If someone asked you what significance the Temple Mount location has to do with the ongoing Israeli – Palestinian conflict how would you answer?

The conflict between Palestine and Israel is probably the least understood conflict of all our current events.

The significance to what both sides want is rarely reported because it is simply not comprehended by main stream news media – the control of Jerusalem and most specifically the Temple Mount location. The Temple Mount in Jerusalem is central to the importance of the Jewish, Muslim, and Christian faiths and has been for thousands of years.

This was most evidenced in the Camp David Summit in 2000 when Clinton was able to bring the Israelis and Palestinians together for direct discussions. As the negotiations progressed, they came within a hair of achieving a peace solution and had managed to reach agreement on "98 out of 99 items." However, the negotiations broke down in considering who would gain sovereignty over the city of Jerusalem and the Temple Mount.

How can a piece of earth measuring approximately 40 square acres perpetuate an ongoing bloody conflict between Palestinians and Israeli’s and also have a far reaching impact between Muslims and Jews worldwide?

It’s hard for most Americans to grasp rigid religious concepts because as a nation we are tolerant to everyone’s religious beliefs therefore religion tends to take a backseat in our daily interaction with society. Whereas, in Israel and Palestine religion is life itself and everything else takes a backseat to religion.

Most importantly is the historical magnitude that orients both Judaism and Islamic faiths – if it happened a thousand years ago it might as well have been yesterday.

The significance of the Temple Mount as it relates to Judaism is that this was the location of the first temple the Jews built to honor God and was erected by King Solomon in 960 BC, but was later destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 BC. A second Jewish temple was rebuilt under King Herod in 515 BC and was then destroyed by the Romans around 70 AD and was never rebuilt by the Jews.

In 690 AD the Muslims conquered Jerusalem and erected the Dome of the Rock over the same location of the original Jewish Temples. The purpose for erecting the Dome of the Rock by the Muslims is that according to Islamic religion this is the location where the Muslim Prophet Mohammed ascended to Heaven.

In 1967 war erupted with Israel quickly defeating, Egypt, Syria, and Jordan – appropriately dubbed the Six Day War because that is how long it lasted. At the time leading up to the war, Jerusalem had been controlled by Jordan. However, after the war Jerusalem came under Israeli control. In the spirit of recognizing the Muslim faith, the Israelis allowed Muslim administrators called Waqfs to watch over the Islamic shrines that exist at the Temple Mount site, which still continues today.

Based on the deep underpinnings that the Temple Mount has for both Islam and Judaism, the need for each to control the site is in direct relation to honoring the historical meaning of their religion. Therefore, this is not a situation where an easy compromise can be made without the other side feeling slighted. If one side were to give up the desire to control the Temple Mount area, the leaders would be shunned by their populations.

The situation, for what its worth, can simply be described as a two way religious stalemate. How can the stalemate be broken?

The first step in a solution would be to identify the issue. Both Judaism and Islam will not come right out and say it for fear that they would be regarded as religious radicals pandering to events that occurred thousands of years ago. Regardless, this would be necessary to achieving any forward progress.

Second, even though the Camp David summit in 2000 broke down, both Israel and Palestine came awfully close to reaching an agreement. If a moderate nation or leader would be willing to take a second run at this, with the focus being the Temple Mount location, all the other pieces would eventually fall into place.

It’s already been proven that you can get both sides to the table – that’s half the battle.