The panic among jews in Israel over arab attackers has grown out of proportion as mob lynchings are becoming a frequent occurrence each week. And worse ... the victims are often jews mistaken to be arabs. Here's footage of the latest lynching of a jew mistaken to be an arab. Horrifying. Now israeli jews have more to fear from their own kind than from arabs.
http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/WATCH-Struggle-with-man-in-Jerusalem-mistaken-for-terrorist-moments-before-his-death-429787
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A group enjoying a break at Cynthia's
Cave restaurant near the 8th Station |
The chaos is not denting the tourism trade as I saw myself the huge crowds of tourists packing the Holy Sepulchre church. However the groups make quick entries and exits into the churches, and seldom visit shops and restaurants ... for fear of being at the wrong place at the wrong time. Many shops have since closed as a result.
This weekend Bethlehem is closed off due to the feast of Rachel, wife of Jacob the biblical patriarch. Her tomb is just at the entrance of Bethlehem and thousands of jews are expected to go visit it. The police have therefore closed off the entire area including roads leading into and out of Bethlehem so that only jews can travel there. There is only one road open for tourists and I think it would be jammed with traffic. What a nightmare.
Anyway winter is in. Daylight saving ends this Saturday midnight. Sunrise is now after 5am and the sky is dark by 6pm. And it's chilly in the nights though daytime can still be quite hot. We haven't had torrents of winter rain but we hope it'll come. It's been too dry for too long.
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