Op/Ed - New York Post
MOUNT-ING TENSION
Date: Fri Apr 9, 3:31 AM ET
By URI DAN
JERUSALEM - Jewish zealots are talking of a nightmare scenario that could inflame the Mideast - an attack on the sacred Muslim mosques on Jerusalem's Temple Mount.
"They are saying openly that something should be done to create chaos, so that out of the chaos will come salvation," said Naftaly Werzburger, a lawyer who defends right-wing Israelis suspected of violent attacks against Palestinians.
"They mentioned Dr. Baruch Goldstein [who killed 30 Palestinians at Hebron's Tomb of the Patriarch in 1994] and the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin (news - web sites) as acts that changed the political course," he told The Post.
"It's clear those who are talking won't carry out an attack [on Temple Mount] themselves - but they will applaud if someone does."
Israel security takes the talk seriously.
Yesterday, 15,000 people gathered at the Western Wall for a special Passover prayer.
Huge numbers of police and secret servicemen were there to protect the crowds from the kind of rock-throwing attacks by Palestinians on the esplanade above that have broken out in the past - but also to protect the mosques.
Werzburger said the first time the idea of targeting the mosques was discussed was more than 20 years ago, when Prime Minister Menachem Begin evacuated Jewish settlements in the Yamit region of the Sinai desert as part of his peace agreement with Egypt.
The reason for the revival of the mosque attack idea is that Jewish extremists believe this is a new time of crisis - and it began "the moment [Prime Minister Ariel] Sharon made a U-turn in his policy," Werzburger, 47, said.
He referred to Sharon's plan to "disengage" from the Palestinians by uprooting settlements in the Gaza Strip (news - web sites) - a plan Sharon will discuss with President Bush (news - web sites) at the White House on Wednesday.
The Israeli extreme right refuses to accept the plan, and the secret service is taking the most extreme measures as a precaution.
For example, it took the unusual step of holding a fiery settler leader, Noam Federman, for many months under administrative detention, something usually reserved for Palestinian terrorists.
This outraged Daniela Weiss, chair of a large West Bank settlement's council. She wrote Israel's defense minister, military chief of staff and secret service chief to protest the treatment of Federman.
SOURCE
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