Likud MK Says He Would Build Third Temple (and Other News)

Third Temple Extremism on a shirt.
(Ma'an News Agency.)

Recently during a public discussion one Likud MK stated that if he became Prime Minister he would build the Third Temple.

.@Likud_Party lawmaker Oren Hazan says that if he becomes Israel's prime minister, he will rebuild the Jewish Temple (David Sheen, February 25, 2016.)

How dare PCG accuse Palestinians of lying when they state their fears that a Third Temple might be built. When even a Likud MK should say something like that no wonder so many Palestinians are worried that such a thing might occur.

Third Temple extremism exists in Israel today. It is a fringe idea. It is most unlikely that such a thing would ever actually be done. But the idea is present within certain parts of Israeli society. Unfortunately it is so inflammatory.

Pretending it does not exist helps no one.

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Israeli human rights NGO B'Tselem has released a disturbing report detailing news regarding an Israeli interrogation facility: Backed by the System: Abuse and Torture at the Shikma Interrogation Facility.

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Recent polls indicates that Palestinians are less inclined to favor violence against the State of Israel. (Dahlia Scheindlin, Public opinion roundup: Is Palestinian support for violence falling?, +972 Magazine, February 21, 2016.)

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Photos of Palestinians going through Israeli checkpoints have been released recently. (PHOTOS: What it's like to ‘commute’ through an Israeli army checkpoint, +972 Magazine, February 27, 2016.)

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Recently Prime Minister Netanyahu said he wanted to surround the State of Israel with a fence in order protect it from "wild beasts."

This week the prime minister of Israel slandered Arabs in disgustingly racist terms. This was nothing new for the man who, during the last election, warned the Israeli people that “the Arabs” were turning out to vote “in droves”. But the terminology he used was a notable new low, even for him.

Touring a new border fence between part of present-day Israel and Jordan, Benjamin Netanyahu said: “In our neighbourhood, we need to protect ourselves from wild beasts. At the end of the day as I see it, there will be a fence like this one surrounding Israel in its entirety. We will surround the entire state of Israel with a fence, a barrier.” (Asa Winstanley, Middle East Monitor, February 13, 2016.)

Incidentally Israel has a peace treaty with Jordan which was signed in 1994. And Netanyahu still wants a fence there?

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Here is a chilling article published in Salon that foresaw that trouble would arise with the visits by Israeli Jews to the Temple Mount and the economic deprivation and neglect endured by the Palestinians of East Jerusalem. (Nur Arafah, Benjamin Netanyahu wants bloodshed: A new, deliberately provocative right-wing incursion into sacred ground, Salon, October 1, 2015.)

If only wise words such as this were followed by the leaders of Israel perhaps the current wave of violence that has afflicted the Holy Land since October 1, 2015 would not have happened. So far about 160 Palestinians and 30 Israelis have been killed in this round of violence.

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And while all this stuff is going on recently there was a wedding at Al Aqsa. May their marriage be happy and joyful. (Twitter.)