Ah, this made me feel good.
The beautiful building pictured above is the historic Hurva Synagogue in the Old City of Jerusalem, which dates from the 1700's.
In 1948, it was vandalized and desecrated by the Jordanians, along with 28 other historic synagogues and shrines in the Old City. But it has now been beautifully restored and will be rededicated this Sunday and Monday, the 28th and 29th of Adar.
And that just drives the Palestinians insane:
Naturally, the Muslims are furious at Jews daring to rebuild a synagogue in a spot that they had lived continuously for well over two thousand years. As I reported a few months ago, what really bugged them was the height of the structure, because in Islamic tradition mosques should always be the tallest buildings in the area. Since the Jewish Quarter is on a hill, the Hurva dome will be higher than the domes on the Al Aqsa mosque and Dome of the Rock.
And we can't have that, can we?
What really fries the Palestinians is two things - first, that the Hurva Synagogue being restored like this gives the lie to their claims that East Jerusalem was ever 'traditionally Arab', except for a brief 19-year period between 1948 and 1967 after they ethnically cleansed the original inhabitants . And second, once again, the very fact that Jews build, while they destroy. That's how it's always been.
Ponder for a moment the mentality of people like that and imagine trying to live in peace next to them.
BTW, below are pictures ( click to enlarge ) circa 1940 showing the old Hurva Synogogue before it was destroyed by the Arabs, and how it dominated the Jerusalem skyline. No wonder the Arabs wanted it to remain merely a memory.
-Selah-
-Selah-
6 comments:
This also made me very happy, despite all the other problems happening now. Shabat Shalom!
What is so unusual about the Arabs trying to erase Jewish existence, or trying to usurp Jewish places of worship. The desecrated the Jewish holy site in Iraq, they recent the rededication of an ancient synagogue in Cairo, they desecrated Rachel's Tomb when it was handed back to the PA and they had desecrated the Machpelah during the Jordanian occupation of Hebron, never mind the desecration of the Kotel during the 19 yr Jordanian occupation of the Old City. Remember they even prefromed illegal excavations at the Temple Mount trying to hide the Jewish artifact laden dirt from the authorities. The biggest mistake Dayan ever made was giving the Temple mount back to the Waqf. Heaven knows what Jewish historical artifacts hve been destroyed.
This really is good news!! I hope they build some more synogogues!! In fact, put one on every street corner!! Build one next to every mosque and make them taller than the mosques!! Better yet tear down some mosques to make room for some synogogues!!
"Ponder for a moment the mentality of people like that and try living in peace next to them." You can't the best you can do is not to let them into your house and to build a large wall between you and them. This is precisely the reason for the wall the Israelis built that the news media froths with rage about.
This synagogue was in existence since the 1700s and there are pictures of this structure from 1940. Why doesn't the news media report this aspect of the story? After all, if one is to engage in "fair and balanced" reporting", I would think this is an important part of the story. The answer is such an aspect of the story does not fit with the carefully planned narrative of the Jews stealing Palestinian land.
Thomas Jefferson once said to roughly paraphrase, "it does not matter if my neighbor believes in one god, 20 gods, or no gods at all. It neither picks my pocket nor does it break my leg." Both of these are done in the name of Islam. If Mr. Jefferson were alive today, I'm sure he would agree that the followers of this religon need to be cloesely monitored. At the very least, the mosques should be closely monitored and there should be an indefinite moratorium placed on immigration from Islamic countries.
Finally, even if the narrative of Israel stealing Palestinian land is correct pretty much every nation on earth today is located on real estate that was once owned by someone else. I think the analogy of a "glass house" comes to mind, essentially meaning those who live in them should not be throwing stones.
Just for the record, the lower photo is not the Hurva, but the still-in-ruins Tiferet Yisrael (Sefardi) synagogue, located across the street from the historic Karaite synagogue (still in use). In the upper frame, the Hurva is the large building in the lower left area, and the Tiferet Yisrael can be between it and the Temple Mount.
B.Poster's comment:
"Finally, even if the narrative of Israel stealing Palestinian land is correct pretty much every nation on earth today is located on real estate that was once owned by someone else," rings particularly true, as I just listened to a biography of Crazy Horse... We stole pretty much every inch of the US from the Indians, so who are we to judge all the time? I have recently come to the brilliant conclusion that all the strife in the Middle East, and the never ending biased press is all caused by Jew hatred, pure and simple. Why can't we just say it? Jew haters in the Whitehouse, in the press, in the UN, in Europe, everywhere...
Rosey,
I was pretty much thinking the same thing you were thinking. I'm thinking "glass houses." Specifically those who live in them should not throw stones.
Now with that that said, is this biography of Crazy Horse an accurate representation of history or is it a screed by Crazy Horse or an anti-American leftist? While it is true that much of the land the USA claims as its own was once Indian land, much of it was also uninhabited. I think all lands were at one time not owned by the people who own them now. As such, I don't think America needs to be trowing stones at Israel and I don't think others need to throw stones at America.
I agree with you. It seems to be Jew hatred pure and simple. Part of how this manifests itself is in a double standard. America faces much of the same problem but perhaps not to the degree that Israel does.
For example, the US invades Iraq and gets vilified in the news media while Russia levels Grozny in Chechnya and the media acts like not much happened. The US was responding to a threat that is far more serious to it than Chechnya poses to Russia!!
Post a Comment