by Dror Eydar
As I wrote this week, the real issue is sovereignty over the Temple Mount.
In this period, known
as the three weeks (beginning with the 17th of Tammuz fast that marks
the day when the walls of Jerusalem were breached by the Romans in 69
C.E., and ending with the 9th of Av fast that marks the day that both
Temples were destroyed), the Jews are not the only ones reflecting on
the destruction and rebuilding of Jerusalem. The entire world is turning
its eyes to Jerusalem, wondering what will become of the metal detectors installed at the entrance to the Temple Mount compound.
As I wrote this week,
the real issue is sovereignty over the Temple Mount. The Muslims realize
that the Jews' struggle to return to Zion focuses on Zion -- Jerusalem
-- and its crown jewel, the Temple Mount, where our Temple once stood,
symbolizing our independence.
The Christians left the
Temple Mount in ruins to "prove" that God had abandoned his chosen
people and had chosen them instead, because the Jews rejected Jesus'
messianic (and divine) status. This view is known as "replacement
theology" -- the principle at the foundation of religious anti-Semitism.
Fortunately, the Christian world is increasingly rejecting this
ideology.
The Muslims also used the Temple Mount in
their own version of replacement theology. The Muslim version maintains
that the Prophet Muhammad was the last prophet and that Islam is the
only true faith -- anyone who does not yield to it is considered an
infidel.
After the Muslims
conquered Jerusalem in 638 C.E., the Dome of the Rock was built where
the Jewish temples had once stood to symbolize that Islam was the
"legitimate" heir of the Jewish people's faith. When the Jews returned
to Zion in recent history, the Temple Mount became a source of
contention. It acts as a sort of seismograph, measuring the Jewish
state's progress in settling the land and making its deserts bloom and
ultimately enforcing its sovereignty over the land. In these three
weeks, we would do well to recall Nathan Alterman's prophecy in 1941,
while the Nazis began to close in on the gates of the Land of Israel, in
his opus "The Joy of the Poor": "For between the straits, it is not the
ones who besiege, but the ones who are besieged who know happiness."
We are only beginning the process. We must have patience.
Dror Eydar
Source: http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_opinion.php?id=19485
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