Posted on 08/15/2003 4:38:46 PM PDT by Destro
Saturday, August 16, 2003 Av 18, 5763 Israel Time: 02:32 (GMT+3)
Turkey asks U.S. to foil Israeli plans for Mount
By Zvi Bar'el
ANKARA - Turkey yesterday asked the United States to intervene urgently to halt Israel's plan to allow non-Muslims to visit and pray on the Temple Mount.
The request came after Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat appealed to the Turkish premier, saying that opening the Temple Mount to non-Muslims would rekindle violence in the Middle East.
In a message delivered to the U.S. embassy in Ankara, Turkey
warned that visits by non-Muslims to the Temple Mount could negatively impact on its ability to implement its recent decision to accede to a U.S. request to send Turkish troops to Iraq. The government's decision must still be approved by the Turkish parliament.
"We do not need a religious struggle on the Temple Mount when we are facing an internal struggle in Turkey over sending troops to Iraq," a senior Turkish official said. "A religious eruption over this issue could cause anti-American demonstrations in Turkey, leading parliament to oppose assistance to the Americans."
Turkish sources said they hope that the transmission of their message to Israel via the U.S. will be enough to persuade Israel to reconsider its plan to allow visits by non-Muslims to the Temple Mount. "However, if it turns out that the message has not been understood, we will apparently have to transmit sharper and clearer messages," one official said.
The sources said that Turkish policy toward Israel has not changed, but "Israel must understand the interests of Turkey and the U.S. These are not limited to the question of the Temple Mount but extend to events in the entire region."
Meanwhile, no decision has yet been made regarding a date for a planned visit to Israel by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The main obstacle to the visit is Israel's insistence that Erdogan not meet with Yasser Arafat. Turkey holds that Arafat is a leader who should not be boycotted. The Turkish prime minister's visit is expected to take place before the end of the year, but if Israel maintains its opposition to the Arafat visit, Erdogan will have to make separate visits to Israel and to the Palestinian Authority.
Turkey has contributed $50 million to the Palestinian Authority since 1993, and intends to contribute additional money when Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas pays an expected official visit to Ankara in September. Turkey is also advising the Palestinians on the framing of a constitution. Ankara has proposed that the Palestinians adopt a constitution similar to Turkey's, creating a secular democratic state in which Islamic law is not a source of legislation. But Palestinian experts oppose this idea, mainly due to pressure from Egypt and Saudi Arabia.
Maybe because they didn't have to contend with PC.
Posted: July 1, 2003 1:00 a.m. Eastern
Editor's note: Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin is an online, subscription intelligence news service from the creator of WorldNetDaily.com – a journalist who has been developing sources around the world for the last 25 years.
© 2003 WorldNetDaily.com
Jews are once again visiting the holiest site in Judaism.
Israeli police have begun to allow non-Muslims, under police escort, to enter the Temple Mount grounds in the Old City of Jerusalem, despite threats of violence by Muslim leaders.
About two weeks ago, Interior Security Minister Tzachi Hanegbi announced Jews would soon be allowed on the Temple Mount, "even if no agreement is reached with the Waqf." The Waqf is the Muslim Religious Trust, a group of Islamic clerics appointed to administer the site by the Palestinian Authority's Yasser Arafat.
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon reportedly expressed skepticism about the plan to renew Temple visitations by non-Muslims. In the fall of 2001, Sharon visited the site, an event some cite as the catalyst for the outbreak of the intifada, or uprising. The Temple Mount was subsequently closed to Jews and Christians.
According to Haaretz, police officers didn't wait for an agreement to be worked out with the Waqf. Instead, officers stationed at the Western Wall began, in the last few days, to escort groups of tourists on visits to the grounds of the mosques at the site. The commander of the police station at the Western Wall, Officer Yossi Ben Haim, even approached tourists in the Old City and lobbied them to join the organized visit to the sensitive site, according to the Israeli newspaper.
Although preparations for visits by non-Muslims to the Temple Mount were being made for several days, Waqf Director Adnan Husseini heard for the first time only yesterday that Israeli police were actually bringing in visitors to what has been described as the most explosive piece of real estate in the world. Husseini called the decision a grave violation of trust by Israel.
The Temple Mount is the area that served as the foundation for the First and Second Temples. The Second Temple was destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD. The temples were the centers of Jewish worship in ancient Israel. Tradition places Abraham's near-sacrifice of Isaac on this hill. For Christians, this is where Jesus walked and preached.
Oddly, since recapturing the Temple Mount in the 1967 Six-Day War, the secular government of Israel has granted administrative authority over the holy site to a group of the Waqf. Jews and non-Jews who attempt to visit the site are frequently harassed, even attacked.
The reaction to the Israeli announcement has been predictably strong.
Ahmed Abdel Rahman, a senior political adviser to Arafat, said: "This could be the trigger for the third intifada. How else can we interpret the stupidity of Israel's police minister ...?"
The Palestinian Authority mufti in Jerusalem, Ikrimah Sabri, warned a "bloodbath" would result from such an action.
Even Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak warned of "grave" results if Jews were simply allowed to pray on the Temple Mount.
But Israelis have far more to worry about with regard to the Temple Mount than the simple matter of visitations.
For decades, Muslims have contended, despite the historical and archaeological evidence, that there is no Jewish connection to the Temple Mount. They contend the Temple never existed on this site or anywhere else in what they call "Palestine."
When the Temple Mount was under Arab control, Jews were not even permitted to pray outside the Western Wall. But since the Israelis took over the Temple Mount, they have permitted the Muslims to administer the holiest site in Judaism.
During this period, the Waqf has presided over a little known, but nevertheless extensive, "renovation" program at the Temple Mount. A new mosque has been built under the southeast corner. Additional exits have been cut through the Temple Mount walls. All supervision of this extraordinary, unprecedented effort has been denied. The Muslims have ripped physical evidence of the Temple from the Mount and mixed it with debris and garbage in various dumps around Jerusalem, most notably the Kidron Valley.
Recently, Waqf agents began cleaning one of the giant cisterns under the Temple Mount. These cisterns served as reservoirs for both the First and Second Temples. The plan is to fill these cisterns with water from Mecca's Zamzam Spring – instantly turning the Temple Mount into a genuine holy site for Muslim pilgrims with weight equal to the Great Mosque of Mecca.
This would be the ultimate Islamicization of the Temple Mount.
Meanwhile, recent surveys show the Muslim construction projects have left the southern wall of the Temple Mount near collapse.
Observers have dreaded what might happen if the southern wall actually did fail. Hundreds, if not thousands, of Muslim worshippers might be killed. If such a calamity occurred, it would most assuredly, in the current environment, be blamed not on the construction, but on Israel, they fear.
Temple Mount opens to non-Muslim visitors
As a secular administrator, I'd tell the Muslims they have to stop destroying the evidence of the older Jewish Temple(s?) and let the Jews worship as well.
Both sides would stop destruction of the other's historical buildings.
Turkey is not our friend and has proven it during the Iraq war. Israel owns the Temple Mound and should be able to do what ever they want. Why is Turkey asking us anyway, muslims dont like Christians any more than they like jews. I guess what I'm saying is Turkey can go to He!!
they alone would be stupid enough to believe that the Jewish God, could only hear on THEIR mountain...
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