PERSPECTIVE| FES ISRAEL A National or Religious Conflict? The Dispute over the Temple Mount / Al-Haram Al-Sharif in Jerusalem MOSHE MA’OZ April 2015 n There is a danger that Arabs and Jews, the children of Abraham, are becoming in­creasingly engaged in a religious conflict. The major focus of this conflict is the Tem­ple Mount/Al-Haram Al-Sharif and East Jerusalem/Al-Quds Al-Sharif. Amalgamated with nationalist and political components of the Arab-Israeli dispute, this conflict also derives from two opposed processes: growing Islamic Judeophobia in the Arab and Muslim world, on the one hand; and accelerated Jewish Islamophobia in Israel and the diaspora, on the other. n Top Israeli and Palestinian leaders, eager to score political gains, have not put an end to these dangerous phenomena. Mahmud Abbas, President of the Palestinian Authority, is not in a position to curb his people’s anger and frustration regarding alleged Jewish intentions to destroy the Al-Aqsa mosque. Israeli Prime Minister Ben­yamin Netanyahu and other right-wing Israeli leaders continue to use the Jewish sanctity of the Temple Mount to garner public support. n Given this situation, the new Israeli government must negotiate with the Palestinian Authority and the Arab League, and arrive at an agreed solution. The United States and the European Union should induce the relevant parties to settle their differ­e­ n­ces, particularly over the issue of the Temple Mount / Al-Haram Al-Sharif. Otherwise, a bloody Muslim-Jewish conflict may spread globally, especially in European coun­tries. Thus, these countries have a special interest in promoting peaceful dialogues among their Muslim and Jewish citizens.