Likud leadership candidate Uzi Landau intends to visit the Temple Mount over the holidays, a sour…

The Palestinians used the September 28, 2000 Temple Mount visit by then-opposition leader Ariel Sharon as an excuse for what they call the Al-Aksa Intifada. Thirty policemen were injured that day when Palestinians rioted on the Mount to protest the visit. Landau will also visit other sites in eastern Jerusalem, in an attempt to attract attention to his campaign and gain on Sharon and former prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu in the Likud leadership race. Landau hopes to take advantage of Netanyahu’s drop in the polls after the former finance minister was blamed for the failure to advance the Likud primary last Monday. A poll published in Haaretz over the weekend found for the first time that if Sharon leaves the Likud, Landau would defeat Netanyahu and become Likud chairman. According to the poll, 37.2 percent of Likud members would vote for Landau, 29.1% for Netanyahu, 22.8% said they did not know and 10.8% said they would vote for neither. A source close to Sharon said a couple of months ago that the ideal situation for the prime minister would be for Landau to win the Likud leadership and allow Sharon to get elected prime minister easily with a new party. A Sharon associate responded on Saturday night that it would not be illegal for Landau to visit the site. Landau will convene supporters for a Rosh Hashana toast in Karmiel on Sunday, while Netanyahu will do the same at the Carlton Hotel in Tel Aviv. Sharon, who spent the weekend resting with his family on his Negev ranch, will hold a toast with his staff at the Prime Minister’s Office. Interior Minister Ophir Paz-Pines said Landau visiting the site would be a provocation. He said he hopes that Internal Security Minister Gideon Ezra and Police Inspector-General Moshe Karadi prevent the visit. BPI-info