Long-term Goals of the Palestinian Authority

[Chip Berlet]

Also, as Gershom Gorenberg points out, both Jewish and Muslim
fundamentalists read apocalyptic meaning into the Sharon visit. The Temple
Mount has special religious significance in complex ways.

Rebuilding the Temple and defending the Mosque are hot ticket items in the
apocalyptic scripts of both faiths. You need the Temple for the Messiah to
come. You need the Mosque (or at least Muslim control of the Mount) for the
end times script of Islam to start.

So the Sharon visit was probably calculated to cause the talks to fail by
heating up apocalyptic interpretations within Muslim fundamentalism which
trumped the moderates.

See:

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/week416/interview.html

http://www.booksense.com/people/archive/gorenbergg.jsp

-Chip Berlet

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-lbo-talk at lists.panix.com
[mailto:owner-lbo-talk at lists.panix.com]On Behalf Of Michael Perelman
Sent: Thursday, July 19, 2001 4:11 PM
To: lbo-talk at lists.panix.com
Subject: Re: Long-term Goals of the Palestinian Authority

Wasn't the one man accompanied by hundreds of troops?

On Thu, Jul 19, 2001 at 01:05:13PM -0700, Brad DeLong wrote:
>
> If there is ever to be peace, lots of unpleasant people will go to
> all kinds of places. Ariel Sharon's feet are bloody, yes. But how is
> it that a visit of one man to one historical/religious site can
> destroy negotiations "in process"--if those negotiations are real?
>
>
> Brad DeLong

--
Michael Perelman
Economics Department
California State University
Chico, CA 95929

Tel. 530-898-5321
E-Mail michael at ecst.csuchico.edu