Atlanta-born, Jeremy Gimpel, running for Israeli legislature, responds to ‘Dome of the Rock’ comment

Jeremy Gimpel
Image/Video Screen Shot

Jeremy Gimpel, the American born candidate for the Knesset, came out this weekend to respond to something he said back in November, 2011 during a speech in Florida.

On Nov. 13, 2011, speaking to a gathering at the Fellowship Church in Winter Springs, Florida, the Habayit Hayeudi candidate said (see video clip), “Imagine if the Golden Dome – I’m being recorded so I can’t say ‘blown up’ – but let’s say the Dome was blown up, right? And we laid the cornerstone of the Temple in Jerusalem.”

He continues, “Can you imagine? None of you would be here – all of you would be like, ‘I’m going to Israel, right?’ No one would be here, it would be incredible.”

However, this weekend, Mr. Gimpel responded to his comments as a joke, according to a Haaretz report Saturday:

“In order to make the lecture more lively. You could clearly hear the people [in the congregation] laughing,” he said. “To say that I’m running around America calling for the destruction of the Dome of the Rock, that’s pretty ridiculous. This is a cheap political attack and I would urge anyone to watch the video in its entirety and decide for yourselves.”

The remarks have been aired Israeli television and Gimpel’s political future now appears damaged.

Jeremy Gimpel was born in Atlanta, Georgia and moved to Israel at the age of 11. He is number 14 on the list of Knesset candidates for Habayit Hayehudi, the new incarnation of the National Religious Party headed by Naftali Bennett.

Elections for the 19th Knesset will be held in Israel on 22 January 2013.

The Dome of the Rock  is a shrine located on the Temple Mount in the Old City of Jerusalem.It was constructed on the site of the Second Jewish Temple, which was destroyed during the Roman Siege of Jerusalem in 70 AD.

See the full speech here.

Dome of the Rock
Public domain image/Nikeman916 at the wikipedia project