Israeli police alarmed about potential Temple Mount riot, J'lem Post demands wiping out Iraqis

The late news on the Jerusalem Post is that there were specific warnings of Palestinians rioting after Friday prayers at the Temple Mount/Al Aqsa Mosque in the Old City.

Police: Riots may break out after Friday prayers

Massive police forces were stationed Friday morning in east Jerusalem and especially in the Old City, after police received specific warning that young Palestinians intend to riot following the Muslim prayers on Temple Mount, which are to resume at 1 p.m.

Last Friday, Palestinian youth rioted on the holy site in what was considered the most serious security incident on Temple Mount since the riots of October 2000, which sparked the second Intifada, known also as the al-Aqsa Intifada.

Police said that entrance to the mosques was restricted to men above the age of 45 carrying Israeli IDs. Muslim women of all ages are allowed to enter the compound.

Meanwhile, the high terror alert continues across the country. Security forces are stationed in city centers, shopping malls and synagogues.

Meanwhile the Post's editorial board says "unless the US wipes out Mahdi's army and the Sunni resisters quickly and decisively, it will have a real intifada on its hands:"

Now it's a fair question whether the US will have to face down a popular uprising – a real Iraqi intifada – or be defeated by it.

Our sense is that what America faces now is similar to what Israel faced in the early days of the present conflict. Fallujah, as American military commanders have pointed out, is a city apart, a place that uniquely benefited from Saddam's largesse and now finds itself a loser in the new dispensation. Sheikh Sadr is a young upstart, supported mainly by Iran and opposed by the mainstream Shiite Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani. As for "Mahdi's Army," Sadr's ragtag militia, it does not represent a serious military threat to the Coalition.

Yet what starts small can end large. A population that wishes to remain aloof from a conflict can gradually be drawn into it as orchestrated provocations engulf everyone in violence. Sadr's calculation is that as violence spreads – and as the Coalition resorts to increasingly aggressive measures, with all the "collateral damage" that entails – Iraqis will cast their lot with him, not the occupiers or their designated successors.

As of this writing, the Coalition has obliged the sheikh. The US has promised a "deliberate and precise" reaction; in Fallujah, Marines fired rockets at a mosque, killing more than two dozen Iraqis.

That does not mean that any military action taken against Sadr is counterproductive and will only strengthen him. What it does mean is that the Coalition cannot afford half-measures. The great mistake made by Israel in the early days of the intifada – and that, frankly, is what it has become, even if it didn't start out that way – was to ratchet up the violence slowly. Too much Israeli precision served too embolden the Palestinians rather than deter them. Too much American precision will accomplish the same.

We do not mean to suggest that the US employ indiscriminate force. But unless the US wipes out Mahdi's army and the Sunni resisters quickly and decisively, it will have a real intifada on its hands, and the temptation to retreat will ultimately prove overpowering. Just look at Israel.

Just look at Israel... It's almost as if the Post wants the U.S. to begin fighting both Sunni and Shia with extreme force.

Who would have ever thought they might want that to happen?

I am extremely concerned that there will be another incident around the Mount/Al Aqsa area, perhaps rounded out with something else in Karbala and Najf, a synchronicity between Arabs, Israel and the United States, having stumbled up to this point, having finally exhausted all plans...

Also, word is that all Sunnis in Baghdad are supposed to go to the central mosque. Raed in the Middle:

The next couple of days are going to be really red.
The Red Weekend…
Tomorrow is the first anniversary of the “fall” of Baghdad.

Tomorrow is Friday, the Muslims sabbath, and the mosques of Baghdad will NOT be available for the noon prayer. The mosques announced that the Friday prayer of tomorrow is going to be in the central mosque, for all Sunnis. Um AlMaarek mosque, thousands and thousands are going to be there.

Thousands of Iraqis from all Iraq joined the Falluja blood donation campaign, Falluja is still under siege, more than 300 people killed there and more than 500 injured in the because of the collective punishment Bremer has ordered.

Iraqi police officers joined AlMahdi Army in Najaf and Kufa, where the coalition forces lost control over the city. The same thing in AlKut city too.

The GC is falling apart, some members resigned, others are on their way.
People are making jokes about the “hand over of authorities”, who is going to hand over what?

This Saturday is a sacred religious anniversary for Shia, the (Arbaeen) of AlHusien. This anniversary witnessed millions of Iraqi Shia marching to Karbala from all the Iraqi cities, and if this thing happens this year… ohhh…
......
This bloody cycle of violence is not going to stop in the next couple of days, but next week I think a political solution will be acceptable.

I feel sad and frustrated.
The sound of aggression and violence is louder than my voice.

This Friday will be one for the history books, no matter what happens... We are really on the rollercoaster now. All these guys calling for blood on FOX and Scarborough Country are really starting to bother me. But then I realize they've been bothering me for well over a year now.

Posted by HongPong at April 9, 2004 03:55 AM
Listed under Israel-Palestine , Security .