It may be pure coincidence, but a thick black line binds together the murder of 29 Palestinian worshipers by the settler Baruch Goldstein at the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron on Feb. 25, 1994, and the debate held on Feb. 25 on a proposal to impose Israeli sovereignty on the Temple Mount.

In the week that Goldstein left his home in the settlement of Kiryat Arba for his bloody killing spree, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) was making the final preparations for the withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and Jericho. Giant banners appeared on Israel’s roads: “Stop Oslo” and “Oslo Criminals to Court.” Documents that fell into the hands of the IDF during the 2002 Operation Defensive Shield showed that following the 1994 massacre in Hebron, the Hamas religious leadership lifted its objection to suicide attacks. Until then, all suicide attacks were carried out solely by members of Islamic Jihad. The wave of suicide attacks that ensued completely eroded the Israeli public’s belief in the Oslo Accord.

While Knesset member Moshe Feiglin, leader of the ultra-hawkish wing of the Likud Party, this week was instigating his explosive proposal to change the status quo on the Temple Mount, US Secretary of State John Kerry’s team was putting the finishing touches on the framework for a permanent arrangement with the Palestinians. That same day, riots broke out at the volatile site. A police force rushed into the compound and threw shock grenades toward the demonstrators. More restrained demonstrations at the site, which do not make the news in Israel, have become a matter of routine.

The night before, Feiglin uploaded a clip onto his Facebook page showing him walking on the Temple Mount for the first time since he was sworn into the Knesset, he said. As if Feiglin hadn’t done enough to buttress the rumor running through the Palestinian street that the Israeli government was planning to assume control of the Temple Mount, the Israeli daily Haaretz brought additional “good tidings” to the Muslim street. The paper reported that the running of the archeological park next to the Temple Mount, which is holy to both religions, would be handed over to Elad, the right-wing nongovernmental organization.