The New York Times rounds up the back and forth on the "paper" this week, published on the Palestinian Authority’s Information Ministry website, that the Western Wall has no real Jewish connection.
Missing is a declarative sentence that this is a nonsense akin to pretending that the White House was conceived as an ice hockey rink when invading Canadian troops built it in 1812.
The utterly specious "paper" appears based on an incredibly dumb bait and switch that some wiseass in the Palestinian establishment apparently believed would fool everyone: Refer to legitimate archaeological arguments over where the First Temple stood, and pretend that they mean the Second Temple never existed.
Hanan Ashrawi (yes, the supposedly moderate and bright Palestinian spokeswoman) tried this one on me ten years ago, when I was at AP. It stunned me: It was like listening to a barfly leaning in close and whispering: "New Mexico has craters. Craters. Like the moon. See what I’m getting at?" Except it was Hanan Ashrawi, on the phone, and sounding sober.
According to this Jerusalem Post account, the "paper" babbles on about Solomon’s Temple; but no one contends or has ever contended that the Wall was part of Solomon’s Temple. It was the outer wall of the Herodian Temple, itself a renovation of the Persian era rebuilt Second Temple. For contemporary (or near contemporary) evidence of the Herodian Temple’s existence, we have Josephus, the Talmud and the New Testament. What’s apparently lacking is a photo of Elazar ben Ya’ir in a goalie’s crouch, one knee up, one knee down, and grinning, against the Wall’s backdrop.
David Landau, when he was at Ha’aretz, ran up against this obfuscation with Yasser Arafat in one of Arafat’s last interviews. Arafat concedes that the Wall is part of Herod’s Temple. I like Landau’s response:
Well, what’s the matter with that? Why isn’t that old enough for you? Herod’s temple stood 2,000 years ago. That’s the temple that Jesus walked in, it was a Jewish temple. What’s the difference to you … With all due respect, what’s wrong, what’s inferior – in your eyes – the temple of Herod to the temple of Solomon? The Jews were praying in the temple of Herod more than 2,000 years ago. Is that a historical fact?
The truth is, there is archaeological evidence, in the form of artifacts, of Solomon’s Temple. It seems determinative to me, as a layman. But okay, say it’s not. Maybe the Palestinian Authority can make a case for the Second Temple as a remnant of Zionist intruders spearheading Iranian imperialist ambitions.
That should resonate nicely today.
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