Jewlicious, The Temple Mount, and The Future Of Jerusalem on Foursquare

Can you phantom check-in and fool God?

Who is the mayor of the mount? Is it Ariela Ross, the one who on Foursquare is crowned the mayor? Or does the title — and the significant wealth, honor, prestige, and free fries— belong to a humble Jerusalem blogger named David Abitbol?

Here are some news articles recently published on this matter.

From the JPost:

For Ariela Ross, being the “mayor” of Al-Aksa Mosque and the Old City’s entire Muslim and Christian Quarters is quite natural – as these are the places where she spends much of her spare time….With 66 total “check-ins” as of Wednesday afternoon, Al-Aksa’s coveted mayorship currently remains in Ross’s hands through her own nine check-ins on the increasingly popular smartphone application called Foursquare, which allows users to tell their friends exactly where they are at any given time.

From the NY Media Observer:

She visited the mosque at the invitation of the mother of a Muslim boyfriend, a Bedouin Israeli, but she admitted that many of her check-ins were not strictly from within the mosque itself. “Usually I’m sitting right outside of it,” she said, “but I didn’t see any reason to create a new location” on Foursquare.

As for Abitbol, he frequents the Temple Mount because “it’s really pretty, the workmanship on the mosques is remarkable, the views are great and, most importantly, it is the holiest site in Judaism.”

While he would like to see the Jewish Temple rebuilt one day, he said, he expects the restoration to happen by divine intervention—”not by man.”

A few things I don’t get is how she can be called a nice Jewish girl in the article headline, [Disputed Territories: Nice Jewish Girl Claims Foursquare Mayorship of Temple Mount] and admit to dating a Muslim,  and admitting to phantom check-ins.

Jewlicious has posted many pictures of himself on the Temple Mount. If Ross is the true Mayor, wouldn’t it be right to have a bunch of photos of her on the Temple Mount too? Our researchers looked through her Twitpic account and found none.

Which is why I am writing this whole piece to begin with.

Jewlicious aka David Abitbol is clearly the Foursquare Mayor of the Temple Mount fair and uhm, square. He takes pictures every time he is there. There are no secret visits, or check-in’s during non-Muslim hours.

Mayor Abitbol, I think it is time for your coronation.

An Inspiring Shofar Story

Something to think about…

Next time you’re at the Kotel or when you hear the shofar blowing think about these guys:

Under a British law in Palestine passed in 1930, Jews were forbidden to blow the shofar at the Kotel, pray loudly there, or bring Torah scrolls, so as not to offend the Arab population… Despite this restriction, for the next seventeen years, the shofar was sounded at the Kotel every Yom Kippur. Shofars were smuggled in to the Kotel where brave teenagers defiantly blew them at the conclusion of the fast. Some managed to get away – others were captured and sent to jail for up to six months… Six of these men are still alive… Two weeks ago, these six men returned to the scene of their “crime”. Armed with shofars, they recounted their individual stories and blew shofar again at the Kotel.

Obama Doesn’t Get Jerusalem

Jerusalem is not a settlement – it is the center of Jewish religious and political life. The President fundamentally has things wrong on Jerusalem.

By MORTIMER ZUCKERMAN

Thanks to a deadlock engineered by the U.S. government, the Middle East peace process is stalled. President Obama began this stalemate last year when he called for a settlement freeze, and he escalates it now with a major change of American policy regarding Jerusalem.

The president seeks to prohibit Israel from any construction in its capital, in particular in a Jewish suburb of East Jerusalem called Ramat Shlomo. This, despite the fact that all former administrations have unequivocally understood that the area in question would remain part of Israel under any final peace agreement. Objecting to any building in this East Jerusalem neighborhood is tantamount to getting the Israelis to agree to the division of Jerusalem before final status talks with the Palestinians even begin.

From the start of his presidency, Mr. Obama has undermined Israel’s confidence in U.S. support. He uses the same term—”settlements”—to describe massive neighborhoods that are home to tens of thousands of Jews and illegal outposts of a few families. His ambiguous use of this loaded word raises the question for Israelis about whether this administration really understands the issue.

Dumb and Dumber (aka Olmert’s plan to divide Jerusalem)

Olmert’s plan to hand over parts of Jerusalem — or in the current regime’s double-talk it is reffered to as “share” — is totally ludicrous and highly dangerous. Some might even call it suicidal. With pressure from the Staff Department, White House, Israel is reviving one of the dumbest plans floated to solve the current conflict.

Imagine: with a barrier constructed that puts Arab neighborhoods under Palestinian jurisdiction and connected to a Palestinian entity in the West Bank, it will be only a matter of minutes before missiles are raining down on the Knesset. Has Olmert’s prostate cancer spread to his brain? Casting logic, religion, history and reason aside, we even have some Jewish groups along for the Olmert head-trip, (most recently Rabbi Kanefsky from LA.)

According to the Washington Post:

Under the plan, which would be executed unilaterally if efforts to resume peace talks fail, Jerusalem’s Old City, its holy shrines and the adjacent neighborhoods, would become a “special region with special understandings” but remain under Israeli sovereignty, said Schneller.

Special, as in Special K? So they start handing over the deeds to Jerusalem and the Arabs just say, “Yeh, thats cool, keep that Old City under Special Jurisdiction”. They must be eating infected mushrooms.

The Old City and the adjacent “holy basin,” which includes the predominantly Arab neighborhoods of Silwan and Sheik Jarrah, would fall on the Israeli side of the separation barrier Israel is building in the West Bank, another Israeli official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because plans are not final.

Silwan, a place where I was stoned during the first Intifada. A place that makes Watts seem hospitable. Oh and Seik Jarrah, is a regular Neve Shalom!

The plan also calls for moving the barrier westward. That means much of East Jerusalem would no longer be cut off from the West Bank and most Arab neighborhoods of Jerusalem could become part of a future Palestinian state on the eastern side of the barrier, the official said.

So all the weapons that are being stockpiled by Hamas in the West Bank, and the missiles that are being produced in Nablus and other towns, will be able to be transported without interference to the front lines and aimed at Jewish Jerusalem.

One struggles to understand how anyone who cares about the future of Israel, who cares about Jewish lives, who cares about preventing Hamastan from replacing Israel, can let this happen.

Once upon a time, a long time ago, people of different ethnic groups could share major cities, establish neighborhoods with local character, cultural resources, schools, and restaurants. One could live in these islands of culture, immersed in your own language, for an entire lifetime if you chose. However these work only when there is a desire of the inhabitants to build peaceful lives, and respect the rule of law.

When Jordan controlled the other side of a Jerusalem fence from 1948-1967, Jews were victims of snipers on a regular basis. Instead of being in the cross hair’s of Jordanian snipers, all of Jerusalem will be at the mercy of gangs of Hamas terrorists, bent of destruction and chaos, the imposition of Muslim law throughout the city, and the subjugation and murder of its Jewish inhabitants. Hamas is waiting for Olmert to hand over the deed to half of our capital, and then Hamas will do to “Al Quds” EXACTLY what they have done to Gaza. Lay waste to the PA, murder its opponents, set up squads of missile launchers, and build Hizbollah style bunkers on the other side, lest Israel get any ideas of returning.

However, if there is no outcry from Christians and Jews alike, Olmert’s Suicide plan is bound to stay afloat for the foreseeable future.