For your perusal, my latest INTO THE FRAY column:
The Temple Mount: No longer in our hands?
(Kindly consider “liking”, sharing, tweeting – please use hash-tag #IntoFray)
As a non-observant Jew I was always skeptical towards the claim of my more devout kin-folk that the Temple Mount was the key to the maintenance of Jewish sovereignty over Israel. I was wrong!
It appears this week on the following sites (in alphabetical order):
ALGEMEINER: https://www.algemeiner.com/2017/07/28/the-temple-mount-no-longer-in-our-hands
ISRAELI FRONTLINE: http://www.israelifrontline.com/2017/07/fray-temple-mount-no-longer-hands.html
ISRAEL NATIONAL NEWS: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Articles/Article.aspx/20803
ISRAEL NEWS ONLINE: https://israelnewsonline.org/into-the-fray-the-temple-mount-no-longer-in-our-hands/
ISRAEL RISING: https://www.israelrising.com/temple-mount-no-longer-hands/
ISRAPUNDIT: https://tinyurl.com/ydgtlq3j
JERUSALEM HERALD: https://www.jerusalem-herald.com/single-post/2017/07/28/INTO-THE-FRAY–The-Temple-Mount-No-longer-in-our-hands
JEWS DOWN UNDER: https://jewsdownunder.com/2017/07/28/fray-temple-mount-no-longer-hands/
MEDIUM: https://medium.com/@martinsherman/into-the-fray-the-temple-mount-no-longer-in-our-hands-7a663610a853
JEWISH PRESS: http://www.jewishpress.com/indepth/columns/into-the-fray-martin-sherman/into-the-fray-the-temple-mount-no-longer-in-our-hands/2017/07/30/
Several short excerpts:
It is extremely important that a solution to the current crisis be found by Friday this week…The dangers on the ground will escalate if we go through another cycle of Friday prayer without a resolution to this current crisis, Events in Jerusalem have the potential to have catastrophic costs well beyond the walls of the Old City, well beyond Israel and Palestine, well beyond the Middle East itself – Nickolay Mladenov, United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, January 24, 2017.
When we indulge Arab (and jihadi Muslims’) concerns for honor by backing off anything that they claim offends them, we think that our generosity and restraint will somehow move extremists to more rational behavior. Instead, we end up muzzling ourselves and thereby participating in, honoring, and confirming their most belligerent attitudes… And there is nothing generous, rational, or progressive about that. – Prof. Richard Landes, Tablet Magazine, June 24, 2014.
The chain of bloody events that took place over the last week defies both belief and reason. A series of unprovoked Arab assaults on Israelis, inexplicably, inconceivably and infuriatingly triggered a wave of international criticism of …Israel’s defensive responses?…
Israel’s regrettable reticence
Of course, in a world where fairness and reason dominated the conduct of international affairs, Israel would have won wall-to-wall sympathy and support.. ..Regrettably, however, international reaction was far from what should have been expected in an imaginary world of fairness and reason…But no less regrettable was the self-effacing Israeli response to the ridiculous recriminations, which merely helped fan the flames of this absurdity. Thus, rather than robustly and resolutely repudiating the preposterous accusations concocted against it, Israel endeavored to play the “responsible adult”…
Invitation to extortion
… by capitulating to threats of violence, the Israeli government has issued a clear invitation for further extortion. For it has conveyed an unequivocal message of weakness to both friend and foe…whether it is the lack of ability or the lack of will, there is little difference in the conclusion that will, inevitably, be drawn: There is nothing to prevent further threats to extort further and more far-reaching concessions…
Full disclosure: I was wrong
…As a non-observant Jew, whose relationship with the Almighty has been, to say the least, uneasy, I was always skeptical towards my more devout kin-folk’s claim that the Temple Mount was central to the maintenance of Jewish sovereignty. Although I opposed any Israeli territorial concessions—including on the Temple Mount—I held the belief that the struggle for Jewish control of the site was more incidental than central…Turns out I was wrong!
I was wrong (cont.)
…Although I still hold the view that, if Israel is to remain viable as the nation-state of the Jews, it cannot agree to surrendering sovereignty over Judea-Samaria, I am today far more open to the claim that control over the Temple Mount is the key to sustaining Jewish sovereignty. Not because of any strategic imperative but because of a pyscho-political one; not because Jewish zealots see it that way, but because Muslim zealots do…
“If I can’t bring my machine gun, no point in praying …”
…The insufferable absurdity of the opposition to enhanced Israeli security measures…was vividly brought home in a hard hitting video clip presented by Daniel Pomerantz, Senior editor of “Honest Reporting”. Pomerantz expressed his bewilderment at the Muslim response to the setting up of metal-detectors: “I don’t quite understand the logic in refusing to pass through a metal detector”, adding bitingly—but aptly: “It’s like saying ‘Well, if I can’t bring my machine gun then there’s no point in praying at all’ .”…
Appeasement never satiates, only whets, appetites
In a recent opinion piece, instructively entitled The problem with the metal detectors is that they are Jewish Fred Maroun, an Arab, resident in Canada, succinctly summarized the underlying motivation for the Arab resistance to the Israeli security measures: “Sadly, most Arabs still see Israel as the “Yahudi” enemy that must be vanquished at any cost. Therefore, when Israel backs down from making a change that is rational and reasonable, it constitutes appeasement…” He warns: Appeasement of people who hate you beyond any common sense does not work.”…
“When they smell weakness…”
…Ominously [Education Minister Naftali Bennett] warned “I expect to see an increase in violence in the next few weeks. We live in the toughest neighborhood in the world. When they smell weakness, they rise up”…
“Only way Islam can live with Israeli sovereignty…”
…Allow me to conclude with the words of the learned scholar of Islam, and former IDF intelligence officer, Dr. Mordechai Kedar:
The only way Islam can live with Israeli sovereignty is by recognizing that Israel is strong and invincible, so that any attempt to overcome it is sure to end in defeat…
Amen.
