Will the Temple Mount destroy Netanyahu?

Last updated: November 9, 2014

 

A reader has sent me an email. He thinks this war could change everything in Israel. He makes an interesting case.

He starts with three facts:

-Arab riots increasingly focus on ‘defending al-aqsa—the Temple Mount—for Islam’ (“PA security posts cartoon of Israel ‘raping’ Temple Mount”, Times of Israel, November 6, 2014); that is to say, the Arab goal of this war is to conquer the Temple Mount;

-the United States openly supports the Arab (“US Told Israel Temple Mount ’Must Be Opened to Muslims’”, Jewish Express, October 31, 2014); see also, “Report: Senior administration officials call Israel’s Netanyahu ‘chickens–t’ and ‘Aspergery’”, Washington Post, October 29, 2014; and, “'Israel's Most Bitter Western Enemy is America'” Arutz Sheva, October 3, 2014).

-as Jews speak out to secure the freedom to worship at The Temple Mount--Judaism’s holiest site on earth--Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejects that Jewish call. Instead, he surrenders to US and Arab demands (“Netanyahu Promises Abdullah: No Jewish Prayer on Temple Mount”, Arutz Sheva, November 6, 2014).

My reader believes that these ‘facts’ could combine in such a way as to collapse Netanyahu’s government.

Here’s his argument:

Arabs will press for victory over the Temple Mount. The Temple Mount is an emotional flash-point for Arab anger. Abbas and Hamas focus on that flashpoint. They use it. They build on it. They incite with it. They call Arabs to riot because of a so-called ‘Jewish aggression’ on the Temple Mount.   

As if on cue, Arabs riot.

Of course, the only Jewish aggression on the Mount is the Jewish call for the freedom to worship there. Arab leaders consider that call to be a ‘causus belli’.  

This may come as a shock to some anti-Israel Americans, but the freedom to exercise one’s religion is a fundamental characteristic of a democratic society. Israel is a democracy.

Freedom of religion is included in the US Bill of Rights. That document is the world’s best expression of ‘democracy’. If there’s a ‘freedom’ in that document, you know it’s part of the definition of ‘democracy’.

Freedom of Religion, you should note, is so important it appears in Article Three, the very first Article in the Bill of Rights that deals with individual Rights (the first two Articles deal with Congress).

It grants to each citizen the freedom to ‘exercise’ his own religion.

This freedom of worship is so fundamental that it is included in the United Nations (UN) Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Article 18 of that Universal Declaration states that every human being has the Basic Human Right to worship his ‘belief’. 

The Temple Mount is in Jerusalem. Jerusalem is the capital of Israel. Israel is a democracy. Israel’s Declaration of Independence, called The Declaration of the establishment of the State of Israel, explicitly states that Israel “will guarantee freedom of religion” to “all its inhabitants irrespective of religion”, (ibid). That includes Jews.

All Jews want to do at the Temple Mount is exercise their Basic Human Right to worship. They want to exercise the freedom granted to them by Israel’s Declaration of Independence.

A 1994 Peace Treaty between Jordan and Israel commits both Israel and Jordan to that Right. Both Jordan and Israel agree to promote freedom of access and the freedom to worship to all followers of monotheistic religions, at all of Israel’s holy sites. That includes Jews praying at the Temple Mount.

Freedom of religion is ingrained in all democratic societies. It is ingrained in the basic definition of ‘Human Rights’. It is ingrained into the Israeli social contract. It is part of a 1994 Peace Treaty.

Nevertheless, Arabs riot over Jews worshipping. Arabs have already tried to assassinate one pro-prayer advocate (on October 29, 2014). They threaten death to others. They declare war on Jews in Jerusalem--all because Jews in their own country want the freedom to worship at their own holiest site.

The Citadel of Freedom—the United States--supports the Arab demand. Worst of all, Israel’s Prime Minister has yielded to that demand. He has agreed to ban Jewish worship at the Temple Mount.

This Netanyahu support for that ban unites both religious and non-religious Jews in Israel. Religious Zionists are angry because they’re the ones must affected by that ban; they’re the ones most interested in praying at the Temple Mount.

Other Jews are angry because of the Arab riots. So far, Israeli police appear to have been hamstrung by ‘high-ranking’ officials—including Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat, Prime Minister Netanyahu and Internal Security Minister Yitzchak Aharonovich.

Israel’s leadership appears to be afraid.

Both religious and non-religious Jews are angered by that fear. Its consequence is, we won’t be protected.

Likud MK Moshe Feiglin says, “An Israeli retreat from its sovereignty on the Temple Mount will not stop at the gates of the Mount” (“MK Feiglin: Israeli Retreat from Sovereignty on Temple Mount Will Bring War to Entire Country”, Manigut Yehudit, November 6, 2014). Netanyahu’s retreat will not protect Israel. It will bring war to Israel.  

As Feiglin has already said, ‘he who controls the Temple Mount, controls the land’. The Arab knows this.

Many Jews understand the danger of losing the Temple Mount to Jew-hate and rage. Many also believe that Netanyahu hasn’t yet made the move to keep that from happening.

Israelis are getting fed up. They see how the Temple Mount has become a war cry for Arab hate. This is why my reader feels that these three ‘facts’ (Arab rage over the Mount, US support for that rage and Netanyahu’s failure in the face of  that rage) could bring down the Netanyahu government.

What do you think?