The Things to Come

By Hal Lindsey

Syria had originally dismissed reports of the explosion by saying the blast was generated by the desert heat causing the accidental detonation of a stockpile of explosives.

Jane’s reported that the explosion was actually triggered while the engineers were fitting a chemical warhead onto a Scud-C missile. The explosion and fire released containers of the deadly nerve agents VX and sarin gas, as well as a mustard gas blistering agent.

Israeli Internal Security Minister Avi Dichter told reporters this week, “Iran has entered into strategic cooperation with Syria on conventional and nonconventional weapons development,” adding, “The Iranians are very big in Syria.”

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Iran’s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is preparing Syria to cover his flank, should war break out between Israel and Iran over Tehran’s nuclear arsenal. Ahmadinejad is evidently gambling on Syria taking out Israel while Iran squares off against the United States. Were Iran and Israel to face each other head-to-head, one or the other would inevitably cease to exist. Israel would have no choice but to annihilate Iran before Iran annihilated Israel.

Israel’s “Samson Option” is named after the biblical judge who sacrificed himself in order to take his enemies with him. In the event of its impending destruction, Israel’s retaliatory plan involves taking the Middle East along with it.

As the Iraq experience has proved, war with the United States is survivable. The terms of Israel’s “Samson Option” mean war with Israel involving first-use weapons of mass destruction is not.

To Ahmadinejad’s way of thinking, if somebody has to be martyred to the Mahdi’s cause, why not Syria? Twenty-five hundred odd years ago, the Hebrew prophet Isaiah prophesied of the destruction of Damascus. This prophecy is made more fascinating by the fact it remains unfulfilled in history.

Damascus is the oldest continually inhabited city on earth. Although conquered many times, its status as an economic and cultural center of antiquity preserved it intact to this day.

But Isaiah predicted Damascus would one day face utter destruction: “Behold, Damascus is about to be removed from being a city and it will become a fallen ruin,” he writes in Isaiah 17:1.

The prophet also predicts Damascus’ destruction will come at a time when “the glory of Jacob” had begun to fade (verse 4), at a time when Israel is in great peril of being “shaken like an olive tree,” leaving only a few “on the topmost bough.”

Isaiah prophesies that, when Damascus’ destruction comes, there will be “an uproar of many peoples” and “the rumbling of nations” but that they will flee at God’s rebuke.

It seems clear from recent events that Syria is preparing chemical and biological weapons, and possibly some form of nuclear weapon for use in some future war against Israel. Syria and Iran have been outfitting Hezbollah with the latest in offensive weaponry since the war of June 2006.

Israel is unlikely to sit back and wait for a first-use chemical or gas attack from Damascus. Neither is it likely to wait until Ahmadinejad can use Syria to flank them in the event of conflict with Iran. So the number of Israeli raids against Syrian targets is likely to escalate until either Israel has destroyed the threat or Syria responds militarily. If Syria attacks with weapons of mass destruction, it can expect a massive, in-kind Israeli response.

Bible prophecy doesn’t make allowances for a full-scale unconventional war of annihilation of Israel by Iran, however. Ezekiel predicts Iran’s participation of the Gog-Magog invasion as part of a Russian-led alliance, not a regional alliance with Syria. Both Iran and Israel are listed as participants in that future conflict.

But Syria isn’t.

Syria isn’t numbered among any of the various protagonists prophesied to participate in the conflicts of the last days.

Isaiah describes the destruction of Damascus in much the same terms that would be used today to describe the effects of all-out, no-holds-barred Israeli retaliatory strike against a Syrian gas attack.

“At evening time, behold, there is terror! Before morning, they are no more” (Isaiah 17:13-14).

Assad had better reconsider his options – while he still has some.

POLICE STATE, USA
Travelers outraged by private research group’s request

Motorists in Colorado are expressing outrage over a weekend stunt in Gilpin County, about an hour’s drive west of Denver, where highway checkpoints were set up so a private organization could ask for samples of blood and saliva.

“I don’t think they’re authorized to do what they’re doing, and I view it as a gross violation of law-enforcement protocol,” Roberto Sequeira, 51, told reporters for the Denver Post.

He said he and his wife were “detained” for about 15 minutes even after they protested they wanted to get home because of a sleepy child in their car.

Sheriff’s officials were apologizing after they helped set up and run five separate checkpoints over the weekend.

They said workers for the Institute for Research and Evaluation were overly persistent in their demands of innocent travelers.

“It was like a telemarketer that you couldn’t hang up on,” Undersheriff John Bayne told the newspaper.

Sgt. Bob Enney said the deputies’ assistance to the organization involved stopping motorists at the sites along Colorado Highway 119 for “surveys” on any drug or alcohol use. Surveyors also requested that motorists submit to breath, blood and saliva tests.

Enney said several hundred motorists were tested, and some later complained.

Sequeira said he repeatedly asked if the questioners were law enforcement officials and said he was not interested in participating in the study, but still was not given clearance to leave.

He told the newspaper that he and his family were approached by two researchers, and even after his repeated refusals, officials offered his wife, who was driving, $100 to get the couple to take part in a breath test.

“I think it’s very dangerous,” he told the newspaper. “Sometimes at checkpoints, unfortunate things happen.”

PIRE spokeswoman Michelle Blackston told WND the deputies “did not stop” any drivers. “It was a voluntary survey. … Nobody approached them. There were signs saying that a survey was taking place. Nobody waved them down.”

She said she was unaware whether the private organization reimbursed the county for the expense of having the deputies at the traffic sites. The organization’s own researchers get the results of the work, she said.

Also to the newspaper, PIRE officials defended their actions. They said such statistics are important to gauge the impact of laws and enforcement policy. Their questions began over the summer and will continue at other locations around the nation through November, they said.

“We’ve been literally surveying thousands of people,” John Lacey, of the Alcohol, Policy and Safety Research Center, said. It’s through that organization PIRE is doing its research.

He said researchers push a few of those who initially refuse to participate to reconsider – even offering incentives.

“If we don’t do that, the criticism will come out that we had so many who were refusers,” Lacey told the newspaper.

Bayne said a similar study was done in the county several years ago, with no complaints, but he admitted last weekend’s effort was aggressive.

“The people were too persistent,” he told the Post. “Some people didn’t feel it was voluntary.”

Officials with the Colorado chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union said the fact that sheriff’s deputies were on the scene, and surveyors wore blue jumpsuits, could have confused drivers.

Sequeira said his family was directed by sheriff’s officials to pull over and he and his wife were greeted by “youthful, college” surveyors.

“We had a 10-year-old in the back who’s tired, we tell them thanks but no thanks, we have to get this child back home to bed,” he told the paper. But the workers persisted, telling them they would be provided help driving home if needed. Then they offered the $100.

“We say, ‘No thank you, we have to get our child home,’” he recalled. “At this point, both clones start chortling at us and ridiculing us.”

On a newspaper forum, the opinion was running fairly close to unison:

“The very act of pulling a motorist over subjects him/her and their vehicle (at very least) to a visual search. This means if the motorist was pulled over without suspicion of violating a law, than (sic) they have been subjected to an unlawful search…,” wrote Warren Gregory.

“For the record the proper response to ANY such incursion into privacy is to ask the question, Am I under Arrest? If the answer is no ask if you are free to go. If you are told no demand to be arrested or you will leave and then leave,” added Frank Vicek.

THE FALL FEASTS: ROSH HASHANAH

Chuck Missler www.khouse.org

This week Jewish communities throughout the world will celebrate Rosh Hashanah. Rosh Hashanah literally means “head of the year” and commemorates the anniversary of the creation of the world. It is celebrated on the first day of the month of Tishri. This year, Rosh Hashanah will begin at sundown on September 12 and end at nightfall on September 13.

May you be inscribed and sealed for a good year.

FROM WND’S JERUSALEM BUREAU
Israel allows Muslims to pulverize antiquities as media, archeologists barred

By Aaron Klein

Members of the Waqf, the Islamic custodians of the Mount, are using bulldozers to carve on Judaism’s holiest site a massive trench that reportedly is destroying antiquities from what archaeologists believe is a wall from the Second Jewish Temple.

Israel has barred archaeologists from inspecting the artifacts, believed to be from the outer courtyard of the Second Temple. If verified, the wall would be the most significant Jewish Temple find in history.

“It is incomprehensible that the State of Israel would allow for a non-Jewish religious entity that denies the very existence of the two Temples to be entrusted with digging on the Temple Mount. Such inconsistent and distorted principles signify a lack of sensitivity towards our own land and history,” stated a letter to Olmert from the National Council of Young Israel.

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The Council represents more than 150 community synagogues in the United States and Canada, as well as more than 50 community synagogues throughout Israel.

“As a group of Diaspora and Israeli Jews who hold the utmost regard for the Temple Mount and other holy places throughout the land of Israel, we must state our outrage at the Israeli government’s decision to allow the Waqf to dig on the Temple Mount, destroying what appear to be remnants of a wall built during the second Temple period,” states the letter.

The Council goes on to petition Olmert to halt the digging on the Temple Mount immediately and give instant access to all interested parties to survey the digging area and any artifacts that have been uncovered and/or damaged.

Last month, the Waqf was given permission by Olmert to use bulldozers and other heavy equipment to dig a massive trench it claims is necessary to replace electrical cables outside mosques on the site. The dig, which extends to most of the periphery of the Mount, is being protected by the Israeli police and is supposed to be supervised by the Israeli government’s Antiquities Authority.

Earlier this month, after bulldozers dug a trench 1,300 feet long and five feet deep, the Muslim diggers came across a wall Israeli archaeologists believe may be remains of an area of the Second Jewish Temple known as the woman’s courtyard.

Possible carved stone from Jewish Temple-era antiquity exposed by digging at Temple Mount in Jerusalem

WND last week obtained a photograph of the massive Waqf trench. In view in the picture are concrete slabs broken by Waqf bulldozers and a chopped up carved stone believed to be of Jewish Temple-era antiquity.

Third-generation Temple Mount archaeologist Eilat Mazar analyzed the photo and said the damaged stone displays elements of the second Temple era and might be part of the Jewish Temple wall Israeli archaeologists charge the Waqf has been attempting to destroy. She said in order to certify the stone in the photo, she would need to personally inspect it.

Mazar is also a fellow at Israel’s Shalem Center and member of the Public Committee for Prevention of the Destruction of Antiquities on Temple Mount. Her much-discussed discovery in the City of David, a neighborhood just south of Jerusalem’s Old City Walls, is a massive building dating to the 10th century B.C. It is believed to be the remains of the palace of biblical King David, the second leader of a united kingdom of Israel, who ruled from around 1005 to 965 B.C.

Israel, though, is blocking leading archeologists from surveying the massive damage Islamic authorities are accused of causing during the latest excavation.

The Israeli government Antiquities Authority, responsible for ensuring the archaeological integrity of the Mount, has not halted the dig and has not inspected the site. The Waqf has continued using bulldozers to carve away at the trench containing the wall and steadfastly has denied it is destroying any antiquities.

“The Antiquities Authority tells us to coordinate with the police. The police send us back to the Antiquities Authority,” said Mazar.

The Antiquities Authority did not return repeated requests for comment.

“It’s crucial this wall is inspected,” the archaeologist said. “The Temple Mount ground level is only slightly above the original Temple Mount platform, meaning anything found is likely from the Temple itself.”

Muslims bar WND from Temple dig

Last Thursday, the Muslim Waqf custodians of the Temple Mount barred WND from inspecting and filming their massive trench.

The confrontation was captured on video by InfoLive.tv, a new, Internet-based television network broadcasting in four languages.

WND and the InfoLive.tv camera crew ascended the Mount to obtain footage of the trench, but Waqf guards backed up by the Israeli police stopped the news agencies from approaching open sections of the trench. The guards told WND only closed areas of the trench could be filmed. Sections of the massive trench were being closed up with dirt before archeologists were able to inspect the site.

After persisting, one Waqf guard asked WND to shut off the camera and vacate the Temple Mount.

Mazar and other top archaeologists also recently attempted to inspect the Waqf trench. Two weeks ago they ascended the Mount to hold a news conference and inspect the site without government permission, but they were blocked from the trench by the Israeli police.

“It is unconscionable that the Israeli government is permitting the Waqf to use heavy equipment to chop away at the most important archaeological site in the country without supervision,” Mazar said.

“The Israeli government is actively blocking us from inspecting the site and what may be a monumental find and is doing nothing while the Waqf destroys artifacts at Judaism’s holiest site,” she said.

Rabbi Chaim Richman, director of Israel’s Temple Institute, was among those on the Mount last month with Mazar. He told WND he attempted to take pictures of the damage the bulldozers are allegedly wrecking on the wall, but his digital camera was confiscated by Israeli police at the direction of Waqf officials.

“If Israel was building a shopping mall and they found what may be an ancient Buddhist structure, the government would stop the construction and have archaeologists go over the area with a fine tooth comb. Here, the holiest site in Judaism is being damaged, a Temple wall was found, and Israel is actively blocking experts from inspecting the site while allowing the destruction to continue,” Richman said.

Richman charged the Waqf was “trying to erase Jewish vestiges from the Temple Mount.”

Muslim custodians have a history of destroying Temple artifacts

The last time the Waqf conducted a large dig on the Temple Mount – during construction 10 years ago of a massive mosque at an area referred to as Solomon’s Stables – the Wafq reportedly disposed of truckloads of dirt containing Jewish artifacts from the First and Second Temple periods.

After media reported the disposals, Israeli authorities froze the construction permit given to the Wafq, and the dirt was transferred to Israeli archaeologists for analysis. The Israeli authorities found scores of Jewish Temple relics in the nearly disposed dirt, including coins with Hebrew writing referencing the Temple, part of a Hasmonean lamp, several other Second Temple lamps, Temple-period pottery with Jewish markings, a marble pillar shaft and other Temple period artifacts. The Waqf was widely accused of attempting to hide evidence of the existence of the Jewish Temples.

Temples ‘never existed’

Most Palestinian leaders routinely deny well-documented Jewish ties to the Temple Mount.

Speaking to WND in a recent interview, Waqf official and chief Palestinian Justice Taysir Tamimi claimed the Jewish Temples “never existed.”

“About these so-called two Temples, they never existed, certainly not at the Haram Al- Sharif (Temple Mount),” said Tamimi, who is considered the second most important Palestinian cleric after Muhammad Hussein, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem.

“Israel started since 1967 making archaeological digs to show Jewish signs to prove the relationship between Judaism and the city, and they found nothing. There is no Jewish connection to Israel before the Jews invaded in the 1880s,” said Tamimi.

The Palestinian cleric denied the validity of dozens of digs verified by experts worldwide revealing Jewish artifacts from the First and Second Temples, tunnels that snake under the Temple Mount and more than 100 ritual immersion pools believed to have been used by Jewish priests to cleanse themselves before services. The cleansing process is detailed in the Torah.

Asked about the Western Wall, Tamimi said the structure was a tying post for Muhammad’s horse and that it is part of the Al Aqsa Mosque, even though the wall predates the mosque by more than 1,000 years.

“The Western Wall is the western wall of the Al Aqsa Mosque. It’s where Prophet Muhammad tied his animal which took him from Mecca to Jerusalem to receive the revelations of Allah.”

The Palestinian media also regularly claim the Jewish Temples never existed.

Judaism’s holiest site

While the Temple Mount is the holiest site in Judaism, Muslims say it is their third holiest site.

The First Jewish Temple was built by King Solomon in the 10th century B.C. It was destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 B.C. The Second Temple was rebuilt in 515 B.C. after Jerusalem was freed from Babylonian captivity. It was expanded by King Herod in 19 B.C. shortly before the birth of Jesus. That temple was destroyed by the Roman Empire in A.D. 70. Each temple stood for a period of about four centuries.

The Jewish Temple was the center of religious Jewish worship. It housed the Holy of Holies, which contained the Ark of the Covenant and was said to be the area upon which God’s “presence” dwelt. The Dome of the Rock now sits on the site and the Al Aqsa Mosque is adjacent.

The temple served as the primary location for the offering of sacrifices and was the main gathering place in Israel during Jewish holidays.

The Temple Mount compound has remained a focal point for Jewish services over the millennia. Prayers for a return to Jerusalem have been uttered by Jews since the Second Temple was destroyed, according to Jewish tradition. Jews worldwide pray facing toward the Western Wall, a portion of an outer courtyard of the Temple left intact.

The Al Aqsa Mosque was constructed around A.D. 709 to serve as a shrine near another shrine, the Dome of the Rock, which was built by an Islamic caliph. Al Aqsa was meant to mark where Muslims came to believe Muhammad, the founder of Islam, ascended to heaven.

Jerusalem is not mentioned in the Quran. Islamic tradition states Muhammad took a journey in a single night from “a sacred mosque” – believed to be in Mecca in southern Saudi Arabia – to “the farthest mosque” and from a rock there ascended to heaven. The farthest mosque later became associated with Jerusalem.

As we lock the doors after a phenomenal Prophecy Conference, I am left with my own thoughts on how best to summarize and sort through a mountain of great information, encouragement, and great confidence that He is near, even at the door. The world is careening toward judgment, and the believer who does not have even a working knowledge of what the Bible says will happen in the last days could easily be caught in the web of deception that dominates every world system, whether financial, political, or religious. I am amazed at how easily swayed and undiscerning believers are and this to their own peril.

One of the highlights was a live phone interview from Jerusalem between Joseph Farah of World Net Daily and Rabbi Chaim Richman of the Temple Mount Institute as we watch the events unfolding around the Temple Mount, whether it be the archaeological destruction taking place there, or the pressure by Palestinian negotiators to give the Mount away in the name of “peace”. You could have heard a pin drop in that sanctuary as we listened to him describe the current events and his plea to honor God by speaking up about it to Israeli leadership. Everyone I have spoken to on this issue is as grieved as I am that the Israeli government does not seem to care about this great piece of land – the center of the universe – and what it means to them as a nation and a people. Another thing we were encouraged to watch for is economic factors that may indicate we are heading toward a much larger global economy and a decrease in US influence on that front. We’ll have to see what form that might take, but it appears that changes are coming that will greatly affect the American head-in-the-sand (or is it the mall?) attitude that there is plenty of money and work and it will always be so.

The bottom line is that if you are a believer, you will be under spiritual attack more and more, and need to draw near to Christ every moment. The Bible tells us to ‘take no thought for tomorrow’ as sufficient unto today is the evil thereof, that tomorrow will have it’s own troubles. We must take this to heart or we will be caught up in all manner of anxiety and fear. The world is tossing as the waves of the sea; where do you go for your peace? Who to you allow to steal your peace? Brethren, now is the time to be strong personally, uncompromising spiritually, and be watching and waiting for His appearing. Maranatha!

FROM WND’S JERUSALEM BUREAU
Archaeologists kept out as Israel allows Muslims to pulverize antiquities at Judaism’s holiest site

By Aaron Klein

Possible carved stone from Jewish Temple-era antiquity exposed by digging at Temple Mount in Jerusalem

JERUSALEM – The Christian world and top U.S. Christian leaders are being urged to petition the Israeli government to immediately halt a massive dig Islamic authorities are conducting on the Temple Mount – Judaism’s holiest site – that is said to be destroying antiquities and what archaeologists believe is a wall from the Second Jewish Temple.

The Israeli government has barred archaeologists from inspecting the Temple-era wall, believed to be from the outer courtyard of the Second Temple.

The wall reportedly has been pulverized by bulldozers operated by the Waqf, the Mount’s Muslim custodians.

If verified, the wall would be the most significant Jewish Temple find in history.

“The Christian people must rise up and stand with their brethren in Israel and make their voices heard to stop this travesty,” states an open letter from Israel’s Temple Institute, an organization seeking to promote awareness of the Temple Mount. “We are asking Christians to do everything possible to petition the Israeli government to halt the Waqf destruction and have archaeologists immediately inspect the area.”

The Temple Institute is asking concerned Christians to contact Olmert’s office.

“As a result of destructive and wanton bulldozing by the Waqf – with Israeli permission – a section of the wall of the Holy Temple in the area universally recognized as the location of the Women’s Court has been unearthed,” the letter states. “This is the first time since the destruction of the Second Temple that actual physical evidence of the Temple has been revealed. But all of the antiquities of the Temple that have been uncovered are in danger of being destroyed if you don’t help.”

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Leading Israeli archaeologists, speaking to WND, also urged the Christian world to act immediately:

“The Christian world and all those who care about safeguarding the Temple Mount must immediately join us in our efforts to protect the holy site and demand that the Israeli government stop the Waqf construction,” prominent, third-generation Temple Mount archaeologist Eilat Mazar said.

Trench dug by Islamic keepers of Temple Mount

“The Temple Mount is important to people of all religions. Now is the time to act before more antiquities are erased,” said Mazar, a senior fellow at Israel’s Shalem Center and member of the Public Committee for Prevention of the Destruction of Antiquities on Temple Mount.

Mazar’s much-discussed discovery in the City of David, a neighborhood just south of Jerusalem’s Old City Walls, is a massive building that dates to the 10th century BC is believed is the remains of the palace of the biblical King David, the second leader of a united Kingdom of Israel, who ruled from around 1005 to 965 B.C.

This weekend, Islamic authorities using heavy machinery to dig on the Temple Mount were caught red-handed by WND destroying Temple-era antiquities and the purported outer wall of the Second Jewish Temple.

Last month, they were given permission by Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to use bulldozers and other heavy equipment to dig a massive trench they say is necessary to replace electrical cables outside mosques on the holy site. The dig, which extends to most of the periphery of the Mount, is being protected by the Israeli police and is supposed to be supervised by the Israeli government’s Antiquities Authority.

Digging at Temple Mount in Jerusalem

Earlier this month, after bulldozers dug a trench 1,300 feet long and five feet deep, the Muslim diggers came across a wall Israeli archaeologists believe may be remains of an area of the Second Jewish Temple known as the woman’s courtyard.

The Antiquities Authority has not halted the dig and has not inspected the site. The Waqf has continued using bulldozers to blast away at the trench containing the wall and has steadfastly denied it is destroying any antiquities.

But WND obtained a photograph of the massive Waqf trench. In view in the picture are concrete slabs broken by Waqf bulldozers and a chopped up carved stone believed to be of Jewish Temple-era antiquity.

Mazar analyzed the photo and said the damaged stone displays elements of the second Temple era and might be part of the Jewish Temple wall Israeli archaeologists charge the Waqf has been attempting to destroy. She said in order to certify the stone in the photo, she would need to personally inspect it.

But Israel is blocking leading archaeologists from surveying the massive damage Islamic authorities are accused of causing to what may be the outer wall of the Second Jewish Temple.

“The Antiquities Authority tells us to coordinate with the police. The police send us back to the Antiquities Authority,” said Mazar.

The Antiquities Authority did not return repeated requests for comment.

Temple Mount dig

“It’s crucial this wall is inspected. The Temple Mount ground level is only slightly above the original Temple Mount platform, meaning anything found is likely from the Temple itself,” the archaeologist said.

Fed up, Mazar and other top archaeologists last week ascended the Mount to hold a news conference and inspect the site without government permission, but they were blocked from the trench by the Israeli police.

“It is unconscionable that the Israeli government is permitting the Waqf to use heavy equipment to chop away at the most important archaeological site in the country without supervision,” Mazar said.

“The Israeli government is actively blocking us from inspecting the site and what may be a monumental find and is doing nothing while the Waqf destroys artifacts at Judaism’s holiest site,” she said.

Mount destruction ‘attempt to undermine God’s sovereignty’

In his group’s letter to the Christian world today, Rabbi Chaim Richman, director of the international department at Israel’s Temple Institute, pointed out what he said was the significant of the Islamic dig on the Temple Mount.

To understand the Waqf destruction as merely an archaeological issue would be myopic. It would also be a mistake to consider these actions as nothing more than a heartless and cruel attack against another religion and culture. These atrocities are not being committed solely against the Jewish people and their traditions. This is an attack on humankind by enemies of the God of Israel Aside from the political implications regarding the future of Jerusalem and the direct effect that this will have on the entire world, the spiritual implications of what is now transpiring are enormous. The Bible consistently emphasizes the centrality of the Holy Temple in the life of mankind; it is none other than the ‘footstool’ of God in the world.

The destruction of God’s holy mountain is precisely what is taking place at this very moment under our very eyes. The purposeful destruction of remnants of the Holy Temple are an attempt to undermine God’s sovereignty and to erase His name from the one place on earth that He has chosen to manifest His presence throughout the saga of human history.

Richman called the Temple Mount “central to humanity.”

“Our sages teach us that Adam, the first man, was created from the spot of the altar in the Holy Temple. All of Adam’s descendants – the family of man who are created in the Divine image – are therefore under attack.”

Richman was among those on the Mount last week with Mazar. He told WND he attempted to take pictures of the damage the bulldozers are allegedly wrecking on the wall, but his digital camera was confiscated by Israeli police at the direction of Waqf officials.

“If Israel was building a shopping mall and they found what may be an ancient Buddhist structure, the government would stop the construction and have archaeologists go over the area with a fine tooth comb. Here, the holiest site in Judaism is being damaged, a Temple wall was found, and Israel is actively blocking experts from inspecting the site while allowing the destruction to continue,” Richman said.

Richman charged the Waqf was “trying to erase Jewish vestiges from the Temple Mount.”

(bold) Muslim custodians have history of destroying Temple artifacts

The last time the Waqf conducted a large dig on the Temple Mount – during construction 10 years ago of a massive mosque at an area referred to as Solomon’s Stables – the Wafq reportedly disposed truckloads of dirt containing Jewish artifacts from the First and Second Temple periods.

After the media reported the disposals, Israeli authorities froze the construction permit given to the Wafq, and the dirt was transferred to Israeli archaeologists for analysis. The Israeli authorities found scores of Jewish Temple relics in the nearly disposed dirt, including coins with Hebrew writing referencing the Temple, part of a Hasmonean lamp, several other Second Temple lamps, Temple period pottery with Jewish markings, a marble pillar shaft and other Temple period artifacts. The Waqf was widely accused of attempting to hide evidence of the existence of the Jewish Temples.

Temples ‘never existed’

Most Palestinian leaders routinely deny well-documented Jewish ties to the Temple Mount.

Speaking to WND in a recent interview, Waqf official and chief Palestinian Justice Taysir Tamimi claimed the Jewish Temples “never existed.”

“About these so-called two Temples, they never existed, certainly not at the Haram Al- Sharif (Temple Mount),” said Tamimi, who is considered the second most important Palestinian cleric after Muhammad Hussein, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem.

“Israel started since 1967 making archaeological digs to show Jewish signs to prove the relationship between Judaism and the city, and they found nothing. There is no Jewish connection to Israel before the Jews invaded in the 1880s,” said Tamimi.

The Palestinian cleric denied the validity of dozens of digs verified by experts worldwide revealing Jewish artifacts from the First and Second Temples, tunnels that snake under the Temple Mount and more than 100 ritual immersion pools believed to have been used by Jewish priests to cleanse themselves before services. The cleansing process is detailed in the Torah.

Asked about the Western Wall, Tamimi said the structure was a tying post for Muhammad’s horse and that it is part of the Al Aqsa Mosque, even though the wall predates the mosque by more than 1,000 years.

“The Western Wall is the western wall of the Al Aqsa Mosque. It’s where Prophet Muhammad tied his animal which took him from Mecca to Jerusalem to receive the revelations of Allah.”

The Palestinian media also regularly claim the Jewish Temples never existed.

Judaism’s holiest site

While the Temple Mount is the holiest site in Judaism, Muslims say it is their third holiest site.

The First Jewish Temple was built by King Solomon in the 10th century B.C. It was destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 B.C. The Second Temple was rebuilt in 515 B.C. after Jerusalem was freed from Babylonian captivity. That temple was destroyed by the Roman Empire in A.D. 70. Each temple stood for a period of about four centuries.

The Jewish Temple was the center of religious Jewish worship. It housed the Holy of Holies, which contained the Ark of the Covenant and was said to be the area upon which God’s “presence” dwelt. The Dome of the Rock now sits on the site and the Al Aqsa Mosque is adjacent.

The temple served as the primary location for the offering of sacrifices and was the main gathering place in Israel during Jewish holidays.

The Temple Mount compound has remained a focal point for Jewish services over the millennia. Prayers for a return to Jerusalem have been uttered by Jews since the Second Temple was destroyed, according to Jewish tradition. Jews worldwide pray facing toward the Western Wall, a portion of an outer courtyard of the Temple left intact.

The Al Aqsa Mosque was constructed around A.D. 709 to serve as a shrine near another shrine, the Dome of the Rock, which was built by an Islamic caliph. Al Aqsa was meant to mark where Muslims came to believe Muhammad, the founder of Islam, ascended to heaven.

Jerusalem is not mentioned in the Quran. Islamic tradition states Muhammad took a journey in a single night from “a sacred mosque” – believed to be in Mecca in southern Saudi Arabia – to “the farthest mosque” and from a rock there ascended to heaven. The farthest mosque later became associated with Jerusalem.