October 15, 2009

Dear Friend of Israel,

Last week's Sukkot holiday was the culmination of the Jewish high holiday season in Israel. Tens of thousands of Jews and non-Jews traveled to Israel to take part in the ancient pilgrimage festival. And yet, that's precisely when the U.S. government was issuing warnings to tourists to avoid Jerusalem's Old City, location of the Western Wall and countless other sites holy to Jews, Christians, and Muslims.

Leading up to the holidays, skirmishes had broken out on the Temple Mount, site of the ancient Jewish temples and now home to Islam's Al-Aksa Mosque. Described by Jewish tradition as God's dwelling place on earth, the Temple Mount has today become a pawn used by cynical Palestinian leaders—used not to draw us closer to the Divine, but to inflame passions and foment troubles. "Protestors"—as the media called the youths rioting on the Temple Mount and in neighborhoods close to it—were drawn there to "defend Al-Aksa." Prior to Yom Kippur, Muslim religious leaders had begun circulating false rumors that Jewish radicals in cahoots with the Israeli government planned on taking over the Mount. To illustrate just how unlikely an event that is, in response to the rumors, Israeli police announced that no Jews would be allowed to even visit the site: The Israeli police cut off access to the spot holiest in the world to Jews during a Jewish festival whose ancient call is—to visit the site. (Rumors also circulated that Israel is digging under the Mount in order to destabilize it.)

And that's not even noting that, when Israeli troops re-captured the spot in 1967—returning it to Jewish sovereignty for the first time in 2,000 years—the Israeli government turned around and handed the keys (and control) back over to the Islamic Waqf, the religious trust that controls many key holy sites.

You may remember that a visit by then-Opposition Leader Ariel Sharon to the Temple Mount is the oft-repeated "reason" for sparking the second intifada in 2000. An odd cause, considering that Sharon said that he went up on the Mount to check out whether there was "freedom of worship and free access" to the Temple Mount for everyone, Christians, Muslims, and Jews.

That Israel has no intention of taking over the mosque—and has, in fact, bent over backwards to show respect to Muslim claims to the site—does not matter to Palestinian leadership, which has repeatedly shown its willingness to drum up violence among Israeli Muslims to put pressure on the Israeli government. To these Palestinians, the Temple Mount appears to have value that transcends its religious worth: It's a negotiating tool.

History shows that diplomatic moves by the Palestinian Authority are all too frequently accompanied by violence, threatened or actual—a two-handed approach to negotiating that makes clear to Israelis what fate lies in store for them should they refuse to accede to Palestinian demands.

Yasser Arafat's "al-Aksa intifada" was his response to the Camp David Accords not going his way; the first Israeli casualty occurred before Sharon even went up on the Mount! It's hard to miss that this latest round of violence began immediately after the U.S.-sponsored Washington summit during which U.S. President Barack Obama pressed for the formation of a Palestinian state. Far from a spontaneous expression of "outrage," the current unrest seems carefully calculated. It's sending a message to Israel: Give us what we want or face the terror, bloodshed, and economic devastation of a third Intifada.

It recalls the prophet's lament to God: "How completely you have deceived this people and Jerusalem by saying, 'You will have peace,' when the sword is at our throats." (Jeremiah 4:10)

In response to all this, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been neither publicly worrying nor saber-rattling. Instead, he reminded Arab-Israelis that they are full citizens of Israel, called on them not to believe the provocations, and assured them that the government is working to redress inequalities that affect them (The Fellowship sponsors many programs designed to strengthen the Arab sector, one of the most economically vulnerable in the Jewish state): "I want to tell the Arab citizens of Israel—those who want to lead normal lives—that you are a part of the State of Israel. The government is working to make certain that (Israeli Arabs) enjoy full equality in every field, be it education, economy, employment or infrastructure."

And then Netanyahu reiterated, in speeches marking the new Knesset session, that the real root cause of instability in the region is the continuing Arab denial of the Jewish state's right to exist.

Seeing a holy site used as an explosive pawn—turning it into a grenade, essentially—weighs down the heart of all people of goodwill. We must pray not only for the safety and security of Jerusalem, of all of Israel, and of all of the Jewish people, but we must pray that Palestinian leaders will cease harnessing holiness for such profanity, and will with an open heart and open hand truly seek peace with Israel.

Our worries can be quieted by the Biblical promise that Jerusalem will be one day redeemed and complete, out of the hands of those who would use its holiness against it: "Look upon Zion, the city of our festivals; your eyes will see Jerusalem, a peaceful abode, a tent that will not be moved; it stakes will never be pulled up, nor any of its ropes broken." (Isaiah 33:19-21)

With prayers for shalom, peace,