Blinded by the Lights

The two photos associated with this note were taken in the same place: Ben Gurion Ave in Haifa.

At the top of the road is the beautiful Bahai Temple (Bahai is a religion that branched off from Islam, if you don’t know about them, look them up). The road is full of historic buildings built by the German Templers, now housing fashionable restaurants, pubs and hotels (mostly Arab owned). The top of the road has a traffic circle, given the official (and ironic) name: UNESCO circle of Peace and Tolerance.

This is the same road where in May, Israeli Arabs gathered to riot. In the city of supposed co-existence, they threw rocks at Jews, set off firebombs, and replaced Israeli flags with Palestinian flags to the sound of the mob chanting “Free Palestine.”

These past few days, the crowds are mostly Jews who think the Christmas lights are fun.

These latter-day Hellenists don’t recognize the historic significance of Jews who put more effort into celebrating other people’s holidays than their own.

They don’t recognize the hate in the eyes of the Arabs they are buying food and toys from. Many of them don’t know that in May this street was on fire.

Many of them don’t know that on normal days many of these same sellers refuse to speak Hebrew, greeting their clientele in Arabic or English, but not the language of the Jewish State.

They don’t see that their future is in jeopardy…

The #Maccabees are calling their brothers and sisters--Who will heed their cries?

The Lights are bright in Haifa...dimming our Jewish vision.