For Yom Yerushalayim:
Mohammed rode the night horse, or so the Korans say
Mohammed rode the night horse to a mosque so far away
And his followers the Muslims, coming after his death, claim
That the mosque upon the Mount is the mosque the Koran names.
Never mind the mosque upon the Mount was never even there
At the time Mohammed—so they claim—took his ride in the air.
Never mind the mosque upon the Mount was built in later days—
Mere factual reality did ne’er a Muslim faze.
Broadcast on Al-jazeera, in the seething Arab street,
Are echoed calls to Muslims that they must not retreat
That they must not cede unto the Jews they hold of no account
Possession of the Mountain and the mosque upon the Mount.
The Muslims lost the mosque and lost the Mount on which it stands
A foolish choice was made then that it stay within their hands
And feverishly ever they work so as to erase
The record of the Temple there—which must take pride of place.
The world stands by complacent at the Mount destruction news—
When cared the nations for the holy places of the Jews?
But bad though the nations’ silence be, the silence that is worse
Is that of Jews who stand by as the destruction occurs.
Why should a people conquered justly through the force of arms
Be permitted to retain a symbol that does lasting harm?
Why should the conquered be allowed to rule the Temple Mount
And by this hold their conquerors to be of no account?
The mosque upon the Mount is beautiful, or so they say
But like the earlier Temple, it also may pass away—
The mosque was built to show who’d conquered many years ago;
The reason it was raised is also why it now must go.
O Jews, who claim Jerusalem is still your capital
How can you claim this when the Mountain still remains in thrall?
It is in thrall by your consent. Jerusalem will be
Your capital united when the Mount has been set free.
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