# 
# >This issue has been going on for a while and your presentation here of
# >just one reference probably won't resolve this issue to those that
# >oppose your insistence that mosques *were* destroyed. Even in your
# >location of this one reference, you spend most of your quote dealing
# >with an incidence that, while abhorrant, has nothing to do with the 
# >issue at hand here. Then, at the end of the quote, there is an almost
# >off-hand comment that "two mosques" were destroyed.
# >
# >To support a claim of this nature, what other authors support this
# >incident? If identifiable mosques were destroyed they are certainly
# >identifiable, they have names and addresses (steet location). The
# >comment by one reporter *does* make us wonder if "this happened" but
# >by no means "proves it.
# 
# There is no doubt that Israeli authorities ordered the destruction of
# mosques in the vicinity of the Wailing Wall. That does not mean,
# however, that once can generalize from this to any other points.  The
# entire plaza, mosques and all, was cleared to make it possible for Jews
# to have a place to worship in the place that was holiest to many of
# them, and which had been denied to them for millenia.
# 
# On the other hand, throughout the rest of Jerusalem and Israel, to the
# best of my knowledge, Israeli authorities have scrupulously avoided
# damage to any Islamic religious sites. This contrasts with the policies
# of previous regimes which destroyed Jewish synagogues out of hate and
# bigotry.

  Or, for that matter, with the USA.  Around here, nobody reroutes
  freeways to avoid churches, synagogues, and so forth.  They just
  get condemned, paid off, and the road goes through.  The same is
  standard policy for any number of other public projects: schools
  and sports arenas being only two examples.

  Anticipating the objection that the cases aren't comparable: how
  not?  The Wall has to count as the #1 tourist attraction in that
  part of the world; making room for the traffic would be a twenty
  second decision for any city council I ever heard of.