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A MORNING WALK IN JERUSALEM
This past week the city of Jerusalem in its wisdom decided to install new curbs around the boulevard island on the street where I reside. As is usual in the municipality of Jerusalem most of the workers (there were six in all) working on the new curbs were Arabs living in Jerusalem. They were working on the project for two whole days and to tell you the absolute truth, I did not notice much of a difference at the end of the work from the original curbing that they replaced.
I passed them numerous times walking from my house to the synagogue and to attend to my daily errands. I even greeted them and they – with a very shocked look on their faces - responded in kind. As I passed by them during their two days of work outside of my home I began to think about their lives and situation.
I am certain that they appreciate having a job and that as municipal employees they have considerable benefits accruing to them. Jerusalem’s Arabs are free to go where they wish in the city. They are found in large numbers in Jerusalem’s health facilities, parks, malls and commercial districts. They do not have the look of an oppressed people.
Large numbers of Jerusalem’s taxis are owned and operated by Arabs and all major construction projects use predominantly Arab labor. They receive family stipends from Israel’s Social Security system and attend Jerusalem’s universities and technological schools in large numbers. So I wondered to myself whether given a really free choice they would opt to forego their current Israeli status and choose to live under Abass’ less than benign rule.
Their standard of living and personal rights would certainly decline. But the policy makers rarely take into account the true wishes and benefits of the ordinary citizen when making policy. I did not have the temerity to ask them directly what their choice would be if such a scenario would arise, assuming that they would have any choice at all, but it certainly left me wondering about the so-called justice of ideological and political causes and its practical effect on the lives of ordinary human beings, who basically desire a living for their family and personal freedoms.
On my walk to the synagogue every morning I also regularly encounter a number of Israeli governmental security personnel. The neighborhood of Rechavia is home to the Prime Minister’s office, the President’s mansion and the dwellings of a number of cabinet members. As such, it is well patrolled and heavily scrutinized by the security arm of the government.
Every morning, every automobile parked in my block is examined thoroughly by these security personnel. The undersides of the automobiles are looked at and license plates are checked against the computer database for stolen or suspicious vehicles. Again, I greet the security men with a morning good wish but rarely, if ever, do I receive an acknowledgment let alone a response.
The security people eyed the Arab workers last week suspiciously but I did not notice any interaction with them. The Arab workers nonchalantly continued building the curb paying no heed to the security personnel present in the area. They were treated as part of the usual landscape of the neighborhood.
I thought to myself that in a perfect world of true peace and mutual understanding and civilized behavior, the security men would be out of work but the Arabs would have unlimited opportunities of employment. In a twisted and perverted sense, it is the Arabs who provide so much employment for the Israelis. If there were no justified fear of Arab terrorism then Israel could dispense with most of these security personnel guarding our political elite.
Thus we have entered into a symbiotic relationship, the Jews and Arabs of Jerusalem, a type of Gordian knot that ties us together in a strange and almost insoluble dilemma of weird practicality and difficult choices
Eventually my morning walk brings me to the synagogue for morning prayers. The prayers include special requests for Jerusalem, for Jewish sovereignty, for good health and physical economic success and for peace. We are all naïve enough to believe that somehow health, prosperity, sovereignty and the like are within our human hands to achieve.
However, peace and the attendant fallout that it would bring to all concerned seem to be reserved for Heaven to achieve. Peace to be real must be practical and not just theoretical. It requires hearts touched by the Divine spirit within us. And it requires a hardheaded assessment of the practicalities required to make it work.
Perhaps I think too much on my morning walk to the synagogue. Strangely but understandably, I feel much better walking home from the synagogue than I did on my walk there. I have confidence that Heaven will help us sort out the problems of peace – let it only arrive.
