Hope in a hate-infected city

摘要

The jaded or lazy observer of Jerusalem may imagine that nothing is new under the sun. The holy city has been fought over for centuries and is being fought over still. Even the patterns of conflict look wearily familiar. Last September it was Ariel Sharon's venture into the Haram al-Sharif, which Jews know as Temple Mount, that appeared to set off the latest Palestinian intifada against Israeli rule, in which hundreds of people, mostly Arabs, have since been killed. More than 70 years ago, in 1929, a quarrel about control of the Western Wall sparked riots throughout Jerusalem, and then throughout Palestine, in which 133 Jews and 116 Arabs were killed. And so it goes on.