"Yet all this availeth me nothing, so long as I see Mordechai the Jew sitting at the king's gate"

Today, Arabic media is reporting that as many as 100,000 Muslims have gone to the Al Aqsa Mosque and the courtyards of the Temple Mount for the second Friday in Ramadan.

Israeli police are coordinating the safe passage and human traffic jams through the streets of the Old City.

As far as I can tell, there were never anything close to this number of Muslims who ever came to the Temple Mount when it was under British or Jordanian control, even though Israel is restricting some men under 40 from coming.

Bur even so, every day this week we have seen angry stories about the daily visits of a few dozen Jews who are quietly and respectfully visiting Judaism's holiest spot, in this week before Tisha B'Av, the anniversary  of both Temples' destruction.

So I am reminded of the verse that is the title of this post, from Esther 5:11-13:

And Haman recounted unto them the glory of his riches, and the multitude of his children, and everything as to how the king had promoted him, and how he had advanced him above the princes and servants of the king. Haman said moreover: 'Yea, Esther the queen did let no man come in with the king unto the banquet that she had prepared but myself; and to-morrow also am I invited by her together with the king. Yet all this availeth me nothing, so long as I see Mordechai the Jew sitting at the king's gate.'

This is the essense of anti-semitism.

Hate for Jews (or its more recent incarnation toward Jewish nationalists) has no logical basis.

It is not because others have "lost" anything. By any objective standard, Arab Israelis enjoy more freedom than any Arabs in Middle East history. Early Zionists worked hard to ensure that their building up the land would only benefit the Arabs there at the time.

The hate is visceral.

And because of this, there is nothing that Jews can do to make them liked better by the haters. A few of the more craven ones might be happily used by the anti-semites to advance their agenda, but in the end the hate is the only constant.

So all that today's Zionists can do is what they always have done. Do what is necessary to survive and prosper; work as hard as possible to act in a moral fashion, and ignore the haters - because there is nothing that can ever appease them.