“Alas, the apt phrase is not ‘open city’ but ‘open sore.’ Jerusalem bleeds as it has for almost four decades. If this city is sacred, I should hate to visit one that was profane.”
No, this sentence was not written in as a response to the current outbreak of violence between Israelis and Palestinians in Jerusalem. It actually appeared in print almost 30 years ago in a story that was part of Aces Abroad, the fourth volume of the successful Wild Cards series of science-fiction anthologies. And although describing an alternate reality, in which the history of Israel (and the world) took a different path from the one we know, the story also feels eerily prophetic. The author of the story is George R.R. Martin, better known today for the Song of Ice and Fire series of fantasy novels, adapted to the successful TV series Game of Thrones, whose sixth season starts April 24 on HBO.
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