By PLS
Did you note this little—ahem!—coincidence about ten days ago?
Fatah and Hamas leaders were in Mecca trying to quell virtual civil war between Palestinians, an urgent and delicate negotiation conducted under the stern eye of Saudi King Abdullah. Meanwhile, the Israelis started archaeological excavations in preparation for a little repair work affecting access to the Temple Mount, which is sacred to Muslims as well as Jews.
You could say it was past time for the project to be underway. A snowstorm, in 2004, had damaged an old access ramp, rendering it unsafe, according to the Israelis. At some point, the structure would have to be repaired or replaced.
Yet two years or more had already elapsed, which suggests a project not in priority position on Israel’s construction to-do list. So why did the digging around the walls of the Temple Mount get underway when it did?
Consider this. Israel and the Israeli army are still smarting from the totally unanticipated humiliation of losing a short war with Hezbollah in Lebanon last summer. How gratifying it must have been, in recent months, for the more belligerent Israeli hawks to sit back and watch Fatah and Hamas elements killing one another on the streets of Gaza—even on the less volatile West Bank. So long as Palestinians were at odds, Israel could postpone hard decisions affecting whether and how to withdraw major Jewish settlements from the still occupied territories, whether and how to render monies owed to the Palestinian Authority.
But suddenly Hamas and Fatah were making nice to one another. So how to undermine the outbreak of peace among Palestinian factions? One way would be to start mucking around in the vicinity of the Temple Mount which is crowned by the Al Aqsa mosque. Any Middle East watcher could predict trouble. In such case, not only would the Israelis be able to argue, not for the first time, that Palestinians are incapable of settling issues peaceably with Israel, they might be able to rekindle the quarrel between the two major Palestinian factions. After all, Hamas and Fatah have taken very different positions vis-à-vis the legitimacy of the Israeli state. With luck, the Israelis could sit back and watch the fun, secure in the status quo.
So a mini-Intifada did indeed begin—boys throwing stones—with the usual Israeli response: troops chasing them through the streets. The potential for escalation was real.
In a predictable display of faux innocence, Israeli officials pointed out that the earth works are on the non-sacred side of the wall—a whole sixty yards from sensitive territory. To such legalistic hair-splitting, the appropriate response is: ONLY sixty yards? That’s not much, as readers can see from a widely circulated photo of the project. And the work is obviously going to get closer.
Seems to me there are only two ways to look at this move by the Israeli government. Either the government failed to realize that any excavation/construction this close to the Mount could stir up a hornet’s nest, which is implausible. Or officials went ahead knowing precisely what might happen, hoping that most observers wouldn’t put two and two together.
Fortunately I can end this piece by noting that there are some sensible leaders in Israel. Uri Lupolianski, the Mayor of Jerusalem, for example. He is demanding “a longer and more transparent planning process that will allow residents to see the plans and submit protests.” This certainly makes sense. Whatever affects access to the Mount is of concern to Muslims and Jews, Israelis and Palestinians. Christians, too, for that matter. Anything that happens in Jerusalem affects sites sacred to the whole trio of Abrahamic religions.
Listening, discussing, consulting, explaining, modifying—these things take time, as critics irrefutably note. But the process of getting this delicate project right in the eyes of all should be seen as part of a confidence-building process that could lead to mutual resolution of other sensitive issues.