WaPo Erases Temple Mount from Jewish Heritage
In its Nov. 20 edition, the Washington Post runs a front-page article about the Jerusalem synagogue attack.
The article, by correspondents William Booth and Ruth Eglash, refers to the Temple Mount as a “major flashpoint – a contested religious site known to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary and to Jews as the Temple Mount.”
Booth and Eglash then go on to describe Temple Mount as harboring the Al-Aqsa Mosque, “the third-holiest site in Islam.” That’s why it’s important to Muslims.
However, what is conspicuously missing is a parallel definition of Temple Mount as Judaism’s holiest site – the place where stood the First and Second biblical Temples. That’s why the site is called the Temple Mount and is so important to Jews.
It’s beyond curious that, having identified the Temple Mount as Islam’s third-holiest site, Booth and Eglash would omit the Temple Mount’s surpassing significance to Jews and Judaism.
In fact, this is also the site where Abraham was prepared to sacrifice his son Isaac. Again, while Mecca and Medina surpass the Temple Mount as religiously significant Muslim sites, the Temple Mount is No. 1 among sacred sites for Jews. In Judaism, nothing tops it. Why hide this chapter in religious history?
Post reporters would seem to be in need of a refresher course in the Old Testament.
Leo Rennert is a former White House correspondent and Washington bureau chief of McClatchy Newspapers.