surrounding states that had attacked her. Besides ignoring the fact that Israel had now gained back the land and it was in their hands again, he accused Israel of "attempts to Judaize Jerusalem!" Of course it's a Jewish city. What else?
The Muslims have 48 Muslim majority states. Jews have just gained back their one and only state of Israel after waiting over 2,000 years for it to be theirs again.
This is exactly what happened when Moses was born. Baby
boys were being killed. Rashi to Exodus (1:16) quotes a Midrash that the Pharaoh decreed to specifically kill males since his astrologers predicted that a male would save the Jews. This Midrash is pretty old, and is present in Josephus' Antiquities of the Jews (2:9:2). Exodus 1:15-22) The oversupply of boys might join their enemies and fight against them. So instead of realizing that the boys would grow into men and become his fighting force, Jews and Egyptians, he wanted all boys killed,, period.
Jerusalem had been the capital of Israel from the days of King David who had ruled over Israel from 1010 BCE to 970 BCE, a period of 40 years. It remained with the Davidic dynasty when Solomon, his son, was the king. from 961 to 920 BCE. Jeroboam was then king with Jerusalem becoming the capital of Judah. The Dynasty continued on with Solomon's son, Rehoboam as king from 933-917 BCE. David's House continued to rule till Zedekiah was king from 597-586 BCE. The House of David ruled from Jerusalem from 1010-586 BCE-a period of 424 years! Then the Jews returned from Babylon where they had been taken captives in 538 BCE and continued ruling until Jerusalem was burned down by the Romans in 70 CE. That was another 608 years, totaling 1,032 years of ruling from Jerusalem under Jewish rule, and he makes a ridiculous statement like that! It's enough to curdle my blood.
A book has been written, called the Torah, the 5 Books of Moses. The Tanakh or Old Testament has continued the history. Psalms were written by David. The whole world of Christians has been at least exposed to our history. How can Arafat deny us?
Of course he knows our history, but for publication, he, like a lawyer, has set the scene of denial, and knows that if he says it enough times, people will believe him. He's the big shot in his world, and people will do what he says.
Anyone who tries to take Jerusalem away from the Jews is asking for trouble. It's always been the Jewish capital. So many Jewish souls fought for it. Jewish blood has colored the soil. No one has held it for any length of time and made it blossom except the Jews. Jerusalem has always been regarded as the spiritual center of Judaism.
It was in 638, the city fell to the caliph Omar who set up a place of prayer in the Temple esplanade; this was magnificently rebuilt in 691 as the Dome of the Rock by the Umayyad caliph Abd-el Malik. Under Arab rule, the Jews were allowed to return, but the city began to decay after the transfer of the center of Abbasid rule to Baghdad in 750. The Fatimids in the 11th century built the 2nd principal mosque, El-Aksa, on the Temple site. In 1099, Jerusalem was stormed by the Crusaders under Godfrey of Bouillon; they established it as a capital of the Latin Kingdom. In 1187, the Ayyubid sultan Saladin retook the city for Islam and it remained in Moslem hands, except for a few years in the middle of the 13th century, despite all Christian efforts in successive crusades. In each Crusade from first to last, they have slaughtered both Jewish men and women, even entering their homes., not very "Christian" of them.
Over the past 50 some years, Israel has bent over backwards to give the Islamic authorities (Wakf) control over the Temple Mount which has actually taken away the rights of Jewish citizens to pray there. The Islamic Wakf of Jordan arrest anyone Jewish they see moving their lips in prayer! We see the results with Arabs, mostly teens harassing and attacking Jews in mob hysteria periodically. The Palestinians need to recognize the Jewish connection to ancient Jerusalem and accept the moral and historic right of Israel to exist in this land. The Abrahamic Accords is leading the way in this, hopefully.
Resource:
Confronting JIHAD, Israel's struggle & the world after 9/11 by Saul Singer, columnist at the Jerusalem Post.
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