This past week, there was very good news from Israel. The attorney general, Menachem Mazuz, put a stop to the land grab in E. Jerusalem. The history behind this is complicated, dating back to a 1968 law. Land that was "absenteed" by Palestinian residents of E. Jerusalem could, in effect, be taken over by the Israeli government. The law was enacted after the '67 war but never enforced, only held in reserve. Recently, the Sharon administration began enforcing the law, enraging residents. Mazuz came out and said that "since the property was not absentee property when the army entered East Jerusalem, and would not have turned into absentee property if East Jerusalem had continued to be part of Judea and Samaria, we did not see any justification for the annexation of Jerusalem resulting in taking away property from someone who was not actually absent." This is a smart decision on Mazuz's part, and a just ruling for which we can be thankful.

In an almost unrelated note, I found something odd on a website. (Follow me now, the only connecting idea is Israel.) I listen to Air1, a contemporary Christian online radio station. When I went to it today to provide me a soundtrack with which to fold my laundry, I saw an interesting link. It was called the "Wall of Prayer" and was a page on their site dedicated to praying for American troops in Iraq. Clicking on it, I was taken to the page that listed soldiers' names for whom you could pray. The graphic at the top of the page was what caught my attention. It is a picture of the Western Wall (Wailing Wall). The faces/heads of the people praying have all been blurred out though. I have to wonder if this is to be "stylistically cool", or because they couldn't deal with the fact that the graphic for an overtly Christian site would feature Jewish people praying? Ponderous...

-R