10/02/00 4:25 p.m.
Not of This World
The Temple Mount problem.

By Michael Ledeen

eneral Ariel Sharon's passion for the Temple Mount goes back a long way. In the mid-1980s, when Sharon was Defense Minister of Israel, the now-famous tunnel along the Western Wall in Jerusalem was being excavated by a lone Iranian Jew with a pickaxe and a wheelbarrow. At a certain point he had begun a new tunnel, leading under the Temple Mount itself. Like so much that occurs in the Middle East, the excavation was both secret and well known by scores of Israelis and the Jordanian Muslim authority — the Waqf — that had formal control of the Temple Mount.

The tunnel attracted numerous visitors, some because of the incredible beauty of the almost luminous white stones that provided the base for the ancient wall around Solomon's Temple, others because of the inexplicable precision with which the tongue-and-groove construction in the multi-ton stones had been cut, and still others because the place spoke to their innermost passions, whether purely religious or exclusively zionist. One of these was Arik Sharon, a man not noted for his religious observance, but rather for his dedication to the survival of the Jewish State. Sharon was a frequent visitor to the tunnel, and, as events would reveal, was intimately involved with the excavations.

One day, as the Iranian excavator chopped his way through the dirt and stones under the Temple Mount, he suddenly broke through into a cistern. Arabs at the top heard the noise, and jumped down the well, and there was a dramatic confrontation. The excavator raced back and reported the event to the rabbi in charge of the area, rabbi Getz, who immediately picked up his phone and dialed the number of Ariel Sharon, who was at that moment on a visit to Ethiopea. Sharon took the call, and the two discussed the matter at some length. Exactly what they said is not known, but shortly thereafter, the side tunnel was walled up, and remains sealed to this day.

Why did these people want to create access to the Temple Mount? Most of the time, the popular press and the professional diplomats give the wrong answer, for the importance of this site far transcends the "peace process," or the "Arab-Israeli" thing. The Temple Mount contains one Muslim mosque — al-Aqsa — and a structure known as the Dome of the Rock, a Muslim monument that is not used for prayer services, but which contains an enormous stone of great importance to all three of the area's major religions. It is the rock from which Muhammed ascended to Heaven (on horseback), the rock on which Abraham prepared to sacrifice Isaac, and the site of Solomon's Temple, from which Jesus expelled the money lenders.

It is also the only place in all Israel where freedom of religion is restricted to Muslims. When Israeli troops conquered Jerusalem in the 6-Day War, Moshe Dayan — a man without a religious bone in his body — insisted that the area be turned back to Arab control, and, ever since, the Waqf has banned any religious practice aside from its own. Moreover, the Waqf has devoted the past 33 years to an extensive campaign of excavation, systematically destroying any evidence of Jewish and Christian presence on the Temple Mount, so that they could argue — as they now do — that it has always been an exclusively Muslim place.

This dramatic effort to rewrite the history of the Middle East has greatly offended Christians and Jews, who reasonably ask why they should not be permitted to celebrate their own past and their own faith at a place holy to three major religions. Indeed, it is not only holy, it is millenial: it is the place where many Christians believe Christ will return, and many Jews believe the Messiah will come, to mark the end of human history and usher in the rule of God.

The Muslims are well aware of these beliefs, which they not only do not share but violently consider anathema. This is one reason why they unhesitatingly called for an uprising to coincide with the Jewish New Year, one of the holiest days on the Jewish calendar. They know, and we should all realize, that the struggle for control over the Temple Mount is far more than one more contentious issue along the road to a final settlement between Israelis and Palestinians. It is an ultimate issue, having to do with salvation and damnation, Heaven and Hell, and good and evil. Diplomats can draw all the lines they wish, but the Temple Mount is not subject to that kind of negotiation.

Just ask Ariel Sharon.