Sneaking Toward and Into Jerusalem

And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

The Second Coming,
William Butler Yeats
November 1920

Mark Mackinnon has published an almost literary description of a Muslim pilgrim's trek to reach his holy site in Canada's Globe & Mail entitled, "Going through hell to reach heaven" on Sept. 27 but it lacks two very salient and interelated facts.

The first is that for all his overt sympathy for the Muslim's plight, he does not inform his readers that, on the other side of the coin, Jews are prohibited from praying at the very same site.

They may visit but no overt religious devotional acts are permitted as they are considered a disturbance of the public order which, in reality, means Muslim sensitivities.

The second is that in quoting Mr. Deek saying, "the more of us who go there, the stronger the Islamic side of the argument will be", it should have been emphasized that while Israel at least partially, subject to security considerations, allows tens of thousands of Muslim worshippers there, it acts against its own Jewish self-interests by forbidding any Jewish worship and weakens its own case.

Of course, he didn't know when he penned his piece of this development:-

Arabs Attack Jews near Patriarchs' Cave

(IsraelNN.com) Arabs attacked two Jewish youths with stones and foreign objects Saturday night and then stoned soldiers who were called to rescue them. One of the youths was hospitalized with a broken nose. The attackers escaped.

I guess Muslims attacking Jews to prevent them from reaching another holy site is not newsworthy enough to rate an extensive journalism piece. Or is it?

Mark, if you're reading this, perhaps a story on how Muslims violently and with malice aforethought seek to limit the religious freedom of Jews?


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P.S. I wasn't referring to this song, the lyrics of which are based on Yeats' poem but if you like it, here it is: