I was looking at some of the live video taken this morning at the Temple Mount, and the Palestinians look like nothing more than actors, playing their roles.
Here are some kids who created a makeshift "barricade," with Israeli troops nowhere in sight. One has a soccer ball. Old men (and reporters) are watching as the audience.
And in this video, one of the "worshipers" is literally dancing.
They have actors, they have props, they have an audience, they have a stage.
It's all a game - and part of the game is to provoke the Israeli police to injure people so they can create headlines about how awful they are.
The violence this morning at the Temple Mount was the direct result of false rumors and lies spread by the Palestinians. I had reported on the incessant rumors in the Arab world that Jews are planning to slaughter sheep to bring the Paschal sacrifice on the Temple Mount.
This is all because of a fringe Temple Mount activist who advertised that he would pay anyone for smuggling a sheep and slaughtering it. 
The police on the Temple Mount look for prayer books carried by Jews - no one is smuggling a sheep past them.
The instigator, who is not al all respected in the larger community of Jews who want to have equal rights on the Mount, also played a role in this play - to get in the headlines and provoke violence.
Because the PLO, the PA, Hamas and other groups hapily took the bait for their own roles in the play as "defenders of Al Aqsa," Israel's Prime Minister Bennett publicly denied that Israel was going to allow any sacrifices or any change to the status quo.
The denials were widely published in Arabic media - but that hadn't stopped the warnings and incitement.
Because the play must go on.
Yesterday there were calls for "worshipers" to be in position to "defend Al Aqsa," so they brought their masks and rocks and slings and even fire extinguishers.
Only one problem: they had no Jews or police to create dramatic tension.
Jews aren't allowed on the Mount on Fridays. The police didn't plan on being on the scene.
Therefore, the Arab actors dragged them onto the scene, by throwing rocks and fireworks onto Jewish worshippers at the Kotel below. Even though the Israeli police didn't want to enter the Mount, this could not be allowed to continue. So they were dragged into the production as well to play their roles.
And the media plays its role as well, by ignoring the fact that they are reporting on something that is wholly fictional, based on false rumors, created by people who want to create a conflict and feel famous and relevant.
Because whose egos are bigger than that of actors?
