Secret Archive, confirming its current existence within the Vatican, is beyond a million-to-one chance.
What about the treasure itself, though, within Vatican City, as argued passionately by various high-powered Israeli politicians? In England I spent six tortuous weeks politely harassing the Israeli embassy to reveal its sources. Although they contacted universities, the Israel Antiquities Authority, and various political offices, no one could locate the original documentation or âundeniable facts.â In the face of my immense frustration, the embassyâs press secretary did finally provide me with a hollow answer: âIf anyone knows the Vatican does.â
No doubt the embassy tried its best on my behalf, but no one was going to go on the record about this sensitive issue. The official lineclaimed that the historical documentation had gone missing when Prime Minister Ariel Sharon dissolved the corrupt Ministry of Religion for financial irregularities in 2004. Its duties had been carved up between various other ministries, such as the Department of Culture and Ministry of Education, with some interests âfalling between the cracks,â or so I was informed. It sounded to me as if someone was plastering over those cracks. A whitewash was in progress, but why?
Next I pursued the Vatican, although I suspected that a portcullis of silence would swiftly fall. If they did have the Temple treasure they surely wouldnât come clean; if they didnât, why waste time answering disrespectful questions? In the end, my communication with Dr. Paolo Liverani, curator of classical antiquities in the Vatican Museums, made the Vaticanâs formal position crystal clear: âIn later times there is not the smallest evidence that any part of the treasure of the Temple arrived in Rome and I do not think that the Vatican has any interest to hide the Menorah or any other part of the booty of Titus.â
With various doors slammed in my face, but with Israelâs âundeniable factsâ still beyond my grasp, I had one card left to play. Uncomfortable as I was talking to a group that wanted to eject Islam from the Temple Mount and replace it with a third Jewish Temple, I was optimistic that the director of the Temple Mount and Land of Israel Faithful Movement, Gershon Salomon, would be more forthcoming with fact. If there was any validity to Israelâs allegations against the Vatican, the truth would out.
7
TEMPLE PROPHECIES
Throughout its history Jerusalem has always been the focus of extreme Middle Eastern politicsâbomb scares, street skirmishes, and murder are daily occurrences. Israeli politics is wild and spontaneous; people suck the marrow out of every hour of every day as if it might be their last. You certainly know youâre alive when you visit the Holy Land.
The morning I flew to Israel in April 2005 to meet the director of the Temple Mount Faithful, the Middle East was once again in uproar. Three fourteen-year-old Palestinians had been caught red-handed smuggling weapons in Gaza and were shot dead by the Israel Defense Force. Gazan militia responded in the usual biblical fashionâan eye for an eye, tooth for a toothâby pumping eighty mortars and Qasam rockets into the Jewish settlement of Gush Katif. The same day, extreme right-wing Jews from the Revava movement marched on the Temple Mount to demonstrate against its âoccupationâ by Arabs. Some 8,000 police were drafted in to patrol the entrances to the site for three days. The extremists failed to break in. Instead, thousands of Palestinians, including the leader of the West Bankâs Hamas cell, Hassan Yousef, flooded the Mount to create a human shield.
Meanwhile, dozens of right-wingers, opponents of the Gaza disengagement plan, burned tires along Tel Avivâs Ayalon Highway, chained the gates of seventeen Tel Aviv schools, and hung signs on their railings reading JEWS DO NOT EXPEL JEWS . Should the Israeli
What about the treasure itself, though, within Vatican City, as argued passionately by various high-powered Israeli politicians? In England I spent six tortuous weeks politely harassing the Israeli embassy to reveal its sources. Although they contacted universities, the Israel Antiquities Authority, and various political offices, no one could locate the original documentation or âundeniable facts.â In the face of my immense frustration, the embassyâs press secretary did finally provide me with a hollow answer: âIf anyone knows the Vatican does.â
No doubt the embassy tried its best on my behalf, but no one was going to go on the record about this sensitive issue. The official lineclaimed that the historical documentation had gone missing when Prime Minister Ariel Sharon dissolved the corrupt Ministry of Religion for financial irregularities in 2004. Its duties had been carved up between various other ministries, such as the Department of Culture and Ministry of Education, with some interests âfalling between the cracks,â or so I was informed. It sounded to me as if someone was plastering over those cracks. A whitewash was in progress, but why?
Next I pursued the Vatican, although I suspected that a portcullis of silence would swiftly fall. If they did have the Temple treasure they surely wouldnât come clean; if they didnât, why waste time answering disrespectful questions? In the end, my communication with Dr. Paolo Liverani, curator of classical antiquities in the Vatican Museums, made the Vaticanâs formal position crystal clear: âIn later times there is not the smallest evidence that any part of the treasure of the Temple arrived in Rome and I do not think that the Vatican has any interest to hide the Menorah or any other part of the booty of Titus.â
With various doors slammed in my face, but with Israelâs âundeniable factsâ still beyond my grasp, I had one card left to play. Uncomfortable as I was talking to a group that wanted to eject Islam from the Temple Mount and replace it with a third Jewish Temple, I was optimistic that the director of the Temple Mount and Land of Israel Faithful Movement, Gershon Salomon, would be more forthcoming with fact. If there was any validity to Israelâs allegations against the Vatican, the truth would out.
7
TEMPLE PROPHECIES
Throughout its history Jerusalem has always been the focus of extreme Middle Eastern politicsâbomb scares, street skirmishes, and murder are daily occurrences. Israeli politics is wild and spontaneous; people suck the marrow out of every hour of every day as if it might be their last. You certainly know youâre alive when you visit the Holy Land.
The morning I flew to Israel in April 2005 to meet the director of the Temple Mount Faithful, the Middle East was once again in uproar. Three fourteen-year-old Palestinians had been caught red-handed smuggling weapons in Gaza and were shot dead by the Israel Defense Force. Gazan militia responded in the usual biblical fashionâan eye for an eye, tooth for a toothâby pumping eighty mortars and Qasam rockets into the Jewish settlement of Gush Katif. The same day, extreme right-wing Jews from the Revava movement marched on the Temple Mount to demonstrate against its âoccupationâ by Arabs. Some 8,000 police were drafted in to patrol the entrances to the site for three days. The extremists failed to break in. Instead, thousands of Palestinians, including the leader of the West Bankâs Hamas cell, Hassan Yousef, flooded the Mount to create a human shield.
Meanwhile, dozens of right-wingers, opponents of the Gaza disengagement plan, burned tires along Tel Avivâs Ayalon Highway, chained the gates of seventeen Tel Aviv schools, and hung signs on their railings reading JEWS DO NOT EXPEL JEWS . Should the Israeli
Similar Books
