Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu could not have asked for more. Even as the eyes of the world are turned to the prime minister in anticipation of his order to evacuate the controversial land robbers (settlers) from the West Bank’s Amona outpost, UNESCO turns the spotlight onto the Jewish people’s holiest and most consensual site.
The organization’s Oct. 13 draft resolution regarding the holy sites in Jerusalem ignores the age-old Jewish affinity for the Temple Mount and the Western Wall. The venue and timing of the decision couldn’t have been better for Netanyahu. For many Jews, the Arab states and the Palestinians who proposed the UNESCO resolution may as well have denied the Holocaust. The Temple Mount and the Western Wall of the Jewish Temple are not simply venerated by God-fearing Jews, they are milestones in the history of every Jew, serving as the grounding of the Jewish collective.
