Haaretz reports that 5 Jews arrested for planning to attack the Temple Mount. Four of the men charged apparently were plotting to launch an anti-tank missile at the Temple Mount, while the other one was detained "over an alleged plan to fly a model aircraft fitted with a camera over the Mount and over Arab population areas as a provocation." All five men were released from detention. The intention seems to have been to provoke a renewed intifada and stall the planned disengagement from Gaza.

This is very scary - what I don't understand is why these people were released from detention. Surely, if they had been Palestinians threatening Jews, they would not be "freed with limitations," and not face charges "on the grounds that they had been unable to implement their plan and had decided not to carry it out." Doesn't that suggest that they might try to figure out some other way to implement their plans. The police and Shin Bet also said "there was not enough evidence to charge them." When has that stopped the police and Shin Bet when it comes to Palestinian threats to Israeli security?

The reactions by two right-wing MKs also strike me as very peculiar responses to the arrests:

In response to the reports, MK Uri Ariel (National Union) said, "This is a clear attempt to stain a loyal and law-abiding community struggling justly and fairly for its values."

The chairman of the National Union Knesset faction, Zvi Hendel, accused the Shin Bet of planting an agent provocateur, as it had done with Avishai Raviv prior to the assassination of prime minister Yitzhak Rabin.

Does Uriel really think that planning to lob an anti-tank missile at the Temple Mount is part of a "just struggle"? And what does Hendel mean by accusing the Shin Bet of planting an agent provocateur. Who is the provocateur in this case?

I certainly hope the Shin Bet is keeping an eye on these men and their associates!