In this photo I labeled the three places at the center of all modern Middle East conflict. It’s a photo of Temple Mount. In the background is the Mount of Olives.
In the foreground is the Western Wall Plaza—the holiest site in Judaism.
Quite literally connected to it is the Al Aqsa mosque compound.
It doesn’t take much imagination to see that if there are tensions between Muslims and Jews, you’re only a Molotov cocktail away from a war breaking out.
Many people think the Dome of the Rock (the golden dome building) is the holy site, but it’s actually considered less important than Al Aqsa.
Muslims refer to the whole platform where you can see the trees, the Dome of the Rock, and the Al Aqsa mosque as the “Haram Al-Sharif,” or, “The Noble Sanctuary.”
The Jews claim, and archaeology proves, that the Western Wall and the entire hilltop behind it is the site of the former temple complex built by Herod the Great. There are disputes as to which part of the hill the actual temple sat, but there right in front of you on the Western Wall are the enormous stones cut by Herod’s builders 2,000 years ago.
Muslims at the site, and by majority numbers around the Arab world, deny that the compound was ever the site of a Jewish temple.
Multiple times I stood inside that compound and personally heard the Muslims declare that it was all Zionist propaganda, this notion of a Jewish temple. It doesn’t matter that you can stand on top of the actual stones of the foundations of Herod’s building. They refuse to believe it.