Rats in the Palace

For weeks, vigilantes have been throwing deadly stones at Jerusalem’s celebrated new light rail train as it makes its way through Arab neighborhoods of the city.

Finally, a 20-year old Hamas operative from Jerusalem’s historic City of David neighborhood took his car and - swerving off of the road - plowed into a group of people waiting to board the city’s new light rail train. The car continued onward, slamming into the train itself. A close circuit camera captured the action of the attack.

As a result, 3-month old Chaya Zissel Braun was thrown out of her baby carriage, landing several meters away. She suffered severe head injuries, and died a few hours later.

All in a Day of Life in the Capital

What is going on here? How can it be that there are sustained riots in a nation’s capital city, and the police take little or no action to restore order?

The issue is not one of manpower, equipment or resources. The problem relates to concept.

Israeli government authorities are operating with the heavy weight on their shoulders of a poor, inaccurate and ultimately self-defeating conception of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

In 1948, during Israel’s War of Independence, Jordan attacked and conquered one half of the city. For nearly twenty years, the Eastern half of Jerusalem, including all of the historic Old City, was under Jordanian rule and kept ‘Judenrein’ - free of Jews.

In the 1967 Six-Day War, Israel conquered the Eastern side of the city from the hands of the Jordanians. The city was once again united – at least theoretically.

Since that time, the Israeli authorities have been reluctant to take the steps necessary to make the city unified in action. The division between the two sides of the city - the Western, Jewish side and the Eastern, Arab side - has remained. As a result, there are entire neighborhoods of Jerusalem that a Jew would not set foot in, at risk of his life. Many of the Arab residents of the capital do not even hold Israeli citizenship, and exist in a kind of artificial limbo.

This situation is totally intolerable, and completely unacceptable.

So What to Do?

A new concept of Jerusalem is needed. Jerusalem is the holiest city in the world, holy to three of the great monotheistic religions. It cannot exist carved up into special interest areas where municipal authorities are reluctant to go in and foster order.

It is time that Israel takes the necessary steps to unify the city once and for all. The first thing to do is to rescue it from the clutches of terrorist organizations such as Hamas.

The Palace of the King

Jewish tradition teaches that Jerusalem is the palace of the king. Can you imagine if in the palace of the king, a group of rats ran wild, stealing food from the kitchen and terrorizing the royal family in their bedrooms? What would a self-respecting king do? Do you think he would conduct negotiations with the rodents? Might he offer them half the palace so they’ll finally get off of his back?

No chance. What the king would do is - call in the exterminators. He would make sure that the rats are hunted down, one by one, pulling them out of their holes in necessary - and exterminated.

And that is precisely what must be done to Hamas. 

Remember Hamas? Hamas is a certified terror organization, cut from the same cloth as ISIL and Hezbollah. They were the ones who perfected suicide murder bombings of buses of innocent civilians, in Jerusalem and throughout Israel. They summarily execute their opponents, without trial or due process.

The Israeli public would do well to understand that there is no possibility of allowing Hamas and its activities in Jerusalem. Those who practice their special brand of hatecraft should be rounded up and imprisoned with no chance of parole. Only then can the Jerusalem authorities bring law and order to all of Jerusalem’s inhabitants. 

With a new concept - that of Jerusalem as a city truly united for the benefit of all – the city can finally be safe. 

 That is the kind of Jerusalem we have been dreaming of for thousands of years.