Israel Matzav: Grandpa destroyed all synagogues in 'east' Jerusalem, Grandson doesn't want them rebuilt

Grandpa destroyed all synagogues in 'east' Jerusalem, Grandson doesn't want them rebuilt

Sixty-two years ago, the army of his grandfather, who was also called Abdullah, destroyed dozens of synagogues in Jerusalem's Old City, overturned gravestones on the Mount of Olives and used them for latrines and to to pave the walkway to the Intercontinental Hotel. The eastern half of the City of Jerusalem was made judenrein. Jews, from whatever country, were not permitted to go there.

I can recall that when I was a child, there was a widow in my synagogue who was blonde, had been born in Germany, and definitely did not look Jewish. Not knowing what lay ahead, a few months before the Six-Day War she traveled to Jordan in order to go visit the Western Wall. It was the only way to do it back then.

Sixty-two years after Jerusalem's synagogues were destroyed, Abdullah's grandson and namesake, now the King of the most anti-Semitic country in the World, is trying to stand in the way of Jewish rebuilding in 'east' Jerusalem. He does so through the usual Arab - Muslim whining and seething.

The international community should not stand by and watch as Israel attempts to rid Jerusalem of its Arab residents, Jordanian King Abdullah II said in a statement on Wednesday.

"Jerusalem is a red line and the world should not be silent about Israel's attempts to get rid of Jerusalem's Arabs residents, Muslims or Christians," the Dubai daily Khaleej Times quoted the king as saying to EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton in Amman.

Abdullah's comments came a day after the heaviest clashes in months broke out across the city during the orchestrated "day of rage" announced by Hamas, as the militant organization urged Muslims to reach the Temple Mount compound in order to protect it from an Israeli attempt to take it over.


On Tuesday, hundreds of Palestinians in east Jerusalem set tires and garbage bins ablaze and hurled rocks at Israeli riot police, who responded with rubber bullets and tear gas.

The Jordanian monarch reportedly demanded the international community take a firm, swift, direct and effective action to "stop Israel's provocative measures in Jerusalem, that seek to change its identity and threaten holy sites there," he said.

Some 3,000 officers were put on high alert on Wednesday after Hamas called for anti-Israel protests. "We call on the Palestinian people to regard Tuesday as a day of rage against the occupation's [Israel's] procedures in Jerusalem against Al-Aqsa mosque," Hamas said in a statement.

Neither of the two incidents that have enraged the Arabs this week is about getting rid of Jerusalem's Arabs or about changing the composition of the city. As I noted above and more extensively here, the Churva synagogue existed for centuries and was destroyed by the Jordanians. All Israel is doing is re-building what existed before. And as to Ramat Shlomo, where the Arabs could not allow the Obama administration to be more 'Palestinian' than they are, Ramat Shlomo was built on an empty ridge, the top of which had been cleared (and subsequently not used) for a soccer stadium in the late 1970's.

But logic is not the issue here. The issue is the Arab attempt, which has continued since before the Jewish state was established, to destroy the Jewish state.

Israel Matzav: Grandpa destroyed all synagogues in 'east' Jerusalem, Grandson doesn't want them rebuilt