Ein Kerem

Ein Kerem recognised by the Christian world as the birthplace of John the Baptist attracts large numbers of tourists, both followers of Jesus and others Although it is officially incorporated in Greater Jerusalem the village still retains much of its pastoral character. My visit there last Friday was timed to coincide with Easter mainly for the experience of seeing Ein Kerem packed with pilgrims. A choice only a masochist would make unless he wanted to feel the pulse of the place and see the winding processions making their way from one holy site to another. By the Church of the Visitation we passed a large group of Spanish pilgrims led by their priest. Chanting the "Magnificat" in unison as they filed along the road to Mary's Spring.

This village with its liberal sprinkling of churches, monasteries and one holy spring has a charm of its own. There's also a mosque by Mary's spring, a late 19^th century afterthought commemorating the Caliph Omar's stop there on his way to conquer Jerusalem.

Watching the Spanish pilgrims chanting while bells chimed from a church belfry nearby I could not but admire their fervour.

General Charles Gordon too was charmed by Ein Kerem. He lived here for three months in 1883. Gordon a great admirer of John the Baptist shared the religious fervour and the same fate as the forerunner of Jesus of Nazareth. Two years after he stayed in Ein Kerem he was beheaded in Khatoum in an act of religious fervour by the Mahdi's soldiers. A mulberry tree planted by the general in the courtyard of the sheikh's house near the present day music centre is a living link with his stay in Ein Kerem.

The following hyperlink opens a video I made of the visit to Ein Kerem:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRtaVgUqpqI

This week the prime minister ruled to reverse an earlier cabinet decision to relocate the planned construction of a reinforced emergency room at Ashkelon’s Barzilai Medical Centre. On two occasions I've mentioned the incident of the "Byzantine bones" found at the site of the planned ER. Initially the decision to relocate the emergency room would have caused great inconvenience and unnecessary expense. The prime minister's righting of this wrong made amends for his earlier yielding to pressure from extreme Orthodox groups, notably the "Eda Hardit."

Although an Antiquities Authority announcement determined that the graves were “unequivocally pagan,” a spokesperson for the Eda Haredit stressed that some of the archaeological evidence upon which the statement was based did not necessarily lead to the conclusion that the graves were solely pagan.
"Further digs at other parts of the site," the spokesperson said, "could theoretically uncover Jewish bones." Consequently this religious alignment which is more attuned to the Dark Ages than our times plans to block main road arteries in protest of Netanyahu’s change of mind. I would like to block a few of their arteries!

In this country there’s a rule of thumb worthwhile bearing in mind. Be careful when you dig in areas where the top soil is shallow. Under the surface layers of soft rock- limestone etc., may have been used to excavate burial caves.

Faced with the ever growing threat of a nuclear armed Iran Israel is developing effective “defence shields” and deterrents. Our defence industries had very humble beginnings.

Between 1946 and 1948 towards the end of the British Mandate the "Haganah" built and operated a large clandestine munitions factory under a “fake” kibbutz. Above ground what appeared to be a kibbutz hid the “Ayalon Institute” eight metres below the surface. During the two years it operated the “Institute “produced 2,500,000 9mm bullets mostly for Sten guns

The modern defence industry in Israel was set in motion in the early 1920s. Faced by an increasingly hostile Arab population, the Jewish community began to manufacture homemade hand grenades and explosives. Israel Military Industries (IMI) was founded in 1933, as a secret small-arms plant. After the establishment of the State in 1948, it was operated by the Ministry of Defence, developing and manufacturing assault weapons - from the classic Uzi sub-machine gun to the Tavor assault rifle - heavy ammunition, aircraft and rocket systems, armoured vehicles like the Merkava tank

The major catalyst for Israel's metamorphosis from a small-arms manufacturer to a producer of sophisticated military systems came after the Six Day War . During the war, France imposed an embargo on arms sales to Israel

Today there are more than 150 defence related industries in Israel, with combined annual revenues of an estimated $3.5 billion. The three largest entities are the government-owned IAI, IMI and the Rafael Arms Development Authority, all of which produce a wide range of conventional arms and advanced defence electronics. The medium-sized privately owned companies include Elbit Systems and the Tadiran Group, which focus mainly on defence electronics. The smaller firms produce a narrower range of products. In all, the industry employs close to 50,000 people, all of whom share a commitment to high levels of research and development and the ability to make use of the IDF's combat experience.

Christian Science Monitor correspondent Sarah Birke reported on threats closer to home when she referred to a radio interview given by President Shimon Peres following the main Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial commemoration on Monday. "Syria claims it wants peace while at the same time it delivers Scud [missiles] to Hezbollah, whose only goal is to threaten the state of Israel,” said President Peres. The president’s’ accusation was substantiated by a report in the Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Rai al-Aam .

While the report did not specify which type of Scud missiles were sent, even the shorter-range ones can reach targets in most of Israel.

Syria's alleged arming of Hezbollah may be an attempt to force the US to make good on its promises of renewing diplomatic ties after a four-year hiatus. In a broader Obama administration push for a comprehensive Middle East peace deal, the US had announced last summer that it would send an ambassador to Syria. But Ambassador Robert Ford, picked for the post, has yet to be approved by the Senate.

Joshua M. Landis, Director of the Center for Middle East Studies and Associate Professor of Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Oklahoma proffered the following analysis - “I would assume Syria is transferring weapons to Hezbollah and doing so now because it is a critical moment in which the US is facing a choice. Washington is starting to engage with Syria and having to reconsider its relationship with Israel in the light of recent insults by Israel. Given this, Syria is ramping up the ante to show it is not weak and cannot be ignored. “Hezbollah has been the only real challenge to Israel in the Middle East. It is Syria’s only card because it has been stopped from equipping its own army,” said Landis who is openly sympathetic to Syria especially when he has to go home to his Syrian wife.
Sarah Birke proposed another possibility, “Syria may also be testing the US to see whether it will withstand Israeli opposition to its attempt to woo Syria away from Iran. Damascus is afraid that if it does not apply pressure, the US will focus on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and ignore the return of the Golan. The border with Syria has long been Israel’s least troublesome boundary

Ayman Abdel Nour, a Syrian political analyst says “Arming Hezbollah is in the interests of national security [Syrian] as Israel ramps up pressure on the US to step back from engagement with Syria. Though I have no evidence of the current allegations, it is no secret that when Syrian troops left Lebanon they gave arms to Hezbollah and it supports them in the media and politically.”

Birke adds, “By most accounts, Hezbollah has successfully rearmed since the 2006 war with Israel. The group not only has more rockets today than it did on the eve of that war, but has extended their range.”

Syrian officials denied the Israeli allegation and said the timing of today’s statement was a cynical attempt by Israel to take the focus away from other fronts and thwart US engagement.

“These reports are part of a campaign to demonize Syria at a time when a super power like the US is trying to engage with Syria positively to achieve peace in the Middle East,” said a Syrian diplomat in London who asked not to be identified.

Reflecting on the visit to Ein Kerem, the Holocaust Day commemoration and the existentialist threats we face, our reluctance to accept guarantees for our national security is understandable. We cannot afford to turn the other cheek.

When we doubt promises to back and support this enclave of democracy in the Middle East our critics rebuke us – “Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith?”

After the Holocaust we have good reason not to place our trust in princes, even in the promises of the major powers, western and others.

The Arabs complain that they too are victims of the Holocaust . Historians argue whether the Holocaust was a deciding factor in the creation of the state of Israel.

“The Holocaust won't protect Israel forever, “says journalist Nehemia Shtrasler. “The world feels guilty because the murder of Europe's Jews was unprecedented in the annals of humankind. There has been no shortage of atrocities throughout history, but a pre-planned liquidation according to a well-thought-out programme aimed at wiping an entire nation off the earth - that had not yet occurred.
The countries of the West also feel guilty because they did not agree to open their gates to refugees from Germany and Austria before World War II. They also refrained from intervening in 1942, when the acts of annihilation were already known. They did not bomb, even once, the railroad lines leading to the gas chambers and crematoria or the death camp itself, although there were thousands of air raids and tens of thousands of bombs dropped near Auschwitz while the Nazi death machine was killing and burning the bodies of 12,000 Jews every day.
The cruel truth is that no one really cared. Hundreds of years of anti-Jewish propaganda, persecution, pogroms and expulsions prepared the ground for the hatred. “

Nehemia Shtrasler warns, “It's true that it was not the 6 million victims who established the state, but they have supplied it with a flak jacket over the years. That flak jacket has worn thin.”

Beni 15^th of April, 2010.