THE NEW AL AKSA PROPAGANDA

HAARETZ: Abbas: Dig near Al-Aqsa Mosque likely to endanger peace efforts

Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas on Tuesday said that Israeli excavation works near the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem were likely to endanger regional peace efforts, Israel Radio reported. Abbas added that the excavations demonstrated Israel's intentions to destroy holy Islamic sites, according to the radio.

Jordan's King Abdullah II on Tuesday said the excavation has led to a dangerous rise in Middle East tensions and could derail the revival of Arab-Israeli peace talks. "What Israel is doing in its practices and attacks against our sacred Muslim sites in Jerusalem and al-Aqsa is a blatant violation that is not acceptable under any pretext," the monarch was quoted by the state news agency Petra as saying. "These measures will only create an atmosphere that will not at all help in the success of efforts being undertaken to restore the peace process," the monarch said. "This is a dangerous escalation we have seen in the last few hours ... these works and excavations pose a threat to the foundations of al-Aqsa," he added.

Police on Tuesday arrested four Muslim worshippers who threw stones at the Israel Antiquities Authority excavation underneath Mugrabi gate in Jerusalem's Old City.

The dig is part of a plan to rebuild the Mugrabi bridge walkway planned to run from the Dung gate to the Mugrabi gate, which serves as the primary entrance to the compound referred to by Jews as the Temple Mount and Muslims as al-Haram al-Sherif, the Noble Sanctuary. The digging will use smaller excavating tools, and will be supervised by a team of archaeologists. The excavations are intended to strengthen the support columns of the Mugrabi bridge.

THIS COMPLAINT IS UTTER BS. IMHO: It is a pretext for launching another intifada - as a way of uniting Hamas and Fatah. (The Sharon visit was similarly a bogus pretext for a long-planned jihadoterrorist offensive.)

MORE ON THE "SO-CALLED AL AKSA MOSQUE" HERE.