JERUSALEM
How is it that people slaughter each other instead of getting up and going to work and cooking dinner and seeing a movie and going for a drive and playing with their kids and feeding the dog and reading a book? Not just in Israel and Palestine of course but they certainly do their share of the slaughtering.
The latest hideousness in Jerusalem by deranged killers fed a line of religious crap just ups the ante one more time. Granted there’s reason for anger on both sides and enough murder to go around but this butchery in the synagogue, like the general neighborhood beheadings, is beyond easy comprehension even in our extremely violent world.
And guess what is at the heart of it all. On all sides. Yes. Religion. There have been wars and fights and brutal skirmishes not caused by religion. Just not that many.
On the other hand religion has been responsible for some grand and glorious buildings. And on the Palestinian hillsides some ordinary housing which it turns out is ground zero for a good share of the hatred leading up to this latest monstrous event. But then it seems like Islam can drum up enough hatred to cover any situation.
Ah well. Christians, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists continue touting your beliefs one bullet at a time.
A few years ago I spent a a little time in Jerusalem with a day out and about in Palestine ending up in Ramallah. Jerusalem is one of the most interesting cities I’ve ever visited…the buildings, the wide array of humankind, the food, the history (bloody as it is) and experiencing the checkpoints crossing into Palestine and being taken to Yasser Arafat’s tomb and viewing the settlements and back over to normal everyday seeming Tel Aviv and back to beautiful Jerusalem.
It was brilliant and moving and sad. Here are a few photos.
Yes Marj, all these fights, bullets and more between Arabs and Jews are awfull just because of religion but there also several examples of past peaceful cohabitation between the two cultures in Europe from as back as the midddle ages so why so much terror now?