Interesting. Thanks for posting.
This is an interesting idea, but could the Saudis maintain security there? The Saudis lost control of their grand mosque in Mecca for several days in 1979 to a bunch of extremists, including a self-described "mahdi". And to compound their humuliation, they had to call in French special forces to flush out the invaders from the underground tunnels.
The author of this article is either deluded or a fool. The basic premise of the article is that the crazed jihadis could be placated by turing control of Al Aqsa over to the Saudi Royal family (who are currently the self-described protectors of Mecca and Medina.) But the jihadis do not recognize the authority of the Saudi Royal family over Mecca and Medina. In fact they hate the Saudi Royal family even more than they hate the Jews. If the Saudi Royal family were to accomodate Israel the jihadis would only be encouraged in their quest to depose the Saudi Royals.
I think the Israelis are about as likely to let the Saudis have jurisdiction over the Temple Mount as the Saudis are to let the Israelis have jurisdiction over Mecca and Medina. In other words...this ain't happening.
The Jews do not have an obligation to advance a foreign religion let alone do so by advancing foreign state that would kill all Jews if it had the chance. The above proposal is worse than wrong.
To solve much of this problem, Israel should do what every other nation does: nationalize its religious sites.
That is, more than a dozen religions and sects claim to "own" religious sites in Israel, almost like embassies in which the Israelis may not enter.
By declaring all such holy sites are the property of the nation of Israel, yet freely allowing their peaceful use, much of the contention would end, or else.
If Wahabbis run the Al-Asqa mosque and misbehave, then Israel could replace them with Sufi managers. Even the threat of this would terrify the Wahabbis beyond description. They would be in an utter panic to stay in the good graces of Israel, to be good tenants.
Also the contentious Christian sects would benefit, as holy sites would stop being dormitories. No reason at all why monks can't live in a rental apartment in Jerusalem.
And best of all, instead of fighting it out among themselves for literally, square inches of space, in holy sites, each sect would, in turn, have complete run of the holy place for a time each day--with more space for pilgrims, too.
Of course, they would still fight it out for seconds, but such is the nature of contentious people.
And as the owner of all of these sites, Israel would also have total control over any modifications, adjustments and changes made to these properties.
It is one thing Israel could do that would settle down much of the brawling that has gone on for centuries.
High Volume. Articles on Israel can also be found by clicking on the Topic or Keyword Israel. or WOT [War on Terror]
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Someone need to tell the author that the Temple Mount has been under the control of the Wakf, Muslims, since 1948. Despite the 1967 war. The Wakf excavates and throws Jewish artifacts in the trash, the Wakf determines that Jews and Christians can't pray up there, and as it collapses Jordan, not Israel, does the "repairs". The issue is the presence of Jews still breathing in the vicinity of the Temple Mount, defined as anywhere within a few hundred miles.
It's as if someone suggested that if DC were declared a muslim shari'a district, all the world's muslims would become peace-loving tolerant pussycats.
A waste of brain cells and printer's ink.
Neither is going to happen. Ever.