Sunday, July 2, 2017

Going Backward In Israel

From the mid-1800s, photographs of Jews praying together at the Western Wall became common on the walls of houses across the Western world. Today, a rich collection is found in Washington’s Library of Congress digital archives, in which a jumble of Sephardic and Ashkenazi Jews, men and women, are depicted in prayer at what has been considered one of Judaism’s holiest sites for the past two millennia.

Mixed prayer, with men and women praying together, appears to be the norm - or at least a viable option - in these archival images, aside from High Holy Day crushes, in which women either were not in attendance, or prayed off to the side.

In fact, the idea of partitioning prayer between men and women at the Western Wall is relatively modern, and due to a variety of sociological and political constraints was only put into practice after the unification of Jerusalem following the Six Day War in 1967. However, for centuries, the wall has had central importance as an anchor of Jewish worship and culture.

You can read the rest @
http://www.timesofisrael.com/when-men-and-women-prayed-together-at-the-western-wall/

First of all, the 1967 war was a war of aggression, something forbidden under international law. Never forget that.

Second, it should be clear that when Israel achieves control of whatever territories they crave, they are likely to erect a Biblical state which will enforce some of the same "outrages" which we associate with ISIS. Enforcing the separation of men and women will be one of them.

One of the pictures below shows ultra-orthodox Jewish women, the other shows Muslim women. Can you tell which is which?



See what I mean?

The struggle between Muslims and Jews is basically an argument between peoples with a common background over lands formerly occupied by some of their ancestors.

Why are we even involved? Let them decide the outcome themselves.

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