Fall-out of the Maher crush

By Jill McGivering BBC world affairs analyst

Questions will be asked following the incident

This was not the way Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher's landmark visit to Israel was supposed to end.

The television images of the foreign minister being half carried, ashen faced, rescued from an angry crowd in Jerusalem were highly undignified.

The incident is likely to cause political embarrassment for everyone, from Egypt to the Israeli Government, who worked hard to persuade Cairo to send a top ranking official, the first in Israel for more than two years.

It is just as embarrassing in a different way for the Palestinian authorities.

The unruly group of protesters were angry Palestinians, apparently incensed by Mr Maher's public rapprochement with Israel.

Key site

Their insults included a shouted allegation that Mr Maher was co-operating with killers and was not welcome in one of Islam's holiest sites.

The al-Aqsa Mosque is the third most holy site in Islam

Their fury and aggression will do little for the Palestinians' image.

Senior leaders have already tried to distance themselves from what happened, issuing thorough condemnations of the attack.

Now the political post mortem will begin. Why, for example, did the Israeli authorities let Mr Maher visit a site as sensitive as Jerusalem's al-Aqsa Mosque, just hours after presenting him to television cameras as a newly-restored friend of Israel and following a series of high profile meetings with their president, prime minister and foreign minister?

Chaos

The area around the mosque - the Temple Mount or Haram al-Sharif - is sacred to both Jews and Muslims and notoriously controversial.

It was Ariel Sharon's visit here three years ago which sparked riots which developed into the current intifada.

The mosque visit may have been a gesture to the Palestinians

Given the sensitivities, if Mr Maher insisted on the visit, why was he not better protected by security?

The television pictures show scenes of utter chaos inside the mosque as Mr Maher's security guards fail to extricate him from the hostile crowd, until Israeli police finally rush in and help.

Why too did Mr Maher plan the visit at all? So far there has been no explanation.

It is possible he was trying to make a conciliatory gesture towards the Palestinians because he was not planning to meet Palestinian leaders during Monday's visit.

If he had tried to meet the Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, his meetings with Israeli leaders would have become politically impossible.

If that were the thinking, the gesture clearly was not received as Egypt hoped.

Small group

It now seems that, despite the initial scare, Mr Maher was not badly injured, if at all.

If his condition had been worse, the political consequences might have been too.

Once the embarrassment of the dramatic scenes fades, the final post mortem might not be severe.

This was, after all, an angry reaction from a small group of Palestinians.

It is not likely to have a serious impact on the political trends hailed earlier in the day - the rebuilding of Israel's diplomatic relationship with Egypt and attempts to get the stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace plan back on track.