www.atlantajewishtimes.com
OPINION
Our View
Mounting Trouble
T
he observance of Tisha B’Av, the
day that marks the destruction
of both Temples, brought new
reminders about how far Jerusalem is
from peace.
Riots broke out on the Temple
Mount on Sunday, July 26. Maybe they
were sparked by an Israeli woman —
one woman — being filmed three days
earlier saying that the Prophet Muhammad was a pig. Maybe they were
sparked by a visit by hundreds of Jews,
including Agriculture Minister Uri Ariel, to the Temple Mount — just visiting,
not demonstrating or, horror of horrors, praying.
But most likely the Palestinian rioters were just looking for an excuse
to disrupt a Jewish day of mourning by
reasserting their claims to the holiest
of grounds. After all, they had a stockpile of Molotov cocktails, firecrackers
and other makeshift weapons inside
Al-Aqsa Mosque, and they were going
to use them, either against the security
forces that rushed to quell the violence
or against the worshippers below at the
foot of the Western Wall.
To add insult to injury, an Arab
member of the Knesset, Masud Ganaim, then went on Israeli radio to criticize the Jewish provocations and deny
that any Jewish Temple ever existed on
the mount, despite ample archaeological and documentary evidence.
It wasn’t the first time and won’t
be the last time that an Arab leader
who knows better has chosen to keep
trouble simmering by denying the history of the Temple Mount, a site Israel
allows the Muslim Waqf to control.
Muslims have free access to worship
as they please, while Jews who ascend
to the top are barred by security forces
from whispering the briefest prayer.
The Chief Rabbinate has ruled
since 1921 that Jews should not walk
atop the Temple Mount for fear of
stepping into an area that requires
unattainable ritual purity. Those who
choose to ignore that ruling have the
support of court decisions if they then
decide to pray on the Temple Mount,
but security forces have consistently
stopped non-Muslim prayers to avoid
Arab rioting.
As we saw yet again on Tisha B’Av,
the slightest perceived provocation is
used as an excuse for such riots — the
Second Intifada, for example, began
when Ariel Sharon dared to visit the
Temple Mount in September 2000 —
with the result that Jews are treated
as second-class citizens on our holiest
site. (We’re not sure how this particular
unequal treatment fits into the slanderous claims of Israeli apartheid.)
Critics love to blame Israel for
the lack of progress toward a peaceful
settlement with the Palestinians, and
many Israeli governments have made
mistakes in the 67 years since gaining
independence, 48 years since uniting
Jerusalem, 36 years since making peace
with Egypt and 22 years since signing
the Oslo Accords with Yasser Arafat.
But the fundamental barrier to
peace remains the widespread denial
of reality among the Palestinian leadership — the reality that the Jewish
people have continuously lived and
worshipped in the land of Israel for
more than 3,000 years and the reality
that the nation of Israel exists today
and is not going away.
A site universally seen as holy
ought to be the easiest place to establish
peaceful coexistence. That it remains a
source of strife just adds to the sorrows
for which we mourn each Tisha B’Av. ■
HA&W welcomes
Davi Kutner, CFP
®
as Director of
HA&W Wealth Management, LLC
Atlantans Make
Chicago List
JULY 31 ▪ 2015
Last year the AJT recognized 40
Under 40 in Jewish Atlanta. We didn’t
repeat the list this summer, but we
note with pride that two native Atlantans, 33-year-olds Avi Levine and
David Perkel, have earned places on
Chicago’s equivalent 36 Under 36 list,
created by Oy!Chicago and the Jewish
United Fund of Metropolitan Chicago.
Levine started and sold a plugin
for email programs called PhilterIt
and is the executive director of the
Digital Professional Institute. Rabbi
Perkel is a commercial real estate
lawyer who also leads Orthodox davening and teaches Torah at Congrega10 tion Ezras Israel. Mazel tov. ■
AJT
Davi Kutner, CFP®
[email protected]
770-353-5919
Five Concourse Parkway, Suite 1000, Atlanta, GA 30328
Phone: 404-892-9651 ¢ www.hawcpa.com