Israel, The Temple Mount, Land Grabs and Sanctions directed against Iran

By: Soraya Sepahpour-Ulrich

Source: Global Research

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=32062

On July 23, 2012, in a scathing attack against the Islamic Waqf (lliterally translated to "Endowment"), the Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) opinion piece’s opening paragraph stated: “This year, as Israel observes the traditional period of national mourning for the destruction of the Holy Temple on Tisha b’Av (which starts at sundown on Saturday), it has again been revealed that the Islamic Wakf is carrying out unsupervised work at the Temple Mount, potentially causing irrevocable damage to Judaism’s holiest site”.i

A December 2011 al-Akhbar article fully elaborates on the Israeli attacks against the Islamic Waqf (see link ii) for the purpose of land grabs which include homes, shops, and even Muslim cemeteries.
But there is another dimension to these attacks – a messianic aspect which is far more alarming than just stealing land from their rightful owners. The inherent danger from the Israeli obsession over the Temple Mount was first elaborated in an article dated June 2010 called “Nukes And Temples” – highlights of which is as follows.
Evidently, American presidents wish to continue to guard Israel 's nuclear "secret". Today, the secrecy continues, as does the aid -- perhaps towards a messianic return - the building of the Third Temple .

In 2006, the Israeli government began work on an exact replica of the Hurva synagogue on its original site. The story of the Hurva has received little attention other than coinciding with Joe Biden's visit to Israel and that government's insistence on building more illegal settlements. But Hurva is the beginning of the end.

As the United States protects Israel and pushes for more sanctions on Iran , thereby distracting the international community from the more pressing problem at hand, rabbis are being tailored for the special kind of garments they will be wearing in a "rebuilt temple". These rabbis believe that the return of Jews to Jerusalem are the obvious signs - "Less obvious are the more subtle realities that add up - the rebuilding of the Jewish Quarter, Jews steadily moving into the Old City , even the Temple Mount tunnel excavations. But alas, those big mosques are still situated on the Temple Mount . For now."iii

Attempts to fulfill the prophecy are not new. In 1990, there was another attempt by the ' Temple Mount Faithful' to bring a cornerstone for a reconstructed Third Temple to the site. In 1996, the opening of an archaeological tunnel adjacent to the Mount led to the first outbreak of widespread violence across the territories between Israelis and Palestinians since the signing of the Oslo accords. In 2000, Ariel Sharon staged a provocative visit to the Temple Mount and said: "The Temple Mount is in our hands and will remain in our hands. It is the holiest site in Judaism and it is the right of every Jew to visit the Temple Mount,".

It took four years to complete the work on Hurva. When presidential candidate, Barack Obama promised AIPAC an undivided Jerusalem in 2008, the building of the Hurva synagogue was well on the way -- which signaled continued future attacks on the al-Aqsa Mosque to make way for construction of the Third Temple . Past wars and future was waged against other countries based on unfounded accusations has distracted the international community from the reality of this construction and its implications - the messianic era. As importantly, Israel 's stockpile of nuclear weapons - a nation more likely than any other to use their nuclear weapons based on their deep religious ideology. Of particular concern is the Gush Emunim, a right-wing religious organization, or others, hijacking a nuclear device to ‘liberate’ the Temple Mount for the building of the Third Temple . The completion of the Hurva synagogue has increased these chances. On April 6, JTA reported that "Our Land of Israel" party had put posters on 200 city buses in Jerusalem showing an artist's rendition of the Third Temple on the site now occupied by the al-Aqsa Mosque with the slogan, "May the Temple be built in our lifetime."

Equally disturbing, a 1997 article reviewing the Israeli Defence Force repeatedly stressed the possibilities of, and the need to guard against, a religious, right-wing military coup, especially as the proportion of religious in the military increases iv. The warming was not unfounded. The once secular army now has combat units filling with those who believe Israel's wars are "God's wars".

This small nation with unimaginable influence in the Western world, enabled by the United States continues to commit crimes against humanity, instigates conflicts and unleashes terrorists in the region and beyond, while it distracts the global community with Iran and its non-existent nuclear program, presenting it as a threat while the zealots prepare for the Messiah's Temple - unhindered. Heaven must be hell.

Soraya Sepahpour-Ulrich is a Public Diplomacy Scholar, independent researcher and blogger with a focus on U.S. foreign policy and the role of lobby groups.

i. chman, “Op-Ed: Stop Islamic Wakf’s work on the Temple Mount ”, JTA, July 23, 2012

ii Mya Guarnieri, “Destruction of Waqf: The Grave Offences of the Israeli State ”; alakhbar, December 19, 2011 http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/destruction-waqf-grave-offences-israeli-state

iiiTom Mountain. Preparing for the Third Temple Jewish Advocate. Boston: Aug 22, 2008. Vol. 199, Iss. 34, p. 9 (1 pp.)

iv (Blanche, Ed, “Is the Myth Fading for the Israeli Army? — Part 1.” Jane’s Intelligence Review, 8, no. 12 (December 1996)

Israelis attack Palestinian funeral

Israeli forces fire tear gas at mourners on Saturday, May 14, during the funeral of a Palestinian teenager who was killed by Israeli soldiers.

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/179941.html

Israeli troops have attacked the funeral of a Palestinian teen in the West Bank.

On Saturday, Israeli soldiers fired tear gas to disperse mourners attending the funeral ceremony in Ras al-Amud, East al-Quds (Jerusalem), the Associated Press reported.

Milad Said Ayyash, 16, was shot in the stomach by Israeli forces in the Silwan neighborhood on Friday and died of his injuries overnight.

Carrying Palestinian flags, the mourners chanted "Allahu Akbar" (God is greatest) and "With our blood and our soul, we shall sacrifice for the martyr," as they marched to the al-Aqsa mosque in the Old City.

Israeli forces have been on high alert as Palestinians prepare to commemorate the 63rd anniversary of the Israeli occupation of Palestine and the expulsion of more than 700,000 Palestinians from their homeland in 1948, which they call the Nakba (the catastrophe).

On Friday, protests were held in al-Quds and other major West Bank cities, including al-Khalil (Hebron), Issawiya, al-Tur, and Ras al-Amud.

Thousands of Israeli troops have been deployed across the West Bank, especially in al-Quds, to prevent any possible outbreak of violence in the run-up to Sunday's commemoration of the Nakba.

Israeli police said around 8,000 worshippers turned up for the Friday prayers at the al-Aqsa Mosque compound -- the third holiest site in Islam.

Hundreds more were left outside the gates as police blocked entry to men under 45 who did not hold a blue Israeli identity card.

Meanwhile, 50,000 Lebanese plan to march to the border with Palestine to mark the anniversary of the Nakba.

Israeli forces covering al-Aqsa Mosque

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=138504§ionid=351020202


Israeli police have strengthened their presence in East al-Quds (Jerusalem) ahead of the first Friday prayers of the holy month of Ramadan.

More than 2,000 policemen were deployed in and around the al-Aqsa Mosque to restrict the entry of Palestinian worshipers, who are expected to turn out in large numbers for the prayers.

A Press TV correspondent reported that the Israeli military limits the Palestinians every Ramadan to put pressure on them.

The police said in a statement that men aged between 15 and 50 need to have special permission to enter the holy city.

Israel has also set up extra checkpoints near the segregation wall in the occupied West Bank. It has generally kept East al-Quds off limits to Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza for years.

Israeli restrictions in the last few years have led to confrontations between thousands of worshipers and Israeli forces.

Israel's total Judaization plan continues

Source: PressTV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=121317&sectionid=351020202


Israeli decision to re-open a synagogue in Jerusalem al-Quds, close to al-Aqsa Mosque Compound, has irked Palestinians as Israel deploys hundreds of police to the city.

As the re-opening of the synagogue is scheduled for Monday, Israel has deployed hundreds of police around the Old City of Jerusalem al-Quds amid fears of fresh unrest.

Israeli police spokesman Mickey Rosenfeld said police were prepared to prevent disturbances for the next 24 hours after, as he says, they "have received clear indications that Palestinians are intending to cause disturbances and riots" there.

As a precautionary measure, Israel has barred Arab men under the age of 50 from entering the al-Aqsa Mosque Compound, Islam's third holiest site after Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia.

Israel also maintained a closure that barred virtually all West Bank Palestinians from entering Israel.

Israel has imposed restrictions since March 5 when police encountered Palestinian protesters at the mosque after weekly prayers.

"The Israeli action to establish a temple in Jerusalem (al-Quds) is a continuation also of the cycle of the total Judaization of the city," Mohammed Shtayyeh, Palestinian minister of public works and housing, said on Sunday.

As reported recently, ruins in northern Israel long thought to be of an 'ancient synagogue' have now been identified by archeologists as the remains of a 7th century palace built by Arab caliphs.

Archeologists mistakenly identified the palace as a synagogue in the 1950s because of a carving of a menorah — a seven-branched candelabrum — on a stone.

However, the latest excavations in the site have confirmed it as a palace where the Umayyad rulers would spend the winter season. The Umayyads were the first Muslim dynasty and ruled from 661 to 750 CE.
----------------------------------------------------------
2010 Mar 20

Jerusalem: Key to Light…and Darkness

 

By: Nour Odeh
Source: Al Jazeera
http://blogs.aljazeera.net/middle-east/2010/03/20/jerusalem-key-light-and-darkness

A friend of mine asked me the other day how long it had been since I was allowed into Jerusalem.

"Almost ten years," I replied - save for a two-hour trip to the US consulate to collect a visa three years ago.

"It's been eight for me," he said.

Then we realized that most of the children and "youths" we report about during the recent clashes across the West Bank, which have centered on Israeli measures in the occupied City, have most likely never seen it!

Because most unmarried men under the ago of 35 can mostly only dream of obtaining an Israeli permit to visit occupied East Jerusalem, which Israeli authorities have also physically severed from the rest of its Palestinian surrounding with a sereis of walls and checkpoints.

Collective Memory

Still, people say, it's Jerusalem, the subject of moving songs, the provocateur of passions, the summary of national history. Those youths have a deep and emotional connection to Jerusalem; bonded by a collective memory and attached through culture, heritage and, yes, religion.

Covering the dramatic clashes throughout the West Bank the past week days, these national sentiments were crystal clear. Palestinian boys and young men have been demonstrating all day for days now.

Yet despite the endless showers of tear gars, stunt grenades, and rubber-coated steel bullets, their numbers were growing, not diminishing. And the clashes are growing in scale, moving away from checkpoints, and further into the alleys and streets.

That's where confrontations become personal because the Palestinian youth are so close to the Israeli soldiers, they can almost touch them.

The sound of stunt grenades, rocks hitting the roofs around us and asphalt between our feet and the awful tear gas. It's disorienting. More so because in these types of clashes, there are no sides - confrontations happen everywhere: left, right, front, back and center.

These scenes are repeating across the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, with clashes reported to the West of Ramallah in Ni'lin - a village recently declared a closed military zone by Israel - Nablus villages in the North and Hebron, to the south of Jerusalem.

Different Picture

In Jerusalem, the picture is different, more difficult to decipher. This is a highly guarded city, with cameras and undercover police everywhere, including the residents' midst. These confrontations are an echo of the general Palestinian mood; disappointed by international inaction and frustrated by the dwindling hope in a better tomorrow of peace, freedom, and opportunity.

The anger, the demonstrations, and political upheaval were all fuelled by political developments. Recently, Israel announced a series of settlement expansion plans that greatly angered Palestinians. It also opened the door wide open for unprecedented and harsh international criticism, including from Israel's most important ally: the United States.

Then, an event that injected religious sentiments and perhaps fervour into this dangerous mix of tension and political deadlock. Rightwing Israeli groups inaugurated the Hurva synagogue, perilously close to the Haram al-Sharif compound, which houses Islam's third holiest site: the al-Aqsa mosque.

The synagogue was mostly built from private contributions; problem is, though, it was built in the occupied eastern part of the City and on land that used to house an Arab Palestinian neighborhood Israel demolished shortly after it occupied Jerusalem in 1967.

It used to be called the Sharaf neighbourhood; now it's called the Jewish quarters. But Israel is not even paying lip-service to international criticism.

Unreasonable Demand

On Wednesday, Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said it was "unreasonable" for the international community to ask Israel to stop construction in occupied East Jerusalem.

He also said the Quartet statement, issued on Friday, 'harms the possibility of reaching [a peace] accord". Why? Because it condemned Israeli actions in occupied East Jerusalem and said Israel must stop them now.

Palestinians consider Jerusalem the heart and soul of their identity; their history, summed up in the ancient walls that speak volumes about a turbulent and stubborn past and present. One that despite the bloodshed and misery still provided humanity with messages of love and peace.

But the holy land's history and holiness is perhaps also its curse.

Unholy Wars

It is in Jerusalem’s Via Dolorosa that Jesus is believed to have walked, bearing his cross, on behalf of humanity. And it’s in this City that carnage occurred in the name of God - and unholy wars - to dominate the city of God.

Yet, it’s also in this City that the best of man, and God’s followers, prevailed and where the first signs of religious co-existence shone upon the world.

But the conflict between Palestinians and Israelis is about land and sovereignty. It is a national struggle of the first rite.

Jerusalem though, which was key to the failure of Camp David peace talks in 2000, is the most dangerous element in this struggle; for it is a religious symbol as much as it is a national prize.

Patriotic Imperative

Palestinians of all faiths occupied East Jerusalem, or Arab Jerusalem, to be a holy patriotic imperative.
The same applies to Jewish Israelis. And the faithful of the three monothistic religions around the world hold Jerusalem dear to their heart.

That is why as much as Jerusalem could be a lasting symbol of peaceful religious coexistence, it could just the same ignite a spark for humanity's darkest sentiments of prejudice, hate and religious warfare.

Israeli measures in Jerusalem, observers have long feared, could spark this darkness as they are shrouded in religious rhetoric that is deeply provocative.

This horrific prospect seems to be a looming threat hovering over Jerusalem skies these days and those sound enough to see this dark cloud are simply terrified.
---------------------------------------------

Anti-Israeli sentiment overruns Middle East



Source: PressTV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=121270&sectionid=351020202

The Middle East sees more demonstrations as Muslims join hands to voice protest against Israeli violations in Palestine, despite a policy of silence adopted by their governments.

Crowds of Palestinian refugees staged a demonstration in southern Damascus late on Friday to protest Tel Aviv's refusal to heed international calls to halt its illegal settlement construction work in occupied East Jerusalem (al-Quds).

Waving Palestinian flags, carrying placards and chanting anti-Israeli slogans, protestors on Friday criticized the Arab world and the international community for failing to free their land after some 60 years of Israeli occupation.

Similar demonstrations have been held in support for al-Quds and the al-Aqsa Mosque in the Gaza Strip, Lebanon, Turkey, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and several other Muslim nations.

Angry protesters also condemned the reopening of a synagogue not far from the al-Aqsa Mosque — the third foremost Islamic sanctity — in the Old City in East al-Quds.

Tel Aviv's recent green light for 1,600 new settlement units in East al-Quds and the controversial rededication of the Hurva synagogue short after the confiscation of two holy shrines in the West Bank has sparked a large wave of protests across the Muslim world.

The decision also prompted warnings from Palestinian politicians and Muslim leaders who expressed grave concerns that the violations could serve as a prelude to a full "Judaization" of East al-Quds, long demanded by Palestinians as the capital of their future state.

Analysts, however, believe popular demonstrations are the minimum that could be done against the Israeli occupation in Palestine.

They insist that it is not enough for the Palestinians to be the only objecting force, calling for a firm stance from Arab governments and Muslims across the globe.

Hamas calls for action over assaults on Al-Aqsa Mosque

Source: PressTV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=119742&sectionid=351020202

Hamas has called on Arab and Muslim states to impose pressure on Israel to force it to stop the raids on the Al-Aqsa Mosque and to end its occupation of Palestine and its holy sites.

The current scenario is part of a dangerous Zionist plot to Judaize the entire occupied city of Jerusalem Al-Quds and to demolish the Al-Aqsa Mosque, Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said on Sunday.

Barhoum added that Israel started the plot a long time ago when it intensified its settlement activities, displaced Palestinians, demolished their homes, cancelled their ID cards, increased its assaults on the Al-Aqsa Mosque, and Judaized the names of streets in the holy city.

He stated that these new Israeli attacks on the holy mosque, Jerusalem Al-Quds, and its people are being carried out to attain the Israeli premier's declared goal of Judaizing Palestine.

He went on to say that the inaction of Arabs and Muslims in regard to what is happening in the holy city as well as the Palestinian Authority's "connivance" have encouraged Israel to increase its assaults on the Al-Aqsa Mosque.

On Sunday, at least 17 Palestinians were wounded and seven others were detained during fierce confrontations between Palestinian activists using stones, shoes, and bare fists and armed Israeli troops in and around the Al-Aqsa Mosque.

Muslims believe the frequent Israeli attacks on the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound are part of the Judaization campaign that targets the holy city of Jerusalem Al-Quds.