I am in Israel with my son-in-law who has two of his documentaries at the Jerusalem Film Festival. Going along for the (joy) ride is my five year old grandson who is taking in what a bright and lively child can absorb and the warmth with which it is offered.
It is a week after Palestinian terror took on a new tactic: the bulldozer as an instrument of mass murder and mayhem. So I expected to find the city honeycombed with security personnel as it had not been for a few years.
The truth is that the "separation fence," or what inveterate critics of Israel insist on calling "the wall," although barely 10% of the barrier can remotely be described as that, has actually worked.
Last week's agent of terror actually came from Jerusalem proper, but on its periphery in a prosperous Palestinian village adjoining another prosperous Palestinian village. No barrier separated him from his appointment with killing. Let them become part of Palestine, with other Arab parts of Jerusalem. And whenever the Palestinians get around to taking the steps that will make them a real nation, then these other parts of Jerusalem can be their capitol.