ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, October 1, 1996 TAG: 9610010038
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: HERSHEL SHANKS
THE MAN HAS no judgment. He is very clever, but he has no judgment. Nothing illustrates this better than Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's opening of an archaeological tunnel into the Muslim Quarter of Jerusalem's Old City.
The opening of the tunnel makes eminent good sense from an archaeological, touristic and even spiritual viewpoint. It enables 10 times as many people to see the archaeological treasures in the tunnel and to experience the grandeur of the adjacent Temple Mount as can see it without the new tunnel exit. It is also a boon to Arab businessmen on the traditional Via Dolorosa, the route Jesus trod on his way to be crucified by Roman soldiers, where the tourists would exit from the tunnel.
Still, opening the tunnel at that end was an extremely dumb idea at this time, and Netanyahu knew it. That's why the opening was made in the middle of the night under armed guard. It can be seen only as part of a plan to humiliate the Palestinians and teach them who's boss.
The tunnel itself has been there for a long time. It was started in 1968 and completed more than a decade ago. It is outside the Temple Mount. It threatens no religious sites. Al-Aksa mosque is at the other end of the Temple Mount, as far away as you can get. The tunnel is well-supported with steel girders.
That the Palestinians are claiming otherwise demonstrates that they were indeed looking for - and may well have welcomed the tunnel opening as - a provocation. The tunnel was simply an occasion to vent their spleen at Netanyahu's repeated affronts.
The tunnel is barely 6 feet wide. It starts on the northern end of the prayer plaza known as the Western Wall, the holiest site for Jews, who do not go on the Temple Mount itself for fear they might step on holy ground where Solomon's Temple once was located. The tunnel was dug by Israel's religious authority rather than its antiquities/archaeological authority, so obviously it was intended from the beginning to have religious significance.
But it has been dug under the supervision of an archaeologist and has revealed some informative as well as moving history and architecture. For example, the largest of the magnificent Herodian stones in the wall is 11 feet high, 42 feet long and weighs more than 1.2 million pounds. A street ran along the western wall of the Temple Mount in ancient times, and some of this, too, has been exposed, along with adjacent rooms, vaults, columns, cisterns and channels that once provided water for priestly purposes on the Temple Mount. But none of the tunnel nor the other structures go under the Temple Mount. Everything is adjacent to the Temple Mount on the outside.
Before the opening of the new exit, tourists had to retrace their steps to get out. This drastically limited the number of people who could visit the tunnel, so it is certainly a good idea to allow them to exit at the other end. But Jerusalem at this moment is a tinderbox - and Netanyahu knew it.
Arab society in general, and Palestinian society in particular, is what anthropologists call an honor/shame society. As the Palestinians have shown, these emotions can be more important to them than life itself. And Netanyahu has done nothing but exacerbate the situation: refusing to see Yasser Arafat, making him wait to travel in his helicopter within the West Bank, finally shaking hands with him but with a near grimace on his face, announcing the construction of more Jewish housing in the West Bank, maintaining needless economic restrictions on near-desperate Palestinian workers and products under the guise of security needs, and in general allowing Israeli soldiers to treat Palestinians without dignity or respect.
Unfortunately, at least at this moment, Arafat is all we have. He is incompetent, duplicitous and corrupt. He breaks agreements. He tortures his own people and denies them basic rights. But Israel must support him - and try to improve him - not tear him down. The alternative is Hamas - or anarchy.
Nearly nine years ago, I interviewed Netanyahu at length. The date was Dec. 9, 1987. People who follow the Israeli-Palestinian conflict know that this is the day the intifada started. I asked Netanyahu for a reaction to the descent into despair that I saw occurring in the West Bank.
His response was telling: ``That's the usual reporting. There is no spontaneous mobilization of people to go against the Israeli presence. In fact, it's amazingly placid compared to what anyone would expect reading the news reports.''
So much for his judgment then. I'm afraid it hasn't improved with time.
Hershel Shanks is editor of Biblical Archaeology Review and author of ``Jerusalem: An Archaeological Biography.''
The Washington Post
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