Lawrence of Arabia was a Zionist at Heart

Lawrence has been a known Zionist sympathizer for nearly a century. Shortly after Lawrence died in 1935, Chaim Weizmann wrote that "his relationship to the Zionist movement was a very positive one, in spite of the fact that he was strongly pro-Arab, and he has mistakenly been represented as anti-Zionist." Lawrence's attitude was not confined to a particularly propitious moment, after the Balfour Declaration and before the first riots, when Weizmann was holding friendly talks with Emir Faisal in 1919 and everything seemed possible.

In 1909, Lawrence, then an archeologist, wrote to his mother while pottering around in Turkish-ruled Galilee, that in Roman times "the country was well peopled and well watered artificially... Palestine was a decent country then, and could so easily be made so again. The sooner the Jews farm it all the better: their colonies are bright spots in a desert."

And this is just part of the long-published evidence of Lawrence's sympathies. Nor is it so surprising that an archeologist associated with the Palestine Exploration Fund, whose founders were Zionist before the word was invented, should be supportive of Jews' as well as Arabs'
self-determination in their ancestral homelands.

The creed of the British government of the day in 1919 was, after all, "Armenia for the Armenians, Arabia for the Arabs and Judea for the Jews." Lawrence subscribed to all three propositions

UNESCO to assess Mughrabi work

"UNESCO to assess Mughrabi work" is most welcome, and it is a shame the world's media did not ascertain that the excavations are not taking place on the Temple Mount or adjacent to the Aksa Mosque by referring to the historic Ordnance Survey Maps of Jerusalem 1864-65 by Captain Charles W. Wilson R.E. They would have found not only that the ramp leading to the Mughrabi Gate was in existence over 140 years ago, but that the gate was in the house of Abu Seud outside the walls of the Temple Mount.

Furthermore, an enormous lintel was discovered below the gate, covering a closed doorway measuring 20ft x 6ft 10ins and almost 29 ft. in height, at a distance of 275 ft. from the southwest corner of the Temple Mount, but obscured by the ramp. This gate, known as Barclay's Gate, found by James Turner Barclay in the mid-19th century and most likely to be the Kiphonos Gate, one of the entrances to the Temple Mount, is mentioned in the Mishna (Middot 1:3). Regrettably, government spokesmen and the Israel Antiquities Authority fail to publicize this.

A fact never alluded to is that beyond the gate is the underground mosque of Al-Burak, described by Wilson in detail, at a distance of 23 ft. below the level of the Temple Mount and accessed by a flight of stairs from the eastern cloisters. Within the mosque is shown the ring to which "Mahomet fastened his steed Al Burak during his famous night journey" - dispelling all claims that the steed was tethered to the Western Wall, or to any supporting wall of the Temple Mount.

Guest-Comment

COLIN L LECI

Arabs In Israeli Government

Arab MKs from the Hadash party and Balad's MK Azmi Bishara vehemently oppose voluntary civic service for Arab youth lest it lead to their "Israelization." In Bishara's case this opposition stems from his political indoctrination at Humboldt University in East Germany in the 1980s, where he was taught there is no such thing as a legitimate Jewish state. Indeed, East Germany never recognized Israel and based its diplomatic ties with Arab states upon that principle.

However, times have changed. Communism, not Zionism, failed. It is East Germany that no longer exists, not Israel.

Bishara is having difficulty coming to terms with the fact that his education was upside down - but that does not give him the right to deny young Arab Israelis the opportunity to improve their standard of living. For indeed, voluntary civic service is the key to a better future for all young people in Israel