While the president of the Palestinian Authority speaks at the United Nations, reporting to government leaders and ambassadors about Palestinian preparedness for an independent state, Yehuda Etzion is working on his own plan for the region.
Etzion, a resident of the settlement Ofra, has a draft master plan for Jerusalem, which he is preparing with a team of Ofra residents and an architectural firm. The plan centers around the Third Temple: where a ring road will pass, where pilgrims will park, where observation points will be located. The Arab neighborhoods in East Jerusalem will be demolished. They are not part of the plan.
The plan, which is supposed to be published in a book this year, is part of Etzion's work to establish the Kingdom of Israel, which will put an end to all the talk of a Palestinian state. Etzion, 60, is among the founders of Ofra.
In the 1980s he was an activist in the Jewish underground and planned to blow up the Dome of the Rock on the Temple Mount, but he was arrested before the plot could be carried out. He was sentenced to seven years in prison, and ultimately served five. Since his release he has been fighting to enable Jews to pray on the Temple Mount and to rebuild the Temple. He makes a living by editing books.