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- NOTE - We urge you to listen to Dr. Ernest Martin's interview
with Jeff on Monday, Christmas day. He presents powerful data from many
years of archeaological research and scholarship that the actual location
of the Temple Mount is NOT where it is traditionally and currently thought
to be. Listen to the program and hear for yourself Dr. Martin's powerful
and compelling presentation. Is his work part of the reason behind the
developments revealed in the following story?
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- JERUSALEM'S most sensitive
holy sites, including Temple Mount, have been put on the negotiating table
by Israel in peace talks in Washington. The offer will provoke fierce divisions
in the run-up to parliamentary elections.
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- Israeli and Palestinian negotiators yesterday met President
Clinton who is desperate to secure a Middle East peace deal before his
term ends next month. There was no sign of a breakthrough, however, as
the talks ended last night with both sides returning home to consult their
leaders before reporting back to Mr Clinton on Wednesday.
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- Shlomo Ben-Ami, the Israeli foreign minister, emerged
from the White House to declare that the atmosphere was "very encouraging".
However, the Palestinians' chief negotiator Saeb Erakat said that major
gaps still existed despite private suggestions from Mr Clinton on how the
two sides could move forward.
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- Mr Ben-Ami earlier told American Jewish leaders that
his government was prepared to surrender control of Temple Mount and other
sites at the heart of the Middle East conflict as part of a peace agreement.
He pointed out that "as a practical matter" the Palestinians
are "in almost full control of the upper surface of the Mount".
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- "So I think that we need to find a solution that
turns the practical conditions on the ground into a binding reality in
the agreement, but at the same time preserves the uniqueness of the link
between the Jewish people and Temple Mount." The offer would be a
major concession by Israel, whose leaders have always previously insisted
that they would never part with the historic site, sacred to both Arabs
and Jews, in the Old City in East Jerusalem.
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- It was a visit to Temple Mount at the end of September
by the Israeli opposition leader, Ariel Sharon, that sparked the latest
wave of violence, in which more than 340 people have been killed. The last
round of peace talks at Camp David in July collapsed because Israeli and
Palestinian negotiators were unable to find a formula reconciling both
sides' religious claims.
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- For Jews the Mount is regarded as the location of the
Temple, destroyed by the Romans in AD63, where they say redemption will
take place when the Messiah arrives, and Israel's capture of the adjoining
Western or Wailing Wall in 1967 is seen as a vital national achievement.
The same area is known to Arabs as the Haram-al Sharif, or Noble Sanctuary,
and is deeply revered.
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- According to the Washington Post, the concession offered
by Israeli negotiators over Temple Mount would involve the parties signing
an agreement that "legitimised the right of Jews to pray" at
the site.
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- The news has infuriated American Jewish leaders, who
have signed a petition demanding that Israel does not surrender the site.
The document, "Israel Must Not Surrender Judaism's Holiest Site, Temple
Mount", has been signed by 32 American Jewish leaders, including six
past chairmen of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish
Organisations and major leaders of the Conservative and Orthodox movements.
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- The statement, which said they were "dismayed"
by the news, is currently appearing as an advertisement in newspapers throughout
the US and Israel. It says: "In future years, all of us will have
to answer to all our children and grandchildren when they ask us why we
did not do more to protect their heritage and safeguard Har HaBayit [Temple
Mount]."
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- The latest victim of the violence, a Palestinian fireman,
died yesterday, bringing the number of deaths to 344. The continuing bombings
and street battles in the West Bank and Gaza Strip have had a devastating
effect on the tourist trade.
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- Hotels and shops in Bethlehem are virtually empty at
a time when they might have expected to be packed with foreign travellers
visiting the town where Christ was born.
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