Israel faces diplomatic blitz over Temple Mount clashes
With all the efforts invested by the Bennett government to rehabilitate ties with Jordan, Jerusalem was surprised over the tone deployed by Amman over the Temple Mount clashes.
After several frustrating days on the diplomatic front, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett turned to social media to post a clip from an interview he gave to CNN's chief international correspondent Christiane Amanpour. “The interviewer from CNN asked me why we sent troops to use violence against Muslim worshippers on the Temple Mount. Watch my answer. I will continue to fight against the lies about Israel,” Bennett tweeted.
In the video clip attached to the tweet, Bennett sounded particularly antagonistic. In a tense exchange, he chastised Amanpour, saying, “There you go again, starting the story in the middle, but the actual fact is that last Friday, at about 5 a.m. in the morning, roughly 300 Palestinian rioters entered the Temple Mount mosque with explosives, with stones. They began desecrating their own mosque, burning, throwing stones and preventing about 80,000 decent Muslims from going to pray. My responsibility as prime minister of Israel is to provide freedom of prayer to everyone in Jerusalem, including Muslims, which is why I had to send in policemen to remove the rioters. And it worked. Indeed, 80,000 Muslims went on later to pray peacefully. So, you know, when faced with violence, you have to act tough.”
This interview was apparently intended for an Israeli audience, not just international consumption. Its purpose was to prove to Israelis that they have a prime minister from a right-wing party who does not show weakness when faced with clashes on the Temple Mount and Palestinian aggression.
Over the last few days, Israel’s government has come under harsh diplomatic fire, including from its friends. The sharpest criticism came from Jordan.
