a mecca of unity

I'm sure you all read the news, so I probably don't need to tell you this, but I felt this issue to be of global significance. Yesterday Ismail Haniya and Mahmoud Abbas - the leaders of Palestinian rivals Hamas and Fatah respectively - had a meeting in Mecca, Saudi Arabia to discuss formation of a Palestinian unity government. If you're not really into Middle East politics you are probably asking "so why is this of global significance"? Well, first of all it should hopefully put an end to sectarian violence or factional in-fighting among Gazans (Gaza being just a few miles from my house). Global, ok, not about my neighborhood... Im not sure there has been a unified Palestinian government since before the PLO emerged. What this means is an increase in stability in the region, relations between other Arab nations, and of course Israeli-Palestinian relations.

I would imagine that this newly formed unity government will also play an important role in the Temple Mount excavation, re-construction, and protests surrounding that situation. Again for those of you who don't know, al-Quds (the Holy City of Jerusalem) is home to the Dome of the Rock and the al-Aqsa mosque, the 2nd and 3rd most holy places to Muslims (the 1st being the aforementioned Mecca). However before those 2 temples were built on the Temple Mount / Haram al-Sharif (during the rise of Islam in the Umayyad period), the site was home to Solomon's Temple, holy to Jews. That temple was destroyed by the Romans during the Crusades, but the Bible prophecies tell us that it will be rebuilt again before Christ's return. According to an article on Al-Jazeera, the Jews announced in January 2007 their plans to build a Jewish Synagogue next to the Dome of the Rock. In the meantime they are conducting excavations below the al-Aqsa mosque, and have restricted access to the Holy Temple Mount for tourists and Palestinian men under 45. Glad I had the opportunity to go before all this happened... see the photo galleries of Jerusalem and the mosques.