Let's ignore the paganism of millions of people going on pilgrimage to Mecca to throw stones at three effigies of the devil. Before Yom Kippur, after all, some pious Jews ring a chicken's neck around their heads three times: "This is my substitute, my vicarious offering, my atonement; this cock (or hen) shall meet death, but I shall find a long and pleasant life of peace." The chicken is then given to the poor for their meal before the fast. Which, apropos nothing actually, reminds me of the old Jewish joke: "When a poor Jew eats chicken, either the chicken is sick or the Jew is sick." I don't really know much about the haj. But I do know that it has been shadowed by tragedies. A year ago January 12, Hassan Fatah (who also used to write quite frequently for TNR) published an article in the Times about two stampedes that had taken place during the previous five days during that year's pilgrimage. In one of them 345 pilgrims had been killed; in the other, 76. Two years prior, 245 faithful were trampled to death. The course of this religious journey is long, twisting and narrow. Saudi Arabia has an engineering team working constantly to modify the dangerous points on the trek. Now Mecca is Islam's holiest site. And, we are told, Jerusalem is Islam's third holiest site. No matter that it was ignored for centuries by Muslims. Its importance waxed and waned according to the politics of the day: When Jerusalem was governed by Christians, as after 1917, and by Jews now, it became very significant. When it was in Muslim hands, it was a backwater. But, as I said, no matter. There is also the question of how sacred it is to the Shi'a. After all, they have their own holy sites ... in Iraq. Comparatively, very few people actually make a pilgrimage to Al Aqsa in Jerusalem. But the Noble Sanctuary is frequented regularly by the Arab locals--in the tens of thousands every Friday. And there are Jews who visit the Temple Mount, which is also sacred to them since it is exactly where stood Solomon's sanctuary and also the one sacked by the Romans in 70 C.E. And, as surely as Mohammed flew to heaven on his white steed from this very place, it is also where Abraham was tested by God over the sacrifice of his son Isaac (the Akedah). Many people come, even just ordinary tourists. There are several entrances to the place. One vaults down from the Mugrabi (Moroccan) Gate into a plaza facing the Western Wall, undeniably the Jewish people's most cherished place. I am not religious, but I know the awe and trepidation that overwhelms me when I go to it. This is a tiny area. Unfortunately, many of mankind's deepest convictions were born there. After all, almost adjacent is the Via Dolorosa. A few years ago the angular approach to the mount cracked (if I'm not mistaken, because of a snowfall!)--though there was very little serious damage. Some repair was done. But the bridge loping over the Wall was still very precarious. Imagine if it were actually to collapse, causing not even a big death happening like at Mecca but a modest accident, say, a dozen people dead and 30 injured. You know what would happen. There would be demonstrations and denunciations all over the Muslim world accusing Israel of not taking proper care of the Temple Mount and its entrances and egresses. Of endangering the lives of the faithful. Even Jordan's King Abdullah would protest, and Egypt. Malaysia and Indonesia. Of course, Iran. The League of Arab States. The State Department would demand clarification. And, of course, the Palestinians, would demonstrate and riot and threaten a Third Intifada. But although there has been no such terrible accident at the Mugrabi Gate, this is exactly what has happened. From the worldwide protest in the Islamic orbit all the way to the Palestinian threat of a Third Intifada. And it is, in fact, precisely because the Israelis took the necessary steps to prevent just such a misfortune that the Islamic orbit has gone into delirium. Here basically are the charges: that Israel wants to imperil the stability of Al Aqsa and the Dome of the Rock, that this remedial construction (actually outside the perimeters of the Mount) is precisely undermining the balance of the Muslim holy places, that this is just one step in the Jewish design to replace the sacred sites of Islam with a newly built Third Temple, and so on and on. This is "the lethal Al Aqsa plot," as described in YNetNews as the century old Zionist campaign to destroy the Islamic presence on the mountain. Another article in the February 11 YNetNews claims that the "westernization of Israeli Arabs" has blunted the ferocity of the Muslim conspiracy fantasy. But Israeli Arabs are not exactly Palestinians. Just a few days after returning from Mecca with a flimsy cease fire among themselves, the Palestinian leadership rushed to denounce the Israeli plot against Islam. Now, presumably having received cash to lubricate their deal with each other, both Fatah and Hamas have a fresh causus belli against Israel. And they have a fresh causus belli even though, as Uzi Benziman (who himself actually disapproves of the repairs) pointed out in Ha'aretz, "the work is being done outside of the Temple Mount compound; its purpose is to replace the temporary bridge .. with a more stable and permanent one: it was reported ahead of time to the Waqf (the Muslim religious trust) ... it is a decision made by the prime minister after consulting the relevant professionals ... " etc, etc. None of this matters. What matters is the ongoing war. With Jerusalem at its center, and the irrelevance of the Jews to the history of the city a suffusing trope. Read, for example, Nadav Shragai's article, "Digs, Lies and the Mugrabi bridge," in Sunday's Ha'aretz.The Arabs will believe anything, including that the Al Aqsa mosque was built at the dawn of creation. Which means not only that the Jews are expelled from history but the Romans and the Christians, too. In fact, if the Temple was not there, how could Jesus have chased the money-changers from it?