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JERUSALEM-Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak told the Egyptian government the Jewish state is willing to forfeit control over the Temple Mount-Judaism's holiest site-to the management of Egypt, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority, according to an Arab media report. The Egyptian Al Massrioun daily reported this weekend Barak informed Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas and the Jordanian government Israel is willing to hand them joint control over the Temple Mount.The report follows a WND exclusive article last week stating Palestinian negotiators drafting an agreement behind the scenes with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's office made clear they will not accept any final peace deal with Israel unless the Jewish state forfeits the Temple Mount. According to the Egyptian media report over the weekend, Barak stated an umbrella group of several Arab countries controlling the holy site instead of only the PA would help ease Israeli domestic opposition to giving up the Temple Mount, since Egypt and Jordan are considered by Israeli policy to be moderate countries.Ronen Moshe, a spokesman for Barak, told WND the Egyptian media report is "untrue.""We do not comment on the specifics of private conversations with world leaders, but this report is not what was said during the talks," Moshe said.A senior Palestinian official, speaking on condition his name be withheld, told WND yesterday Israel "understands there won't be any deal with the Palestinians unless it forfeits the Temple Mount."The official said the Mount was previously a sticking point in Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, but he said Prime Minister Olmert's government has expressed a number of times a willingness to compromise on the Temple Mount."We've recently received many Israeli plans that showed Israel is willing to allow another body, whether Palestinian or international, to control the [Temple Mount]. The issue is no longer a sticking point," the Palestinian official said.During U.S.-led negotiations in 2000, Barak, then prime minister, reportedly was willing to forfeit the Temple Mount to international control. Those negotiations fell through after Palestinian President Yasser Arafat rejected an offer of a Palestinian state in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and eastern sections of Jerusalem.
Adviser Gilad Sher – who represented Barak at initial Israeli-Palestinian planning meetings in 2000 during which President Clinton discussed the Temple Mount-wrote in his book "Beyond Reach" that Clinton's plan called for the Temple Mount to become complete Palestinian sovereign territory, while the Western Wall below and its complex would fall under Israeli sovereignty.Barak was said to have initially rejected that plan, but according to participants at the negotiations summit, he was ultimately willing to place the Mount under international sovereignty. Some reports claimed Barak offered the Temple Mount to the Palestinians, but the Israeli politician has denied those claims.
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