Now What, After The IDF Temple Mount Tour

Following up on this post about IDF soldiers on the Temple Mount in uniform, here is this:

For the first time in 10 years, Israel Defense Forces soldiers in uniform visited the Temple Mount in Jerusalem on Sunday. The presence of soldiers on the Mount has been prohibited since the second Intifada in 2000. Ten IDF paratroopers were permitted to enter the Mount area – the holiest Jewish site – accompanied by Temple Mount Police Commander Superintendent Avi Biton.

After the soldiers' hour-long visit on the Mount – during which they surveyed the area around the Al-Aqsa Mosque and Dome of the Rock, and were given a guided tour by Ami Meitav, head of the Lander Institute's School of Tourism – the soldiers left the area via the Mughrabi Gate.

Yehuda Glick, director of the Temple Institute in Jerusalem, said on Wednesday, "We should be grateful that we are getting results from our work. We are seeing more and more Jews entering the Temple Mount area with the understanding that it – and not the Western Wall – is a holy Jewish site. Together with the recent developments of women and ultra-Orthodox Jews entering the compound, we have arrived at the point that even soldiers in uniform can visit the place, despite determined opposition from police in the past. We should now be focused on making a visit to the Temple Mount a requirement for every solider, so that they can learn its history."

Someone wrote to me 'now that the Israeli police have allowed soliders up and there was no violence, they have no reason not to let us up in tallit and tefillin. one type of clothing should not be treated differently than another' to which I responded:

nice but not quite. policmen have been up there for decades. In uniform. So???

and I was asnwered: 'police yes, soliders no and not in in the "formal dress uniform" so, the idea is to demand that based on this precendent we must be allowed in with our Jewish dress which is tallit and tefilin.

I thought that all this would probably achieve is a ban on IDF soliders touring in uniorm. I suggested simply releasing a statement that "We applaud the authorities for realizing that the IDF uniform is something not to be hidden but worn proudly and publicly even in the Temple Mount courtyards. And some day, proper Jewish religious dress will be permitted we are convinced".

What do you think?

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