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Clashes in Jerusalem
Clashes at disputed Jerusalem holy site
JERUSALEM: Hundreds of Israeli police stormed the grounds of Islam's third-holiest shrine Friday, firing stun grenades and tear gas to disperse thousands of Muslim worshippers who hurled stones, bottles and trash in an eruption of outrage over Israeli renovation work near the disputed Old City site.
Israeli authorities have insisted that the replacement of a centuries-old ramp leading to the compound, which was damaged in a 2004 snowstorm, would not harm the holy site, about 60 meters (yards) way. But as work began earlier this week, it drew fierce protests in the Arab world, where many leaders accused Israel of plotting to harm Muslim holy sites.
Israeli officials have said Muslim extremists are using the renovation work as a pretext to stoke anger against Israel. Speaking during a visit to Spain on Thursday, Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni accused "political extremists" of trying to "exploit this situation."
....how sad, disappointing and unnverving that this type of thing is happening--still--and has been going on for so long.
The ramp was damaged in a rare snowstorm like the article states, or better yet it was the melting of the ice and snow that caused the damage, etc etc.
What the Arabs are essentially upset about has little to do with the ramp, but the ramp is an excuse to vent. They have been upset for some years now about archaeological excavations taking place along the outside of the wall of Old Jerusalem and within the Jewish and Christian sectors of Old Jerusalem. Although the Arab Mosque of Omar (Dome of the Rock) dates back over 1300 years, Jews, as well as Western cultures, accept this site as the site of Solomon's, and later Herod's, Temple. In the past 20 years, there have been some excavations beneath the Temple Mount that have caused alarm for the Arab world.
This isn't the first time that Israeli police have stormed the Temple Mount to clear out the protestors. Foreign Minister Livni is right, however, the protests have the aim of focusing Arab attention on a common enemy since they have been so fragmented recently in Lebanon, the Gaza Strip, and Iraq. The aim will not succeed like it didn't succeed a few years back when the police last cleared the Temple Mount. The Arab world is far to fragmented to conduct united operations against Israel...and has been for decades.
Tensions will rise for a few days...reconstruction on the ramp will cease for a week or two...everything will quiet down...reconstruction will resume without incident.
A sad, but very typical, cycle of Mid-East poltiics in action. This is very similar to the Republican and Democrat policital shows we put up with in the U.S. ... just that, for now, ours doesn't include use of force and violence, but there was a time not long ago that we did in the early 1960s through early 1970s.
The will of God prevails. In great contests each party claims to act in accordance with the will of God. Both may be, but one must be, wrong. - Abraham Lincoln, 1862
A sad, but very typical, cycle of Mid-East poltiics in action. This is very similar to the Republican and Democrat policital shows we put up with in the U.S. ... just that, for now, ours doesn't include use of force and violence, but there was a time not long ago that we did in the early 1960s through early 1970s.
...thank you Kagan ....this is a very good point and makes the issue much clearer for me!
"If you believe, and God exists, you gain everything. If you disbelieve, and God exists, you lose everything." Pascal's Wager
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