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Source: https://www.jns.org/opinion/is-israel-really-threatened-by-ben-gvirs-temple-mount-gambit/
Potential Benefits from Ben-Gvir's Temple Mount Visit
(JNS) Jonathan S. Tobin - The question of protecting the mosques on the Temple Mount from a mythical Jewish threat is a very sensitive topic in the Arab and Muslim world. However, the problem with tiptoeing around Muslim sensibilities about the Temple Mount is that though it makes sense to avoid unnecessary trouble, keeping Jews out and refusing them equal rights to prayer there reinforces the Palestinian narrative denying the validity of Jewish history and Jewish rights to any part of Jerusalem and the country as a whole. Ben-Gvir isn't wrong to want to send a message to the Palestinians that their denial of Jewish history won't be tolerated. In the long run, establishing that no one can invalidate Jewish rights on the Temple Mount sends the message to the Arab and Islamic world that Israel is here to stay and that Palestinian fantasies of its destruction must be rejected. The writer is editor-in-chief of Jewish News Syndicate.