Arabs Perpetrate Hate Crime Against Gordon

It is my custom to go the Kotel some Saturday nights to recite tehillim (Psalms) and attend a Torah lecture.

Like always, I took a shortcut this past Saturday night to the Kotel via Jehosephat Valley (Wadi E-Joze), an Arab-populated Jerusalem neighborhood. Minutes beforehand, at the entrance to Jerusalem from Bet El, I picked up two "yeshivish" yeshiva students hitchhiking their way to the Old City.

Boom! It sounded like an explosion...

In the Arab neighborhood, a road construction project sent me on a detour via side streets. Driving down a particularly narrow road, an Arab car came in the opposite direction bringing us both to a halt as there was no room for passage. I pulled over as far right as possible up against parked cars and signaled him to go up on the sidewalk. Speaking with our hands through the windshields, we communicated our respective requests: "Go up on the sidewalk," I requested. "No, you back up," he responded - until Arab cars started piling up behind me.

I was stuck in a traffic bind in an Arab neighborhood at 11:15 at night.

Boom! It sounded like an explosion, but glancing back I saw that it was just the loud shattering sound of the back windshield, which sent shards of holy Bet El car glass into the stylish hairdo of the yeshiva student in the back seat.

Shards of glass on back seat of car

Having spent most of my life in Bet El which is surrounded by our Jew-hating cousins, I have gained extensive experience over the years at getting hit by rocks. The main thing is to stay cool and start functioning on multiple levels simultaneously.

1. I made a quick decision not to pursue the perpetrator of the hate crime, as the circumstances of being stuck in a traffic jam on a narrow Arab street late at night advised me to stay in the car and await further developments.
2. I dialed the police and began reporting.
3. I looked at the two hitchhikers who besides going into shock didn't seem to be suffering from any wounds.
4. I monitored the events on all sides of the car.
5. I locked the car doors.

That last move was just in time, because moments later several Arabs approached and tried to open my car doors while screaming like Indians dancing around a white man about to be burned at the stake. As the flames of Jew hatred were being fanned, I realized that the two yeshiva students and myself were the intended halal meat for the BBQ.

When the rock hit the back windshield, my instincts reacted by inching forward to try and get the guy in front of me moving. I apparently tapped his bumper, and now this academic-looking Arab driver was at my right window asking me why I hit him.

My report to the police continued all this time and over the speaker of my car telephone, the dispatcher said, "Wait, I don't understand. Start from the beginning. From where did you start driving tonight?"

At that very moment, the yeshiva dude in the back seat came back to his senses and asked me in these words, "What happened?"

I was now engaged in three conversations: the police, the student, and the Arab driver, while other Arabs were banging on my windows (the side windows are protected hard plastic) and trying to open the doors.

I began to tell the police officer my life's story - that I had departed Bet El this evening and was heading for the Kotel. Occasionally, I inserted my concern that my life was in danger. I leaned back to the student and said, "You were here. We were hit by a rock. You're not injured are you? It's gonna be OK." While the idiot police dispatcher was asking questions in between my narrative, I utilized the moment to tell the Arab driver that I was sorry for hitting him, but that a rock was thrown at my car and had startled me. I relayed to him that I am currently interested in proceeding forward and asked if he would be so kind as to back up.

"Yes, officer, I don't know the name of the street that I am on, but I have described to you my precise turns from the main Jehosephat Valley Road. Did you follow?" He responded, "Yes, I think so." Blessed art Thou who gives the rooster intelligence, I thought to myself.

Just when the BBQ coals were simmering and the Arabs were yelping and banging, the Arab academic driver and his secular lady friend backed out to the intersection opening the way for yours truly, the halal meat, to exit the scene.

I was out of danger, and so told the police officer, who advised that I go to a police station the next day to register a complaint.

My feelings: On the one hand, I felt outrage, disgust, and national disgrace that Arabs can nearly lynch a Jew in our ancient capital Jerusalem. It's simply degrading. If there were more people in my car, and we weren't stuck in a traffic jam, it wouldn't have bothered me if the car occupants got out and taught the Arab perpetrator a lesson in orthopedics and the human skeletal system.

On the other hand, the shattering of my windshield gave me a good feeling. Huh? Yes indeed. Because when Israel prospers and develops, this drives the Arabs to despair and they resort to hate crimes and violence. They despair at the return of the Jewish people to reclaim the ancient Jewish homeland.  

While we are busily engaged in construction, education, farming, and having more babies, their numbers are dwindling. The demographic tailwind has shifted in favor of the Jews. In addition, their corrupt leaders like the late Yasser Arafat, Dahlan, and Abbas have pocketed literally hundreds of millions of dollars of international donor funds that were supposed to improve their lot. They are going nowhere.

For Israelis, Jewish unemployment is down, the hi-tech revolution is raging ahead, the Israeli economy is strong, and the IDF is warning that it will smash the Arabs with greater force if the Arabs perpetrate further aggressions.

In other words, the rock delivered into the back seat of my car is a sign of the times: the Arabs are losing hope, while Israelis are gaining.

So I decided that the next time I see foundations being laid for a new structure, I will toss the hate-crime rock into the cement and symbolically fire back at our enemies with the creative endeavor of building Jewish homes.

Cost of fixed back windshield to Israeli taxpayer: $515

So, yes Ahmed, you won the little confrontation with me on the detour route in Jehosephat Valley. But know that you are losing the war, as no force in the world can stop the Jewish People from returning to the entirety of our forefathers' inheritance.

[Think Jews should respond differently? Leave a comment...]