On Yom Kippur Eve: Israel Changes the Status Quo at the Cave of the Patriarchs

9 Tishrei 5776

UPDATES 

9:00 am Israel time, Tuesday, September 22 2015

**The daily Palestinian terror report from yesterday . . .

–>There were more than 40 Palestinian terror attacks yesterday targeting Israeli children, women, and men. Take a look at your local and international media sources–do you see any of them reported?

**The White House gushingly embraces Iranian “cooperation” . . .

In what can only be described as yet another installment in the theater of the comically absurd, Obama spokesman Josh Earnest blathered this surreal statement from the White House podium yesterday:

“For a long time Iran had resisted cooperating with any sort of inspections IAEA wanted to do. And as a result of the international pressure that built up over time, principally because of the tough economic sanctions that the United States put in place and got the rest of the international community to go along with, we now see indications that Iran is cooperating with IAEA inspections.”

What part of this statement, dear reader, do you think is the funniest:

–the part where he says Iran is cooperating? What happened this week was that Iran cooperated by turning over soil samples from Parchin, that the Iranians collected themselves, to the IAEA.

–or the part where Earnest claims that Iran is cooperating because of the economic sanctions? This is hilarious because Obama has just waged a political war to make sure that those sanctions will now be removed.

Either way, George Orwell is somewhere having a good laugh.

**Speaking of Iran, what’s going on with its proxy Hezbollah? 

According to Lebanese sources, Hezbollah has informed Syrian president Assad that once the battle for Zebadani is over, if it ever is, it will no longer take part in assaults against the Syrian rebels.

As israelstreet has been reporting for months, Hezbollah has lost more than a thousand fighters in Syria–hundreds in the battle for Zebadani alone. Yesterday saw another funeral in the Hezbollah section of Beirut.

The only question is whether the Hezbollah body in the coffin has a head. Most bodies being shipped back to Beirut these days are headless, courtesy of Islamic State.

**Speaking of Hezbollah and Iran . . .

In Moscow yesterday (picture: AFP).

This was the subject of PM Netanyahu’s whirlwind trip to Moscow yesterday.

First of all, Israel wants to make sure that it maintains freedom to attack targets in Syria–specifically Iranian and Hezbollah targets. Even more specifically, Israel wants to be able to hit the new Iranian/Hezbollah base on the Syrian side of the Golan Heights–and any Iranian/Hezbollah convoys taking weapons out of Syria into Lebanon.

With Russian jets, drones, and other aircraft now filling Syrian skies, this has become much more difficult.

Nevertheless, Netanyahu and Putin seemed to have reached some sort of agreement of cooperation yesterday.

TODAY’S BLOG:

Just to refresh your memory, another one of the holiest places in Judaism is the Cave of Machpelah, also known as the Cave or the Patriarchs, in Hebron. According to historical tradition, the Cave was purchased by Abraham as a burial plot.

In it are buried Abraham and Sara, Isaac and Rebecca, and Jacob and Leah. Some Jews also believe that Adam and Chavah (Eve) are buried there as well.

A Jewish holy site from the moment of Sarah’s burial there thousands of years ago, the Cave had a Muslim mosque built over it shortly after the Arab conquest in 637 CE.  After nearly 700 years of passing back and forth under control of Muslims and Christians (Crusaders), the Mamluks took control around the year 1318 CE, and from that moment until 1968–for some 650 years while the site was under Mamluk, Ottoman, British, and Jordanian occupation–the most Jews could do was to climb up 5 steps (see picture below), later 7, on the southeast corner of the site.

The Cave of the Patriarchs (actually located under the Mosque seen in the picture). Note the steps leading up to the entrance.

That changed in 1967 when Israeli forces retook the area. In 1968, Jews and Muslims reached a special arrangement to accommodate Jews coming to the Cave on Yom Kippur. Nevertheless, a series of attacks over the next 26 years led to “a temporary status agreement” in 1998.

Under that agreement, the Islamic Wakf controls 81% of the site, including the entire southeastern section. Specifically, Jews are not permitted to visit the Tombs of Isaac or Rebecca except for 10 days a year, primarily the days leading up to and including Yom Kippur.

Jews crowd the Hall of Isaac (note the black-covered tomb to the right) in the days leading up to Yom Kippur.

That is the status quo. 

And if you remember, the status quo is the phrase that PM Netanyahu constantly trumpets in regard the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. To paraphrase Netanyahu, “we cannot do anything to change the status quo.”

Well guess what? Israeli officials announced this morning, the eve of Yom Kippur, that the status quo at the Cave of the Patriarchs has been changed.

In response to complaints from the Islamic Wakf about “overcrowding” at the Cave, the room containing the Tombs of Isaac and Rebecca is being closed to all Jews tonight.

Unbelievable.

But not really.

Just as the Israeli government has kowtowed to the Islamic Wakf on and around the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, so is it now kowtowing to the Islamic Wakf in and around the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron.

With disastrous consequences.

You may remember that the last three months have seen numerous checkpoints around Hebron eliminated (it was through some of these eliminated checkpoints that Palestinian terrorists made their way to Jerusalem where they murdered Israelis) and King David Street reopened to Arab merchants after more than a decade (where Jews who live in Hebron are now again being threatened and harassed).

And again, what about that exalted status quo?

It’s all right to change it when it deleteriously affects Jews, but heaven forbid that we should inconvenience Muslims.