IDF Chief Rabbi Brigadier General Rafi Peretz wants Zionist Orthodox IDF soldiers to know that the almost all of the Temple Mount is not holy to Islam, that Islam’s view of the Temple Mount is made up, and that “ninety percent of the Arabs don’t know a thing about the Koran. I tell you with full authority. We [Israelis] know better than many of them.”
Above: IDF Chief Rabbi Brigadier General Rafi Peretz
Analysis: IDF Chief Rabbi Attacks Islam, Says Almost All Of Temple Mount Has No Holiness To Islam
Shmarya Rosenberg • FailedMessiah.com
IDF Chief Rabbi Brigadier General Rafi Peretz wants Zionist Orthodox IDF soldiers to know that the almost all of the Temple Mount is not holy to Islam, that Islam’s view of the Temple Mount is made up, and that “ninety percent of the Arabs don’t know a thing about the Koran. I tell you with full authority. We [Israelis] know better than many of them.”
Peretz spoke at the at the Otzem Zionist Orthodox pre-military yeshiva November 3, and he said some things about Muslims and Islam that are likely to cause great trouble for Israel.
Peretz was supposed to be talking about the parsha, the section of the Torah read on a particular week, meaning he should have speaking about Lech Lecha (Genesis 12:1–17:27), the parsha that talks about Abraham coming to the Land of Israel, the war of the local kings, Abraham dividing the land with his nephew Lot, and his troubles with his son Yishmael (Ishmael) who became the father of the Arabic peoples and Ishmael’s mother Hagar; or Vayeira (Genesis 18:1–22:24), the parsha following it that talks about Sodom and Gomorrah, the birth of Yitzhak (Isaac) and the expulsion of Hagar.
But because of the common theme of both parshas – Abraham’s and Sarah’s troubles with Ishmael and Hagar and the need to conquer the land, and because the Temple Mount was in the news as the most recent flashpoint for tension between Palestinians and Israeli Arabs on one hand and Israeli Jews on the other, Peretz spoke about the Temple Mount.
“Jerusalem isn’t mentioned in the Koran even once. Not even in a hint. The Arabs are imagining it…the only mosque [on the Temple Mount with] any holiness [for Muslims] is attributed to is Al-Aqsa. The rest of the Temple Mount has no religious significance.…What is the Al-Aqsa Mosque? It says in the Koran ‘make me a mosque on the edge.’ Al-Aqsa is on the edge. The edge of what? Mecca? The edge of the Arabian Peninsula. When they bow, they bow to Mecca but their backside is turned to the Temple Mount, because the edge for them is the edge of the Arabian Peninsula. So what are they doing on the Temple Mount?Ninety percent of the Arabs don’t know a thing about the Koran. I tell you with full authority. We know better than many of them,” Peretz, whose remarks were published by the Zionist Orthodox Kipa news website yesterday, reportedly said.
A student asked Peretz a question about the dream Mohammed the Prophet had of going to the Temple Mount.
“There’s a commentator who explained something in the Koran by this dream. It’s not Rashi commentary. It’s a legend that was added on,” Peretz insisted.
Peretz said he used to live in the Old City of Jerusalem.
“When the people of Ateret Cohanim [a Zionist Orthodox right-wing West Bank settler yeshiva and organization] entered the Muslim Quarter [in 1967 after the Six Day War, when Israel recaptured East Jerusalem and the Temple Mount from Jordan after 19 years of Jordanian rule] an Arab came out to them with a key and said ‘For 19 years I’ve been waiting for you because I knew it was yours.’ … He saw the Jews returning in the Six-Day War and gave us back what was ours. Why did they know to give us back the Land of Israel after 2,000 years? Because we opened the Bible and showed that it was ours,” Peretz said.
When Israeli media saw Peretz’s remarks and demanded answers from the IDF, the IDF spokesman released the following brief statement.
Peretz’s comments “were taken out of context and do not reflect the position of the IDF chief rabbi. The rabbi is sorry if his remarks offended the Arab population,” the IDF Spokesman’s Office reportedly said.
But in context or out if it, Peretz’s remarks are offensive – and many of them are simply wrong.
That Mecca is holier to Muslims than the Temple Mount (which they call Haram al-Sharif, the Noble Sanctuary, and is the third holiest site in Islam) does not make the Temple Mount profane or mundane to them, and it does not make the Dome of Rock a site of no religious value to Muslims, and the claim that “we” know the Koran better than most Muslims do is simply bizarre.
That the IDF and the Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu chose not to reprimand Peretz, demote him or fire him speaks volumes about what official Israel under Netanyahu’s leadership really thinks about Muslim Israelis and Islam – and this will likely cause further violence against Jews and make it all that much harder to find a way to reach peace.