The End of Days Fundamentalism and the Struggle for the Temple Mount

Known to Jews and Christians as the Temple Mount and to Muslims asAl-Haram al Sharif, or the Noble Sanctuary, a thirty-five acre enclosure thatsits on the southeast corner of the Old City of Jerusalem is the most contestedpiece of real estate on earth. Here nationalism and faith join in a volatilemix. Members of the world's three major monotheistic faiths-Jews, Christians,and Muslims-hold this place to be the key to salvation as the end of the worlddraws near, and they each struggle to fulfill different religious prophesies.Adroitly portraying American radio evangelists of the End, radical Palestiniansheikhs, and Israeli ex-terrorists, Gershom Gorenberg explains why believershope for the End, and why prominent American fundamentalists provide hard-linesupport for Israel, while looking forward to an apocalypse. He makes sense ofthe messianic fervor that has driven some Israeli settlers to oppose peace, anddescribes the Islamic apocalyptic vision that cast Israel's actions in Jerusalemas diabolic plots. The End of Days shows how conflict over Jerusalem is rootednot only in the past but even more in expectations for the future, and how thefiery belief in apocalypse has a very real impact on contemporary life and worldpolitics.

Gershom Gorenberg is an associate editor and columnist for The Jerusalem Report, a regular contributor to The New Republic and an associate of the Center for Millennial Studies at Boston University. He lives in Jerusalem, where he has spent years covering the dangerous mix of religion and politics.