1. We need to publicize the idea that Jewish control of Israel’s holiest site, the Temple Mount—on which stood the Beit HaMikdash and the Great Sanhedrin—is the key to uncontested Jewish control of Jerusalem and the restoration of Jewish national honor. Once Jews maintain unequivocal control of the Temple Mount, the United States and other nations will move their embassies to Jerusalem.
2. Conversely, so long as Arabs control the Temple Mount, gentile nations will despise Israel and kowtow to the Arabs. Arab control of the Temple Mount not only exposes Jewish weakness, but increases Arab arrogance and even incites Arab violence.
3. Jewish control of the Temple Mount is a precondition of making Israel more Jewish, and the more Israel becomes more Jewish, the more readily will Israel’s Arab citizens leave the country. To hasten their departure, we must restore absolute Jewish control over the Har HaBayit.
4. The Moslem Wakf has long been violating the Law of Antiquities and the Law of Planning. The Arabs are erasing all historical evidence of Jewish presence on the Temple Mount. The government knows this and has cravenly said they have no intention of interfering.
5. In the Oslo Agreement, Shimon Peres not only agreed, secretly, to surrender Jerusalem to Arab sovereignty, but stated publicly on May 4, 1995 that he accepts the UN 1947 partition lines as Israel’s legitimate borders, which borders exclude Jerusalem! It’s important to emphasize this astonishing fact in order to arouse public indignation against the Left and to gain public support for absolute Jewish control of the Temple Mount.
6. To strengthen our position on the Temple Mount, we should circulate Attorney Howard Grief’s “A Legal Discourse on Occupation,” which clarifies and affirms Israel’s sovereignty over all of Eretz Yisrael.
7. The Temple Mount is the key to the world-historical function of the Jewish people prescribed in the Bible of Israel. Here I shall quote various passages from Joshua Berman’s book, The Temple.
8. The Temple, he writes, represents “the spiritual center of the country. Here, at the site where G‑d’s presence is most immanent, [where] the representatives of the Jewish people execute commandments and rites that symbolize the service of the nation as a whole.”
9. It should be noted that just as Adam was expelled from the Garden of Eden for failing to obey G‑d’s commandments, so the Jewish people were expelled from the land of Israel for the same failing.
10. Notice that the Garden of Eden “heralds the capacity of all men to enter into communion with the Almighty, for all men are descendants of Adam.” (This is why any non-Jew can convert to Judaism.) Also, any non-Jew, so long as he adheres to the Seven Noahide Laws of Universal Morality, can bring certain “sacrifices” to the Temple. But this is only a minute part of the picture.
11. G‑d refers to the central shrine as “the place I shall select to establish My Name.” This alludes to the Temple. The purpose of the Temple—“a house for G‑d’s Name”— symbolizes “a public declaration of G‑d’s sovereignty. The ambition of declaring G‑d’s sovereignty in the world, which was initiated by Abraham, is the calling of the Jewish people.”
12. Berman goes on to say: “G‑d’s acclaim in the world is a direct function of how Israel is perceived [by the nations].” Israel must become a great country. “A great country should possess political stability at home and should be at peace with its neighbors. It should possess a strong economy and should be home to a culture that boasts strong [moral and intellectual] virtues.” Israel did not become such a nation until the reign of King David, and it was left to his son Solomon to build the (first) Temple. All nations then flocked to Jerusalem, which was recognized not only as the City of Peace but the City of Truth.
13. “The function of the Temple as a symbol for G‑d’s acclaim in the world reaches its apex with the visit of the queen of Sheba to Solomon’s court”—Solomon, the wisest of kings. Ponder, therefore, these verses of Isaiah 2:1-3:
“And many nations will go and cry, ‘Let us go up the to mountain of G‑d’s house, to the house of the L-rd of Jacob, and we will learn from His ways and walk in His paths, for out of Zion goes forth the Torah and the word of G‑d from Jerusalem.’”
14. Now I want to quote from Rabbi Chaim Richman’s essay, “A Third Jewish Temple” (May 18, 2000). Rabbi Richman says: “People assume those who are interested in the Temple are radical elements opposed to peace.” Alluding to the era of King Solomon, Rabbi Richman points out that the Temple Mount is or was
“the hallmark of the greatest era known to man…. This place has been sanctified by G‑d from the beginning of time…. The foundation stone underneath the Dome of the Rock was the center of the universe. Here Jacob laid his head. Here Abraham tried to sacrifice Isaac. The heart of the Garden of Eden is here. Adam’s altar was located here. … Of the 613 commandments in the Torah, 113 of them depend on the existence of a Jewish Temple. We have not received a cancellation order for any of the commandments issued at Mount Sinai.”
15.“To this day, Jews do not walk on the site because the Holy of Holies, the Temple’s inner sanctum was there. Only the high priest was allowed inside and the profane were not allowed near it. Because no one is sure where the Holy of Holies was located, Jewish law bans the faithful from the area lest anyone [contaminate this sacred ground].”
16. “As for Christians, they believe the entire area was much loved by Jesus, who frequented its precincts 2,000 years ago. The New Testament (Matthew 24:15) suggests a third temple must be in place before the Second Coming…. The official Israeli government policy is: No future temple is in the offing.”
17. We must change this attitude. Public opinion must be educated about the Temple Mount, about its significance in Judaism. The government should prepare the legal grounds for its construction. Of course, the present government will not do this. It is dominated by nominal Jews, more precisely, multiculturalists.
18. The government—and I don’t mean only the Olmert government—does not really represent the Jewish people. At least 25% of Israel’s Jewish population is religious, and at least 50% is traditional. The trouble is that Israel’s ruling elites discriminate against this Jewish population. What enables them to do this despite democratic elections?
19. Israelis are compelled to vote for fixed party lists, contrary to the practice of all countries classified as democracies by Freedom House. As a consequence, members of the Knesset, including those who become cabinet ministers, are not individually accountable to the voters in constituency elections. The Knesset as well as the government can therefore ignore Jewish public opinion with impunity.
20. Unless we change Israel’s system of governance, it’s futile to urge the government even to restore Jewish sovereignty over the Temple Mount let alone prepare the legal grounds for building the Third Temple. Nominal Jews or multiculturalists like President Shimon Peres, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Foreign Minister Tsipi Livni, Defense Minister Ehud Barak, and Education Minister Yuli Tamir will remain in control of the fictitious Jewish State of Israel. And even if they were replaced by a government headed by the Likud, rest assured Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu, the orator with a silver tongue and clay feet will do nothing to hasten the construction of the Third Temple. We must groom a prime minister that can unite the Jewish people and then change the system of governance in such a way as to facilitate Jewish leadership. Only then will Israel be able to take the steps necessary to build the Third Temple, will ensure its own future as the G‑d-bearing nation.
