Mere Rhetoric: Wonderful Story Of Jewish-Muslim Cooperation On Temple Mount Destroyed... By Radical Muslims

Sometimes, the obtuseness of journalists still somehow manages to stun us a little. Yehuda Litani's got an oh so heartwarming story of how Jews and Turks cooperated in renovating the Temple Mount in the late 1800s, and how this event was commemorated on a plaque. Oh - and how the Wakf destroyed that plaque in his ongoing campaign to wipe out evidence of a Jewish connection to the Temple Mount. Such a mind-bogglingly ironic twist practically writes itself... unless you're determined not to notice the mind-boggling irony. Then you just sound like a pathetic bleeding heart:

A delegation of Turkish experts is expected to visit the excavation works at the Mugrabi Bridge near the Temple Mount within the next few days. This is in accordance with an agreement reached between Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his counterpart Ehud Olmert during the latter's visit to Turkey last week... The words in French revealed that the Mosque had been renovated in 1899 during Turkish rule, and that the works had been assisted by the Jewish community in Jerusalem led by a public figure called Avraham (Albert) Entebbe, who among his numerous other activities was also the principal of the city's "Kol Israel Haverim" school.

The first buried lede: the Turkish involvement in the Temple Mount is a disaster. It's the first step to the internationalization of Jerusalem - something that Israel's enemies have been trying to accomplish since 1967. Through the 1950s and up till 1967, of course, Jordanian rule was just fine for East Jerusalem. It was just fine even though the Jordanians systematically desecrated Jewish holy sites in ways that would have made the Nazis take pause ("yeah, I dunno about using the gravestones of ancient Jews to pave the way to latrines... maybe we can just vandalize the cemetery and leave it at that?") It was only after 1967, when Israel had taken over and guaranteed the sanctity of all religions' sites, that internationalization became a hot topic again.

The second buried lede is actually the very last paragraph of the article (how's that for burial?)

The iron panel, which told the story of the wonderful cooperation between the Jews and Muslims under Turkish rule, disappeared. There is no chance of it reappearing in the future, because it doesn't serve the Waqf's current interests. Yet at a time of harsh words and hatred it's rather nice to reminisce on days gone by.

That's right - this beautiful symbol of Jewish-Muslim cooperation has been destroyed by the Muslim Waqf - who, incidentally, was placed in a position to destroy it because Israel went out of their way to guarantee Muslim rights. So the Turks are coming in to investigate Israeli destruction of the Temple Mount (false) and the story is about how Muslims are destroying the Temple Mount (true) - but somehow, that contrast doesn't make it into the article (h/t: MR reader Merav)

References:
* Friendship on Temple Mount [YNet]

Previously:
* Turns Out, Jerusalem Really Was Important To Ancient Jews
* The LA Times: "Islam gets concessions; infidels get conquered." Ummm... Wow
* Do They Just Get To Make Things Up Now?