Netanyahu government threatens Temple Mount
Members of Benjamin Netanyahu's government are using the Temple Mount for political purposes, advocating the return of the Jewish people to the holy site at the risk of damaging the fragile status quo.
A major event occurred in Israel this past weekend: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a special announcement on Nov. 1 calling on all Knesset members “to work to calm the situation on the issue of the Temple Mount and show responsibility and restraint.” The statement also said that Netanyahu had talked to Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein and asked him to ''work with the Knesset members on the issue.''
Indeed, this is a tremendously important move in the days following the assassination attempt on Temple Mount activist Yehuda Glick in Jerusalem. Netanyahu did well in asking Edelstein to restrain politicians who use the Temple Mount to grab another headline and satisfy another Likud Party central committee member on the backs of residents whose city is in flames. Unfortunately, Netanyahu addressed the issue only after a Palestinian terrorist shot a Jew, thus signaling the start of a new hate and incitement wave. As these words are being written, Netanyahu has yet to ''work on the issue'' with his own Cabinet member, Housing Minister Uri Ariel. Ariel has made a public commitment that the status quo of the Temple Mount would change.
It would be interesting to know how the conversation went between Edelstein and his Likud faction colleague Moshe Feiglin, the serial Temple Mount worshiper. What did Edelstein tell coalition Chairman Yariv Levin, who has said that when Jews prayed for a return to Zion, they probably did not dream of a return to the Knesset building or the prime minister’s office, but to the Temple Mount? How did the conversation go with Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee Chairman Ze'ev Elkin, who stated two years ago that without the Temple Mount “our national freedom is not complete.” And did Edelstein implore Deputy Transportation Minister Tzipi Hotovely to recant her proposal for erecting a temple on the Temple Mount “as a symbol of the people of Israel’s renewed sovereignty over their land”?
Of special interest is what Edelstein has to say today about what he himself wrote about the Temple Mount in February 2012, when he served as minister of public diplomacy and diaspora affairs: “My job is to deal with the day-to-day process, which connects and builds the people of Israel, leading to the Temple [Mount].” And indeed, in the current Knesset, the Temple Mount has become an almost daily issue for debate.
