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Jerusalem - As Jews celebrated their new year a visit by Israeli hard-line opposition leader Ariel Sharon to Jerusalem's Haram esh-Sharif (which Christians and Jews refer to as the Temple Mount) opened a new chapter in the continuing Israeli-Palestinian struggle over control of Jerusalem and its holy sites. 

The visit sparked violence across the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. At the Haram esh-Sharif Palestinian youths, in a traditional reaction, hurled stones down at Jewish worshipers at the Western Wall. Continuing violence led to renewed diplomatic efforts to reconcile differences between Israeli and Palestinian authorities by a lame duck American president. Western leaders fear that a failure in peace talks could result in a limited war.

The conflict, however, is far deeper than an Israeli and Palestinian territorial dispute capable of being arbitrated by U.S. Secretary of State Madeline Albright and President William Jefferson Clinton. Secular Israeli politicians and secular Palestinian authorities seek a peace accord, at least in their public rhetoric, but undermining their collective effort is religion. Judaism and Islam are mutually incompatible religious systems.

Jewish fundamentalists cannot in fact have a Torah compliant Jewish state until Gentiles vacate the Holy Land and its religious sites and the restoration of ritual purity to Eretz Israel. Islamic fundamentalists cannot in fact have an Islamic state until Jews and Christians vacate the Holy Land as well. As Christians, Jews, and Muslims believe that the Haram esh-Sharif was the site of the ancient Jewish Temples to YHWH Islamic Palestinians have been working to remove any Jewish identity at the site.

According to the security authorities who informed the government of Israel, the Arabs on the Temple Mount, together with the Islamic Movement in Israel, have been busy, not only with destroying the remains of the traditional site of the First and Second Temples, but also with the building of a new mosque on the Haram esh-Sharif  along the eastern wall. Two other mosques were built on the southern side of the Haram esh-Sharif over the last two years. 

According to these sources, the Waqf also have further plans to make changes on the Haram esh-Sharif such as removing the western gate and replacing it with an iron gate and adding roofs in many places. All these activities show very clearly that their plan is to make most of the Haram esh-Sharif into an area of one great mosque. This is a part of their intensive destruction and building plan to remove any Jewish identity of the Haram esh-Sharif and make the site a place of Islamic worship.

Unfortunately for biblical archaeology and students of the Bible, scores of truckloads of discarded dirt and debris diminish scholarly ability to study the site. Lost is irreplaceable data in the name of religion and shameless politics.

Palestinian woman gives her inside story of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict

Birzeit (Palestine, October 8) -- It is devastating, depressing and heart-tearing what is happening in my country, Palestine, since more than one week. Allow me to share with you my thoughts and feelings, the least I can do to make the voice of Palestinians heard.

It all started, as you might know, with Ariel Sharon's (Jewish leader of the right wing party, Likud, in Israel) provoking visit to the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem, a holy place for Muslims. Why this provocation? Isn't it enough that most Palestinians are prohibited from reaching their praying places in Jerusalem due to illegal sanctions and closures imposed on us under the pretext of "Israel's security"? What about our security? Or doesn't it matter?

What about our safety from Israeli Jewish illegal settlers steeling our lands, building mansions on them and living in luxury while thousands of Palestinians suffer from poverty and deprivation? Or are Israeli Jews the only worthy people of security, freedom of living, prayer and movement in this world? According to Israeli policies, this is the belief!

Unluckily, but proudly, Palestinians are not Israeli Jews. Israeli Jews have learned to live through killing and suffocating others, through bombing, steeling, and depriving others from basic needs and respectful living. Yet, who knows this fact? Can it be that Israel, the "only democratic civilized State" in the Middle East, survives through extinguishing innocent lives? Or are world's leaders ignoring this fact, over-looking it, fearing Israel, and the future of their regional interests? Both cases are right, but what a pity?

Two days ago while I was driving from Birzeit, my hometown, to the nearby city of Ramallah, thinking that the situation might have calmed down, the sound of gunfire struck me all around the area, with people standing everywhere on the streets, watching, listening, grieving and wondering what this might be. Yet, of course, having heard and watched news since last Friday for 24 hours, everybody must have realized that those are the sounds of life ammunition shots from the nearby Israeli military position, Bet El, aimed at unarmed Palestinian youth, barely reaching the age of 18.

This is what strikes me every time we Palestinians revolt. We stand in the face of bullets, tear-gas bombs and explosions, and this time as well, real shells dropped on people and homes of innocent inhabitants!!! In opposition to what? Is a stone comparable to a shell, a life-ammunition, or a sniper? How the hell can the world watch such an injustice with barely condemning what's happening? If the United States, failed to clearly condemn Israel's terror and violence, although it is the strongest country in this world, and unfortunately the third party intervener and sponsor of the Palestinian-Israeli assumed peace process, who has the power to do so or anything in this matter.

Till now 88 Palestinian youth have been killed by Israeli snipers and shells. Over 1000 critically wounded out of which at least 20 suffer clinical death. Palestinian demonstrators, who stood up to fight for their basic human right, namely their freedom of worship and protecting their worship place were brutally attacked by Israeli "security" forces under the pretext of "self-defense", a clich� that became worn out over time.

Ariel Sharon, Israel's most notorious figure of terrorism, the killer of Palestinian children, women and men in Sabra and Shatilla in Lebanon in 1982 backed up by Israel's supposedly "peace-leading" prime minister Ehud Barak, who for us Palestinians is equally a terrorist, as Sharon, and for me personally a red-handed murderer who has brutally and intentionally murdered my uncle, in 1973 in Lebanon among others, both have indirectly, wickedly collaborated together to provoke emotions, bitterness, hatred and devastation on the part of Palestinians. If Barak's intentions are to achieve peace, would he allow his army to attack, fire and order to spread tanks all over the West Bank and the Gaza Strip?

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Is Jerusalem's Western Wall Connected With Herod's Temple?
 New Evidence Says Not! 

Religious and scholarly tradition place Herod's Temple on the Haram esh-Sharif, but was it? A new carefully detailed compilation and analysis of the evidence says -- absolutely not!

The evidence shows that the original temple site lies about 600 feet south of the Haram esh-Sharif, the actual site of the Roman Antonia Fortress, in the area of the Gihon Spring. What are the implications? Is the site awaiting the Third Temple? Has the time come to build at last?

Learn about this important new discovery in Perspectives.

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The Pope John Paul II Cultural Center, sanctioned by the Pope, is a place for visitors from all over the world to explore religion and culture and to learn about the message of Pope John Paul II. Located in Washington, D.C., the not-for-profit Center will allow visitors of all religions and with all levels of understanding of the Church, to share their experiences of faith, culture, and community with others.

BibArch� will be a part of The Wider View of Things: Integrating Faith and Science exhibit which resides in the Gallery of Wonder at the Center. This activity provides access to sites about ground-breaking scientific research while inspiring the visitors to engage in a discussion about science and religion. The Center is scheduled to open in November of this year.

Just Arrived
Palestine of the Old Testament
from The Survey of Israel

Illustrated at right is a small section of The Survey of Israel's map of Palestine of the Old Testament. This map is a must for all students of the Hebrew Scriptures. To examine the detail of this map simply click on it.

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Visit Books'n Mor for Other Maps of the Levant

Need a Link? Visit HTM Anthropology Links.