“I’m quite well in myself,” she says. “Nothing wrong with me. I can’t see very well, I can’t hear very well, and I can’t walk very well, but I’m perfectly well.”
With words like that, it’s no surprise that Valentine Vester, the owner of one of Jeruslaem’s most beautiful hotels, the American Colony, was born in Yorkshire, England. (Alan Bennet would have had a field day.)
Mrs Vester, profiled in yesterday’s New York Times, has a very interesting angle on Jerusalem, having lived there under the Jordanians and the Israelis, having relatives who lived there under the Ottomans and the British, and coming from a background sprinkled with famous archaeologists and vehement anti-Zionists.
There’s enough in there to shame Israel’s supporters:
The Colony is on the border of East Jerusalem, a few hundred yards from the walls of the Old City and near the ultra-Orthodox Jewish district of Mea Sharim. Mrs. Vester remembers just after the [1967] war, walking through the grounds, when she saw some Jews from Mea Sharim picking flowers. She remembers saying, “Please don’t do that, this is our private garden.”
“They just said, ‘But it’s all ours now.’ ” she said.
[…]During the first gulf war, in 1991, she says, the Israelis, under the threat of Saddam Hussein’s chemical weapons and Scud missiles, handed out gas masks - but only to the guests, not to the Palestinian staff of the hotel.
“But we diddled them,” Mrs. Vester said with pride. “We made an imaginary list of hotel guests. I mean two can play at that game. It was shocking, really.”
And the Palestinians:
She understands the Israeli need for security, she said, but also thinks the Palestinians don’t accept enough responsibility. “The Arabs are inclined to blame everything on the occupation - ‘What we can do?’ - and they shouldn’t,” she said. “They ought to do something about it.”
Sadly, her hopes for the future are not high:
No TagsMrs. Vester sees no easy peace. “It’s going to take a long, long time, whatever it is,” she said. “I don’t think I shall see the solution, and you may not, either.”
It’s a pity that Erlanger didn’t say much about the very beginnings of the ‘American Colony’ (which was only much later turned into a hotel).
The founder, Mr. Spafford, lost - I think - five daughters all at once and still managed to write the classic hymn, ‘It Is Well With My Soul.’
The family’s charitable work in Jerusalem was marvellous.
Still, it was interesting that, try as The New York Times might, it just couldn’t disguise the fact that Mrs. Vester (rightly!) placed most of the blame for the current conflict on the Palestinians.
Cheers,
Bren, Jerusalem.
Hey Bren, Erlanger did mention it:
The impression I came away with was that equal blame was to be apportioned: While the Israeli’s don’t treat their fellow citizens with respect, the Palestinians won’t take responsibility for their future.
Ah. I read the article in the IHT but apparently too quickly.
As far as blame goes, to me the paragraph that stood out started with “She understands the Israeli need for security, she said, [thus implicitly defending the Izzies] but also thinks the Palestinians don’t accept enough responsibility [thus implicitly knocking the Pallies]. Erlanger throwing in the word ‘but’ would knock the Izzies without a careful reading.
But I don’t mind admitting that I read into NYT articles what I want to read!
Your blog is great, by the way. Happy Blog Birthday for the other day.
Jewish terrorists, with their flower-picking and tree-planting, digust me. Just like the Nazis, really.
That’s funny, I don’t remember any Jewish terrorists picking flowers. I thought they had more persuasive methods of getting what they wanted, like blowing up hotels.
Jonny, I was not trying to equate flower-picking Jews with terrorists, as you seem to imply. Israel is a Jewish homeland, but it is not just for the Jews. Therefore, is it not incumbent on all Israeli Jews to make the land as welcoming as possible for people of other faiths? Especially those, like Mrs Vester, who have been living on land that was previously not a part of Israel?
I have many relatives in Israel, one of whom visited New York recently. We were in a diner when a waiter, who was wearing a crucifix, asked my cousin where she was from. She told him she was from Israel and asked if he had ever been there. He said no, to which she replied: “Well, I invite you. You must come. It is the most wonderful place.”
She is right. It is wonderful. And it is a special place for people of many faiths. Therefore, is it not an obligation for Jews to share it with the world? Or like the Jews of Mea Sharim, should we just say: ‘But it’s all ours now’?
When someone of a “vehement anti-Zionist” background criticizes a few Israelis for picking his flowers, and we, as Zionists are encouraged to feel collectively ashamed, I just think that’s funny. (So I made a joke.) That schmuck living in Jerusalem may have well been some racist criticizing his black neighbors for stealing his hubcaps. Let’s write a Times article about him.
Sure, Zionists blew up the King David Hotel (which was mainly occupied by the British military at the time). So, you think that proves what? That Zionism is somehow committed to terrorism? What about the role Jews played in the murder of Jesus Christ? Why not stick your finger in that wound and play with it for a little while and see where it gets you?
When I think about how on the whole, Jews have handled the fight for statehood despite the ongoing, overwhelming opposition they face from nearly the entire world, a few flower-pickers actually makes me proud, considering the death-obsessed insanity the conflict has given birth to on the other side. Pick that anti-Zionist’s flowers! Show him a thing or two, you nasty Jews!
Anyway, I’m just teasing.
“Therefore, is it not an obligation for Jews to share it with the world?”
And do think citizens of other nations should feel equally “obligated” to “share” their state with “the world”?
(FYI: I am very pro-disengagement)
“During the first gulf war, in 1991, she says, the Israelis, under the threat of Saddam Hussein’s chemical weapons and Scud missiles, handed out gas masks - but only to the guests, not to the Palestinian staff of the hotel.
“But we diddled them,” Mrs. Vester said with pride. “We made an imaginary list of hotel guests. I mean two can play at that game. It was shocking, really.”
Yeah, shocking that Israelis would have the slightest antipathy for Palestinians in this context. Racists.
http://www.intelligence.org.il/eng/sib/5_05/saddam_10.htm
Oh dear
Oh dear, dear! It seems I’ve used the wrong fork at dinner and upset this Englishman with my rude manners. On behalf of our people, I grant you permission, with all it’s entitlements, to feel ashamed for my embarrassing behavior. God Save the Queen.