In leaked recording, PM heard saying smashing the mosque at contested holy site would ‘contradict everything Israel stands for’
ed note–all reading this can rest assured that it was Netanyahu himself who ‘leaked’ this audio, given that he is the sole beneficiary of it.
All can be assured of something else–If they are talking about it in this fashion, they fully intend to do it, it’s just that they are waiting for the right confluence of events where it will be politically safe to do so. More than likely, it will be blown up and then blamed on ISIS.
And lastly, as far as it ‘contradicting’ everything that Israel stands for–
‘When the LORD your God brings you into the land you are to possess and casts out the many peoples living there, you shall then slaughter them all and utterly destroy them…You shall save nothing alive that breathes…You shall make no agreements with them nor show them any mercy. You shall destroy their places of worship, break down their images and burn their graven images with fire. For you are a holy people unto the LORD thy God and He has chosen you to be a special people above all others upon the face of the earth…’ Book of Deuteronomy
Times of Israel
Israel could easily destroy Jerusalem’s flashpoint Al-Aqsa mosque, but emphatically does not want to, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.
In remarks to Likud colleagues, Netanyahu said Israel could rid the Temple Mount of the mosque with little effort, but that to do so would contradict everything that Israel represents.
If Israel ‘wanted to destroy Al-Aqsa, it would not require a great effort… but it goes against everything we stand for,’ the prime minister told his party’s Knesset faction on Wednesday, in a recording played by Army Radio on Thursday afternoon.
The mosque atop the Temple Mount — which is the holiest place in Judaism as the site of the two biblical temples — has been at the heart of a wave of Palestinian terrorism and clashes between Palestinians and Israeli security forces in recent months. Palestinian leaders and media have alleged that Israel intends to change the decades-long arrangements under which Jews are allowed to visit but barred from praying on the Mount — something Netanyahu has repeatedly insisted is not the case.
Ironically, the recording of Netanyahu’s remarks was leaked from a closed meeting at which the prime minister had stressed the imperative not to leak his remarks.
In the same meeting, Netanyahu also derided opposition leader Isaac Herzog for lacking the security credentials necessary to run Israel.
Herzog retorted in an interview with Amry Radio that the prime minister is ‘weak when it comes to deeds, and strong only when it comes to words.’ The Zionist Union party chief said he’d be able to bolster Israel’s security, improve its international standing, and even ‘bring international recognition for the Etzion Bloc’ of settlements south of Jerusalem.