The Holiest Sports Arena on Earth

FirstEnergy Stadium, Madison Square Garden, Yankee Stadium?

Rome's Coliseum?

The Holiest Sports Arena on Earth is right here in Jerusalem...on the Temple Mount! Or as the rest of the world likes to refer to it, Haram al-Sharif.

This holy place which "offends" Muslim leaders when Jews silently and peacefully walk through the area, is also the place where holy Muslim children play holy sports games, such as soccer (European football), volleyball and others.

Yet it's a terrible provocation for Jews to walk there....let alone move their lips in silent prayer in the holiest sports arena on the planet.

On the bright side, at least the ball is blue and white...

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Wherever I am, my blog turns towards Eretz Yisrael טובה הארץ מאד מאד

Do you have any idea how offensive that is?

Found on Facebook.

I think Islam's religious tolerance can be more than appreciated by the way the Palestinians burned down and destroyed all the synagogues in Gush Katif after Israel left Gaza in 2005.

Or the way they burned down Kever Yosef / Joseph's Tomb in Shechem.

Or the way they can't even be bothered to do maintenance work on Islam's third "holiest" site, in a way without desecrating the rock of the "Dome of the Rock."  Instead, Muslims think (or behave) as if the gold dome is more important and holy than the rock itself, and place scaffolding ON THE ROCK.

Or the way they routinely play football/soccer on the Temple Mount.

Bottom line is that the Islamic world is far more upset over a silly film than the routine, daily slaughter of Moslems (by Moslems) in Syria or anywhere else in the world.

From Daryl Cage, Facebook

Or as in the words of Thomas Friedman, who I rarely agree with:

"..an insult — even one as stupid and ugly as the anti-Islam video on YouTube that started all of this — does not entitle people to go out and attack embassies and kill innocent diplomats. That is not how a proper self-governing people behave. There is no excuse for it. It is shameful"

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Wherever I am, my blog turns towards Eretz Yisrael טובה הארץ מאד מאד

Boo.

Booing during a moment of silence is distasteful. Then again, booing during a football match, which is far from a bastion of culture is to be expected.

Israel's in a tizzy that Beitar fans booed during the moment of silence for Rabin; reactions range from "imprison anyone who booed for 5 years" under the law against incitement (courtesy of Israel Radio's Moshe Negbi) to suspending the Beitar team based on the booing of their fans.

Just a though...please picture this scenario:

The Hevron** performance is about to start at the Habima Theater in Tel-Aviv.

An announcement rings out;

"Would everyone please rise -- we would like to have a moment of silence in the memory of an Israeli politician, murdered because of his political views -- by an extremist.

Please join us as we honor the memory of Member of Knesset, Rabbi Meir Kahana, may G-d avenge his death."

What do you think the reaction would be?

Deafening Silence?


**The HaBima web site describes the Hevron play as: “An original and surprising political drama portraying the Israelis and Palestinians as trapped in a conflict of mythic proportions…The pressure cooker in which the tiny Jewish settlement imprisons the Arab majority in the city explodes on the day of the olive harvest.”

“My family and I went to the play ‘Hevron’, which is being performed at the HaBima-Cameri theater in Tel Aviv,” Batsheva Weinberg [widow of Col. Dror Weinberg who was killed by Arab terrorists in an attack on November 15, 2002 in which 12 people were killed.] told Army Radio. “The way they portray the settlers is exactly like the Nazis used to try to portray the Jews. They portray them as completely fanatical and without any sense of humanity, while creating emotional sympathy for Arab murderers.” (source)

Wherever I am, my blog turns towards Eretz Yisrael