PRAYER ON THE MOUNT

It was a prophetically significant event.  For the first time in decades, Jews were praying openly on the Temple Mount which is also home to the Al Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock.  Up until about a week ago, the Temple Mount area was administered by Muslim authorities.  Christians and Jews visiting the site would be accompanied by security to ensure that any unauthorized prayer would not break out.  In the past Israel had installed metal detectors to prevent terrorist attacks – but they had been pressured by the Islamic Trust (Waqf) and the State of Jordan to remove them.  So down they came.  Israel Today tells what happened next.  “That ill-advised move enabled three Israeli Arab Muslim terrorists to enter the Temple Mount with guns last week. Following Friday prayers, they proceeded to murder two Israeli police officers there.” So Prime Minister Netanyahu ordered the metal detectors reinstalled.  And that offended the Muslims who ordered there folks to boycott the metal detectors.  And that opened the way for crowds of observant Jews to enter the Temple Mount area and pray openly.[i]

Arab reaction was quick in coming.  Hamas and Islamic Jihad attacked the “Israeli occupation” and called for mass demonstrations and an increase in the Intifada – the violent, terrorist activity waged against Israel, which had been renewed in 2015.  In a flight from reality, a joint statement from the two groups called the Israeli re-installation of security measures “aggression” and stated: “The Al-Aqsa Mosque is a red line and it is impossible to remain silent in the face of the attack on it.”  If you think about this at all it is an entirely ludicrous situation.  Jerusalem belongs to Israel.  The first Temple, built by Solomon, sat atop that ground a full 15 centuries before Islam came into being.  This is the City from which all the Kings of Israel ruled.  It is the city of Jesus.  Islam has no moral right to prevent Jews or Christians from praying there.  [And the fact that they attempt to do so, gives the lie to the notion that Allah is the same god as the God of the Bible.]  Islam is showing its true colors – not only in Israel and the Middle East, in the United States too.  In California, a Muslim Imam prayed openly for the annihilation of all Jews and the purifying of the Temple area – which he refers to as Al Aqsa – from the Jewish “filth.”  And then, curtesy of Israeli News Feed, there’s this from Jordan, often viewed as a moderate Arab state.

Israel News Feed‏ @IsraelHatzolah  6h6 hours ago
JORDAN: Thousands chanted “death to Israel” at funeral of a teenager terrorist shot dead when he attacked an Israeli embassy security guard.

[i]Jews Openly Pray Atop Temple Mount For First Time in Decades, Israel Today, July 19, 2017