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There are those who deny that the Jewish temples stood on the Temple Mount. Among them, Yassir Arafat and Mahmoud Abbas. These claims are false, inflammatory, political and no significant historian accepts them. On the other hand, there is strong evidence that the Al Aqsa Mosque which stands on the Temple Mount today is not the Al Aqsa mentioned in the Koran. This is especially important given that imagined threats to the possibly misidentified mosque are constantly used as a casus belli and rallying cry for violence. The connection to the Koranic mosque is also used as justification for Palestinian attachment to Jerusalem and demands that it serve as the capital of a Palestinian state. Attacks on the history and heritage of the Jewish people should be met with strong defense and a counteroffensive that challenges the manipulation of history for political purposes. img.haarets.co.il/bs/0000017f-dc…