The Al-Aqsa Mosque Imam Declares War on Israel

                                               Al-Aqsa Mosque on Temple Mount
                                                                                                          

Nadene Goldfoot                                                                

Mosque of Omar or Dome of the Rock

War has been declared last week  by Imam Raed al Danna against Israel.  He's an Imam from East Jerusalem at the Al Aqsa Mosque.  He called all the surrounding Muslim nations to destroy Israel.  This Imam announced this while visiting in Milan, Italy at a Muslim conference.  He emphasized Egypt and Jordan, nations that have peace pacts with Israel to liberate the land from the Jews.  He is waiting for a legion of conquerors to take over Israel.   The leadership of this mosque had been in the hands of Muhammad Ahmad Hussein,  who was expected to avoid controversy and self-aggrandizement.  Now he serves as the 7th and current Grand Mufti of Jerusalem.The appointment came from Abbas.  

  

On January 9, 2011, while addressing a crowd at an event marking the 47th anniversary of the founding of Fatah, Hussein quoted a controversial hadith (saying attributed to the Prophet Muhammad), stating: "The Hour will not come until you fight the Jews. The Jews will hide behind stones or trees. Then the stones or trees will call: O Muslim, servant of Allah, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him."  Hadiths supposedly have been written by people after Mohammad's death.  That could be why this is controversial.  This one makes very good anti-Semitic propaganda used to instigate war.  

The site has been a place of unrest lately. Just before Passover on Monday April 14th,   the Israeli police had to limit  attendance at Al-Aqsa because of the fear of more violence after clashes happening over the weekend.  Security measures taken are that the men under 50 couldn't attend.  Neither could any women until a security assessment of the possibility  of more disturbances had been taken.  What can they expect after this announcement by the head Imam?  5 people were arrested on Sunday during a clash.  Muslim rioters threw stones and many Molotov cocktails.  Police officers responded with stun grenades.  Members of Hamas were were in the crowd, probably leading the protesters.  They had to pick Passover to riot!  During major Jewish holidays, when Muslims prefer to attack, the military blocks the road to Israel from Judea-Samaria for 48 hours from midnight.  Entry would be permitted only to medical, humanitarian and exceptional cases.  

Jews are getting anxious to be able to pray at the holy site where the Temple once stood, but cannot get near it or be seen moving their body back and forth while standing in prayer by the Muslim guards.  Moshe Dayan in 1967 gave permission to rule on the site to the Muslim Imam.

"“We have returned to all that is holy in our land. We have returned never to be parted from it again.” 

–Defense Minister Moshe Dayan, upon reaching the Western Wall  

However, "Chief Rabbinate Council reminded the public that "in view of the fact that the holiness of the area never ceases, it is forbidden to ascend the Temple Mount until the Temple is built.  So the Muslims don't allow Jews there and our rabbis say it's not for us at this time as a place to pray.  That should keep things peaceful, but many Jews are not aware of this fact and try to get close, and the Muslims lie in wait for it to happen.  

The Muslims consider the Al-Aqsa Mosque as the "Farthest Mosque" mentioned in the Koran.  It infers this is in Jerusalem, but never mentions the word, Jerusalem.  This couldn't be since Mohammad, who was the author of the Koran, died in 632 and the mosque was built in the year 705 CE by the Umayyads who ruled in Palestine.  The mosque lies along the southern wall of Haram al-Sharif.  It has become the 3rd holiest site in Islam and is in the Old City of Jerusalem. This has a silver dome.   It sits on the same site with the Dome of the Rock or "Noble Sanctuary."

Muslims believe that Muhammad was transported from their Sacred Mosque in Mecca to al-Aqsa during the Night Journey on a flying horse named Buraq.

 Their tradition is that Muhammad led prayers towards this site until the 17th month after the emigration, when Allah directed him to turn towards the Kaaba.  Our Jewish tradition suggests that the change was due to his frustration with Arabian Jews who refused his attempts to convert them to Islam, his new religion.

 This site is called the Temple Mount on Mount Moriah, the holiest site in Jerusalem, the place where the Jewish Temple stood before being destroyed by the Romans in  70 CE, which was the 2nd time the original Temple had been restored.  The First Temple was built by King Solomon, ruler of Israel, who lived from 961 to 920 BCE, dedicated to G-d and as a place to keep the Ark-10 Commandments.  The Assyrians attacked and carted away Jews by 722 BCE after destroying the Temple in 721 BCE.  The Babylonians then attacked Judah in 597 and 586.  Cyrus of Persia (today's Iran)  freed them and told them to go back home and rebuild their Temple which they did.  Herod was appointed king of Judah by the Romans  after he attacked and captured Jerusalem in 37 with the Roman army and he renovated the Temple, but the Romans destroyed it when they seized Jerusalem in 70 CE.

It seems to be the custom of Islamists to build mosques over others' religious sites as a show of ownership.  The Dome of the Rock, otherwise called the Mosque of Omar, is the one with the beautiful golden dome that stands out in Jerusalem.  It was also built in the center of the Jewish Temple area called al-Harim ash Sherif by Caliph Abd al-Malik in about 738.  He had it built to replace the temporary building set up by Caliph Omar 100 years earlier.  It is situated on the traditional site of Mt. Moriah, too.

So Israel has many mosques.  There is freedom of religion for the 1.7 million Muslim citizens of Israel.  One of these days the 3rd Temple will be built.  The location is not known.

Update: 5/8/14:  The Muslim Waqf members saw a 16 yr old Jew's lips move and arrested him for praying.  http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/180358#.U2uclIFdU8o

Resource:  http://www.memritv.org/embedded_player/index.php?clip_id=4252 declaring war on Israel
http://midnightwatcher.wordpress.com/2014/05/02/imam-from-jerusalems-al-aqsa-mosque-calls-upon-surrounding-muslim-nations-to-destroy-israel/
The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Aqsa_Mosque
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muhammad_Ahmad_Hussein
http://www.thesundaily.my/news/1016102
http://www.sixdaywar.org/content/ReunificationJerusalem.asp
http://my.telegraph.co.uk/abdulmuhd/amuhd/563/muhammad-claims-to-jerusalem-is-a-myth/

  

Temple Mount in Jerusalem Barred From Jews: No Jewish Praying Allowed

Nadene Goldfoot                                                          

           
The Temple Mount is on Mount Moriah in Jerusalem. Today's 2nd Temple that was first built by King Solomon (961-920 BCE) in Jerusalem was on this same site.  . King David, his father,  wasn't allowed to build it as he was a king of war.  Solomon was known for his wisdom and peace and built it as a shrine for the Ark of the Covenant, the sacred vessels and offerings for worshippers.  

 The Babylonian exiles, Jews taken away by the Babylonians in 597 and 586 BCE were allowed to return in 538 BCE and they rebuilt the Temple by 515 BCE., known as the 2nd Temple.   When Jerusalem fell to the Romans in 70 CE, the Temple was destroyed, but not before the Romans carried off all the loot from it.  A Roman temple was later built on the site, and since the Moslem Period, the Mosque of Omar, otherwise known as the Dome of the Rock,  has stood there.  It was built in the center of the Temple area by Caliph Abd al-Malik in about 738 CE to replace the temporary structure set up by Caliph Omar in 638 CE. Mohammad had died in 632 CE.

The Temple Mount is referred to as al-Haram al-Sharif to Muslims and is ranked as one of the most sensitive religious sites in the world.  There have been sporadic riots here which is said to have the potential to ignite much wider unrest.

The Six Day War in 1967 was when the Temple Mount fell into Israel's hands again, after a wait of 2,000 years. Since then, Jerusalem is a united city.   Though Israel became a state on May 14, 1948, the eastern portion of Jerusalem, where the Temple Mount is, was barred to Jews by Jordan.   Prime Minister Levi Eshkol made plans to takeover the Temple Mount and thought that the administration of such a holy site should be filled equally by Muslim, Christian and Jewish clerics so that everyone would have the right to be atop the mount and pray at this holy site for the 3 faiths.  He wanted to have his dream of a multi-faith council to run the compound.  The Muslim mosque would not have been touched, but all faiths would be allowed up on top of the mount.

Moshe Dayan (1915-1981),  minister of Defense, deciding otherwise, gave the keys to the Muslim Waqf. Evidently, in his biography, Dayan clearly stated that the last thing he wanted was the Jewish Temple to be rebuilt, the Beit Hamikdash.  We are supposed to wait for the coming of the Messiah for that.  There is the Temple Mount Faithful Group that Stanley Goldfoot belonged to preparing for that day.  Being a progressive, Dayan didn't consult the Prime Minister or the Knesset, and the Israelis didn't get to vote on it.  That's who controls it to this very day.  Being Dayan was a war hero, there wasn't much Eshkol could do about it.   "Dayan had gone ahead and told the Muslims running the Temple Mount that they could continue to run the mosques there-and later went further by preventing Jewish prayer all over the Mount."  His reasoning was that he felt matters would get out of hand and lead to a religious clash.  He even told the chief of staff that the army chaplain was to remove the branch office he had established in the building which adjoins the mosque compound.  For this Moshe Dayan will be known as the man who gave away the Temple Mount giving the Muslims an opportunity to make Jerusalem a huge issue in creating a Palestine.

Jews have been allowed atop the Temple Mount but are not allowed to pray, say the Muslim rule.  Only Muslims are allowed to pray there.  Jews can't even look like they are praying.  Then the Waqf has done more construction on top and has thrown out relics from the Temple of which an archaeology team has begun to sift through the dirt.  It was deposited like garbage by the Muslims.

Since that day, Muslims have been trying to reclaim Jerusalem's Holy sites in order to de-legitimize the Jewish connection to the land and the city.   It's their way of wiping Israel off the map and into the sea.  Police are forced to bar Jews from entering the Temple Mount.  Of course the Muslims had threatened violence. No excuse is listened to, such as bringing children there to demonstrate rituals associated with the Temple, like the bringing of the first fruits on Shavuot.  People can't understand this and feel it's unfair to them.  However, hundreds of Jews were able to visit the Mount over Shavuot.  At times, dozens of Muslims sat and blocked the entrance of Mughrabi Gate, the one non-Muslims have to use to ascend the Mount.  Any Jews who could manage to run the gauntlet were followed and harassed by Muslims, yelling the whole time the Jews were up there.  This year a riot did break out and the police had to intervene and closed the gates and evacuating the Jews.

There's more than what meets the eye in this clash.  The Islamic Movement in Israel had told its followers that Jewish groups were planning to desecrate, storm or endanger the al-Aqsa mosque and even arranged buses for worshippers to come and "protect" the site.  Sheikh Raed Salah, head rabble-rouser said to his crowd, "We'll liberate al-Aqsa with blood and fire!"  He told his crowd that Israel wanted to build a synagogue on top of the mosque.  Hamas's Palestinian prime minister, Salam Fayyad, told some foreign ambassadors that the riots were due to "an assault by extremist religious settlers on the Temple Mount compound."  Syria's foreign ministry added that Damascus believes the Israeli security forces' invasion of al-Aqsa was part of Israel's scheme to Judaise Jerusalem and destroy the mosque"  I don't think these people ever read a real history book.  These were all lies.

Jerusalem and the Temple Mount are parts of Israel that are  re-establishing the Jewish National Home.  The synonym for Jerusalem happens to be "Zion."  Every day for 3 times a day for the past 2,000 years, Jews all over the world face Jerusalem and pray for it to be restored to its former glory.  It's unfathomable that Jews are banned by its own government from praying on the Temple Mount.  What a concession we have given to the Muslims!  What concessions have they ever given us to promote peace!  None.  Recently a female Knesset member decided to get to the bottom of this matter and find out why they can't pray there.  Many are angry with their government  for allowing this to happen.
                                                                     

Today, Jews pray at the Western Wall(Wailing Wall) that surrounded the Temple, built by Herod.  The Holy of Holies of Solomon's Temple was at the western end of the Temple is very close to this wall.  It was regarded as sacred as far back as the Talmudic Period of the 10th century CE.  From 1948 till 1967, Jews were kept away from this wall which is now under Jewish sovereignty.  On Shavuot 1967, 200,000 people visited.

In the meantime, Muslim adults and children are not taught of the Jewish connection to Israel and their land.  Muslims all over the world do not understand the depth of feeling Jews have for their holy places and their historical homeland.  "Palestinian and Muslim leaders must desist from the incitement against Israel and the deligitimisation of the Jewish connection to the land."

Resource: Arutz Sheva, news@israelnationalnews.com, 5. Police Bar Jews from Temple Mount As Muslims Threaten More Riots
http://www.templemount.org/recent.html
The New Jewish Encyclopedia
http://beforeitsnews.com/opinion-conservative/2013/05/jerusalem-day-how-moshe-dayan-made-the-temple-mount-a-palestinian-issue-2636624.html

Abbas Not negotiating Yet But Wanting All of Jerusalem

Nadene Goldfoot
Abbas at first only wanted East Jerusalem as the capital of their future state of Palestine.  Israel is not adverse to the Palestinians having a state next door to them, and of course taking part of their city which is one again with the other 3 parts is more than being next door.

Except on August 21, 2012 Mahmoud Abbas made a speech saying that there would be no peace, security or stability in Jerusalem.  That's what they have right now under Israel's authority.  It's a happy and very beautiful city.  His threat went on.  Unless the occupation, settlements and settlers are evacuated from "0UR HOLY CITY".   Now that's a threat.  He's saying he wants Israel to disappear out of Jerusalem and suddenly it's their holy city?  Now he's talking about the whole city of Jerusalem.

Wait a minute.  Islam didn't come along until about 620 CE with Mohammed (570-632 CE)  .  Jews were in Jerusalem with King David of Israel in 1,000 BCE.  In fact, Saul, son of Kish of the tribe of Benjamin,  was the first king of Israel in the 11th century BCE,   Preceding Saul we had Judges like Deborah.  Before settling in Canaan, the elders of the community acted as judges.  Samuel was a judge.  David appointed 6,000 Levites as offices and judges.  Jehoshaphat set up a special court in Jerusalem, where the judges were taken from among the priests, the Levites, and heads of fathers' houses.  Abbas is denying that we have history here a good 1,500 years before Mohammad came along.  So where does he get the bit about "our holy city"?

As for the people who call themselves "Palestinians,"  I suggest that Abbas become familiar with his own history by reading "From  Time Immemorial-the origins of the Arab-Jewish conflict over Palestine" by Joan Peters.  Peters was a reporter who felt sympathy for the Palestinians and set out to do research to prove their case.  Instead, what she found showed where they came from and  how this problem all started.  There were very few actually living in "Palestine."  Most came along looking for work when the aliyah of returning Jews from Russia started in around 1880 CE by Arab men looking for work with these newcomers who were building up cities.  They came in from all the surrounding lands.  Peters was so respected for her work that she became an advisor with presidents.  Besides that, there were always a certain number of Jews living in Palestine.  They didn't all leave after 70 CE when Jerusalem fell to the Romans.

When a man has to lie and create such a cover to convince his people that he is doing the right thing, he is pretty desperate.  So let me be clear on this point.  Jerusalem is a Jewish city.  The whole city is the capital of Israel.  The land was Canaan before the Israelites conquered it with Joshua.  It wasn't a state then but made up of little city-states, somewhat like Greece had been.  The people who had lived there were the Jebus.  They worshipped the Semitic god Shalem among others. When Canaan was taken, most all the Canaanites were killed and those few left alive were assimilated into the Israelite population.  These Israelites were Jewish.

There are no more Canaanites left.    The earliest evidence of man in the Jerusalem area was in the Paleolithic (Old Stone) Age.  However, the actual foundation of the city goes back to the Early Bronze Age of 3,500 BCE to 2,000 BCE to the period when the Canaanites first moved into the land.  In the Middle Bronze Age (2,000 to 1,550 BCE, Jerusalem seemed to be the capital of a Canaanite city state.  Archaeologists think it was the Salem ruled by Melchi-zedek "priest of the most high god" who was honored by Abraham as written in Genesis 14:18-19).

There was a Hyksos revolution where some Hittite and Hurrite people were left behind.  In the Tel 3l Amarna Period of the 15th century BCE the city was ruled by a king who was having problems with the HABIRU.  These invaders appealed to his suzerain, the pharaoh, for help.  The Egyptians had maintained a Cushite garrison in Jeruslaem.  At the time of Joshua's conquest in about 1,320 BCE, Adoni-zedek, king of Jerusalem, was defeated at Aijalon.  His city remained as an independent enclave between the tribal land belonging to Benjamin and Judah.  In the 12th century, Jebus-Jerusalem kept its independence with Philistine help until its capture by David in about 1,010 BCE.  Now it became the capital of a united Israel.

King David was lenient with the JEBUSITES, but took over the city and added the fortress of Zion and also a House of Heroes for his guard.  He built a tomb inside the city for himself and his dynasty.  He had the Ark of the Covenant there.  Jerusalem was made the religious center of Israel.  It was the capital of his empire reaching from the Red Sea to the Euphrates River.

His son, King Solomon,  (970-930 BCE) brought in riches from his commercial ventures and heavy taxation.   He added a Palace and the Temple.  The Temple made it definitely the center of Judaism.  When Solomon died,, the northern tribes broke off and formed the state of Judah. which included Jerusalem.  They maintained the Davidic dynasty.  This lasted until 586 BCE.  Even with Jews living in the Diaspora (outside of Israel and Judah) Jerusalem was the center of Judaism.  

Abbas may not have ever read the Torah, which is the first part of what the Christians call "The Old Testament," but there it all is, the whole history of this land and the Jews. The rest of our history is there, too, found in the Hebrew word for Testament, "Tanach."   which are the Prophets and writings or the 24 books of the Bible.  The only time "Jerusalem" is mentioned in the Koran is one time where it tells of Mohammad going from Mecca to Jerusalem on his flying horse and then going to heaven on him as well. Jerusalem is mentioned 881 times in the Old Testament.  It is mentioned 144 times in the Christian's New Testament.  No descendants of Ishmael ever claimed any part of the land for themselves.  Therefore Jerusalem is not a holy city for the Muslims.  Their holy cities are Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia where Mohammad was from.

Yes, Judah fell in 70 CE and in 135 CE there was a final battle by the brave Bar Kokhba and his men, but no country ever became rulers.  Muslims built their Mosque over the temple, something they seem to do when they conquer a people.  The Ottoman Empire held the title for 400 years but did not create a state or do anything with the land.  It lay in ruin until the Jews returned, as if it were just waiting for them to bring it back to life again.

Resource:  http://jcpa.org/article/is-jerusalem-really-negotiable-an-analysis-of-jerusalems-place-in-the-peace-process/ by Alan Baker: Is Jerusalem Really Negotiable?  Jerusalem's Place in the Peace Process
The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20110116004858AAI2Gg7

The Religious Significance of Jerusalem to Islam

Nadene Goldfoot
When Mohammed lived(570 CE-632 CE) , there was no mosque in Jerusalem.  The Koran tells only that Mohammed in a single night was taken to heaven by Buraq, a horse with wings, a woman's face and a peacock's tail.  He was first taken to a place the Koran called the "uttermost mosque": --il masjad al aksa.
أقصى مسجد.  
Jerusalem is not mentioned in the story at all.  After his death, the tradition was that the "uttermost mosque" must have been the Temple Mount in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah.  The 1st Temple was built by King Solomon (961 BCE-920 BCE)  of the Jews.  It held the Ark of the Covenant, the sacred vessels and offerings and had a court for worshipers.  The makeup of it was a hall, shrine and inner sanctum for the holy of holies. Then it was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar in 586 BCE and was rebuilt in 538-515 BCE by the Jews and called the 2nd Temple.  This time it included the Western Wall (also called the Wailing Wall).

The Western Wall is part of the wall enclosing Herod's Temple still standing in the Old city of Jerusalem. Herod lived from 73 BCE to 4 CE and was the King of Judea who had been appointed governor of Galilee by his father, then was appointed king by the Romans.   The wall  is very close to the Holy of Holies which was at the western end of the temple.  It's regarded as sacred.  Regular services had been held before it.  Though Jordan had taken over this part of Jerusalem in 1948, a paragraph in the Israel-Jordan  1949 Armistice Agreement  affirmed the Jewish right of access to it which Jordan denied to them anyway.  It wasn't until 1967 that Jews could again go to the Wall.  It's the first place Jewish tourists go to when they visit Jerusalem today.  The tradition is to place a prayer  written on a little piece of paper into the niches of the wall.   One good thing about Herod is that he had rebuilt the Temple in Jerusalem on a magnificent scale.

The Temple Mount was the existing sacredness of the place that had been holy to Jews for nearly 2,000 years before Mohammad.  This must be why Mohammed's followers chose it as being the fitting and awesome place for Mohammed's ascent.  A mosque is the Arabic name for a temple, a building used for public worship by the Muslims.

The Moslems called the site, Buraq, which has become a memorial to Islam's recognition of the Jewishness of the Holy Place.  It's why the Dome of the Rock and the Al Aksa Mosque were built on the Mount.  They called this Haram-A-Sharif, and it became the 3rd holiest place in Islam after Mecca and Medina, which are in Arabia.  Nobody knows if Mohammed ever came to Jerusalem or not.  There is no proof.

What is known is that Mohammed was establishing Islam in Arabia and hoped that both Jews and Christians would adopt the new religion.  He called on them to accept him as the successor of both Moses and Jesus.  First he ordered that when praying, the Moslem should copy the Jewish custom of turning his face towards Jerusalem, which was at that time under Christian rule.  When neither Jews or Christians were converting to his new religion, he got angry and 18 months later after his decree changed it and they were to turn their faces towards Mecca.

In fact, when directing the needs to build a mosque, it was then built so that the worshippers could face Mecca for prayer and they built in a prayer niche.  Most mosques built during the Umayyad and Abbasid periods have been destroyed.  Ones remaining are one in Damascus and the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem.   The Dome is the golden shrine on the Mosque of Omar.  The intentions of the builders was to outdo other religious buildings.  It was constructed from 689 CE-691 CE in the Muslim conquest of Syria of 637 CE by the Rashidun Caliphate.

Mohammed  and his followers knew that Jerusalem was a Holy City to the Jews and then to the Christians.  In following in the tradition to its holiness,  they made Jerusalem's Temple Area the site of his ascent to their 7th heaven.  It was not Mohammed's dream that made the Temple Mount holy to Islam.  It was the existing sanctity of the place.

In the siege of Jerusalem during the Roman war, the 2nd Temple served as a center of military activity and then was destroyed by the Romans soldiers with only the wall remaining.  In 70 CE Jerusalem fell to the Romans.  A Roman temple was later built on the site.

In the Moslem Period, the Mosque of Omar had been built over the Temple area.  This is the only claim to Jerusalem that the Moslems have.  Jerusalem was never a holy city to Islam.  Palestine has no significance in the Moslem religion.  It never existed as a country under Arab or any of the other Moslem administration.  The city of Jerusalem as such has no significance in Islam.  It was just that they were able to take over a site that had been holy to both previous religions of Judaism and Christianity.  That was a feather in the cap for Islam.

Resource: Battleground, fact and fantasy in Palestine by Samuel Katz
The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
Middle East Past & Present by Armajani and Ricks
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dome_of_the_Rock