Since the Six-Day War, Israel has waged a religious-political dispute with Islam about the Temple Mount against two "local" players: Jordan and the Palestinians. The entry of an allegedly radical Islamic entity like Turkey into the Mugrabi ascent question signals to those two entities, who have not contributed to calming the crisis, that Israel has options.

Turkey, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and essentially the entire Muslim world protested when Israel, at different times, gave the Jordanians or the Palestinians status on the mount, arguing that the Temple Mount is a pan-Islamic issue.

When Israel negotiated about the Temple Mount with Yasser Arafat at Camp David, the Muslim world attacked him with unprecedented vehemence and asked him, "Who gave you the right?" When the Israel-Jordan peace treaty determined that Israel "grant high priority to the historic Jordanian role in the Islamic holy sites in Jerusalem," many Muslim countries protested.

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In both those instances, the Muslim world sought to make Israel realize that the Temple Mount was not a private matter. Until now, Israel has ignored that: A Libyan delegation did visit the Al-Aqsa Mosque several years ago, Egyptian president Anwar Sadat visited the Temple Mount and carpets donated by the King of Morocco serve as prayer mats in the mosque. But the major "treats" were given to Jordan and the Palestinians according to Israeli interests.

Allowing the Turks a kind of "supervision" over the construction at the Mugrabi ascent, in order to ensure that they do not undermine the foundations of al Aqsa, is not really anything new. Anyone who installs Webcams, as Israel has done, has nothing to conceal.

Nonetheless, this opens the door to involvement on the part of additional Islamic countries in the permanent solution for the mount. In his days in the Foreign Ministry, Shimon Peres suggested a multi-national religious administration that would include representatives of Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Morocco, the Palestinian Authority, Israel and the Vatican to manage the Old City's holy sites. Turkey was not in the picture then but now Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is waving Ankara at the Palestinians and the Jordanians in an effort to calm the eruption.