There is no more horrifying scenario for Israel, and perhaps the entire Middle East, than a serious attack on the Temple Mount, which to Muslims is the Haram al-Sharif, site of Al-Aqsa Mosque. Such a scenario has been keeping Israeli defense officials awake at night since the 1967 Six-Day War, when Israel took control of the eastern part of Jerusalem. At 7 a.m. July 14, it looked as if that very scenario might unfold.
Three young Israeli Arabs from Umm al-Fahm burst into the compound, the third holiest site in Islam, armed with makeshift machine guns, a pistol and knives. As they made their way, they shot and killed two Border Patrol officers stationed at one of the entrances. Their plan was to seize control of Al-Aqsa and thereby ignite a huge conflagration in Jerusalem, and perhaps Israel, the West Bank and the entire Middle East. Fortunately, Border Patrol officers responded quickly, and after a brief chase through the square surrounding the mosques there, shot and killed the three attackers.
It was a brief incident, suppressed in a matter of minutes, but it was enough to send shock waves across Israel and the Palestinian territories. It forced Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to link arms and work together, despite their mutual loathing and current competition for support from the US administration. They were both committed to preventing a further deterioration in the situation or escalation, which could have left them both trapped by flames. Netanyahu called Abbas almost immediately to report what had happened and try to put an end to the rumors and fake news that tends to inundate social networks after such events. Abbas responded as Netanyahu had hoped, condemning the attack in unusually sharp terms.
The attack was not the nightmare scenario that truly terrifies Israel. In fact, the defense establishment has always been less concerned about a Muslim attack on the Temple Mount, since the Haram al-Sharif is sacred to them. What they really feared was an attack by an extremist Jew in an attempt to set the Middle East and the entire Muslim world on fire, laying the ground for the War of Armageddon between Islam and the Jews and ending with the arrival of the Messiah on his white donkey. Under this scenario, Al-Aqsa Mosque would be destroyed and the Third Temple rebuilt on its site of the original Temple.
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