(National Post-Canada) Joseph Brean - In the wake of the Trump administration decision not to move the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem, Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat said on a recent visit to Toronto, "We want to fix that irregularity. We want to make sure that the world understands that in any potential deal, if we ever do a deal with the Palestinians, the city of Jerusalem is the capital of the Jewish people, period." "If we need any proof, put a shovel in the ground anywhere you want, and you will see Jewish roots going back 2,000, 3,000 years. Legally, this is our land more than anybody else's land." With regard to the terror attacks in Paris, Nice, Berlin, Manchester and London, he said, "I think the world is starting to understand what we've gone through. Radical Islam is active, more than it was in the past, and it forces people to rethink how they operate relative to the threat. We've done that." Barkat has greater personal credibility on anti-terrorism than most people. In 2015, he and his bodyguard confronted a rampaging terrorist. The bodyguard aimed his gun, the terrorist dropped his knife and Barkat took him down. Unlike in London, for example, where police urged people to "Run, Hide, Tell," in Jerusalem civilians are encouraged to "take action, to engage." "Look, terrorists want to kill you," Barkat said. "You've got to neutralize them as fast as possible." "And in our city, it's amazing, because in many places in the world, we see in a terror attack, people run out of the scene and rely on security forces. In our case, if it's a lone wolf and others, you see people, including residents, run to the scene and jump, to stop the guy. And while in some cases people lost their lives doing so, they saved others."
2017-06-13 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive