Holy Site Quotes
The Israeli experience with the Muslims of Palestine, the U. S. in Afghanistan and Iraq showed that many Muslim terrorists not only take shelter from mosques but use them as weapons storage and shooting platforms. The Mullahs are either too weak to discourage the practice or support the terrorism.
The Western Wall of the original Jewish Temple in Jerusalem is the holiest place for Jewa. When it was controlled by Jordan, Jews were not allowed to visit and pray at the Wall. However in 1967 the Arab states again attacked Israel in force and when the Israelis defeated the Arabs, the took the portion of Jerusalem that contained the Western Wall. At that point Jews would have access to the wall for prayer or historical purposes. However, in the convoluted politics of Israel where minor religious parties often can topple the government, the administration of the Wall was turned over to an Ultra Orthodox organization, and they barred Women from the Wall. The government would not intervene and the case ended up in the Israeli Supreme Court which ruled that women had to have equal access. The government then offered to create an area where women could pray at the wall while orthodox men could could have their segregated area where they would not risk contact with women. The ultra orthodox still objected as they believed that it was a desecration for women to pray at the wall, so the government stalled, and it took almost a decade before there was progress in having the women’s area opened.
