If you’ve been waiting around impatiently for the apocalypse, here’s some news: Israel closed the Temple Mount (known to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary) for a day, following the attempted assassination of Yehuda Glick, a right-wing Jewish activist who has been agitating for increased access to the holy spot for Jews who want to pray there. Police later shot and killed Glick’s alleged assailant, Moataz Hejazi, a member of Islamic Jihad. Although the site reopened on Friday to Muslim worshipers, excluding men under the age of fifty, Mahmoud Abbas, the President of the Palestinian Authority, said that the closing was “a declaration of war.” Hayel Daoud, Jordan’s minister of Islamic affairs, called Israel’s action “state terrorism.” (The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan is formally the custodian of the Temple Mount and funds the Islamic Waqf trust, which administers the site.) Meanwhile, Naftali Bennett, Israel’s economic minister and the leader of the right-wing religious Jewish Home Party, demanded that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu take over the sovereignty of the site from Jordan.
That one day of closing a religious site could generate such a reaction is an indication of how potent a symbol the Temple Mount is to all three Abrahamic religions. Jews believe that it is the spot where God created Adam and where Cain killed Abel. They believe it is where God’s spirit resides. Christians and Jews believe that it is where Abraham demonstrated his faith by offering his son Isaac for sacrifice; Muslims believe that it was Abraham’s son Ishmael, the father of the Arabs, who was the intended sacrificial victim. The Prophet Mohammed is said to have made his night journey to heaven from this spot, atop his steed, al-Buraq.
I visited the Temple Mount in 1998 to report on another near-apocalypse: the importing of a breed of red cattle that some believe is necessary for a sacrifice in order for the Jews to be able to reclaim the holy site. If the end is near, we have an evangelical cattle breeder from Mississippi to thank.
