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TITLE: Israelis Fear War Plot By Far Right |
AUTHOR: Uzi Mahnaimi |
PUB: The Sunday Times (London) |
DATE: December 31, 2000 |
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AMID eleventh-hour attempts to rescue a Middle East peace deal, the Israeli security services have launched an undercover operation to infiltrate groups of Jewish zealots feared to be planning to blow up the contested Haram al-Sharif, or Temple Mount, in Jerusalem's Old City. Shin Bet, Israel's domestic intelligence service, has warned the government of fears that extremists are trying to derail the peace efforts spearheaded by Bill Clinton. The outgoing American president is trying to win approval for a deal under which the Israelis would withdraw from areas of the West Bank and offer the Palestinians some control over the Haram al-Sharif, a holy Muslim shrine. Yasser Arafat, the Palestinian leader, is still considering the proposal. The Israeli cabinet offered conditional approval, although Ehud Barak, the Israeli prime minister who has resigned and put himself up for re-election in February, said he would not go so far as to grant sovereignty over the site. To many right-wing Israelis, however, even these limited concessions are anathema. The mosque is the third-holiest site in Islam, but Jews believe it is built over the remains of the biblical temple destroyed by the Romans. It became the flashpoint of the intifada that began in September when Ariel Sharon, the Israeli right-wing leader, entered the mosque compound accompanied by hundreds of bodyguards. The infiltration of fanatical Jewish groups has been ordered by Avraham Dichter, the head of Shin Bet. "If the mosque is attacked, then God help us all," said one Shin Bet source. "Millions of Muslims from Indonesia to Iran will march on Jerusalem to fight their jihad and nobody will be able to return the genie back to the bottle." There are ominous portents. Israeli security sources said several messianic Jewish groups have been carrying out the sacrificial slaughter of animals and other specific rituals in advance of what they proclaim will be the "re-establishment of the Third Holy Temple". Two months ago police turned back members of the Land of Israel Faithful Movement as they attempted to enter the Dome of the Rock to anoint the cornerstone of a Third Temple. Security forces say there are probably only about 1,000 messianic zealots bent on wrecking the chances of peace, with a hard core of just 50. The extremists are said to believe a religious world war would lead to the final redemption of the Jews and of the Land of Israel. END |