Tag: JERUSALEM

Bahrain agrees to normalize relations with Israel, Trump announces

Jerusalem Post – September 11, 2020

Bahrain has joined the United Arab Emirates in striking an agreement to normalize relations with Israel, President Donald Trump said on Friday, a dramatic move aimed at easing tensions in the Middle East.

Trump tweeted out the news after he spoke by phone to both Bahrain’s King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the White House said.

Trump also tweeted: “Another HISTORIC breakthrough today! Our two GREAT friends Israel and the Kingdom of Bahrain agree to a Peace Deal – the second Arab country to make peace with Israel in 30 days!”

“This is a historic breakthrough to further peace in the Middle East,” the United States, Bahrain and Israel said in a joint statement.

“Opening direct dialog and ties between these two dynamic societies and advanced economies will continue the positive transformation of the Middle East and increase stability, security, and prosperity in the region,” it said.

Netanyahu said the agreement marks a “new era of peace.”

https://www.jpost.com

Turkey vows to ‘liberate Al-Aqsa’ after turning Hagia Sophia to mosque

SETH J. FRANTZMAN  – July 11, 2020

Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan vowed to “liberate al-Aqsa mosque” from Israel after “resurrecting Hagia Sophia” as a mosque on Friday.

The decision to change the status of the ancient Hagia Sophia church, which had been transformed into a mosque in 1453 and then into a museum in 1934, was made controversially last week.

It follows an increasingly religious authoritarian agenda from Ankara that has made Turkey the world’s largest jailer of journalists, seen dissidents imprisoned for “terrorism” and witnessed increasing military invasions of neighboring countries by Turkey.

The resurrection of Hagia Sophia heralds the liberation of the al-Aqsa mosque, the Turkish Presidency website says. “The resurrection of Hagia Sophia is the footsteps of the will of Muslims across the world to come… the resurrection of Hagia Sophia is the reignition of the fire of hope of Muslims and all oppressed, wrong, downtrodden and exploited.”

The speech, which was in Turkish, was translated slightly differently to Arabic and English, apparently as a way to hide part of Ankara’s full views on how it has linked Hagia Sophia to a wider agenda.

In Arabic the speech says that turning Hagia Sophia into a mosque is part of the “return of freedom to al-Aqsa,” essentially meaning Israel should be ejected from controlling Jerusalem’s Old City where al-Aqsa is located.

https://www.jpost.com

Stamp and Seal Impression Found in Jerusalem Point to Restoration of City During Times of Ezra, Nehemiah

– July 15, 2020

JERUSALEM — An excavation in Jerusalem Walls National Park that yielded a rare stamp and seal impression dating back to the Persian era is stated to provide evidence for the restoration of Jerusalem during the times of Ezra and Nehemiah, as chronicled in the Scriptures.

“The finding of the stamp and seal impression in the City of David indicates that despite the city’s dire situation after the destruction, efforts were made to restore the administrative authorities to normal, and its residents continued to use the structures that were destroyed partly,” stated Prof. Yuval Gadot of the Department of Archaeology and Ancient Near Eastern Cultures at Tel Aviv University, and Dr. Yiftah Shalev, of the Israel Antiquities Authority.

The Antiquities Authority recently announced the discovery, which was uncovered in the Givati parking lot area of the National Park next to rubble from a structure razed during the Babylonian destruction of Jerusalem.

Gadot and Shalev state that it is rare to find artifacts from the Persian Period, and few of this type have been found in Israel.

The impression was found on what is known as a bulla, a clay seal used by administrative authorities to sign documents and to keep them sealed until they reach their destination. They were also sometimes used as seals on storage jugs for food received as a tax.

https://christiannews.net

The Quiet Struggle Over Jerusalem’s Temple Mount

Joseph Puder – June 12, 2020

There is a quiet struggle going on over control of East Jerusalem’s Noble Sanctuary (Haram al-Sharif) or Temple Mount.  It is not as you might guess between Israel and the Palestinians.  It is actually between two Sunni-Muslim nations, the Hashemites Kingdom of Jordan and Erdogan’s Turkey.  To the extent that Israel is involved in this quiet struggle, it is to strengthen Jordan’s position against the encroaching Turks, by adding Saudi representatives to the Islamic Waqf Council.  The Islamic Waqf Council controls the activities surrounding the Noble Sanctuary or Temple Mount.  Israel has engaged the U.S. administration to mediate the issue with the Saudis.

The Hashemites, who once controlled Mecca and Medina, Islam’s holiest sites, lost out to the Saudis in the 1920’s.  The Hashemites are related by a bloodline to the Prophet Mohammad through his daughter Fatimah and her husband Ali, the Fourth Caliph.  Hasan, the son of Fatimah and Ali, is the progenitor of the Hashemite line, which is a subdivision of the Quraysh tribe.  The consolation prize was control over Islam’s third holiest site -The Noble Sanctuary or Temple Mount where the Al-Aqsa and Omar mosques are located. The Prophet Mohammad is said to have flown from the al-Aqsa mosque to heaven on his horse named Buraq.

Given the historical rivalry between the House of Saud and the Hashemites, Jordanians in the past would not contemplate allowing their Saudi rivals a foothold in Jerusalem’s holy places.  But now, after 100 years, Erdogan’s Turkey is challenging Jordan’s control over the Temple Mount. Jordan, under the Hashemite King Abdullah II, is finally relenting to the Saudis out of financial necessity and a looming threat from Erdogan’s Turkey.

Even more significantly, Turkey’s influence peddling in Jerusalem is not limited to the Temple Mount.  In its efforts to bolster the Palestinians, Erdogan’s Turkish government delivered a treasure trove of 140,000 pages of microfilm, which includes land registrations under the Ottoman Empire from 1517-1917.   The Palestinian Authority (PA) has used it to challenge Israeli ownership of real estate in various parts of the country.  The Turkish development NGO or TIKA, working on behalf of the Turkish government has invested around $1.3 million annually in Jerusalem, the West Bank, and Gaza. The Turkish organization, “Our Legacy,” funded by TIKA, has as its goal the “protection of the Al-Aqsa mosque, and the Ottoman legacy in Jerusalem.

https://www.frontpagemag.com

Netanyahu rival Gantz chosen to form new Israeli government

JOSEF FEDERMAN – March 15, 2020

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli opposition leader Benny Gantz will be given the first opportunity to form a new government after an inconclusive national election this month, the country’s president said Sunday, raising questions about Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s political future.

The decision by President Reuven Rivlin was announced by his office after he consulted with leaders of all of the parties elected to parliament. He will formally designate Gantz with the task on Monday and give him a month to cobble together a governing coalition.

The political wrangling comes at a sensitive time. Netanyahu has been leading the country as it confronts a growing coronavirus threat, with over 200 cases diagnosed and the number quickly rising. Netanyahu also faces serious legal troubles as he prepares to go on trial to face corruption charges.

Netanyahu’s Likud emerged as the largest party in the March 2 election, Israel’s third in under a year. But with his smaller religious and nationalist allies, he received the support of only 58 lawmakers during Sunday’s consultations, leaving his right-wing bloc three seats short of the required majority in parliament.

Gantz’s Blue and White received the support of parties representing 61 seats, a slim majority. However, those parties are also divided, and it is not clear whether Gantz will succeed in putting together a coalition. One lawmaker refused to endorse either side.

Given the likelihood of continued deadlock, Rivlin late Sunday summoned both Netanyahu and Gantz to an emergency meeting, where the men pledged to explore a unity government.

https://apnews.com

PA tells Palestinians: The Western Wall belongs only to Muslims

DONNA RACHEL EDMUNDS – January 22, 2020

The Western Wall belongs only to Muslims and must be defended even to the death, Palestinians living in the West Bank were told during a filler piece between programs on official Palestinian Authority TV and in a news article in the official PA newspaper.

In a short video broadcast on November 29, an official PA TV narrator told viewers: “The historical documents in the possession of the Palestinians of Jerusalem testify that Jerusalem is a city of Arab origin for thousands of years, and its history and culture are Islamic. Since Islam’s conquest [in the 7th century], the al-Buraq Wall [the Western Wall] has remained an Islamic waqf [an inalienable religious endowment in Islamic law]. The Muslims have the absolute right to it and there is not even one rock there that dates back to the period of King Solomon, as the Jews claim.”

The voice over was set to images of daily life within Jerusalem’s Old City, and of the Western Wall, which is part of Judaism’s holiest site, the Temple Mount. The wall is a remnant of a large retaining wall built by King Herod to support the mount for the Second Temple; no part of Solomon’s First Temple remains, although artifacts from that period have been found in the area.

According to Palestinian Media Watch, a research institute that studies the PA’s messages to its people, the Western Wall is referred to by Muslims as al-Buraq, because the prophet Mohammed is said to have traveled to al-Aqsa mosque and tied his flying horse, named al-Buraq, to a stone or rock. In the 1920s, Arab Mufti Haj Amin al-Husseini identified that rock as the Western Wall, and Muslims adopted the name for it.

https://www.jpost.com

Trump to Sign Executive Order Declaring Jewish People a ‘Nation’ Just as Written in Genesis

Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz – December 11, 2019

Once again, President Trump is attaching himself to the words of the Bible by passing an executive order which explicitly enacts God’s promise to Abraham; the Jews are a nation. One prominent American Israeli rabbi noted the sole Biblical character who referred to Judaism as a religion; Haman.

President Trump announced that he will be signing an executive order on Wednesday intended to withhold federal funding as a means of forcing universities to cope with growing anti-Semitism on campus. First reported in the New York Times, the order will effectively define Judaism as a race or nationality and not just a religion.

The order empowers the Education Department as described in Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 which allows the department to withhold funding from any college or educational program that discriminates “on the ground of race, color, or national origin.” Religion was not included among the protected categories, so Mr. Trump’s order will have the effect of embracing an argument that Jews are a people or a race with a collective national origin in the Middle East.

The new executive order will be based on the State Department’s definition of anti-Semitism which includes a section on anti-Semitism relative to Israel based on the three ‘D’s’: Demonization, Double-Standard, and Delegitimization.

https://www.breakingisraelnews.com