<p>Virtually this entire shiur deals with the "question" of whether the Kotel is the wall of the Har HaBayit or the Azara and supposed concerns that arise from that, a question and concerns that can be dismissed as nonsense in less than a minute. (The actual answer is that it's neither.)<br /><br />I suspect that the whole point of creating the question is to be able to dismiss out of hand the possibility of entering the Har HaBayit itself, which is of course the well-known, and erroneous, position of the Chief Rabbinate.<br /><br />This is not the place to discuss how this affects what's very much in the news in Israel today, but it does, very much.</p>

<p>The Translated Text of the Letter of Former Minister of Police, Tzachi Hanegbi:<br /><br />The Office of the Prime Minister<br /><br />9th of Cheshvan, 5765<br />October 24, 2004<br /><br />To the Hon.<br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Mr. Shlomo Scheinman<br />....[ My Address ].....<br /><br />Shalom Rav [much peace be to you],<br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; I thank you for your letter on October of this year.<br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Certainly it is so, that the presence of the Jews on the Temple Mount strengthens in an essential way the Jewish hold on this holy site. From the time of the opening of the gates of the Mount on 20.8.03 more than 70,000 Jews have visited the site.<br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; These visits require a permanent police presence on the Mount and accustom the Palestinians to come to accept the deep link of the Jewish nation to the place where the Beit Hamikdash [Temple] was located. This thing it is understood strengthens the intensity of our claim for sovereignty on the Mount, if in the future there will be practical negotiations to establish a political arrangement.<br /><br /><br />With Blessings<br />Tzachi Hanegbi</p>