Monks Brawl at Jerusalem Church

Here's something you don't see every day: Brawling monks. Not exactly a Crips-Bloods type throwdown, but it gets pretty testy.

Israeli police rushed into one of Christianity's holiest churches Sunday and arrested two clergyman after an argument between monks erupted into a brawl next to the site of Jesus' tomb.

The clash between Armenian and Greek Orthodox monks broke out in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, revered as the site of Jesus' crucifixion, burial and resurrection.

The brawling began during a procession of Armenian clergymen commemorating the 4th-century discovery of the cross believed to have been used to crucify Jesus.

The Greeks objected to the march without one of their monks present, fearing that otherwise, the procession would subvert their own claim to the Edicule — the ancient structure built on what is believed to be the tomb of Jesus — and give the Armenians a claim to the site.

The Armenians refused, and when they tried to march the Greek Orthodox monks blocked their way, sparking the brawl.

Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said police were forced to intervene after fighting was reported. They arrested two monks, one from each side, he said.

A bearded Armenian monk in a red-and-pink robe and a black-clad Greek Orthodox monk with a bloody gash on his forehead were both taken away in handcuffs after scuffling with dozens of riot police.

Six Christian sects divide control of the ancient church. They regularly fight over turf and influence, and Israeli police are occasionally forced to intervene.

Just Words; Just Speeches

He's desperate to not appear as a radical leftist. Consequently, Barack [deleted] Obama has yet to find a position that he hasn't thrown under the bus. Must be pleading for mercy from the Koslings and other malcontents, misfits and loons.

Obama backtracks on an undivided J'lem
In his first major speech minutes after clinching the Democrat nomination as the party's candidate for the US presidential election, Barack Obama surprised listeners at an AIPAC convention by saying Jerusalem should be Israel's "undivided" capital. However, the Illinois senator retracted his comments on Sunday, saying that they were "badly phrased."

"You know, the truth is that this was an example where we had some poor phrasing in the and we immediately tried to correct the interpretation that was given," Obama said during an interview on CNN's "Fareed Zakaria - GPS."

"The point we were simply making was that we don't want barbed wire running through Jerusalem, similar to the way it was prior to the '67 war, that it is possible for us to create a Jerusalem that is cohesive and coherent. I was not trying to predetermine what are essentially final-status issues," he continued.

Then why bring it up, asshat?

The senator explained that despite the error in conveying his message, he did not intend to abandon the notion that the two sides - Israel and the Palestinians - should discuss such issues on their own, with strong backing from the United States.

Israel, Obama said, must realize that its existence in the long term is dependent on its ability to achieve peace with its neighbors, while the Palestinian leadership must recognize the fact that the battles it fights, the direction in which it is going and the rhetoric it uses do not "deliver the goods" for the Palestinian people.

The uproarious laughter comes from Hamastan.

What Israeli citizens want and what the residents of the West Bank long for is a pragmatic approach that would allow them to be safe, live their lives and educate their children, Obama added.

Wow. Stating the obvious is certainly a stroke of freakin' genius.

Obama is scheduled to come to Israel for a brief 24-hour visit next week as part of a European and Middle Easter tour (during which he will visit Germany, France, the United Kingdom and also Iraq and Jordan).

Heh. Maybe he'll speak from the east side of where the Berlin Wall stood: 'Madame Merkel, rebuild this wall!'[/sarc for the clueless]

Obama's campaign headquarters have not yet published his itinerary and the precise date of his arrival, but he is scheduled to visit the Western Wall, Yad Vashem and take a helicopter trip to Sderot.

Additionally, Obama will meet Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Defense Minister Ehud Barak, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and opposition leader Binyamin Netanyahu.

Assuming, of course, Olmert's still around to assure Israel's path to suicide grovel at his feet.

A Palestinian official said on Monday that Obama will visit the West Bank during the trip.

Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said that the Democratic presidential contender will travel to Ramallah on July 23. He said Obama is scheduled to meet Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.

Erekat said the Palestinians "welcome this meeting," and added that if he is elected US president, the Palestinians hope "he will stay the course between Israel and the Palestinians in reaching peace."

A poll published by Newsweek recently found that Obama is still the favored candidate, though by a smaller margin than last month. Obama enjoys 44 percent of support, while Republican nominee John McCain enjoys 41%. In a similar poll conducted last month, Obama led with 51% support and McCain was trailing with only 36%.

Change. Change we can believe in.

Spit.

Via The Jerusalem Post

Our friend Carl in Jerusalem has more

Inverted Reality Headline of the Day

This remarkable headline came via commenter Kenneth at LGF during the discussion of the mass murder of yeshiva students today in Jerusalem.

Two Palestinians killed in west Jerusalem attack: TV

Note it is an AFP story.

Two Palestinians were killed when they carried out an attack on a religious school in predominantly Jewish west Jerusalem on Thursday night, public television reported.

The attack with assault rifles was carried out at Merkaz Harav Yeshiva in the Kyriat Moshe neighbourhood, the report said, adding that there were numberous [sic] people wounded.

The report added that an explosives belt had been recovered from the body of one of the Palestinians.

Unbelievable.

This AFP dispatch is more realistic.

Meanwhile, Al Jazeera English has a claim from Hezbollah taking responsibility.

Hezbollah's Al-Manar television announced that the perpetrators of the attack were members of the "Phalange of Free Men of Galilee - Groups of the Martyr Imad Moghaniyah and Martyrs of Gaza", a previously unknown group.

The claim was made in a tag line running across the bottom of the screen.

Imad Moghaniyah was a top Hezbollah commander assassinated in a bombing in Damascus, the Syrian capital, on February 12.

Naturally, the savages celebrated in Gaza.

Palestinian sources in the Gaza Strip are reported that Gazans are traveling in convoys and honking in celebration of the terrorist attack in Jerusalem.

The Palestinians are calling on the terrorist groups to continue attacking Israel and in several locations, people have been handing out sweets to passers-by.

Update: Another LGF commenter, Abolitionist, notes this from the BBC, via The Jawa Report.

Muslim Gunman Shot Dead in Jerusalem

The AFP works overtime on this story in an attempt to portray the Israelis as the bad guys. Notice every time an Israeli is mentioned it's usually prefaced by "ultra"; forget any mention of Muslims or Islamist extremists being portrayed as terrorists.

Palestinian killed in Jerusalem shooting

JERUSALEM (AFP) - A Palestinian man was shot dead in a gunfight with Israeli security guards from an ultra-nationalist Jewish association in the Old City of occupied east Jerusalem on Friday, police said.

It was the latest violent incident involving Jews and Arabs in the tense Arab sector of the city, whose fate is one of the thorniest issues at the heart of the Arab-Israeli conflict.

Jerusalem police chief Aaron Franco said the Palestinian seized a pistol of one of the men not far from the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in the walled Old City, which also contains sites holy to Jews and Muslims.

He said the Palestinian shot and wounded the guard from the ultra-Orthodox Ateret Cohanim yeshiva, whose colleague then fired on the assailant and killed him.

Ten other people were wounded in the shooting, three of them seriously, according to Israel emergency services.

Witnesses said passers-by were hit by bullets from the guard's weapon but a police spokesman told AFP it was "too early to determine which shots caused the injuries."

He said that the slain Palestinian was aged about 18 but gave no further information about his identity.

Israel captured east Jerusalem from Jordan in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war and later annexed it as part of its "eternal and indivisible" capital of the Jewish state.

However, its claims are not recognised by the international community and Palestinians hope to make the eastern half of the city, where 200,000 Palestinians live, the capital of their promised state.

Ateret Cohanim, founded in 1978, is one of several ultra-nationalist organisations which have bought land and homes from Palestinians through various means in order to place Jews in the Arab neighbourhoods of Jerusalem, including the Old City.

Tensions in the city often run high over the Temple Mount, the compound revered by Jews that is also known to Muslims as Haram a-Sharif and houses the Al-Aqsa mosque, the third holiest site in Islam.

In May, two Palestinian assailants were killed and four Israeli policemen shot and wounded in a gunfight near east Jerusalem in the Palestinian village of Sheikh Saad.

The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, an armed group loosely linked to Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas's Fatah party, had claimed responsibility for the May attack.

The latest death brings to 5,811 the number of people killed in Israeli-Palestinian violence since the start of the intifada in late 2000, the large majority Palestinians, according to an AFP count.

Boo-hoo. Maybe the majority of dead Palestinians would still be alive if they weren't trying to kill Israelis.

Since it's Friday, expect plentyof seething and outrage from the holy Islamists after they leave the ammunition depots mosques today.