According to the official news agency of the PA, WAFA, Palestinian newspapers and other media over the weekend ignored most of the al-Qaeda induced mayhem, tearful poverty stories, victim worship items and run of the mill Jew hatred stories, in favor of one big story: Israel is building the Third Temple, or at least a big synagogue.

All three Palestinian papers reported on this plan, according to WAFA, with “al-Quds” saying the Israeli deputy minister of religious affairs supports this plan and is working on getting approval for it.

Poor Rabbi Eli ben-Dahan – they attack him in Shas, they attack him in the PA, he can’t catch a break.

The same papers also reported on an interview Chairman Abbas gave to Palestine TV on Thursday evening, in which he said he would not give up on the 1967 lines as the borders of the future Palestinian state, which will have Jerusalem as its capital.

Our frequent contributor, Elder of Zion, reported back in August: “There have been a bunch of articles … throughout the Arab world claiming that there has been some sort of official approval to build a small synagogue on the Temple Mount, mostly because of this illustration (see above) that is on some Israeli sites showing what one might look like.”

If you’ve been wondering why some clean cut, well mannered frequent visitors to the Temple Mount, like Yehuda Glick, have been banned indefinitely by police – Arab hysteria might provide a reliable answer.

So then, according to the other guys, the Islamist-affiliated Ahlul Bayt News Agency, the Hamas Movement has also issued a warning to the “Israeli occupation regime and its extremist Jewish groups” (do you get the feeling Ha’aretz’ Ezra Pound scholar in residence Gideon Levi is writing their press releases?) of building a synagogue on the land of the Aqsa Mosque and affirmed that there would be dire consequences for such violation.

“We, in Hamas, warn the occupation and its extremists of executing such grave plan or touching any part of the Aqsa Mosque,” Hamas said on Saturday.

“Attacking the Aqsa Mosque and attempting to divide it temporally and spatially are a major crime and a red line that our people cannot allow to be crossed,” it explained.

Hamas also expressed its belief that all the occupation’s plans to Judaize the Aqsa Mosque are only desperate attempts and will never succeed in imposing a fait accompli.

Of course, a proper Jewish government response (and all its extremists) would be to rebuild the synagogue that had been constructed by the late Israeli chief rabbi, Rav Shlomo Goren in the area of the compound which is permissible for Jews to access. If the Arabs respond with violence, Israel police should arrest the violent ones, as they do so skillfully when a Jew dares spend a night with his family in, say, Yitzhar.

And should our enlightened allies in the west protest, all we have to do is produce the U.S. State Department International Religious Freedom Report for 2012, which states for all the world to see:

The Jordanian-controlled Jerusalem Islamic Waqf that manages the site generally restricts non-Muslims from entering the Dome of the Rock shrine and Al-Aqsa Mosque, a practice it started in the year 2000. The Waqf does not allow non-Muslim religious symbols to be worn on the Temple Mount/Haram al-Sharif.

On October 3, (2012) a Jerusalem magistrates’ court judge noted that “the explanation that Muslims do not approve of Jews’ praying on the Temple Mount cannot, in and of itself, prevent Jews from fulfilling their religious obligations and praying on the Temple Mount.” However, the judge noted he was not providing an instruction to the police. While arrests are subject to judicial oversight, the government, not the courts, has the authority to decide matters relating to religious rights in holy places, and the Supreme Court has upheld that governmental authority.

Israeli police controlled access to and the security of the Temple Mount/Haram al-Sharif compound with police stationed both inside the compound and outside each entrance to the site. Entrance to the Temple Mount was legally permitted regardless of one’s religious beliefs, although access was often restricted. Police cited security concerns when restricting young Muslim men from entering the site. Police often removed from the site Jewish individuals who appeared to be praying, in accordance with a government policy dating back to 1967. Some Jewish groups were prevented from entering the Temple Mount without a police escort due to security concerns, and there were reports that the police escorts at times did not detain these groups when they prayed. The Jerusalem Islamic Waqf, part of the Jordanian Ministry of Waqf, exercised administrative control over the site and prohibited from the site non-Muslim symbols, the Bible and other religious literature, and clothing deemed immodest by Muslim standards, as well as non-Muslim entrance into the Dome of the Rock, Al-Aqsa Mosque, Al-Marwani Mosque, and the Islamic Museum.

In other words, building a synagogue on Temple Mount is practically urged by the State Dept. And since the Arabs are all worked up about it even when there are no such government plans—and if there are, they didn’t tell me—why not go ahead and build one?

Anyone who knows me is aware of the fact that when I visit The Temple Mount I go out of my way to be kind to all – tourists, the police, the Arabs. Beyond that, I am totally obedient to any request or instructions of the police.

The same was the situation this past Thursday – they told me to speak more softly, go here, go there, go slow, go fast – every request has been met in full.

As a licensed tour guide, I guided a group of Likud activists, this was the fourth group already that Thursday.

Everything seemed to be fine.

As we concluded, we shook hands with the policemen and officers that had accompanied us.

We thanked them, they said goodbye and even expressed that it was a successful visit, and it was all over.

Each one of us turned his way. I received a call from another group asking me to join. I came to the main entrance, went through the routine inspection and everything was fine.

Just before we actually entered the mountain, an officer came and told me I was detained for disturbing the public order on the Temple Mount. I was quite shocked. After an interrogation, I still have no idea what I am accused of.

I told the investigator that today was no different than the hundreds of other times I guided groups in the past. They ignored my protests and notified me of an unlimited ban from entering the Temple Mount.

As a matter of fact, while I was waiting at the police station, the police officers who earlier escorted me around the mountain entered the station and asked me what I was doing there. I told them that I was being arrested for disturbing the Temple Mount order. They asked me “when? But you were with us!” Then they were taken in to a room and someone “explained to them the issue.” One by one they came out and passed me without meeting my eyes.

I genuinely have no clue as to what the story is. Maybe there was some agreement with the Waqf (the Jordanian charity in charge of the Temple Mount compound) that the police will keep me away and they will stay quiet. Maybe it was an act of revenge against me for my criticizing the police – I really have no clue. It is absolutely clear that some decision was made about me, regardless of my real actions.

I have 15 groups scheduled for the coming month. This is my entire life and my main income. I’m the Father of a family of 8 children. Unfortunately, there is no one to talk to.

The group that was with me are very angry and want to send to the authorities a letter titled “blood libel,” though this is not my style. My lawyer issued a legal letter but I’m afraid it won’t do much good.

I think the main reason the police can get away with such behavior is that we gave up the Temple Mount. If Jews were part of the natural landscape on Temple Mount, things would be different.

Jews Come Home To The Temple Mount!

The Jewish Press just received the following text of a letter sent earlier to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, regarding the latter’s order preventing the entry of MK Moshe Feiglin to Temple Mount.

Dear Sir,

We, members of the Joint Staff of the Temple Mount movements, read with great concern the news of your order preventing the entry of MK Moshe Feiglin to the Temple Mount area.

To our knowledge, MK Moshe Feiglin has been ascending to the Temple Mount each month for more than ten years. Every one of his visits has gone without any damage whatsoever to the public order.

Recently, the GSS has arrested a terrorists cell who tried to harm Jews climbing up to the Temple Mount. Once again it was proven publicly that Jewish visitors are not the source of violence on the Temple Mount.

In recent years we have seen a very welcome increase in the number of Jewish visotors to the Temple Mount, and the prevention of the entry of Jews in general and so much more so a Knesset Member from entering the Temple Mount, the holiest place for the Jewish people, constitutes a clear message of encouragement and support to parties that incite and perpetrate violence.

We fear that this step will give our enemies the tools to continue their incitement to violence and the violation of the Jewish freedom of worship in our capital.

We call on you at this time to immediately revoke your order preventing the entrance of MK Moshe Feiglin to the Temple Mount, and if you think there is a fear that his assent to the Temple Mount would endanger the public order, it is required that you instruct the numerous security personnel who are scattered all over the Temple Mount area to provide MK Moshe Feiglin with full protection of his liberty and of his immunity as a member of the Knesset.

The Joint Management of Temple Mount Organizations

Aviad Visoly – Chairman, Rabbi Israel Ariel, Rabbi Yosef Elbaum, Yehuda Glick, Einat Ziv, Shimshon Elbaum, Israel Medad, Professor Hillel Weiss, Arnon Segal, Assaf Lerner, Pinchas Engel, Baruch Ben-Yosef, Rebbetzin Rivka Shimon, Michael Brook, Aryeh Sonnenberg, Rabbi Itai Elitzur

The headline for this story translates roughly as “Extremists replace the picture of the Dome of the Rock with Talmudic writings.”

The Palestinian news site pls48.net reported:

Jewish religious leaders do not stop targeting the Al-Aqsa Mosque, trying to harm it in many ways, with daily attacks on the mosque and with Talmudic rituals which are a prelude to building a temple on its ruins.

In the latest attack on the Al-Aqsa Mosque, Yehuda Glick, one of the leaders of an extremist religious Jewish group, a promoter of the myth of temple rebuilding and one of the prominent settler organizers of incursions against the Al-Aqsa Mosque, published a photo in a special page on Facebook, showing the Dome of the Rock has been replaced by the hat worn by Jewish settlers and inscribed with Talmudic slogans, in an attempt to perpetuate the occupation by Jews and install the temple, which they claimed used to exist there – at the expense of the holy mosque.

The Al-Aqsa Foundation for the Protection of our Heritage said that these malicious actions demonstrate the magnitude of the plot that surrounds the entire Al-Aqsa Mosque and confirm the ambitions of the occupation, as part of an increasing number of desecrations targeting various holy sites.

It really makes you wonder if the Arabs still have a sense of humor, because if they don’t, then the Jews are definitely winning this one.