Jerusalem at the Brink of Abyss, as Gaza pullout triggers reactions

Jerusalem at the Brink of Abyss, as Gaza pullout triggers reactions

By Prof. Dr. Muhammad Shamsaddin Megalommatis

In an article published today in the Jerusalem Post (http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1123640623681&apage=2), Barry Rubin concludes, referring to the Gaza pullout project, that ‘there is every reason to believe that the Palestinian leadership and movements will throw away this opportunity’. Despite this conclusion, the famous writer, who happens to be the Director of the Global Research in International Affairs Center, a think-tank, and Editor of the Middle East Review of International Affairs and Turkish Studies, reiterates his support for the Sharon – Peres government project. To justify his position, he ends up his article with a rhetoric question:

- ‘Which side will be better off after the withdrawal? To find out, watch the material realities, not the rhetoric’.

Failure of all governments and political approaches

But, if we have not to watch the rhetoric, we have to first disregard the essence of Barry Rubin’ approach. It would be truly too convenient for any government of this world to see its projects fully and properly materialized. Quite unfortunately, things do not happen like this, and free commentators and objective observers should not be oblivious of this.

Israel is not only the realm of the Sharon – Peres government supporters. It would be an aberration to think that 8000 Gaza settlers, who have to move to other locations for domicile, are left alone and without support among the Jewish masses of Israel, who happen to have religious aspirations and considerations for all political issues as well. For them, the Gaza pullout project is not justified for various reasons. They may be right.

It was actually foolish for the Sharon – Peres government, as well as for the infamous Quartet (USA, European Union, Russia, and the UN), to assume that, in a land so meaningful for three religions, ‘political’ solutions could be the correct choice. It would be far more difficult but with far more solid results to attempt a local – and automatically transfigured into international – Dialogue of the Religious.

The idiotic and ignorant politicians of a world at the brink of total disaster should have given place to religious and scholarly authorities originating from all the religious branches and denominations of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, so that they come to a conclusion that the various believers would accept, and the microcosm of the politicians and statesmen would assist in implementing.

Without a Religious Concordia around Jerusalem, no Gaza pullout, no abnegation of the suicide bombing, no abolition of the Hatred can be achieved.

Politicians allover the world assumed a lot, thinking they would be able to manage solutions for issues they ignore.

It is ironical for Prime Minister Sharon, and commentators like Barry Rubin, to stand at the edge of a bottomless abyss, but there is the choice of oblivion of the unpleasant. Proceeding in what used to be called as the ostrich’s method, the Gaza pullout project managers and supporters seem to forget the Jewish religious leaders, followers and their plans.

A forthcoming March and religious ceremonies on the Temple Mount Jerusalem may trigger unprecedented events

What follows is an indication of intentions that only foolish people should undermine or neglect. It comes from the Temple Mount Faithful Organization (Temple Mount Faithful / 4 Yochanan Horkanos / P.O. Box 18325 / 91182 Jerusalem – ISRAEL / TEL: +972(2)625-1112 / TEL/FAX: +972(2)625-1113
Web Site: www.templemountfaithful.org).

"The Temple Mount and Land of Israel Faithful Movement Will March to the Temple Mount on Tisha b’Av, 14th August 2005, the Day of the Destruction of the First Two Temples and the Building of the Third Temple

On Tisha b’Av 5765 (14th August 2005) at 9:30 AM, the day of the destruction of the First and Second Temples and the day of the building of the Third Temple, The Temple Mount and Land of Israel Faithful Movement will march to the Temple Mount.

The First Temple was destroyed in 586 BCE and the Second Temple was built in 516 BCE and destroyed in 70 CE. It has been the biggest desire, hope and prayer of the Jewish people over the past 1935 years to rebuild the Temple and to fulfil the major commandment of G–d -"Build me a house and I will dwell among you." (Exodus 25:8) The building of the Third Temple symbolizes the hope of the Jewish people for their national redemption, their regathering to the Promised Land from the 4 corners of the world, the rebuilding of the land and again making Jerusalem the holy and eternal capital of the G–d and people of Israel. It symbolizes their hope for the end-times in the land and the coming of Maschiach ben David. As in their Biblical history, they have always known that the building of the end-time Temple will open the prophetic end-time age. Through prophecy they have known that this is the key to all the end-time events. This is as Isaiah, Micah and others prophesied.

"The word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem. And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established on the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow to it. And many people shall go and say, Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths; for from Zion shall go forth Torah, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. And he shall judge among the nations, and shall decide for many people; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, nor shall they learn war any more. O house of Jacob, come, and let us walk in the light of the Lord." (Isaiah 2:1-5)

We are now living in the critical and exciting end-times. The promises of the G–d of Israel and the hopes of this nation over the past 2000 years have been fulfilled in the land of the covenant exactly as the G–d of Israel promised. Three major events will take place in the near future - the rebuilding of the Temple on Mt. Moriah, the Temple Mount, in exactly the same place as the First and Second Temples as G–d commanded us; the bringing of Israel to dwell in all the parts of the land which G–d promised to Israel in an eternal covenant to Abraham and his seed "In the same day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, To your seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates;" (Genesis 15:18); the coming of Maschiach ben David, the seed of David, who will be like King David - the messenger of the G–d of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob - to be the king of Israel as G–d promised to continue the line of David which will never pass away in the life of Israel. (Isaiah 11)

The Temple Mount and Land of Israel Faithful Movement was anointed by G–d to fulfil G–d’s end-time plans and to make them a reality in our lifetime and to again make Israel a Biblical nation with a Biblical mission to be "a holy nation, a kingdom of priests and a treasure among the nations". (Exodus 19;5,6) The march of the Movement to the Temple Mount on Tisha b’Av will be a major step in making all of this a reality in our lifetime. We want to bring about the promises of G–d through Zechariah in the life of our end-time generation exactly as G–d expects of us to do. "And the word of the Lord of hosts came to me, saying, Thus says the Lord of hosts: The fast of the fourth month, and the fast of the fifth, and the fast of the seventh, and the fast of the tenth, shall become times of joy and gladness, and cheerful feasts to the house of Judah; therefore love truth and peace." (Zechariah 8:18,19)

Since 1967 when Jerusalem and the Temple Mount were liberated from Arab occupation, we have been acting intensively day and night to make this a reality. We feel and know that time is short and that this year and the coming year will be a very critical time in the history of the redemption of Israel and that this Tisha b’Av will not be a normal Tisha b’Av. The troubles which are coming to Israel more and more, especially over the past time, and even more so after this Tisha b’Av, are a part of what the prophets of Israel called the birth pains of redemption. This is the major end-time crisis which will be followed by the godly revolution of the 3 major events mentioned above which will complete the exciting end-time event of the redemption of Israel as an opening and condition for the redemption of all the world which will spread from Jerusalem. We should expect very critical events but after that, very exciting and godly end-time events of the complete redemption.

Knowing and feeling all of this, and even "smelling" it in the air of Israel, the Temple Mount Faithful Movement will march to the Temple Mount on Tisha b’Av with deep feelings of the responsibility which rests on the shoulders of this Movement towards these critical and exciting events.

At 9;30 AM on the morning of Tisha b’Av, we shall gather in front of the western gate of the Temple Mount. Firstly we will march up to the Temple Mount with prayers for the purification of the Temple Mount from the pagan Islamic presence and for the immediate rebuilding of the Temple with no further delay. At a very critical time of weakness of the leadership of Israel and pressure from all the world and mainly from President Bush which comes on this leadership which does not understand the significance of the major time in which we are now living and who miss the opportunity to be the leadership of G–d to fulfill all these end-time goals of G–d, we shall stand before the site of the Temple and the location of the Holy of Holies, the place from where the Shekinah has never moved. With tears for the destruction and for the hope of hundreds of generations to rebuild the Temple our prayers will come from the bottom of our hearts to the location of the Shekinah.

We shall hold an assembly of mourning dressed in sackcloth and ashes like our forefathers did when they saw the destruction of the Temple and we shall tear our clothes. We shall march with dark flags and the Israeli flags with the Star of David, the flags of faith and hope, All these symbols of mourning will not be only for the destruction but, at the same time, symbols of mourning for what is going to take place in Israel through Prime Minister Sharon and his government - the so-called disengagement. We shall pray to the G–d of Israel that He will not allow them to destroy the 21 Israeli villages in the Gaza Strip and northern Samaria as they plan to do immediately after Tisha b’Av. The fact that they are going to start to do this on the night of Tisha b’Av symbolises a tragedy. On Tisha b’Av, Nebuchadnezzar destroyed the First Temple and the kingdom of Judah, Titus destroyed the Second Temple and the kingdom of Israel and now Sharon, with his government, is going to destroy 21 Israeli villages and expel from them almost 10,000 Israelis. These are the birth pains of redemption which the G–d of Israel will never accept. After this terrible destruction, these Biblical parts of the land are to be given to most cruel enemies of the G–d and people of Israel, the so-called "Palestinians" who have no right to the holy land which G–d gave to Israel alone for a godly purpose. He warned His people not to give it to anyone.

After this we shall sit on the holy ground of the Temple Mount reading the Book of Lamentations and praying that these evil plans will not take place in the midst of the godly time of redemption and that the G–d of Israel will create another leadership of faith, vision and obedience to Him, His Word and His end-time redemptional plans for Israel.

Before he died, my father gave me a message, which follows me every day of these critical times. He told me that before the complete redemption very critical days would come filled with trouble, pain, sorrow and suffering - mainly in Israel but also all over the world.. Only those who remain faithful to G–d, His end-time redemptional plans, and His holy Word will survive this critical time and they will see the rebuilding of the Temple and the coming of Maschiach ben David. His message to me was that I should continue to stand strong with G–d and His Word and to continue to do the holy work that G–d had given me to do as a great privilege and thus I would see my dream come true in my lifetime. It was as if G–d used him before he died to strengthen me and to encourage me not to fear any evil power that would try to destroy what G–d is doing with Israel in these days and not to stop with the dreams of my friends and I and to serve G–d and His end-time plans. These critical days have now come and they are touching even the Israeli leadership who, under the pressure of President Bush, the EU and almost all the world, is going to carry out this evil in the eyes of G–d to bring another destruction on Israel and even to establish an evil, terrorist "Palestinian" state in the midst of the holy land which G–d gave to Israel alone.

At the same time, this event on Tisha b’Av will be an event of hope, faith and obedience to the Word of G–d. We know that behind the darkness a great light of G–d and His prophetic end-time promises of redemption is waiting for us. We know that the darkness and the evil are temporary and soon they will be removed and all the evil plans against Israel will be thrown onto the refuse heap of history. We know that soon Tisha b’Av will become a day of joy exactly as G–d promised. On this Tisha b’Av and in the days following, we shall do everything to make this a soon reality in our lifetime in Israel and all over the world.

Everyone is called on to be with us on the Temple Mount on Tisha b’ Av and to be a part of this godly event and work; to be a part of the light that we are soon going to see. This is the expectation of G–d Himself for everyone today. Do not miss this challenge.

In G–d we trust".

Attempts without previous dialogue may end up in explosion

The attempt to build another Hebrew Temple on the Temple Mount may generate an electric reaction among Muslim populations, who have long been the victims of Anti-Jewish and at times Anti-Semitic propaganda. But this is the result of the absence of Dialogue of Religions. If the Islamic Dome of the Rock is destroyed in the procedure of setting the foundations of another Hebrew Temple, the Dialogue would be impossible, because the act would be considered in Islamic Messianic terms, as an assault of the Antichrist (Masih al Dajjal) forces against the Al Quds al Aqsa (The Great Faraway Shrine, as is the Islamic appellation of Jerusalem) that was the first Islamic Qiblah (direction of Islamic Prayer) introduced by the Prophet Muhammad.

Yet, it would be possible for Muslims to accept the erection of another Hebrew Temple on the Temple Mount, and more particularly in the light of recent academic argumentation and conclusion that the earlier Hebrew temples did not stand in the place of the Dome of the Rock, but beyond that octagonal Islamic shrine (in the north) and the Mosque of Omar (in the south). But of course religious dialogue and academic debate should have taken place first, uninfluenced by the policies and the imperatives of any government and/or political group.

At the same time, Israeli Military are reported to believe these events would trigger another October 2005, Yom Kippur War. The reasoning behind such expectations is that, if a special event occurs on the Jewish commemoration of "Tish B'av" (August 14), an unbelievable historical numeric signature will have been followed! On the basis that the Israeli leadership has been reportedly staging key events according to a striking numeric schedule built upon the key numerics of "77", "777" and/or "33" (with the signing of the Oslo Accords on September 13, 1993, in the Clinton White House Rose Garden being just an example), Israel may be in a third phase since Oslo was signed. And following the Great Eclipse of October 3, 2005, occurring in the holy Islamic month of Ramadhan, the expected October 13, 2005 war may herald an era expected so differently, disruptively and controversially by many as Messianic.