Blame the Jews

(Editor's Note: This prescient article was written one day before the terror attack in the Jerusalem synagogue)

By Moshe Feiglin

This morning, a senior political figure claimed that I am responsible for the fact that Jordan has recalled its ambassador to Israel. “Feiglin visited the Temple Mount with all his media and this is what ensued,” a journalist who called me for my reaction quoted him.

The senior political figure who makes anonymous accusations perfectly reflects Israel’s irresponsible and spineless policy on the Temple Mount. This approach will lead to a further escalation of violence and many more victims of terror.

The Ma’ariv newspaper reported today that during his brief visit last week to Jordan, Prime Minister Netanyahu asked King Abdullah to instruct the Moslem wakf to restore order to the Temple Mount. This reveals who the real sovereign is on the Temple Mount – at least according to the Prime Minister: none other than the king of Jordan, represented by the wakf.

I did not visit the Temple Mount with the media in tow. I visited in the same manner that I have visited every month for the past 15 years. This is the ‘status quo’ that the most senior political figure has sanctified. Jews may visit the Temple Mount, but disgracefully, cannot pray there. And as if in the theatre of the absurd, the ‘senior political figure’ expects that after the attempted assassination of Rabbi Yehudah Glick, I will dissolve the status quo and stop visiting the Temple Mount. By rewarding terror, the political figures managing us attempt to buy just a bit more quiet in exchange for a terrible wave of violence that will descend upon us later.

Israel’s policy on the Temple Mount is the same irresponsible approach that brought about the wholesale release of terrorists; it is the same confused and fainthearted policy that prevented a clear victory in the war in Gaza; it is the same policy that preferred to ignore the terror in Jerusalem that sprung up as a result of the lack of victory in Gaza; it is the same policy that now prefers to blames the Jews –not the attackers- for the crisis, and to empower foreign sovereignty on the Temple Mount.

One would expect that after the attempted assassination of Rabbi Yehudah Glick, all the ‘senior political figures’ would send the enemy a clear-cut message: Arab murderousness achieves the opposite result and strengthens Jewish sovereignty on the Temple Mount – the heart of Jerusalem and the most holy place in the world for the Jewish Nation.

“I expected,” I said to the Prime Minister at the Likud faction meeting, “that after the assassination attempt, all the nationalist MKs would visit the Temple Mount under your leadership. This would make it clear to all that no assassination attempt will drive us out of our holy places. That is the only way to restore calm to Israel.”

Instead, the ‘senior political figures’ unleashed a crusade against responsible Knesset Members who attempted to prevent the deterioration and preserve Israeli sovereignty on the Temple Mount.

“We do not have rights in this land,” explained MK Ahmad Tibi when he ceremoniously visited the Temple Mount. “We have rights on the entire land.”

We cannot blame Tibi. He has simply accepted the clear invitation of those senior political figures – to come and take the Temple Mount from us.