Report: Simcha Rothman asked Benjamin Netanyahu to get Trump to rebuild the Temple

Knesset Constitution Committee Chairman MK Simcha Rothman, who is currently sitting shiva for his father, asked Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu if he could get President Donald Trump to rebuild the Holy Temple in Jerusalem, according to a report received by JFeed.

According to the report, Rothman spoke on the phone with Netanyahu and mentioned how his great grandfather would write letters to the President, asking if he could build the Holy Temple, destroyed in 70 CE by the Romans. Netanyahu reportedly dismissed the idea that Trump could do such a thing.

At least one member of Trump's administration, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, may be on board with the idea, at least in principle.

At a speech he gave in 2018 at the King David Hotel during a visit to Israel, Hegseth said:

"Today, Jennifer and I had a chance to see the Western Wall, the Temple Mount, and as you stand there, you cannot help but behold the miracle before you, and it got me thinking about another miracle.

"...because 1917 (Balfour Declaration) was a miracle, 1948 was a miracle (establishment of Israel), 1967 was a miracle (Six Day War), 2017 the declaration of Jerusalem as the capital was a miracle, and there's no reason why the miracle of the reestablishment of the Temple on the Temple Mount is not possible."

While the reestablishment of the Temple in Jerusalem appears very unlikely, one major shift which has occurred in recent years is the increasing freedom of Jews to ascend to the Mount and do things such as pray silently, actions which were entirely prohibited years ago.

When he was National Security Minister, Itamar Ben Gvir did what he could to enable and streamline these visits, sometimes encouraging or enabling provocations to the point that Prime Minister Netanyahu would have to repeatedly reaffirm his commitment to the status quo on the Temple Mount.

Watch Hegseth's speech here: