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For three decades,
Gershon Solomon, a militant Israeli who heads an organization
dedicated to the
destruction of Jerusalem's most holy Islamic shrine, has led
Zionist
zealots in armed
assaults on the Muslim grounds of Haram al-Sharif, or Noble
Sanctuary,
that encloses both the
Dome of the Rock and Al Aqsa mosque. No Israeli political leader
has spoken out against
the assaults on the Mosque, holy to a billion Muslims around the
world. Moreover, no
Israeli rabbi has condemned them. Indeed, beginning in 1967, many
of the assaults were led
by Jewish rabbis.
I first heard about the
Israeli militants' intent to destroy the mosque in 1979 when I went
to
Jerusalem. I talked at
length with Bobby Brown, a third-generation American from Brooklyn,
flying to the Jewish
state and instantly became a new citizen, confiscated land from
Palestinians to help
build an illegal Jewish settlement. "The mosque," he told me, "has
got
to go. It is a blot in
our land."
Militant Jews such as Brown and Solomon want a Jerusalem that is
pure Jewish - without
evidence of inhabitants
of the other monotheistic faiths and their shrines. Surprisingly,
millions of U.S.
evangelical Christians endorse and financially support this Jewish
plan.
Although united in the
immediate goal of destroying the mosque, the Israeli militants and
Christian zealots have
different long-range agendas.
Secular Jews, such as Stanley Goldfoot, one of the perpetrators of
the dynamiting in 1946
of the King David Hotel
which killed some 100 Christian, Muslim and Jewish civilians, want
the mosque destroyed for
political reasons. Other Jews believe that the building of the
temple on the Muslim
grounds will usher in the Jewish Messiah. A growing number of
Christians embrace the
idea that in all history, Israel is on the center stage. They say
God
has planned epochs of
time ("dispensations") such as the "in-gathering of the Jews in the
ancient land of Canaan.
One epoch, they say, includes the present time when Jews are
obligated to build a
Jewish temple and re-institute animal sacrifice, Such epochs or
"dispensations" are
necessary, they say before Christ can return.
Ironically, while Christian dispensationalists place Israel as the
most important nation in
all the world, they do
respect or even like Jews- as Jews. Yet, because they believe
Christ
can only land in a
"safe" area near Jerusalem, they make a cult of the land. They thus
give
total, unquestioned
support to Israel.
Goldfoot and Solomon are
welcome in countless U.S. pulpits, where Christian Zionists
give generous donations
of money, as well as their gold wedding rings and gold earrings
to finance the mosque's
destruction. They know its destruction might well trigger wars
culminating in
Armageddon, but they welcome this. They push Armageddon along,
saying
they, as "Born Again
Christians," will be spared any suffering, because they will be
"Raptured," wafted up
into heaven to view the slaughter below.
"I am not worried,"
Lynchburg, Virginia televangelist Jerry Falwell shouts. "You know
why?
I ain't gonna be here!"
This dispensationalist doctrine, less then 200 years old, pervades
Assemblies Of God,
Pentecostal and other charismatic churches, as well as the 16
million-member Southern
Baptist Convention and countless so-called Bible churches
and mega-churches.
It's estimated that at least one out of every 10 Americans is a
devotee of this cult. In both
Israel and the U.S., a
conspiracy of silence reigns as militants lay siege to the Jerusalem
mosque. No political
leader - or religious leader- in Israel or the U.S. has addressed
this
issue. In the case of
Israeli rabbis, if they themselves have not aided and abetted
planned
assaults on the mosque,
they have kept silent. In the case of all major U.S. Christian
church
leaders - the voices
that are heard throughout the land- if they themselves are not
raising
money to destroy the
mosque, they keep silent about the conspiracy.
"I don't favour it," one
Christian told me. "But if it happens" - the destruction of the
mosque-"it doesn't mean
I won't support." There are two groups in particular dedicated to
the destruction of
Jerusalem's most sacred Islamic shrine:
(1) The Militant Bloc of the Faithful or Gush
Emunim, led by rabbis such as Moshe
Levinger; Ateret
Cohanim, a Jewish yeshiva composed of militant Jewish students and
their rabbis.
(2) Fundamentalist, militant Christians, who
also want the mosque destroyed, give
support and financial
aid to both of these Israeli organizations, as do wealthy American
Jews.
Beginning in 1967, when Israel militarily seized Arab East
Jerusalem, Jewish terrorists on
more than 100 occasions
have laid siege to the Muslim Mosque. Here are a few of the
assaults: August 1967 -
Chief Chaplain of the Armed Forces Shlomo Goren - later Israel's
chief rabbi - leads 50
armed extremists onto Haram al-Sharif. "It is a holy commandment,"
Goren said, for Jews to
go to the Muslim grounds, which Jews call the Temple Mount."
Writing in an Israeli publication, Eti Ronel reports: "Many rabbis,
including members of the
Council of the Chief
Rabbinate, support Jewish sovereignty" over Haram al-Sharif.
August 21, 1969 - Jewish extremists set fire to Al
Aqsa, destroying a priceless wood and
ivory pulpit sent from
Aleppo by the Muslim ruler Saladin. The arson prompts the United
Nations Security Council
to condemn Israel's failure to curb terrorist attacks on Islam's
shrine. Four months
later (19/12/69) a group of militant Jews storm their way to Haram
al-Sahrif, in order,
they claim, "conduct Hanukkah prayers."
March 3, 1971 - Gershon Solomon leads Temple Mount
Faithful followers onto Haram
al-Sharif. After
struggling with Palestinian guards, they are expelled. Three years
later
(3/3/74) Solomon again,
with followers, storms the Mosque. Again (14/7/78) Solomon
leads militant Jews onto
the Islamic holy grounds. Palestinians stage protests. Israeli
troops
hurl tear gas to quell
the rioting.
August 10, 1980 - Three hundred Gush Emunim
fanatics, heavily armed, overcome
Palestinian police and
storm the grounds, but are later dispersed. A month later (15/9/80)
armed Gush Emunim
settlers associated with Stanley Goldfoot and the Temple Mount
Faithful again force
their way onto the Mosque grounds. After scuffling with police they
are
evicted.
April 11, 1982 - Alan Goodman, an Israeli citizen
with a U.S. passport, marches into
al Aqsa with an M-16
rifle and opens fire on worshippers, killing two Palestinians and
wounding others. After a
short sentence the Israeli government releases Goodman.
Unrepentant, Goodman
boasts, "I fulfilled my mission."
July 25, 1982 - Yoel Lerner, a member of the
militant Meir Kahane Kach movement,
storms the mosque
grounds with plans to dynamite and destroy the Dome of The Rock.
March 10, 1983 - Armed Gush Emunim fanatics climb
walls onto Haram al-Sharif,
attempting to overcome
security guards and take the mosque by storm. They have in their
possession large
quantities of explosives, automatic rifles and pistols. Twenty-nine
are
charged and held for
trial. September 21, 1983 - An Israeli court acquits the 29 Jewish
terrorists who six
months earlier had laid siege on the mosque.
January 27, 1984 - In the most ambitious plot to
dynamite and destroy the mosque, Jewish
terrorists, armed with
250 pounds of explosives, including dozens of grenades, boxes of
dynamite and 12 rounds
of mortar, attempt to dynamite and destroy the mosque. They are
led by Rabbi Moshe
Levinger, one of the most militant of Jewish extremists.
1994 - The Israelis appoint Meir Davidson, a senior
official of Ateret Cohanim, as
municipal adviser on
Palestinian properties. This signals the Israeli government will
work
closely with an
organization whose aim is destruction of the mosque.
September 1996 - Ateret Cohanim, funded largely
through tax-exempt dollars donated by
rich American Jews,
including Miami millionaire Irving Moskowitz, opened a tunnel -
excavated in secret
night-time operations - that runs the length of the Al Aqsa complex.
The controversial tunnel
sparked intense fighting which claimed the lives of 60 Palestinians
and 15 Israeli soldiers.
Israeli Prime Minister Binyiman Netanyahu proudly visited the
tunnel, as have
fundamentalist Christian leaders.
October 18, 1998 - Gershon Solomon, with followers
waving Israeli flags and blowing
rams' horns, mounts a
ramp to the mosque grounds. "The time has come to rebuild the
Jewish Temple," said
Solomon. To underscore this point, Solomon parked near an Old
City gate a flatbed
truck carrying a 4 ton marble "cornerstone" for that new temple.
By Grace Halsell.
Note she is the author of the book "Forcing God's Hand" which
exposes the strange
alliance between millions of U.S. Christians who make a cult
worship of the land
of Israel. The book explores the danger of this alliance: how it
influences and often
controls political decisions made in the White House and Congress.
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