Deadly Force: Melancholy Aftermath : Palestinian deaths in Jerusalem play into Saddam Hussein’s hands

Israeli officials say that there was Palestinian premeditation behind the violence that swept over Jerusalem’s Temple Mount area on Monday, leaving at least 19 Arabs dead and 140 or more wounded.

At best, though, that tells only half the story. The other half is that Israeli authorities--it isn’t yet clear up to what level--let themselves be provoked and manipulated into a tragic use of force that has sent waves of political anger rippling around the world.

Neutral observers report that the rioting began when Arabs on the Temple Mount, site of the Al Aksa and Dome of the Rock mosques, began raining rocks down on Jewish worshipers at the Western Wall, Judaism’s holiest site.

Palestinian spokesmen say this was in response to rumors that a tiny group of Jewish zealots was again preparing to actively assert a religious claim to the land occupied by the mosques. This group, which aspires to build a Third Temple on the Islamic holy site, has been enjoined by Israel’s supreme court from activities on the Temple Mount. At the time the stone-throwing began the group was not in evidence.

There’s no question that Israeli police had to act vigorously to protect the peaceful holiday worshipers at the Wall, who without warning found themselves under attack. What authorities did not have to do was so quickly escalate their riot control measures to the level of deadly force.

The Israeli response has been condemned at the United Nations, by Washington, the European Community, Moscow and others as a deplorable overreaction.

It is also something that has played directly into the hands of Iraq’s Saddam Hussein, who for months has sought to link his cause with the Palestinians’ in an effort to dilute Arab opposition to his aggression. Part of this attempt has involved trying to portray his face-off with much of the rest of the world as a test of Islamic religious loyalties and political solidarity.

So far he has made little progress. The Temple Mount incident, with its explosive religious connotations, could change that. Assuming that it was not spontaneous, that may well have been its main motivation. If the incident was a trap, Israel fell right in. It has hurt itself, certainly, and in the process it may also have weakened the cohesiveness of the anti-Iraq coalition.