At a meeting of his security Cabinet on July 24, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu convinced his ministers to support the removal of the metal detectors that had just been installed at the Temple Mount compound entrance. Once that was done, he immediately set to work minimizing the damage the decision had done to his image.
It was Netanyahu who first pushed to install the metal detectors within hours of the deadly July 14 attack on the Temple Mount that left two policemen dead. The move was ostensibly intended to increase security at the contentious site, but it was also a way of declaring Israeli sovereignty over all parts of Jerusalem. He made the decision despite warnings from the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and Shin Bet that it would lead to a fresh eruption of violence.
Even when there were signs that the metal detectors were provoking the Muslim world and that a new round of violence seemed imminent, Netanyahu refused to renege on his decision. With HaBayit HaYehudi ministers breathing down his neck and warning him not to relent, Netanyahu couldn’t allow himself to blink, even when faced with riots on the Temple Mount and demonstrations throughout the Arab world.
On the night of July 21, a Palestinian attacker butchered three members of the Salomon family in the Halamish settlement. By then, it was clear that the clash over the metal detectors was starting to spiral out of control. Netanyahu went right up to the edge as he maneuvered between security considerations and politics, mainly his struggle with HaBayit HaYehudi Chairman Naftali Bennett over leadership of the right.
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