The Temple Mount is occupied.
The occupier is Jordan and its representative: the Wakf.
“Occupation” means control of someone else’s territory. This makes Jordan the perfect occupier: It controls Israel’s territory.
Jordan is used to occupation.
It occupied the Temple Mount, 1949-1967.
As an occupier, Jordan shut down religious freedom, 1949-1967.
Jordan banned Jews from praying at the Western Wall of the Temple Mount.
Jordan still bans Jews.
This time — 1967-2017 — from praying atop the Temple Mount.
Jordan is used to being an occupying power.
Yes, observant Jews do not enter the Temple Mount. And yes, Israel conquered the Temple Mount in 1967 in a war that Israel begged Jordan to stay out of — but Jordan went to war against Israel anyway and lost the Temple Mount (as well as the rest of East Jerusalem and the West Bank of the Jordan River).
But Israel, in an extraordinarily misguided action, turned control of the Temple Mount back to Jordan.
Jordan was only too pleased to become an occupying power again, and to impose the ban on Jews praying atop the Temple Mount again.
These days, we hear of Israel accused of changing the “status quo” on the Temple Mount. Let it be perfectly clear what this status quo is: Jordanian control of the Temple Mount, to the exclusion of Jews and Israelis.
Can you imagine? A Muslim enters Temple Sinai in Denver. He is told at the door: Vamoose! Out! You’re not welcome! And if you come in or dare to utter a non-Jewish prayer here, we will launch violent demonstrations and kill people.
Can you imagine? A Christian enters the Hebrew Educational Alliance in Denver. He is stopped at the door, turned away and a formal complaint is filed with the Denver Police Dept., with the expectation of a swift arrest of the visiting Christian.
This is what happens when a Jew tries to pray on the Temple Mount, that is, on the grounds above the Western Wall.
Contrast this with the prayers at the base of Western Wall itself. While most of the pray-ers are Jewish, others come there frequently, sometimes dressed in their Western clothing, indistinguishable from the Jews praying there; other times dressed in the colorful regalia of their own religions and nationalities.
These non-Jews praying at the Western Wall are not stopped.
Not turned away.
Not arrested.
Not demonstrated against.
Not condemned.
They utter the prayers of their own religion.
They experience religious freedom.
Exactly the opposite of what happens to Jews and Israelis atop the Temple Mount.
Note: Israelis and Jews. The dishonest distinction between the two — as in “we’re not anti-Semitic, only anti-Zionist” — well, there is not even a pretense of this atop the Temple Mount. If you’re Jewish — Israeli or not — and if you hold in your hand a Jewish prayer book, and you want to pray atop the Temple Mount, your religious freedom will be challenged and denied by the Muslim Wakf authorities there.
So don’t let all this business about new security measures on the Temple Mount “changing the status quo” fool you. The status quo is a blatantly discriminatory one. That’s what is being fanatically defended now, not some well founded fear of Israel taking over . . . its own territory, duly occupied by Jordan since 1949.
Copyright © 2017 by the Intermountain Jewish News
I did not know Jordan was in charge, not good at all. I was raised Baptist but I believe the jews are still gods chosen people. A lot of responsibility goes with being the chosen people. do not take it lightly.