26 Menachem Av 5772
...when they want to take Jerusalem, i.e. the Temple Mount, away from us.
(Zekharyah 12:2-3) "Behold! I am making Jerusalem a cup of weakness for all the peoples around, .... And it shall come to pass on that day that I will make Jerusalem a stone of burden for all peoples; all who bear it shall be gashed, and all the nations of the earth shall gather about it."
Handing Jerusalem to the Palestinians
Op-ed: Blatant distortions of history, denial of Jewish Jerusalem have shifted from Palestinian arena to domain of NGOs, UN
In its desire to build a case for why Jerusalem should for the first time become a capital city for an Arab nation, the Palestinian Authority has consistently attacked the notion that, in the words of historian Sir Martin Gilbert, "the city holds the central spiritual and physical place in the history of the Jews as a people."
Central to this position has been a concerted attempt to deny the powerful Jewish connection to Jerusalem, instead casting it as a fundamentally Arab, Islamic and Christian city, and to characterize any Jewish presence as colonial, expansionist and a generally recent phenomenon.
...The Palestinian Authority Mufti, Muhammad Hussein, took the distortion even further by stating that "there never was a Temple in any period, nor was there, at any time, any place of worship for the Jews or others at the Al-Aqsa Mosque site."
Such sentiments are not merely confined to the religious leaders of the Palestinian national movement.
In February of this year, advisor on Jerusalem affairs to the Palestinian President's Office, Ahmed Al-Ruweidi, accused Israel of creating an "artificial" Jewish heritage in Jerusalem "at the expense of its true and authentic (identity) as an Arab, Islamic and Christian city."
...there is a very real concern that the concept of Jewish foreignness when it comes to Jerusalem is taking hold in the mainstream political discourse.
...The UN special rapporteur on adequate housing, Raquel Rolnik, has taken things further still, employing language which bridges the gap between the rhetoric of the Palestinian Authority and of seemingly non-partisan, mainstream organizations.
Rolnik described Israeli government housing policy in Jerusalem, among other places, as “Judaization,” a slur which had previously been confined to the Palestinian Authority and radical sympathizers.
The use of the term “Judaization” (by a UN official no less) which, can be understood to denote a process by which something which is not Jewish is made so, is to deny the Jewish character of Jerusalem and to perpetuate a new and highly politicized history aimed at advancing Palestinian national aspirations, not in tandem with the development of the Jewish State, but in place of it.
Rolnik’s outrageous use of the term suggests that Jewish life in Jerusalem is somehow alien and cannot be tolerated.
...It is significant that blatant distortions of history and a denial of Jewish Jerusalem have gradually shifted from the arena of the Palestinian Authority to the domain of purportedly non-partisan NGOs and the UN.
The main battle at the End of Days is a war for hearts and minds - it's a psychological warfare - the domain where faith rules and reigns. For every time that they deny that Jerusalem (the Temple Mount) is ours, we must proclaim twice as loudly and clearly that it most certainly IS ours.
And it's not sufficient to say it, but we have to believe it and act upon it as well. We have to teach others the halachot of ascending the Mount and organize more and more Jews to go up on a regular basis - Rosh Chodesh, etc. It's our inaction that has been misinterpreted as lack of caring or interest which has further been misunderstood by our enemies as indicative of our lack of connection and ownership.
The month of teshuva is upon us. Shabbat is Rosh Chodesh Elul 5772. Put this matter at the top of your list of corrections to make in the new month and the coming new year. Start by joining the group - "THE TEMPLE MOUNT (JERUSALEM) IS OURS!"
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