Muslims fume at discovery of 1st Temple remains [Excerpts]
"Palestinian" spokesmen have denounced as lies and deception Israeli claims that remains had been uncovered on Jerusalem's Temple Mount dating back to the period of Solomon's Temple.
According to the Associated Press, the Israel Antiquities Authority announced it had discovered fragments of ceramic table wares and animal bones dating back to the first Jewish temple - from the 6th to the 10th centuries BC. The finds also included fragments of bowl rims, bases and body sherds, the base and handle of a small jug and the rim of a storage jar.
But the Islamic Trust denied that any discovery was made, AP said.
AP got it right when it stated that "the site [Temple Mount] represents the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict."
For Muslims everywhere, and especially for the Arab nationalists out to appropriate part of the 3000-year-old City of David and turn it into the capital of a Palestinian state, denying any Jewish link to the most coveted sites has long been a central component of their strategy.
Down the decades since 1967, Palestinian Arab academics, archeological "experts" and popular television and radio talk-show hosts have all collaborated to "prove" that there is no physical evidence to support the Jews' claim to having had a homeland in "Palestine" two millennia ago.
At Camp David in 2001, while participating in negotiations with Prime Minister Ehud Barak under the auspices of US President Bill Clinton, Arafat shamelessly stated as "fact" that the Jews had never had a temple in Jerusalem, and that King Solomon had built his house of worship not far from Jericho.
Arafat in fact sought to be buried on the Temple Mount - a site the Islamic world calls its "third holiest" - and to which Muslims turn their backs when praying towards Mecca and Medina five times a day.
The mass-murderer of Jews and others believed that interring his corpse at the site would help strengthen the Arab claim to sovereignty over it.
