Holy days in the Holy Land should be sacred refuges from escalating tensions and violence, but ironically, they are often just the opposite, producing some of the brutal hell that especially torments Israelis and Palestinians in the Middle East.
The rare, peaceful confluence of Ramadan, Passover and Easter this past week was shattered by clashes between Israeli police and Palestinian Muslim worshippers inside Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque, the killing of Jews in the West Bank and the firing of rockets at Israel from Gaza, Lebanon and Syria — as well as retaliatory Israeli airstrikes.
Muslims, Jews and Christians share similar principles of faith — a belief in one God, respect for life, peace and good works — but as they flocked to pray in Jerusalem’s walled Old City in recent days, their holidays were overshadowed by new conflict and age-old disputes over claims to lands drenched in strife, blood and sorrow.
