The Temple Mount complex in Jerusalem (via cfoi.co.uk)
Reports published last week confirm that the State of Israel and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia are in talks for Saudi representatives to join Jordan on the Waqf council which administers religious matters on the Temple Mount. Discussions between the Middle Eastern powers are being brokered by US diplomats as part of President Trump’s Deal of the Century proposal. The talks are in preliminary stages, with one Saudi official describing them as, “sensitive and secret discussions conducted with ambiguity and low intensity with a small team of diplomats.”
After Israel captured the Temple Mount from the Kingdom of Jordan during the Six-Day War in 1967, an agreement between the two nations established a “status quo” whereby Israel would administer security for the disputed plaza, while Islamic clerics would retain control over religious affairs via the Islamic Waqf, a trust which maintains Muslim holy sites in East Jerusalem. Since then, Jews are only allowed on the Mount in small numbers and at certain days and times, and must follow predetermined walking routes. Only Muslims are allowed to engage in any visible religious activity, such as praying, singing or kneeling.
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Until recently, the Islamic Waqf for East Jerusalem was exclusively made up of Jordanian clerics. Then after a series of incidents at the Mercy Gate of the Temple Mount last year, the Jordanian government approved the addition of Palestinian representatives to the oversight council. The Palestinians granted the Islamist government of Turkey unprecedented access to the Old City of Jerusalem through charitable foundations worth hundreds of millions of US dollars. Alarmed by the sudden influx of Turkish money and influence, the Jordanians have signaled their willingness to consider the US proposal to include Saudi representatives on the Waqf as a means of counterbalancing Turkish influence. Tukey’s president Erdogan is an avid supporter of the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood organization, and a patron of Hamas, the terrorist organization that controls the Gaza Strip. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is currently the custodian of the two most holy Islamic sites in Mecca and Medina, and so a joint-administration between the Saudis and Jordan over the Temple Mount, Islam’s third most holy site, would be a legitimate initiative. Saudi royals would also be expected to make significant donations to the Waqf as well, as a means of offsetting Turkish influence.
We ask our global family to join us in prayer for the State of Israel and the Middle East. Changes in the status quo have often led to volatility and upheaval in the Promised Land, and both the Temple Mount initiative and the Israeli government’s plan to unilaterally annex portions of the West Bank this year have the potential to spark a violent backlash with Palestinians and diplomatic tensions across the region. We intercede for divine wisdom to be granted to all parties involved in the talks, including Israel, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and the United States. We also pray for divine restraint on nefarious governments and terrorist organizations in the region which would seek to exploit these initiatives to stoke hatred and violence. Please pray for FAI teams on the ground in the Golan Heights, as we continue to be a witness and a light for the Prince of Peace in an atmosphere of growing tension and uncertainty.
