[Jerusalem Post] Marvin Hier and Abraham Cooper - Generations of Palestinians, "educated" by Yasser Arafat and company, have been taught not to believe there ever was a Solomon's Temple. Textbooks and Palestinian media all repeat the self-delusionary canard denying any historic Jewish continuity or legitimacy in the Holy Land. President Bill Clinton was reportedly shocked when Arafat called the Western Wall - the Jewish people's holiest place - "a Muslim shrine" and the Palestinian leader's chief negotiator at the Camp David peace talks denied the ruins of Solomon's temple lay beneath the Dome of the Rock. The current violence and rabble-rousing by the Palestinians won't make it any easier for President Obama, but the first thing he must do is admonish the Palestinian leadership to stop denying the legitimacy of the Jewish people. There can be no peace in the Holy Land without the Arab and Muslim world acknowledging what their Holy Book and ancestors recognized as the historic link of the Jewish people to its land and its holy sites. Unless and until that happens, there will be no peace in our time. Marvin Hier is the founder and dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, where Abraham Cooper is the associate dean.
2009-10-07 08:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive