Peace with the Saudis is easy – they just want the Temple Mount

How does trading one Muslim landlord for another advance Israel’s restoration?

By Ryan Jones | | Topics: Temple Mount, Saudi Arabia
View of the Temple mount in Jerusalem's Old City, as seen from a lookout point near Mt Scopus, April 10, 2023. Photo by Arie Leib Abrams/FLASH90
View of the Temple mount in Jerusalem's Old City, as seen from a lookout point near Mt Scopus, April 10, 2023. Photo by Arie Leib Abrams/FLASH90

As holy as it is to the Jewish people, Israel has no problem bargaining with the Temple Mount for perceived political gain. After liberating the sacred plateau from hostile Muslim rule in 1967, Israel promptly handed it back to a hostile Muslim body, the Jordanian Waqf.

Now the Saudis are saying that the most important thing to them in a peace deal with Israel is greater influence over the Temple Mount and guarantees regarding the “rights” of Muslims at the site.

Israeli media this week covered a recent survey conducted by the Washington Institute to discover what average Saudis most hope to get in return from normalization with Israel.

Many might assume, and the Palestinians certainly hoped, that a Palestinian state would be at the top of the Saudis’ list. But it wasn’t.

According to the survey, the thing Saudis most want (46% of respondents) from a peace deal with Israel is “guaranteeing the rights of Muslims at the Al-Aqsa Mosque” (ie. Temple Mount).

Advancement toward a Palestinian state was the top priority for only 36% of Saudis polled by the Washington Institute.

See related: Cartoon War: Saudi Arabia Vs. the Palestinians

Muslims already enjoy full religious freedom at the Temple Mount, so Israel has already met the Saudis’ chief peace demand. Photo by Jamal Awad/Flash90

Rounding out the list of priorities were American military aid (18%) and cooperation from the US on developing Saudi nuclear power (16%).

On the one hand, Saudi sentiments make reaching a normalization agreement easy, noted Israeli expert Asher Fredman, a senior researcher at the Misgav Institute for National Security and Zionist Strategy.

Freeman told Israel Hayom that the findings reveal that all Israel need do to satisfy Saudi public opinion is to continue doing what it already does – maintain freedom of worship for Muslims at the Temple Mount.

Riyadh has also been angling for some time for greater influence at the Temple Mount, even though many Saudis say the site isn’t really all that important to Islam.

Saudi Arabia already controls Islam’s first and second most holy sites, so why not its third? That, too, is something Israel would probably prefer. Far better to work with a friendly Saudi regime than the venomous, Palestinian-influenced Jordanian Waqf.

But it again raises the question: Is Israel truly sovereign in its own land, and in particular in the Holy City of Jerusalem, if it doesn’t control the Temple Mount, if Jews still can’t pray at Judaism’s holiest site?

Under the current status quo, Jews must mark holy days outside the gates of their holiest site. Photo by Jamal Awad/Flash90

What is Jerusalem without the Temple Mount, the place where God chose to inscribe His name?

And what is Israel without Jerusalem?

See related: Do the Jews Have Sovereignty in Jerusalem?

Last year, when Ramadan coincided with Passover and the Temple Mount was the site of heightened tensions, an Israel Democracy Institute survey found that most Israeli Jews were tired of bargaining with their holiest site, and demanded true sovereignty, now. Half of all respondents said that at the very least, Jews should be allowed to pray at the Temple Mount.

Trading one Muslim landlord for another – even if the latter is better in every way – does this advance Israel’s restoration?

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2 responses to “Peace with the Saudis is easy – they just want the Temple Mount”

  1. Clark Gear says:
    September 27, 2023 at 3:33 pm

    Psalm 2, Why do the heathen rage and the nations imagine a vain thing?

    What ? Do you not know that your bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit, for you were bought with a price. (Shaul s letter to Corinth )

    Yohanon’s Revelation : “Come here. I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.” 10He carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me the holy city, Yerushala’im, coming down out of heaven from God,

    22I saw no temple in it, because God — the Everpresent Lord, the Sovereign over all — and the Lamb, are its temple.

  2. G. Ian Goodson says:
    September 27, 2023 at 7:03 pm

    Jesus said, on His way to the Cross, ” You will not see me again until you say, “Blessed is He who comes in the Name of the Lord”.

    Now the Church is called to Jesus, but Israel’s job is to bring in the Messiah. Last time is was Mary, this time…?

    Psalm 118 vs. 26 Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!
    We bless you from the house of the Lord.

    In the place where He was condemned the court that condemned Him must rescind the verdict. You have the Sanhedrin, the Temple is inevitable.

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