This family's answer to the menace of terrorism

Last week was what I am starting to think about as a typically strange week in Israel. Even before the horrific attack on Mercaz Harav here in Jerusalem we were living what I think of as the great Israeli disconnect.

On the one hand, our major focus was on sticking to the shigra, a new word I learned this year - the routine. My wife and I spent much of the week juggling. On Thursday for example, we worked on helping our 10-year-old son with his shishim shana Israel-at-60 school project, getting our seven-year-old son to the stress test he had to take to play in his baseball little league, dropping our five-year-old daughter off at her swimming lesson, and preparing our 12-year-old daughter for her youth movement tiyul - trip.

On the streets of Jerusalem the big headline was that the winter had lifted, spring was in the air. The meteorologists actually warned of sharav, a hot and dry spell, as our friends in Montreal struggled with another storm - this time 18 centimeters of snow mixed with 5 centimeters of ice pellets.

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When deciding Jerusalem's future, Zionist solidarity is not Israeli citizenship

Despite yielding no agreement yet, the latest round of peace processing has triggered a struggle regarding Diaspora Jews' role in shaping Jerusalem's future. The World Jewish Congress president, Ronald Lauder, recently told Prime Minister Ehud Olmert that no "changes in the status of our Holy City" should be implemented "without giving the Jewish people, as a whole, a voice in the decision." The political scientist Shlomo Avineri objected to world Jewry meddling in Israel's decision-making, as did the head of the World Jewish Congress's Israel branch, Shai Hermesh. Natan Sharanky then countered with a powerful plea in Sunday's Jerusalem Post headlined "Israel Must Not Decide Alone." Yet much as I venerate Natan Sharansky, and much as I believe in the Jewish people's spiritual and political unity, ultimately, the headline is wrong: Israelis must decide Jerusalem's fate. 

In some ways, the gap between the combatants is exaggerated. Lauder only requested a "voice in the decision." Sharansky endorsed some kind of consultative process which would build a constructive consensus on such a key issue as the future of the Jewish people's eternal capital. But underlying this argument is the question whether membership in the Jewish people is sufficient to vote on life and death matters for Israel, or is Israeli citizenship required?

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