Temple madness

The destruction of the temple in Jerusalem by the Romans in 70AD is seared in Jewish memory and carved in marble on the Arch of Titus in Rome, which depicts legionnaires carrying off the temple menorah. Every day since then, Jews have prayed that the temple may soon be rebuilt. Foremost, this has been an abstract longing for a future perfection, to be realized when the Messiah appears. Until then, they have been content to pray at their traditional holy place, the Western (formerly Wailing) Wall, at the foot of the mount where the temple once stood.

For a growing band of zealots, however, this is not enough. Rabbis and activists have been preparing for the restoration of the temple and challenging the ban on Jew spraying on the esplanade on top of the mount, the Haram al-Sharif, site of two venerable Muslim shrines, the golden Dome of the Rockland the al-Aqsa mosque.

This would be esoteric if it were not so dangerous. A minority obsession with the temple is entering the mainstream and creating a vicious cycle. More temple activists, among them politicians and ministers are visiting the Haram to demand the right to pray. To some, this is the first step to sweeping away the mosques. In turn, Palestinian rioters vow to “defend al- Aqsa”, the third-holiest site in Islam. The attempted murder of a prominent temple activist, Yehuda Glick, on October 29th has redoubled calls for Jewish prayers and more restrictions on Muslims. As Palestinians adopt a new tactic of driving into Jewish pedestrians, there is talk of a new uprising, even of war.

The Israeli Prime Minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, has restated his commitment to the status quo. But his words came late and only after intense pressure from America and Jordan. His plea for responsibility is being ignored by prominent members of his ruling Likud party. Any responsible Israeli leadership must be resolute in halting Jewish agitation on the Haram.

Previous governments have understood the need for restraint. When Israel retook the Western Wall in the war of1967 and annexed East Jerusalem, it ensured that Muslims retained the exclusive right to pray; Jews and others could visit as tourists; the Israeli police would enforce order. The then defense minister, Moshe Dayan, thought the Jews should show tolerance. The chief rabbis said ritually impure Jews should stay out for fear that they might defile the temple’s Holy of Holies, its inner sanctum, whose precise spot was unknown.

That prohibition is being eroded. In the ever-contested ground of the Holy Land, prayer is not just an act of personal devotion: it implies ownership. Jews were allowed to pray at the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron, another contested city. But when a settler massacred Palestinians in 1994, the site was divided into Jewish and Muslim areas. Palestinians fear a similar cycle of provocation, violence and concession to Jewish radicals in Jerusalem.

The erosion of the status quo also looks like part of a broader policy of encroachment. Arab areas of Jerusalem are starved of resources, surrounded by Jewish housing blocks, sliced by security walls and roads, and, increasingly, disrupted by hardline Jews settling in clusters in their midst. They look around and see the world going their way: the Palestinians are weak and divided; Syria and Iraq are torn by civil war; jihadists are keener to kill Arabs than Israelis; Egypt is ruled bya friendly general who hates Islamists; Saudi Arabia is an ally against Iran; America’s Congress is supportive and Barack Obama will soon be a lame duck. Why compromise?

Such short-sightedness is dangerous. It pushes Palestinians to radicalism, feeds calls for European sanctions and strains frayed relations with the Obama administration. An explosion in Jerusalem risks turning friends against Israel, strengthening its foes and, worst of all, spilling a lot of Arab and Jewish blood. Indulging temple messianism can only bring disaster. Jerusalem’s holy sites must not be touched.

NOVEMBER 8TH-14TH 2014

Дата добавления: 2015-10-16