"Be prepared!"

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We posted yesterday about the fight that broke out at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem's Old City. Fortunately none of the police or the agitated Armenian and Greek Orthodox monks and priests was hurt bad.

And fortunately the violence did not reach the stage of necessitating use of this ugly thing that sits in the courtyard of the church. It is meant for bomb disposal if, God forbid, one should be found.

Here is another one at the Western Wall Plaza.

Yep, that too is my world. The threat of terrorism is part of everyone's life in Israel.

More common than the big metal containers are these "safety pits" which are prevalent in public places. The Hebrew sign says bor bitachon, literally, a "security hole."

A suspicious object, an abandoned bag or whatever, could be put there, at least until the bomb disposal unit arrived.

I always wondered how the lid would stay on if a bomb exploded inside. Well, a few weeks after this picture was taken at Hadassah Hospital, the security guards had put four sandbags around it. And today I noticed they were all split open. Oh well, someday we may find the perfect method.

Does your city have anything similar? Or is this just an Israeli thing?
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