Sometimes a simple taxi ride helps understand certain situations much better then listening to hundreds of distinguished politicians and journalists. 

Yesterday in my post: Jerusalem ist EINE Stadt! (English: Jerusalem is ONE city), I wrote about the ridiculous demand by US president Barack H. Obama to make Israel freeze its “activities” in East-Jerusalem, which is an integral part of ONE city, the capital of Israel, Jerusalem. Furthermore I mentioned  East-Jerusalem Arab residents working and moving to the Western part of Jerusalem en masse, and asked Obama to stop this (first), too, if he really wants to divide the city and forbid Jews to settle down on the Eastside of the capital. While I was writing I said to myself: Actually nobody really gives a damn about what the residents of Jerusalem want and believe is best for them. There is no question about what Israel’s (and most of the Jews’) official opinion is regarding the status of Jerusalem; apparently there is no question what Obama’s attitude is, and there is no doubt what Abu Mazen’s, i.e. the Palestinian Authority’s line is; but has anybody ever made an effort to ask the Arab residents of East-Jerusalem? I did. Several times. But yesterday night I could reconfirm my view of the situation. Continue reading →