Schmoozing With Terrorists: From Hollywood to the Holy Land, Jihadists Reveal Their Global Plans-To a Jew!

by Aaron Klein

  He said the original Torah dictated Abraham was willing to sacrifice his "favorite" son Ishmael, not Isaac, and that Ishmael was a great prophet who laid the foundations for Muhammad.

  Muumen informed me I would not go to heaven unless I converted to Islam.

  "A Jew who believes in the present Torah is a non-believer who cannot be accepted into heaven. In order to enter heaven you should be Muslim," he said. "Jews are condemned to hell."

  CHAPTER FOUR

  NO JEWS IS GOOD NEWS

  TERRORISTS' MEMORIES Fuzzy WHEN IT COMES TO RECORDED HISTORY

  Then Solomon began to build the house of the Lord at Jerusalem in mount Moriah, where the Lord appeared unto David his father, in the place that David had prepared in the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. And he began to build in the second day of the second month, in the fourth year of his reign. Now these are the things wherein Solomon was instructed for the building of the house of God. The length by cubits after the first measure was threescore cubits, and the breadth twenty cubits.. .And he garnished the house with precious stones for beauty: and the gold was gold of Parvaim. He overlaid also the house, the beams, the posts, and the walls thereof, and the doors thereof, with gold; and graved cherubims on the walls.

  Chronicle II

  BOUT YOUR SO-CALLED two Jewish Temples, they never existed," said Sheikh Taysir Tamimi, chief Palestinian justice and one of the most influential Muslim clerics in the Middle East.

  With a straight face, the prominent sheikh sat there and explained to me very sternly there is no Jewish historic connection whatsoever to the Temple Mount or Jerusalem; the Jewish Temples are a Zionist conspiracy; the Western Wall really was a tying post for Muhammad's horse; and Islam's stated third holiest site, the Al Aqsa Mosque, which has sprung multiple leaks and needs regular repainting, was built by Allah's angels.

  I met Tamimi at his luxurious, well-decorated office in a poor Arab neighborhood on the outskirts of Jerusalem. Tamimi isn't some wacko preacher in the Gaza Strip; he's considered the second most important Palestinian cleric after Muhammad Hussein, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem. Tamimi regularly preaches from the Al Aqsa Mosque. He represents Muslim thinking in the West Bank and Gaza.

  I have no hesitation about including Tamimi in a book about my conversations with terrorists since he regularly promotes socalled martyrdom, convincing young Palestinians they will go to paradise for blowing themselves up among targeted civilians. During out meeting, Tamimi gave me a long lecture about the importance of suicide bombings.

  According to Tamimi, the history of the Jewish people and our ties to the Temple Mount are forgeries.

  "Israel started since 1967 making archeological digs to show Jewish signs to prove the relationship between Judaism and the [Temple Mount] and they found nothing," Tamimi said, ignoring all evidence confirmed by every respectable archeologist in the world today.

  The Temple Mount is the holiest site in Judaism.

  Just a brief rundown of my religion's most sacred place: The First Jewish Temple was built by King Solomon in the tenth century B.C. It was destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 B.C. The Second Temple was rebuilt in 515 B.C. after Jerusalem was freed from Babylonian captivity. That temple was destroyed by the Roman Empire in A.D. 70. Each temple stood for a period of about four centuries.

  The Jewish Temple was the center of religious Jewish worship. It housed the Holy of Holies, which contained the Ark of the Covenant and was said to be the area upon which G-d's shechina or "presence" dwelt. All Jewish holidays centered on worship at the Temple. The Jewish Temples served as the primary location for the offering of sacrifices and was the main gathering place for the Jewish people.

  According to the Talmud, the world was created from the foundation stone of the Temple Mount. It's believed to be the Biblical Mount Moriah, the location where Abraham fulfilled G-d's test to see if he would be willing to sacrifice his son Isaac. Jewish tradition holds Mashiach, or the Jewish Messiah, will return and rebuild the third and final Temple on the holy Mount in Jerusalem.

  The Kotel, or Western Wall, is the one part of the Temple Mount that survived the destruction of the Second Temple and still stands today in Jerusalem.

  The Temple Mount has remained a focal point for Jewish services for thousands of years. Prayers for a return to Jerusalem and the rebuilding of the Jewish Temple have been uttered by Jews since the Second Temple was destroyed, according to Jewish tradition. Throughout all notorious Jewish exiles, the Jews never gave up their hope of returning to Jerusalem and reestablishing their Temple. To this day Jews worldwide pray facing the Western Wall, while Muslims turn their backs away from the Temple Mount and pray toward Mecca.

  But Tamimi says all this well-documented Jewish history is hogwash.

  "Jews declared they dug and dug for proof that their imaginary Temples existed and they didn't find any sign. Nothing. We don't want to throw you into the sea but we say you are making us [Muslims] very upset with these lies about your Temples," Tamimi told me.

  What was this guy talking about? I called him out immediately.

  Aside from all the textual evidence affirming the Templesthe detailed descriptions of Temple specifications and construction in the Bible; letters and writings from the Roman Empire, the works of first-century Jewish historian Josephus, a wealth of epigraphic writings, among other things -the evidence of the Jewish Temples is etched in the land.

  Excavations on the Temple Mount were always difficult due to Muslim objections, but key discoveries were still made the past 150 years. Digs by Sir Charles William Wilson, an officer of the British Royal Engineers, produced an important arch, mentioned by Josephus "as having connected the Upper City of Jerusalem with the sacred compound during the Second Temple Period."

  Professor Binyamin Mazar of Hebrew University found important potsherds with Temple references; a large number of ritual baths; a staircase of monumental dimensions which led up to large gates in the southern wall of the Temple compound; a massive plaza where pilgrims were said to have congregated before entering the Temple precincts after purifying themselves in the ritual baths of a building in the center of the plaza, which was found at the same time.

  Temple Mount dirt nearly thrown out by the Waqf, the Muslim custodians of the Mount, contained Jewish Temple artifacts.

  Mazar's daughter, Eilat, is one of the lead archeologists at the City of David, one of the most important archeological finds of modern times. The site is located on the southeastern hill to the south of the Temple Mount, and is believed to be the area used by David to conquer Jerusalem and build his palace. One can literally take out the Bible and read exact descriptions of the place, which has yielded many finds, including Temple Period artifacts, synagogues, a tower at which Solomon was believed to have been anointed king, and recently what may be the largest ritual bath in the world in the area leading up to the Mount. Jews needed to dip in a ritual bath before ascending the Temple Mount. New Temple period discoveries are made at the City of David almost every month.

  I pointed all these facts out to Tamimi, but he denied everything.

  "I disagree with you. If anything was discovered, Israel would have made a big deal that it found something. The only thing they discovered were Arab and Islamic things," Tamimi told me.

  "What you are saying is total fabrication," I told Tamimi, actually laughing in his face, although I tried to respond in a respectful manner.

  "There was no Jewish civilization in Jerusalem," Tamimi retorted. "Many people lived here throughout the ages and they left some artifacts, but so what? There is no proof of any Jews being here."

  "How can you make such a claim? Israel just last week announced it found intact a Second Temple period Jewish neighborhood near Jerusalem, with Jewish artifacts, including Jewish ritual baths and a synagogue. These finds happen all the time. Our history is written in the land. How can you deny this?" I said frankly.

  During the course of our conversation I upset Tamimi several times by pointing o
ut his lies and distortions in a very direct way. An Israel-based media network learned I was going to interview Tamimi and had sent along a camera crew to film our confrontation. Afterwards, I asked the network to mainly use only Tamimi's responses and not my questions because I didn't want viewers to see I could barely keep a straight face. I was astonished by the level of ridiculousness spewed by the good sheikh and just couldn't look directly at him in a serious way. I am usually able to keep my composure during these kinds of interviews, but this time I just couldn't do that.

  My translator Ali later told me there were several points at which Tamimi was ready to depart in the middle of the interview. At first I thought this was an exaggeration. But I looked at the footage and saw indeed Tamimi tried to get up from his chair four times. I was so engrossed in the conversation while it was taking place I didn't notice.

  Tamimi's staff had been alerted to the debate being waged with a visiting Jew. Before I knew it we had an audience of about a dozen people, most of whom looked visibly amazed I was challenging their respected leader. Some were shaking their heads in disagreement almost every time I opened my mouth. One meanlooking guy gave the impression he wanted to jump me.

  "These archeological things you cite are lies," continued Tamimi. "Jews came to the [Temple area] in 1967 and not before."

  As extremist as Tamimi sounds, he should not be taken lightly. He represents the thinking of a large number of Muslims in the Middle East, who have come the past few dozen years to believe the Temple Mount is theirs only and that the Jewish Temples never existed.

  Not all Muslims worldwide deny documented Jewish history, but it is a growing phenomenon in the Middle East. Muslims previously traditionally acknowledged the Temple Mount is holy to the Jews. Some of the most important early Islamic scholars wrote the Al Aqsa Mosque was built at the site of Solomon's Temple. Even initial Palestinian leaders recognized the Mount as being the site of Solomon's Temples. But the Palestinian Authority the past twenty or so years led an effective campaign to de- ligitimize all Jewish ties to Israel. Many prominent Western Muslim leaders try to counteract the growing trend of Jewish Templedenial, but so many in the Middle East believe their leaders, who change things around to make Islam the only legitimate actor. They call the mount the Haram Al-Sharif.

  The absurd denial of the Jewish Temples is of course shared by the terrorists, many of whom were offended that I even asked whether the Jewish Temples existed.

  "We are fed up with this crap nonsense of the Temple Mount," said Nasser Abu Aziz, the deputy commander of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades in the northern West Bank. "We do not know where this story came from. There is no historical or archeological proof that this legendary Temple existed. We are sick of this story. But Allah warned us that Jews will look for an excuse in order to corrupt life on earth, so we are not surprised from the fact that you keep raising this issue."

  Muhammad Abdul-El, spokesman for the Popular Resistance Committees terror organization, told me the Jewish Temples "existed only in your dreams. Go look for your stupid Temple elsewhere. And I am not saying this for political reasons. I say that the enemy invented this story in order to justify its occupation of Jerusalem."

  Abu Abdullah, considered one of the most important operational members of Hamas's so-called military wing, accused all Jews of being pathological liars.

  "Stop lying and believing your own lies. Even if there was such a thing [as a Jewish Temple] do you really believe that Solomon, who was a prophet, would have built a Temple in the place that Allah wanted for the Al Aqsa Mosque?"

  The Al Aqsa Mosque was constructed around A.D. 709 to serve as a shrine near another shrine, the Dome of the Rock, which was built by an Islamic caliph. Al Aqsa was meant to mark the place where Muslims came to believe Muhammad ascended to heaven.

  Islamic tradition states Muhammad took a journey in a single night from "a sacred mosque" -believed to be in Mecca in southern Saudi Arabia -to "the farthest mosque," and from a rock there ascended to heaven to receive revelations from Allah that became part of the Quran. The farthest mosque later became associated with Jerusalem, which is not mentioned once in the Quran.

  According to Tamimi, the Western Wall, which predates the Al Aqsa Mosque by almost one thousand years, is really part of Al Aqsa.

  "The Western wall is the western wall of the Al Aqsa Mosque," Tamimi said.

  He said the Western Wall is properly called the Al-Boraq Wall, which he explained was where Muhammad tied his horse, named Boraq, before ascending to heaven.

  "It's where Prophet Muhammad tied his animal which took him from Mecca to Jerusalem to receive the revelations of Allah," Tamimi told me.

  It would be one thing if Mideast Muslims simply go around denying history. But they dangerously take it one step further and attempt to physically erase Jewish history.

  In the late 1990s, the Temple Mount Muslim Waqf custodians excavated parts of the mount alongside Solomon's Stables, an area directly underneath the southeastern corner of the Temple Mount. The area had been called Solomon's Stables since Crusader times, when it was used by the Crusaders as horse stables.

  As they do with so many other Jewish holy sites, Mideast Muslims in 1996 converted the Stables area in a huge mosqueone of the largest in the world, capable of accommodating up to seven thousand worshipers.

  In 1997, the Waqf commenced illegal excavations, causing major damage to the eastern and southern sections of the Western Wall and digging up tons of invaluable dirt thought to contain First and Second Jewish Temple artifacts.

  After removing and hijacking important large artifacts, the Waqf quickly disposed of truckloads of the priceless Temple dirt but were halted by Israeli authorities who helped transfer the soil to a safe place outside the Mount where archeologists were able to sift through the ruins. Jewish Temple relics were indeed found, including coins with Hebrew writing referencing the Temple, part of a Hasmonean lamp, several other Second Temple lamps, Temple period pottery with Jewish markings, a marble pillar shaft, and other Temple period artifacts.

  The Waqf was widely accused of disposing of the important dirt in a malicious attempt to destroy evidence of any Jewish presence on the Temple Mount, and indeed this is absolutely what I believe they were trying to do.

  I made no bones about bringing these accusations up with Tamimi, who has major influence over the direction of the Waqf.

  "You guys were absolutely trying to dispose of Jewish history," I charged. "It would have been a travesty for the Waqf if Jewish Temple artifacts were found during Muslim excavations."

  Just like everything else, Tamimi denied archeologists found Temple relics in the dirt.

  He went on to claim the Al Aqsa Mosque was "built by the angels forty years after the building of Al-Haram in Mecca. This we have no doubt is true."

  That the mosque was built by angels is a common theme in the Muslim world. It was repeated during an interview I conducted with Sheik Kamal Hatib, vice chairman of the Islamic Movement, the Muslim group in Israel most identified with the Temple Mount. Only Hatib predated the Al Aqsa Mosque all the way to the creation of man:

  We the Muslims believe that Al Aqsa was built since the time of Adam-Allah bless him. Al Aqsa was built by the angels as it is mentioned in a verse of the Quran. The mosque is mentioned in the Quran, which speaks about the raising of the prophet.

  I asked Tamimi if Jerusalem is so important to Islam why isn't it mentioned once in the Quran. I pointed out it's mentioned over seven hundred times in the Hebrew Bible.

  Lying to me about his own religion's holy book, Tamimi said, "Jerusalem is in the Quran. It's mentioned in the first sura of the Quran."

  This is absolutely not true. Jerusalem is not directly mentioned in the Quran, only in the hadith, or oral traditions relating to the words and deeds of Muhammad that were written over one hundred years after Muhammad's death. Many Islamic scholars say the Quran alludes to Jerusalem.

  Regarding Jerusalem being mentioned numerous times in my Bib
le, Tamimi said the Torah was "falsified by the Jews. We don't believe in all your versions. The Torah as revealed to our Prophet Moses never once mentioned the Temple or Jerusalem."

  He went on to accuse Israel of trying to destroy the Al Aqsa Mosque, which is one of the most outrageous claims anyone can make, but is repeated so often it's taken as fact by so many Middle East Muslims and many times even parroted by my colleagues in the news media.

  Tamimi and his ilk regularly use Judaism's holiest site for Palestinian and pan-Arab political gain. Time and again the Palestinians use mythical Israeli threats against Al Aqsa to stir up the masses into a violent revolt. The Temple Mount is one of the most sensitive spots in the universe. Arab terror wars have been waged using the mosque as provocation while the Muslims are the only ones causing damage to the Temple Mount.

  In September 2000, following the collapse of U.S.-mediated Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, Ariel Sharon, then the Israeli opposition leader, famously visited the Temple Mount in what was used by the Palestinians as a provocation against the Al Aqsa Mosque. Young Palestinian men who were curiously strategically placed following Sharon's visit came running out of the mosque hurling rocks at Jewish worshipers below at the Western Wall platform. Israeli police rushed to the scene. Violent clashes ensued.

  The Palestinian propaganda machine went into overdrive, broadcasting messages Israel was trying to take over the Al Aqsa Mosque, and thus was born the intifada, or Palestinian terror war led by Yasser Arafat to take Palestine from the Jews by force. Arafat actually called his war the Al Aqsa Intifada.

  But later, Palestinian terror leaders and Arafat officials admitted they used Sharon's visit to the Mount as pretext and that the violence had nothing at all to do with any purported Israeli threats to the Al Aqsa Mosque.

  "Whoever thinks the Intifada broke out because of the despised Sharon's visit to the Al-Aqsa Mosque is wrong... This Intifada was planned in advance, ever since President Arafat's return from the Camp David negotiations," admitted Palestinian Communications Minister 'Imad Al-Faluji to an Arab newspaper.