UPDATES
10:00 am Israel time, Monday, February 23 2015
21 Days Until The Election
***5 wanted Hamas terrorists were captured in Judea and Samaria last night as Israel continues to do all it can to suppress the terrorist group and at the same time to prop up another terrorist group, Mahmoud Abbas’ PLO.
***3 more Hamas missiles were “test-fired” into the Mediterranean yesterday. An IDF officer on Israeli TV last night predicted that there would be another war with Hamas by this summer.
***2 widely divergent polls appeared yesterday: one had the Herzog-Livni party ahead by two seats over Netanyahu’s Likud; the other had Netanyahu’s Likud up by 3 seats.
***Baruch Marzel, the ultra-nationalist just permitted to run for the Knesset by the Israel Supreme Court arrived on the scene of yesterday’s stabbing in Jerusalem (see Today’s Blog) just as the terrorist was being carried away.
He immediately started shouting “Death to terrorists”. In an interview given to the Arutz Sheva shortly afterward, Marzel declared: “Let me take the position [Security Minister) for half a year and the terrorists will lose their motivation to attack.”
TODAY’S BLOG:
It was a crisp, lovely day in Jerusalem yesterday. Your humble servant and his wife were there to sample foods at the famed Darna Moroccan restaurant in advance of a banquet that will be taking place there about three weeks from now.
We arrived in our capital which still had mounds of snow along the roadsides from the storm that passed through three days ago. We parked our car, as always, at the Central Zionist Archives building, and then headed through the pedestrian tunnel to the other side of Sderot Shazar Street until we come up near Yafo Street that runs in front of the Central Bus Station.
From there, we hopped on the Jerusalem Light Rail and headed down Yafo Street toward the Old City, passing Ha-Turim, Mahane Yehuda, and Ha-Davidka until we got off at the Jaffa Center stop.
There was nothing remarkable about the short, 10 minute train ride except the usually remarkable composition of the 40 or so people crammed into our train car: orthodox Jewish men with their black coats, black hats, rumpled white shirts, and long unkempt beards; young Arab working women with scarved about their heads and wearing the latest fashions; female and male IDF soldiers with their guns slung over their soldiers; Greek and Russian orthodox monks, and Catholic nuns; and apparently (you can never really tell) secular folks of all sorts including tourists speaking English, Spanish, and German. The woman beside me was elegantly dressed and seemed to all appearances secular; however, she was busily engaged in reading in Hebrew from the small Psalms book that most religious people carry with them everywhere.
The train car seemed to be coexistence personified.
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Once off the train we were on the sidewalk beside Yafo Street where all of the people described above and more were hurriedly walking or stopping and shopping; the vibrance and diversity of Jerusalem was everywhere to be seen. To say that there is no other city like it in the world is a gross understatement.
It was easy to forget the Arab terrorism that frequently visits the city, but one never does.
We headed across the street and into history to Heleni al-Malka Street (named for the wife of Iraqi King Abiadene who converted to Judaism, made a pilgrimmage to the city in 30 CE, and built a palace for herself near what is now the City of David) and then turned left on Yohanan Horkanos St (named for the son of Simon Maccabee who became a Hasmonean leader) to immediately arrived at Darna.
There we situated ourselves among the cushions of the restaurant and were treated to a sumptuous late lunch of pastille, 14 different salads, couscous with vegetables, chicken, lamb, and more. Three hours later and barely able to move from all the food, we left the restaurant and went back to Yafo St. where we immediately noticed that something was wrong.
Suddenly there were more police on the street than before and they and Border Guards were questioning people left and right.
What had gone wrong on this glorious day in Jerusalem? We learned from a policeman that 3 minutes away at Safra Square, a Palestinian terrorist had stabbed an orthodox man in the stomach–and then had been wrestled to the ground by Nir Barkat of all people. Nir Barkat, as you may not know, is the Mayor of Jerusalem whose office is in the Safra area.
Barkat, a former major in the paratroopers, had been passing by when he saw what was taking place. He immediately rushed the attacker and subdued him.
Back on Yafo St., life quickly returned to “normal” and we continued on our way.
But is life in Israel and in Jerusalem ever really normal? The event was yet another reminder of how quickly the veneer of coexistence can disappear in Israel. One never knows where the next terrorist incident will occur–and one must always be on one’s guard.
A student from Malawi, who had worked with an Israeli health volunteer in his country battling AIDS, came up to us as we walked down the street in the UC-Davis Picnic Day Parade and wanted to carry the Israeli flag.