Here's the video from Reuters:
Stun grenades used to disperse Palestinians near al-Aqsa mosque
Most of this was not filmed in the Temple Mount Compound; it's from near one of the entrance gates to it in the Old City. I've been there, so I know.
Even the Reuters article admits that the Arabs were the aggressors here.
Palestinians clash with Israeli police at Jerusalem's al-Aqsa compound(Reuters) - Israeli police came under a barrage of rocks and flares from Palestinians in clashes in Jerusalem's al-Aqsa mosque compound, the third holiest shrine in Islam, on Monday and four protesters were arrested.
The site in Jerusalem's walled Old City has seen repeated disturbances over the years over what Palestinians say are fears of an Israeli threat to the site, which Muslims call the Noble Sanctuary. Israel denies any such threat. Jews also revere the site as the location of two destroyed biblical temples.
Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said officers went to the elevated compound, also known as Temple Mount by Jews, after receiving information that protesters had planned to start a riot and disrupt visits there.
"(Officers) surprised the rioters, pushing them back and found petrol bombs, rocks, stones, bottles at the scene that would have been used to attack visitors ... It was a police initiative to prevent disturbances," Rosenfeld said. (Reuters)
When I read the headline about the stun grenades I kept thinking that we should have used machine guns like any other effective police force would do. Those stun grenades are like covering skin cancer with make-up and claiming a cure.
The Temple Mount may be Islam's "third holiest shrine" but it's Judaism's top holiest place on earth. In actuality the popular and more accessible Kotel, Western Wall, is barely a close second. It's not the "Western Wall" referred to in the Mishne and other ancient holy writings. That truly holy "Western Wall" was of the Temple, Beit HaMikdash, which is long destroyed.
Today's "Western Wall" is an outer wall from the late Second Temple Period expansion by King Herod.
It is not at all connected directly in any way or form to our Holy Temples. This wall only became a popular prayer site in very recent centuries. Before that Jews ascended to the Temple Mount to pray. It gained popularity in the twentieth century because the British placed restrictions on Jewish Prayer there. So, davka, Jews who were also banned from the Temple Mount, Hebron's Ma'arat HaMachpela and other holy sites promoted the Kotel.
In a very bad policy move, the Israeli Government gave the Muslims and Jordan effective sovereignty over the Temple Mount almost immediately after liberating it in the 1967 Six Days War.
Yes, it is the center of the "problem" between Israel and the Arabs in a very spiritual sense. And since this is the Holy Land, we won't have peace until we fully take over the Temple Mount and begin Jewish worship and the building of the Third Temple.
And if we need to use machine guns against the Arabs attacking us there, so we shouldn't be shy about it.
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