6 August 2003
On your way to the Temple Mount, visit a library
Likud MKs Inbal Gavrieli and Yehiel Hazan were put to shame on today’s Cafe Telad morning show. Instead of making speeches about the intense [Jewish] emotional link to the Temple Mount, the two were presented with a pop quiz about its history. The results were not entirely satisfactory.
Cafe Telad, the [Israeli] Telad and Channel 2 morning show, became the scene of grotesque embarrassment at the expense MKs Inbal Gavrieli and Yehiel Hazan (Likud). The issue which they were invited to the show about was a conversation about the necessity of their planned ascent to the Temple Mount. [Anchor] Yardena Arazi tried to understand the political wisdom of climbing the disputed mountain in the middle of the Hudna, but the MKs insisted: it is the right of (every) Jew to visit the Temple Mount.
At this point, [Anchor] Dubi Gilhar asked about the level of emotional attachment the two felt to the Temple Mount, and after they both insisted that the Temple Mount was a core issue for them and that this day [the 6th of the Jewish month of Ab] would be the holiest day for Jews, Gilhar sprung a pop quiz on them, to the accompaniment of elevator music. How well did the two do on the quiz? How knowledgeable are they on this issue? You can judge it for yourself. Walla has obtained the complete transcription of the odd, embarrassing and amusing event.
Yardena Arazi: MK Gavrielli, to what extent is this issue essential to you?
Dov Gilhar: In other words, how strong is your attachment to the Temple Mount?
MK Gavrielli: I’m a Jew, the Temple Mount is the holiest site for the Jews.
Gilhar: Did you climb the Temple Mount frequently, before you were an MK?
MK Gavrielli: No, now I have the possibility of using the powers of the Immunity of Members of Knesset act, to be on the Temple Mount, to protest and represent those citizens who cannot make it there.
Gilhar: And the Temple Mount, is it meaningful to you?
Hazan and Gavrielli: Of course, of course!
Gilhar: Well, because we were thinking it was merely a populist political move. That’s what people think, that you do it to be famous. So, since you are saying that the Temple Mount is essential to you so we’ve prepared a pop quiz for you - simple questions that any school-child could answer…. …can we have some background music, please… Dear MKs, which of the temples was on Temple Mount, the first or the second? [the correct answer: both]
Gavrielli: Both of them.
Gilhar: Who built the first Temple? [the correct answer: King Solomon]
Hazan: Aaron the Cohen.
Gavrielli: I haven’t a clue.
Gilhar: It was King Solomon! And who built the second Temple?
Hazan: I don’t know, but I don’t think… …I do fast on the 9th day of Ab…
Gilhar: No, [you said that] the Temple Mount is essential to you. What dramatic event in the history of the Jewish people occurred on the Temple Mount a long time before the Temple was built? Here’s a clue: Mount Moriah. [the correct answer: the sacrifice of Isaac]
Hazan and Gavrielli: [silence]
Gilhar: The sacrifice of Isaac. When was the first Temple destroyed, does anyone know?
Hazan: I don’t know.
Gavrielli: [looks in all directions and says nothing.]
Gilhar: On the 9th day of Ab. Who destroyed the first Temple?
Gavrielli: I’ve got to stop this quiz right here!
Gilhar: Why? Are we humiliating the MKs?
Gavrielli: There’s no humiliation… But all these details…
Gilhar: I’ll tell the viewers: Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon!
Hazan: All you’re doing is what you usually have done to the Palestinians. You’re helping them. You’re perfectly ok. You’ve got to understand, I am a Jew, it is my right to the country and I want to visit in any place that a Jewish foot wants to step on.
Gilhar: Regardless of the implications.
Hazan: I think that when the people of Israel, for generations…
Gilhar: And you know what’s next? It doesn’t really come from the inside of you, it’s not that you would really have such a historical attachment…
Gavrielli (bursts into the conversation): Do I need to know all these details?
Gilhar: As an MK? Not at all!
Gavrielli: No, I need to know in a general way, as a Jew, all these details which we all learned in bible lessons and history lessons, in elementary school and high school. These things do not even have the slightest bearing on the fact that the Temple Mount is the holiest site for the Jews, that the Temple Mount was destroyed on the 9th of Ab, that it is a very symbolic act.
Gilhar: It was the Temple that was destroyed on the 9th of Ab, not the Temple Mount.
Gavrielli: I’m sorry, yes, the Temple. There is a very important and very symbolic act for us, as Jews, to go to the Temple Mount on the 9th of Ab. There is an issue at the very core, to stop the flaccidity and the weakness of the People of Israel regarding its sovereignty over the Temple Mount…
This report was translated from Hebrew by The Electronic Intifada. The original version, headlined in Hebrew, “On the way to the Temple Mount, visit a library,” is at http://news.walla.co.il/?w=//423264
