Palestinians at Friday afternoon prayers in Jerusalem Old City alleyway, near Al Aksa Mosque and Western Wall plaza.
Posted by Dave

Border policeman in alleyway near Temple Mount with Muslim prayergoers during Friday prayers in Jerusalem's Old City, at conclusion of Ramadan month. There was no significant violence, besides minor stonethrowing incidents, police report.
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Internal Security and Tourism Minister Gideon Ezra at Western Wall plaza. Some 15,000 Muslims took part in the regular Friday service on the Temple Mount, above the Western Wall, seen in background, at the conclusion of the month of Ramadan.
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Western Wall plaza during Muslim prayers ending Ramadan month. Border Police SWAT teams line the earthern ramp in the background leading to Mograbi Gate entrance to the Temple Mount, with security forces possibly outnumbering Jewish worshippers. Meanwhile, PA Chairman Yasser Arafat's chaotic funeral is taking place in Ramallah, several miles to the north.
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Arafat funeral: Ramallah roils as Jerusalem rests

Tens of thousands of grief-stricken Palestinians swarmed around the two Egyptian air force helicopters returning the remains of PA Chairman Yasser Arafat to his Ramallah "Muka'ta," headquarters Friday afternoon.

Masked gunmen fired in the air, as the massed sea of mourners dragged the coffin out of the helicopter bay, the doors barely openable from the crush.

Rescue and security forces were overwhelmed by the tremendous disarray at the event, with a number of Palestinians reportedly wounded in the melee, possibly from gunshots fired by the masked militias.

Sweating, screaming "we will avenge your memory, oh, Arafat," and, "Jerusalem," the human mass "paraded," the coffin over their heads to the hastily-erected, and reportedly mobile mausoleum on the rubble-strewn compound.

Arafat's coffin was quickly interred in the stone structure, as Palestinians vowed that the gravesite was a temporary arrangement, until Arafat's remains were transferred to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, five kilometers to the south, in a hoped-for future deal with Israel.

My patch of 'My Little Town:' An aerial shot when I was REALLY high this summer, of our circa 1960s apartment complex (along Herzl boulevard across from hotel row, for all you local yokels). Former veep Al Gore had the best felafel he ever ate at the newsstand/flowershop just nearby. They even got the faded pic to prove it, too. Ahh, fame.

The neighborhood, built by and when the "Histadrut" Labor federation was boss, is very green, sort of like a quiet garden right smack at the noisy entrance to town.
Posted by Dave

The End of Arafat

"At a time when nonagenarian Nazis and aides to Nazis who killed a dozen people sixty years ago are still hunted down, aged, confused witnesses shuffling up to the stand in desperate attempts to testify against them, Arafat will be buried with pomp and eulogies, and something in me will get buried, too, a hope I nurtured, admittedly weak, that there was enough justice in the world that it would still catch up with him, as the terror raged and more and more victims died and were mangled."

Thank you, P. David Hornick, for - once again - reading my mind and wrestling my thoughts down on screen with the article appearing on www.frontpagemagazine.com.

'Arafat & the PA: the day after'

Earlier this afternoon, I did a live radio Q&A update for WINK/WNOG Radio in Ft. Myers, Fla. on PA Chairman Yasser Arafat's condition, plans for the funeral, and what may be developing into a new Palestinian leadership triumverate. You can hear it here:

'Arafat & the PA: the day after': http://mister_d1.tripod.com

In a brief recorded segment of a longer conversation, I spoke with a Palestinian shopkeeper in Jerusalem's Old City about Abu Maazen, reputed to be the next in line (as of this posting, although Farouk Kaddoumi is screaming bloody murder...) to take over Arafat's post.

He said that neither he, nor anyone he knew, were familiar with Maazen, considering him an "outsider," one of the Tunis crew brought in with the Oslo Accords.

Not surprisingly, the shopkeeper (in the longer seg - available upon request off-thread) placed the responsibility for all their troubles on their own leadership, the EU, the US, and, of course, Israel.

Events here are developing so quickly, the report may well be out of date by morning, so listen soon.

Scroll down to 'Wireless Jerusalem: Where reaching out to God is a local call,' for the story behind these pics. DB
Posted by Dave

Scroll down to 'Wireless Jerusalem: Where reaching out to God is a local call,' for the story behind these pics. DB
Posted by Dave