Six Arabs were arrested this weekend in connection with the widely publicized attack of two Ultra Orthodox youths by a group of Arab thugs on January 10^th.

The two Jews were walking out of Old City through the Shechem (Damascus) Gate when they were ambushed by a group of Arabs who physically assaulted them, as well as taking their streimels (hats), smashing them with snow, generally ridiculing them, all the while shouting “Allahu Akbar”, as they filmed the humiliating attack.

The arrest of the six follows the earlier arrest of another three participants in the attack. The remand of the first three has been extended by four days.

The police were initially hesitant about investigating the attack, and the victims themselves did not lodge an official complaint, explaining they felt the complaint would not be useful. Public pressure, generated especially through the social media, motivated the police to investigate the incident, and they have now announced that all assailants have been apprehended.

One of the victims told of what he experienced: “Dozens of Arabs surrounded us and began to throw snow at us. They played with our hats, knocked them down, punched us and kicked us in the face and on the back. We were two against tens, and could do nothing. I was sure I was not going to survive. I was drenched from the snow, and surrounded by Arabs, and no one helped.”

Two months ago, I went up to Har Habayit with Feiglin. The police, as usual, gave us a spiritual strip search and told us that any act of prayer would start a thermonuclear war within seconds led by Muhammad himself  and his army of 72 virgins. These virgins, we were told in our debriefing, were all armed with sharp talons dipped in snake venom for which there is no antivenin. Shiites and Sunnis, they continued, would unite globally in stopping the horror of Jewish prayer. Syrians would cease killing each other just to stop us from singing. Oil fields throughout the gulf would be set ablaze and the Caliphate would suddenly materialize and we would all drown in a deafening cacophony of Allahu Akbars.

So after the police saved the world yet again by making sure the Jews didn’t pray up there, we went up. There is one point along the eastern side where Feiglin looks over an edge into a walkway for yet another mosque and we usually see a pile of old wood. This wood is petrified and has been radioactively dated to the time of the First Temple. On that day two months ago we all looked down and saw this:

In the front you can see the ancient wood. In the back you can see it burning in a trash can. That day two months ago, we all looked over that rail and Feiglin said to us, “This may be your last chance to see the surviving wood from the First Temple.” Apparently, they saw that we were interested in the wood, so they started burning it. Among the very last things we were thinking about doing was thanking the police for doing nothing about this and thereby preventing a world war.

Feiglin was then suddenly escorted by one of the policemen. Allegedly, he had prayed. I was with him the whole time and hadn’t noticed any prayers. Maybe the police have a psychic on the Temple Mount security staff. You need extra security when you’re saving the world. He was arrested, his fingerprints forcibly taken, but a judge ordered him released without preconditions.

That was two months ago. This time, when we went to the same spot, the same policeman who had escorted Feiglin out two months before insisted on showing us this:

This shows the surviving pile of the same wood covered with a plastic sheet to protect it from the rain. We didn’t know there was any left. We thought they had burned it all. But apparently they hadn’t. And the police wanted to show us that they were protecting artifacts. And in turn risking the rise of the Caliphate. Sarcasm aside, our hearts jumped, and we were happy. We don’t know how long it will last there before they burn the rest of it.

A few minutes later, the police were out of site, and one from our group informed Feiglin that while they weren’t looking, he had the opportunity for a quick prostration to his Creator if he wished. The Temple Mount is the only place on the planet where a Jew is allowed halachically to prostrate himself with no barrier between him and the floor. The particular area was secluded, walled on three sides, out of view of everyone. So he took the opportunity and did a quick bow, got up, and kept walking. That was it.

It was not a political statement or a planned exercise in disobedience. It was a spontaneous act of religious devotion meant to provoke no one. Feiglin is not very good at making calculated political statements about anything. He’s not much of a politician. He just does and says what he thinks is right.

A few minutes later Feiglin was escorted by the same policeman from the Temple Mount. Apparently, there was an undercover cop with us who saw his little stunt. The undercover cop, not wishing to pass up the chance to save the planet, reported it.

A few hours later, Feiglin was again released from police custody with no preconditions.

Now the police are recommending that he be put on trial for trying to bring about Armageddon by prostrating himself off the cuff in a secluded area on the Temple Mount.

Extremist indeed. Why do I even hang out with these people?

Visit Settlers of Samaria.

This is an important summary of the Clinton Parameters:

…Dennis Ross published a map describing Israeli and Palestinian territories codified under the 2000 Clinton parameters, with Ma’aleh Adumim explicitly labeled as Israeli and connected to Jerusalem via the E1 corridor…The disposition of E1 and Ma’aleh Adumim in the Clinton Parameters reflected more than half a decade of Israeli understandings embraced by governments from across the political spectrum. In October 1994 during the beginning of the Oslo Accords, then-Labor prime minister Yitzhak Rabin declared that a “united Jerusalem” would include Ma’aleh Adumim, and he even provided then-mayor Benny Kashriel with annexation documents for E1. In 1996 then-Labor prime minister Shimon Peres reaffirmed the Israeli government’s position that Israel would demand sovereignty over Ma’aleh Adumim and was backed by dovish politician and co-author of the Geneva Initiative, Yossi Beilin. Later, in 2008 then-Kadima prime minister Ehud Olmert and then-foreign minister Tzipi Livni demanded that Ma’aleh Adumim remain a part of Israel…

Those parameters included this:-

Jerusalem: The general principle is that Arab areas are Palestinian and Jewish ones are Israeli.  This would apply to the Old City as well.

“Apply to the Old City as well” means that the reference is to the Old Cityin addition to the other areas, including those Israel considers Greater Jerusalem.

As noted here, the parameters as regards Jerusalem concluded:-

4. Four “fair and logical propositions” regarding Jerusalem: (a) It should be an open and undivided city, with assured freedom of access and worship for all, encompassing the internationally recognized capitals of two States, Israel and Palestine, (b) “[W]hat is Arab should be Palestinian” and (c) “what is Jewish should be Israeli”, while (d) “what is holy to both requires a special care to meet the needs of all”, with “mutual respect for the religious beliefs and holy shrines of Jews, Muslims and Christians”.

Well, since Maaleh Adumim is “Jewish” and E1 has been on trhe planning boards for ages, this formula, ”what is Jewish should be Israeli”, should indicate that this is all a media generated storm.

Moreover, contiguity can be achieved by tunnels.  After all, the Pals. wamnt to connect Gaza to Judea and Samaria.  Would that not ‘cut off’ parts of Israel one from another?

Obama retreated and reneged on the Bush Letter and now the Clinton Parameters, and he’s angry?

P.S.  According to Dan Kurtzer,

The U.S. Administration intensified criticism of Israel’s decision to proceed with construction at the E-1 site near Ma’ale Adumim in response to indications that the move was meant to “retaliate” against U.S. President Barack Obama for his refusal to endorse the 2004 Sharon-Bush letter on settlement blocs.

P.P.S.  This Peace Now claim

Construction of E-1 would jeopardize the hopes for a two-state solution.  It would, by design, block off the narrow undeveloped land corridor which runs east of Jerusalem and which is necessary for any meaningful future connection between the southern and the northern parts of the West Bank.

is, as you suspected, er, misleading.  ”Block off” ?  Couldn’t a tunnel fix that easily enough?  Couldn’t a road 5 miles east provide contiguity?  Wait, the Allon Road could do that as it already exists (see this detail from a B’tselem map):-

And look at this byway, south of Jerusalem, which proves there are alternatives.

Visit My Right Word.

The picturesque Nachlaot neighbourhood in Jerusalem started out as what we might call today ‘social housing’. From 1875 onwards benefactors such as Moses Montefiore began building new neighbourhoods outside the walls of the Old City to house the growing Jewish population and relieve some of the overcrowding and squalor of the Jewish Quarter. Thus, Nachlaot is in fact a cluster of fused neighbourhoods, with each one originally having a specific ethnic character and its own synagogue.

After the War of Independence the neighbourhood absorbed many refugees expelled by the Jordanians from the Old City, as well as new immigrants from North Africa, and over-crowding and poverty became rife. Those who could moved out to the city’s newer neighbourhoods. A major renovation project in the 1990s updated Nachlaot with facilities such as modern plumbing and today the neighbourhood’s narrow lanes, archways and hidden courtyards lend it a charm which has made it popular once again.

Visit CifWatch.com.

HNN reports that during a search of a house in the Moslem Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem the police discovered 2 pistols, a pipe bomb, a stun grenade and Hamas flags.

Two suspects were arrested.

Hundreds of Israeli Arabs protested outside Sha’ar Shchem (Damascus Gate) in Jerusalem on Friday. Four people were arrested as the crowd tried to march towards the US Consulate. Hundreds more Arabs protested in Yafo against the ‘Innocence’ film.

The US has forbidden any government personnel to enter the Old City of Jerusalem today.

The US Government has forbidden government personnel from visiting the Old City of Jerusalem on Friday, and is restricting their travel within Judea and Samaria too (no information if that restriction also includes Jerusalem neighborhoods such as Gilo and Har Homa).

The US also recommends that all US citizens stay far away from (presumably Arab) demonstrations today, as they expect they may get violent.

Consulate General of the United States of America

JERUSALEM                               September 14, 2012

Security Message for U.S. Citizens: Possible Demonstrations in the Old City

The U.S. Consulate General in Jerusalem advises U.S. citizens that due to the possibility of demonstrations on Friday, September 14, the Old City of Jerusalem is off-limits to U.S. Government personnel that day.

U.S. citizens are advised to defer non-essential travel to the Old City and to generally exercise an extra measure of caution.

We remind U.S. citizens that due to the possibility of demonstrations throughout the West Bank, the U.S. Consulate General has limited both official and personal travel in the West Bank until further notice.

U.S. citizens are advised to defer non-essential travel to, and within, the West Bank and to exercise an extra measure of caution.

We also take this opportunity to remind U.S. citizens that demonstrations, even peaceful ones, can turn violent with little or no warning.  U.S. citizens should be aware of their surroundings at all times, and avoid large crowds.

It’s election season, so Republicans can’t be blamed for expressing outrage when the political platform at last week’s Democratic National Convention removed support for Jerusalem being the capital of Israel.

Nevertheless, all the political fodder seemed disingenuous. Just a week before, nobody even noticed when the GOP’s own platform dropped its prior call for Jerusalem being Israel’s united capital – by removing the word “undivided.”

For many, support for a political party is eternal, like loyalty to a sports team. So Democrats faithfully recite talking points about President Obama being a great friend of Israel, Republicans pretend the Iraq war was a good idea, and Mets fans continue to watch Jason Bay.

On the surface, it’s good that the biggest immediate challenge to Israel’s status in Jerusalem is a few omitted words in a political platform.

But daunting threats are on the horizon, which will require Jerusalem’s supporters in the United States to do much more than play politics. A principled stance that holds everyone accountable, regardless of party affiliation, will be essential.

It may sound like a cliché, but it’s still true: For 3,000 years, Jerusalem has been the center of the Jewish world. The city was desolate for two millennia, but Jews everywhere prayed, hoped and dreamed to return there. Jerusalem is where the British banned the blowing of the shofar at the Western Wall; where the Jewish Quarter fell in 1948, as Jews were expelled and banned from the Old City for 19 years; where, in what was one of the most dramatic days in modern history, the dreams of Jewish sovereignty over our most treasured places were suddenly realized in June 1967; and where, less than a decade ago, routine bombs on buses, in cafes and in the streets left the center square virtually empty once again.

The dangers of the shofar being banned at the Western Wall, of Jews again losing access to the Old City, or of renewed mass murder in Jerusalem’s streets are real, not mere paranoia.

The world has decided that for the sake of peace, Jerusalem will be divided. But in fact, while it might be possible for Israel to cede sovereignty over outlying Arab neighborhoods added to the city’s municipal boundaries in 1967, the idea of dividing the Old City is delusional at best. Yet due to the egregious concessions offered by Ehud Barak and Ehud Olmert at the end of their failed prime ministerial tenures – concessions that were soundly rejected by Israelis – the international community assumes the delusional to be inevitable.

This is why both Republican and Democrat support for united Jerusalem has steadily eroded, as reflected in both of their party platforms. Fixing the platforms and having a celebratory l’chaim is not the answer. The platforms are the sounding of an alarm, conveying that something must be done to shift the pendulum back in Jerusalem’s favor.

It’s long past time to return to substance and explain why Jerusalem must remain united. Anybody who has spent time in Jerusalem knows it would be absurd for Jews to expect to enter the State of Palestine at Jaffa Gate, safely walk or drive in Palestine from there to the Western Wall, and then return to the state of Israel in western Jerusalem. Yet this is just what all the so-called peace plans call for – even though polls show that Jerusalem’s Arab residents prefer Israeli control over united Jerusalem to a divided city that could be an even worse place to live than Belfast or Sarajevo.

Those of us who oppose partition of Jerusalem are often derided as opponents of peace. But none other than Yitzhak Rabin, just months before he was murdered by Yigal Amir, understood that dividing Jerusalem was not a path to peace. Leaving no doubt, Rabin emphasized, “if they told us that peace is the price of giving up on a united Jerusalem under Israeli sovereignty, my reply would be ‘let’s do without peace.’ ”

When a few weeks after the attacks of September 11, 2001, the Bush administration indicated it would pressure Israel to accept the division of Jerusalem, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon angrily proclaimed, “Do not try to placate the Arabs at our expense. Israel will not be Czechoslovakia.”