Very Bad Indeed

This would be very bad:

Israel's Interior Minister warned today of a "high risk" of an attack by Jewish extremists against Islamic holy places on Temple Mount or against Muslims there.

"The risk of Jewish extremists and fanatics committing an attack against Temple Mount or the faithful in this most sacred place for Islam has never been so high," Tsahi Hanegbi said.

Such an attack would have the aim of sabotaging Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's plan to pull out of the Gaza Strip by "provoking a chain reaction", he said on Israel's second television channel.

"We have a considerable amount of disquieting information according to which it is not only academic ideas but concrete projects."

Very bad indeed. Some reference here. It's not that such threats or plots are without precedent-- hardly. It's more a matter of the world, at this particular point in time, having been primed for the worst of all possible ramifications should there be such an attack.There's been, too, threats against Sharon's and other official's lives. The Israelis are taking proactive measures, preventative arrests of figures in the ulta-right wing settler movements and such.

A succesful destructive attack on the Dome of the Rock, by Jewish extremists seeking to establish the long yearned for third Temple on the Temple Mount would mean, simply, holy war. Of the 'all bets are off' variety. The truly shuddering thing is how perfectly this plays in to Dispensationalist Christianity as well, which is, as you know, currently the primary detrmining factor in American foreign policy and military action abroad. God help us all.

[Update] There's a more recent post on the subject here.