(1) Third Temple - a Goal of Secular Jews, not just Fundamentalists (2) Hillel Schenker dismisses my claim that the main aim of Zionism is to build the Third Temple (3) Moses Hess combines Communism with Zionism, endores Messianism and Third Temple (4) US Ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, posed with photo of 3rd Temple in place of Dome & Al Aqsa (5) Mike Pompeo posted a twitter video showing model of 3rd Temple in place of Dome & Al Aqsa (6) Dimona = 3rd Temple (7) Moshe Dayan: if Israel loses the 1973 war, "This is the end of the Third Temple" (8) The Messiah as Ruler of the World (9) Destruction of al-Aqsa is no conspiracy theory - Ilan Pappe (10) Religious Public Schools Teach Children to 'Long for the Third Temple' - Haaretz (11) Minister calls for Third Temple to be built (2013) (12) Destruction of al-Aqsa mosque is Israeli groups' ultimate goal - Ali Abunimah (13) Third Temple party may enter Knesset by campaigning for Cannabis legalisation (14) Jainism - an Atheistic Religion
(1) Third Temple - a Goal of Secular Jews, not just Fundamentalists by Peter Myers, April 1, 2019 (this is not an April Fool's joke; I wish it was) In my commentary on the Christchurch massacre, I stated that the main aim of Zionism is to build the Third Temple; and that Judaism envisages the Messiah ruling the world from there. Israel Shamir posted my newsletter to his mailing list, and there were some responses. In particular, Hillel Schenker, of Tel Aviv, said I was wrong about the Third Temple and Jewish Messianism. His response is at item 2. The difference between Secular Jews and Fundamentalist Jews as regards the Third Temple is one of degree. The former are more patient, the latter more insistent. It's easy to assume that Israel is not a religious state, because most Jews there (and worldwide) are 'secular' or 'atheistic'. But a religion can be atheistic. Original Buddhism was so; and the Jain religion of India is still so. See item 14. Judaism, too, has an atheistic version; it was articulated by Spinoza. His atheistic Judaism is the religion of Jewish Communists such as Moses Hess and David Ben-Gurion. Albert Einstein, in his writings about Cosmic Religion, pays tribute to Spinoza's re-definition of God in non-anthroporphic terms. Moses Hess, an associate of Marx and Engels, was one of the main founders of Zionism. He introduced both Marx and Engels to Communism, before coming out as a Zionist (Hess was both). Hess accepted that his return to Judaism meant accepting Messianism, the Third Temple, and even the restoration of animal sacrifices, if this was required to maintain Jewish unity. See item 3. David Ben-Gurion and Harry Waton, like Hess combining Communism and Zionism, similarly portrayed Spinoza as a major thinker. Ben-Gurion denied that God choose the Jews; rather, they chose Him and invented him: "as one who is non-religious, I believe that theology reverses the true sequence of events. To me it is clear that God was 'created' in the image of man as the latter's explanation to himself of the mystery of his own earthly presence." (Recollections, p. 19) http://mailstar.net/bengur-recollections.html If there's no Chooser - no Yahweh - how can there be a Chosen People? Nevertheless, Ben Gurion also affirmed that the "The Bible is Our Mandate". He made this statement to the British Royal Commission of 1936. (Recollections, p. 107} http://mailstar.net/bengur-recollections.html Israeli newspapers bear two dates. Yesterday's Harretz, bears the date "Sunday, March 31, 2019. Adar II 24, 5779" and yesterday's Jerusalem Post bears the date "MARCH 31 2019 | ADAR II, 24, 5779" The second date in each case is from the Hebrew creationist Calendar, based upon approx 6000 years from Creation. Secular Jews would ridicule any major US newspaper which bore a Creationist date; yet they maintain stony silence about the Hebrew Calendar's official status in Israel. How secular is Israel, really? On September 26, 2000, the Sydney Morning Herald reported that Ehud Barak was considering placing the Temple Mount in United Nations hands. "UN Mooted as Guardian of Sacred Temple Mount": http://mailstar.net/smh000926.jpg Ariel Sharon was out to stop it - atheist or not. He visited the Temple Mount with 1000 armed riot police on September 28, 2000. In consequence, an intifada began at Al Aqsa mosque. Samuel Huntington called the clash "civilizational"; but he was led to that formulation by Bernard Lewis, a Zionist. It's more accurately called a "religious" clash, even if the Israelis are mostly atheistic. The US Ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, recently posed with a photo showing the Jewish (Third) Temple in place of the Dome of the Rock and Al Aqsa Mosque. See item 4. Just a week or so ago, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo posted a twitter video showing a model of the 3rd Temple (in place of the Dome of the Rock & Al Aqsa Mosque). See item 5.
(2) Hillel Schenker dismisses my claim that the main aim of Zionism is to build the Third Temple From: "israel shamir israel.shamir@gmail.com [shamireaders]" <shamireaders-noreply@yahoogroups.com> Hillel Schenker <hillels2000@gmail.com> [shamireaders] I assume that the Pete Meyers who wrote the explanations below is not the Pete Meyers who played for a while (not very effectively) for the New York Knicks in the late 80s-early 90s. But really - the Mossad was behind 9/11, leading to the Iraq War, which strengthened Iran and created ISIS? Was that an Israeli interest? As for "The main aim of Zionism is the build the Third Temple - from which, they believe, the Messiah will rule us all (but for Christians, he will be the AntiChrist).. However the Dome of the Rock and Al Aqsa Mosque stand in the way. To remove them means war with Islam. The war - between Judaism and Islam - must come either before or after the demolition.It's not a war between Christians and Islam, but Christians are being suckered into it." Come on, anyone who knows anything about the history of Zionism knows that it was a Jewish secular rebellion against the Jewish Orthodox religious "waiting for the Messiah" philosophy, taking the fate of the people into their own hands. Jerusalem, the Old City and the Temple Mount/Al Aqsa never played an important role in Zionist thought, from Herzl, Weizmann, Ben-Gurion etc. Today there are some right-wing crazies in Israel who want to build a Third Temple, a few of whom are in the Knesset, but that's about it. The danger comes from fundamentalist Evangelical Christians in the U.S., President Trump's base represented in his government by Vice President Pence and Secretary of State Pompeo, who pushed him to move the American Embassy to Jerusalem. What is needed is an alliance between rational liberal Jews, Muslims and Christians to fight against that policy, for the sake of all of us. Hillel Schenker, Tel Aviv
(3) Moses Hess combines Communism with Zionism, endores Messianism and Third Temple by Peter Myers, April 1, 2019 Both Shlomo Avineri and Isaiah Berlin, in their writings about Moses Hess, affirm that he was simultaneously a Communist and a Zionist. Hess was the founder of Israeli National Socialism, the inspirer of the kibbutz movement and of the Histadrut as a vehicle for public (socialized) ownership of the economy: http://mailstar.net/nat-soc-isr.html In his book Rome and Jerusalem, Hess lavishes praise on Spinoza. He noticed that Spinoza even endorses Zionism. In the Theological-Political Treatise, Chapter 3, Spinoza writes: "The sign of circumcision is, as I think, so important, that I could persuade myself that it alone would preserve the nation for ever. Nay, I would go so far as to believe that if the foundations of their religion have not emasculated their minds they may even, if occasion offers, so changeable are human affairs, raise up their empire afresh, and that God may a second time elect them." https://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/s/spinoza/benedict/treatise/chapter3.html Shlomo Avineri commented, in his book Moses Hess: Prophet Of Communism And Zionism: {quote} To Hess, Spinoza was the "true prophet" of the messianic movement in a double sense: as the founder of modern philosophy, but also as a person who viewed the Jews as a nation, not merely as a religion, and even postulated the possible resurrection of the Jewish polity. Mentioning the one oblique reference in Spinoza to the possibility of Jewish political revival, Hess says: 'Spinoza still saw Judaism as a nationality and viewed (towards the end of the third chapter of his theological tractate) the re-establishment of the Jewish commonwealth as dependent exclusively upon the courage and disposition of the Jewish people.' {endquote; pp. 210-1} http://mailstar.net/avineri.html Avineri further notes, with regard to the Spinoza quote 'God may a second time elect them': 'Of course Hess read into this passage more than its tentative argument allows, but this passage became very popular among Zionists who used it-as did David Ben Gurion-for a vindication of the "apostate" Spinoza within a modern Jewish national ideology. To the best of my knowledge, Hess was the first modern Jewish thinker to draw attention to this passage.' (op. cit., footnote 60 on p. 240) Hess, reconverted to Judaism, committed himself to Messianism: "We, the Jews, have preserved from the very beginning of history the belief in the messianic age, and we always carried it with us." (Rome and Jerusalem, Tenth Letter, as quoted by Avineri, op. cit. p. 214) Waxman's translation is "We Jews have always, from the beginning of our history, cherished the faith in a future Messianic epoch" http://www.zionismontheweb.org/Moses_Hess_Rome_and_Jerusalem.htm Assuming that the Third Temple would be built, Hess considered, in Rome and Jerusalem, whether he would accept the restoration of animal sacrifices, as Fundamentalists demand. Avineri comments: "The issue of solidarity is reintroduced in a slightly curious form towards the end of Rome and Jerusalem when Hess turned to discuss the question of Jewish sacrificial rites in the Temple." (p. 233) "Consequently, Hess was aware that the very orthodox would not be able to identify with an attempt at the resurrection of Israel if it would not be combined with the restoration of the rites traditionally connected with the messianic age in the religious consciousness. Hess opens his Eleventh Letter by referring to a comment made by his lady correspondent that orthodox Jews would not join Hess' effort of restoring Jewish independence if it would not be connected with the rebuilding of the Temple on Mount Moriah. Surely, his lady correspondent writes to him, he-as a modern person-could be counted on not going along with the revival of such barbarous customs as the reinstitution of animal sacrifices in a rebuilt Temple of Solomon." (p. 234) "Continuing his response to the lady correspondent on the sacrifices, Hess admits that for all the allowances he can make for their historical emergence, they do cause him much unease, and he would be most happy if the whole issue would disappear. But then he continues: 'Real love ... is in actuality blind. ...' "Beneath the romantic and sentimental language lies an excruciating problem of identity and solidarity. Spinoza-Hess' model of a modern thinker and a modern Jew-coined the expression "Nihil humanum A me alienum puto" ("Nothing human is alien to me"). From Mazzini, Hess had learned that humanity comes in nationalities, that the universal is reached through particularity, that humanity is vindicated through the mediation of nations and nationalities. Only through working for his own people, Hess was firmly convinced, can he work for all of humanity. Spinoza's dictum necessarily also came to mean, in real and concrete life, that if as a socialist nothing human could be alien to him, then nothing Jewish could consequently be alien to him either." (pp. 236-7) Thus Hess was prepared to accept animal sacrifices in the Third Temple, if Jewish unity required it.
(4) US Ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, posed with photo of 3rd Temple in place of Dome & Al Aqsa The US Ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, recently posed with a photo showing the Jewish (Third) Temple in place of the Dome of the Rock and Al Aqsa Mosque. A photo of him posing, from The Times of Israel, is at https://static.timesofisrael.com/www/uploads/2018/05/Dd0K7xUUQAA28jw-e1527013898463.jpg and I uploaded it to my website at http://mailstar.net/Temple-Mount-no-Dome.jpg The Times of Israel report is athttps://www.timesofisrael.com/us-embassy-image-of-jewish-temple-thrust-in-front-of-envoy-friedman-for-photo/ Other agencies reported it more objectively, eg RT: https://www.rt.com/news/427497-us-ambassador-jerusalem-photo/ {quote} Pictures don’t lie? US envoy accepts fake photo with Jerusalem mosque replaced by Jewish temple 23 May, 2018 Tensions surrounding Jerusalem just got worse, thanks to a bit of make believe and Photoshop. The US ambassador was thrust into controversy after accepting a picture of the city which replaced a mosque with a third Jewish temple. US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman was all smiles as he accepted the aerial photo of Jerusalem during a tour of the city of Bnei Brak held by the ultra-Orthodox Achiya organization, which aids children suffering from learning disabilities. The IMEU @theIMEU What's missing in this photo of Jerusalem that US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman is looking at? The Dome of the Rock & Al-Aqsa Mosque. Removing the Islamic holy sites is a long-term goal of far-right Israeli Jewish extremists who want to erase Palestinians from Jerusalem. {endquote}
(5) Mike Pompeo posted a twitter video showing model of 3rd Temple in place of Dome & Al Aqsa Mike Pompeo posted a twitter video showing a model of the 3rd Temple (in place of the Dome of the Rock & Al Aqsa Mosque) https://sputniknews.com/world/201903231073479183-mike-pompeo-jerusalem-third-temple-model/ Pompeo’s VIDEO Shows ‘Third Temple’ Model, Sparks Fears Over Biblical End Times The video also shows US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo singling out President Trump’s decision to recognise Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights; the occupied Syrian land was described by Pompeo as “hard-fought real estate”. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has published a video of his visit to Israel on his Twitter page, which omits Muslim shrines in Jerusalem but includes a model of the Third Temple there. The footage shows Pompeo visiting the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and the Western Wall in Jerusalem, which is followed by a model of the Third Temple. Some Jewish groups want to erect the structure on the Temple Mount and have triggered concerns that Muslim sites such as the Dome of the Rock and Al-Aqsa mosque would be affected. The Temple Mount is one of the holiest sites in the world for Muslims, Christians and Jews. ... == in Pompeo's twitter video, the model of the 3rd Temple (in place of the Dome of the Rock & Al Aqsa Mosque) appears at 1:00 https://twitter.com/SecPompeo/status/1109083029430067200 Secretary Pompeo ? Verified account @SecPompeo Mar 22 More Great visit to #Israel to meet with good friends @netanyahu & @PresidentRuvi. Built upon our strong partnership for peace, security, and prosperity in the region. My deepest thanks to @USAmbIsrael for hosting me! == it's also at 1:00 here: == or, in a longer video including Pompeo at the Western Wall, the model of the Third Temple is at 3:38: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ql99We5MUvU Pompeo Tour In Israel Included The Third Temple Plans and the Underground Sanhedrin Synagogue TyGreen Published on 22 Mar 2019
(6) Dimona = 3rd Temple Ari Ben-Menashe, a former Israel intelligence officer, relates in his book Profits of War: 'Minister Without Portfolio Yisrael Galili, a leftwing powerbroker who directed the intelligence and security services, took upon himself with Ben-Gurion's blessing the cabinet-level supervision of the program. ... In a memorable speech after the groundbreaking for the supersecret Dimona nuclear plant, the usually subdued Galili stood up in a Mapai Party meeting and, with his chest proudly pushed out, declared, "The third temple is being built!".' (p. 205) http://mailstar.net/vanunu.html. The point is, in Israel, military force has a religious goal: Israel is a religious state. The Jews are a religion, not a race or a nation. And the response has been the creation of Islamic fundamentalism. We must now decide whether we are going to let ourselves be dragged into someone else's world war, a religious war led by fundamentalists on both sides.
(7) Moshe Dayan: if Israel loses the 1973 war, "This is the end of the Third Temple" In the following report from UPI of September 16, 2002, note Moshe Dayan's statement that, if Israel loses the 1973 war, "This is the end of the Third Temple." The point being, that religion is the whole purpose and being of the Jewish state. http://www.upi.com/view.cfm?StoryID=20020916-073128-6494r Yom Kippur: Israel's 1973 nuclear alert By Richard Sale UPI Terrorism Correspondent From the International Desk Published 9/16/2002 10:17 PM During the 1973 Yom Kippur war, Israel came close to making a nuclear preemptive strike when it seemed to be facing defeat at the hands of Syrian armor, according to a half dozen former U.S. diplomats and intelligence officials familiar with the still-classified incident. On Oct. 5, Yom Kippur, -- the Day of Atonement and the holiest day of the year for Jewish people -- the armies of Egypt and Syria attacked Israel from two directions and made rapid gains. According to a former senior U.S. diplomat, by Oct. 8, Israel's northern front commander, Maj. Gen. Yitzak Hoffi, had informed Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Dayan that he couldn't hold out much longer against the 14,000 Syrian tanks rolling through Israeli defenses on the Golan Heights. The source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that Dayan was "attacked by acute panic" and declared to advisers: "This is the end of the Third Temple." But if Israel was to perish, it would take Damascus and Cairo with it. ...
(8) The Messiah as Ruler of the World Ben-Ami Shillony's book The Jews and the Japanese explains Judaism for Japanese readers: 'The peaceful world that the Jewish prophets envisioned was to be ruled over by a scion of the House of David, later called the Messiah. The Jews ... were always inspired by the belief that in the future world of peace and justice they would serve as spiritual leaders.' (p. 32). http://mailstar.net/japan.html.
(9) Destruction of al-Aqsa is no conspiracy theory - Ilan Pappe https://electronicintifada.net/content/destruction-al-aqsa-no-conspiracy-theory/14991 Destruction of al-Aqsa is no conspiracy theory Ilan Pappe The Electronic Intifada 10 November 2015 Groups calling for the destruction of the al-Aqsa mosque compound are part of Israel’s political establishment. Oren Ziv ActiveStills “It is useless,” asserts the colonizer in Albert Memmi’s classical tract, The Colonizer and the Colonized, “to try and forecast the colonized’s actions (‘they are unpredictable! ‘With them, you never know!).” It seems to the colonizer that “strange and disturbing impulsiveness controls the colonized.” The only explantion official Israel and its supporters could give for why Palestinians have risen up lately is that they were influenced by Islamic propaganda. That propaganda so easily incited the “impulsive and unpredictable” Palestinians in recent weeks, according to Israeli spin. Generally speaking, Western commentators have been more willing to place the resistance in the wider context of the oppression faced by Palestinians. Yet this Western approach, articulated mainly by liberal academics and journalists, has something in common with the Israeli one: it regards as baseless and irrelevant the allegations that Israel plans to demolish al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem or build a “Third Temple” on the Haram al-Sharif, the surrounding compound. The allegations appear in the western media as a mere pretext which have only incidentally triggered Palestinians to rise up. There is no denying that after nearly 50 years of brutal colonization one does not have to look too far to understand the depths of despair and levels of rage felt by Palestinians. However, this understandable impulse to act against oppression should not lead us to ignore Israel’s plans towards Haram al-Sharif. Nor should we accept that Arab and Palestinian apprehensions about Israel are figments of the oriental imagination and not rooted in reality. In fact, they can be substantiated. It is, therefore, crucial to ask, whether you are religious or secular: is al-Aqsa in danger? If it is, then its precarious future is not just an offense to Islam but also a further indication of how far Israel’s settler-colonial project could go. Archaeological crime Demolishing Arab and Islamic sites in Jerusalem is not unknown in Israeli policy and attitudes. In 1967, Israel razed the Moroccan Quarter in the Old City of Jerusalem. This was an architectural gem of Islamic civilization dating back to the late 12th century and had hosted some of the most important Islamic religious orders. When Zionism appeared in Palestine, its leaders were not only trying to purchase land for settlement but also to buy what they considered to be Jewish Jerusalem. Baron Edmond Rothschild attempted to buy the quarter at the end of the 19th century, as did the Zionist leadership under the British Mandate — to no avail. When purchasing did not work, it was taken by force during the 1967 War and demolished. The demolition included the destruction of the Sheikh Eid mosque built by a son of Salah al-Din al-Ayubi, who liberated Jerusalem from the Crusaders. When learning about the destruction years later, Benjamin Kedar, a historian and vice president of the Israeli National Academy of Sciences, declared to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz that “it was an archaeological crime.” The destruction of mosques was not a new practice, or one limited to Jerusalem. Zionist forces left intact only very few mosques in the destroyed Palestinian villages and towns during the Nakba — the ethnic cleansing operation of 1948. The Israeli authorities then turned many of the remaining mosques into clubs, restaurants and animal enclosures. Geography of destruction Thus, neither historical monuments in Jerusalem nor mosques around Palestine were immune from the destructive policies of the colonizer. This ruination of the country’s Islamic heritage is deeply engraved in the Palestinian collective memory. Palestinians also frequently witness Israel destroying buildings with armored D-9 bulldozers, supplied by the US firm Caterpillar. However, it is not only this vivid memory of the Israeli geography of destruction that plants fears among many about the future of al-Aqsa. It is a realistic analysis of the ideology of some of the potent political forces today in Israel, who are represented in Benjamin Netanyahu’s current government. The most important of them is the ever-growing religious nationalist movement. It used to be a marginal force, but today it is part of the establishment. As Or Kashti of Haaretz revealed recently, part of the curriculum of that movement’s school system (Israel runs three systems: a secular Jewish one, a national religious one and the “Arab” system) is a program that advocates the building of the “Third Temple.” Building the temple is the ambition of humanity as a whole, pupils are told. Kashti talked to experts who read the program and although he stresses that the program does not have a direct reference to blowing up al-Aqsa, the pupils are inoculated with the idea that they are on the verge of the Jewish redemption (Geula) of the mount. This program is supported by Naftali Bennet, the education minister. Along with his colleague, Uri Ariel, Bennett is part of the Jewish Home party, which is committed to replacing al-Aqsa with a Jewish temple. Following the election earlier this year, Ariel was appointed agriculture minister. In his previous role as housing minister, he called explicitly to build the new temple over al-Aqsa. He is not a marginal politician, and neither is his party. The Israeli government supports with money and other means several organizations that call openly for a similar plan. The most important of them is The Temple Institute in Jerusalem, founded by Rabbi Yisrael Ariel. Its funding has been investigated by the Haaretz reporter Uri Blau. The institute’s main goal, according to its website, is “to see Israel rebuild the Holy Temple on Mount Moriah in Jerusalem [al-Aqsa mosque compound], in accordance with the Biblical commandments.” There is nothing ludicrous or unimaginable in assuming that a zealot Zionist will one day carry out such plans. The author of numerous books, Ilan Pappe is professor of history and director of the European Centre for Palestine Studies at the University of Exeter.
(10) Religious Public Schools Teach Children to 'Long for the Third Temple' - Haaretz https://upload.democraticunderground.com/1134117232 Religious Public Schools Teach Children to 'Long for the Third Temple' Researchers fear the mandatory social studies curriculum could drive students to take violent actions to advance the building of the Third Temple. Or Kashti Nov 01, 2015 4:04 AM Several days after the beginning of the new school year, Jerusalem resident Nadav Berman Shifman’s daughter received an agenda from the religious elementary school where she studies. The agenda contains a section at the back with a list of topics including “Love of the Land and the Temple” – a reference to the Temples that stood on Temple Mount in ancient times. The students are asked to indicate the extent to which they have met the demands detailed in the list, including “Prayer from the bottom of my heart for the Temple to be rebuilt” and “to have the privilege of carrying out [ritual animal] sacrifice there." The list was not a private initiative. Its elements are based on the official curriculum of the state religious school system – the public education system that operates alongside the state secular schools and semi-official ultra-Orthodox schools in Jewish areas of the country. Since the beginning of the school year, it should be noted, Muslim claims that Israel is trying to change the status quo on the Mount, which is now the site of the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, have been the backdrop for a wave of Palestinian violence. Israel denies any effort to change the status quo, which grants only Muslims the right to pray at the site and other religions the right to visit at certain hours.
(11) Minister calls for Third Temple to be built (2013) http://www.timesofisrael.com/minister-calls-for-third-temple-to-be-built/ Minister calls for third Temple to be built Potentially explosive statement by Jewish Home’s Uri Ariel breaks taboo against damaging status quo on Temple Mount By TOI STAFF 5 July 2013, 10:20 am A government minister from a nationalist religious party called Thursday for the Jewish Temple to be rebuilt on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. The statement from Housing and Construction Minister Uri Ariel (Jewish Home) breaks a long-standing taboo on high-ranking government officials speaking about changing the fragile status quo on the holy and contested esplanade, and will likely draw ire from official Israeli circles and anger the Arab and Muslim world. Speaking at an archaeological conference next to the West Bank settlement of Shilo and quoted by Maariv, Ariel called for a third Temple to be built on the site, which today is home to the Dome of the Rock and the al-Aqsa Mosque and is considered Judaism’s holiest site and Islam’s third holiest. “We’ve built many little, little temples,” Ariel said, referring to synagogues, “but we need to build a real Temple on the Temple Mount.” ...
(12) Destruction of al-Aqsa mosque is Israeli groups' ultimate goal - Ali Abunimah Destruction of Jerusalem’s al-Aqsa mosque is Israeli groups’ ultimate goal Ali Abunimah 15 September 2015 Over the last three days, Palestinians have come under fierce attack as they attempted with their bare hands, sticks and stones to deter and prevent repeated violent assaults by Israeli occupation forces into Jerusalem’s al-Aqsa mosque compound. The violence comes as Israeli-backed groups bent on replacing the mosque with a Jewish temple are asserting their presence ever more aggressively. Dozens of Palestinians were injured by Israeli forces who fired stun grenades, tear gas canisters and rubber-coated steel bullets at worshipers, Ma’an News Agency reported. Early on Monday, Israeli forces forcibly expelled Palestinians from the Bab al-Silsila entrance to the compound in occupied East Jerusalem, activist Khadija Khuwais told the local news agency Q Press. ... Jewish temple plans The increasingly violent Israeli incursions at one the most revered holy sites for Muslims have accompanied the rise in recent years of so-called “Temple activism” groups. These are organizations whose ultimate and clearly stated goal is the construction of a Jewish “Third Temple” to replace the currently existing structures that make up al-Aqsa mosque. A 2013 report by the Israeli research organization Ir Amim noted that “the Jerusalem Municipality and other government ministries directly fund and support various activist organizations driven by the mission to rebuild the temple.” The Temple Institute, the leading extremist organization of its kind, has already formulated detailed blueprints for the new Jewish temple. A leading figure in the Temple movement is Yehuda Glick, an American settler who was shot and injured by an unidentified gunman after he spoke last October at a conference titled “The Jewish people return to the Temple Mount.” [...]
(13) Third Temple party may enter Knesset by campaigning for Cannabis legalisation Israeli Third Temple party gains traction Shlomi Eldar March 13, 2019 Whether the upcoming government will be formed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu or by Blue and White head Benny Gantz, one thing seems clear: The next Knesset will likely have a respectable representation of the Temple Mount Faithful movement, whose vision is to establish the Third Temple in Jerusalem. According to recent polls, former Knesset member Moshe Feiglin’s Zehut party, which means identity in Hebrew, will pass the electoral threshold and may well constitute the surprise of the elections. Feiglin promises his voters that he will act on behalf of legalizing cannabis, causing many youths to join him. If the momentum continues, Feiglin and his messianic movement may be the party that tips the scales to determine who will assemble the next government. Therefore, Feiglin is now keeping his views regarding the rebuilding of the Temple and transfer of Arabs to himself. Instead, he raises the banner for cannabis legalization — at least until after the elections, of course. But in his party’s election platform — probably unread by Feiglin’s cannabis voters — the political program is black and white. In the first stage, Feiglin proposes to abolish the Oslo Accords. After that, Israel could re-take control of the West Bank and extend its full sovereignty. The Feiglin plan offers non-Jewish residents of the West Bank either assistance in emigration (in other words, transfer); a status of permanent residency in the Jewish Halachic state (i.e., Israel governed by Jewish religious law); or citizenship. Citizenship will be granted only to those who wish to be loyal citizens and serve in the army. They will receive full citizenship after a "long and thorough examination track." But the highlight of this agenda is the Temple Mount: Feiglin proposes dismissing the waqf (Muslim custodian) and transferring management to the Chief Rabbinate. The Israeli police would still have a permanent presence there. In addition, “a Jewish synagogue will be built on the Mount. Similarly, the Temple Mount will be opened to archaeological research without the limitations in place today.” Feiglin does not use the term “temple,” so as to avoid scaring off potential voters, but the “synagogue” mentioned above is only a euphemism for his real goal: a temple on the hilltop, with everything that entails. [...] In the next Knesset, Feiglin will not be alone. In a controversial political stunt orchestrated by Netanyahu, three right-wing parties united, including radical right-wing Rabbi Meir Kahane’s disciples from the Otzma Yehudit party. Netanyahu promised the Union of Right-Wing Parties two portfolios in his next government, and even a spot on the Judicial Selection Committee. [...] Yehuda Etzion and Natan Natanzon, the series’ key interviewees, do not hide that they aspire — even today — to establish the Third Temple on the Temple Mount. Soon they will receive reinforcement from Otzma Yehudit and Moshe Feiglin. We can safely assume that the Zehut supporters, and evidently the more moderate supporters of HaBayit HaYehudi (which is currently part of the Union of Right-Wing Parties), will argue that blowing up Al-Aqsa Mosque is absolutely not on the table anymore and that the building of the Third Temple and expulsion of Arabs from Jerusalem and the territories is only a dream. But let’s remember that no one in the 2015 elections spoke seriously about the annexation of the territories and the establishment of a binational state. For Kahane’s successors, territorial annexation of the territories is now on the table. There is wall-to-wall agreement for implementing this annexation on the parts of all the right-wing parties and large swaths of the Likud as well. Who knows, perhaps the next stage is the Temple Mount! Even if they do not succeed in transforming this hallucinatory idea into reality, the very fact that people talk about the establishment of a Third Temple (on the ruins of Al-Aqsa Mosque or next to it) constitutes a religious declaration of war. In the series on the Jewish underground, Gillon sadly called the protagonists “crazy” and “messianic” and was angry that they had been turned into cultural heroes with the power to influence the decision-making process. This series was filmed before he could know that eventually, they would even become part of Israel’s legislative body. One does not need a developed imagination to realize how Israel will appear in the eyes of the “sane citizen” and the eyes of the entire world in another few months.
(14) Jainism - an Atheistic Religion by Peter Myers, April 1, 2019 In 2008, I visited Sonagir, a Jain village in India with over 100 Jain temples, where I met naked Jain monks. Like Buddhism, the Jain religion sees all living beings as souls. Jainism is strictly vegetarian, and forbids eating root crops lest insects in the soil be killed by ploughs etc. I also visited Khajuraho, site of world-heritage sex temples but also an amazing Jain temple devoted to renunciation: http://mailstar.net/Khajuraho-Jain-temple.jpg The Jain temple contains a statue of the founder, Mahavira. He is always depicted nude, with pendant penis (unlike Siva): http://mailstar.net/Khajuraho-Mahavira.jpg The Jains don't believe in a big-g God; but they call their monks "gods". By leading a life of renunciation, one can attain Godhood. They believe in an eternal universe - without a Creation or an End. A plaque at the temple sets out the principles of Jainism: http://mailstar.net/Khajuraho-Jain-plaque.jpg {quote} Every soul is independent. None depends on another. {this is a rejection of Monism} All souls are alike. None is superior or inferior. Every soul is in itself absolutely omniscient and blissful. ... All human beings are miserable due to their own faults ... There is no separate existence of God. Everbody can attain Godhood by making supreme efforts in the right direction. Know thyself; recognize thyself; be immersed in thyself'-you will attain Godhood. ... {endquote} -- Peter Myerswebsite: http://mailstar.net/inex.html |
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