Three times a day, observant Jews pray for the restoration "speedily in our days" of the Jewish Temple that was destroyed by the Romans in A.D. 70.
The 35-acre site has long been occupied by some of Islam's most sacred houses of worship, and most Israelis have reconciled themselves to waiting.Extremists, however, are actively trying to realize the dream of rebuilding the Jewish Temple, and their actions have heightened tensions that could have repercussions throughout the Arab world.
Skirmishes broke out in Jerusalem recently when stone-throwing Arabs protested the first attempt by Israeli Jews to rebuild.
About 80 Jewish militants of the Temple Mount Faithful tried to bring in a three-ton cornerstone for a temple near the sacred Western Wall in Jerusalem's Old City, the last remnant of the temple torn down by the Romans.
Police prevented the cornerstone ceremony, but the attempt ignited riots by Palestinian students in a school just outside the walls of the Old City. Five policemen were injured by stones and 14 Palestinians were wounded by rubber bullets.
"We need to end the Arab occupation of Israel in Jerusalem and especially on the Temple Mount, which is very holy for us," said Gershon Salomon.
Salomon, who founded the Temple Mount Faithful shortly after Israel captured the Temple Mount in the 1967 Six-Day War, vowed in an interview to continue his efforts to lay the cornerstone and start rebuilding.
Another sign of increased movement toward realizing plans for a new temple was the holding of the first conference on temple research. It brought about 350 enthusiasts to the headquarters of the chief rabbinate, where the two top Israeli rabbis of the Ashkenazi and Sephardi branches of Judaism are based.
"If we do not prepare and show God that we want a temple, then God won't give it to us," said Zev Golan, spokesman for the Temple Institute which sponsored the conference.
The institute is using a computer to draw up blueprints for rebuilding the temple as an exact replica of the one destroyed by the Romans.
For the past two years, it has also been making replicas of temple vessels and priestly garments although Golan said his organization has no timetable or no plans to oust the Moslems.
At least one yeshiva seminary is training clergy for priestly rituals in the temple, which was first built by King Solomon and destroyed by the Babylonians in 587 B.C. It was rebuilt by King Herod and torn down again by the Romans.
Orthodox Jews pray daily for a third temple: "May it be thy will Lord God, God of our fathers, that the temple be rebuilt speedily in our days."
The problem for builders is that the site of the temple has been occupied for more than 1,300 years by the golden capped Dome of the Rock, a shrine marking the spot where Moslems believe the Prophet Mohammed ascended to heaven.
Nearby is the Al Aqsa mosque, where Mohammed arrived on his journey from Mecca. It is the holiest Islamic site after Mecca and Medina.
"The temple was built on the ground of the Dome of the Rock. There is almost no debate," said Menahem Ben Yashar, a professor of Old Testament studies at Bar Ilan University near Tel Aviv.
Palestinian leaders say any Israeli move to alter the status quo, under which Jews are forbidden to even pray on the Temple Mount, is certain to provoke bloodshed.