Here are two less well-known, historical stories, that have stood the test of time and regained a considerable degree of relevance this week, somewhat surprisingly, especially in view of the ongoing secret negotiations towards normalization between Israel and Saudi Arabia being brokered by the US.
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The first story has a distinctly international flavor and it is connected with three businessmen: Al Schwimmer (the founder of Israel Aircraft Industries), Hank Greenspun (the real estate mogul from Las Vegas), and Ya'akov Nimrodi (Israeli businessman and former intelligence officer) who passed away last month.
Video: Mohammed bin Salman meets Tayyip Erdogan in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, July 17, 2023 / Credit: Israel Hayom
This group of businessmen met with then Prime Minister Menachem Begin in the early eighties, following talks with the fourth king of Saudi Arabia, Khaled, and with Adnan Khashoggi, a Saudi billionaire and one of the largest arms dealers in the world. The Saudis, so the three men reported, were willing to invest 100 billion dollars in the development of a Middle East of peace and tranquility, on the condition that the Saudi flag would fly over the Temple Mount. By having its flag fly there, Saudi Arabia, so the businessmen told Begin, seeks to give expression to the fact that the third holiest site in Islam – after Mecca and Medina, which are already located in its territory and under its control – belongs to it, and to exert its influence over Jerusalem too. Begin, as Nimrodi would later tell, thought that the very act of raising this idea was disgraceful and duly "showed them the door."
The second story has a more local aroma to it even though its impact is much more far-reaching. Several years before Begin rejected the Saudi proposal, a 200-page document was submitted to Yitzhak Rabin, then during his first term of office as prime minister. The report contained details of no less than 35 different options for reaching an arrangement on the future of Jerusalem and the status of the holy sites, above all the Temple Mount. The inter-ministerial committee that prepared the report was headed by the then Director General of the Ministry of Justice, Zvi Tarlo. In the proposals submitted, his working group combined ideas that in practice would have granted Jordan, as the representative of the Muslim world, the custodianship of the Temple Mount, along with the possibility of flying the Jordanian flag there. But Rabin too, just like Begin after him, rejected the idea of a foreign flag flying over the Mount.
When Nimrodi, Al Schwimmer, and Greenspun, acting on behalf of Saudi Arabia, offered Israel a 100 billion dollar deal for a Middle East of peace, in return for the Saudi flag over the Temple Mount – Begin sent them packing.
As fate would have it, later on, that same report was used by the negotiation teams working on the peace agreement with Jordan during Rabin's second term as prime minister. They took from it, among others, the idea that Rabin proposed to Jordan's King Hussein, to establish an international religious directorate, on which Muslim representatives from various countries would sit, and together they would be responsible for the religious autonomy enjoyed by the Muslims and the Waqf setup (responsible for administration of the Muslim holy sites on the Temple Mount), though it would be under the patronage of the Israeli authorities.
This time, it was Hussein's turn to reject the idea. The King of Jordan was not overly taken up by the possibility of Jordan and Israel sharing a partnership in the rule over the Mount, and that is putting it lightly. His stance was accepted: The peace agreement he signed with Israel granted a clear preference for the historic Jordanian role at the holy places to Islam in Jerusalem, and in practice – even though the term "custodianship" was not mentioned in it – it did grant Jordan some form of custodianship as the senior representative of the Muslim world. That agreement cost Israel the wrath of Saudi Arabia, Morocco, and the Palestinian Authority, who all regarded themselves as having a status on the Mount, and as such believed that they had been hard done by as a result of the peace agreement.
Now, as part of the ongoing negotiations towards normalization between Israel and Saudi Arabia, the USA is once again trying to square that particular circle and is rehashing the idea of bringing in additional Muslim countries with a historical connection to the Mount to have a future influence on what occurs there, alongside the continued Israeli sovereignty at the site.
This involves, first and foremost, Saudi Arabia, and then Jordan, which will continue to maintain its senior status at the site, though not exclusively as is the case today, as well as Morocco, the Palestinians, the Palestinian Authority), and perhaps even Turkey.
In practice, the USA under President Biden has decided to revisit the idea that Rabin proposed to King Hussein almost 30 years ago, and the almost identical idea that was integrated into the "Deal of the Century" as proposed by former US President Donald Trump a couple of years ago: the establishment of an inter-faith Muslim council/directorate, in which Saudi Arabia would enjoy a senior status on the Temple Mount alongside Jordan, and would even be involved in management of the site, similarly to Jordan and alongside Israel. The Jordanians, who have outrightly rejected such ideas in the past (both with Rabin and Trump), do not like this idea in the least. "Back to the Future", is precisely how one senior Jordanian official bitterly referred to this, complaining that the Americans have not learned from the past failure of this formula.
But the Jordanians are not simply making do with rejection of the idea. King Abdullah is trying to gain the support of both Egypt and the Palestinians to establish a front that would be able to block the Saudi attempt to gain a foothold on the Temple Mount, to reduce Jordan's influence there and thus to become the Islamic power that rules and influences the three holiest sites in Islam: Mecca, Medina, and Al-Aqsa.
Buried on the Mount and Murdered on the Mount
The fierce rivalry on the issue of Al-Aqsa between the two dynasties, the Jordanian and Saudi royal families, have deep historical roots that go back a long time: in precisely one year's time, 2024 will mark the 100th anniversary of the appointment of Sharif Hussein Bin Ali, the head of the Hashemite dynasty, as the defender of the Islamic holy sites in Jerusalem (an appointment of the Supreme Muslim Council). Bin Ali, who was the Shari and Emir of Mecca between 1908 and 1917, was granted the "Jerusalem" appointment after his forces lost in the war over the House of Saud dynasty and its ruler, King Abdulaziz. Consequently, the senior title of Guardian of the Islamic Holy Sites in Mecca and Medina was removed from Bin Ali's grasp. The Hashemites have never forgiven the Saudis for that incident.
Bin Ali died in 1931 and was buried on the Temple Mount. He was a descendant of the Hashemite dynasty that currently rules Jordan, whose forefathers regarded themselves as the descendants of the Prophet Muhammad. Only 15 years later, in 1946, was Jordan officially established as a state. Its first king was Hussein Bin Ali's second son, King Abdullah the First.
Abdullah's fate too was tied in with the Al-Aqsa compound (the Temple Mount). He was assassinated on the Mount on July 20, 1951, and his killing has been attributed to the secret dialogue that he was conducting with the Government of Israel to reach a peace agreement. His grandson, Hussein, who was a witness to his grandfather's murder, while attending Friday prayers together at the Al-Aqsa Mosque, succeeded him only a short time after the assassination, and then later on, as king, he rejected Rabin's proposal to establish a multi-faith Muslim directorate to act on the Temple Mount issue.
Until the Six-Day War, as is known, Jordan ruled Judea and Samaria, East Jerusalem, and the Temple Mount. It continued to maintain the Muslim custodianship of the Mount even after 1967 (alongside the Israeli sovereignty), and even after its 1988 announcement of disengagement from the West Bank. In its peace treaty with Israel in 1994, Jordan was granted an official status on the Mount, and it was stipulated that "Israel respects the present special role of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan in Muslim Holy shrines in Jerusalem," and that "When negotiations on the permanent status will take place, Israel will give high priority to the Jordanian historic role in these shrines."
The special relations with Jordan, including security, intelligence, and joint economic interests, have over the years turned Amman into Israel's silent partner in its management of the Temple Mount. Thus, for example, it was entrusted with the work of restoring the southern and eastern Temple walls (Kotel), after these had begun to subside. Again, accordingly, Israel ceded to the Jordanian demand not to replace the shaky, unstable Mughrabi Bridge leading to the Mughrabi Gate, the only entrance gate to the Temple Mount for non-Muslims. In a similar vein, Israel also tends to display much consideration for Jordan's stance on numerous additional issues related to the arrangements and even the internal security on the Temple Mount and the area surrounding it.
The idea of the directorate, which the Americans are currently considering to revive, is provoking the Jordanians not only due to their historical and emotional connection to Al-Aqsa but also for practical reasons too. For many years now, the Jordanian status on the Mount and Al-Aqsa has been regarded by the royal family as a key religious and historical mainstay of the stability of its rule in Jordan and its legitimacy. Both Israel and the US have been cognizant of this over the years. Now, so the Jordanians fear, that stability might just be about to be undermined.
The Map of Interests
Saudi Arabia, as in the past, is prepared to invest a considerable amount of money in order to acquire a similar status on the Mount for itself. It knows that Jordan is a poor country, one that lacks financial means and has heavy debts to repay and is thus prepared – in return for some degree of foothold in Al-Aqsa – to provide economic aid to the Hashemite kingdom.
Gaining a foothold in Jerusalem is of great importance to the Saudis as a Sunni power, in view of the historical, theological internal-Islamic feud with its neighboring Shi'ite power of Iran that lies just across the Gulf (and despite the recent rapprochement between the two). This is of the utmost importance to the Saudi Wahhabites in relation to their religious and ideological rivals, the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas, and their ilk, who have turned the Temple Mount into a tool in the struggle against Israel. It is important to them despite the numerous publications on social media, in which Saudi bloggers have recently taken part, regarding the allegedly "genuine" location of the Al-Aqsa Mosque in the village of Al Ju'ranah in the Province of Mecca (we wrote about this in this newspaper only three years ago).
The economic temptation for Jordan is thus quite considerable. Jordan's national debt amounts to 45 billion dollars, most of which is external debt. The unemployment rate in the Hashemite kingdom is approaching 27%, and about one-quarter of the population is poor, but the royal family, so say both Israeli and Jordanian officials, are less concerned about the poor economic situation and are more afraid of the potential revolt of extremist elements such as the Muslim Brotherhood in the event of any attempt to cede exclusive Jordanian influence (alongside Israel) in Al-Aqsa.
And, just as in the past – this time too, Jordan is not alone in the, currently virtual, plan to establish a Muslim directorate in which additional countries and entities will be given representation. Apart from Jordan and Saudi Arabia, the names of three states/entities were raised:
- The Palestinian Authority is currently represented by Jordan on the Temple Mount. According to the agreement signed between the two in 2013, the Palestinian Authority and Jordan undertook to work in unison to protect the Al-Aqsa Mosque. The Palestinian Authority empowered the King of Jordan to safeguard the Temple Mount and to represent it about issues regarding the Mount. The King ostensibly granted recognition of the Palestinians' sovereignty over the land on which the holy sites are located. The Palestinians interpret this agreement as an agreement that will transfer to them the Muslim seniority at the site, when the final agreement is reached, affording permanent status to the site.
The recent, rather surprising Saudi announcement of the appointment of a first (non-resident) ambassador to the Palestinian Authority, was received rather coldly not only in Jordan but also in the Palestinian Authority itself. Both are concerned that the appointment of Nayef al-Sudairi, Saudi Arabia's current ambassador to Jordan, who will continue to work from his current location there with regard to the kingdom's relations with the PA, is merely a preview of the Saudi attempt to gain a foothold for itself on the Temple Mount.
- Morocco, which heads the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) (formerly known as the Organization of the Islamic Conference). The kings of Morocco too, over the generations, have regarded themselves as the defenders of the Islamic holy sites in Jerusalem. As far as Morocco is concerned, the normalization and establishment of diplomatic ties with Israel do not only present the kingdom with a renewed chance to embrace the numerous Moroccan expatriates living in Israel, or the opportunity to develop economic and security relations between Rabat and Jerusalem, but also a springboard towards improving Morocco's status in Al-Aqsa. Morocco has expressed interest in the Mount for many years, donating dozens of carpets to the mosques and transferring funds through the Al-Quds Committee for the renovation of houses and complexes in the Western Wall area. Many years ago, the OIC's Jerusalem Conference determined that the status enjoyed by Jordan on the Mount is a temporary one, even though later on Morocco did work alongside Jordan to scuttle Saudi attempts to gain a greater foothold on the Mount.
- Turkey, the heir to the great Ottoman Empire that ruled Jerusalem for 400 years, until the beginning of the 20th century. In October 2020, President Erdogan said of Jerusalem: "This is the city that we were forced to leave behind us in tears during the First World War, the city is ours, our city." Over the last decade, Ankara has pumped hundreds of millions of dollars into East Jerusalem, mainly in the vicinity of the Old City and the area surrounding the Temple Mount. It replaced the golden crescent on the Dome of the Rock, and Erdogan explained that he regards cities such as Mecca, Al-Medina, Cairo, and Jerusalem, ruled in the past by the Ottoman Empire as "twin cities". Erdogan has even tied in his long-term vision of a caliphate with these cities, and in addition, he is the only Muslim leader to have actually taken practical steps to encourage Muslim tourism to the Temple Mount.
- Israel too, the Jewish State, naturally has a clear interest in the Temple Mount – the holiest site for the Jewish people. The situation that has changed there over the course of the last decade – regular Jewish prayers that do not cause a provocation, held with a halakhic quorum or minyan (during the morning shacharit and afternoon mincha prayers), on the eastern part of the Mount, and under the auspices of the police – does not make it any easier for Israel to make any gestures to the US, Jordan and Saudi Arabia, on the Mount itself, of all places. Israel, therefore, might just have to make a gesture to the Palestinians as part of its process of normalization with Saudi Arabia that will be in Judea & Samaria, or in another part of Jerusalem.
The composition of the current government too – an ostensibly "full-blooded right-wing government" – does not make it any easier for Saudi Arabia to conclude a deal with Israel and the US. Having said that, there is actually a common interest in concluding such a deal: Biden is eager for this to happen prior to the US elections, both in the hope that this will enhance his image and also in an attempt to curb China, which has become a key player in the region and which brokered the recent rapprochement between Tehran and Riyadh.
As far as Riyadh is concerned, it seeks to reestablish the economic and security alliance against Iran, alongside Israel, the US, and the Gulf States. Israel too has much to gain from a normalization deal, which would open up numerous doors to the Arab world and might help Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government to extricate itself from the internal strife into which it has become sucked as a result of the judicial reform.
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