Shin Bet warns, Cabinet ignores


July 23, 2017
Sarah Benton

Barak Ravid, Haaretz 1); Attila Somfalvi and Itamar Eichner, Ynet news 2); Peter Beaumont, Guardian 3)


Worshippers praying outside the Temple Mount on July 14, 2017 in protest at metal detectors placed at the entrance by Israeli security forces after last week’s deadly attack. Photo by Olivier Fitoussi

Temple Mount Crisis: Fears of Political Rivals Led Netanyahu to Make a Grave Error

Netanyahu knows what is needed to deal with current tensions, but he voted for the opposite; with no token leftists to blame, he’s stuck between a rock and hard place

Barak Ravid, Haaretz
July 23, 2017

Immediately after the attack on the Temple Mount compound a week ago, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu grasped that this incident bore the seeds of a greater conflagration. After all, he has the wisdom of experience behind him. Netanyahu remembers well what transpired during his first term following the opening of the Western Wall tunnels in 1996, what happened after Ariel Sharon entered the compound in 2000 and the events of the summer of 2015, after cabinet member Uri Ariel went there as well.

Netanyahu responded with calculated caution, as well as uncharacteristically initiating a phone conversation with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in order to jointly prevent an escalation.

Given his responsible conduct in the first hours following the attack, it’s puzzling how 24 hours later he committed such a grave error in the rushed decision last Saturday to install metal detectors at all the entrances to the compound. After 24 hours in which he seemingly prevented an escalation, that decision reversed the trend and greatly exacerbated tensions, leading to the explosion which erupted over the weekend.

The decision to install metal detectors was made during a 30-minute conference call Netanyahu convened just before he boarded his plane for a five-day visit to Budapest and Paris. On the line were defence minister Avigdor Lieberman, public security Minister Erdan and senior members of the Israel Defence Forces, the Shin Bet and the police. The issue of metal detectors was briefly mentioned but there was no serious discussion. If any of the participants thought this was a mistake, they didn’t say it. Everyone moved on.

Netanyahu’s mistake was not just in installing the detectors, but mainly in the decision-making process that preceded it. Even though he knows very well that the Temple Mount was the most volatile point in the Middle East, if not in the entire world, he elected that evening to deal with a complex, strategic topic based on tactical security considerations. All complexities were set aside, and the issue boiled down to metal detectors.

Netanyahu’s miscalculation in that discussion and in setting up those detectors put him in an impossible bind. When it turned out that this move was meeting stiff opposition, the government was left with no good solutions, stuck between a rock and a hard place. If it were to remove the detectors, this would be interpreted as weakness, showing it capitulating to threats and admitting that it does not truly have sovereignty over the Temple Mount. If it left the detectors in place, it could find itself sliding towards a violent eruption in Jerusalem and the West Bank, and a crisis with the entire Muslim world.

Over the last week Netanyahu spoke publicly on several occasions, expressing his concern about an escalation around the Temple Mount or even about the dangers of a possible religious war. For several days he leaned toward removing the detectors, but at the cabinet meeting he ultimately voted for keeping them. The same process took place in the vote on expropriating private Palestinian land, the so-called Regularization Law. Netanyahu himself warned that this law would bring Israel to the International Criminal Court in The Hague, even though he ultimately voted in favour.

In both cases the reason is the same – his worries about political rivals on his right. Netanyahu found himself in a government without a token leftist such as Ehud Barak, Tzipi Livni or Moshe Ya’alon whom he could count on to block dangerous moves and then draw fire from the settlers’ lobby in the cabinet, the Knesset and the media.

With his own hands and through his own fears, Netanyahu has created a work environment in the cabinet — set up to ensure his political survival — that does not allow him to make judicious decisions on national security matters. Absurdly, the defence minister even voted against the recommendations of the defence establishment. Intellectually, Netanyahu knew what the right move was regarding the Temple Mount, but the decisions made were the exact opposite. In Sunday’s cabinet meeting Netanyahu could make amends. Let’s hope it’s not too late for that.



Metal detectors at the entrance to the Temple Mount Photo by TPS

Erdan: Shin Bet, IDF did not raise objections to metal detectors

Despite reports that Shin Bet director warned of possible explosive results of keeping metal detectors for Friday prayers, the public security minister insists ‘no one spoke of possible opposition or violence because of the metal detectors.’

By Attila Somfalvi and Itamar Eichner, Ynet news
July 23, 2017

Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan claimed on Sunday there were no objections from the Shin Bet and IDF to keeping the metal detectors at the entrance to the Temple Mount amid reports to the contrary.

“The prime minister has asked to significantly increase security arrangements on the Mount, and a proposal was made to use metal detectors, something that has been brought up in the past. None of the (defence) officials objected to that proposal, no one spoke of possible opposition or violence because of the metal detectors,” Erdan told Ynet.


Minister Erdan at the Temple Mount after the terror attack there

When specifically asked whether the Shin Bet and IDF objected to leaving the metal detectors in place on Friday despite concerns of violent rioting, Erdan said,

“It wasn’t an objection. Each body gives its assessments and recommendations in light of the situation. There were assessments—I don’t want to say from who—that leaving the metal detectors could lead… to deterioration in the situation if protesters are killed during clashes or some other incident with casualties occurs. This would in turn serve as an excuse for more incitement and violence.

“On the other hand, an argument was made that caving in to the threats of those who use the metal detectors as an excuse will actually hurt the police’s ability to continue managing the Temple Mount with the Waqf and undermine the police’s authority in the holy sites.”

Erdan added that Israel should “not play into the Arab and Palestinian inciters’ hands,” and noted that “the only consideration that should guide us is how to prevent a terror attack inside the Temple Mount in which automatic weapons or explosives are used.”

Four Palestinian rioters were killed in clashes with Israeli security forces over the weekend, three of them on Friday and another on Saturday.

Shin Bet director warns of clashes

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asked police to set up the metal detectors on Friday, July 14, after the deadly terror attack at the Temple Mount that claimed the lives of two Israeli police officers.

When police told him there were only two or three metal detectors available, he instructed them to procure more metal detectors immediately and without the need to issue a tender.

After a week of protests and violent clashes, the Security Cabinet met on Thursday night to determine whether to keep the metal detectors in place ahead of Friday prayers.

During that meeting, Shin Bet Director Nadav Argaman, IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot and Military Intelligence Directorate head Herzi Levy said the metal detectors were a mistake and must be removed. Argaman cautioned that the Muslim worshippers won’t enter the Temple Mount complex as long as the metal detectors remain in place, adding, “We’ll have clashes in other places and other incidents.”

Ministers Yoav Galant and Yuval Steinitz also objected to keeping the metal detectors at the gates of the Temple Mount.

Steinitz expressed concern the crisis on the Temple Mount would lead to rioting in the Arab and Muslim world and could also result in Arab countries cutting ties with Israel.Galant proposed to immediately open four of the gates, removing the metal detectors from all but one. He argued the Palestinians want the metal detectors to remain as an excuse to close the Temple Mount, which would in turn lead to an explosion. Israel will remove the metal detectors eventually, he asserted, so it is better to do so as soon as possible so as to not “perpetuate the error.”


Palestinian youth hurl rocks towards Israeli security forces during clashes on Friday, July 21st. Photo by Ahmad Gharabli/AFP/Getty Images

Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon asked Netanyahu, “Why didn’t you convene us to approve the metal detectors? Why are you convening us now?” Netanyahu responded that “Things have changed.”

Eventually, however, Kahlon left his vote to Netanyahu’s discretion, and the prime minister used it to vote in favour of keeping the metal detectors.

Galant explained to Ynet on Sunday that “As long as what they’re trying to do is not enter the Temple Mount, the use of metal detectors only serves the other side. Eventually, we’ll find a better solution that would entail the use of intelligence, cameras, random searches, and other things. It would allow the flow (of crowds into the Temple Mount), and I hope it’ll restore the peace.”


Minister Yoav Galant. Photo by Sason Tiram

He argued that “the use of metal detectors will fail for two reasons. Primarily, because the other side is taking this positive and correct thing of a security measure used everywhere—soccer stadiums, mosques and malls—and uses it against the Israeli system. They’re using it to charge the area with the potential for terrorism from those who want to enter the Temple Mount but are prevented from doing so. The result would be different types of violent incidents in different places.”

Second, he said, the metal detectors would not allow for tens of thousands of people to enter the Temple Mount at a reasonable time for prayer.
The Israel Police, on its part, clarified the decision on whether to keep the metal detectors was the responsibility of the government.


Palestinians pray in the street outside the Lion’s Gate entrance to the Haram al-Sharif-Temple Mount compound. Photo by Peter Beaumont for the Guardian

Israel refuses to remove metal detectors from mosque despite rising violence

Israelis and Palestinians braced for further confrontations in Jerusalem as death toll rises in wake of new security crackdown

By Peter Beaumont in Jerusalem, The Guardian
July 23, 2017

Israeli officials have said they will not remove metal detectors from outside a Jerusalem mosque, despite their installation triggering rapidly escalating confrontations with Palestinians.

Amid a mounting toll of deaths and injuries in the crisis, Israelis and Palestinians are braced for weeks of confrontation, as both sides appeared to dig in to their positions.

In addition to the metal detectors, Israel has also began installing sophisticated security cameras at one of the entrances to the compound housing the al-Aqsa mosque, known to Muslims as the Haram al-Sharif and revered by Jews as the Temple Mount.

Security officials told Israeli media the cameras were intended to complement the metal detectors, not replace them.

Despite the remarks – and with Israeli generals warning the violence may spiral – other officials appeared to offer a contradictory message, saying the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, was considering alternatives to the walk-through sensors placed at entrances to the al-Aqsa mosque compound after two policemen were shot dead there on14 July.

The mixed signals emerging from the Israeli side have contributed to the sense of confusion driving the crisis, during which Israeli ministers have reportedly overruled warnings from senior security officials about the risk of stoking a widening confrontation with the installation of the devices.

But as Israel’s cabinet met on Sunday with the issue on top of the agenda, Tzachi Hanegbi, the minister for regional development and a senior member of the ruling Likud party, told Army Radio: “They (metal detectors) will remain. The murderers will never tell us how to search the murderers. If they (Palestinians) do not want to enter the mosque, then let them not enter the mosque.”

As other ministers warned of the risk of ‘large scale volatility’, Israel deployed thousands of extra troops to the West Bank.

Six dead as Israeli-Palestinian tensions boil over

The UN security council will also hold closed-door talks on Monday about the spiralling violence after Egypt, France and Sweden sought a meeting to “urgently discuss how calls for de-escalation in Jerusalem can be supported”.

In his Sunday sermon in St Peter’s Square in Rome, Pope Francis told worshippers he was following “with trepidation the grave tensions and violence” at the holy site as he appealed for ‘moderation and dialogue’.

In a further indication of the hardening of positions, the Muslim authorities that oversee al-Aqsa said they would continue to oppose any new Israeli-imposed measures.

“We stress our absolute rejection of the electronic gates, and of all measures by the Occupation (Israel) that would change the historical and religious status in Jerusalem and its sacred sites, foremost the blessed Aqsa mosque,” the Palestinian grand mufti, the acting Palestinian chief justice and the Jordanian-sponsored Waqf religious trust said in a joint statement.

The issue exploded into more serious violence on Friday, after days of night-time clashes after the metal detectors, installation, which followed the attack on 14 July that killed two Israeli policemen at the entrance to the site by three Israeli Arabs who Israel says smuggled weapons into the compound.

In clashes that have grown in intensity since mass protests on Friday, four Palestinians have been killed in confrontations with Israeli security forces, while a family of three Israeli settlers was stabbed to death by a Palestinian who entered their home in the West Bank citing the issues around the al-Aqsa mosque as his motive

The sheer scale of the risks involved was made clear on Sunday morning when the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas – who has long threatened to end security cooperation with Israel – cancelled a planned security meeting after announcing he was cutting all contacts.

At the centre of the issue has been two competing impetuses. The first has been the politics of Israel’s right/far-right coalition, led by Netanyahu, which, say critics, led his cabinet to ignore warnings from senior security officials when deciding to install the metal detectors.

The second is centred on the profound Palestinian religious, national and cultural sensitivities around the compound.

And at the centre of the violence has been a deadly miscalculation by the Netanyahu government that bridged both issues in which police recommended the installation of the metal detectors in the immediate aftermath of the 14 July attack.

Persuaded by the idea it would play well with rightwing politicians and voters who had had called for Israel to impose further sovereignty over the site, Netanyahu ignored reported warnings from other security officials, including the Shin Bet domestic intelligence agency, that it could spark bloodshed.

Compounding the error, say critics, Israel also failed to discuss the issue with officials of the waqf – the Jordanian religious institution that administers the compound.

On the Palestinian side the issue is visceral.

Captured by Israel in 1967, the site – regarded by most of the international community as “occupied” although claimed by Israel – is seen as a centre of Palestinian national identity that exists above both factional politics and disagreements over strategy.

A unifying idea, its significance as a national symbol is embraced by secular and religious, making it one of the conflict’s most dangerous flashpoints. The location – as commentators on both sides have been quick to point out – triggered the Second Intifada in 2000 after a similar Israeli political misjudgment when then opposition leader Ariel Sharon visited the site.

Justifying their suspicions about Israel’s motives, Palestinian religious officials and worshippers have pointed to their past experience over the Ibrahimi mosque-Tomb of the Patriarchs site in northern West Bank city of Hebron where they claim similar measures were used by Israel to control access.

All of which has led to the increasingly stark warnings. “Violence is likely to worsen absent a major policy shift,” said Ofer Zalzberg, a senior analyst at the International Crisis Group. “Netanyahu’s mistake was installing the metal detectors without a Muslim interlocutor. It is the coercive character more than the security measure itself that made this unacceptable for Palestinians.”

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