By Mark Ellis –
President Trump’s unorthodox approach to foreign policy has riveted world attention, with some calling his plans for Gaza “brazen” or “insane”, and others admiring his fresh approach in tackling problems that seem unsolvable.
Many predicted a calamitous outcome when he got behind the relocation of the American embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. The naysayers were silenced when the anticipated catastrophe failed to appear.
President Trump engineered the greatest comeback in American political history, against all odds and every conniving legal maneuver his opponents could throw at him. While everyone knows his aspirations to make America great again, could it be he also harbors ambitions to make Israel great again?
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was considered persona non grata to the Biden administration, yes he was the first world leader President Trump welcomed to the White House. Netanyahu appeared nearly punch-drunk in his joint press conference with President Trump, as he listened to Trump’s plan for open-ended US involvement in Gaza.
President Trump analyzed the problem of rebuilding Gaza through the lens of a Manhattan real estate developer, thinking it within the realm of possibility to turn it into another Palm Beach, looking beyond the alligators infesting the waters.
The Trump administration is now walking back some of the president’s exuberance about US involvement, but based on his track record of courageously diving into world problems no one else would dare address, will President Trump get behind the Jewish people rebuilding their historic place of national worship on the Temple Mount?
It would be the ultimate real estate development in the history of the world, but will it draw the interest of the consummate real estate dealmaker-in-chief?
The Temple Mount on Mt. Moriah is considered the most sensitive piece of real estate on the face of the earth. Abraham, in obedience to God, traveled there to offer his son Isaac as a sacrifice, then God provided a substitute.
A thousand years later, God directed King David to buy a threshing floor from Araunah (Ornan) and the surrounding land on Mt. Moriah as the spot for the first Jewish Temple, ultimately built by his son Solomon.
The 37 acres that comprise the Temple Mount is considered deeply sacred to Christians, Jews, and Muslims, with several Islamic holy sites there, including the Dome of the Rock and the Al-Aqsa Mosque.
Many Christians believe a third temple will be built on the site of Solomon’s temple in line with Bible prophecies (Daniel 9:27), but the Mount is currently controlled by the Islamic Waqf of Jordan. Some maintain the Dome of the Rock is situated on the spot of the former Jewish temple, which creates a massive problem for plans to rebuild.
Any efforts by the Jewish people to construct their Temple on or near the Dome of the Rock could potentially trigger all-out war.
Christian Widener, a PhD in mechanical engineering and formerly a professor at the South
Dakota School of Mines, did a deep dive to discover the exact whereabouts of the former Temple in his book, The Temple Revealed.
After exhaustingly sifting through the competing theories about the true location, Widener’s conclusion is a modification of the view held by Dr. Asher Kaufman, a professor at Notre Dame, which located the Temple in the northern portion of the Temple Mount, with the Holy of Holies situated on the Dome of the Spirits (Tablets), which Widener convincingly demonstrates as the original threshing floor of Araunah.
Therefore, the Jewish Temple could be rebuilt without upsetting the Muslim’s cherished holy site, The Dome of the Rock, but one should not underestimate the controversy and enmities unleashed by such a building project.
However, the possibility of roiling diplomatic concerns and world opinion has never dissuaded President Trump, when God impels his heart to take action.
Widener believes the seeds of such a move may be seen in President Trump’s 2020 “Peace to Prosperity” plan. “The document said that everyone should be able to go to the Temple Mount and practice their religious festivals, language to say the Jews should be able to go to the Temple Mount and do what they want up there.”
Because of divisions within Israeli politics, and no current movement to bring back the
Temple, Widener has wondered when or if it will happen. This is explored within his most recent book, Witnessing the End: Daniel’s Seventy Sevens and the Final Decree Everyone Missed
The return of Donald Trump to power and the rapid fall of Syria, has changed the picture in the Middle East dramatically. If Jordan was de-stabilized, that would provide the impetus for Israel to exert sovereign control over the Temple Mount.
“Israel has more leverage over Jordan than it would appear at first glance, because Jordan either goes towards Israel or Saudi Arabia, and the Saudis are a wild card on where they are really at. The Saudis don’t need Al Aqsa mosque to be really prominent, because they have Mecca and Medina.
“After having seen how quickly Syria fell, you can bet that King Abdullah of Jordan is nervous. I would think the same thing could happen to him, because the jihadist forces are coming; they want to create a caliphate.”
Widener believes we may be seeing the beginning of the fulfillment of prophecies within Ezekiel 38. “Turkey is now talking about invading Syria. And if they take a position in Syria, that’s the gateway to Israel. The whole northern Lebanon and Syria are now fallen to jihadists that are all aligned together.”
In addition to Russia and Iran, “you also have Yemen, Sudan and Libya who match the other parts of that coalition. The whole 38 Ezekiel group is now on the same side. Sudan and Libya were sending weapons to Hamas and Gaza. In some ways, the fight has already started, and they’re already part of it.”
Whether President Trump catches the vision for the ultimate real estate development of his career remains to be seen, but this is one writer who would not be surprised.
