ISRAELI surveyors, in quite possibly a bulldozer or a tractor or two, are today set to make their first marks on the rocky hillsides of Har Homa, and there is no telling what the consequences may be for Israel, for the Palestinians, or for the peace accords they have strained to follow these past 3 1/2 years.
The army and the intelligence services have warned the Israeli Prime Minister, Mr Benjamin Netanyahu, that violent Palestinians demonstrations are likely to erupt the moment the bulldozers start preparing the ground for what is planned as a 6,500 home Jewish neighbourhood. Palestinian hospitals are on alert.
Residents have been urged not to bring in non urgent cases for treatment, and some patients have been discharged early. There are reports of people in nearby Bethlehem hoarding food.
An Israeli newspaper claimed yesterday that the Palestinian President, Mr Yasser Arafat, last week gave a "green light" to the Islamic extremists of Hamas and other Palestinian rejectionist groups to renew their attacks on Israeli targets, and recently freed a key Hamas militant from jail.
The army is on high alert forces permanently deployed at the site itself, and reinforced at all the sensitive points of friction between the West Bank and Israel.
Spurred on by King Hussein, the Israelis and the Palestinians did hold various meetings yesterday, and efforts were still being made last night to arrange an Arafat Netanyahu meeting that might head off an explosion over Har Homa.
Negotiators worked out the fine print of a deal permitting Mr Arafat and his nearest and dearest to take off and land at the new Gaza airport, they discussed the opening of a Gaza sea port, and they talked about arrangements' for a long overdue "safe passage" route between Gaza and the West Bank.
But on the issue of Har Homa, there was no discussion. Mr Netanyahu, rallying his coalition colleagues to safely defeat an opposition motion of no confidence in his government, declared, himself "ready to stand up to any threat," to defy the world if necessary, in his determination to build.
"If we can't stand up to threats on Jerusalem, we can't stand up to threats on anything," he added.
Mr Arafat, hosting King Hussein's brother, Crown Prince Hassan, in Gaza, reiterated his charge that the building project on ground known in Arabic as Jabal Abu Ghneim, is a major violation of the peace accords.
The prince was carrying "an important message" from the king - reportedly a plea to Mr Arafat to try to prevent a new flare up of conflict.
The Palestinians' key Jerusalem official, Mr Faisal al Husseini, was spending last night in a protest tent near the site, the Palestinian flag fluttering from the roof. "The Israelis," said Mr Husseini, "are not free to do whatever they want in this area."
But the Israeli bulldozers were parked in readiness barely a kilometre away. "All I need is three four hours start to get the tractors up and running," said the Har Homa construction foreman, Mr Sasson Shem-Tov, "once I get the permit."