Sir, - The Mughrabi Bridge affair is not merely sad as your sub-caption exclaims, but it provides for us in microcosm the complexities and intolerable injustices that Israelis are subject to in the 'sovereign' state of Israel.
The ironies that now accompany that historical declaration "The Temple Mount is in Our Hands" gives us ample room for reflection about the gut issues of the Israel-Arab conflict. One wonders at the initial acceptance with apparent equanimity of the discrimination that limits access to the Mount for non-Muslims and tourists to only one entrance.
The affair becomes even more poignant when confronted by Wakf police who control the behavior of those who do ascend.
We can finally appreciate the full meaning of the story circulated in New York Jewish circles on the High Holidays when a well known cantor was leading the services. An entrance ticket had to be presented to a guard at the synagogue entrance.
A teen-ager approached the guard on Yom Kippur and explained that he had no ticket but merely wanted to check on the well-being of his grandfather. After much recrimination and deliberation the guard permitted him to enter with an irate admonition, "But I better not catch you praying!"
ZEV CHAMUDOT
Petach Tikva
