QUESTION: Many people who are Jewish and Christian would love to destroy the Dome of the Rock. We hear Christian zealots pushing this event to bring about the Second Coming and Armageddon. Does Socrates show anything on this subject?
Do you plan an update on your Middle East War Report? It’s been almost ten years, and 2024 is here.
IW
ANSWER: I have visited the Dome of the Rock and paid my respects. Jerusalem is the crossroads of three major religions – Jewish, Islam, and Christian. Disputes over specific locations abound throughout the city. There has been a long-running and undeclared war between two of Israel and Iran – the Middle East’s most implacable foes. I am deeply concerned that 2024 was the target year for this confrontation to burst to the surface. The October 7th Hamas/Iran attack on Israel was the beginning.
To the Jews and Christians, this is known as the Temple Mount, while the Muslims call it the Dome of the Rock. It contains a huge rock that the Jewish tradition says is that this is where Abraham was told to sacrifice his son. To the Muslims, the rock is the spot from which the Prophet Muhammad was taken up into heaven for an encounter with God (an event known as the Miʿrāj). Thus, it is the same rock, symbolizing the clash between these religions.
There are some Christian Zealots who want to destroy the Dome of the Rock to force the Second Coming and Armageddon. Yet there are also far-right Jewish Zealots advocating the destruction of the Dome of the Rock to pave the way for building a Jewish temple. The initial construction of the Dome of the Rock was undertaken by the Umayyad Caliphate on the orders of Abd al-Malik back during the Second Fitna (691–692AD). It was constructed on top of the very site of the Second Jewish Temple, which had been constructed in c. 516AD to replace the destroyed Temple of Solomon was reconstructed by Herod the Great, the Jewish King of Judea from 37/6BC to 4/1BC. It was that Temple that the Romans destroyed in 70AD.
It was only after the Six-Day War was over by June 10th, 1967 (1967.441) that Israel’s capital city, Jerusalem, was reunited. For the first time in 19 years, the Old City was open to believers of all faiths, and Jews could access their holiest sites. I was fortunate to have visited everywhere in the late 1970s. Cyclically, that was precisely on time under the model.
It was 51.6 years right on target from the Six-Day War that the negotiations began, and within two months, on March 25, 2019, then President Donald Trump signed the Proclamation on Recognizing the Golan Heights as Part of the State of Israel. It was then, from May 3rd to 6th, that the Gaza–Israel clashes began (May 2019) also on time.
Israel allowed Jews to pray on the Temple Mount. The Jews have been praying at the base of the Temple Mount, where the old Temple Wall still remains. Jordan, the custodian of the Dome of the Rock, demanded that the government cease Jewish prayer on the mount. The Israeli government avoided formally addressing these silent prayers. They occur on the eastern side of the Dome of the Rock/Temple Mount, albeit without traditional Jewish prayer items such as tallit, tefillin, or siddur.
Our computer has been projecting a rising confrontation and has targeted 2024 as the key turning point. I also reported on that in the February 13th, 2023 post in the last update. Yes, I will update this.
