THE TEMPLE MOUNT � "LET IT FALL"? Arutz Sheva has an opinion piece by Joseph Yudin, in which he argues that the Palestinians have themselves to thank if the the Temple Mount collapses and the mosques on it are destroyed. Excerpt:

During the autumn months of 2000, Palestinians began carrying out illegal construction of an underground mosque in the "Solomon Stables" part of the Temple Mount. This construction has not halted during the last four years and a "bulge" in the southern (retaining) wall appeared in the fall of 2002. The unauthorized construction destroyed Jewish antiquities thousands of years old, but both the Ehud Barak and Ariel Sharon governments were afraid of the repercussions if police halted the work on the new "mosque", which is housed amongst the arches constructed by King Herod more than two thousand years ago to support the southern part of the Temple Mount. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that if you harm these arches, the floor and walls may come crumbling down. However, if you deny that there ever was a Second Temple, I guess it is easy to deny that these very arches supported it.

The Israel Antiquities Authority wanted to carry out repair work and oversee the excavations of the Temple Mount area, which it is entitled to do under Israeli law. The Waqf, however, refused to allow this and the Israeli governments did not force the issue. A "compromise" was reached whereby Jordanian archaeologists would oversee repairs on the south wall. The work, however, seems shoddy and many Israeli experts say the repairs are just a band aid for the effect, rather than a fix of the cause. An earthquake in February 2004 again struck the foundations of the Temple Mount, causing damage this time to the eastern (retaining) wall. Again, a key structural weakness pointed out by the Israel Antiquities Authority is the "Solomon Stables" part of the Temple Mount. The Waqf, of course, denies that any structural cracks exist in the eastern wall.

So, what are we to do? It seems to me that if the Israeli government is too afraid to enforce the rule of law on the Temple Mount, and allows the wholesale destruction of Jewish history by the Moslem authorities, then it should at the same time have no regard for any damage that befalls the Temple Mount caused by illegal construction by those very same people. If they damage the Temple Mount building a mosque, then let them fix it themselves. If the eastern and southern walls come crumbling down, let them come down. Herod was a beast of a being and we should not hold his creations as anything holy, anyway. If Mount Moriah is exposed once again to sunlight for the first time in 2,000 years due to Arab negligence, then so be it.

I'm no fan of the WAQF and I agree that they should lead, follow, or get out of the way. And I agree that all the illegal construction needs to be stopped. Nevertheless, I cannot be indifferent to the fate of the Temple Mount. We don't judge the value of historical relics by the morality of who made them, but by what they can tell us about the past. What's left of the archaeology of Herod's platform could still tell future archaeologists a great deal about the Second Temple period, and much of this will be lost if there is a major collapse. And the destruction of the ancient mosques on the Temple Mount would be a terrible tragedy, not only because of the rioting and mayhem that would ensue, but because they too are precious historical artifacts that deserve to be preserved. It's hard for me to get a clear picture of what the actual situation is without being there, but it's obvious that the Temple Mount has already suffered a major cultural and historical outrage with the building of the Solomon's Stables mosque, and a collapse would be a far greater catastrophe. I hope it can be averted and I encourage anyone who has any say in what happens to exert every effort to protect the site.