The day was Friday, the time shortly after noon. Prayer services had just ended at the al-Aqsa mosque on Jerusalem's Temple Mount, one of the holiest sites for both Islam and Judaism. As several hundred young men streamed out of the mosque, the shouts began. "There is no God but Allah!" "Allah is great!" The banned red-black-and-green Palestinian flag was raised, and Israeli and American banners burned. A thousand Israeli police, stationed there in case trouble broke out, began firing tear gas to disperse the crowd. But they were driven back by a shower of rocks and broken concrete.
For the...