Temple Mount – Is it worth fighting for?

Temple Mount – Is it worth fighting for?

 Zahava Englard

In 1967 Moshe Dayan shocked much of the Jewish world as well as the Muslim world when he handed the keys to the Temple Mount to the Islamic Waqf.

He did this on his own, without consulting with the Knesset, without consulting with then Prime Minister, Levi Eshkol, and without a care as to the sentiments of the Jewish nation.


Moshe Dayan was likewise instrumental in sustaining the continuation of the ban against Jewish prayer on Haram esh-Sharif. This compound was our Har Habayit, our Temple Mount during ancient times.

Since that dark day in 1967, the Muslims have made a concerted effort to claim Jerusalem’s holy sites as Muslim sites albeit lacking theological and historical proof. They completely ignore the history and ancientness of the site.

Their motivation, roused by their objective to de-legitimize the Jewish connection to the land and city is further enabled by the passivity of the Israeli leadership.  The Waqf has systematically engaged in construction atop the Temple Mount and have thrown out valuable antiquities that date back to the Beit Hamikdash, the Jewish Temple.  From the Mosques on Temple Mount, Muslim clerics throughout the years instigate frequent violent rioting against Jewish worshipers below at the Kotel.

All this with nary a sound from the Knesset.

Renowned Israeli archeologist, Dr. Eilat Mazar of the Hebrew University and the Shalem Center, has labored for years against the Waqf’s wanton destruction of ancient Jewish artifacts with little success.  She with a team of archeologists currently sift through the dirt from the Mount deposited as garbage by the Islamic Waqf, and indeed have come up with major finds dating back to the Jewish people at the time of the first temple.


What may not be known to many is that as the Six Day War continued to progress in Israel’s favor, Prime Minister Levi Eshkol made plans for the eventual takeover of Mount Moriah  – the Temple Mount. He formulated a plan in which the management of that holy site would be led by a committee of Muslims, Christians and Jewish clerics in order to safeguard the freedom of prayer for each of the three faiths.

The Mosques would remain unharmed.

Moshe Dayan ruined the Prime Minister’s plans and sustained the status quo that only one of those three faiths was allowed to pray at the holy site.

While considered a national war hero, Moshe Dayan, nevertheless snubbed his nose at a miracle witnessed by the entire world that was almost 2000 years in the making. Prime Minister Eshkol felt powerless against Moshe Dayan, the great  war hero …The great war hero who groundlessly and irrationally feared the building of the Third Temple.

To this day, Jewish visitation to the Temple Mount is limited, and even when permission is granted, members of the Jewish nation are forbidden to pray there.

Why has this shameful and abominable policy continued throughout the years, throughout the successive governments, left wing and right wing alike?

For the same reason Europe is falling today…The fear of raising the ire of the Muslims. It is a fear that hides behind an inane banner of political correctness that can only be defined as outrageously absurd.  And the successive governments of the State of Israel, snubbing the divine gift – the rebirth of its nation, against all odds – in its own land, joins the rest of the “free” world in its uncontainable tsunami of fear.

Indeed, like the rest of the world, the Israeli leadership falls on its knees paralyzed by a panic of violent Muslim retribution should we take a stand for what is the very core of our spiritual existence.

The Temple Mount is where God has chosen to rest his Shechina, HIS divine spirit. It is sacred ground. And in this Divine Spirit is the essence to the Torah, and hence the essence of the Jewish nation.

And yet, the real players in the Israeli government who are for the most part spiritually bankrupt, cower at the mere threat of an Arab riot should we have the “audacity” to pray at our most holy site. The Israeli government is quick to blink at the first stone thrown by an Islamic terrorist incensed at Jews praying anywhere near the Temple Mount  and shamefully abandons its nation’s heritage, its birthright.

Yes, Islamic violence is unnerving, daunting and terrifying. Who has not read about this diabolical political cult’s chilling atrocities against their own people, let alone against whom they consider “non-believers?”  Who has not seen the horrifying images of their evil? Who is still unaware of the rampant, unbridled malevolence that rages from the many echelons of Islam?

Be that as it may, the State of Israel – the nation of Israel, is not without resources.

Why are we cowering?

The struggle for Har Habayit, the Temple Mount is not about the control of one level of religious Jewish practice over another. It is not of factional substance. The Temple Mount is about who we are, what we are, how we came to be and why we came to be the Jewish Nation. The Temple Mount is our legacy. It is inseparable from the heart of our people. It is the very bastion of our faith that is 4000 years strong.

And we are giving voice to maniacal, blood-thirsty Jihadists to define limits to our religious worship?  To forbid us to utter a prayer as we stand on hallowed ground? To move our lips? Are we to continue the pathetic stance of sanctioning the theft of what is inherently ours?

If this is so, how pitiable we have become.

Now is not the time to set our weapons down for plowshares. A bitter pill to swallow, for sure.

But, some things are just worth fighting for, dammit.

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