UPDATES
7 pm Israel time, Saturday, May 9 2015
**One of the best things to come out of the election in England yesterday was the crushing defeat of George Galloway, a despicable politician who has made a living trashing Israel and supporting terrorism at every turn.
Galloway lost his Bradford West seat to Naz Shah by a vote of 19,977 votes to 8,557. Naz Shah, a campaigner for women’s rights, comes from a Pakistani immigrant family. She had extremely rough childhood years during which she was sent back to Pakistan when she was 12 years old for a forced marriage.
In a angry concession speech that the British media termed “eccentric”, Galloway ranted: “. . . there will be [those] who are already celebrating [my defeat]: the venal, the vile, the racists and the Zionists will all be celebrating.”
Racists and Zionists. Can you believe it? Of course you can. Galloway is a raging anti-Semite of the first order.
TODAY’S BLOG
Located on the Mt. Of Olives, the A-Tur neighborhood of Jerusalem is rich in Christian tradition being home to the Church of the Ascension and the Pater Noster Church. The former church was built where Christians believed that Jesus ascended to heaven while the latter church was built over a cave in which Christians believe that Jesus taught his disciples “the Lord’s Prayer”.
The Church of the Pater Noster.
Some of the most wonderful views in Israel can also be found in A-Tur. From the bell-tower in the Russian Church Tur Malka beside the Church of Ascension, on a clear day, one can see the Mediterranean Sea and the Dead Sea. From the promenade in front of The Seven Arches Hotel (formerly called “The Intercontinental Hotel”), a strikingly beautiful view of the old city of Jerusalem can be seen.
The bell tower at the Tur Malka Church “towers” over the landscape of the Mount of Olives.
There was a time when the A-Tur neighborhood was held up as a model of peace and reconciliation, and its residents were believed to be “moderate” supporters of the PLO. This was especially true before the first intifada in the late 1980s. On one memorable afternoon back then, your humble servant began at the Intercontinental Hotel and ended up inside the Kipat HaSela (The Dome of the Rock).
Such a trip would be impossible today.
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To begin with, the Kipat HaSela is closed to all non-Muslims. But even more, the once peaceful neighborhood of A-Tur is the scene of rampant violence.
An incident yesterday, the kind of incident that is never reported in the international media, illustrates the dangers of A-Tur. The only place this news was reported was on the 0404 website.
Late yesterday afternoon, an Israeli motorist,Chen Borochov, was driving his car through the A-Tur neighborhood. With no warning, a huge “rock” smashed through his front windshield.
As he reported: “The rock hit my windshield with great force. Outside the vehicle, I saw the perpetrators–three school-age young people wearing backpacks. I felt and I still feel like I miraculously survived.”
Can you imagine what would have happened if the “rock” had hit the driver’s side–or if a passenger had been in the front seat beside the driver? (Photo: Chen Borochov).
According to Borochov: “The incompetence of the Netanyahu government is strongly felt in the streets of Jerusalem, and I’m tired of being afraid. The Arab young people study in our schools during the day while their parents work in our businesses. When they come home in the afternoon, they try to kill us. We are sitting ducks.”
Borochov continued: “The Border Guard officers who came to the scene are like ornamental dolls with bulletproof vests, helmets and all means of defense. But they do nothing to deter the Arabs, who have long since laughed at them and us. This is a reality that must change, and I’ll do everything to change it. I’m not going to shut up about what happened. The situation cannot continue like this anymore. ”
Indeed it cannot. The situation in which Arabs feel like they can assault Israelis with impunity must end. Let us earnestly hope that the new Netanyahu government will do a better job than the old one.
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.