In the Holy Land, a single security incident, shooting, stabbing, or change from the status quo around the Haram al-Sharif/Temple Mount compound has the potential to start a wildfire between Israelis and Arabs that could take days or weeks to extinguish. Israel’s decision to install metal detectors at the sensitive site in Jerusalem is precisely the kind of kindling that could cause relations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority to go from bonfire to a raging inferno.
While Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s authorizing of metal detectors to enhance security around the shrine has been taken by Palestinians as a provocation intended to increase Israel’s control over the site, the Israeli government’s move shouldn’t have been a complete surprise. To not respond forcefully after two Israeli guards were shot and killed near the Temple Mount would be like the New York police commissioner not bolstering police patrols on the street after several New Yorkers were killed by terrorists. This analogy is imperfect at best: the Temple Mount, after all, is the holiest site for Jews around the world and one of the most sacred for Muslims. But you get the drift — politically, it would have been foolish for Netanyahu to pretend that he could continue business as usual after two Israeli police were murdered in cold blood.
Even so, we also need to understand the Palestinian point of view. The Palestinian Authority under Mahmoud Abbas, already weak and increasingly divided over what Ramallah will look like once Abbas dies or vacates the political scene, couldn’t simply stand by and say “we understand why you, the Israelis,” are doing this. The Palestinians on the street are beyond frustrated and demoralized with their predicament, and the perception among many of them is that they will remain under Israeli occupation for as long as Netanyahu’s right-wing government is in power.
To Palestinian politicians, the Israeli security measures, from the installation of metal detectors to the prohibition on Palestinians under the age of 50 from accessing the shrine, is just the most recent act of humiliation towards their people — a population whose daily lives in a majority of the West Bank are dictated by Israeli restrictions on everything from which roads they can use to where they can build homes or businesses.
There is plenty of blame to go around for where we are at this moment. Nobody — not Netanyahu, not Abbas, not Arab leaders, not the hundreds of American mediators trying to solve the crisis — has clean hands. Mistakes and slights have been made ever since the resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict became a top U.S. priority. The stubbornness of Israeli and Palestinian political leaders and the awful personal relationship between Netanyahu and Abbas have been two chains holding back their people from making peace with one another.
But with mass demonstrations turning into violence — as of this writing, five Israelis (including the two guards) and three Palestinians have been killed — the two men need to step up and do something, anything, to temper the emotionally-fueled clashes before the situation gets out of their control.
It’s important to note that the Second Intifada, violence that claimed the lives of about 1,000 Israelis and 3,000 Palestinians over a five-year timeframe, kicked off with an emotional dispute at the Haram al-Sharif/Temple Mount complex. It’s up to Netanyahu and Abbas, with the full support of U.S., European, Arab, and United Nations leadership, to ensure that the current problem at the scene doesn’t mushroom into another round of intifada-like carnage.
Daniel DePetris (@DanDePetris) is a contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential blog. His opinions are his own.
If you would like to write an op-ed for the Washington Examiner, please read our guidelines on submissions here.
