Diplomatic efforts by the United States paid off today, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat agreed to come to Washington, DC, to try to mend the latest tear in the fragile fabric of peace. King Hussein of Jordan will attend the emergency meetings, scheduled to begin on Tuesday. Gaby Rado of ITN reports on today's events, and Jim Lehrer a Palestinian-American professor, an Israeli journalist and an American diplomat about the prospects for peace.

GABY RADO: The group of Jewish activists called the Temple Mount Faithful felt they had something to celebrate in front of the much disputed exit from the western wall tunnel this morning. The tunnel was still open, despite the risk of further violence and the threat to the Washington summit from Yasser Arafat. Just a few dozen yards away from them the Temple Mount to which the group is faithful, crowned with the Muslim shrines many religious Jews resent.

Near the Dome of the Rock from which Mohammed is said to have descended to heaven, blood stains from one of the three Arab victims of last Friday's confrontation with Israeli troops. Religious conflict has never been higher in Jerusalem. It's brought to a head all the resentment building up through the summer on the Palestinian side.

HANNAN ASHRAWI, Educ. Min., Palestine National Authority: Israel has been resorting to military language, to the language of threats, and attempting to impose its will through force, through violence. We think that all these issues ought to be addressed in order to make sure that the summit is receiving in the proper direction with the right attitude and the correct context.

GABY RADO: Thousands of Jews poured into the square in front of the western or wailing wall today for the annual blessing by Israel's hereditary tribe of priests. Above them on the tense line between Jewish and Muslim centers of worship, the unusually visible presence of the Israeli army, ensuring no trouble broke out. Their government claims the Palestinians are using religious grievances as a political leader.

EHUD OLMERT, Mayor of Jerusalem: I think Arafat is interested much more and other issues, and he wants to force the government to make concessions. There is a pattern of negotiations which was agreed upon. We were ready to start this last week. He canceled it. We are ready to come to Washington. He hesitates to go. We are ready to meet any place anytime and sit and talk. If he wants to resort to violence again, I think this is something that has to be registered by everyone.

GABY RADO: Jerusalem is the most sensitive issue in the peace process and was due to be dealt with at the very end, and Temple Mount is the most sensitive part of Jerusalem. Yet Yehuda Etzion feels so strongly about the Jews' right to rebuild their temple on the place where the mosques now stand that he's been imprisoned for his activities and is still banned from the old city.

YEHUDA ETZION, Jewish Religious Activist: I cannot think when this mosque will, will be taken out and how. This I cannot say for this moment, but the principle is sure, like I'm sure that I'm a Jew. We shall come back and take the--in the temple mount, and then, uh, we shall be accepted by God.

GABY RADO: Temple Mount is under Muslim religious control because of an Israeli decision made after the Six Day War of 1967. The late Moshe Diam, war hero and then defense minister, removed his shoes in the Islamic shrines and promised that the status quo would remain. The Mount's present administrators fear that agreement is now under threat.

ADNAN HUSSEINI, Islamic Director, Temple Mount: If we are there in this place here due to a decision from God, in the Holy Book, it means that the others respect this and should understand the message of God, that we should be here. If somebody wants to speak about 2,000 years before in old ideas, then this will never work--from religious point of view or from actual point of view.