My book hit the TV button and on the news came terrible things about tension in Jerusalem. I am in Jerusalem. There is no tension - only sadness at the continued cycle of grief and death. Tonight I walked the streets by myself. Through a modern mall where I bought light pink clothes for Gwendy at Gap Kids to a souk where the market looks as it has for centuries. Through crowded streets and back streets. I saw Orthodox Jews and non observant Jews, I saw Arabs who were Muslims and some who might have been Palestinians or Muslims or Christians, I saw Christian monks, I saw Greek Orthodox priests, I saw people in religious garb I did not recognize. This morning I saw Bedouins. I heard tourists speaking many languages. I sat for a while in a square and listened to someone playing the violin. People were laughing, talking, shopping, eating, and some - each in their own way - praying. Here are two sentences. People are praying. Men walk in and kill them with axes and knives. What do you think? Here are another two sentences. Jews are praying in a synagogue. Palestinians walk in and kill them with axes and knives. If what you think - how you feel - changes from one to another - please examine your conscience. In many places in the Middle East people coexist in peace and harmony. The terrorists would have us believe that Muslims who live in peace are false Muslims but they are not. They are the purest examples of the holiness of Islam. This is a region where people hate. Palestinians and Jews, Shia and Sunni, Armenians and Greek Orthodox, and many others. ISIS and civilization. This is a region where many people are seeking a new story - one that has stability and life. They are demanding that their leaders give them universities and health services and jobs. Egypt and Israel are working together - today - to wipe out terrorists. The media repeats the old story. We must not listen. We must write a new story. Today in Jerusalem people are living together in peace - except for one place were something happened for which there are no excuses. Something happened that should be condemned by all civilized people. xo
Posted on: Tue, 18 Nov 2014 23:22:15 +0000
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