and physically kept out of the holiest site in Judaism?"
Posted on 11/05/2001 4:07:34 AM PST by BenF
Until now, I haven't even bothered to say, "See, I told you so." But I can't resist any longer. I feel compelled to remind you of the column I wrote just a couple weeks before the latest uprising. Yeah, folks, I predicted it.
That's OK. Hold your applause.
After all, I wish I had been wrong. More than 80 people have been killed since the current fighting in and around Jerusalem began. And for what?
If you believe what you read in most news sources, Palestinians want a homeland and Muslims want control over sites they consider holy.
Simple, right?
Well, as an Arab-American journalist who has spent some time in the Middle East dodging more than my share of rocks and mortar shells, I've got to tell you that these are just phony excuses for the rioting, trouble-making and land-grabbing.
Isn't it interesting that prior to the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, there was no serious movement for a Palestinian homeland?
"Well, Farah," you might say, "that was before the Israelis seized the West Bank and Old Jerusalem."
That's true. In the Six-Day War, Israel captured Judea, Samaria and East Jerusalem. But they didn't capture these territories from Yasser Arafat. They captured them from Jordan's King Hussein. I can't help but wonder why all these Palestinians suddenly discovered their national identity after Israel won the war.
The truth is that Palestine is no more real than Never-Never Land. The first time the name was used was in 70 A.D. when the Romans committed genocide against the Jews, smashed the Temple and declared the land of Israel would be no more. From then on, the Romans promised, it would be known as Palestine. The name was derived from the Philistines, a Goliathian people conquered by the Jews centuries earlier. It was a way for the Romans to add insult to injury. They also tried to change the name of Jerusalem to Aelia Capitolina, but that had even less staying power.
Palestine has never existed -- before or since -- as an autonomous entity. It was ruled alternately by Rome, by Islamic and Christian crusaders, by the Ottoman Empire and, briefly, by the British after World War I. The British agreed to restore at least part of the land to the Jewish people as their homeland.
There is no language known as Palestinian. There is no distinct Palestinian culture. There has never been a land known as Palestine governed by Palestinians. Palestinians are Arabs, indistinguishable from Jordanians (another recent invention), Syrians, Lebanese, Iraqis, etc. Keep in mind that the Arabs control 99.9 percent of the Middle East lands. Israel represents one-tenth of 1 percent of the landmass.
But that's too much for the Arabs. They want it all. And that is ultimately what the fighting in Israel is about today.
Greed. Pride. Envy. Covetousness. No matter how many land concessions the Israelis make, it will never be enough.
What about Islam's holy sites? There are none in Jerusalem.
Shocked? You should be. I don't expect you will ever hear this brutal truth from anyone else in the international media. It's just not politically correct.
I know what you're going to say: "Farah, the Al Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem represent Islam's third most holy sites."
Not true. In fact, the Koran says nothing about Jerusalem. It mentions Mecca hundreds of times. It mentions Medina countless times. It never mentions Jerusalem. With good reason. There is no historical evidence to suggest Mohammad ever visited Jerusalem.
So how did Jerusalem become the third holiest site of Islam? Muslims today cite a vague passage in the Koran, the seventeenth Sura, entitled "The Night Journey." It relates that in a dream or a vision Mohammed was carried by night "from the sacred temple to the temple that is most remote, whose precinct we have blessed, that we might show him our signs. ..." In the seventh century, some Muslims identified the two temples mentioned in this verse as being in Mecca and Jerusalem.
And that's as close as Islam's connection with Jerusalem gets -- myth, fantasy, wishful thinking. Meanwhile, Jews can trace their roots in Jerusalem back to the days of Abraham.
The latest round of violence in Israel erupted when Likud Party leader Ariel Sharon tried to visit the Temple Mount, the foundation of the Temple built by Solomon. It is the holiest site for Jews. Sharon and his entourage were met with stones and threats. I know what it's like.
I've been there. Can you imagine what it is like for Jews to be threatened, stoned and physically kept out of the holiest site in Judaism?
So what's the solution to the Middle East mayhem? Well, frankly, I don't think there is a man-made solution to the violence. But, if there is one, it needs to begin with truth.
Pretending will only lead to more chaos. Treating a 5,000-year-old birthright backed by overwhelming historical and archaeological evidence equally with illegitimate claims, wishes and wants gives diplomacy and peacekeeping a bad name.
A daily radio broadcast adaptation of Joseph Farah's commentaries can be heard on TalkNetDaily.
Trieste, a large city at the junction of Italy and Yugoslavia at the uppermost area of the Adriatic was in dispute at the close of WWII.
It ,too was a city composed ofa mixed populace of Chistians, Jews, and Muslims.
It exists today with no turmoil as it was finally declared an "open" city, and self determined....
The same should be done with Jeruselum.
The Moslem "claim" to Jerusalem is based on what is written in the Koran, which although Jerusalem is not mentioned even once, nevertheless talks (in Sura 17:1) of the "Furthest Mosque": "Glory be unto Allah who did take his servant for a journey at night from the Sacred Mosque to the Furthest Mosque." But is there any foundation to the Moslem argument that this "Furthest Mosque" (Al-Masujidi al-Aqtza) refers to what is today called the Aksa Mosque in Jerusalem? The answer is, none whatsoever.
In the days of Mohammed, who died in 632 of the Common Era, Jerusalem was a Christian city within the Byzantine Empire. Jerusalem was captured by Khalif Omar only in 638, six years after Mohammed's death. Throughout all this time there were only churches in Jerusalem, and a church stood on the Temple Mount, called the Church of Saint Mary of Justinian, built in the Byzantine architectural style.
The Aksa Mosque was built 20 years after the Dome of the Rock, which was built in 691-692 by Khalif Abd El Malik. The name "Omar Mosque" is therefore false. In or around 711, or about 80 years after Mohammed died, Malik's son, Abd El-Wahd - who ruled from 705-715 - reconstructed the Christian- Byzantine Church of St. Mary and converted it into a mosque. He left the structure as it was, a typical Byzantine "basilica" structure with a row of pillars on either side of the rectangular "ship" in the center. All he added was an onion-like dome on top of the building to make it look like a mosque. He then named it El-Aksa, so it would sound like the one mentioned in the Koran.
Therefore it is crystal clear that Mohammed could never have had this mosque in mind when he compiled the Koran, since it did not exist for another three generations after his death. Rather, as many scholars long ago established, it is logical that Mohammed intended the mosque in Mecca as the "Sacred Mosque," and the mosque in Medina as the "Furthest Mosque." So much for the Moslem claim based on the Aksa Mosque.
With this understood, it is no wonder that Mohammed issued a strict prohibition against facing Jerusalem in prayer, a practice that had been tolerated only for some months in order to lure Jews to convert to Islam. When that effort failed, Mohammed put an abrupt stop to it on February 12, 624. Jerusalem simply never held any sanctity for the Moslems themselves, but only for the Jews in their domain.
[DR. MANFRED R. LEHMANN is a writer for the Algemeiner Journal. Originally published in the Algemeiner Journal,
August 19, 1994.]
Indistinguishable by us, perhaps, but not by them. Palestinians are relegated to the lowest jobs in the Arab world and generally treated better by the Israelis-- which is why they are in no hurry to move to Arab countries, unlike the Jews who have abondoned once thriving Jewish communities from Damascus to Baghdad.
In Saudi Arabia,a middle class family would rather hire an Infidel maid or house boy from the Phillippines than a fellow Muslim Arab Palestinian. Why?
I don’t know if you have had a chance to examine a prayer shawl. I have one, and it is one of my most treasured possessions. No, I don’t believe you have to own or wear one for your prayers to reach heaven, but the Hebrew prayer shawl is a visible reminder of who and what God is.
Moses wore a prayer shawl to his funeral, where God buried him. Daniel wore one in the lions’ den. Jesus was given one on His thirteenth birthday and wore it every day of His life. He will wear it when He comes again with the saints of heaven.
The directions for a prayer shawl came from God Himself:
Speak to the children of Israel: Tell them to make tassels on the corners of their garments throughout their generations, and to put a blue thread in the tassels of the corners. And you shall have the tassel, that you may look upon it and remember all the commandments of the Lord and do them, and that you may not follow the harlotry to which your own heart and your own eyes are inclined. (Numbers 15:38-39)
God designed the prayer shawl, called a tallit, and He commanded all Jews of every generation to wear it. The border of blue was a reminder that God is in heaven. The first color in the tabernacle was blue, and the first line in the Lord’s Prayer is “Our Father, who art in heaven.” We are never to forget that God is above us watching our comings and goings, caring about every aspect of our lives.
The fringes, or "tzitzit" in Hebrew, are a very important part of the prayer shawl – indeed, the wearing of "tzitzit" is considered to be equal to all the other commandments together. “The threads,” says Alan Unterman, “bind man to God.”
Using the practice of gematria, in which each letter of the Hebrew alphabet corresponds with a number, we discover that the "tzitzit" upon a prayer shawl represent the name of God. The numbers of coils spell out Yud, heh, vav and heh. Put them all together and you have Yud heh vav heh, which equals Jehovah.
- Jehovah Rophe – the God who heals
- Jehovah Shalom – the Prince of Peace
- Jehovah Jireh – the God who supplies
- Jehova Rohi – the Lord is my shepherd
- Jehovah Tsidkenu – Righteousness
- Jehovah M’Keddish –Holiness
- Jehova Nissi – the Lord our Banner in war
The knots in the tzitzit represent 613 commandments of the Word of God. They are to remind the wearer of the Word of the Lord, but it is not enough just to remember. We must also do it.
The prayer shawl was every Jewish man’s tabernacle. The wilderness tabernacle was only eighteen feet by forty-five feet, not large enough to hold two million worshiping people. And so every Jewish man put his prayer shawl over his head while quoting Psalm 104:1-2:
The Hebrew prayer shawl is now the flag of Israel. The prophet Isaiah wrote,
God has gathered the Jewish people from the gentile nations to the promised land under His flag. He designed it, and the Jews have worn it for generations.
The prayer shawl appears in Scripture on several occasions. Remember the story of the woman with an issue of blood? She reached out to touch the edge of Jesus’ garment. The word we translate “hem” in Matthew 9:20 (kraspedon) is actually a Greek word for “fringe.” She was reaching for the tzitzit. She was reaching for the name of God.
Jesus said, “If you ask anything in my name, I will do it.” (John 14:13).
Notice the last appearance of a prayer shawl in Scripture:
Now I saw heaven opened, and behold , a white horse. And He who sat on him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and makes war. His eyes were like flame of fire, and on His head were many crowns. He had a name written that no one knew except Himself. He was clothes with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called ‘The Word of God . . . And He has on His robe and on His thigh a nem written: KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS.r>
(Revelation 19:11-13, 16)
The name on His thigh is the tzitzit of the prayer shawl around His shoulders. Jesus will return to earth just as He left it . . . as a rabbi. He will come wearing the name that is above all names, and every eye shall see Him coming in power and glory.
On Jesus’ last day in Jerusalem before His crucifixion, He stood on the slopes of the Mount of Olives and, weeping, looked over the city. ”O Jerusalem, Jerusalem,” He cried, ”the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!” (Matthew 23:37).
Through the long lens of foreknowledge, Jesus saw the coming Roman invasion: Titus in A.D. 70, and Hadrian in A.D. 130. He saw the city surrounded by Roman legions, starving citizens, Jews being capture and crucified.
He saw what historians later told us – that the Romans crucified as many as 500 Jewish residents at a time. They slaughtered citizens in the streets until blood flowed like water. Hadrian’s troops killed more than 500,000 Jewish people in his attack on the city.
Jesus saw the crusaders who would come in His name, robbing, raping, and ravaging the Jewish people from Europe to Jerusalem.
He saw Jerusalem conquered and reconquered thirty times, with millions of His people, the Jews, being slaughtered.
He saw the horror of the Holocaust, and He sobbed, ”O Jerusalem, Jerusalem.” And then He said, ”Your house is left you desolate; and assuredly, I say to you, you shall not see Me until the time comes when you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!’” (Luke 13:35).
The city of Jerusalem still waits, but the time of waiting is drawing to a close.
From: ”The Battle for Jerusalem,” by John Hagee
And the "junction" is a h*llhole of muslim/antisemitic activism even today.
The same should be done with Jeruselum.
You think so, do you?
There are many who feel as you do - ever since Jews liberated the city in 1967. Before that, no one seemed to care that Jews were denied access to their holy sites. Probably just a coincidence, right?
The same should be done with Jeruselum.
You think so, do you?
Of course, perhaps a few Israeli tanks , with you in the lead one, should be immediately dispatched to the area to resolve the anti-semitic 'activism' which you inordinately prioritize as a function of your duties and responsibilities as an All-American citizen.
You mean these 'holy sites' were suddenly resurrected since 1967?
Better check your facts....
Ummm.. it would seem that it is you who would be prioritizing anti-semitic activism as a function of your duties and responsibilities, whatever they are. Why don't you move to Jerusalem and mingle with your friends? The city seems to be fairly open - muslim terrorists all over the place.
Israel failed to offer Palestinians living in the occupied territories any palatable alternative to national self-determination. Israel did not choose to annex all the conquered territories and give Israeli citizenship to the non-Jewish Palestinians living there. Instead, Israel instituted a despotic military regime to tyrannize occupied Palestinians while gradually confiscating their land and water for use by Israelis.
Sadly, the U.S. government, controlled by the pro-Israel lobby, aided and abetted this process. Americans suffer when their political process is corrupted by powerful factions.
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