After Iran fired over 180 missiles at Israel, Israel considered how to handle synagogue attendance during the Rosh Hashanah holiday. Synagogue attendance typically swells on the holy days, with even more secular Jews attending services. But most synagogues only have small mamads (safe rooms) to protect people during a shelling attack, so hundreds could be left unprotected during an attack.
The situation is even more dire at one of the largest synagogues in the world – the Western Wall Plaza at the Kotel – where thousands of Jews gather in the Old City of Jerusalem. The large outdoor location has few easily accessible places to hide from missiles.
Perhaps the grey-domed al Aqsa Mosque can be used by thousands of Jews as a safe room from jihadi missiles. The jihadists would presumably try to spare their religious building, making the mosque a potential haven for Jews.
Al Aqsa Mosque from outside Jerusalem’s Old City walls (photo: First One Through)
Hamas termed their barbaric slaughter of Israelis the “al Aqsa Flood.” Perhaps it didn’t imagine that the term would become a prophecy inverted, drawing masses of Jews onto the Temple Mount.
For thousands of years, Jews have been hunted, caged, expelled and exterminated.
In 1791, Catherine II confined Jews into the “Pale of Settlement” which consisted of only 25% of Russian lands and forbade them from living anywhere else. Nazi Germany in the 1930s and 1940s restricted Jews to ghettos before shipping them to extermination camps. The Germans and their allies killed 6 million Jews, one-third of the global population.
Today, radical jihadi organizations in the United States and elsewhere want to liquidate the land of Israel of its Jews, where roughly 45% of world Jewry lives. Groups like Within Our Lifetime and American Muslims for Palestine (AMP) were gleeful as Gazans went door-to-door on October 7, 2023 to rape women, shoot children before their parents and burn families alive.
WESPAC and the Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM) stand before Jewish schools and organizations and chant “by any means necessary” to intimate and harrass American Jews that the global intifada is here to claim more victims.
Members of WESPAC gather before a Jewish Day School in Westchester, NY calling for “Liberation by any means necessary” after the October 7 slaughter of 1,200 Jews in Israel
What is the defense against such people? Have they passed the point of rehabilitation? Should the focus be on limiting their power and influence? If so, by what means? Should they be prosecuted? Shut down or denied tax-exempt status?
Or is it to fight back similarly “by any means necessary,” that if they advocate for an immoral war, then the proportionate response is also by any means necessary, including advocating carpet-bombing Gaza? If they will protest in front of Jewish organizations, should Zionists map out every Muslim organization using the same tactic and confront children in school for complicity with heinous crimes against humanity?
Masked people outside of Columbia University calling for destroying the Jewish State “by any means necessary”
Jews and Zionists have tried to find a way to coexist with Arabs since they started returning to the Jewish holy land in greater numbers in the 1840s. The Arab response since 1920 has been a complete rejection of Jewish presence and rights.
Perhaps now is the time to not reply “in-kind” and refuse to allow evil actors to dictate the relationship between the groups.
Perhaps it is the moment for Jews to liberate themselves from antisemitism that has plagued them for centuries by being more assertive in claiming their basic human rights, which are being denied both by Arabs and the United Nations:
Declare United Nations Security Council Resolution 2334 which made it illegal for Jews – and only Jews – to live in Judaism’s holiest city of the Old City of Jerusalem, a flagrant antisemitic edict, inherently illegal, and null and void as it denies Jews basic human rights
Declare that the Jordanian Waqf no longer can demand that Jews – and only Jews – cannot pray at Judaism’s holiest location on the Jewish Temple Mount, as it is a flagrant violation of Jews basic human rights
Antisemitic anti-Zionist groups are calling for violence to ethnically cleanse Jews from their holy land – as Palestinian Arabs have done for a century – and to come after Jews and Zionists globally. In reply, Jews and Zionists should stand tall and demand “by human rights means only”, demand basic civility to live freely anywhere and everywhere, and to pray openly at their holiest location.
Some pro-Palestinian protestors have attempted to market their chants for “Free Palestine” as a call for everyone to live in peace, security and dignity. They claim that they harbor no antisemitic feelings and just want a civil society for everyone.
So here are three questions to test their assertion:
Are they in favor of Jews living throughout the land, including eastern Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza? If Arabs can live everywhere “from the river to the the sea”, a call for mutual humanity would demand that Jews have those same rights. Are they in favor of abolishing United Nations Security Council Resolution 2334 in a one-state scenario?
Are they in favor of open Jewish prayer on the Temple Mount? Millions of Muslims get to visit the al Aqsa Compound every year but Jewish visitation is limited. Worse, Jews are not allowed to pray at their holiest site, a glaring denial of their basic human rights. Are they in favor of allowing millions of Jews onto the Temple Mount and to openly pray at their holiest site?
Are they in favor of turning the Dome of the Rock into a Jewish Temple? Muslims have a holy shrine on the al Aqsa Compound – the al Aqsa Mosque. In an effort to achieve common dignity and humanity, Jews should build their Third Holy Temple nearly, at the site of the Dome of The Rock which sits on the location of the prior Jewish temples. Are they in favor of a new Jewish Temple on the Jewish Temple Mount?
If people calling to “Free Palestine” support the rights of Jews to live everywhere, to ascend en masse to the Temple Mount and pray openly at a newly built third Jewish Temple, I concede that they are not antisemitic and can join them in their chant. However, if they deny Jews common rights and dignities in the Jewish holy land, they are revealed as Muslim supremacists out to destroy the only Jewish State.
The Israeli government once again allowed tens of thousand of Muslim Arabs onto the Jewish Temple Mount / al Aqsa Compound during Friday prayers of Ramadan on April 5, 2024. The reported 65,000 Muslims who came to pray dwarfed the 50,000 Jews who visited the site OVER THE ENTIRE YEAR OF 2023, none of whom were allowed to pray at Judaism’s holiest site.
Despite Israel allowing access for tens of thousands of Muslims to pray at the site, eight people were arrested on charges of inciting terrorism to the crowd. According to sources, Arabs were shouting “In spirit and blood we will redeem you al-Aqsa.”
The Israeli police were out in force as many Muslims declared the last Friday of Ramadan to be “International Al Quds Day.”
The police noted that the Arab Muslims were all residents of Israel in a statement which said “these vile instigators and supporters of terrorism are residents of the State of Israel who take advantage of a religious occasion and use a holy place of prayer for incitement and support for terrorism and terrorists.”
Despite the problem arising from ISRAELI Arabs, the Palestinian Authority and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) weighed in.
According to the official PA news site Wafa, the OIC condemned Israel for the situation. OIC claimed that thousands of Muslims were prevented from visiting the site and decried the arrest of worshippers. Wafa added that the OIC “slammed such restrictions and assault as a flagrant violation of international laws and norms and called upon the international community to oblige Israel, the occupying power, to halt all recurrent violations of the freedom of worship and desecration of the holy sites while stressing the need to preserve the longstanding historical and legal status at the mosque.”
The statement is a farce on so many levels.
Firstly, “the need to preserve the longstanding historical and legal status quo” of banning Jewish prayer at Judaism’s holiest site while also demanding “freedom of worship” are in direct conflict. At least, as it relates to Jews.
Secondly, Israel allowed more Muslims to the site on a single morning than all Jews have been able to visit their holiest site during the entire year. Still, the OIC lambasted Israel preventing some Muslim radicals from visiting the site and inciting violence. Freedom to visit and pray must be limited to those who don’t advocate violence, and that includes banning agitators and facilitating the entry of tens of thousands of peaceful Jews onto the holy platform.
Third, the arrests were of Israeli Arabs, not Palestinians. Why did the PA issue statements about an internal matter? Is it because it not only believes that Israel has no rights in Jerusalem and the Temple Mount despite it agreeing to such in the Oslo Accords, but also believes that there are no such things as Israeli Arabs because Israel is illegitimate?
As Jews celebrate Passover, one of the three central holidays in Judaism in which Jews are called to visit the Temple Mount in the Old City of Jerusalem, one cannot find a single article about Jews visiting their holiest site. The media lockdown is meant to keep tensions down as Israel continues to prosecute its defensive war against the political-terrorist group Hamas.
During Ramadan, Israel allows hundreds of thousands of Muslims onto the Temple Mount for prayers, some who shouted about killing Jews in an attempt to start a global jihad. On Passover, an unknown (but certainly very small) contingent of Jews visit the site and no one hears a single thing lest Muslims become angered.
Such is Islamic privilege: the ability for massive Muslim pilgrimage to the Temple Mount complete with antisemitic chants, while a paltry number of Jews silently visit the site, lest Muslims become upset. There is no equality or dignity for Jews, as made abundantly clear over Ramadan and Passover 2024.
People debate the meaning of the phrase “From the River to the Sea, Palestine Will Be Free.” Many believe it to be a genocidal chant to destroy the Jewish State of Israel and kill the Jews living there, echoing the stated intentions of the political-terrorist group Hamas. Others have said that it is simply a call for all people to live in the area to be free, in a democratic binational state (although neither Israelis nor Palestinian Arabs want such outcome according to polls).
Perhaps an easy way to decipher whether people yelling “Free Palestine” are pro-Hamas or pro-Palestinian is to ask their opinion about whether all people should have dignity and rights in the land. Specifically, do they support Jews being able to pray openly in mass at their holiest site of the Jewish Temple Mount in the Old City of Jerusalem? Would they further support rebuilding a Jewish Temple on the site?
Currently, Jews are denied the basic human right to pray at their holiest site because radical Islamists like Hamas demand that the site be a purely Islamic site. If the chanters want to disassociate themselves from the genocidal charter, and advocate for mutual dignity and rights, they should add another chant “All over the Temple Mount, Jewish prayer will abound!”
Failure to actively support full Jewish rights throughout the Old City of Jerusalem and especially on the Temple Mount, marks the chanters of “Free Palestine” as backers of a U.S.-designated foreign terrorist organization and supporting the destruction of an ally. Those people should face the full ramifications of supporting such genocidal killers.
The first Friday or Ramadan came to Jerusalem amidst the 2023-4 Hamas War from Gaza. The jihadi-political party which leads the Palestinian army called upon Palestinians to confront Israel and come to the al Aqsa Mosque by the thousands.
Wafa, the official news agency of the Palestinian Authority took the other side of the jihadi extremist coin, and blamed Israel for blocking Muslims from visiting their holy site:
“Israeli occupation forces barred thousands of Palestinian Muslim worshippers from reaching the Al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied Jerusalem this morning to perform the first Friday prayer of the holy month of Ramadan.
“Eyewitnesses reported a significant deployment of Israeli troops around the Qalandiya checkpoint to the north of Jerusalem, the Zeitoun checkpoint to its east, and Bethlehem to its south. Thousands of worshippers were turned back and denied access to the city under the pretext of not having the necessary permits.
“The occupation forces also deployed thousands of police officers in the alleys of the Old City of Jerusalem, around the Al-Aqsa Mosque, and at its gates to restrict the entry of worshipers.
“This action follows the installation yesterday of iron barriers at the gates of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, specifically at the gates of King Faisal, Al-Ghawanmeh, and Al-Hadid, in an attempt to exert more control over the entry of worshippers and to restrict access and freedom of worship in the holy site.
“Of note, the occupation authorities have already been imposing strict restrictions on entry of worshipers to the Old City of Jerusalem and the Al-Aqsa Mosque since the outbreak of the ongoing Israeli aggression on the Palestinian people in early October of last year.
“Al-Aqsa Mosque is the third holiest place of worship for Muslims around the world after Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia. It has been under Israeli military occupation since 1967.”
This is a miseducation and misdirection of the public in the extreme. It is Jews who suffer from restricted access to their holiest site in Judaism.
In the entirety of 2023, only 50,000 Jews got to visit the Jewish Temple Mount. That compares to over 1 million Muslims who came to the site over the single month of Ramadan.
The United Nations supports this discrimination against Jews at the Temple Mount. Tor Wennesland, the UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, this week called “for the status quo at the holy sites in Jerusalem to be upheld and respected,” meaning barring Jews from praying at their holiest site.
Jews are being banned from visiting their holiest site per the demands of Hamas and the Palestinian Authority which consider any Jew visiting Judaism’s most sacred location to be a form of “provocation.” More Muslims get to visit the al Aqsa/ Temple Mount Compound on a single day of Ramadan than Jews over an entire year.
Yet the press inverts the story that it is Muslims who are “enduring” restrictions when in fact it is the Jews who face UN-endorsed discrimination.
Wafa, the Palestinian Authority’s official state-run news agency, has once again tried to incite 1.8 billion Muslims to fight Jews and the Jewish State.
The Temple Mount has regular visiting hours and Jews have always used it to visit their holiest site. That angers Jordanian and Palestinian Arabs that Jews claim to have rights to the location which Arabs falsely assert is a purely Islamic holy place.
The Wafa article was horrific from its headline to its last sentence:
“JERUSALEM, Wednesday, October 25, 2023 (WAFA) – Dozens of Israeli settlers Wednesday morning stormed the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in occupied Jerusalem, under protection from Israeli occupation police, according to local sources.
Witnesses said scores of settlers entered the Al-Aqsa Mosque in separate groups, where they conducted provocative tours through the courtyards of the mosque, received explanations about the alleged “Jewish Temple,” and performed Talmudic rituals near the Dome of the Rock.
This latest incident adds to the ongoing tensions surrounding Al-Aqsa Mosque, the third most revered site in Islam. The entry of settlers into the compound, backed by Israeli security forces, is often met with condemnation from Palestinian officials and religious authorities.
The Islamic Waqf, the Jordan-run authority in charge of the holy site, has repeatedly called for international intervention to prevent these incursions, which are seen as a direct challenge to the status quo of the holy site and an affront to the sentiments of Muslims worldwide.
Since 2003, the Israeli occupation authorities have been allowing Israeli Jewish settlers into the compound almost on a daily basis, with the exclusion of Friday, the Muslim day of rest and worship.
Israel captured East Jerusalem, where Al-Aqsa Mosque is located, during the Six-Day War in 1967 in a move never recognized by the international community.
Al-Aqsa Mosque is subjected to almost daily incursions by Israeli settlers, except on Saturday and Sunday, which are done under the heavy guard of the Israeli police in an attempt to divide the mosque spatially and temporally between Muslims and Jews.“
Jews visit their holiest location during regular visiting hours and need protection of police to keep Muslims at the site from attacking them. Jews go because it is the location of two Jewish Temples and the physical center of Judaism. The fact that Muslims get upset does not make it a “provocation” but goes to the antisemitism of those Muslims.
The Palestinian Authority is attempting to get 1.8 billion Muslims riled up against Jews at this most dangerous time. It must be condemned clearly and quickly and forced to stop promoting lies and incitement.
ACTION ITEM
Email White House “Get the Palestinian Authority to stop claiming that Jews are desecrating the Al Aqsa Mosque in an attempt to incite 1.8 billion Muslims around the world to attack Jews.
Throughout 2023, Arab media has promoted fake news that Jews are taking over the third holiest site in Islam, the al Aqsa Mosque. They are doing it to incite 1.8 billion Muslims around the world to call for a jihad against the Jews and to destroy Israel.
And it’s a total fiction that is not repudiated by any media and government, even knowing that it is not just false but designed to set the Middle East on fire.
The incitement happens in regular media as well as social media.
Wafa, the official media of the Palestinian Authority wrote on September 10 that “Dozens of settlers break into Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque.” It claimed that the Jews “conducted provocative tours through the courtyards of the mosque, received explanations about the alleged ‘Jewish Temple,’ and performed Talmudic rituals near the Dome of the Rock.” As seen in pictures, all the Jews did was walk around the site during normal visiting hours.
WAFA article with fake news to deliberately incite the Muslim world against Jews
It is part of a string of highly charged lies repeated around the Arab and Muslim world.
The list goes on, falsely stating that Jews walking around the Temple Mount were in any way entering, let alone harming, the Al Aqsa Mosque.
Social media did much the same over the summer, showing Jews – many of them elderly – walking around the courtyard. However, the text to its readership was “Israeli settlers raided Al-Aqsa” and “Colonial Israeli settlers break into Jerusalem’s Al Aqsa courtyards.”
There are many highly visible examples of Muslim and Arab media and governments deliberately lying to the masses to stoke a religious holy war against the Jews and Jewish State. Yet the United Nations, U.S. government, mainstream and social media companies have never said a word to stop the hateful propaganda which has cost thousands of lives.
ACTION ITEM
Write White House “Demand that Arab and Muslim governments and media stop inciting hatred by falsely claiming that Jews are storming Al Aqsa when they are simply visiting their holiest site.”
The antisemites of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan continued their evil ways in condemning Jews visiting their holiest location on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, even during the Jewish pilgrimage holiday of Sukkot. The Jordanian foreign minister “denounced the continuous break-ins by Israeli settlers [meaning Jews] at Al Aqsa Mosque” and “that the 144-dunum Al Aqsa Mosque is solely an Islamic holy site” and is completely off-limits to Jews.
This false narrative was inserted by Muslim and Arab nations into the United Nations which has subsequently used it for decades.
United Nations map showing the 1949 Armistice Lines between Israel and Jordan through Jerusalem and highlighting the “principal holy places”
As seen in the United Nations’ map above, the The Temple Mount (in red dotted lines) is not marked correctly as a Jewish holy site. The “Haram esh-Sharif (Mosque of Omar and Mosque of Aksa” is only listed as a Moslem holy place, a deliberate insult to global Jewry.
The United States has sometimes taken offense at the erasure of Jewish heritage in Jerusalem. In response to a United Nations vote on Jerusalem in December 2021, Ambassador Richard Erdman, Area Advisor for Near Eastern Affairs issued a statement: “I want to highlight one specific issue of serious concern, which is the reference to the holy sites in the Jerusalem text. The text only references “Haram al-Sharif,” rather than “Haram al-Sharif/Temple Mount,” which is agreed terminology that recognizes the shared and diverse history of the holy site. The omission of this inclusive terminology is of real and sincere concern. It is morally, historically, and politically wrong for the members of this body to support language that denies both the Jewish and Muslim connections to the Temple Mount and Haram al-Sharif.“
Yet despite condemning the lack of LANGUAGE showing Jewish connection to the Temple Mount, the United States supports antisemitic ACTIONS against Jews praying at their holiest site.
On September 28, 2023, Linda Thomas-Greenfield said “I also want to reiterate that the United States firmly supports the preservation of the historic status quo with respect to the holy sites in Jerusalem [banning Jewish prayer on the Temple Mount]. And we oppose actions that depart from the historic status quo, or otherwise disturb the sanctity of these sites. Such action is unacceptable.”
It is a disgrace that the United States can acknowledge the centrality of the Temple Mount to Jews and Judaism, while simultaneously supporting banning Jews from praying at the site. The United States is aligning with antisemites on the wrong side of history, supporting outright discrimination in a Muslim religious war against Jews.
Why is the Biden Administration so determined to spread anger, division and hate? Why is it supporting policies in which Jews are targeted for attack at their holy site? To gain support against the Iranian nuclear weapons program or lowering the price of gas a few cents?
It is past time for decent governments to support an honest telling of history and abolish the inequity Jews continue to face in Jerusalem.
ACTION ITEM
EMail Senator Gillibrand “It is a disgrace that the US can acknowledge the centrality of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem for Jews yet support banning Jewish prayer at their holiest site.”
It is a disgrace that the US can acknowledge the centrality of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem for jews yet support banning Jewish prayer at their holiest site.
For many years, Palestinian Arab leaders warned Israel against dividing the Jewish Temple Mount in Jerusalem in time and place. That reality may be coming closer.
The Old City of Jerusalem including the Jewish Temple Mount/ Al Aqsa Compound
For centuries, Muslims had prevented Jews from going to their holy places in the Jewish holy land. In both Hebron and Jerusalem, Muslims declared that Jewish holy sites were purely Islamic and denied Jews any rights. That changed after the neighboring Arab states conspired to destroy Israel in June 1967 but lost control of those two holy cities which Jordan had illegally annexed in 1950.
After the 1967 war, Jews were finally able to go into the Cave of the Jewish Matriarchs and Patriarchs, which Muslims call the Ibrahimi Mosque. Israel made the site available to both Jews and Muslims, and in June 2023, opened an elevator to facilitate visitation by handicapped persons in a broad effort of inclusivity.
While Israel took over the Old City of Jerusalem in the same June 1967 Six Day War, it handled the situation very differently, giving administrative control of the Jewish Temple Mount/ Al Aqsa Mosque Compound to the Jordanian Waqf, while Israel maintained security control. Even after eastern Jerusalem, including the site, was officially annexed as part of Israel, the Waqf continued to forbid Jews from praying at their holiest location, even as they allow a small number of Jewish visitors.
In October 2014, a Palestinian attempted to assassinate Rabbi Yehuda Glick because he advocated for peace and equal rights for both Jewish and Muslim prayer on the Temple Mount. In response, Mahmoud Abbas, President of the Palestinian Authority declared “Israel’s leaders are making a big mistake if they think they can turn back history, to impose a reality, and to divide the al-Aqsa Mosque [into separate prayers times and areas] as they divided the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron.”
Rabbi Glick survived the four bullets, and was nominated to the Israeli Knesset in 2016, continuing to advocate for Jewish rights on the Temple Mount. His efforts resulted in few practical changes, however, the number of Jewish visitors to the holy site has steadily increased since that time.
For his part, Mahmoud Abbas continues to warn Israeli leaders about Jewish prayer and dividing the Temple Mount. In April 2022, Jordanian politicians joined in condemning then-Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennet’s non-controversial comments that Jews, Christians and Muslims should all be free to celebrate their holidays (Passover, Easter and Ramadan), which Arab leaders viewed as a precursor to dividing the Temple Mount.
The back-and-forth continues.
In early June 2023, Amit Halevi, a member of Knesset from Likud, put forward an official proposal to divide the religious site between Jews and Muslims, calling for the southern 30% of the compound – which includes the al Aqsa Mosque – to be for Muslims, and the northern 70% – which includes the Dome of the Rock where the Jewish Temples stood – to be for Jews. The political-terrorist group Hamas declared that such proposal was part of an “Israeli religious war launched by the fascist Israeli government… [and] the Al-Aqsa mosque will remain an exclusively Muslim holy site and the Palestinian people will continue to defend the mosque against Israeli partition and Judaization schemes.” Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammed Shtayyeh voiced concerns about the “order to impose temporal and spatial division in the blessed al Aqsa Mosque. We warn the occupation authorities against taking such a step that would have unpredictable results.”
Most of the media ignored the story, presumably because Halevi is a low level MK without portfolio, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly said that he will uphold the Waqf’s antisemitic “status quo” banning Jewish prayer at the site.
The event may be unreported, but the situation will not remain ignored.
There are competing natural desires which have long brewed in the holy land: for Palestinian Arabs to return into the land of Israel to towns where grandparents had lived; for Jews to pray openly and frequently at their holiest site on the Temple Mount; and to live throughout the area. For years, the United States attempted to keep a lid on those aspirations until President Obama reversed precedent, nodding to Arab migration into Israel (2012), while making it illegal according to international law for Jews to move to the eastern parts of Jerusalem and the holy land (2016), and maintaining the ban on Jewish prayer on the Temple Mount.
The “status quo” is not a ban on Jews praying on the Temple Mount but of competing points of tension. The large holes in the holy land dam are readily apparent to everyone. One can ignore them and wait for the fissures to crack open unpredictably, or facilitate the spillway, with some Jews praying openly and discretely at their holiest site.
First One Through 