What's up with PM Netanyahu and the Temple Mount?Something odd, and even distrubing, seems to be going on up at the Temple Mount.
First, we were informed of a new agreement between the PA and Jordan awarding King Abdullah II a special custodianship for the Temple Mount (based on something from 1924).
In the past, in 2009, we had this:-
The Jordanian government on Sunday summoned Israel's envoy to Amman for rebuke over the recent tensions at the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. Ambassador Jacob Rosen was called in to Jordan's Foreign Ministry...the second time in a week that Jordan has called in an Israeli diplomat regarding the Temple Mount tensions. In its rebuke, Jordan called Israeli activities in East Jerusalem "illegal and illegitimate," adding that it represented a violation of Israel's commitments to peace.
Then, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu personally intervened to assure MK Moshe Feiglin cannot ascend to the Temple Mount.
In the meantime, Israel has no official comment on that agreement. Odd, since it seems to contradict the 1994 Peace Treaty.
Furthermore, Israel agrees to UNESCO interference in Jerusalem:
Israel has agreed to allow a mission from UNESCO to visit the Old City of Jerusalem next month...Israel announced Tuesday that it also has agreed to take part in a meeting in Paris of experts from the UN’s cultural body next month focused on the Mughrabi Bridge, a wooden walkway that leads to the Temple Mount. In turn, the Palestinians are to drop, for now, a debate on five resolutions condemning Israel’s occupation of the West Bank.
This is the same UNESCO that
... has accepted the Palestinian Authority as a state, claims Rachel’s Tomb and the Tomb of the Patriarchs [Me'arat Hamachpela, the Patriarch's Cave] are not exclusively Jewish sites and also belong to Christians and Muslims.
which caused Netanyahu to slam:
...world culture organization UNESCO's decision to characterize the site of Rachel's Tomb as a Muslim mosque. "The attempt to separate the nation of Israel from its cultural heritage is absurd," said the prime minister.
At this point, I seem to agree with her:-
What is going on here? What is developing behind-the-scenes? What secret diplomatic activity is happening?
Will there be a new "holy basin" plan?
Let's recall Netanyahu in January 2009:
Netanyahu: Obama Will Try to Internationalize Jerusalem Sites
Likud chairman MK Binyamin Netanyahu warns incoming US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will try to internationalize holy sites in Jerusalem. Likud party chairman and Knesset Opposition leader MK Binyamin Netanyahu warned at the Jerusalem Conference Wednesday that the Obama administration and leftist Israeli politicians will try to internationalize holy sites in Jerusalem -- and he vowed to fight the move.
Netanyahu told the audience, “Some politicians are trying to blur the importance of the Temple Mount to the Jewish People by referring to it as the ‘Holy Basin.’ We, as Jews, know who built the Temple Mount.”
The term “Holy Basin” refers to the area of the Temple Mount, the Mount of Olives, Mount Zion and a variety of Christian holy sites which the administration of former U.S. President Bill Clinton recommended be administered under a “special regime.”
This raises the issue of who would administer the Temple Mount, since at present the Wakf Islamic Authority controls the site, albeit under Israeli sovereignty. Moreover, the Arab neighborhoods surrounding the Temple Mount, home to tens of thousands of Israeli Arab residents, are also a part of greater Jerusalem, and thereby fall into the same discussion.
So, who now is being, perhaps, lax in the guardianship of united Jerusalem and the Temple Mount?
http://blogs.jpost.com/content/whats-pm-netanyahu-and-temple-mount
