Egypt's President Insulted Over Video: 'The Children are Ready'

by Hana Levi Julian



Arab media are expressing the view that an innocent video prepared to mark a holy Jewish fast day was actually secretly intended as an insult to newly-elected Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi.

The video produced by the Temple Institute in Jerusalem, was featured by Arutz Sheva in an article about the somber day of Tisha B'Av, the ninth day in the Hebrew month of Av, when both the First and Second Holy Temples in Jerusalem were destroyed. Although the day this year falls on Saturday, because it is the Sabbath, the fast is delayed and does not begin until sundown. It continues through the next day, Sunday.

The dramatic video has gone viral in just a few days. It depicts children on the beach building a beautiful model of the still-to-come and hoped-for Third Holy Temple out of sand, and calling their father to come look. It concludes with a message to adults, “The children are ready.”

Morsi has allegedly complained over a brief segment in which the father, seeing the edifice his children have built, drops his newspaper in surprise. The paper falls and folds to show a blurred image of Morsi’s face, which the Egyptians obviously felt was intended to symbolize Jewish attempts to curb Islamist aspirations for complete dominance of the Temple Mount - a central theme of Morsi's campaign. Morsi was backed by his Muslim Brotherhood party, which dominated both houses of the Egyptian parliament before it was dissolved by a constitutional order of the High Court.

The Temple Institute denies that the picture was intentional, saying that Morsi figured in many articles during the time the video was filmed and that the picture of his face on that page of the newspaper was entirely coincidental. The Institute added that neither Morsi nor Egypt is part of the story line of the video. The appearance of an article about him on the page that day was not by intent.

The video, released six days ago, has drawn almost 200,000 views, as well as the attention of several Arabic language news outlets.

The Islamic Waqf Authority, the Muslim organization to which authority over the Temple Mount was given by then-Defense Minister Moshe Dayan after the 1967 Six Day War, has been systematically attempting to destroy all vestiges of Jewish presence on the holy site.

Radical Islamists -- and particularly those preaching from the Temple Mount in recent years -- have claimed that a Jewish Holy Temple never existed on the Mount, the site of the Holy of Holies where by Torah Law Jewish High Priests are the only ones allowed to enter.

Tags: The Children are Ready ,Mohamed Morsi ,Temple Mount ,Waqf ,Tisha B'Av

More on this topic

• Temple Institute Responds: Video is Fresh Perspective
• Women in Green to Hold Annual Tisha B'Av Walk in Jerusalem
• Temple Institute Tisha B'Av Video
• Al-Aqsa Sheikh: Jerusalem will be Muslim Forever
• PA Slams A-G for Saying Israeli Law Applies on Temple Mount
• Romney to Break Fast of Temple Mount Mourning with Netanyahu

As published online at ArutzSheva, 26 July 2012