Trip to East Jerusalem October 30, 2011

Sunday Oct 30, Trip to East Jerusalem or better just Jerusalem on the eastern side from Stan with his personal views:
We took a tour with Beit Orot. But first Last night I read to Roberta from a book on Jewish writings which includes Pirke Avot, 'Ethics of our Fathers' and read what Simon the High Priest ,at the time of Alexander the Great ,who had the name 'Simon the Just' or in better 'Simon the Holy One' or in Hebrew 'Simon the Tzadik.' Incredibly, where is the first place we see on the tour, but Simon the Tzadik's tomb. What did Simon the Tzadik say still relevant to this day: ” By three things is the world sustained, by the Law, by Service, and by Loving kindness.” His tomb north of the Temple Mount (and the old City) is definitely known even located in the Talmud. People are praying here 24/7. Simon is also very famous for saving the Jewish people from Alexander the Great when his army he headed approached Jerusalem and Simon went out in his full High Priest Garments and Breast Plate etc. and to meet Alexander. Everyone told Simon you will be killed first. Instead, Alexander rode up to Simon and got off his horse and bowed down to Simon. Alexander's generals said you are crazy, let's kill him and march in and kill everyone and burn the city and then rebuild it. Alexander explained that the had a dream for the 7 previous nights of this person dressed in great robes coming to greet him and Simon was that person. So Jerusalem was saved and Alexander the Great was revered by the Jewish people. The story continues in that every place he conquered or visited a large statute of himself was placed in the most holy or important site. In Jerusalem, this would have been the Temple but this was an impossible location for the Jews. The rabbis sent a delegation to him asking to instead honor him by naming every male born for a year, Alexander. He agreed and so Alexander became a Jewish name and the Jews flourished under Alexander's reign which unfortunately didn't last long. They are trying to build housing around this tomb site also.
This organization is Beit Orot ( House of Light) funded in 1990s(?) by Dr. Irving Mosowitz of LA who wanted a Jewish presence in Eastern Jerusalem on the Mount of Olives. Jews lived in Eastern Jerusalem until 1929 when the Grand Mufti started a riot here resulting in 20 Jews being killed by a mob that spread all over the country. In Hebron, about 100 Jews were killed. The result was the British had a commission that recommended and carried out the forced transfer of all Jews to the other side of Jerusalem. So this group is buying property and developing it as apartments for families in the same neighborhoods where Jews lived until 1929. We visited their main complex a large old building that before 1929 was a wedding site and Bar Mitzvah site since it had an incredible view of the Old City and the surrounding valley. This property was purchased in 1991 from a Swedish Christian woman is is now a yeshiva founded by Rabbi Channa Porat. Porat was a paratrooper in the 1967 war who came by the road very close to this property on the way to liberating the Old City. The platoon commander was Giora Ashkenazi a secular Jew who was killed in the combat and the Yeshiva in dedicated to him by Porat the second in command. Porat went on to become a Rabbi, Torah Scholar, and member of the Knesset. Interestingly Ashkenazi's grandchildren studied at this yeshiva, that is a special type called Dati-Leumi Religious Zionist with students there for 1.5 years, then the Army for 1.5 years and then back to the school for 2y(?) and then back to the Army for 3-5 years. They become officers and is one reason Israel has done so well fighting is that they have highly educated and dedicated men as religious Zionists officers. The view was great but the inside of the old building needs a lot of work and yet they have 150 students in this program.. There were four apartment buildings going up next door where here the property was acquired through many intermediators to save the original Arab owner from being killed by his countryman (as has happened). Most amazing is the construction crew that is all Israeli Arabs working for a Jewish contractor. Jews do not like working in building trades so Arabs do this work.
Beit Orot(light) takes its name from the fact the sun rises and shines on the Mount of Olives (hill really) first before the Old City. We then drove to the other side of the Mount of Olives and saw the second oldest Jewish cemetery in the world with hundreds of thousands of tombs going back more than 2200 years. There is only one person who has the record of where everyone is buried and that is an old Arab man whose family has had this job for generations. Part is in his head and part written down somewhere. We were going to meet him but he wasn't near his car and probably out showing some a family member's grave, as he did the week before for the guide's wife's grandfather site in a 20 minute hike.

Obviously this work of putting a Jewish presence in the midst of Arabs is very controversial. They are trying to make it difficult to have the eastern part of Jerusalem given to the Arabs as their capitol. However a few hundred Jews living in this area is insignificant compared to the other settlements/ villages/ towns really surrounding Jerusalem. For instance, east of Jerusalem, not in Israel claimed Jerusalem, is Ma'ale Adummim that has 39,000 people. What will happen to this and other communities on the Judean desert? Oh I forgot from Hebrew University which is in this area we saw the Dead Sea on the horizon. Neat but the country is so narrow one could almost see both sides from one place.
The communities always in the news are Gilo and Har Homa which are south of the Jewish area of Jerusalem but in East Jerusalem only because the fighting stopped along this line in 1948. Since 1967 Israel built large communities in the hill top now with maybe hundred of thousands of residents. These can not even be considered not part of Jerusalem. Both Prime Ministers Omert and Barak made incredible offers to the Palestinians for east Jerusalem as their capitol which were rejected. The current and future Prime Ministers not only can't improve this offer but more likely will not repeat it. So I can't see a solution other than giving them land really east of Jerusalem and letting them call it whatever they want. This could connect Ramallah and Bethelem areas they control already. Also one should remember that polls repeatedly show that Arabs in east Jerusalem want to stay under Israel control and not get under the PA authority. Only time will determine when the Palestinians leaders really want peace and want to get along with a Jewish Israel for their own benefit. Shalom/peace