The Leftovers

26 Tevet 5785 

There were a few items of interest left over from last week that I wanted to share, but which were overshadowed by more important matters at the time.  I'll just slip them in here. (I highly recommend reading the cited articles in full.)

The United States is building the second largest embassy in the world in BEIRUT!!

Beirut and the Birth of the Fortress Embassy

. . . At over 40 acres, the new Beirut embassy, a 19-structure ziggurat that dwarfs any government facility in Lebanon, is the second largest in the world after Baghdad’s. Its billion-dollar estimated budget rivals the cost of the US embassy in London, and it is about four times its size, despite Britain having ten times Lebanon’s population and 130 times its GDP.

No specific reason has been offered for building such a massive compound in Lebanon. According to the State Department’s website, the “primary purpose” of any US Embassy is to “assist American citizens,” visiting or living in the host country.[1] But such explanations are belied by Lebanon’s relative size and economic status. Rather, the new embassy, like that of Baghdad, speaks to longstanding US military interests and activity in Lebanon and the wider region.

. . . Less than 60 miles south of the new embassy, the Lebanon-Israel border region is also home to major European military interests, namely, the sprawling multinational military base at Naquora hosting the over 10,000-strong United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), led by France, Italy and Germany. Asian nations, too, have become increasingly large stakeholders in Lebanon. China is building its own sprawling cultural center, comprising an opera house and music conservatory on the new marina harbor front north of Beirut. Turkey and several Arab Gulf states have also been vying for Lebanese hearts and minds with soft power cultural projects, including plans to fund museums and cultural spaces.

The global competition over Lebanon extends to its natural resources, as exploration of gas fields buried under the eastern Mediterranean Sea is rapidly progressing. The United States arbitrated a long-standing dispute over demarcation and ownership of the fields in 2022, resulting in a historic maritime border deal between Israel and Lebanon after years of uncertainty and even threats of war. A consortium involving French, Italian and Qatari oil firms began drilling exploratory wells in 2023, and although no significant reserves have been tapped, the process is set to continue in 2024. Israel on the other hand, has already begun extraction.

(Video here.)

An Israel Hayom article from 2023 resurfaced which highlights a critical but often overlooked aspect of the Abraham Accords - the transfer (or sharing) of sovereignty over the Temple Mount with Saudi Arabia. This isn't going away.

The internal Islamic struggle over the Temple Mount is once again on the agenda

Here are two less well-known, historical stories, that have stood the test of time and regained a considerable degree of relevance this week, somewhat surprisingly, especially in view of the ongoing secret negotiations towards normalization between Israel and Saudi Arabia being brokered by the US.

The first story has a distinctly international flavor and it is connected with three businessmen: Al Schwimmer (the founder of Israel Aircraft Industries), Hank Greenspun (the real estate mogul from Las Vegas), and Ya'akov Nimrodi (Israeli businessman and former intelligence officer) who passed away last month.

his group of businessmen met with then Prime Minister Menachem Begin in the early eighties, following talks with the fourth king of Saudi Arabia, Khaled, and with Adnan Khashoggi, a Saudi billionaire and one of the largest arms dealers in the world. The Saudis, so the three men reported, were willing to invest 100 billion dollars in the development of a Middle East of peace and tranquility, on the condition that the Saudi flag would fly over the Temple Mount. By having its flag fly there, Saudi Arabia, so the businessmen told Begin, seeks to give expression to the fact that the third holiest site in Islam – after Mecca and Medina, which are already located in its territory and under its control – belongs to it, and to exert its influence over Jerusalem too. Begin, as Nimrodi would later tell, thought that the very act of raising this idea was disgraceful and duly "showed them the door."

The second story has a more local aroma to it even though its impact is much more far-reaching. Several years before Begin rejected the Saudi proposal, a 200-page document was submitted to Yitzhak Rabin, then during his first term of office as prime minister. The report contained details of no less than 35 different options for reaching an arrangement on the future of Jerusalem and the status of the holy sites, above all the Temple Mount. The inter-ministerial committee that prepared the report was headed by the then Director General of the Ministry of Justice, Zvi Tarlo. In the proposals submitted, his working group combined ideas that in practice would have granted Jordan, as the representative of the Muslim world, the custodianship of the Temple Mount, along with the possibility of flying the Jordanian flag there. But Rabin too, just like Begin after him, rejected the idea of a foreign flag flying over the Mount.

When Nimrodi, Al Schwimmer, and Greenspun, acting on behalf of Saudi Arabia, offered Israel a 100 billion dollar deal for a Middle East of peace, in return for the Saudi flag over the Temple Mount – Begin sent them packing.

As fate would have it, later on, that same report was used by the negotiation teams working on the peace agreement with Jordan during Rabin's second term as prime minister. They took from it, among others, the idea that Rabin proposed to Jordan's King Hussein, to establish an international religious directorate, on which Muslim representatives from various countries would sit, and together they would be responsible for the religious autonomy enjoyed by the Muslims and the Waqf setup (responsible for administration of the Muslim holy sites on the Temple Mount), though it would be under the patronage of the Israeli authorities.

This time, it was Hussein's turn to reject the idea. The King of Jordan was not overly taken up by the possibility of Jordan and Israel sharing a partnership in the rule over the Mount, and that is putting it lightly. His stance was accepted: The peace agreement he signed with Israel granted a clear preference for the historic Jordanian role at the holy places to Islam in Jerusalem, and in practice – even though the term "custodianship" was not mentioned in it – it did grant Jordan some form of custodianship as the senior representative of the Muslim world. That agreement cost Israel the wrath of Saudi Arabia, Morocco, and the Palestinian Authority, who all regarded themselves as having a status on the Mount, and as such believed that they had been hard done by as a result of the peace agreement.

Now, as part of the ongoing negotiations towards normalization between Israel and Saudi Arabia, the USA is once again trying to square that particular circle . . . .

Finally, we've got one more declaration of war on the World of Torah; another effort of the Erev Rav to redefine Jewish peoplehood and unity outside of any Torah framework, and it is being organized in part by the most prominent Zionist entities - the Office of the President of Israel, the World Zionist Organization and the Jewish Agency.

Herzog's 'Voice of the People' announces formation of global Jewish council

. . . Launched last year, the initiative said it aims to bring together Jewish voices from around the world to highlight the unity and resilience of the Jewish people in the face of unprecedented challenges.

The new council, which includes members from Israel, North America, and various other countries from across the world, will lead a two-year mission to address the most pressing issues facing the global Jewish community, Voice of the People added.

In February, the council is expected to convene for a virtual kick-off, followed by an in-person five-day conference in Israel in March.

“The selected council members represent not only an extraordinary range of skills and strengths but also a wealth of diversity, of complementary differences that I am confident will make the 'Kol Ha'am' Council much greater than the sum of its parts,” Herzog said.

ABOUT The President’s Worldwide Initiative

In light of the growing polarization between and within Jewish communities and the general weakening of Jewish identity, in April 2023, The President of Israel, H.E Isaac Herzog announced the launch of “Voice of the People: The President’s Initiative for a shared Jewish future.”

Under the leadership of Israel’s President, H.E Isaac Herzog, “Voice of the People” aims to engage a diverse range of Jewish voices from 6 continents, working together to collectively identify, discuss and creatively address the most pressing immediate and long term challenges affecting the Jewish people.


In the wake of transformative events on October 7th, which have reshaped paradigms and raised profound questions, the relevance of this initiative has significantly increased. Amidst rising Anti-Semitism, digital media battlefields, and a generation of our future leaders grappling with the significance of their Jewish identity, there’s an urgent call to action – and we respond to it.
The council will come together for a 4-day conference in March 2025 leveraging collective wisdom to address shared challenges. Committed to inclusivity and diversity, “Voice of the People” aims to spark global conversations and initiate action that will impact Jewish communities worldwide, cultivating the future leadership of the Jewish people.

Looking to Tech, Not Torah

No God, No Mashiach
 They Think They Will Save Themselves

~ SHAVUA TOV ~