A policeman trying to stop an Arab tractor engaged in illegal Temple Mount excavations was assaulted - and the police chief who arrived on the scene arrested no one.

Officials of the Moslem Waqf (religious body) on the Temple Mount are digging there illegally, likely destroying precious artifacts from as early as the First Temple period.  So say eyewitnesses and representatives of the Committee for the Prevention of the Destruction of Temple Mount Antiquities.

Gideon Charlap, a top Jerusalem architect and Temple Mount expert, told Arutz-7 what he saw when he visited the Temple Mount on Tuesday: "The Arabs there are digging a deep north-to-south trench, up to a meter [1.1 yards] deep.  It is being dug in the area that served during Holy Temple times as the Ezrat Nashim [the area known as the Women's Courtyard, though it was not reserved only for women -ed.].  The trench passes through three east-to-west walls, according to my calculations - walls that probably served as separations for the Temple's offices and the like.  This means that the destruction is tremendous..."

"At one point during the digging," Charlap continued, "a policeman - apparently a Druze - tried to stop the work from going on, and actually entered the cabin of the tractor.  A struggle ensued, and when the Arabs finally pushed him out, he actually stood in the trench and physically blocked the rest of the work!"
"But instead of stopping the lawbreakers," Charlap related with incredulity, "he tried to 'calm down' the policeman!"

Charlap said that at that point, the chief officer of the Temple Mount police station, Shai Alali, arrived on the scene. "But instead of stopping the lawbreakers," Charlap related with incredulity, "he tried to 'calm down' the policeman!"

Charlap said he was unable to see how the story developed from there, "because our allotted time was over."  Jews are permitted onto the site - Judaism's most sacred anywhere in the world - only four or fewer hours a day.

Police Chief Shai Alali was unavailable for comment. Police spokesmen say they will look into the assault and illegal digging.

The digging is taking place just east of the Dome of the Rock. 

Millennia of Artifacts - Down the Drain
Dr. Eilat Mazar, an archaeologist and a leading member of the Committee for the Prevention of the Destruction of Temple Mount Antiquities, spoke with Arutz-7's Hebrew newsmagazine about the desecration.  "It is an untenable situation," she said.  "Underneath the Temple Mount is a closed area, one that has barely been disturbed since the Destruction of the Second Temple.  Anyone can realize that remnants of both the First and Second Temples are there, and can guess what damage is being done by the tractor.  The most precious findings are just rolling around there and are available to be found - and instead they have a tractor there!  If I would try to work with a tractor at one of my digs, the Antiquities Authority would stop me immediately!  With a tractor, it's impossible to make any type of careful examination of the earth and pieces being dug up."

"We are a public, voluntary body that has taken upon itself to inform and warn the public about what is going on," Mazar said. "The Antiquities Authority acts as if it is fulfilling its responsibility to supervise - but in fact all they have there is just one man watching but doing nothing. That is not supervision.  It's just a deception to say that anyone is overseeing the wanton digging and desecration being carried out there against our greatest national cultural treasure."

Asked if there has been any lull of late in illegal digs on the Temple Mount, Dr. Mazar responded negatively.  "They have a clear goal of turning the Temple Mount into a place exclusively for Moslem prayer.  In recent years, they have turned two giant structures - at the Huldah Gate and Solomon's Stables - into giant mosques, where none ever stood before...  It is totally illegal; how can such violations of the law be allowed - especially in such an important place for Jewish Nation?  This is a top archaeological site, and the fact that it's not considered one of the Seven Wonders of the world is our fault, because we don't talk about it enough and certainly don't preserve it enough."

Arutz-7's Uzi Baruch offered, "Perhaps it's because of the politically sensitive nature of the site?"

Mazar answered, "Yes, it's a sensitive spot, but there's a big difference between acting wisely and delicately, on the one hand, and allowing wanton destruction and law-breaking, on the other hand.  No good comes of simply turning the other cheek, trying to achieve quiet at any price, and not seeing the future.  They want 'quiet now' and they want to appease the Waqf and everyone else - everyone except for those who are concerned for Jewish culture."

"The Antiquities Authority is responsible for preserving antiquities," says Dr. Mazar, "but it is not doing its job on the Temple Mount.  The Prime Minister must take this job upon himself and make sure that the law is observed and that the Temple Mount remains an accessible cultural site not only for Moslems, but also for Jews and Christians."

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas held a meeting in Jerusalem on Tuesday afternoon. Spokesmen said that "fundamental issues" were addressed by the two sides. It was the latest in a series of relatively regular
Abbas signed the guest book at the Prime Minister's official residence.
meetings between Abbas and Olmert, established at the insistence of the United States in March. Three weeks ago, the two men met in the PA-controlled town of Jericho.

For the first time since their series of meetings began, Abbas signed the guest book at the Prime Minister's official residence, where the meeting took place.

"It is my honor to meet the Prime Minister in his home. I hope and wish for the peace between us to move forward and for both peoples, Israelis and Palestinians, to see the peace we are striving for," wrote Abbas.

Prime Minister Olmert publicly thanked Abbas at the beginning of the meeting for the rescue by PA security forces of Israelis who recently accidentally entered PA-controlled areas. In several recent instances, lost Israelis had been surrounded by bloodthirsty mobs intent on lynching them, but PA militia forces escorted them to safety and Israeli custody.

In his preliminary comments, Olmert remarked positively upon Abbas's decision to freeze the funds of 103 charitable organizations that were linked to the Islamist Hamas terrorist group. Hamas wrenched control of Gaza from Abbas's Fatah organization earlier this year, forcibly expanding and entrenching its January electoral victory in the PA.

During the meeting, Prime Minister Olmert reportedly rejected a request by Abbas that Israel extend the jurisdiction of his militia forces to additional areas in Judea and Samaria. Some final-status issues that may have been on the agenda in the meeting between Olmert and Abbas, although not officially confirmed, were the status of Jerusalem, permanent borders and the immigration of millions of descendants of those who fled Israel during Israel's War of Independence in 1948.

It was not clear if the two sides had reached what the Prime Minister had said would be an "agreement on principles" ahead of an international Middle East summit called for by the United States. The summit, which will be attended by Israel, the US and several Arab states, is set to take place in November.

After the meeting on Tuesday, a government spokesman said only that "fundamental
Olmert reportedly rejected a request by Abbas that Israel extend the jurisdiction of his militia.
issues" had been discussed by Prime Minister Olmert and the PA leader.

On Monday, PA Chairman Abbas made what appeared to be a soft ultimatum for the November summit and a swipe at Prime Minister Olmert's "agreement on principles" formulation.

Abbas told Voice of Palestine Radio, "If there is a clear framework including final status issues, we will welcome this and go to the [November] conference." He added, however, that the summit would be a "waste of time" if it focused its discussions solely on a "declaration of principles."

Another Olmert-Abbas meeting is expected to take place prior to the Rosh Hashanah holiday, in early September.

Likud MKs React to Abbas-Olmert Meeting
Likud Knesset Member Yuval Steinitz slammed Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's apparent drive toward a final status agreement with PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas.

Following the Prime Minister's meeting Abbas on Tuesday afternoon, Steinitz accused Olmert of granting concessions to the PA in his regular talks with Abbas as a way to "save his political skin." The Prime Minister was "sacrificing the security interests most vital for the continued existence of the state," Steinitz charged.

Olmert is willing to "divide Jerusalem and bring Israel back to the Auschwitz borders," according to MK Steinitz, due to the Prime Minister's "zero public support and [with] the Winograd Commission's results on the way."

Earlier, Likud faction head MK Gideon Saar called on the Yisrael Beiteinu and Shas parties, members of the ruling coalition, to bring about the fall of the Olmert government. Political leaders in Shas and Yisrael Beiteinu have expressed opposition to further concessions to the PA.

"Yisrael Beiteinu and Shas must stop behaving like ostriches and bring about the fall of the Olmert government before the completion of the process of signing a declaration of principles and [before] the international conference in November," Saar said. Failing to stop Olmert from signing another deal with the PA "will minimize the maneuverability of every future Israeli government," Saar claimed.

The Likud legislator added that it is dangerous to negotiate with Abbas when the Fatah chief cannot even provide the minimum required of him under previous agreements, and while rockets continue to fall on Israeli towns. He accused Olmert of refusing to learn the lessons of the disastrous results of previous withdrawals.

A special Knesset session has been called for next Tuesday to discuss the government's current policies regarding negotiations with the PA. The session will convene at the request of 25 MKs who insist that Prime Minister Olmert has no mandate to engage in final-status talks at this time.

Amidst continuing diplomatic efforts to form a separate state for the Arabs of Judea and Samaria, former IDF Chief of Staff Moshe Yaalon weighs in with words of warning against the initiative.  President Shimon Peres, as well, foresaw the dangers of such a state nearly 30 years ago.
 
Yaalon, writing in the Los Angeles Times over the weekend, notes "four main misconceptions that diplomats bring with them to Israel."  Primary among them is the prevalent theory that solving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a prerequisite for stability in the Mideast.

The truth is, Yaalon writes, that the region is "driven by clashes that have nothing to do with Israel. For instance, the Jewish state plays no role in the conflict between Shiites and Sunnis, between Persians and Arabs or between Arab nationalists and Arab Islamists."

Interestingly, Yoram Ettinger, an expert on U.S.-Israel relations, recently released a paper negating this theory as well.  The former liaison for Congressional affairs in Israel's Washington embassy brings proofs from recent history showing that general Arab antipathy to Israel predates, and is irrelevant to, issues relating to the Arabs of Judea and Samaria.

Yaalon lists three other mistakes spurring on the pro-Palestinian state diplomats:

Misconception 1: Israeli territorial concessions are felt to be the key to progress - when in fact such concessions simply fill the sails of ascendant jihadist Islam, which believes it is leading the battle against Israel and the rest of the West.  The concessions, therefore, merely encourage their belief that Israel and the West can be defeated.

Yaalon lists the reults of Israel's unilateral withdrawals from Lebanon in 2000 and from Gaza in 2005: "Concerted terror wars, kidnapped Israeli soldiers, rockets fired at Israeli cities - [which] made clear that the Mideast's central conflict is not territorial but ideological. And ideology cannot be defeated by concessions."

Misconception 2: It is widely believed that Israeli sovereignty over parts of Judea and Samaria blocks agreement between Israelis and the Arabs of Judea and Samaria - when in fact, "the heart of the problem is that many Palestinians... and even some Israeli-Arabs use 'Occupation' to refer to all Israel. They do not recognize the Jewish people's right to an independent state, a right affirmed again and again in the international arena."

Misconception 3: Possibly most important, it is felt that the Arabs of Judea and Samaria want and can build a state that will live in peace alongside Israel. But in fact, the Palestinian Authority leaders - specifically, Yasser Arafat and his deputy Mahmoud Abbas - never used their powers to improve their subjects' living conditions.  "Indeed," ex-Gen. Yaalon marvels, "Palestinian unemployment and poverty are worse today than they were before Arafat and his cronies assumed power in 1994."

A corollary of this last misconception, Yaalon adds, "is the belief that economic development can neutralize extreme nationalism and religious fanaticism, thus clearing the way toward peace and security." David Ben-Gurion, Israel's first prime minister, had a term for such believers - including his protégé and current President of Israel, Shimon Peres: "naive Zionists." 

Yaalon notes that those who fit the above description must "demand that the Palestinians explain what they did with the $7 billion in international aid they received over the years... Why did Palestinian mobs destroy the Erez industrial zone, where Palestinians worked and ran businesses for decades, on the Gaza border? Why do they attack safe roads linking Gaza and the West Bank? Why is the Palestinian economy in shambles?"

In fact, Peres himself, in a book he wrote in 1978 (Tomorrow is Now, Keter Publishers, Jerusalem; page 232), accurately outlined the dangers of a Palestinian state:

"The establishment of such a [Palestinian] state means the inflow of combat-ready Palestinian forces (more than 25,800 men under arms) into Judea and Samaria; this force, together with the local youth, will double itself in a short time. It will not be short of weapons or other [military] equipment, and in a short space of time, an infrastructure for waging war will be set up in Judea, Samaria and the Gaza Strip. Israel will have problems in preserving day-to-day security, which may drive the country into war, or undermine the morale of its citizens. In time of war, the frontiers of the Palestinian state will constitute an excellent staging point for mobile forces to mount attacks on infrastructure installations vital for Israel's existence, to impede the freedom of action of the Israeli air-force in the skies over Israel, and to cause bloodshed among the population in areas adjacent to the frontier-line."

Yaalon concludes his article with this advice for Western governments and their emissaries: Instead of pressuring Israel, they must "try to persuade the Palestinian leaders to commit to a long-term strategy premised on educational, political and economic reforms that would lead to the establishment of a civil society that cherishes life, not death; values human rights and freedom; and develops a middle class, not a corrupt, rich elite..."

Inspired by a IsraelNationalRadio program, some 30 Christians protested at a Florida church against its pastor's national call for a Palestinian state in the Land of Israel.

Holding signs imprinted with Biblical verses, including one from the Book of Joel against "scattering My people and dividing My land," the demonstrators were responding to an open letter to President Bush favoring a Palestinian state.  The letter equates Israelis with Palestinians, stating, "Both Israelis and Palestinians have legitimate rights stretching back for millennia to the land of Israel/Palestine.  Both Israelis and Palestinians have committed violence and injustice against each other."

The signatories numbered more than 30 evangelical leaders, and among the leading names was that of Pastor Joel Hunter of Northland Church in Longwood, Florida.

The Sunday protestors were outraged at the pastor's stance so blatantly against the Bible whose message he preaches.  John Hellein, of a church just two miles away, told Arutz-7, "I heard the news while riding my bicycle and listening to an Ipod radio broadcast - and I nearly fell off my bicycle.  I was amazed that the pastor of a church so close to home would say something so opposed to the Bible.  I knew right then that I wanted to organize some kind of protest."

Hellein said that many of the church members were unaware of the controversial stance their pastor had taken, and "thanked us for informing them of it and protesting.  This is not to say that everyone agreed; there were also other opinions."

Light Unto the Nations
The radio broadcast he was referring to was that of Jeremy Gimpel and Ari Abramowitz, hosts of Arutz-7-IsraelNationalRadio's Light Unto The Nations program.  They issued a call to the pastor to explain his position, from a religious standpoint, on their show.  Hunter declined, however, with his assistant explaining that it "just isn't the best forum for Dr. Hunter to explain his position on this issue."

Gimpel and Abramowitz noted Hunter's refusal, evoking many emails in protest of Hunter's position. They issued another call to debate the issue with him when Gimpel arrives in Florida this week for a speaking tour.  Facing strong pressure within his own constituency, this time Hunter agreed - and National Public Radio was contacted to be the host.

Once again, however, the event did not materialize, because of scheduling problems at NPR.  Both Hunter and Gimpel have now agreed to debate the issue on BBC Radio this Thursday, Aug. 30, at 10:20 AM EST.

Gimpel and Abramowitz say they have received dozens of irate listeners' emails in response to the call for yet another Arab state.  "I am deeply distressed about this misguided pastor who advocates a Palestinian state in the Heart of Israel," wrote one listener.

The two Israeli show hosts added, "Pastor Hunter would be wise to heed the warning issued by his namesake, the prophet Joel, who prophesized, '...there will I deal with and execute judgment upon them for their treatment of My people and of My heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations and because they have divided My land.'"  

"It is one thing for Pastor Hunter to stand against G-d on his own," they aver, "but to lead his congregation into such error is tragic indeed."

Abramowitz told Arutz-7 he is happy to be able to debate the issue in purely religious terms.  "There are many truth-seekers in the Christian community who are willing to stand with Israel even if they have to defy their own leaders," he said.  "Truth resonates. As the Jewish people, we are not seeking allies; we have a responsibility to share the truth and clarify it to a world that may not want to hear it."

President Shimon Peres has decided to reduce the jail sentences of five Israeli-Arab terrorists.

Three of the terrorists are serving for the brutal murder of Haifa Jewish teenager Danny Katz in 1983 and two for the rape and murder of IDF soldier Daphna Carmon in 1987. Katz, the son of Holocaust survivors, was kidnapped from near his Haifa home at the age of 15 by Arabs who worked at a nearby supermarket while on his way to visit a friend. He was beaten to death with sticks and then sodomized. He was found dead four days later in the Israeli-Arab village of Sakhnin.

The men were sentenced to life in prison, plus 27 years. They will now be eligible for release in the near future following Peres’s commutation.

Peres made the move after meeting with Israeli-Arab MK Taleb a-Sana (Ra’am-Ta’al), who also urged him to grant a pardon to Suleiman al-Abed, who is serving time for the rape and murder of teenage Jewish girl, Chanit Kikus.

Katz Family Livid
Danny Katz’s surviving brother Amnon lashed out at the new president Tuesday night, saying: “Peres has not even managed to warm the presidential chair yet and he’s already releasing my brother’s despicable murderers.”

Katz says that his brother’s murderers have become a cause celebre in recent years for the extreme-left, who claimed that they confessed to the crime due to police pressure. The murderers were even granted a retrial based on those claims in 1999 – but were found guilty again.

Mira Katz, Danny's mother, pointed a finger at the media Wednesday morning, asking why there was no outrage at the injustice of releasing the murderers of children. "If they decided to free Yigal Amir, who murdered an old man, the media would not stop yelling about it. So why when they decide to free the murderers of youngsters are the media dead silent?" she told Army Radio.

When taking office in July, Peres pledged he would seek to unite Israel’s populace.

Lapid Chides Hard-Left

Yosef (Tommy) Lapid, former Justice Minister and leader of the defunct Shinui party chided the intellectual far-left for making an issue out of the conviction of Katz's murderers. Lapid told Voice of Israel government radio Wednesday that the murderers also were convicted of a previous killing, a fact omitted by the "intellectual left that saw the trial as a stain on the judicial system."

Concerning repeated claims by leftists that the murderers' confession was forced and that there still is doubt concerning their guilt, Lapid maintained that it is unlikely that five different people would admit to a crime they did not commit. The terrorists won five retrials, including one order by the High Court. "No Jew ever received such consideration and mercy." Lapid said.

Olmert Considering Allowing ‘Nativity’ Terrorists to Return
PA Arab sources following Tuesday’s meeting between Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Fatah chief Mahmoud Abbas said that the terrorists who took over Bethlehem’s Church of the Nativity for 39 days in 2002 may be allowed to return to Judea and Samaria from their exile to Gaza and Europe, upon Abbas’s request. The terrorists were responsible for the murder of 15 Israelis.

Three elderly Armenian monks managed to flee the church at the time with the help of the IDF. One of the monks, Narkiss Korasian, described the Islamist terrorists' behavior to reporters: "They stole everything, they opened the doors one by one and stole everything... they stole our prayer books and four crosses... they didn't leave anything." The monks also told of beatings administered to several Christian clergymen held in the church by PLO gunmen.

The terrorists, who were mostly Fatah men, are considered heroes among Muslims in Judea and Samaria and Abbas hopes that winning their return could increase his meager power-base.

The return of the 26 terrorists would take place in October, as a gesture during the Muslim month of Ramadan.

A ministerial committee voted on Tuesday to establish a bloc of rural communities in the Lachish region in mid-to-southern Israel. The district will include seven eastern Lachish communities, most of them newly established. Some 200 families uprooted from Gush Katif in 2005 will be among the pioneering residents.

According to the decision of the Ministerial Committee on Settlement Affairs, chaired by
Five hundred residential units are planned in the first stage.
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, five hundred residential units are planned in the first stage. The new housing will be distributed among seven Lachish-area rural communities - Hazan, Shomriya, Mirsham, Amatzia, Haruv, Keramit and Shekef. The new town of Hazan is expected to become the largest of the seven.

A spokesman for the Prime Minister's Office said that there are five groups that have already expressed a willingness to settle in the region. They will be joined by other families, according to the spokesman, who are interested in becoming involved in tourism enterprises, guest houses and vineyards planned for the area. Currently, Lachish boasts ancient caves, mineral springs and archaeological sites, as well as underdeveloped parks.

The Prime Minister's Office emphasized that development in eastern Lachish will be carried out in such a way as to preserve the local rural character. At the same time, a new road connecting Lachish to the southern cities of Be'er Sheva and Kiryat Gat is slated to be built. The project, which is to get underway immediately, will cost a total of NIS 200 million.

The government decision indicates that boosting settlement in the Lacish region is an important national interest, according to officials, which justifies the needed budgetary allocations.

However, plans for the Lachish development had been on the drawing board for at least ten months prior to a meeting between the Prime Minister's Office and some of the Gush Katif refugees in January of this year, during which final approval was secured. Little has been accomplished since that time. Officials said several months ago that they were working to design houses that will be appropriate for the surrounding natural conditions.

Prime Minister Olmert said that he welcomed Tuesday's decision. "The time has come to
Plans for the Lachish development had been on the drawing board for at least ten months.
stop talking and start doing," he said. "If developing a new community in Israel is genuinely exciting, how much more so the development of seven communities that will turn a thinly settled region into a genuine national and tourist treasure. This is settlement inside the Green Line, which is very significant. Approximately 100 families live in the region today while Palestinian settlement increases beyond the Green Line. This region has great potential and we are interested in it becoming one of Zionism's major developments in the 21st century. I foresee thousands of families in the area.... This region will be based on agriculture, tourism and local industry."

The Prime Minister's Office Director General Ra'anan Dinur, who chaired the directors-general team that formulated the plan to strengthen the eastern Lachish region, said: "We want to create strong settlement groups. This is one of the most prestigious areas in the country that the state can offer its residents. It has a rural character and is accessible to the center of the country."

The IDF soldiers who refused to take part in the destruction of the Hevron Jewish Community’s Shalhevet neighborhood are being awarded by activist groups for their moral bravery.

Simultaneously, as the IDF awards citations for soldiers who served in the Second Lebanon War on Sunday, Rabbis and the Committee to Save the Nation and the Land will award moral citations to soldiers who recently refused to act against the Jewish families who were forcibly removed from Jewish-owned property in Hevron.

Posters declaring a “Salute to the Heroes” have been plastered around the country, “inviting the public to an awards ceremony for the distribution of citations of bravery and excellence for the heroic soldiers, prisoners of Zion, who out of self-sacrifice sanctified the name of Heaven publicly when they chose obedience to the laws of the Torah and refused to carry out the criminal expulsion orders in Hevron.”

The event is taking place in the community of Beit Horon, on Highway 443 between Jerusalem and Modi’in. It is being organized by Rabbi David Wolpe of the Committtee to Save the Nation and the Land and was welcomed by Rabbi Micha Peled, the rabbi of Beit Horon. Rabbi Dov Lior of Kiryat Arba and the Yesha Rabbinic Council, as well as Professor Ezra Zohar, will deliver addresses on the topic of refusal.

Rabbi Wolpe told Arutz-7 he hopes no such awards are necessary in the future, but that as long as the government decides to send soldiers to perform political tasks that run counter to Jewish morals and ethics, refusal is a badge of honor. He believes awarding and honoring those who had the courage the go to jail for their beliefs will make the phenomenon much more widespread in the event of a future attempt to evict Jews from parts of the Land of Israel.

Atty. Eran Hermoni of the Labor Party’s Young Guard has petitioned Attorney General Menachem Mazuz to prosecute the organizers of the event, saying it constitutes rebellion against the state.

The dinner will take place on September 2, at 8 PM, in Beit Horon’s community center. For more information, call 050 382 7660