More Desecration.....

Yesterday I found Elder of Zion's piece about Jewish "desecration" of the Temple Mount. This alleged "desecration" appears to be nothing more than people walking quietly and apparently respectfully through the courtyards of the Temple Mount.

The use of the word "desecration" is a particularly loaded one, especially in a religious context (yes, I am aware that it is specifically religious but it is mis-used for a lot of other contexts).

Desecration: to treat with sacrilege; profane. Synonyms are: blaspheme, defile, dishonor, pollute, outrage.

These are pretty strong, emotionally laden words.

And they're apparently not confined to the Pallywood Propaganda Corps.

Today, we have an equally repugnant claim of "desecration" --from Shas, the smug, self-congratulatory, self-described guardians of the Torah.

"We are in sorrow for the desolate Mount Zion and for the Kotel square which is sometimes desecrated and soldiers who walk there," wrote Shas Knesset faction director Tzvi Ya'acobson in his weekly column in the Bakehila newspaper.

Ya'acobson made it clear in his article that he was talking about the swearing-in of soldiers at the Western Wall.

Reeeaaallly.....some ultra-Orthodox flunky who has never served in the military, never put his life and limb on the line for the people of Israel, and won't let his daughters do National Service and won't let his sons serve, but expects Other People's Children to fight and die to protect him and his children......the presence of our kids being sworn in for army service is a "desecration"?

Who IS this jerk?

Apparently he's no one Shas wants to avow: "Ya'acobson was only a functionary and not an elected official," the Shas spokesman was quick to point out, no doubt rushing to do damage control. They've already lost a lot of their conservative Sephardi working-class traditional (not Orthodox) votes to Likud this time around, and they should be aware that since almost all Sephardi families have kids who go to the military, this is not going to sit well.

WHAT exactly is behind this claim of "desecration"?

"During these types of ceremonies the access to the Kotel is disrupted," he complained. "Hours beforehand the already limited parking is closed to the real visitors to the Kotel."

Ah, now I understand! You can't park! And parking should be reserved only for the "real visitors" i.e. ultra-Orthodox men who want to pray there. Who you apparently believe are the "real Jews"? Maybe we should just fence off the Kotel and designate it the Private Ultra-Orthodox Prayer Room? Would THAT make you happy? And we can issue special stickers so that you, and only you (and other "Real Jews"), can park your cars in the nearby lot and thus be only a short walk to prayer?

I mean, I can understand that an Islamist might view any infidel walking around the courtyards of a place he reveres as "desecration" (I also think he'd be way over the top, nutso, and the PPC throws the word around for incitement purposes) but your beef is the parking situation?! The fact that YOU can't find parking because a ceremony disrupts it is a "desecration"? The fact that they hold a ceremony honoring those who have sworn to die to protect you is a "desecration"?

Never mind that the Temple itself was open to all the nations; or that women and visitors were allowed also to pray there; that Jews of all stripes from around the world made pilgrimmage for centuries to pray here, and still do.

IT'S NOT YOUR F@$#! PRIVATE PROPERTY, YOU LAZY JERK!

Go ahead. Pray there. But if you can't find parking, take a cab -- the solution is not to ban the families of young servicemen and women from being sworn in at the site of our great loss as a remembrance of what is at stake. From the Romans until today, there are enemies who want us dead or exiled -- and the Kotel, as the last ancient remnant of our allegience to HaShem and our prior sovereignty as a people, is a reminder of all we have to lose if they fail.

Those kids have more right to be there than you do.

I'm thinking we should start a petition to limit increased child allowances only to those who do military or National Service......