Israel Palestinian Peace Must be Around the Corner

 

We have heard things must be prepared to fall into place and negotiations resume with an end clearly in sight. How can this not be as President Obama has made a slight aside to distract those opposing him by claiming he doubted any progress could be made before he leaves office. Don’t let this fool anyone; he still has his eyes on a second Nobel Peace Prize by forcing peace on Israel no matter how much of Israel he will need to destroy before stepping down next January. Throwing his weight into the mix is another man facing a lackluster career as Secretary General of the United Nations Ban Ki-Moon has thrown his support behind Palestinian terror giving his understanding of the frustration having forced their acts of wanton murder of Israelis (read Jews). He preceded that with throwing a hissy fit because Israel had not taken whatever was demanded of them and had not resumed the peace talks with Mahmoud Abbas. Ban Ki-Moon was probably daydreaming about Pope Francis when he prayed at a carefully chosen segment of the anti-terror barrier near Bethlehem which had painted in English its comparison with the wall around the Warsaw Ghetto. The montage below is just a sample of the numerous pictures taken and released with who knows how many other pictures were given to the numerous NGOs which do their best to ravage Israel around the world in the many media outlets. This is the very Pope Francis who praised arch terror master and financial procurer for the Munich Olympics terrorist murders of Israeli Olympic team members Mahmoud Abbas as an Angel of Peace when hosting him at the Vatican, probably the most horrific mischaracterization in modern history.

 

With the visions of Pope Francis, the status and media availability at the beck and call of United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon seeking his legacy and the other leader in search of a legacy and President of the United States Barack Obama all focusing laser-like glares at Israel demanding that they do whatever their darling, Mahmoud Abbas, demands of them to make peace at long last. They claim simply by returning to the boundaries of the 1949 Armistice Lines, the Green Line, and the removal of those infernal settlers and make the land pristine and devoid of any Zionist menace to threaten Palestinians into committing terrorist acts and allow the formation of Palestine. What could go wrong and defeat the efforts of such monumental efforts pressing Israel and aiding Mahmoud Abbas and the long stricken and stateless Palestinian Arabs whose existence without a state of their own has gone on longer than can be measured. What is insane is that is actually a true statement as it was that in 1770 the British colonists in the Americas along the Atlantic Ocean who were demanding their own nation too had waited to establish their nation since the beginning of time. These two peoples had something in common, neither had ever had a nation of their own and any claim they were making was to establish a nation on lands which had an aboriginal peoples already living on them. The American colonists were sharing lands sort of with the Native American Indians and the Arab Palestinians are sitting on lands which sole surviving aboriginal people which are the Jewish descendants of the Tribes of Judah and Benyamin and their surviving priests of the tribe of the Levites which included the Levites and the Kohanim. The reason the surviving Israelites are called Jews is because after having lost of the Ten Tribes of Israel after they were taken into captivity and enslavement by the Assyrians and then nothing as they assimilated or moved to the fringes of the Assyrian Kingdoms and then beyond seemingly lost to the rest of the remaining Israelites until recent times. The southern Kingdom which resisted the assaults of the Assyrians and eventually fell to the Babylonians and were freed and allowed to return and build the Second Temple by Cyrus the Great of the Persians as he conquered the Babylonians setting the Judeans and the remaining members of the priesthood and the tribe of Benyamin who reestablished Judea which lasted until the Roman dispersion. The Judeans were referred to by both the Greek Empire and the Roman Empire thereafter as Judeans and the slang was to call them Jews, it stuck.

 

 

Montage of Pope Francis Impromptu Stop At the Safety Barrier Near
Bethlehem Where the Pope Prayed Giving the Media Ample Time to
Get the Best Angles Which Gave Voice to Graffiti in English For all the
World to View and Get His Message Of Contempt and Anger Over the Wall

 

 

But little items such as the truth and promises and treaties reached after World War I which redrew the maps of much of the world outside of the Americas, China, Russia, southern and central Africa, and the Far East. The Austria-Hungarian Empire and Ottoman Empire being defeated and this ended the self-rule of the latest version of an Islamic Caliphate and its colonization of the Middle East outside the Arabian Peninsula on across North Africa and into the Balkans and Caucuses around the Black Sea and into Spain where the spreading colonization had lasted an average of 900 to 1250 years replacing numerous indigenous self-ruling nations by force of arms. The average of 30 to 50 years of colonialization by European powers are constantly scorned for their sins of colonialism and slavery. The slavery trade by the Islamic societies long predated the Modern European period of slavery (post Roman Europe). If all of history were to be used to measure some of what modern Western society has judged to be vile and hateful activities are now used by the very societal descendants of those who had committed the sins of slavery and colonization long before, during and even after the Western nations and societies had relegated such practices to the dustbin of history.

 

Still, despite the promises of the League of Nations, the allies met and reached a solution referred to as the Mandate System to assist in the formation of two separate states for Arabs under two leaders and societies, a Christian homeland and a Jewish homeland out of the French and British Mandates. That Jewish State was to border the Christian State of Lebanon on the north, Egypt at the meeting point of the Sinai Peninsula and the Negev Desert and Jordan at the Jordan River. After the War of Annihilation by over a half-dozen Arab militaries starting the morning of Israeli existence with the genocide of the Jews and other non-Muslims as well as any Muslims who refused to join in murdering the infidels as its battle plan. The entire operation was expected to take days, maybe a couple of weeks to completely destroy these weak and inferior Jewish upstarts. The Arabs were coaxed by the Mufti of Jerusalem Amin al-Husseini to leave their homes and farms and join behind the massing Arab armies in camps for a few days and then they could return and share in the plunder of the Jew’s homes and other assets along with the invading conquerors of Arab armies. Something went wrong and the Jews, while losing lands did not lose entirely and remained on the lands the Arab armies were unable to conquer and built the State of Israel. Gaza was held by Egypt, the Golan Heights by Syria, and Judea and Samaria (West Bank) by Jordan. These lands belonged to the originating state of Israel and were the initial lands held by Israel on the morning that the Arab armies invaded and initially pushed the Jews before them until the Jews finally stopped the initial thrust and over the next year and a half the Israelis initially held the line and finally began to make headway gaining back the lands she had lost and that is when the world set the date when the fighting would end and an armistice line formed. Had the Israelis never had started pushing the Arab armies into retreats the war would have been allowed to continue in the knowledge that the Jews would eventually lose due to attrition as they would slowly be killed until a tipping point was reached where the numbers of defenders would leave the only solution a routing and annihilation of the Jews and their nascent state. The Jews winning would become a familiar point where every Arab Israeli war would be stopped.

 

But fear not as Pope Francis will likely assist as he is capable while United States President Obama and Secretary General Ki-Moon will combine their powers and efforts and press Netanyahu to get the peace process started or else they will make terms for settling this dispute finally and once and for all. They will demand that Netanyahu and the Israelis do whatever it takes to reach a peace agreement. The word will be they have spoken to President Abbas and he has pledged that he is ready to make peace if Israel and Netanyahu can get past their never ending demands that the Palestinians give up on their homelands and settle for living in Bantus just as the native South Africans were forced to do. Their use of the same word, Bantus, for the settlement areas they agreed upon in the Oslo Accords. But if one were to be honest, they would have paid attention to the demands and maps used by the Arab leaders of the Palestinian Authority, its predecessor the PLO (Palestinian Liberation Organization), a near universally recognized terrorist organization, and the media and education systems well documented by a number of groups including MEMRI, PMW, and CAMERA. They all document the incitement and demands not for two states but for the eradication of the state of Israel and the genocidal slaughter of every Jew in Israel.

 

The masks are coming off and with only a year to go Ban Ki-Moon will be going full out to repay his masters who awarded him the position of Secretary General for one reason, to rid them of that ugly stain known as Israel and he has skillfully led a United Nations and various sister organizations and NGOs in the expanding of boycotts, divestments and sanctions through their assistance and supportive activities such as the labelling of every possible Jewish historical sites such as Cave of the Patriarchs and Rachel’s Tomb as not belonging to any list of Jewish historical sites as they are in what the United Nations holds are Arab Palestinian lands and within Palestine. President Obama and the United States State department also raised complaints at Israeli insistence that these sites be renovated as Jewish historical sites. What does it matter if these tombs are four thousand years old, they have to be part of the Arab and Palestinian heritage. At the time Secretary of State Clinton was enthusiastic in supporting the Administration and UNESCO and other United Nations groups in the denunciation at this Israeli attempt to steal these Palestinian sites.

 

This will be a fateful year for the continuation or death of the state of Israel. You might think that such a dire existence would make Israelis nervous, worrisome and potentially frantic. You would be wrong as we have much practice at looking impending death in the face; we have been doing it as a peoples for the last three and a half millennia. There have been numerous empires (Roman, Greek, Assyrian, Babylonian, Persian, Egyptian, Spanish, various Caliphs, Wazirs, Emir, Sultan, Kings, Barons, Czars, Communists and you name it), maniacal leaders (Hitler, Stalin, Haman, Ramses and again you name them), and just about everything else you could name such as the Spanish Inquisition, and also from 1315-1326 Emir Ismael Abu-I Walid forced the Jews of Granada to wear a yellow badge. We are familiar with persecution and somehow despite our small numbers throughout history we are still here, we are still vibrant and we are still fulfilling our imposed role in our influence commanded to be as a light unto the nations when we as a people have our own lands as we also serve Hashem and in all things walk humbly with our Lord. Yes, it seems we are facing ever graver threats from all corners. We look around us at those closest who desired our demise and note their worlds are the ones in complete turmoil and unrest while despite our problems and even internal threats and challenges we will persevere and meet the challenges and mitigate the threats, both internal and external, and continue to discover and develop the needs and items for the future of mankind and eventually Hashem will allow us to be rewarded with the arrival of the Messiah, the rewarding time we currently can only dream about as there is more we need to conquer in ourselves before we would even recognize and follow our Messiah should the Messiah arrive tomorrow; bless Hashem.

 

And we did not even get to mention France, the European Union and at least a dozen others willing to give away all of Israel so they will be eaten last.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

The Family that is Israel

 

Friday was a special day as we had family come and visit us making the long trek from southern Israel almost to the northern border where the train tracks end and go no further. We had a slow lunch enjoying good company and pleasant conversation enabled by somewhat relaxed service as the place was crowded and the kitchen was probably a place of ordered confusion. But the leisurely service mostly passed notice as we were lost in conversation with my cousin playing the role of translator since she is fluent in a number of languages, or at least in Hebrew and English, which was all that was required. We also took a strolling paced walk to the shuk and they got some fruits and such for their Shabbat and then had to make the trip home so as to arrive before sunset. This visit made me all the more aware of family and the warmth and closeness one can feel when in their company. There is a serenity mixed with enthusiasm and excitement making for a cacophony of emotions which blend making even diametric opposite coexist in a smooth and yielding blend satisfying the soul. This completeness felt from the all too short, as such pleasantries are always too short, time we were enjoying being together also leaves a lingering warmth and joy that makes one aware of other such relations some of which opens one’s eyes to things which otherwise are missed or simply taken for granted.

 

The next Morning, Shabbat morning, I started my trip, a short walk for most but a strenuous traversal which requires a few rest stops at spots now memorized as suitable, to attend services at the synagogue where my Torah Shiur Rabbi presides and leads the Shabbat service after the initial prayers have been chanted and leading to and performing the reading of the Torah and Haftorah. As my wanderings take me past a few other synagogues and there are other worshippers whose paths cross, we often wish one another a polite, and oft friendly, “Shabbat Shalom” and almost always dotted with a warm smile and a brightened countenance from the exchange. But this was but my initial realization that my view may have changed and become brighter, more optimistic and hopeful. The realization and recognition of this transition came upon my arrival slightly before services were to start as I require that I leave some extra time just in case my strolling pace is less efficient than normal, not to imply my walking speed approaches normal. This cemented the realization that in Israel we really are a family just as Torah teaches.

 

The Synagogue I attend may be graced with a Rabbi who speaks both Hebrew and English but for the large part the congregation speaks only Hebrew. Still, despite our language differences the other congregants treat me with warmth and friendship which came home more today as I was sensitized to see and realize the acceptance which has greeted me honestly from the first service I did partake of a Shabbat morning services there. This got me to thinking and realizing the many people who have become like friends at the various stores where we shop. In every store there are those who have taken the initiative to befriend us and make our lives so much easier and, better yet, warmer. Without these friends our lives would be more difficult, not impossible, but more difficult and far more cold. The difficulty would be overcome with technology, cellphone translation software and the fact that money honestly makes people desire to understand you and for more so in a town with mostly smaller family run stores. But even technology has its limits and life would be far less enjoyable without these wonderful people. Yes, there have been exceptions but even some, if not most, of these more difficult people have come around with time and their realization that we have made Aliyah and truly are here to stay. These people have become our extended family. These people we meet in our weekly ritual of shopping are but one family but there are others.

 

There have been developed groups within the Anglo communities which provide social, religious and study groups which add much to enrich the lives of us from the Anglosphere who have made Aliyah to our little corner of Israel. There are Torah study groups, social events around the Jewish holidays, expeditions to the near countless historic and religious sites which exist throughout Israel and other events which are simply for entertainment such as game nights. Much of this is possible as there are a fair number of Anglos who are retired or work via telecommuting thus giving them the time to shift work around events. But the reality is that despite many of us coming from many completely different backgrounds, completely disparate locations both within the separate nations as well as around the globe as the tentacles of the British Empire reaches into the farthest corners of the planet. The camaraderie is unlike anything I have ever experienced even in other Jewish communities. Probably the closest to the trust, cooperation, acceptance and mutual respect I have found in Israel was the camaraderie in my infantry platoon in the military and even there it was not as universal nor was it as close as the feelings and friendships I have found here. The mutual relations amongst our Anglo community are, as one might expect, made all the more obvious by the brightening of each other’s faces when we run into one another in unexpected meetings during our daily travels. The same bright eyed and extra bounce in their step is evident with those who have befriended my wife and I in the locations where we stop and despite the claim that most Israelis do not know how to treat people, customers, the many people we have met have gone to great extents to provide any and all assistance we have ever needed. But it goes further as even when we run into a problem in a store while shopping and there is no one we know to assist, often out of the blue a customer steps up, often a stranger and other times somebody we barely know, such as somebody we have interacted with during other completely unconnected matters, will step forward and take as long as required to make sure that every and anything required has been done to take care of whatever the problem or requirement you needed. Sometimes this even has the effect of the store or wherever you are, going the extra step and finding what it is you requested even after initially believing they had none in stock, a very surprising but not actually all that unusual case, just was not the reputation of the particular instance we recently experienced.

 

The ultimate test of a society is how they react when a person appears distressed, especially somebody they do not know and likely may not have even ever crossed paths. Suffering, as I do from a disability which often limits my ability to walk distances which are embarrassingly short on my worst days that I often end up sitting on low walls or the benches at bus stops and around town, of which there are numerous as this is a resort location, and I am usually breathing rather hard and sweat rather profusely partially from physical exertion and additionally likely due to the cocktail mix of medications physicians assure us are required for our betterment as they will place our blood tests and other medical tests within their preferred ranges. Needless to say, I make quite a site at times when I am out and around and more often than I may be completely comfortable though I am very appreciative and would probably be more ill at ease if things were the opposite and everybody just passed a person in distress by without any concerns sufficient to stop and offer to help. These good citizens will even seek the assist from another to work as a translator just to make sure you are not in need of medical or other assistance. This would have been a real rarity before I made Aliyah as my limitations are far from something new and I had sufficient opportunities to test the situation before reaching Israel.

 

Many of you are probably wondering if I have lost my mind or is there something towards which I am working and you would be correct. As many of us have been reading here there has been a steadily increasing levels of violence with stabbings, vehicular assaults, rock attacks, Temple Mount rioting replete with assaults on the police and some shootings as well. Further, there have been calls from Hamas for Arabs to start using poison on their knives as well as to start utilizing homicidal suicide bombings. The idea behind the terror assaults, the rocket attacks and every other form of attacks against Israeli citizens and the IDF are intended to accomplish two things, first to chase the Jews out and destroy Israel or second to murder every Jews thus destroying Israel. There is absolutely no desire to actually form an Arab nation called Palestine unless it replaces Israel after which Fatah and Hamas allied with Islamic Jihad will fight to see who gets to rule on their state founded on the corpses of the six-million plus Jews living between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea. Interestingly enough it often appears that the Europeans and the United States State Department and others from all over the globe, as indicated when the General Assembly voted to accord an Arab state of Palestine non-Member Observer State status in the United Nations with one-hundred-thirty-eight in favor and nine against which were Canada, Czech Republic, Israel, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru, Panama, Palau, United States and with forty-one nations abstaining. One-hundred-thirty-eight nations decided to recognize an Arab state which has refused to accept any offer for a state from the initial offer in 1948 to have the lands divided evenly between Israel and an Arab state, and again including a series of times during the last weeks of the Clinton Administration while President Willian Jefferson Clinton worked with Israeli Prime Minister Olmert offering over ninety percent of Judea and Samaria with the remainder covered through land swaps as well as all of Eastern Jerusalem including all of the Old City and the Temple Mount even to include the Western Wall and the plaza before it where Jews currently pray as close as possible to the location of the Holy First and Second Temples on the Temple Mount. Then there was the nineteen years when the lands were occupied by Jordan in Judea and Samaria and Egypt in Gaza when there was no desires, claims, votes at the United Nations or calls about occupation over the presence of Jordan and Egypt in the lands now being recognized by the United Nations as an independent nation with overwhelming accordance.

 

The reason which will stop the aims of Fatah, PA, Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the PLO plus additionally Iran and the Islamic State who have also expressed their desire to destroy the Jewish State of Israel, or the Zionist Entity if one listens to their propaganda, is this family feelings between the majority of Israelis and particularly within the religious Zionist community which has been and continues to gain new adherents every day. Even in Israel there are those in the political classes who are attempting to take whatever they can to prevent the eventual surge in the religious Zionist camp from coming to the forefront and take control of the Knesset and the office of Prime Minister. What has been holding these groups back have been efforts to subvert their rising power in the right wing parties, a conflict here in Israel which might come close to the same resurgence in the United States of religious right in the Republican Party. It is just with the political zoo of parties in Israel such subversion is sometimes accomplished by some being driven by the old party power structures while others are lost through the foolish rivalries within this community which in too many cases are due to differences too insignificant for many to even understand. But politics are the same across the world and often make little sense to the average person but apparently are humongous in the political realms. Politics aside, in the real world within Israel, as best as I have been able to discern, there is an attitude which bodes well for the future and the taking on the challenges no matter what the world might try to throw our way. It took close to two-thousand years for the Jewish People to return to our ancient homeland making Israel the first nation to return into existence from exile twice (thrice if the four-hundred years of slavery in Egypt) and one of the few peoples to keep their original language and genetic integrity while in such an extended existence spread over as many differing nations as was the case of the Jewish People. This was extremely well worded in a recent article we read where it was simply stated,

 

“Israel, rooted in the Jewish people as an Abrahamic people, is a prototypical First Nation or aboriginal people, just as the Jewish religion is a prototypical aboriginal religion, the first of the Abrahamic religions. In a word, the Jewish people is the only people that still inhabits the same land, embraces the same religion, studies the same Torah, hearkens to the same prophets, speaks the same aboriginal language – Hebrew – and bears the same aboriginal name, Israel, as it did 3,500 years ago.”

 

The central congealing, central, and treasured truth which held these numerous communities was Torah. Torah cemented our history. Torah preserved our language (even if many of us have yet to remaster our ancient language, the language from where the first two letters, Aleph and Bet gave the English language the word ‘alphabet’). Torah retained our laws. Torah safeguarded our covenant with Hashem reminding us of our special responsibility to work the lands of Eretz Yisroel. Torah gave us hope during the darkest hours. Torah also challenged us through the ages to be better people despite the events which were often collapsing around us. Torah taught us the importance of reading and study. And Torah steeled us to remember our roots in Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the Exodus with Moses and the entirety of our history and some of the wisest and most sagely rules and advice on life, relations and virtually any situation we might encounter in life. It was the Ten Commandments and the rules establishing moral codes establishing the basis for Judeo-Christian society and the teachings of Psalms and Proverbs which filled out the basis for conscience and morality when most of the world still worshipped idols sacrificing children and others before great stone edifices.

 

 

Ten Commandments
Arranged in Hebrew
Reading from Right to Left
with English Translations
Underneath the Hebrew

 

Much of the basis for a just society was everything opposed by the Nazis as evidenced in this song sung by the Hitler Youth;

“We are the joyous Hitler youth
We do not need any Christian virtue
Our leader is our savior
The Pope and Rabbi shall be gone
We want to be pagans once again.”

That about says it all and many in the Arab Palestinian leadership and the leaders in Iran and other Arab and Muslim nations, terror groups, Islamic religious organizations such as the Muslim Brotherhood and the anti-Semites, anti-Israel and anti-Zionists such as the leaders and members of the Islamic State all share an admiration for Hitler’s and the Nazis’ stand on exterminating the Jews with a special note for perhaps one of the main influences to inculcate these thoughts and concepts into Islamic and especially Arab Palestinian thought was the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem Haj Amin al-Hussein, the man who mentored Yasser Arafat and had a great deal of influence on Mahmoud Abbas who all dream of causing another Shoah, another Holocaust while a number which includes some of the Iranian leaders, other Arab and Muslim leaders both political and religious, as well as some like Mahmoud Abbas whose doctoral thesis revolved around a version of Holocaust denial. A few final thoughts which need telling, the Arab Palestinians are being fed lies about their state being denied them by the Jews in Israel as it is their leadership which will only accept replacing a destroyed Israel and placing their nation on the corpses of six-million plus Jews and the people, especially those being forced to remain in refugee camps are all being denied basic human rights by the Arabs who refuse to assist their brethren as they would hurt and impose hardship on generation after generation in the hope these refugees descendants will be permitted to flood Israel and vote their subjugation of all the Israeli Jews when they elect the leader who will surrender the lands to the Arab Palestinian state ending any two state solution making all the land between the Jordan River and the Sea one Arab nation and the Jews in Israel stand ready to enforce their idea which is summed up in a single concept, “Never Again!” As we actually are a family whose tree dates back to Abraham and Sarah over four thousand years ago, and yes such things matter and they matter to our family greatly.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

Destroy Islamic World by Rebuilding Destroyed Synagogue

 

After the Jordanians took control of not only much of Judea and Samaria but also the entirety of the Old City of Jerusalem, they enforced Islamic dominance by destroying the ancient Synagogues throughout Jerusalem and the entirety of their occupied territories, land occupied from rightful Israel. Since Israel liberated these lands resulting from their gains during their defensive war resulting from the Arab threats to drive the Jews into the sea (Mediterranean Sea) in June of 1967, they have been slowly restoring the Synagogues as funds became available. The latest incident of Islamic outrage flourished with the instigating cry that the Jews are building Synagogues to surround the Temple Mount such that their actions using these Synagogues will destroy the al-Aqsa Mosque. The reason this will destroy the al-Aqsa Mosque and not any other structure is because whenever the Imams use the referencing of harm to the al-Aqsa Mosque this is taken as a call to violence and to assault either the Temple Mount with rioting or the referenced activity or structure. More often than not the calls related to the al-Aqsa Mosque brings rioting to the Temple Mount followed soon thereafter with international objections to the increased violence which the Israelis have refused to prevent or return quiet to the holy sites. Should Israel take the one precaution which brings a state of quiet on the Temple Mount by refusing admittance of Muslim men between age 16 and 40 thus resulting in an end to the riots the new hue and cry goes out that the Israelis are blocking Muslim prayers on the Temple Mount. What is never mentioned is that as soon as the Muslim men respond to mentions of threats to the al-Aqsa Mosque by the Imams with rioting, the first response by the Israeli security forces is to ban all Jewish visitations to the Temple Mount despite such a move has only served to increase the frequency of the rioting. Some things just make one speechless over the profound lack of logic.

 

The latest threat to the al-Aqsa Mosque, if we are to believe the authorities from the Islamic Waqf, is the beginning of the restoration and rebuilding of the Tiferet Yisrael Synagogue in the Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem’s Old City. The Waqf spokespeople are claiming that the Synagogue never existed anywhere in the Old City as all the lands belong to the Islamic Waqf so how could they have ever had Synagogues on them. The small fact that the original Tiferet Yisrael Synagogue was originally built in the 1860s and was destroyed in 1948, as were so many other Jewish historic Synagogues and other holy sites as part of the Islamic cleansing of all traces of Jewish existence within the lands which came under their control, is validating facts on the ground even in its destroyed state as it will continue to be once restored, just much more majestic as such a precious and holy structure should be. Such demolitions continue to this very day in areas under Arab autonomous control such as Joseph’s and Rachel’s tombs which are regularly destroyed and when Jews are permitted to pray at Joseph’s tomb the IDF must provide security and the worshippers brought under cover of darkness usually around two o’clock in the early AM and must depart before dawn at most once a month. Often prayers are only capable of being given once the destructions since the last visit have been repaired, a devotion of love which take precious time away from prayers despite the theory and guarantees by the United Nations and the permanent members of the Security Council that all holy sites would be made available for visits and prayer services, a promise which sounds great but nobody apparently ever planned to enforce.

 

The Arabs took control of Joseph’s tomb fatally wounding Border Police Corporal Madhat Yousuf, a Druze soldier, who bled to death after being abandoned for five hours at Joseph’s tomb by Prime Minister and Defense Minister Ehud Barak, following a Palestinian Authority Arab attack on the site. Barak gave the order to not launch a rescue operation in order to avoid escalating the situation. The hesitance to act may have also been influenced by fear of international reactions had a general assault been launched, which is what it appeared may have been necessary, causing large numbers of additional casualties or it could have been simple temerity which appears to be a malady that can strike even the most heroic and courageous of soldiers with numerous campaigns or the most dangerous and clandestine of missions under their belts. Whatever the reason that no rescue was deployed and why the Arabs simply watched a fellow human being bleed out and die when they could have easily provided first aid and stopped his bleeding but they saw only somebody that was not of them and thus not worthy of any of their efforts to save a fellow human being. There have been a number of people attacked and even died simply because they attempted to pray at a holy site, and those injured praying just north of Bethlehem at Rachel’s Tomb are women who often suffer attacks where bricks are hurled at them simply because they are Jews visiting a site the Arabs wish to claim. Such is a sorry statement of the condition of humanity where such is permitted anywhere and to any peoples.

 

 

 

 

Between the Synagogues the Jordanians destroyed and the almost uncountable times that Joseph’s Tomb has been desecrated added to the destructions being carried out by the Islamic State and other such acts around the Islamic world, they now claim that all they hold is threatened by the reconstruction and refurbishing of a single 1860s Synagogue as such threatens the Islamic lands, their al-Aqsa Mosque, all the lands considered to be a part of the holy Waqf. Islam believes apparently that if a structure is built for any other religion it belittles their holy places is really a sad commentary because mankind can use as many holy sites and houses of worship as can be built, if only they would take the time to use them and learn the lessons which carried humanity this far. There are those who feel that there should only be a single religion and then the arguing and fighting comes trying to decide which religion. If only all could adopt the view that each religion has its contribution for mankind and the more religious thought there is in our world, the richer and more blessings for all mankind. This has been the same reaction whenever a Synagogue has been reconstructed or new Synagogue constructed yet not a single Mosque has collapsed as a result, so perhaps these warnings of the imminent destruction which might befall the al-Aqsa Mosque resulting from the rebuilding the Tiferet Yisrael Synagogue are an excessive reaction to what for many Jews is a blessing and joyous occasion. It is really too bad that this joy will not be shared. The world would be such a greater place if we could all enjoy the joys of others. Perhaps the beautiful architecture of the Tiferet Yisrael Synagogue can fill just one Muslim’s eye and through the sight their heart with some degree of joy and they realize that another Synagogue adds to the world in much the same way as another Mosque should also fill the world with more joy and celebration.

 

 

This is the model of the plans for the restoration and rebuild of the Tiferet Yisrael Synagogue in the Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem. The Synagogue was originally constructed in the 1860s and was destroyed when the Jordanians dynamited the original Tiferet Yisrael Synagogue along with virtually every other religious or significantly Jewish building in all ot Eastern Jerusalem which includes the entirety of the Old City Jerusalem which includes structures over two thousands of years in age and other built throughout the centuries. These destructions were wanton, senseless, vile acts for which there was no outcry in 1948 as the world turned a blind eye as has proven to be the reaction to virtually every terrorist or destructive act towards Israel and particularly the Jews residing therein.

 

 

The Tiferet Yisrael Synagogue modeled above has the ornate touches commensurate with 1860s architecture crowned with a dome to complete the splendor. This Synagogue will blend well with the other structures from different periods throughout the history of Jerusalem. We hope and pray that many will find prayer within its walls and study in its classrooms beneficial and imparting joy to their hearts, wisdom and knowledge in their heads and a fullness of life and lightness of spirit blessing all they do and benefiting those they meet. The wishes are as sincere as they are simple and straightforward. May we add that we hold hope that if the Tiferet Yisrael Synagogue manages to have any effect upon the al-Aqsa Mosque that it is one of blessing spirit and enlightenment for all who worship in either house of prayers.

 

Beyond the Cusp