Bulldozer Terror in Jerusalem

I agree with you that Jews should participate in all kinds of work; nothing is too trivial. Cooking, construction, cleaning, agricultural labor--All are needed. The Kibbutz movement knew this (at least until very recently!) I learned while in Israel that many menial jobs are done by Filipinos and Thailanders. At least in the case of the Filipinos, Israel has required that infants of Filipino parents must be returned to the Filipines at the age of one year--most likely because Israel does not want to promulgate a practice of acquiring citizens of Filipino origins...some of whom are Moslim(???)The sad fact is that the people wno need work are the Palestinians, but, with reason, Israel cannot trust them.

I don't have an answer.

I have just returened from a wonderful visit to Israel. I was three blocks away from Jaffa Street when the first bulldozer incident took place. I wish to share the story of one of the people killed in that incident. She was in her late twenties, an Orthodox Jew who taught nursery school and the blind. She had difficulty concieving, but after two years on fertility treatments, she gave birth to a beautiful baby girl. She was in her car on Jaffa Street with her five-month old daughter on that fatal day. When she saw the bulldozer approaching, she realized that she would be crushed; there was no time for her to escape. She unbuckeled her daughter from her car seat and screamed for someonw to grab the infant. In a miracle, someone pulled the infant to safety just at the mother was being crushed. From all sources of people who knew this woman, she was an exceptional, beautiful, caring person.

Al Jazeera ,Fox News and CNN all broadcast to the home crowd. Due to that we have no dialog. Each side goes to bed thinking he is clean and the other a murderer. I'd settle for Al Jazeera, Fox and CNN dedicating 5% of their time to show the other side's perspective. Yet on this blog one must address all aspects of the issue.

BTW,
No need to give me all due respect, I didn't earn it yet.

Lucy,
I think you are confusing between your vacation to day to day reality.
The hotel strip near King David isn't Jerusalem nor are the empty apartments of American Jews who go there three times a year. Jerusalem is the major city with the highest drop out rate from high school. Most of its population live of a pay check from the Israeli government. The first twenty years of Israel existence was without "Unified Jerusalem". Yes a major noose.

Your personal moving experience there is yours to keep yet one must diffrentiate it from the day to day realities of the local population.

Israeli Arabs in Jerusalem are stuck between a rock and a hard place. For the Jewish populations they are Arabs and for the Palestinians bastardized brothers. If you don't believe me ask them to describe how easy it is to them to rent an apartment in Israel.

I am fully aware that Jerusalem was under Jordanian control for the first twenty years of Israel's existence. Are you aware of the condition of Jerusalem and the Old City at that time? Jewish sacred sited were desecrated and destroyed. The population was all dirt poor.

Giroa, I am a person who truly does not harbor hatred toward anyone. I know that the Palestinian people were evacuated from their homes in 1948 because Israel could not be established with enemies within its borders. I know the bitterness and pain that is felt. Yet, Israel had to happen.

Personally, I feel that Palestinians want the right of return to their homes. The idea of two states coexisting to me seems like nothing more than rubbing salt in a tender wound. I don't have an answer, but a dialogue about what happened in 1948 must be where the answer lies.

Currently Jerusalem and its population are consuming too much and producing too little. Its a loser investment Israel should attempt to unwind.

And once Israel "unwinds" itself of Jersualem, what then? What do you suggest should happen to this holiest of cities? Who should control it or live there, and why?

My dad was removed from an orphanage to be with his biological mother and a Jewish stepfather. I consider his stepfather to be worth a whole lot more than his biological father who checked out of the family program.
I had a friendship with a Jewish boy throughout elementary school. His family was incredibly generous with me. On weekends, I practically lived at their house.
Why not just have Jewish folks come and live here in the States? I have no problem with Jewish neighbors and co-workers; or even having my posterity marry Jews.
Ideally, it would've been nice if the US would've had an open immigration policy right after World War II for Jews. That's ideally though. Look at how folks feel about Latinos (Some people have extreme feelings towards Mexicans where I live - it's as if Mexicans are the cause of all the problems.)
Considering that most of Isreal's neighbors are against her and that problems persist in Israel, I'd just assume have the Jewish population move here.
America has her own prejudiced groups, but they seem mild compared to groups like Hezbollah.
I don't blame the Zionists for wanting a country. I think there was a lot of antisemitism in Europe, even after World War II. But, now I just don't think it's working out.
I'd rather take my chances in New York rather than Jerusalem.

Giora, only the hostorically near-sighted can call Jerusalem a noose. In your tiny, short, microcosmic existence it is now problematic. But it is simply so because it is dear to many people. It does not fit into your definition of a modern city- not a cosmopolitan Tel Aviv full of night clubs and hipster restaurants. No wealthy locals. No international businessman flying around. You know what? I am a New Yorker, so I see plenty of that. Maybe the contrast is exactly what is desired for those tourists (jewish AND non-jewish), as well as the millenia-old sites.
Speak to the poor of jerusalem, especially in those neighborhoods you leave out. Most of them arent bothered by lack of materialistic goods that we wouldnt be able to survive a minute without.
Think long term.

"Most of them arent bothered by lack of materialistic goods that we wouldnt be able to survive a minute without"

Are they really? and if so how is it that the political parties representing them deal with one thing only - getting subsidies to support them?

Sadly they have no marketable skills and their leaders are making sure this situation will never change so they will continue to depend on their leaders. I don't think we should put them on a pedestal.

With Jewish mothers killing 300 babies everyday, why worry about 4 more killed?

This is only the begining, we are in for a bigger beating! We have lost the will to WIN!!