Obama Edict To Israel: Temple Mount Off Limits To Christians And Jews. Bad News. Dome On Rock Should Be Demolished.

U.S.: NO CHRISTIANS, JEWS ON TEMPLE MOUNT

Exclusive: Joseph Farah calls Obama policy 'total capitulation to terrorists'

Published: 13 hours ago

 JOSEPH FARAH

Editor’s note: Joseph Farah is in Israel this week leading a tour of the Jewish state with best-selling author Jonathan Cahn.

JERUSALEM – It is apparently the official position of the U.S. State Department under Barack Obama that no Jews or Christians or other non-Muslims should be permitted access to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem for prayers.

Did you know that?

It hasn’t received very much attention from the media.

If you doubt me, here are the actual words of State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki last week regarding access to Israel’s most revered holy site: “We (that’s the U.S. government) support the long-standing practices regarding non-Muslim visitors to the site, to Haram al-Sharif/Temple Mount. And consistent with our respect for the status quo, we would like to see it returned to that.”

What does she mean by “long-standing practices”?

Actually, for several years, Israelis and tourists of all faiths have been permitted to visit the Temple Mount. I’m planning to lead some 300 Christian-American visitors there next week. I was there last year with a group of 400.

Last time I checked, the term “status quo” meant “the existing state or condition.” Therefore, I’m confused by the use of this term by the State Department. While it’s true that Jews, Christians and non-Muslims have, for periods of time, been forbidden by Israeli police to enter the Temple Mount, that has not been the norm for years.

What changed?

About a week ago, a Jewish Temple activist, rabbi and U.S. citizen, Yehuda Glick, was shot by a Muslim terrorist in a failed assassination attempt elsewhere in Jerusalem. The terrorist, a member of the Islamic Jihad organization, objected to, among other things, Glick’s advocacy of greater access for Jews to their most holy site.

In effect, the U.S. government’s official position is to change the Temple Mount “status quo” to reward the terrorist for shooting a Jewish rabbi, to give him and those he represents just what they want at the expense of law-abiding Jews, Christians and other non-Muslims. Make sense?

Israel captured the Temple Mount in the Six-Day War of 1967. Prior to that, it was under the administrative authority of Jordan. In an act of astonishing, jaw-dropping, shocking conciliation and misguided goodwill, Israeli political leadership permitted the local Islamic leaders to maintain administrative authority. In turn, of course, the Muslims prohibited all non-Muslims from access. On several occasions many years ago I was prohibited from going up to the Temple Mount by stone-throwing Islamic “holy men.”

But, in recent years, all that changed. Jews, Christians and other non-Muslims simply passed through an Israeli security checkpoint where they were warned not to pray and could visit what many believe to be the foundation of previous Jewish Temples dating back to the time of King Solomon. There have been few incidents on the site during those years in which Muslims mingled with non-Muslims.

Now, the State Department, which usually supports peaceful co-existence in the cause of soothing conflicts, wants Israel to prohibit Jews, Christians and non-Muslims from exercising religious freedom on the most revered holy site for Jews in the entire world – smack dab in the center of Israel’s capital.

One reporter at the State Department press conference asked Psaki: “You condemn the shooting of an American citizen who advocated for non-Muslim worshippers to be able to go, but you don’t support [his cause]?”

She responded: “Our position hasn’t changed on this issue. That’s true. … It doesn’t mean we don’t condemn, of course, the shooting.”

Israelis have attempted to accomplish several objectives by opening up the Temple Mount:

• Respect the religious rights of Jews and others to access the site;
• Maintain order among a diverse group of Muslims, Christians, Jews and other non-Muslims on a site revered by people from all over the world;
• Facilitate goodwill among all by allowing them equal access to a historic and spiritually significant site.

But the U.S. government disagrees. Barack Obama knows better, of course, than what’s in the best interests of Jews, Christians, Muslims and others in Israel’s own capital city. And that appears to be total capitulation to terrorists who kill Jews and Christians whenever and wherever they get the chance.