Tisha Be-Av is a religious festival, celebrated every year by the Jews, to mourn the destruction of the temple, first by the Babylonians in 586 BCE then by the Romans in 70 CE.
In fact it wasn’t only the destruction of the temple that took place, but it was also the destruction of the nation. Two events happened, the destruction of the temple and the destruction of Jewish nationhood.
Since it’s inception, 2000 years ago, however, Tisha Be-Av has been celebrated as a religious festival, (not a secular one) because, until the resurrection of the Jewish nation, by Zionism in 1948, Jews were more saddened by the loss of the temple than by the loss of nationhood.
But with the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, I think that the Jewish nation began to take a new look at Jewish history, a retrospective view, that 2000 years ago the loss of nationhood was really more important to Jews than the loss of the temple, but they didn’t realize it at the time. The founding of the Zionist movement was a sign of the beginning of this new viewpoint. The Zionist movement never intended to resurrect the temple and the state of Israel has no intention of doing such a thing.
It took us 2000 years of suffering in the diaspora to come to this realization. Even today, however there are many Jews who see the destruction of the temple as being more important, but I think that they are in the minority.
This is why, while most Jews rejoice on Independence day, some Jews, for example the ultra orthodox Jews, mourn on this day. They don’t celebrate Israel Independence day, because it is a sign that we consider Israel’s destruction as a nation the tragedy, not the destruction of the temple.That has been pushed aside, it’s reconstruction will be delayed, perhaps forever.
The resurrection of the Jewish State, in my opinion, is definitely going to delay the resurrection of the temple, because Israel is a secular state and religion is secondary. The rebuilding of the temple isn’t a priority and the state does not enforce religious observance on it’s citizens, as was the case 2000 years ago.
The advent of the resurrection of the Jewish Nation has not only pushed aside the rebuilding of the temple, in my opinion, it has pushed aside religion. It has brought us to the realization that the nation and not the religion is important.
This is a sign for all the world not only the Jewish religion.
It is a revolution. It signifies the end of an era, for all the religions of the world, namely it signifies the end of the era of religion as the dominant force, dictating the lives of human beings everywhere, for the last 3000 years, at least, probably religion has controlled the lives of human beings since the beginning of human history.
Religious people of all persuasions aren’t happy with this revolution. This is easily evidenced in the various forms of religious uprisings and disturbances all over the world.
In Israel ultra orthodox Jews carry out demonstrations, on a daily basis, against the threat that the modern state of Israel will pass laws to travel on the Sabbath, to open businesses on the Sabbath, to allow the importation of unkosher food or wine, to protest the enlistment of religious boys and girls into the army etc etc.
Daily the Moslems find a reason to demonstrate against the state of Israel, by acts of terror and ranting and raving against the corruption of modern countries in Europe and America.
Ostensibly they are demonstrating against the threat of the Jews rebuilding the temple at the site of their holy mosque, but really they are demonstrating against the existence of the secular state of Israel, which threatens the dominance of religion over people’s lives.
Religious people all over the world are at the head of antisemitism, with Muslims in the forefront and Christians opposing them and supporting the state of Israel.
Although Israel seems to be at the center of this struggle, it is going on all over the world.
I think that one of the reasons why Christianity supports Israel is that it has overdone antisemitism in the course of the last 2000 years and now it is going through a period of remorse.
As an explanation of this idea I offer you an attached document recording what were the religious beliefs of Lithuanians who murdered Jews in the holocaust.