Solemn Weekend

The Dome of the Rock mosque stands
where the Jewish Temple used to be.

Tisha B'Avi starts this Saturday evening. That's the jewish commemoration of the destruction of the 2 Temples on the same day - the Temple built by Solomon in 587 BC and the Temple renovated by Herod in 70 AD. Both were destroyed on the same day 650 years apart. Jews will fast and avoid all celebrations ... it's a day of mourning. The ancient rabbis say the Temples were destroyed because of "sinat hinam" or baseless hatred of jew against jew.

Well that leaves a lot to be said ... because only today we have news saying that the ultra-orthodox rabbis forbid all jews not belonging to their sect to use public ritual baths (mikve) build by the govt. with tax-payers' money. In effect, the ultra-orthodox are condemning all other jews to be ritually impure forever. The ritual baths are meant to cleanse ritual impurity such as menstruation, birth, touching blood or bone etc... Today the govt. decided to build other mikvaot (plural of mikve) for non-ultra-orthodox jews to use but the ultra-orthodox rabbis vow to fight this to the end. Only they are ritually pure - the rest of jewry are not. Baseless hatred?  http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-1.736187

A catholic nun sweeps the filthy road
in front of her convent in one of
the most violent streets in East
Jerusalem

In a dramatic turn of municipality practice, 1200 more police will be deployed permanently in East Jerusalem with 6 new Police Stations there .... all in the bid to control crime and other lawlessness. The local arab population are happy ... because the rise in crime and violence has become so high people are afraid to go out of their houses. Since 1968 when Israel controlled the East (which is arab populated), it has been abandoned to lawlessness. But this last year we saw the majority of terrorists coming from these areas and the police have finally decided to step in. For the moment it is not in terrorism-control mode ... simply making the towns and villages more safe for inhabitants. But ultimately it aims at curbing terrorism in the bud ... in the villages before they reach Jerusalem. Both arab and some jewish leaders are against this; saying the US$1 billion project should go to education and welfare in these areas instead which will produce better results.  http://www.jpost.com/Arab-Israeli-Conflict/Police-look-to-crackdown-on-terror-activity-lawlessness-in-volatile-east-Jerusalem-463728

And even as this "goodwill" gesture to East jerusalem is being planned out, the municipality has gone ahead to take private arab land in East Jerusalem to build a synagogue!! And has backed plans to build 2,500 more apartments in East Jerusalem for Jews. http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-1.736191

And yesterday police arrested 3 jews who made up a story that a Christian group was kidnapping ultra-orthodox children, forcibly converting them to christianity and sexually abusing them. After 2 years of investigation, the police concluded that no such christian group existed but these 3 men were pocketing money donated by the public to "save" these children ... and the child abuses were committed by ultra-orthodox jews themselves. Baseless calumny, sowing religious strife and hatred ... baseless hatred again.  http://www.timesofisrael.com/3-arrested-for-making-up-pedophilic-christian-cult-to-defraud-donors/

So much for baseless hatred .... the lessons of Tisha B'Av are still not learnt.