After Kan 11 News reported on Sunday that National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir was planning to ascend the Temple Mount this week, the Lebanese Al Mayadeen channel reported on Monday that Hamas sent a harsh message through Egypt and the United Nations, announcing that it “will not sit idly by” and that Ben Gvir’s move “will lead to an explosion.”
According to Kan 11, Ben Gvir’s people contacted the police and informed them that he intended to go up to the Temple Mount on Tuesday or Wednesday this week. Kan 11 also reported that the ascent would likely be postponed. The most obvious reason: On Saturday, United Arab Emirates President Mohammed bin Zayed called Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and congratulated him on forming a government, and repeated his invitation for the PM and his wife to make an official visit to the UAE very soon – possibly as soon as next week.
Another reason to postpone: on Sunday, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi also called to congratulate Netanyahu on forming his new government, and stressed the importance of promoting peace, stability, and security for the sake of both nations and all the people in the Middle East.
Under these circumstances, Netanyahu will probably veto his National Security Minister’s ascent to the Temple Mount, and ben Gvir will learn a valuable lesson from what the late Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said after his inauguration in 2000: “Things you see from up here, you don’t see from over there.”
In the last few times when MK ben Gvir ascended the Temple Mount, things were relatively quiet, and the police do not object to his planned ascent this time either. They trust their ability to secure his visit. The last time he went up to the holiest Jewish site was three and a half months ago, just before Rosh Hashanah.
In an interview Ben Gvir gave Kan 11 News after the swearing-in of the new government, he said that his ascension to the Temple Mount during his tenure as minister was “an obvious thing,” and that he was “against racism on the Temple Mount,” meaning Jews should be permitted to pray there, just like Muslims.
