(NEWS) Remembering The Synagogues Of Gush Katif

"A special event in memory of the 26 synagogues in Gush Katif that were destroyed five years ago was held in the rebuilt Hurva Synagogue in the Old City of Jerusalem on Wednesday. Dozens of people took part in special prayer services, with the participation of Haifa’s Chief Rabbi She’ar-Yashuv Cohen and others.

Rabbi Cohen said that five years ago, 'the man who is now the President of Israel, Shimon Peres, said that everyone knew that there was no way that the Arabs would fulfill their promises not to destroy the synagogues. So he asked us in the Chief Rabbinate whether it would be better for us to destroy the synagogues ourselves, in order to prevent enemy hands from touching them, or to simply remove everything from the synagogues in the knowledge that the Arabs would vandalize them. I said to him: Can you imagine in your wildest dreams that when Titus came to Jerusalem to burn the Holy Temple, that the Jews would burn it themselves?!'"