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The Israeli antiquities authorities have cameras and internet livefeed to the digging site, so that you can see for yourself that they are not trying to harm the Al Aqsa Mosque. You can see the feed here!
But I am guessing some people won't care anyway..
However, angry Muslims said they were not satisfied with the cameras.
"This procedure is not enough," said Ismail Radwan, a spokesman for
the militant Palestinian group Hamas. "The Zionist enemy is engaging in
trickery and continuing its digging. We don't trust these procedures."
Allrighty then…
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English
You know, the hell with it. Tear down the temporary bridge and let anyone that wants to take their lives in their hands go over the old bridge until it falls down.
I actually wonder why Israel hasn’t thrown up their hands before now.
I predicted as much when replying at Raccoon’s blog. The guys working at the Antiquities are good people, but fairly naive. And while this was the right thing to do, it won’t change anything for those who just want an excuse to bash Israel.
So this mosque is built on the holiest Jewish site where Mo climbed on a Pegasus and took flight even though he never physically stepped foot in Jerusalem? Interesting how the earliest history of Mo didn’t begin until a couple of hundred years after his death. And we know how ‘the word of mouth’ is so accurate.
Who is desecrating whom?
logic and PROOF has nothing to do with it!
The Israelis got tired of looking at a tired old broken down ramp and said to themselves, ‘selves, why don’t we fix it and we can bill ‘them’ later’.
I have seen it in Oceans 11. It’s all a trick. Damn you George (clooney that is)
Egypeter is right. This is not about logic. It’s about running around screaming and hating. After all, logic would dictate that there is no way this was a mosque since the beginning of time…hellooooo Islam is only 1500 years old!!! Yet they swallow that tripe!
Sad.
I find it fascinating that I can watch live feed half way around the world. Anyone else ever awed by technology anymore? Just checking.
Yes, Melissa in NorCal, I’m still fascinated. But, if you read what Ismail Radwan said, to praraphrase, he can’t believe his eyes. The moon landing was done on a Hollywood back lot and the United States attacked itself on 9/ll. I’m 59 years old, about the same as Israel, in this incarnation, and after a while one just doesn’t bother paying attention to the Radwans, in one ear and out the other. Still ‘they’ have Israel jumping through hoops while they move the hoop while Israel’s in mid-flight.
Maybe the best solution would be for them to Hire Palestinian crews to take care of the digging! “merely a suggestion”
Modern Pharaoh Says:”Maybe the best solution would be for them to Hire Palestinian crews to take care of the digging! “merely a suggestion””
That’s a thought. On the other hand, if Israel deported the entire Muslim population to the other side of the Wall, there would be no one to complain and Jewish, or more likely Romanian, workers could get on with it.
Not so much a suggestion as a path to peace.
Modern Pharoah, have you checked out the 24/7 live camera? We can keep an eye on the operation from over here. I’ll bet the operation has representation from the entire ethnic make up of Israel.
I just clicked onto to the link available at the top, it’s daylight now in Israel.
@Heigou: you see how peacful my comment was, then you have to say something incredibley and utterly immoral and wrong that makes no sense!
MP, I appreciate that your suggestion was peaceful, but it was also pointless. This is not about digging, this is about excavating and preserving historical objects prior to necessary repairs and construction. Such work is not properly referred to as “digging” and it is not conducted by untrained labor with backhoe’s and heavy equipment (at least in the absence of intense supervision). Israel has an excellent record of carefully excavating and preserving historic sites and artifacts, including Islamic and Christian relics and holy sites. In fact, their record is sterling in comparison to the recent history of the Waqf on the Temple Mount, as is readily verifiable with even a cursory search.
The fact is that the Waqf was made aware of the planned excavations and construction schedule months in advance and had been aware of the intended preservation and construction work for 3 years (since the final damage occured following a freak snowstorm and earthquake).
The Waqf, therefore, bears primary responsibility for assuring that Islamic interests were addressed and had ample time to do so peacefully. Certainly, they could have requested, and likely have been granted, the opportunity to have observers on site, or even to nominate qualified Palestinian preservationists and archaeologists to join the team from Israel’s Department of Antiquities. It should come as no surprise, however, that those ultimately responsible for the excavation (the Israeli Department of Antiquities) would insist on conducting and supervising the process.
At this point, Israel is taking the proper steps by proceeding in an open and accountable manner. Nothing more can be asked of them. To halt the excavation at this point would only encourage future irrational outcries.
Moreover, from reading your comments here (at least on those occasions, you abstained from rising to the bait of an inappropriate comment, or instigating the same), I trust you agree that the current outcry is baseless. The solution is not for Israel to halt its work or change its reasonable approach in light of unreasonable demand, but for those reasonable people within the Islamic community (yourself included), to decry the irresponsible actions of the Imams, Muftis, and Arab leaders that misinform and inflame the average Muslim, and for the same reasonable people to demand better of their leaders in the future while attempting to educate their less well informed or inflamed brethren. Not to scapegoat reasonable activities that may well preserve not merely Jewish artifacts, but Muslim as well. After all, but for Israel excavations in and around the Temple Mount revealed and preserved and ancient Islamic prayer room as indicated at the Antiquities site.
Ultimately, it was the responsibility of the Waqf, several months ago now, to inform the community that the excavation would be occuring, assure the populace that Al Aqsa Mosque was in no danger, and that all reasonable precautions were being taken to preserve precious bits of Jerusalem’s history, while making the approach to Al Aqsa safer and more convenient for innumerable Muslim worshippers (the path to the Temple Mount via the Mughrabi Gate has been used exclusively by Muslims for many years now). At that same early moment, the Waqf could have requested the ability to observe or suggested professionals to join the dig.
Instead, the Waqf sat on their hands, as they have done many times before, in order to preserve an opportunity to seek Palestinian unity behind hatred of Israel and its many injustices by conflating, obfuscating, misreporting, mischaracterizing, and simply lying about the activities at the Temple Mount.
Such behavior is despicable and reflects very poorly on the religious and political leaders who have engaged in these tactics. In a Western Democracy, we would expect to see such demogoguery virulently attacked by well informed critics and the perpetrators ousted from office, not appeased and justified.
While I appreciate your note of caution and desire not to see your community inflamed, I would respectfully suggest that you direct your energies at those who are reflecting poorly on that community, not at those who are trying to respectfully preserve the heritage of both your community and theirs.
Modern Pharaoh Says:”you see how peacful my comment was, then you have to say something incredibley and utterly immoral and wrong that makes no sense!”
It makes perfect sense and while it is immoral, it is also inevitable. Your comments might have been peaceful, but the Muslim approach to this has been to use the media to whip up a lynch mob against Jews. We all know that if the Israelis wanted to bring the Mosque down it would be rubble. Muslims are lying to each other, lying to themselves, in order to create an atmosphere of hatred and violence. The point of all this is to encourage suicide bombings. And every single Muslim who repeats the lies about the Dome and what Israel is doing knows it.
There can be no peace with people like that. Muslims have chosen hatred and violence. The sensible option is to choose to exclude them from the civilised world. Let them rot in their own hell holes. Your posts are ample proof of the incompatibility between the West and the Muslim world. Time for separation.
0553,Friday, Philadelphia, USA, just checked the live camera link, good, Israel’s still there. The Jews are still running the place, therefore everyone gets a chance. I don’t know how you put up with it.
Modern Pharaoh,
A good idea, yet still bound for failure. Were the Antiquities Dept. to send a solely Muslim team (this assuming they have enough Muslims working for them, which I think they do) then those Muslims would then experience immense pressure from their communities, they would be harrased, they would be deemed traitors, and they will either resign or ask to be transferred.
This is because the religious leaders, like Ra’ed Salah, would still continue fanning the flames. Facts do not bother them.
Modern Pharaoh,
I do see a lot of passion in you’re arguments, one of the most difficult things to do when one has passion about a subject is to be far enough removed to see valid points of concerns from BOTH sides of the fence. There is quite a bit of hyperbole and irrelevant data on this subject. In a free society its up to the individual to cipher through and rate information as truthful and worthy or less than truthful and not so worthy.
From you post in an earlier Al Aqsa Mosque thread:
I swear “THE CANCER OF MIDDLE EAST” Since that countries inception and the Problems have been non-ending.!
Once again just goes to prove how Cunnning that Israeli Goverment is and how Simple the Arab mind is! Were all in LA LA land if we think there wil ever be peace in the MID-EAST!
Little biased don’t you think? The Arab nations have figured out they cannot defeat Israel militarily so they try to use cunning and black propaganda to accomplish their political aims. That is where the simple Arab mind that you mentioned comes into play, they believe the crap these conflict mongers spew forth. This ranting by Muslims is no different than the cartoons in the Danish newspaper. No one said a word when the exact same cartoons were printed in Egypt years before. But then an orchestrated and intentional frothing of the masses began by the powers at hand when the same cartoons appeared in a Christian country. The rebuilding of the ramp has been in the media for years, all sides agreed it needed to be done, there are archaeologists from both faiths present during the limited excavations. There are multiple cameras that film 24/7 at the dig that can be accessed by the Internet to make sure no trickery goes on.
From a Yahoo news article:
“They film all angles of the works so people can view what’s going there all hours of the day,” she said. “The works do not go anywhere near any holy site and everybody can see that from the cameras.”
This is a simple municipal improvement but its going to elevated into a major conflict because of ignorance nourished by black propagandist leaders that take advantage of simple folk who will end up bearing the burden of reprisals if there are any. It’s a suicidal cycle generated by people who will never have to suffer the consequences of their folly. This is not a cunning conspiracy by the Israeli government designed to damage the mosque or humiliate Muslims. I understand that the Arab world is conspiracy driven as a result of their feelings of frustration and impotence from not being able to improve their lives over generations. That is not because of the Jews or because of the creation of Israel regardless of the never ending propaganda telling you so. It is because of leaders who use their people and their well being as pawns in an international game of suffering and pity. You can fool some of the people some of the time but you can’t fool all the people all of the time.
I will admit guys, YES ofcourse i’m somewhat biased!! But believe me i try to look at situations from the other prespective…and try to be responsible in my replies, but ofcourse i do fly off the handle sometimes! I’m sure you guys understand, specially when being called Racist Remarks and when people just attack and stereotype all Muslims/Arabs! All i ask is if you want to understand my viewpoints just check my blog! 😉
You’ve earned some of my respect MP!
MP,
Confessing any bias is appreciated, and I have checked you blog and seen both evidence of your bias and evidence of your efforts to find a middle road. I don’t claim to be without bias either.
I think this is the wrong issue, however, for you to get fired up about. This is one of those issues you should be confronting your less enlightened readers on.
We can argue ad nauseum about Israeli treatment of Palestinians, settlements, and treatment of the disputed/occupied territories, and the “right of return” amongst other issues. You may be surprised where we are in agreement, but the fact remains that this particular issue is very straight forward and can serve to build good faith between those of us opposed on other issues, making it easier to compromise by building trust.
I think several very strong points have been made above and while I appreciate the admission of bias (and the implicit apology for some of your rasher statements in prior threads), I’m still not certain if you concede any of the fine points, above. If we could see that you are not only capable of conceding your bias, but admitting where you may have backed the wrong course, you will have far greater credibility in future discourse (at least with me).
And let me say, should I deign to comment in future threads and you can make a compelling point that I am factually inaccurate or that conclusions or logically faulty, you can feel free to hold me to the standard I set forth, above, and expect my concession on any such point.
i do fly off the handle sometimes! I’m sure you guys understand
I don’t. You sounded like a nut.