Today, I was in the Old City of Jerusalem. I had the opportunity to celebrate the Bar Mitzvah of my youngest son in one of the many special, renovated Synagogues in he area . In fact, we had started the festivites a month previously, when we prayed as a family at the Wailing Wall (Kotel) nearby.

And as we all know, upto 1967, such actions would have been impossible. Jews were not allowed in these areas.

Tragically, as my wife, children, friends and others were dancing, 25 miles away, a 13 year old boy was hacked to death. The youth,  unknown to me, was barely a few months older than my son. His crime? According to Hamas, the attack was a “natural reaction to Israel’s occupation”.

There are angry protesters all over the world, yet none of them resort to repugnant acts of slaughter, a pick axe to slay a youth. If this is Hamas’s definition of normality and acceptability, I wonder what it takes for them to consider something inhuman!

Now consider that in a few weeks time, Pope Benedict XVI will visit Jerusalem and the Holy Land. It is less than a decade since his predecessor was here. As then, this trip will be a tremendous opportunity to show just how pluralism really does work in this minute part of the Middle East.

If the Pope is allowed out of his bullet proof vehicle, he will be able to see what I witnessed on the way to Synagogue this morning. We walked passed the entrance to Dormition Abbey, where pilgrims were mingling happily. A few yards along, the Armenian Quarter was thriving with tourists. And beyond, the minarets were calling their followers to prayers.

Obama, the EU and others are signalling to Israel to make quick and significant concessions to Hamas and to Fatah. Yet for all their so-called protection of Israel’s future, the international community continues to seek a way to appease the violence of Palestinian warriors.

The Pope will not be visiting Gaza. The treatment of Christians there in the past decade, and particularly since the takeover by Hamas, has been a continuous story of religious harassment.

And if Israel were to agree to the demands of America et al on Jerusalem, then my children will not be celebrating their weddings at the Wailing Wall. So if you want to keep Jerusalem open to all, then as the Pope will discover, do not change what already works.