Unforgettable Gershon Salomon

Gershon Salomon is the most unforgettable character I have ever met in my lifetime. And, strangely, enough, I met him on the streets of Jerusalem.
With Israel in the spotlight with the agonizing withdrawal of settlers from Gaza and the deadly shooting in the West Bank, my thoughts turned to Israel where I was a newsman in 1999 for World Net Daily and a number of other publications.
It certainly was a quieter time than the turmoil of 2005, however, Salomon's message remains the same: The rebuilding of a great Jewish sanctuary on the Temple Mount.
In 1999, thousands, and I was one of them, walked with Salomon towards the closed gates of the Temple Mount and later to other Biblical sites. It was a sweltering day and there aboard a flatbed truck was a massive rock, which Salomon designated the "Foundation Stone" for the Third Temple
On June 6, 2005, Salomon's group repeated the parade from Ammunition Hill to the Temple Mount as "another step in their godly end-time campaign to build the house of G_d."
Salomon believes the mission to rebuild the Third Temple came as a result of a life-changing experience, which occurred 38 years ago in 1967.
As a commander of an Israeli unit of paratroopers, he helped "liberate" the Temple Mount and Biblical Jerualem.
He described it this way: "It was after a critical time in my life after I had been seriously wounded in a battle in the Golan Heights against the Syrian enemy which had attacked the Israeli villages. In a great miracle, G_d, together with His brave Israeli soldiers defeated the Syrians and saved my life.
"He appeared in my life on that critical day and promised me that He had not yet finished with me but that He had something great for me to do in my life. He surrounded me with His angels as the Syrians later testified. They told the UN observers that they saw angels with their own eyes.
"After a year in hospital with terrible pains and struggling together with G_d Who stood with me to recover and be ready for what He would tell me to do, I volunteered back to my unit using two crutches and G_d continued to heal me."
When the Temple Mount was in Jewish hands once again after nearly 2,000 years, Salomon was elated. He felt, at that moment, G_d had saved his life and "that I should build His House."
Salomon 's tears of joy turned to sorrow shortly afterwards when Israeli Minister of Defense, Moshe Dayan, had the nation's flag and the Star of David removed from where Salomon believes is the Holy of Holies and "placed it on the Western Wall of the Temple Mount which is the symbol of destruction and exile."
While he considered Dayan's decision sinful and anti-godly, Salomon re-iterates his mission to anyone, who will listen, and that is to rebuild the Third Temple and for that purpose he's still leads The Temple Mount and Land of Israel Faithful Movement. Unforgettable.
UPDATING THE UNFORGETTABLES: In 1999, Ernest Frank Mauck, aka Prophet Elijah, was locked up in the stark confines of the Kfar Shaul mental hospital on the outskirts of Jerusalem, for "mentioning the Name of Yeshua (Jesus) and issuing pronouncements that God was going to judge the city of Jerusalem and Israel unless "they repented of their evil ways." As I wrote at that time, Mauck, with his flowing wild mane of white hair, was mocked constantly for his appearance, however, he gained thousands of supporters."He's considered a kind and completely sane man despite the fact he has been lumped with the Denver-based cult that was thrown out of Israel and also with those with 'Jerusalem Syndrome.'" In 2005, Mauck has been living on the island of Cyprus and he has a world-wide audience, for he uses a website and e-mails to spread his "messages" of impending doom.
CHECK OUT THE MOTIVE: (From R. Kent Hughes' 1001 Great Stories -- Quotes): Lining Miami's Flagler Street are bautiful royal palm trees. One night vandals cut down six of the magnificent trees, and the city did not have the money to replace them. Then, at last, a donor came forward and offered to replace the lost trees. But while the former trees had been 15 feet tall and formed a perfect foreground for a big Delta Air Lines billboard, the new trees were 35 feet tall and completely hid the billboard. The donor? Eastern Airlines.
DOG DAYS (From 'A Hog On Ice' by Charles Earle Funk): These are the extremely hot days that, in the Northern Hemisphere, occur during July and August. It used to be the popular belief that this hot period was given the name "dog days" or "canicular days," because dogs frequently went mad in such weather. Actually the name has an astronomical source. It is the period in which the Dog Star, Sirius, the most brilliant star in the constellation Canis Major (the Great Dog), rises in conjunction with the sun. In ancient belief it was the combined heat of Sirius and the sun, while these two heavenly bodies are in conjunction, that brought about the sultry weather.
TO KEEP UNDER ONE'S HAT (Also from Mr. Funk): One would suppose that this warning would be as old as the first hat, but its actual history appears to have been no earlier than the closing years of the 19th century. What is kept under the hat, of course, is retained within the head; that is, it remains a secret.