Will ugly dragon's teeth save our lives?

.
So in the previous post I was telling you that I made a short trip back to my old place in the Jerusalem Hills.
And that I arrived Wednesday (Nov. 5) evening, shortly after yet another case of a Palestinian driving onto a tram platform and running over  people. (See the video if you dare.)

I was thinking as I waited for my bus: why doesn't the Jerusalem Municipality set out some dragon's teeth like the British did for blockading Jerusalem streets during the British Mandate.
(BTW, if you follow the link to dragon's teeth, that is one of my photos contributed to Wiki under my username DiggerDina.)
And here is a 1946 photo of British dragon's teeth in actual use in Jerusalem. 

Forty hours later, when I returned to Mt. Herzl tram and bus station to start traveling back to the Negev,  big concrete blocks had indeed materialized!

The new betonadot were strategically placed to prevent any terrorist ramming-car from driving full speed up onto the people platform.

Well, at least they are apparently  good to lean on while you check your cell phone.
.
Jerusalem Jerusalem, I cry for you, my beloved city.
.

More Kasr al Yahud on the Jordan

.

Let's continue (from yesterday's post) looking at Kasr al Yahud.
Once you get down to the baptism site, it looks like an oasis.

But first you have to get there, and  all around  is desert.
Follow the signs, leave the main Jordan Valley road and head east.

Soon you see the army patrol road, a sure sign that you are nearing the border (which is the Jordan River).

Be very alert to the many "DANGER - MINES" signs.
Don't even think of leaving the paved road.

The badlands were indeed bad in the 1970s, with many terrorists coming through.
That is why the IDF laid the mines back then.

In the past few years Israel has been working hard and investing millions in order to make this Christian holy site on the River Jordan safe and comfortable for the thousands of pilgrims who want to immerse in the river.
It was just recently dedicated and is now open seven days a week.

Tomorrow I'll show you the lighter side of the site.
.
(The blue desert skies of May are for SkyWatch Friday.)
.
UPDATE June 2019:  See stunning photos and video of the Romanian church at
https://www.timesofisrael.com/stunning-romanian-church-is-final-monastery-cleared-of-mines-at-qasr-al-yahud/
.

A dog operator and his dog

.
I go fruit-and vegetable-shopping at Jerusalem's open air market once a week, but this was my first time to see a police dog patrolling the shuk.
.
The Border Guard policeman saw a pile of bagged refuse on the ground inside a little side alley and took his dog there to sniff around.
The team was so intent on doing their job professionally and quickly that the man did not hear my request for photo permission the first time. I had to run after them and ask again in a louder voice.
He was nice to stop a second and agree to a photo, and even had the dog sit down so I could get the "Police dog" sign.
.
I was shocked last week when the Al Qaida of Yemen mailed a concealed bomb to the Chicago synagogue in which I grew up.
Actually the package was addressed to the small congregation of gay Jews which now shares our building by the lake.
Just imagine if the box had arrived and exploded and killed and destroyed. Oi!
.
Seeing the police dog sniffing for bombs in the Mahane Yehuda market makes me feel even safer these days.
.
I share this dog with Camera-Critters Sunday.
.

Special report on today's targil

.
FEAR NOT, this is only a PRACTICE DRILL.

At 1:00 today police cordoned off the main street of Jerusalem's Machaneh Yehuda open-air market.
Rescuers, first responders, and police all played their part in responding to a mock mega terrorist attack.

Border Police took stock of the situation where plumes of artificial smoke were rising.

Soon small groups of Border Policemen were patrolling up and down busy Jaffa Road in single file, no doubt searching for more bombs or suicide bombers.

Yasam, the special riot police, zipped in and out.

If you enlarge this photo, you can see the new (what I think are called) ambucycles of Magen David Adom.

They have two wheels in front, one in back.

Then the simulated wounded were evacuated to waiting ambulances.

Fortunately sirens were not blaring continually. This I think contributed to the rather calm, albeit serious, atmosphere.

Notice the medic's ritual fringe. Many of Jerusalem's rescue volunteers are religious.

All the wounded had a big tag hung on them.

These Palestinian men looked on, probably while the fruit and vegetable stalls where they work were closed for the two hours of the drill.

Here comes the fire engine.

Everyone has a vest identifying his or her function--medic, paramedic, etc..

Enter the forensic police.

The Magen David Adom van is called Taran, short for Tachanat eru'a rav nifga'im, meaning "station for an event with multiple casualties."
The man in white is a Zaka volunteer. Zaka is the Hebrew acronym for Disaster Victims Identification. These are the haredi (very Orthodox) men who collect the remains of the dead, no matter how small, for proper burial. They deserve a whole separate post.

The social workers and psychologists were sent in from the Jerusalem Municipality.

Thank God, this time the "dead" were but dummies, with black tape keeping their eyes closed.

Plastic arms and legs were scattered on the pavement.

Folding the Zaka body bags.

At the end of two hours of intense activity, the barricades were slid back. The firemen took down their ladder, and the public was free to resume shopping.

Only at the very end were the photojournalists allowed in, after the exercise was over.

.

The police order was for us, we the public, lachzor lashigra, to return to our normal routine.

This is said very often in Israel and is held to be very important in order to keep one's sanity.

.

Here's looking at you

.
Click on the photos and enlarge your viewing pleasure!

Pope Benedict XVI is our guest in Israel this week and everywhere he goes, the surveillance balloon floats above him.
Israel's biggest-ever security for a VIP was code-named by the police "Operation White Cloak."

Here the observation balloon hovers over the wall of Jerusalem's Old City as we gathered in the Kidron Valley.

These pictures above are for SkyWatch Friday. Welcome Skywatchers; if you would like to see the Pope himself, please see the previous two posts.

Some 6,000 managed to get invitations to the Pontifical Mass last Tuesday.

This is the booklet of the liturgy, in Latin and Arabic.

Seating on chairs was limited, only for the handicapped or for VIPs like high clergy and members of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem.

The rest of us sat under, or even ON, the olive trees.

BYO--bring your own stool was preferred by the nuns pictured above and below.

If you're wondering why nuns (and almost everyone else) are wearing white baseball caps, it is because the Benedict souvenirs were freely distributed.
 A necessity in our hot bright sun.

These Benedictines were well grounded.

.

If you are wondering where the monks are, please come back tomorrow.

.

More women of Jerusalem

Getting into the mood for tomorrow's International Women's Day . . .
.
Do yourself a favor: click to enlarge this photo and enjoy the braids of this Ethiopian beauty.
Her finger is pressing an earphone which I like to think is an iPod, judging by her slight swaying movements.
Several guards are always stationed at each of the four main entrances to the huge Shuk Machaneh Yehuda outdoor produce market. With big automatic rifles slung over their shoulder.

A Wikipedia article begins thus: "The Israel Border Police ( מִשְׁמַר הַגְּבוּל‎, Mishmar HaGvul) is the military branch (gendarmerie) of the Israeli Police. It is also commonly known by its Hebrew abbreviation Magav (Hebrew: מג"ב), meaning border guard, whilst its members are colloquially known as Magavnikim (Hebrew: מג"בניקים). Border Guard is often used as the official name of the Israel Border Police in English."

Like the young woman in the picture, most of the male and female magavnikim standing all day by the shuk look bored, and rightfully so. Let's hope the situation stays that way, nice and quiet with no terrorism.

"Be prepared!"

Like the badge says, you're invited to go visit the newest meme on the planet. Just click on it and you will be taken to other photo bloggers' worlds.
.
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?
.

Hoshana Rabba

.
Big day in Jerusalem today! The seventh day of Sukkot is called Hoshana Rabba.
So three friends and I took the early bus to town and got to the Western Wall early, before the tourists woke up. Only the devout worshippers were at the Wall.


Just inside the Old City wall's Dung Gate, the separation started. The sign says "Men's section//Women's section."
This walkway leads to the security checkpoint: your bag is searched and you walk through a metal detector.


We were well protected.  See all the men in uniform? 



Hoshanah Rabbah is also know as "the day of the beating of the arava [willow branches]."
As you see, several men were selling them.


Almost 2,000 years ago the Mishnah (the first part of the Talmud) said, in tractate Sukkah 4:2,
 "How was the mitzvah of aravah fulfilled? There was a place below Jerusalem called Motza. They would go down there and pick branches of willows and would then come and place them alongside the altar with the heads (of the willow branches) bent over the altar. They then sounded the shofar . . . . Each day they would circle the altar once and say, 'Ana Hashem hoshiah na (Please, God, bring us salvation), Ana Hashem hatzlichah na (Please, God, bring us success)' . . . . On that day [Hoshana Rabbah] they circled the altar seven times. When they had finished they would say, "Beauty is yours, O altar, beauty is yours."


And till today, the men still circle the Torah scrolls seven times, holding the Four Species. The man shown above holds the etrog, myrtle, willow, and palm together, near the heart.


The man in the center is doing the shaking of the lulav left, right, forward, backward, up, and down, to show that God is present everywhere.


See the aravah or willows the men have thrown on top of the holy ark where the Torah is? 
Just like the Talmud said to do!


And we heard the call of the shofar!

The male-female divider was thankfully moved a bit more to the left today, to give women more room near the Wall.



The Four Species are often transported in a transparent, flexible plastic carrying case. I think a white stick is included in the set to prevent too much bending. 
These boys were having a sword fight with those sticks.


A little boy was playing at beating a willow on the ground.

Prayers for water and divine blessing throughout the year are very fervently said today.

It is said that during the Festival of Sukkot, the entire world is judged concerning water, fruit, and produce. The seventh day of the Festival, Hoshana Rabbah, is the day on which this judgment is sealed.

At the end of the prayers, in an ancient rite of deep mystical significance, five willows bound together are beaten five times on the ground, symbolically "sweetening" God's judgment.
.
A new weekly bloggers' meme, "That's My World Tuesday," starts today, conceived by the folks who brought you SkyWatch Friday. Have a look at MyWorld to enjoy guided mini-tours.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~