TempleMountpeaceis sign of reduced terror
TENSION AROUND Temple Mount in Jerusalem and Palestinian propaganda that the Jews were “defiling” the Al Aqsa Mosque compound were the main motivating forces behind the wave of violence that broke out 10 months ago.
On Sunday, Israeli police allowed more than 300 Jews to make a pilgrimage to the Mount on Tisha b’Av, the fast marking the destruction of the Second Temple 1,946 years ago.
Aside from a few very minor altercations and a handful of arrests, when Jewish visitors overstepped the rules and tried to pray, the day passed relatively peacefully.
Israeli security services were so confident that they had matters under control that, unlike previous years on Tisha b’Av, they allowed Muslims to enter Temple Mount without any special restrictions.
The level of violence around Jerusalem and the West Bank has reduced to nearly the same levels as 12 months ago.
Israeli security sources attribute this to three main factors.
First, improved intelligence procedures have allowed Shin Bet and the IDF to identify potential Palestinian attackers in advance. Second, the Palestinian Authority has made a renewed commitment to co-operating and keeping the peace in its areas of responsibility.
Lastly, there is growing fatigue among the Palestinian public. The round of violence which began in October 2015, with daily stabbings, rammings and shootings, and started petering out in March and April, is now over. There wasn’t a “Third Intifada”, just a long spate of individual attacks.
Even so, intelligence officers warn that, while they feel they have contained the violence without it spreading to the wider Palestinian population, it could be re-ignited at any moment. Temple Mount remains a flashpoint, and there are those on both sides — Jews who wi l l not make do with the Western Wall and continue making pilgrimages there, and Islamist groups who confront them — who may trigger an escalation. Beyond the security and intelligence efforts and the co-operation with the PA, the major factor in reining in the violence has been the continued reliance of Palestinian citizens on the income of those working within the Green Line. Throughout the violence, up to 50,000 Palestinians continued to arrive daily at their workplaces, and none were involved in terrorism. Security chiefs withstood political pressure to cut the number of work permits and are convinced that, until a peace process is again under way, the best guarantee against an even larger wave of violence is an economic one. Marchers on Saturday called for Israeli control of Temple Mount