Aryeh Deri, former leader of the ultra-orthodox Shas party in Israel, addressed right-wing Jewish activists on Sunday, warning them that attempts to enter Temple Mount en masse could lead to violent retaliation from Muslim countries, and that any human intervention in the rebuilding of the Temple, and thus the process of redemption and the hastening of the Messianic era, was a transgression of the Torah’s prohibition on entering the area in an impure state. The rebuilding of the Temple must be left to God, said Deri, but told the protesting settlers to hold out for the chance that the Messiah might come quickly to redeem them, and “‘Then we won’t have to leave Gush Katif at all.'”