The PA was also impressed, in a manner of speaking, with the many Jews who showed their love and longing for the Temple by arriving at the holy site on the Fast of Gedaliah, the day after Rosh Hashanah. The aforementioned council denounced what it called the “invasion of the Al-Aqsa Mosque by extremists and settlers dressed as priests of the alleged Temple, and conducting Talmudic ceremonies in the mosque’s plazas…”
The council declared that via these violations, ” ‘Israel’ [quotation marks in the original] is trying to achieve its desired goal: To build the alleged Temple on the ruins of the Al-Aqsa Mosque.”
Last week, presidential candidate Mitt Romney said in his debate with President Obama, “Look, I have five boys, so I’m used to people who keep on saying something that isn’t quite true, hoping ultimately I will believe it.” In face of the constant PA attempts to falsify history, let it be stated unequivocally once again:
For over 3,300 years, ever since King David established his rule in Jerusalem, it has been the capital – sometimes political, always spiritual – of the Jewish people and never the capital of any other nation. After King Solomon built the holy Temple there, it stood for 410 years, was destroyed by the conquering Babylonians, and was rebuilt several decades later after the Jews returned from exile. This Second Temple stood for 420 years (some say 586), until it was sacked by the Roman Empire. Most of the Jews were then exiled, but never, throughout the ensuring centuries, ceased remembering in their daily prayers, and on many other occasions, their bonds with – and hopes and expectations to return to – their holy city. Today, 45 years after it returned to Jewish sovereignty, we declare loud and clear: Jerusalem will remain ours forever, as we strive toward the day when the city will regain its place as the spiritual center of the world.
Let us redouble our efforts to make sure that Jerusalem remains united, in word and deed, under Jewish-Israeli rule. To learn the facts via bus tours of critical parts of Jerusalem, or to receive updates on the battle to keep Yerushalayim, send an e-mail to [email protected] or visit the Keep Jerusalem-Im Eshkachech website at www.keepjerusalem.org.
Chaim Silberstein is president of Keep Jerusalem-Im Eshkachech and the Jerusalem Capital Development Fund. He was formerly a senior adviser to Israel’s minister of tourism. Hillel Fendel, past senior editor at Israel National News/Arutz-7, is a veteran writer on Jerusalem affairs. Both have lived in Jerusalem and now reside in Beit El.