Israelis quick to forgive Netanyahu for latest security debacle
While most Israelis are unhappy with the way that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu handled the Temple Mount crisis, they also believe that he was right to install the metal detectors there.
![ISRAEL-PALESTINIANS/ Israeli security forces remove metal detectors which were recently installed at an entrance to the compound known to Muslims as Noble Sanctuary and to Jews as Temple Mount in Jerusalem's Old City July 25, 2017. REUTERS/Ammar Awad TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY - RTX3CRDA](/sites/default/files/styles/article_hero_medium/public/almpics/2017/07/RTX3CRDA.jpg/RTX3CRDA.jpg?h=f7822858&itok=o9VbmJ4k)
At a meeting of his security Cabinet on July 24, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu convinced his ministers to support the removal of the metal detectors that had just been installed at the Temple Mount compound entrance. Once that was done, he immediately set to work minimizing the damage the decision had done to his image.
It was Netanyahu who first pushed to install the metal detectors within hours of the deadly July 14 attack on the Temple Mount that left two policemen dead. The move was ostensibly intended to increase security at the contentious site, but it was also a way of declaring Israeli sovereignty over all parts of Jerusalem. He made the decision despite warnings from the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and Shin Bet that it would lead to a fresh eruption of violence.