Mesusot küssen

"It's easy to blame the right-wing politicians who are instigating a war over this crazy hill, but they're not the main ones to blame. In a society where the number of people kissing mezuzahs constantly rises, where religion and state are bound in a mixture of folklore and hatred of others, right-wing politicians know that their actions will benefit them politically."
Es sei verrückt, Ereignisse, die vor Tausenden von Jahren geschehen sein könnten, mit der aktuellen politischen Realität zu verbinden, meint Gideon Levy, "The Temple Mount: Israel's tale of loons and darkness", Haaretz (9. November).

Rechtsstaat

"Zionismus ist der Holocaust der jüdischen Nation", Plakat in Mea Shearim

"Tod den Zionisten", Graffiti in Mea Shearim

"Teilnahme an den Wahlen verboten", Graffiti in Mea Shearim

"Israel is a nation of law. Whoever violates the law will be punished severely. (...) I have instructed the Interior Minister to use all means, including evaluating the possibility of revoking the citizenship of those who call for the destruction of the State of Israel."

Ministerpräsident Benjamin Netanjahu (9. November)

the language we speak

"In keeping silent in the days leading up to murder of Rabin we had sinned. (...) Almost two decades have past since, but violence has not desisted. It's inside us, rearing its head and towering over us, claiming its place. (...) Violence is present not just at schools, on social media and on football pitches: it's inside us. It's in the language we speak, our choice of words, manner of arguing, in our inability to lend an ear."
Die Sprache der Gewalt reisse Israel in den Abgrund, beklagte Präsident Reuven Rivlin am Samstag bei einer Gedenkveranstaltung für den 1995 ermordeten Premierminister Jitzhak Rabin (i24-news, 8. November)

Joint Intifada

"Jerusalem does need an intifada however. It needs the young generation of secular and modern Orthodox and Haredi and Palestinian communities to get together and demand that both sides stop treating the city as a hostage to political fortune. It needs an intifada of shared radical protests for affordable housing, decent schools and employment (...)
Jerusalem can’t wait. The only hope for the city is for its residents to get together, ignore their politicians and begin to work on a joint future. The politicians on all sides have failed our city. Maybe one day they will get around to marking borders and solving sovereignty issues; meanwhile, we have to live here."

Wenn es keinen politischen Willen für eine endgültige Lösung gibt, könnte man wenigstens damit anfangen, sich zusammen für ein besseres Funktionieren Jerusalems einzusetzen, findet Anshel Pfeffer (Haaretz, 7. November)

Blind date mit Jerusalem

"The myth was wrong even before the paratroopers got to the Western Wall in June 1967. It was already wrong before the war, when Naomi Shemer's song 'Jerusalem of Gold' described the Old City as being empty, waiting for the Jewish people to come back to it.
But the city isn't the myth. It's entirely more human, complicated and contradictory, which is its real beauty. If someone set you up with a blind date who was supposedly an enchanted princess or prince and a real person showed up, please, be angry with the matchmaker and with yourself for believing nonsense. It's not the date's fault."
Gershom Gorenberg in seiner Liebeserklärung an Jerusalem "How to love the real Jerusalem" (Haaretz, 6. November). Die Verachtung, Israels Linke Jerusalem entgegenbringe, sei der Grund, warum es ihr nicht gelinge, mehr Israelis im Kampf gegen die Besatzung zu vereinen.