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Holy places work like pieces of a broken bottle on dry glass: they focus the light and heat of religious political and personal passions on a single flammable point.
Flames erupt.
@DanielSeidemann @sarahposner
Flames erupt.
@DanielSeidemann @sarahposner
No other holy place focuses as many people& #39;s passions as the Temple Mount/Al-Aqsa does. Add a bit more heat and the fire begins.
Sacred dates add one more lense focusing the furies. Combine a sacred date and a sacred place and the risk of conflagration is extreme.
The Israeli govt is far from being solely responsible for all of the passion focused on the Temple Mount/Al-Aqsa. But having chosen, insisted, on being the political power exerting power there, it& #39;s responsible for keeping the flames from breaking out.
Bizarrely, while history is responsible for how flammable the Temple Mount/Al-Aqsa, amnesia about the danger sets in quickly.
A bit more than 20 yrs after the holy place igniting a long & terrible conflict, our govt acted as if it knew nothing of the dangers.
A bit more than 20 yrs after the holy place igniting a long & terrible conflict, our govt acted as if it knew nothing of the dangers.
Have written so many times about how holy places & dates start conflicts. To write it again gives me a profound sense of the uselessness of words and warnings. I despair.
What makes the Temple Mt/Al-Aqsa even more likely to start fires is that there people on both sides of the religious/national conflict who believe in violence, yearn for it - and know where to ignite it.
And those responsible for preventing fires keep ignoring or forgetting this.
And those responsible for preventing fires keep ignoring or forgetting this.
Al-Aqsa is a particularly convenient detonator for Hamas. It& #39;s an explicitly religious, implicitly national symbol that serves a national-religious movement - just as the Temple Mount serves national-religious Jewish extremists.
Therefore, a smart Israeli govt would do all it can to avoid adding any sparks at Al-Aqsa. Current govt did opposite.
