The street as theater: Footloose in Jerusalem Jewish Standard Take a look at an interesting article we found.
Visiting Jerusalem can spark a psychotic reaction Toronto Star Take a look at an interesting article we found.
A quiet Saturday in Jerusalem ABC Take a look at an interesting article we found.
Jerusalem Solution Called Unlikely by Year’s End New York Times Take a look at an interesting article we found.
With the "Green" movement gaining momentum, it's time to ask ourselves, who exactly is it benefiting?
 by nachista |
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 by Lady Comrade |
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 by DreadPirateRoberts |
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July 15, 2008
One of the things we like to do most around here is discuss the bigger problems of the day and hear ideas for solutions from you, our ever-creative and common sense-blessed readers. But some problems are seemingly beyond solving, as we're reminded with the anniversary of the sacking of Jerusalem during the First Crusade.
It was on July 15, 1099, that a ragged and exhausted collection of mostly Genoese troops broke through the city's fortifications and went to work slaughtering every Jewish and Muslim inhabitant they could lay hands on. This was hardly the first time, and far from the last, that the holy city and focal point of monotheism served as the stage for religiously inspired violence. But the level of cruelty was exceptional even by local standards, with blood-drunk knights ignoring all please for sanctuary. Relates scribe Fulcher of Chartres:
Indeed, if you had been there you would have seen our feet colored to our ankles with the blood of the slain. But what more shall I relate? None of them were left alive; neither women nor children were spared.
Which seems like a terribly misguided way to sanctify a holy city, but such barbaric fervor seems to follow from having three different major faiths at various points trying to claim more-or-less exclusive access to one small piece of land. The site of Jerusalem has been continuously inhabited since around 4,000 B.C., but it didn't start to become the seat of the world's religious imagination until King David took it over for the Jews in the 11th century B.C.
Since then, it's been a series of occupations, takebacks and reprisals, involving Assyrians, Babylonians, Macedonians, Romans, Persians, Arabs and various bands of Europeans. Eric Cline, author of Jerusalem Besieged, estimates the city has been destroyed twice, besieged 23 times, attacked another 52 times and captured and recaptured 44 times. At various times, all three faiths that claim the city as holy ground have participated in and been targets of mass slaughter.
One begins to understand what Tom Paine was getting at when he claimed: "The whole religious complexion of the modern world is due to the absence from Jerusalem of a lunatic asylum."
There have also been hopeful periods of co-tolerance, most notably the 7th century A.D. rule of the early Islamic caliphs, who protected both Jews and Christians praying at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. But such lulls seem to be the exception.
Nowadays? Israel continues to exert its claim on East Jerusalem, captured in the Six Days War. Fundamentalist Christians dream of the destruction of the Al Asqua Mosque as a precursor to Armageddon. Fringe Jewish groups agitate for reclaiming the entire Temple Mount, while Palestinians magnify the significance of such plots to promote intifada. The city has inspired a whole new category of psychiatric disorder, "Jerusalem syndrome."
So who stays and who goes? Is it possible to accommodate all the widely variant interests attached to Jerusalem? Should one group's prior claims supersede another's? If anyone has answers, we'd love to hear them.
Share the Eye:
Checkpoints in Jerusalem American in Israel and Palestine Take a look at an interesting article we found.
Holy Hip-Hop! Pre-Sabbath Breakdancing in Jerusalem Beliefnet Take a look at an interesting article we found.
On Dividing Jerusalem Peace & Wisdom Take a look at an interesting article we found.
When Sacred Texts Tell Tall Tales Athens and Jerusalem Take a look at an interesting article we found.
still thinking about today...
What's the best possible outcome for Israel?
43% 21% 36% by Holly |
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 by Jonathan Isles |
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 by Jonathan Isles |
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I think Tom Paine summed up the situation in his quoted statement. Jerusalem is a certified nut house.
amoslanka said...
I don't think its possible to truly coexist there. It seems to me that whether the world religions "predict" it or not, religious confrontation is inevitable at some point in the future.
Don't all religions teach, in so many words, the value of being kind to one's neighbor?
One of the definitions of insanity is to do the same thing over and over and expect a different result. This is just insane.
In the case of Jerusalem, it is a menu of various failed, futile and oh so violent actions that have been repeated over and over again for the last three thousand years; all of which have ultimately resulted in massive amounts of pain, suffering, death and destruction while all the participants continue to descend further down a bottomless well of hatred; all in the name of religion and “Godâ€.
I think that any divine, all powerful, merciful and loving entity worth their salt would have packed their bags and left that city a long time ago. If this is truly about religious belief, then it should be obvious to all of the participants that the “Kingdom of Heaven†would be everywhere, not just in some seemingly cursed city of pain. If it is really just about pride and power, well then a peaceful solution to that impasse is just as unlikely.
Perhaps nobody should live in this place. It is truly a shame because I don’t think you can get there from here.
Spinner said...
And who knows. With the instability of the area and the increasing radicalism of the various sects, no matter from which basic branch of the religious tradition they come, and remember, the three do come from the same tree trunk, the point becomes increasingly more of a chance that who "wins" will be a moot point. The site of Jerusalem could end up being simply a very large radioactive crater. A horrifying thought, but the chances seem to get graver every day. Howz that for a pessimistic outlook on just how well "religion" can solve life's problems? Let's hope that basic human civility, rather than religion can get the upper hand before that scenario comes about...I honestly doubt it.
I really still don't understand what's so rich about this particular city in the Middle East.
Has anyone ever really found Solomans mines,t emple or riches? Is this power struggle really over bragging rights or the fact that Solomons treasures are on some piece of real estate & whoever finds them wins?
I do understnad that people are stubborn but the fact that in one of the most repsected places by most all the major religions in the world that the folks can't seem to get along & try to live by the golden rule which most religions also teach, really leaves me to agree with everyone else.
Their is at this point in time no solution to this particular 3,000 year old problem. Perhaps making the area another "Love Canal" isn't such a bad solution for the rest of society....
When you have unruly children fighting over an object and refusing to share, you take it away from all of them. I propose we solve two problems by making Jerusalem a nuclear waste dump.
Dear me, isn't the object of the exercize of religion to be able to see the child of God in every other person we meet? The striving factions in Jerusalem have been struggling with step one for centuries now. We've had lots of smiting our enemies, maybe a little loving out neighbor is in order. I wonder if the major players want to win because the site is so sacred or simply to keep any of the others from winning. How can this place still be sacred when it's been treated so disrespectfully by most concerned? 'just wondering.