AxisMundi Jerusalem
Inside Israel and the Palestinian Territories
from FaithWorld:
Jerusalem: heart of the Mideast conflict
Jerusalem, December 8, 2009/Ammar Awad
Next week is the time of year when millions of people around the world look to Jerusalem as the source of inspiration for the Christian festival of Easter and Jewish Passover celebrations. But this week the city is also the recurrent focus of bitter dispute. The United States has directed rare strong criticism at Israel over its plans to expand Jewish settlements there, saying the building undermines U.S. efforts to advance Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.
Want to know more? Following are links to a sampling of recent Reuters stories about Jerusalem and a Reuters graphic on new Israeli construction in East Jerusalems:
LATEST NEWS
Awkward Silence
We’ve all had them. You’re with a friend, or a colleague and suddenly the conversation runs into a cold stop. The dreaded awkward silence can roll in like an icy fog.
When it happens to us, it’s uncomfortable enough. But when it happens to world leaders, a television camera is there to capture the quiet.
It seemed as though there was an ever so brief lull in conversation Tuesday when Middle East Quartet envoy Tony Blair met Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak in Tel Aviv.
The Israeli Defence Ministry had arranged a photo opportunity. It’s not uncommon in these situations for the subjects of the photo op to engage in chit-chat or exchange greetings, but Blair and Barak stood together awkwardly for a moment staring down the lens of a pool video camera just a few feet away.
A veteran of thousands of such photo ops, Tony Blair broke the silence and asked Barak if the Israeli minister had just delivered a Passover holiday greeting in the hallway before their meeting. It’s just the type of banter experienced subjects of photo ops engage in.
Perhaps Barak didn’t hear the quick-speaking Blair correctly. Barak seemed to take the question as a prompt to deliver a Passover holiday greeting, which he proceeded to deliver directly to the camera.
Obviously Tony is much more comfortable talking with Hamas and Hizbullah.
