The provocative scene at Al Aqsa mosque

The settled international norm is that only Muslims can worship in the Al Aqsa mosque, the third holiest Islamic shrine in the world, has been under siege as Israeli troops stormed into the mosque compound and earlier in the week fired tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse Palestinians gathered inside the mosque, and several of the Palestinians were seriously injured. The Palestinians wanted to stay overnight and offer the traditional night prayers but the Israeli authorities usually allow this only in the last 10 days of Ramadan. The Palestinians were also readying themselves as they were responding to the threat of some Jews who wanted to sacrifice an animal to mark the Jewish religious observance of the Feast of Passover in the mosque compound. This was a provocative act in the holy month of Ramadan, and the hardline groups from the Gaza Strip fired rockets into Israel, and it looked like that another vicious cycle of violence had begun. Both the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia condemned the Israeli troops entering the Al Aqsa. On the other hand, Israelis have been offering prayers at the Wailing Wall, the remaining part of the old Jewish temple attributed to the legendary Solomon, and this in violation of the international norm.

Meanwhile Israel has been bombing Syrian targets backed by the Iranians. And on Wednesday, rockets were fired from Lebanon into north Israel, and a Lebanese security official speaking on condition of anonymity said that it were Palestinian groups which were firing the rockets and not the Israel-backed anti-Israel group Hizbollah. The Hizbollah had already condemned Israeli troops storming the Al Aqsa. This statement if accepted would help avoid a wider conflagration. But tensions are rising mainly due to the provocative stance of the far-right parties in Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu-led coalition government.

The United States had defended the aggressive stance of the Israeli government, both in Gaza and in Syria. Principal Deputy State Department spokesman Vedant Patel said, “Israel has legitimate security concerns and has every right to defend themselves.” But he was also careful enough to assert: “We emphasise the importance of upholding the historic status quo at the holy sites in Jerusalem and any unilateral action that jeopardises the status quo to us is unacceptable.” But the question is how much the aggressive elements in Netanyahu’s government would heed the American warnings, especially National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir.

The new Israeli government while facing massive unrest over its attempt to weaken the Israeli Supreme Court though legislation, but the government’s far-right elements are only too eager to provoke the Palestinians on the religious score, and it is this provocative attitude  that could alienate Israel from its newly-made friends like UAE among the Gulf Arab states. And America is not in position to rein in the extreme elements in Israel’s coalition government. It would be unreasonable to demand that the Palestinians, who are hemmed in the crowded West Bank cities and towns that they should not be provoked by the Israelis. The tactic of the Israeli authorities is to humiliate the Palestinians by hurting their religious sentiments. That is an incendiary policy if there is one. Israel is overconfident that it can parry any military response from its Arab neighbourhood. But that could be changing fast enough with Russia and China entering the Middle Eastern checkerboard in terms of diplomatic and military intervention. Until now, it were the US and Israel which were able to dictate the Middle East security scenario. This is fast changing. The recent moves by Gulf Arab leaders to integrate Syria and its leader Bashar Al Assad into the Gulf Arab security architecture reveals the determination of the Gulf Arab states to pursue their own specific geo-strategic interests. Israel cannot hope to control the narrative with the help of the Americans.