Today’s Image
On Tuesday of last week I joined friends from my Palo Alto ‘hood’ along with a local tour guide to go up on the Temple Mount. I took this photo on an unusually sunny day. We have been having a wet, cold February. This is the Dome of the Rock or as we refer to it, Har Habayit. It is the location of the holy of holies, the temple built by King Solomon. Only the priests were allowed into the Holy Temple. That little shrine off to the left was the location of the sacrificial site. Pilgrims coming on their journey to visit the Holy Temple would bring their sacrificial (animal) offerings and the Levites would perform the sacrifices on a special fire at that location. For those of you animal lovers who cringe at the thought of animal sacrifices you should be reminded that at this time in history most civilizations offered human sacrifices to their “gods”. It was revolutionary at the time for a civilization to totally outlaw human sacrifices.
The guide confirmed something I had read earlier. The Moslem Conquest of the region took place in the first half of the 7th century. Jerusalem was laid siege by Caliph Umar between 636 to 637 AD. At that time the Byzantines, Christian East Orthodoxy, was the power in the region. At that time there was a genuine fear in the Jewish Community that the Byzantines would build a church on the site of the Holy Temple. By that time the Church of Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem (the site of Jesus’s crucifixion) and the Agha Sophia in Constantinople (Istanbul) were huge structures built by St. Helena, Constantine’s mother. By 642 AD the Moslem Conquest had extended as far West as Egypt forcibly converting the predominately Christian population there. According to what I have read the Chief Rabbi of Jerusalem at the time wrote to the Governor in Cairo requesting Moslem assistance to build a shrine on the site of the Holy Temple. The credibility of this is in question, despite what I and the guide have read. The rationale for this request from the Jewish Community was the fear that the Byzantines would build a church there. But this is a bit inconsistent since, by that time the Moslems were the dominant power in the region.
Soon after the conquest, the moslems decided it was appropriate to build a mosque (place of worship) near the site of the Holy Temple. They saw themselves as the natural heirs to the legacies built by Judaism and then Christianity. So it was natural for them to “inherit” the site of the Holy Temple. Politics aside, Islam identifies the location as the site of the Jewish Holy Temple. They built an improvised mosque not far from the site of the Holy Temple, calling it the Al-Aqsa mosque, meaning distant (as in being distant from Arabia). In the second moslem dynasty, Ummayid, they converted the improvised mosque into a significant mosque which largely stands today. Here are a few photos I took of the Al-Aqsa mosque as it stands today:
The top photo is a side photo to give perspective. Those objects in the foreground are the remaining Roman period mantles on top of the columns used by Herod in the construction of the second Temple back in 30BC. You can still see some of the columns. The second photo is of the entrance to the mosque. And the third is a “peek” inside.
There are various archeological disagreements on whether the site of the Al-Aqsa mosque is in Jerusalem or a location in Saudi Arabia. But when it comes to faith and emotions it doesn’t really matter. The Dome of the Rock is actually not a mosque. The primary site for Islamic prayers is the Al-Aqsa. According to tradition built up over the years, the moslems believe that Muhammad ascended to heaven on a white steed from the site of the Al-Aqsa mosque. You can see photos of what is inside of the Dome of the Rock on this wikipedia page. The foundation stone inside the Holy Temple, now the site of the Dome of the Rock, is believed to be the site of “The Akeida”. That is the episode described in the book of Genesis when G-d commands Avraham to sacrifice his son, Yitzhak, as an offering. Again, remember that human sacrifice was a common practice during the time of Avraham when the Hittites and the Egyptians were the primary civilizations in power at the time. But, to sacrifice one’s own son was a test of faith, only. In the end the angels sent by G-d stopped Avraham and as they say…. the rest is history.
In case this short history lesson has whizzed by, let me point out a very important historical fact that the students at Harvard, Columbia and many of the students at campuses across the USA fail to understand. At its heart, Islam is a religion of conquest. The faithful sprung out of Arabia in the 7th century to conquer much of what is today the Middle East, North Africa, large parts of Spain and as far East as India. People throughout these areas were forcibly converted or put to the sword. Then, when the Turkic tribes from Asia conquered what is now Turkey, adopting Islam they took their conquests into Europe as far as the famous battle for Vienna in 1529. In contrast, ancient Israel occupied a tiny part of the Middle East from what is now Eilat in the South as far north as Damascus. That was the original Kingdom of Solomon and Hezekiah. And modern Israel has not fought a war of conquest, only wars of self defense, including the Six Day War which was triggered by a violation of the Egypt-Israel Armistice Agreement of 1949 by Gamel Abdul Nasser of Egypt in 1967 when he blockaded the Straits of Tiran. So the next time your friends or others start talking about this colonial or post-colonial nonsense, you can point out to them the reality of who conquers and who is conquered.
After the British Mandate ended in early 1948 Arab countries from around the nascent state of Israel attacked with the intention of driving the Jews into the sea. The Jordanian Army was led by British Veteran officers from Great Britain. Their forces overtook Judea and Samaria, including the Old City of Jerusalem and some of the eastern neighborhoods of Jerusalem. It was called the West Bank by the Jordanians, not Palestine, because it was West of the Jordan River. This annexation was only recognized by Great Britain. No other country in the world recognized the occupation by Jordan. If self determination is so important in the Arab World why didn’t the Arab League demand that Jordan enable a State of Palestine in the area it conquered??? In 1967 Israeli forces overtook the area from Jordan during the 6 Day War. Judea, Samaria and East Jerusalem have been a part of Israel since. Soon after 1967 Israel formally annexed East Jerusalem and “reunited” the city. I have lived in three different homes in Jerusalem since I returned in 2010. The first was in a neighborhood in Abu Tor. My home was exactly right on the former border between Israel and Jordan, a bit south of the Old City. My second apartment, where I lived from 2012 through 2017 was located in “No Man’s Land”. And now, in my wife’s home, I live in a location that was right on the border with Jordan until 1967. You could say that “I live on the edge”. Note that from the time the British left until the emergence of the PLO in the 1970s no one called this area Palestine. And no one in the Arab world accused Jordan of occupying Palestine. It was only when the Jews ruled the area, or for that matter any area, that it is called “occupied”.
In 1967, after the war, the Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Dayan reached an understanding with the Hashemite Kingdom (Jordan) that a contingent of representatives from Jordan would oversee the mosque and Temple Mount area. It is a very stressful relationship. For the first ten years or so there were very few problems. I remember actually going inside The Dome of the Rock back in 1979 when I was previously living in Jerusalem. But the onset of the Second Intifada in the late 1980s changed everything. Tensions are very high regarding administration of this area. Today, non moslems are ONLY allowed in the area between the hours of 07:00 to 11:00. They are prohibited on Friday and Saturday. And no one, unless you are a moslem, is allowed to pray up on the Temple Mount at any time. Before going up your bags are inspected to make sure that you do not have a tallit, t’fillin or a prayer book. Former Minister Itamar Ben Gvir would go up on the mount and claim to deliberately be praying in order to demonstrate he interest in reclaiming sovereignty and “stir the pot”.
All of this is important in understanding this war and region. Yesterday, Friday, starts the month long moslem holiday of Ramadan. Yesterday, an estimated 10,000s of moslems ascended to the Har Habayit to pray. For the rest of this month devote moslems will fast during the day and have larges feasts at night and early in the morning. Many will visit the Temple Mount. Anything can happen that will trigger them into throwing rocks or more violent actions.
Hamas named its October 7, 2023 attack on Israel the “Al-Aqsa Flood”. This is because the one thing that gets the moslem population in this area upset is accusations that Israel has plans or has conducted operations to take over the Al-Aqsa mosque area. So in naming their attack in this way it was intended to gain support from moslems in and around Israel. This charge against Israel is common in the moslem world and one can hear it frequently on the Arabic version of Al-Jazeera. It is during Ramadan that many moslems will watch movies, many of which have anti-semitic themes.
I do not know of many countries throughout history that have conquered a land area in a defensive war only to return jurisdiction over part or all of it to the losers in the conflict. The only examples that come to mind are the allies from WW2 and Israel. Many in Israel complain that Moshe Dayan made a terrible mistake in 1967. I am not so sure…
Hostage/Ceasefire Agreement
Meet Tsachi Idan (Z’’L), Ohad Yahalomi (Z’’L), Itzik Elgarat (Z’’L) and Shlomo Mantzur (Z’’L) (left to right, then top to bottom). All four were killed while in captivity. They entered Gaza alive. This time, because Israel threatened to withhold the release of 602 Arab prisoners, Hamas transferred the bodies without one of their macabre celebratory ceremonies. Since their arrival the identities of all four bodies were confirmed and their families buried all four. Tzachi Idan wa 49 when he was kidnapped from his home in Kibbutz Nahal Oz. He and his family of five dashed into their bomb shelter early on October 7, 2023. He and he eldest daughter, Maayan (Z’’L), were holding the door closed on the shelter when the terrorists entered their home. The terrorists shot through the door killing Maayan. The terrorists let the remaining members of his family stay, but kidnapped Idan to Gaza. Itzik Elgarat was living alone in Kibbutz Nir Oz on October 7. He is a dual citizen of Israel and Denmark. He was in his bomb shelter when the terrorist shot their way in, injuring him. They kidnapped Elgatat to Gaza where was later killed. Yahalomi was living in Kibbutz Nir Oz with his family on the day of the attack. He placed his wife and children in their bomb shelter and stood guard with a hand gun as the door on the room would not lock from the inside. He was shot by the attackers who then took him, his wife, their three children and a Thai who worked on the Kibbutz into Gaza, on separate motorcycles. During the course of being transported into Gaza his wife and two of his children were able to escape back to Israel. Shlomo Mantzur was kidnapped from his home on Kibbutz Kissufim on the day of the attack. At the time Mantzur was 85 years old. He escaped Iraq in 1946 with his family during one of the many bloody attacks by the Iraqis on the Jewish Community there which dated back more than 2,000 years. The Iraqi Jewish Community was highly educated with many of their members doctors. They comprised almost 50% of the population of Baghdad. At the time of these attacks there were about 60,000 Jews living in Iraq. Today there are none. On the Kibbutz, Mantzur lived with his wife (who escaped) and was in charge of the chicken coops.
In return for the transfer of the four bodies of these hostages killed in captivity and the three live hostages returned last week, Israel released 602 Arab prisoners from its prison system. Among them are 50 serving life sentences, which means that they are responsible for killing one or more people. They and another 50 are being sent to Egypt from where they are expected to be deported. From the remaining 500, 445 are being released to Gaza as they were detained since the start of the war in October, 2023. The remaining prisoners were released via shuttle bus to nearby Ramallah.
From the initial 250 hostages, which included foreign workers, only 59 remain in captivity at this point. One was kidnapped and killed back in 2014 when Hamas kidnapped three young men. That event triggered the 2014 war. Of the 59 only 24 are believed to be alive. That means that Israel has now through either negotiations with Hamas, rescue operations or body recovery during the course of the war, recovered 80% of the hostages. Of the remaining 20%, half are dead and half are alive.
With this last release of bodies, the parties have reached the end of Phase 1 of the Hostage/Ceasefire deal. Those of you that have been following me since the beginning know that it is my strong opinion that regardless of what is said or done, Hamas leadership will never release ALL the hostages. They know that there are targets on their backs and the instant the hostages are no longer an issue they will be active targets of the IDF and Mossad. At this point negotiations are supposed to start on Phase 2. And as long as negotiations are going on Israel is supposed to abide by the ceasefire. The Israeli government has dispatched its negotiators instructing them to push for an extension of Phase 1. As long as hostages are being released at the pace of 3-4 per week, Israel will abide by the ceasefire and release the agreed upon number of Arab prisoners. In this way, the government intends to avoid “ending” the war and pushing out any reconstruction in Gaza. As of Friday, Hamas announced that it rejects this position and insists that Israel move to Phase 2 while evacuating its troops from the Philadelphi Corridor bordering Gaza and Egypt.
If no breakthrough is made in the next 10-20 days I would expect Israel to resume the war. There is talk this time about changing Israel’s approach and restricting the amount of aid that enters Gaza, unlike before. Or at a minimum to restrict the aid to certain parts of Gaza. Current IDF training and drills are being conducted to prepare for handling the current situation.
The devastation in Gaza is the fault of Hamas. We will not know what the Gazans really think until they can no longer suffer under the tyranny of Hamas. However, all polls in Gaza and Judea/Samaria amongst the Arab population suggests that Hamas still retains the majority of support. But here is what some of Egyptian Society is saying - you can read here and view here.
IDF/Government
All the security institutions in Israel - IDF, Shin Bet and Mossad - have now released elements of their internal investigations of what went wrong leading up to October 7 and what happened on that day. I will reserve describing it and commenting on it to a future post.
Casualties
There have been no IDF or civilian casualties in the past 28 days.
Rockets & Missiles & Drones
There have been no aerial explosives directed at Israel for the past 5 weeks. However, Hamas launched a rocket targeting Israel from Rafah. It landed in Gaza. I’ll be that this was not covered in the Western Press. You can read here and view here.
Lebanon Front
So far the IDF is still positioned on its five isolated posts inside Southern Lebanon along its border. It has stated that it will remain in these positions until the Lebanese Government shows it can comply with the terms of the ceasefire deal. In the meantime, the IDF continues with its targeted attacks against Hezbollah officials and positions. Late last week, they assassinated Mahdi Ali Shaheen, an Hezbollah leader facilitating the smuggling of arms across the Syrian border.
Syria Front
The Israeli Government announced that it will view any attempts to place arms, the Syrian Army or proxies in Southern Syria as a threat with the intention of eliminating them. Just today, reports are surfacing that the makeshift Syrian Army has initiated attacks on the Druze Community in the city of Jaramana. The city is on the outskirts of Damascus. In response the Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz announced that he has given orders for the IDF to prepare to defend the Syrian Druze Communities. There has been a lot of talk about protecting the Druze Communities in Southern Syria, but we have not heard before of reaching into Damascus. I think that this is more of an empty threat as I cannot foresee the IDF launching attacks in Damascus like this. In the meantime the government has organized the delivery of aid into Syria’s Druze communities.
There are talks underway with Russia by Israel. The Israeli Government is expressing interest in Russia increasing its involvement there in order to offer a counterweight to the rest of Turkiye’s influence there. Tensions are rising between Turkiye and Iran over Syria. You can read more here.
Aid
Despite all the nonsensical talk of genocide Gaza has had plenty of aid coming in throughout the war. Here you can see some videos of Gaza today - this one broadcast by Al-Jazeera, here and another one here. Both were filmed in the past two weeks. That being said, much of Gaza consists today of bombed out buildings, so I don’t mean to mis-characterize the situation. But there is plenty of aid and no one is starving despite all the nonsense from the International Community. Here you can see a video of preparations for a huge Ramadan feast inside Gaza.
And In Your Copious Spare Time…
Within intellectual circles there is substantial talk on the best strategy for Israel to follow when dealing with the changes in Syria. Here is one posted by both a Syrian (outside Syria) and an Israeli.
And here is some insight on what is going in inside Hezbollah. But, it is way premature to conclude that the movement is in decline. Their religious fervor is not dissipating but is only going dormant, ready to resurface in the future.
There have been no IDF or civilian casualties in the past 28 days.
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