Who would imagine that after 2,000 years in exile, of praying towards Jerusalem, that returning Jews would find their entrance to the Temple Mount blocked! Not by Crusaders, not by Turks, but by fellow Jews! This despite 1) Israel's 1967 Law for the Protection of the Holy Places, paragraph 2(b), that sets a five year prison term for "whoever does anything likely to violate the freedom of access of the members of the different religions in the places sacred to them or their feelings to these places," and 2) that Benyamin Netanyahu wrote "The right of the Jewish people to its holy place - the Temple Mount - cannot be questioned... it is necessary to ARRANGE FOR JEWISH PRAYER on the site, especially given that we permit freedom of worship to all the religions in Jerusalem."
What a crying shame that the Temple Mount is NOT in our hands! What a national disgrace that militant Moslems - sworn enemies of the Jewish State - intimidate the sons and daughters of the Macabees! How long before the Zionist dream reclaims our most holy site? Must Jews and Christians convert to Islam before they can exercise their religious rights? Until the Temple Mount is restored as the Temple Mount (Har Ha-Bayit) it will increasingly become a mountain of troubles (Har Ha-Bayot). The choice is ours. But until we liberate the Temple Mount, perhaps we should call it the "Mount of Mourning" to accompany our "Wailing Wall."
