Israeli military presence in Jerusalem

On our way out of the Teaching Steps/Steps of Learning outside the southern retaining wall or the Western Wall area - I forget which - a large stream of IDF (Israeli Defense Forces) soldiers were coming in. A few things struck me. (1) They are so very young. 
(2) They are all Israeli Jews. Israeli Arabs do not have compulsory service; in fact, they are not allowed to serve even if they want to. And Orthodox Jews are exempt. As a result, it's quite likely that there is a strong single narrative rather than a blend of narratives among IDF soldiers and officers. 
(3) Some of these young soldiers carried their automatic weapons with the tip pointing out rather than down. It was a bit alarming for me to see into the barrel of an assault weapon; I can only imagine what it is like for Arabs - not only Palestinians but Israeli Arabs, too. 

When our tour guide, a Christian Israeli Arab, saw these soldiers heading toward the al Aqsa mosque with guns at the ready, a fellow traveler heard her say, "They are going to shoot tonight." On the bus, she explained that there are some rumors that something might happen after evening prayers tonight and that's why the IDF is showing up around the mosque. (It's Friday, the day when much of the Muslim community gathers together for prayer at mosques.) Wednesday the IDF raided a spot in Nablus to flush out two suspected terrorists and ended up killing 11. Thursday 7 rockets were fired into Israel from the Gaza Strip (6 were shot down by Israel's Iron Dome; the other landed in open space).  The answer to the question, "Whose land is this, anyway?" depends both on precisely where in time you stop the marker on the timeline and on whom you ask.


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