NOT "Al Quds"

B"H

26 Iyar 5770
41st Day of the Omer


Dear Children of Israel,

A funny thing happened to me on the bus the other day. Two Muslim Arab women got on and they asked the driver if his bus goes to Al Quds. The driver didn't understand what they said, so they repeated it a couple of times, "Al Quds! Al Quds!" The driver just looked clueless and someone behind him said, "They mean the Old City." Just then I shouted out from the middle of the bus, "There's no such place as Al Quds, only Yerushalayim!" I repeated myself when it seemed that no one heard, but I might as well have been a fly on the wall.

On a different day, I saw something which made me think of that phrase "only in Israel." I was on a bus which was waiting in a line of traffic opposite a kiosk, when right there on the side of the four-lane highway stood a man in tallit and tefillin with siddur in hand, davening for all he was worth. A couple passed in front of him and went into the kiosk. Then the man laid his siddur on a chair next to the entrance (facing the direction of the Temple Mount) and went inside to help them. it was the kiosk owner, taking care of his business while he davened the morning service. What a sight to warm the heart!

Now, repeat after me..."There is no such place as Al Quds. There is no such country as Palestine. There is no such people as Palestinians."

-MW-