On the Ambassador Friedman Photomontage Affair

What's really wrong with this now-infamous picture and also controversial:

Well, for starters, the "Temple" superimposed on the Jerusalem scene is...

...facing the wrong direction*:

As anyone with a modicum of knowledge of the layout of the Temple Mount, the doors of the Temple faced east.

I guess that's what happens when Haredim try to be cute.

Or a computer graphic artist didn't know how to flip the building.

Or, perhaps, he thought Amb. Friedman wouldn't notice eventually.

P.S. It sure upset them.

BTW, notice that in this picture, Friedman doesn't look that smiley nor happy:

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*

The Temple structure faced east, and you entered from the east towards the west. Facing east was unique to Judaism. Pagan temples were oriented in other directions.

The Tabernacle In The Wilderness faced east:

And those that were to pitch before the tabernacle eastward, before the tent of meeting toward the sunrising, were Moses, and Aaron and his sons, keeping the charge of the sanctuary (Numbers 3:38)

The Temple in Jerusalem, which replaced the Tabernacle also faced east, toward the Mount Of Olives:

And it came to pass, when the priests were come out of the holy place--for all the priests that were present had sanctified themselves, and did not keep their courses...also the Levites stood at the east end of the altar...  (2 Chronicles 5:11-12)

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UPDATE

This picture is now in Venice:

Architectures negotiating identities: The Israeli Pavilion

In the geopolitical context of the Holy Land, the combination of historical events, myths, and traditions has created an extraordinary concentration of holy places. Because of their supreme religious importance, many of these places have become arenas of bitter struggle between competing groups of religions and communities. The Israeli Pavilion at the 2018 Venice Architecture Biennale focuses on this complex, fragile system of coexistence between rivals that has been established in the 19th Century: the Status Quo.

The comprehensive publication opens a contemporary discussion of the topic, focusing on five major holy sites that encapsulate the spatio-political phenomenon of the Status Quo. Illustrated with architectural plans, archive documentation, images of the sites and works by visual artists, critical essays from various disciplines investigate the role of architecture and how these agreements have regulated and transformed space.

Exhibition: 26.5.—25.11.2018, La Biennale di Venezia, 16th International Architecture Exhibition, Israeli Pavilion, Venice

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