In the heart of Jerusalem lies the green and pleasant Botanical Garden. With an area of around 30 acres and containing over 6,000 plant species, it is the largest such garden in Israel. It is divided into 6 sections each one representing a geographical area, Southern Africa, Europe, North America, Australia, South-East and Central Asia, and the Mediterranean. Near the entrance, you can sit a while at the restaurant overlooking the lake which contains a variety of water lily species and visiting birds. It is one of my favorite spots in Jerusalem and a good place to unwind and relax.
Jerusalem is a beautiful city with a long and rich history and of course deep spiritual significance. Many visitors to Jerusalem visit all the ‘holy sites’ and learn about the history, but sadly, many do not get to experience the living city of today. It is a hustly, bustly, overcrowded city of around a million people. The streets are narrow and jam-packed with vehicles of all kinds. The shops are poky and overcrowded and services often poor. However, there is another side of Jerusalem that I have discovered, a side of great beauty, creativity and even of wilderness. Our city planners have done much to make this city a liveable space and hidden away here and there are some very surprising little gardens and wild places. I want to share something of this Jerusalem, the Jerusalem of Gold, with you. In the following galleries, I will post some of my photos for your enjoyment.
One thing you can never complain about when living in Israel is boredom. There is never a dull moment around here. So much has happened over the last couple of weeks I don’t know where to start. Perhaps a good place to begin is with the Word of God, for it puts things into a proper perspective. This is what I read this morning:
Sing joyfully to the Lord, you righteous; it is fitting for the upright to praise him. Praise the Lord with the harp; make music to him on the ten-stringed lyre. Sing to him a new song; play skillfully, and shout for joy.
For the word of the Lord is right and true; he is faithful in all he does. The Lord loves righteousness and justice; the earth is full of his unfailing love.
By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, their starry host by the breath of his mouth. He gathers the waters of the sea into jars; he puts the deep into storehouses. Let all the earth fear the Lord; let all the people of the world revere him. For he spoke, and it came to be; he commanded, and it stood firm.
The Lord foils the plans of the nations; he thwarts the purposes of the peoples. But the plans of the Lord stand firm forever, the purposes of his heart through all generations.
Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people he chose for his inheritance. From heaven the Lord looks down and sees all mankind; from his dwelling place he watches all who live on earth— he who forms the hearts of all, who considers everything they do.
No king is saved by the size of his army; no warrior escapes by his great strength. A horse is a vain hope for deliverance; despite all its great strength it cannot save. But the eyes of the Lord are on those who fear him, on those whose hope is in his unfailing love, to deliver them from death and keep them alive in famine.
We wait in hope for the Lord; he is our help and our shield. In him our hearts rejoice, for we trust in his holy name. May your unfailing love be with us, Lord, even as we put our hope in you.
Psalm 33 (my emphasis)
So here goes….
IRAN
It never ceases to amaze me how, just when I think matters are so tense they are about to explode into violence, events increase the tension even more. How tense can things get? When will we get to the breaking point?
In my last blog I wrote about the attacks on the oil tankers in the Gulf. Since then, tension between Iran and the USA has ratcheted up another notch or two. On June 19 Iran shot down an unmanned military drone belonging to the USA using a surface-to-air missile system. This RQ-4A Global Hawk is not the sort of drone you might see your neighbor’s kids playing with. It has a wingspan larger than a Boeing 737, is valued at around $US 110 million, and at the time of the attack was patrolling the Straits of Hormuz at an altitude of 22,000 ft. Iran claims this drone had violated Iranian air space but the USA denies this, saying it was shot down over international waters in the Straits of Hormuz (1). We will probably never know the truth, but this was no doubt a very dangerous incident and could have triggered all-out war. Indeed the following day a USA attack on Iranian military positions was only 10 minutes from being carried out, planes were in the air and ships in position, when the US President Trump suddenly called it off (2). Why he did so I am not sure, but news sources say Trump suggested that the shooting down of the drone was carried out by a ‘loose and stupid‘ Iranian officer without authorization from Teheran (3). That seems unlikely to me but rather a face-saving way of avoiding the consequences of attacking Iran. In any case, war was avoided on this occasion, but tensions continue to mount. This Monday, Mojtaba Zolnour, chairman of Iranian Parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, in comments carried by the Mehr news agency, stated that “If the US attacks us, only half an hour will remain of Israel’s lifespan” (4).
On Monday this week Iran announced that it had passed the 300kg limit of low-enriched (3.67%) uranium set by the 2014 Nuclear Pact and the following day, Tuesday, it further stated that it would now enrich uranium to a 7% level, beyond that needed for electricity generation or any other legitimate use, but still below the 90% needed for a nuclear bomb. Yesterday, President Rouhani of Iran said in a cabinet meeting ” On July 7, our enrichment level will no longer be 3.67 percent. We will put aside this commitment. We will increase (the enrichment level) beyond 3.67 percent to as much as we want, as much as is necessary, as much as we need”(5). Trump responded in a tweet saying ” Be careful with the threats, Iran. They can come back to bite you like nobody has been bitten before! “. This ongoing war of words reminds me of a kindergarten argument but these ‘tots’ are armed with rather more than some plastic blocks!
SYRIA
Meanwhile in Syria the situation is also tense. Last Sunday ( 30/06) it was reported that all four of the Russian-made S-300 anti-aircraft missile batteries were already operational near the town of Masyaf in northern Syria.
Just hours afterwards, the Syrian London-based Observatory for Human Rights reported that Israeli jets and naval gunships attacked at least ten Syrian government targets, among them a research facility and Hezbollah bases, near the Syrian- Lebanon border, and that fires broke out as a result of the attack (6). They also claimed that 15 people had been killed including 9 foreign and pro-government militia personnel and 6 civilians including a baby. There were no Israeli casualties. An errant Russian-made missile fired by the Syrian air-defense system hit north of Nicosia in Cyprus (6). There were no casualties as the missile landed in an open area on a mountainside.
Israel, as is its long-standing policy, has not admitted to carrying out the attacks, but it has repeatedly made clear that it will not tolerate the buildup of Iranian-funded and equipped Hezbollah bases in Syria, and it has carried out many similar attacks in the past. The map below shows Iranian bases in Syria as of April 2018 (the yellow dots).
For about a month now aircraft operating in Israeli airspace have been experiencing disruptions in their GPS systems. According to the Israel Airports Authority (IAA), these disruptions do not endanger flights as pilots have alternative navigation systems they can use. Israeli authorities have been trying to find the source of these disruptions and fix them, but without success. At least some IAA officials are blaming Russia, saying it is a result of electronic warfare intended to protect Russian planes operating out of their base at Khmeimim Air Base in northern Syria (7). Russia is denying this, of course.
On Monday (1/07) Ben Gurion Airport had another incident to deal with. I turned on my TV mid-afternoon just in time to watch a Boeing 737, with 152 people on board, make an emergency landing. I didn’t breathe for a few minutes as I prayed fervently for their safety. Thank God the pilots managed to bring the plane down safely and all the people were disembarked without incident. The Bulgarian-owned plane had taken off from Cologne airport in Germany and afterwards rubber debris had been found on the runway. The Israeli Airports Authority was notified and the Air Force scrambled some fighter jets to check out the plane. They saw that the left rear tire had been shredded. This information would have helped the pilots know how to land the plane on the remaining 3 wheels. I am happy to say that the 100 or so ambulances and fire trucks that had been assembled at the runway were able to go back to their bases unused. The plane has since been discovered also to have problems with its radar system and has been grounded until repaired.
The situation with Gaza is still up and down. Last week approximately 100 fires were started in Israeli territory by incendiary devices attached to balloons flown over from the Gaza Strip. On Thursday (27/6) alone some 30 fires were ignited, a record number in one day, since the ‘balloon war’ began over a year ago. The following day Israel and Hamas made yet another ceasefire agreement and this past week saw a drop in the number of incendiary attacks. On Friday (5/07) some 7000 Gazan rioters burned tires, hurled rocks and Molotov cocktails at Israeli soldiers and two were caught crossing the border fence with a knife. Some 40 Gazans were reportedly injured in the Israeli response (8)
This seemingly endless tit-for-tat round of rioting, incendiary attacks, punishments and concessions is wearing thin, especially for the residents of towns and kibbutzim near the Gaza perimeter. Knesset Member Alon Shuster had this to say after a fire was ignited within his kibbutz, Kibbutz Meflasim, ” The fire has reached inside Kibbutz Mefalsim,… “Soldiers, security officials, firefighters and kibbutz members are working to put it out. But we get the impression that Netanyahu doesn’t care at all.” He added that “The resilience of the residents of the south will weather any challenge, but the neglect by the Israeli government has reached the point of criminal negligence, and it’s time that someone said so” (9).
I don’t think the current government is negligent or uncaring. However with elections looming in September it is unlikely they are going to take any drastic steps before then. What is more, the alternative is frightening – an all-out war with Hamas probably necessitating a ground incursion which would lead to massive casualties on both sides including civilian losses. No one is keen on such a scenario.
Yesterday (8/07) yet another terror tunnel stretching from Gaza into Israeli territory was uncovered, the 18th tunnel discovered since the end of the 2014 Gaza War, known in Israel as Operation Protective Edge. Together with the 37 tunnels destroyed during that war, this brings to 55 all the tunnels discovered so far. Imagine how many homes, hospitals and schools that could have been built with all that concrete! This latest tunnel was discovered during the construction of the 65 km underground barrier and sensor system being built around the Gaza Strip designed to prevent such tunnels from being built. This project, begun in 2016 and due to be completed by the end of this year, is costing Israeli taxpayers some 3 billion Israeli shekels ( = 1 billion US dollars) ( 10).
This past week also saw the unveiling of the first phase of Trump’s Peace Plan for the Middle East, the economic workshop held in Bahrain. It would seem that the Plan is based on the idea that economic prosperity for the Palestinians would bring about peace. If so, it is doomed to failure. The root of the unrest in the Middle East is ideological and religious, not economic. This was highlighted by the refusal of the Palestinians to participate in the workshop, which they see as a US-Zionist conspiracy to end the political rights and aspirations of the Palestinian people (11).
The Plan heralded by the US as ‘the opportunity of the century’ was seen by the Palestinian leadership as an attempt to buy them off, and they called for other Arab states to boycott the workshop. Only two brave Palestinian businessmen attended and at least one of those was arrested (and later released) on his return home. Here in Israel, we have a saying ” The Palestinians never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity” – referring to the many occasions in which they could have attained a state of their own, and economic prosperity, but refused to compromise on their ideological and political demands. Massive amounts of money have been poured into Gaza and the West Bank. They should be the richest people on earth, but much of this money has been sunk into developing military weapons and infrastructure with which to attack Israel, or was diverted into the deep pockets of their leadership.
Some of you may know of Mosab Yousef, the son of Sheik Hassan Yousef, one of the co-founders of Hamas. Mosab defected from Hamas and became an informer for the Israeli Shin Bet for ten years preventing scores of terror attacks and assassinations, and later became a Christian believer. He is now living in the USA and he wrote the book, “Son of Hamas“, which I would highly recommend. This past week his younger brother, Suheib Yousef, also defected from Hamas and fled to an unknown location in Asia. Suheib had a senior position in Hamas and worked in Turkey gathering information which he said was “sold to Iran in return for financial assistance“. In an interview, broadcast on Israel’s Channel 12 news, Shueib said he had decided to leave Hamas because of its corruption. He also said that the Turkish branch of Hamas actively recruits people, including children, to carry out terror attacks in Israel. He added, “The goal of the attacks in the West Bank is to kill civilians, not for resistance, or Jerusalem, or liberating Palestinian land and not even because they hate Jews. They send these innocent people because they want to export the crisis [from Gaza] to the West Bank.” He called Hamas a racist terrorist organization that is dangerous for the Palestinian people. He also expressed revulsion for the corruption of the Hamas leadership. He said, “Hamas senior officials live in fancy hotels and luxury buildings, their kids are in private schools. They’re paid generously by Hamas, earning between $4,000 to $5,000 a month. They have security guards, swimming pools and country clubs. They eat in high-end restaurants, paying $200 for one course, while a family in Gaza lives on $100 a month.” He went on to criticize their double standards regarding the weekly “March of Return” protests at the Gaza border fence saying, “I want them to send their own children to carry out attacks” and ” Why doesn’t Ismail Haniyeh go to the fence to throw stones?” (12).
ETHIOPIANS PROTEST
On the evening of Wednesday last week at least 50,000 commuters were stuck for 5-7 hours in traffic jams caused by protesters blocking main arterial roads all over the country. These protests were a spontaneous uprising of the Ethiopian Jewish community expressing their anger at the racist targetting of their community by the police and discrimination against them in general. Many non-Ethiopians joined the protests and even many of the stranded travelers. The protests turned violent in places and 111 police, firemen and passersby were treated for injuries and 136 protesters arrested. At least one car was torched and many others damaged.
These protests were triggered by the shooting dead of a 19-year-old Ethiopian man, Solomon Tekah, by an off-duty policeman in the northern town of Kiryat Haim. The policeman saw three teenagers beating up a young boy and he tried to break up the fight. The attackers then turned on the policeman throwing stones at him. Fearing for his, and his wife and children’s safety, he claims he fired a shot at the ground to warn them off and the bullet ricocheted up and killed Tekah.
Since Wednesday there have been some protests and demonstrations but they have on the whole been nonviolent and have not disrupted traffic, largely because the family of the killed man asked protesters to refrain from violence, and respect the 7-day period of mourning for their son. Police also warned protesters they would take stronger measures if demonstrations became violent or disrupted traffic. While most Israelis have sympathy for the Ethiopians who are discriminated against in many ways and have suffered from unacceptable police violence against them, I fear that demonstrations of this kind will turn people against them even more. Furthermore, there is a large number of disaffected youth and anarchists who are only too happy to jump on whatever bandwagon they can find to cause trouble.
That said, this incident is being seen by the Ethiopian community as just the last of a long line of incidents of racism and brutality, carried out especially by the police, against the Ethiopian community in recent years. Some such incidents have been caught on video and widely circulated. Public Security Minister, Gilad Erdan, condemned the intolerable violence by some of the demonstrators, but also said that the protests were “an explosion of pain and rage by teens and many young people who truly feel that they have no future here, and that they are judged by the color of their skin.” He also said “I listened this week for hours to young people from the community and heads of organizations. Their words broke my heart. Talented young men and women, eloquent and erudite, told me of many expressions of racism and humiliation they’ve faced in every step of their lives: In school, in the army, in the job market and yes, to my great sorrow, in police treatment of them as well” (13).
Racism is rife in Israeli society, something that shocked me deeply when I first arrived, given the history of the Jews. On one hand it is not surprising in a society made up of immigrants from all over the world. We all come bringing our own prejudices and attitudes towards the other. I can remember moving into a Yemenite neighborhood, the first ‘Anglo-Saxon’ (as English speakers are known here) to live there. It was not long before a ‘spy’ was sent in, ostensibly to borrow a green pepper. When I saw her inspecting my kitchen closely I asked her what she was doing, she said: ” We thought your house would be much dirtier“. She then told me they believed that ‘Anglo’ homes were filthy. There may be some truth to this claim in their eyes since Yemenite women typically keep their homes spotless and often wash the floors several times a day. I certainly do not do that! We had a good laugh and ended up friends, but it reinforced to me how we all have our prejudices.
The Ethiopians who immigrated to Israel in the 80’s and 90’s have been the target of much discrimination, not the least because they are easily identifiable by the color of their skin. They came mainly from primitive villages in the countryside and were largely uneducated and illiterate. They also tended to be quiet-spoken, unassuming and somewhat passive, contrary to the outgoing, noisy and often aggressive Israelis. This put them at a severe disadvantage economically and socially. Although many young Ethiopians have succeeded admirably becoming doctors, lawyers, reaching high posts in the army and in politics, others are still struggling to integrate. Unemployment in the Ethiopian community is around 13%, three times the national average and on average Ethiopians earn about 1/3 less than the national average (14). Israel must work harder to eradicate these inequalities, and remove the prejudices if we are not to explode from within. We have had a succession of governments that have failed to deal with the many serious social issues within Israeli society. I hope and pray that the September elections will bring in a government that will take these matters seriously.
ARCHAEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
There have been three significant events in the world of archaeology in Israel this past week or so. First, archaeologists broke through the final wall opening up the now-subterranean ‘pilgrimage road’ which Jews in ancient times used to walk from the Pools of Siloam to the Temple Mount (15).
Secondly, the DNA analysis of bones from the ancient Philistine city of Ashkelon confirms the belief that the Philistines were of European origin (16).
Finally, today it was announced that archaeologists have found and identified the ancient Philistine city of Ziklag (17). Ziklag was one of the cities granted to the tribe of Simeon within the territory of Judah (Joshua 15:31, Joshua 19:5). When David fled from King Saul he took refuge with the Philistine King Achish in the city of Gat. King Achish then granted the city of Ziklag to David and David dwelled there one year and four months.
So Achish gave him Ziklag that day. Therefore Ziklag has belonged to the kings of Judah to this day. Now the time that David dwelt in the country of the Philistines was one full year and four months.
I Samuel 27: 6-7
From Ziklag David raided the Geshurites, the Girzites and the Amalekites, and consequently the Amalekites attacked Ziklag and burned it, taking captive all the inhabitants including David’s two wives (I Samuel 30:1) After consulting the LORD, David pursued the Amalekites and succeeded in freeing all the captured people and they returned to Ziklag. David was in Ziklag when he heard the news that King Saul was dead (II Samuel 4: 10). In the book of Nehemiah Ziklag is listed as one of the cities in which dwelt some of the people of Judah who had returned from the Babylonian exile (Nehemiah 11:28).
From 12 July the old Highway 1 entrance to Jerusalem will be blocked for at least 3 years. Traffic will be diverted to other routes into the city. In the long term a new entrance via a tunnel from Motza connecting with Begin Boulevard is hoped to ease the current bottleneck but until construction is complete we are going to experience even more disruption to traffic flow than we are already subject to (18).
Rebuilding Mevo Modiin
A fire on 24 May this year destroyed 40 of the 50 homes in the settlement of Mevo Modiin, also known as the Carlebach Moshav. It was founded by Shlomo Carlebach, popularly known as the ‘singing Rabbi’ and was a haven for Orthodox religious musicians, artists and ‘free spirits’. The fire now believed to have been caused by nationalistic (Palestinian) arson also burned homes in the neighboring Kibbutz Harel, and around 2000 acres of national parkland and public land. The affected people, 60 families, have vowed to rebuild and both the Jewish Agency for Israel and Jewish Federations of North America are offering immediate emergency assistance to the families. In addition the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews said it will provide up to $5,000 in assistance per family (19).
‘Therefore do not fear, O My servant Jacob,’ says the Lord, ‘Nor be dismayed, O Israel; For behold, I will save you from afar, And your seed from the land of their captivity. Jacob shall return, have rest and be quiet, And no one shall make him afraid.
Therefore all those who devour you shall be devoured; And all your adversaries, every one of them, shall go into captivity; Those who plunder you shall become plunder, And all who prey upon you I will make a prey. For I will restore health to you And heal you of your wounds,’ says the Lord.
