Jerusalem IS the Capital of Israel
© David Burton 2017
Jerusalem IS the Capital of Israel© David Burton 2017 |
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On 6 December 2017, President Donald Trump announced that the Unite States formally recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and will begin the process of moving its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. In the announcement, President Trump Stated, in part: "When I came into office, I promised to look at the world's challenges with open eyes and very fresh thinking. We cannot solve our problems by making the same failed assumptions and repeating the same failed strategies of the past. [Emphasis mine] Old challenges demand new approaches. “My announcement today marks the beginning of a new approach to conflict between Israel and the Palestinians. “In 1995, Congress adopted the Jerusalem Embassy Act, urging the federal government to relocate the American embassy to Jerusalem and to recognize that that city - and so importantly - is Israel's capital. This act passed Congress by an overwhelming bipartisan majority and was reaffirmed by a unanimous vote of the Senate only six months ago. “Yet, for over 20 years, every previous American president has exercised the law's waiver, refusing to move the US embassy to Jerusalem or to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital city. “Presidents issued these waivers under the belief that delaying the recognition of Jerusalem would advance the cause of peace. Some say they lacked courage, but they made their best judgments based on facts as they understood them at the time. Nevertheless, the record is in. After more than two decades of waivers, we are no closer to a lasting peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians. It would be folly to assume that repeating the exact same formula would now produce a different or better result. [Emphasis mine] - - - “Israel is a sovereign nation with the right like every other sovereign nation to determine its own capital. Acknowledging this as a fact is a necessary condition for achieving peace. [Emphasis mine] “But today, we finally acknowledge the obvious: that Jerusalem is Israel's capital. This is nothing more, or less, than a recognition of reality. It is also the right thing to do. It's something that has to be done. “It was 70 years ago that the United States, under President Truman, recognized the State of Israel. Ever since then, Israel has made its capital in the city of Jerusalem - the capital the Jewish people established in ancient times. Today, Jerusalem is the seat of the modern Israeli government. It is the home of the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, as well as the Israeli Supreme Court. It is the location of the official residence of the prime minister and the president. It is the headquarters of many government ministries. “For decades, visiting American presidents, secretaries of state, and military leaders have met their Israeli counterparts in Jerusalem, . . . “Jerusalem is not just the heart of three great religions, but it is now also the heart of one of the most successful democracies in the world. Over the past seven decades, the Israeli people have built a country where Jews, Muslims, and Christians, and people of all faiths are free to live and worship according to their conscience and according to their beliefs. “Jerusalem is today, and must remain, a place where Jews pray at the Western Wall, where Christians walk the Stations of the Cross, and where Muslims worship at al-Aqsa Mosque. - - - “But today, we finally acknowledge the obvious: that Jerusalem is Israel's capital. This is nothing more, or less, than a recognition of reality. It is also the right thing to do. It's something that has to be done. “That is why, consistent with the Jerusalem Embassy Act, I am also directing the State Department to begin preparation to move the American embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. . . - - - “In the meantime, I call on all parties to maintain the status quo at Jerusalem's holy sites, including the Temple Mount, also known as Haram al-Sharif.” (Ref. 1) In spite of the fact that President Trump was stating the obvious, there were those in the U.S. and abroad who took issue with his move. Why were there any objections to the obvious? Questions could legitimately be raised as to the motives of those behind the objections. Were these objectors ignorant dupes of Palestinian-Arab and radical Islamic propaganda? Were they anti-Semites, Israel-haters, or both? Were these opponents simply cowards who feared Palestinian and radical Islamic terrorism and reprisals? Here in the U.S., despite "the fact that the Senate recently voted unanimously to recognize Jerusalem as the undivided capital of Israel — a bill co-sponsored by 17 senators, including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) — media and religious figures have emerged from the woodwork to condemn the Trump administration for the supposedly precipitous step of announcing just that fact. And it is a fact: Jerusalem has always been and will always be the eternal capital of the Jewish people and Israel, the site of the Temple Mount and the place where Jacob was informed by God, ‘I am the Lord, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the land on which you are lying… All peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring.’ [Emphasis mine] “The president’s decision to verify what Congress has made law since 1995, and to recognize a reality that’s been true for several thousand years, shouldn’t be all that controversial. But it is, largely thanks to misinformation put out by enemies of Israel, who suggest that to say true things amounts to provocation of violence. “Here’s the reality: recognizing the unification of Jerusalem under Israeli authority isn’t what causes violence between Israel and its neighboring Muslim enemies. It’s the anti-Semitic religious fervor of Israel’s neighboring Muslim enemies. That’s been true since before there was a State of Israel, and before Israel controlled Jerusalem.” (Ref. 2) The Palestinian-Arabs, together with much of the Muslim world, have been waging a long-standing war to separate Jews from Jerusalem. In this war, they have denied any Jewish connection to Judaism’s holiest city, claimed the city’s holiest places as Muslim, have continued to incite violent jihad with the false pretext that Jews are trying to destroy Muslim shrines, and insisted that the non-Muslim world accept all of these blatant fabrications as truth. Clearly, anti-Semites, Israel-haters and the ignorant have bought into these Palestinian-Arab and Muslim lies. Much of today’s world is allowing Palestinian-Arab and Muslim lies and distortions to go unchallenged. As evidenced by recent history, if you repeat a lie often enough, the lie will acquire the mantle of fact.[3] “Anti-Semitism is once again raging all over the world and this vile ideology is being aided and abetted by any number of people. Some of those helping to stoke the fire of Jew hatred are active participants, some are the quintessential useful idiots and some are feeding the crocodile in hopes they won’t be eaten. - - - “. . . the cowards who seek to feed the crocodile in hopes they might not be eaten today as Churchill observed are the saddest of the lot. These cowards actively work as faux journalists, fraudulent diplomats and modern day kapos. Take a look around you and you will see countless examples at the highest levels of government and media.” (Ref. 4) “Jerusalem has been the eternal capital of only one people in all of . . . recorded history: the Jewish people. The Jewish Bible along with the Talmud and the Midrash tell us that the Torah, (the first five books of the Holy Bible) its light and its message, is to be broadcast to the entire world from one specific place: Jerusalem. “Each time the Torah scroll is taken from the Ark to be read during synagogue services the following prayer is always sung. ‘For out of Zion shall go forth the Torah (Law) and the word of God from Jerusalem.’ (Isaiah 2:1 and Micah 4:2) “In the complete Jewish Bible (the Tanach) the words Jerusalem and Zion appear 821 times with Jerusalem appearing 667 times and Zion appearing 154 times. Both Zion and Jerusalem are considered synonymous. “In the Christian Bible - itself an account of Jewish personalities whose lives were formed within Judea, the Jewish Roman province, as well as in the Galilee - the name Jerusalem appears 154 times and Zion seven. “In the Islamic Koran, Jerusalem and Zion do not appear at all. Indeed, it was only after the Arabs, under their new banner of Islam, conquered Jerusalem in the year 638 that they created Islamic history in and around Jerusalem. “We are told that Mohammed flew on his magic horse to a place called Al Aksa, which means simply the farthest place. Much later, and for political reasons to do with historic, temporal and spiritual Jewish and Christian ties to Jerusalem, did Muslims name the Holy City as their Al Aqsa and placed a mosque on the site where the two holy Jewish temples had stood. [Emphasis mine] - - - “From the 10th century, the Muslim Arabs still called the city various names that echoed its original Jewish origins. For instance they called it Beit al-Makdis, the Arabic version of the Hebrew name, Beit Ha Mikdash - House of the Sanctuary. The Arabic name, Al-Kuds, is derived from the Hebrew, Ir Hakodesh - City of Holiness. “From 1948 to 1967, Jordan invaded {conquered and occupied} the eastern half of Jerusalem. . . .{The} Jordanian Arab Legion . . . forced out at gunpoint the Jewish residents of the Old City and from the neighboring Jewish villages: It was Apartheid and ethnic cleansing, Arab style. “The Legion went on to desecrate the Jewish graves on the ancient Mount of Olives, toppling the headstones and using them to build latrines. They desecrated and destroyed over 50 synagogues and forbade Jewish and Christian pilgrims to worship at their holy places. They had turned the Via Delarosa, the Way of the Cross, into a filthy, sewage strewn alley through which Christian pilgrims were forced to walk. Non-Muslims count for little under Islamic Sharia Law. “Jordan cut the Holy City in half with barbed wire and erected walls, complete with snipers along the dividing line, killing many Jews in the western half of the city. - - - “Only when Israel was able to restore dignity and cleanliness in 1967 to all the holy places after their liberation was the earlier Muslim discrimination against Jews and Christians finally brought to a long and overdue end. “Only under Israeli administration has Jerusalem been open for free and unfettered worship to members of all faiths. [Emphasis mine] - - - “In the nineteen years that the Jordanians occupied Judea and Samaria, they never remotely considered it as anything but Jordanian. Certainly, they never thought it belonged to another Arab people who later called themselves Palestinians.” (Ref. 5) One fact is and has always been evident: “Jerusalem, which for millennia was the biblical heart of Judaism, today actually is the capital of modern Israel. It is where the Knesset, the Israeli parliament, meets. It is where its Supreme Court meets. And since Israel’s victory in the 1967 war and its annexation of Arab East Jerusalem, it has been the undivided capital of Israel.” (Ref. 6) “Jerusalem, Judaism’s holiest city, is mentioned hundreds of times in the Hebrew Bible. It was the capital city of ancient Jewish kingdoms and home to Judaism’s holiest Temple (Beit HaMikdash). Jews from all over the ancient world would make pilgrimages to the Beit HaMikdash three times a year to participate in worship and festivities, as commanded in the Torah. Jerusalem and the Beit HaMikdash have remained the focus of Jewish longing, aspiration, and prayers. Daily prayers (said while facing Jerusalem and the Temple Mount) and grace after meals include multiple supplications for the restoration of Jerusalem and the Beit HaMikdash. Jews still maintain the 9th day of the Hebrew month of Av, the date on which both the First and Second Temples were destroyed, as a day of mourning. The Jewish wedding ceremony concludes with the chanting of the biblical phrase, ‘If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget its cunning,’ and the breaking of a glass by the groom to commemorate the destruction of the Temples. And Yom Kippur services and the Passover Seder conclude each year with the phrase 'Next Year in Jerusalem.’ “The Temple Mount is the holiest site in Judaism. The Temple was built, according to Jewish tradition, on the Even Hashtiya, the foundation stone upon which the world was created. This is considered the epicenter of Judaism, where the Divine Presence (Shechina) rests, where the biblical Isaac was brought for sacrifice, where the Holy of Holies and Ark of the Covenant housing the Ten Commandments once stood, and where the Temple was again rebuilt in 515 BCE before being destroyed by the Romans in 70 CE. The Temple Mount is also known as Mount Moriah (Har HaMoriah), mentioned frequently in the Bible. “The Western Wall (Kotel Hama’aravi, known simply as the Wall or Kotel) is the remnant of the outer retaining wall built by Herod to level the ground and expand the area housing the Second Jewish Temple. Its holiness derives from its proximity to the Temple site and specifically its proximity to the Western Wall of the Temple’s Holy of Holies (Kodesh Hakodashim---the inner sanctuary that housed the Ark of the Covenant–the Aron HaBrit–and where the High Priest–Kohen Gadol--alone was permitted to enter on Yom Kippur). According to Midrashic sources, the Divine Presence never departed from the Western wall of the Temple’s Holy of Holies. For the last several hundred years, Jews have prayed at Herod’s Western Wall because it was the closest accessible place to Judaism’s holiest site. “Jerusalem assumed significance as an Islamic holy site {only} during the rule of the Umayyads (661-750 CE). Facing challenge to his power from Ibn al-Zubayr, a rebel who controlled Mecca, the Syrian-based Caliph Abd al Malik sought to consolidate his leadership by establishing a place of worship for his followers in Jerusalem in place of Mecca. He built the Dome of the Rock (Masjid Qubbat As Sakhrah) in 688-691 CE on the spot where the Jewish Temples had stood. “Two decades later, in 715 CE, the Umayyads built another mosque on the Temple Mount which they named the Furthest Mosque (Masjid al Aqsa) to connote the ‘furthest mosque’ alluded to in the Quran (17:1). This was the metaphorical spot from which Mohammed was said to have ascended to heaven in a vision (referred to in Arabic as the Mi’raj) after a night journey from Mecca (the Isra) on a winged steed named Al Buraq. “Although the Quran does not mention Jerusalem or the Temple Mount, the designation of a concrete site to what had been until then just a figurative name provided Muslims with a new religious focus. Several Qur'anic verses were subsequently construed to be obliquely referring to Jerusalem. [Emphasis mine] The Temple Mount was renamed by Muslims the Noble Sanctuary (al Haram al Sharif). “Over the years, Jerusalem’s stature as an Islamic holy city has waxed and waned. During the period between 1948 and 1967, when under Jordanian control, Jerusalem and its holy sites were largely neglected by the Muslim world. {Only since} Israel gained control of East Jerusalem and reunified the city . . . has there been a growing attempt by Palestinians to marshal the religious fervor of the Arab and Muslim world in order to wrest Jerusalem from Israel.” [Emphasis mine] (Ref. 7) It is only in relatively modern times that Jerusalem has become "the third holiest site in the world. When Muslims offer up their daily prayers, they do not face Jerusalem, and instead face toward the city of Mecca. Jerusalem is mentioned but once in the Koran. Jerusalem is not embedded in Muslim culture. In the 1,300 years that various Islamic dynasties ruled Jerusalem, not one Islamic dynasty ever made the city its capital. Indeed, even the National Covenant of the PLO, written in 1964, never mentions Jerusalem. It was only added after Israel regained control of the city in 1967.” (Ref. 8) Jerusalem is Jerusalem. There is no such thing as East Jerusalem. There is only Jerusalem. Just because the Palestinian-Arabs say they want Jerusalem for their capital, there is no justification for it to be so. Israel has the right to do what it wishes with the “undivided” capital of Israel referred to by then-presidential-candidate Barack Obama at a speech to AIPAC on June 4, 2008. Jerusalem never was the capital of “Palestine”. “Palestine” in the Arab/Muslim context has never existed and still does not exist today. “According to Christian tradition, many of the events in Jesus's life and ministry took place in the Holy City. The Last Supper, referring to the final meal shared by Jesus with his disciples before his death, is believed to have taken place in the “Upper Room” or Coenaculum, on the second floor of a building over King David’s tomb on Mount Zion. The Garden of Gethsemane — according to the New Testament, the place where Jesus suffered for the sins of the world the night before he was crucified — is located at the bottom of the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem. On the Mount of Olives is the Shrine of the Ascension, where Jesus is believed to have ascended to heaven. (It is now run by Muslims and a dome covers the structure.) The Church of the Holy Sepulchre, built by Constantine the Great to mark the site of the Resurrection, stands within the walls of the Old City. The remains of Golgotha, the hill upon which Jesus was crucified, is believed to lie inside the church. The church houses priests from the Roman Catholic Church and from numerous Eastern Orthodox traditions. The Via Dolorosa, or “Way of Sorrows,” leading to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, is the traditional path taken by Christian pilgrims to symbolically relive the events of Jesus’ passion. Because of Jesus's historical connection to these and other locations, Jerusalem is venerated by Christians throughout the world.” (Ref. 7) Since Israel reunited Jerusalem in 1967, it has faithfully protected the rights and security of Christians, Muslims and Jews. Christians now control the Stations of the Cross and their other holy sites in the city; Muslims control the Dome of the Rock. Yet the Palestinian-Arabs often stone Jewish civilians praying at the Western Wall below. Their leaders and imams repeatedly deny the Jewish connection to Jewish holy sites. With President Trump's action, it's appropriate to continue to make it perfectly clear to everyone that America believes and supports the concept that Jerusalem was, is, and will remain the undivided capital of the State of Israel and that Israel will continue to guarantee freedom of religion to all in the Holy City. For a more thorough summary of the history of Jerusalem, see Reference 9. “It’s been 22 years since the Senate passed the Jerusalem Embassy Act with overwhelming bipartisan support, formally recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. But no action was taken to move the U.S. Embassy there. Until now. - - - “Knowing that the peace process has long been stalled between the Palestinians and our greatest ally in the Middle East, it was long overdue to try something new. . . ‘We cannot solve our problems by making the same failed assumptions and repeating the same failed strategies of the past.’ - - - “Strong, unequivocal U.S. support for Israel means that the Palestinians have to consider reality. Israel is not going away, and as with many Arab nations, an accommodation is in their interest. - - - “Under the Obama administration, U.S. relations with Israel hit an all-time low. . . “But peace with terrorists doesn’t come from weakness and concessions. It comes from strength. . . “ (Ref. 10) The failed 20-year old peace process may now finally be replaced by one based on reality instead of Palestinian and Arab lies, fabrications, threats and blatant distortions of historical and biblical truths. For the past few years, Palestinian-Arabs and their co-religionists have rewritten historical fact in an attempt to deny Jews and Israel any right to claim Jerusalem as theirs. Unbelievably, the United Nations, and several nations around the world have bought in to these Palestinian-Arab fabrications. While such behavior and tactics should be unacceptable to Western politicians and diplomats, they have chosen to close their eyes, hold their noses and blame the Israelis for not making enough concessions to jump-start the “peace-process”. They refuse to admit the now-obvious fact that there is no “peace-process!” – there is no “peace-partner”. The Palestinian-Arab leadership and Muslim extremists only wants the destruction of Israel and the elimination of all Jews in the Middle East – a precursor to the elimination of all non-Muslims in the Middle East and, eventually, throughout the world. The status of Jerusalem is just another red herring in their push to achieve this ultimate goal! Jerusalem is considered a holy city by three major faiths—Judaism, Christianity and Islam—and figures prominently in the Arab-Israeli conflict. "Since 1004 BCE, when King David established Jerusalem as the capital of his kingdom, there has been a continuous Jewish presence in Jerusalem, the holiest city in Judaism. Following the building of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and the designation of other holy sites by Constantine the Great in 333 CE, Jerusalem became a destination of Christian pilgrimages. During Umayyad rule from 661 to 750 CE, the Dome of the Rock and the Al Aqsa Mosque were built on the site where the Jewish Temples had once stood, and Jerusalem became the third holiest city in Islam. {This Islamic presence in Jerusalem came more than 1,600 years after King David established Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and nearly 700 years after Jerusalem saw the beginning of Christianity. So Islam was a Johnny-come lately, and a very late one at that, in the history of Jerusalem.} “Jews have constituted the largest ethnic group in Jerusalem since 1820. [Emphasis mine] . . . ‘In the second half of the nineteenth century and at the end of that century, Jews comprised the majority of the population of the Old City ...’ 6,000 Jews resided in Jerusalem in 1838, compared to 5,000 Muslims and 3,000 Christians . . . Encyclopaedia Britannica of 1853 ‘assessed the Jewish population of Jerusalem in 1844 at 7,120, making them the biggest single religious group in the city.’ . . . And others estimated the number of Jewish residents of Jerusalem at the time as even higher. Until about 1860, Jerusalem residents lived almost exclusively within the walls of the Old City, in east Jerusalem. Between 1860 and 1948, Jews lived in both eastern and western Jerusalem. {In truth, Muslims only very rarely constituted a major portion of Jerusalem’s population.} “During the 19 years when Jordan occupied eastern Jerusalem and its holy sites (1948-1967), Jerusalem was divided. Jews were expelled from eastern Jerusalem and barred from visiting their holy places. “As a result of the Six Day War, the entire city of Jerusalem and its holy sites came under Jewish control. Israel reunified the city, extending Israeli law, jurisdiction and administration to the parts previously occupied by Jordan. The Israeli Knesset passed laws to protect holy sites and ensure freedom of worship to all, and offered Israeli citizenship to Jerusalem’s Arab residents, most of whom declined. “Since 1967, Jerusalem has become a focal point of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. In 1980, Israel passed the Basic Law: Jerusalem Capital of Israel, reaffirming the unified Jerusalem as its eternal, undivided capital. Palestinians insist Jerusalem must be the capital of their intended state. (Ref. 7) “On November 29, 1947, the United Nations General Assembly recommended Palestine be partitioned into two states–Arab and Jewish. The plan called for Jerusalem to become a corpus separatum, an international city administered by the UN, for an interval of 10 years, after which the city’s status was to be redetermined in a referendum. While Jewish leaders reluctantly accepted this, Arab leaders rejected the entire plan, including Jerusalem’s internationalization. [Emphasis mine] Arab delegates to the UN declared the partition invalid. Deadly Arab attacks on Jewish residents of Palestine increased, and Arab forces blockaded the road to Jerusalem. When Israel declared Independence in May 1948, five neighboring Arab countries invaded the new state. “During the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, Transjordan’s Arab Legion attempted to capture the entire city of Jerusalem, shelling it and cutting off its Jewish residents from the coastal plain. Western portions of Jerusalem came under Israel’s control only after Israeli forces broke the Arab siege of the city. In the first four weeks of Arab attacks, 200 Jewish civilians were killed and over 1,000 were wounded in Jerusalem. But, defending themselves, Israeli forces managed to capture some suburbs and villages from the Arabs. “The Israeli defenders were not as successful in protecting the Jewish community of eastern Jerusalem. On May 28, 1948, the Jewish Quarter of the Old City fell to the Arab Legion. After 10 months of fighting, an armistice agreement was signed on April 3, 1949, dividing Jerusalem along the November 1948 ceasefire lines of Israeli and Transjordanian forces, with several areas of no-man’s land. The armistice line served as a temporary border between what had formerly been two mixed communities. Western Jerusalem became Israel’s capital city, while eastern Jerusalem, including the holy sites, was occupied by Transjordan, which in 1949 became the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. The city was essentially divided between two armed camps separated by barbed wire, concrete walls, minefields and bunkers. “Upon its capture by the Arab Legion, the Jewish Quarter of the Old City was destroyed and its residents expelled. Fifty-eight synagogues—some hundreds of years old—were destroyed, their contents looted and desecrated. Some Jewish religious sites were turned into chicken coops or animal stalls. The Jewish cemetery on the Mount of Olives, where Jews had been burying their dead for over 2500 years, was ransacked; graves were desecrated; thousands of tombstones were smashed and used as building material, paving stones or for latrines in Arab Legion army camps. The Intercontinental Hotel was built on top of the cemetery and graves were demolished to make way for a highway to the hotel. The Western Wall became a slum area. - - - “In 1950, Jordan annexed the territories it had captured in the 1948 war—eastern Jerusalem and the West Bank. The April 24th resolution declared ‘its support for complete unity between the two sides of the Jordan and their union into one State, which is the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, at whose head reigns King Abdullah Ibn al Husain... {NOTE: Under Jordanian occupation, there was no concept of a Palestinian State or of Jerusalem being the capital of such an entity.} - - - “In direct contravention of the 1949 armistice agreements, Jordan did not permit Jews access to their holy sites or to the Jewish cemetery on the Mount of Olives. “Article VIII of the Israel Jordan Armistice Agreement (April 3, 1949) established a special committee which would ‘direct its attention to the formulation of agreed plans and arrangements’ including ‘free access to the Holy Places and cultural institutions and use of the cemetery on the Mount of Olives.’ Nevertheless, and despite numerous requests by Israeli officials and Jewish groups to the UN, the U.S., and others to attempt to enforce the armistice agreement, Jews were denied access to the Western Wall, the Jewish cemetery and all religious sites in eastern Jerusalem. The armistice lines were sealed as Jordanian snipers would perch on the walls of the Old City and shoot at Israelis across the lines. “Israeli Arabs, too, were denied access to the Al Aqsa mosque and the Dome of the Rock, but their Muslim sites in eastern Jerusalem were respected. "While Christians, unlike Jews, were allowed access to their holy sites, they too were subject to restrictions under Jordanian law. There were limits on the numbers of Christian pilgrims permitted into the Old City and Bethlehem during Christmas and Easter. Christian charities and religious institutions were prohibited from buying real estate in Jerusalem or owning property near holy sites. And Christian schools were subject to strict controls. They were required to teach in Arabic, close on Friday, the Muslim holy day, and teach all students the Koran. At the same time, they were not allowed to teach Christian religious material to non-Christians. {Under Jordanian rule, freedom of religion meant freedom to practice the Muslim religion.} “During the 1967 war, Israel appealed to Jordan to stay out of the war, but despite this appeal, Jordanian forces fired artillery barrages from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Although Israeli forces did not respond initially, not wanting to open up a Jordanian front in the war, Jordan continued to attack and occupied UN headquarters in Jerusalem. Israeli forces fought back and within two days managed to repulse the Jordanian forces and retake eastern Jerusalem. “On June 7, 1967, IDF paratroopers advanced through the Old City toward the Temple Mount and the Western Wall, bringing Jerusalem’s holiest site under Jewish control for the first time in 2000 years. . . To Israelis and Jews all over the world, this was a joyous and momentous occasion. Many considered it a gift from God. - - - “In a statement at the Western Wall, Minister of Defense Moshe Dayan indicated Israel’s peaceful intent and pledged to preserve religious freedom for all faiths in Jerusalem . . . {Israel has faithfully observed this pledge ever since!} - - - “Before visiting the Western Wall, Prime Minister Levi Eshkol met with the spiritual leaders of different faiths in his office and issued a declaration of peace, assuring that all holy sites would be protected and that all faiths would be free to worship at their holy sites in Jerusalem. He declared his intention to give the spiritual leaders of the various religions internal management of their own Holy Sites. Defense Minister Dayan immediately ceded internal administrative control of the Temple Mount compound to the Jordanian Waqf (Islamic trust) while overall security control of the area was maintained by Israel. Dayan announced that Jews would be allowed to visit the Temple Mount, but not to hold religious services there. “Israeli Muslims were permitted to pray at the Al Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock for the first time since 1948. And Israeli Christians came to visit the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. “On June 27, 1967, the Israeli Knesset extended Israel’s legal and administrative jurisdiction to all of Jerusalem, and expanded the city’s municipal borders. Eshkol again assured the spiritual leaders of all faiths that Israel was determined to protect the Holy Places. The Knesset passed the Protection of Holy Places Law granting special legal status to the Holy Sites and making it a criminal offence to desecrate or violate them, or to impede freedom of access to them. Jerusalem became a reunified city that ensured freedom of religion and access to holy sites for all. “The religious freedoms enjoyed by Jews, Christians, and Muslims in the reunified Jerusalem had been unheard of during Jordanian occupation of the city, prompting even a former Jordanian ambassador to the United Nations . . . to acknowledge that ‘the situation in Jerusalem prior to 1967 [under Jordanian rule] was one of ... religious exclusion’ whereas post-1967, Israel seeks ‘to reach a point of religious inclusion ...’ . . . “. . . In 1980, the Israeli Knesset passed a basic law declaring reunified Jerusalem the eternal capital of Israel. The law provides for protection of and freedom of access to each religion's holy sites. . . “ (Ref. 7) “1929. Conflict began in British Mandate Palestine after Jews made the 'provocative' move of bringing chairs for the elderly and the infirm to the Western Wall for prayer purposes. In October 1928, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem decided to build atop the Temple Mount, and purposefully led mules through the Western Wall area, excreting in the holy area to spite the Jews. All of this led to a Jewish march to the wall in August 1929. The next day, Muslims marched to the wall to show their sovereignty, even though the Western Wall isn’t holy to Muslims. The following day, Arabs stabbed a Jew to death in the city. By August 23, Muslims were rioting across Jerusalem. 17 Jews were murdered and a hospital was attacked in the city in Jerusalem itself. In Hebron, Arabs massacred more than 60 Jews. “The British Shaw report described the events thusly: ‘Arabs in Hebron made a most ferocious attack on the Jewish ghetto and on isolated Jewish houses lying outside the crowded quarters of the town. More than 60 Jews – including many women and children – were murdered and more than 50 were wounded.’ Remember, this was long before Israel existed or Jerusalem was in Jewish hands. There were also anti-Jewish riots in 1920 and in the 1930s. “1948. Israel’s creation was supposed to lead to a peaceful coexistence in Jerusalem. Instead, Arabs cut off all roads to Jerusalem and prevented Jews from reaching the city, blockading the inhabitants inside. Thousands of Israelis died attempting to reach their brethren in Jerusalem. The outcome: the split of the city between West Jerusalem, which did not include the Western Wall, and East Jerusalem, controlled by Jordan. Under Muslim rule, Jews were not able to visit Jewish holy sites; under Jewish rule, Muslims were. Muslims used gravestones from the Jewish cemetery Mount of Olives to pave their roads. During this period, while East Jerusalem was fully controlled by Muslims, the Palestine Liberation Organization (later the Palestinian Authority) was formed. It openly stated that its goal was the destruction of the State of Israel. Remember, this is before Israel controlled Jerusalem. “1967. Israel wins control of Jerusalem and unifies the city. Muslims are not just granted access to holy sites, the Islamic Waqf is given full control over the Temple Mount, the holiest site in Judaism. Jews are still forbidden from praying at the Temple Mount to this day, despite Israel’s sovereignty over the site. “1993. In the Oslo Accords, Israel agreed to negotiate with the terrorist Palestinian Authority over a future Palestinian state. In return, the PA stated that it would acknowledge Israel’s right to exist (it never has) and cease violence (it never has). The Oslo Accords never made any statement about transfer of Jerusalem to Muslim rule. Despite that fact, the number of terrorist attacks on Israel dramatically increased in the aftermath of Oslo, with 27 Israelis murdered in October 1994 alone through Muslim terrorism. “2000. At the Camp David summit, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, of the Labor Party, offered Palestinian terrorist leader Yasser Arafat control over East Jerusalem and the Temple Mount itself. That’s according to Bill Clinton. Arafat refused the deal and walked away from the table without a counteroffer, then used Israeli opposition leader Ariel Sharon’s visit to the Temple Mount as a pretext to begin a terrorist wave that would result in the deaths of hundreds of Jews from terrorism. . . “2008. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert offered new Palestinian terrorist dictator Mahmoud Abbas — a man who was working hand in glove with Palestinian terrorist group Hamas — international control of Jerusalem’s Old City, which includes the holy sites. Olmert stated, ‘Remember my words, it will be 50 years before there will be another Israeli prime minister that will offer you what I am offering you now. Don’t miss this opportunity.’ Olmert also offered near-complete withdrawal from Judea and Samaria, with retention of just 6.3% of the territory for existing settlement blocs, and even agreed to hand over Israeli land equivalent to 5.8% of the territory, as well as a land bridge between Judea and Samaria and the Gaza Strip. Abbas turned it down, and launched another round of violence instead in coordination with Hamas in Gaza. Incessant Muslim terrorism against Jews in Jerusalem has not ceased. “So no, sovereignty over Jerusalem has nothing to do with increased Muslim violence. Muslims in the region will not tolerate Israel’s existence; Jerusalem is just a convenient proxy issue for that inconvenient fact. Muslims launched violence against Jews in Jerusalem for the sin of visiting Jewish holy sites long before Israel existed; they pushed for Israel’s annihilation long before Israel had control over Jerusalem; they have turned down multiple peace offers including division of Jerusalem and opted for violence instead.” [Emphasis mine] (Ref. 2) “A short three hours after US President Donald Trump phoned Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas to inform him of his intention to move the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, a number of Palestinian photojournalists received a phone call from Bethlehem. “The callers were Palestinian ‘activists,’ who invited the photographers to come to the city to document an ‘important event.’ When the photographers arrived, they discovered that the ‘important event’ was a handful of Palestinian ‘activists’ who wanted to burn posters of Trump in front of the cameras. “The ‘activists’ waited patiently as the photojournalists and cameramen set up their equipment to get the ‘important event’ on film. Shortly thereafter, the media was abuzz with reports about ‘angry Palestinian protesters taking to the streets to protest’ Trump’s intention to move the embassy to Jerusalem and his recognition of the city as the capital of Israel. The handful of Palestinians who were filmed burning the Trump pictures were made to look as if they were part of a mass protest sweeping Palestinian communities. “The incident represents yet another example of the collusion between the Palestinians and the media, whose representatives are always more than happy to serve as mouthpieces for the Palestinian propaganda machine and provide an open platform for broadcasting Palestinian threats against Israel and the U.S. {Emphasis mine] “Had the photographers and cameramen not shown up to the erstwhile ‘spontaneous’ poster-burning event, the Palestinian activists would have been forced to quietly slink back to one of Bethlehem’s fine coffee shops. “Yet, there was no worry on that score: the Palestinian activists are well aware that local and foreign reporters are starving for sensationalism — and what better fits the bill than posters of Trump going up in flames in the middle of the birthplace of Jesus, on the eve of Christmas and as thousands of Christian pilgrims and tourists are converging on the city? “By misrepresenting the poster-burning ‘ceremony’ as a reflection of widespread Palestinian rage concerning Trump’s policy on Jerusalem, the international media is once again complicit in promoting the propaganda of Palestinian spin doctors. Palestinian leaders and spokesmen strive to create the impression that Trump’s policy regarding Jerusalem will bring the region down in flames. They also seek to send a message to the American people that their president’s policies endanger their lives. In effect, the media has volunteered to serve the Palestinian campaign of intimidation. [Emphasis mine] And the media convergence on the poster-burning farce in Bethlehem is just the beginning. “Now that the Palestinians have managed, with the help of the media, to burn these images into the minds of millions of Americans, they are planning more staged protests. The goal: to terrify the American public and force Trump to rescind his decision regarding the status of Jerusalem. This tactic of intimidation through the media is not new. In fact, it is something that has been happening for decades, largely thanks to the buy-in of the mainstream media in the West. [Emphasis mine] - - - “. . . In the Palestinian world, it is all about manipulating the media and recruiting it in favor of the cause. And the cause is always bashing Israel . . . - - - “Recently, more than 300 Muslim worshipers were massacred by Muslim terrorists while praying in a mosque in Sinai, Egypt. That tragedy was probably covered by fewer journalists than the orchestrated Trump-poster episode in Bethlehem. Where was the outcry in the Arab and Islamic world? Now, Arabs and Muslims are talking about ‘days of rage’ in protest against Trump. Why were there no ‘days of rage’ in the Arab and Islamic countries when more than 300 worshipers, many of them children, were massacred during Friday prayers? “It is high time for some self-reflection on the part of the media: Do they really wish to continue serving as a mouthpiece for those Arabs and Muslims who intimidate and terrorize the West? “Journalists are actively colluding with the Palestinian Authority and Hamas to create the false impression that World War III will erupt if the US embassy is moved to Jerusalem. Hundreds of thousands of Muslims and Christians have been massacred since the beginning of the “Arab Spring” more than six years ago. They were killed by Muslim terrorists and other Arabs. The bloodshed continues to this day in Yemen, Libya, Syria, Iraq and Egypt. “So, make no mistake about it: the ‘rivers of blood’ we are being promised are flowing as we speak. Yet, it is the knife that Arabs and Muslims take to one another’s throats that is the source of this crimson current, not some statement made by a US president. Perhaps that could finally be an event worth covering by the roving reporters of the region?” (Ref. 11) The U.S. “decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital has been predictably condemned across the Muslim world as well as among Western liberal political elites. According to the logic of {these} critics, recognizing the Jewish state’s capital is ‘undermining’ the prospects for peace between Jews and Arabs. {Fifty years of failed attempts to bring peace to the region have yet to convince these critics that Palestinian Arab leaders don’t want peace – they want to see the end of Israel! Albert Einstein defined this behavior on the part of Western liberal political elites as insanity. Others define it as anti-Semitism!} “Western liberal self-appointed Middle East experts continue clinging to the fallacy that all Middle Eastern problems could be solved if sufficient pressure is applied on Israel and Jews to give in to the Palestinian leadership’s genocidal demands. However, this failed policy has been tried for several decades without bringing Jews and Arabs closer to a lasting peace. Quite the contrary, Western leaders have effectively undermined any genuine peace prospects by encouraging Arab leaders to maintain their extremist positions towards Israel. [Emphasis mine] “Western pro-Arab appeasement policies perfectly illustrate the popular definition of insanity as doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. However, the Western establishment’s Middle East policy makers are not in a rush to adapt their policies to harsh Middle Eastern realities. - - - “Trump upset the Western liberal establishment by recognizing reality: ‘Israel has made its capital in the city of Jerusalem, the capital the Jewish people established in ancient times.’ “. . . Trump may not be a historian, but he recognized what should have been recognized long ago: the Jewish people is the indigenous nation of Israel and Jerusalem is the ancient capital of the Jewish people. “The American leader correctly reminded his audience that modern Israel is a sovereign nation that was recognized almost 70 years ago by US President Harry Truman. Like any independent nation, Israel chooses the location for its own capital. Imagine if the world attacked Britain and France for choosing London and Paris as their capitals. “Like it or not, Israel’s government, parliament, supreme court, the prime minister’s and president’s residences, and most ministries are located in Jerusalem. By recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s ancient and modern capital, the US president recognizes what has been badly missing in our Orwellian world: reality. Genuine peace must be based on reality, not fantasies. Peace between Arabs and Jews can only arrive when Arab leaders are forced to abandon their genocidal fantasies of wiping the Jewish state off the map. [Emphasis mine] (Ref. 12) As the Israeli envoy at the United nations stated: “The American announcement serves as a reality check for the Palestinians and for the nations of the world. They can see this moment for what it is: an opportunity to initiate hope” (Ref. 13) So far, the Palestinians and too many nations of the world have failed to seize the moment and move forward from 50-years of stalemate and violence. Unfortunately, the weeks following President Trump’s long overdue recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital have “brought another lamentable example of what has relegated both Palestinians and Israelis alike to generations of conflict: a Palestinian leadership that cannot bring itself to make peace, but only to spurn it. “The latest is the Palestinian leadership’s ‘warning’ that U.S. recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital would cause violence, while {the Palestinian-Arab leadership} actually orchestrated the violence so as to make sure it occurred. [Emphasis mine] “Sadly, there is nothing new about either the duplicity or the violence. The history of the duplicity is all too familiar. “The United Nations creation of a two-state solution in 1947, accepted by the Israelis, rejected by the Palestinians. “An independent Palestinian state offered by two Israeli Prime Ministers, rejected by the Palestinians. “An Obama administration request that the Israelis freeze settlements for 10 months so that the Palestinians would agree to negotiate, accepted by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the objection of his right-wing party, while the Palestinians abandoned negotiations, never to return. “The history of the violence is no less familiar, no less tragic. From 2000 to 2004 the Palestinian leadership orchestrated a campaign of suicide bombings that left 1,100 Israelis dead and 5,000 injured, the proportional equivalent of 50,000 Americans dead and 250,000 injured. “Over the last decade, we have seen stabbing campaigns encouraged by the Palestinian leadership, which have claimed the lives of Israelis and Americans alike. Three separate waves of rockets, totaling some 15,000 in all, have been fired by Hamas into Israeli civilian centers, all intended to inflict as much death and injury as possible on innocent people or, at a minimum, to terrify them. “Now the Palestinian Authority has organized its latest ‘Days of Rage,’ complementing Hamas’ cry for the unleashing of ‘the fires of hell’ on Israelis. This time it is because the U.S. recognized that since Israel’s capital has been in West Jerusalem for the past 70 years — and since we already have a law recognizing that Jerusalem is in fact Israel’s capital — we would say formally what is not easily disputable.” (Ref. 14) Instead of taking umbrage at President Trump’s statement of reality, it should behoove the Palestinian-Arab leadership to end the hardships imposed on the Palestinian-Arab people by the long-standing hostility to Israel and to begin the process of reaching a beneficial peace agreement with the Jews. As Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu told French President Emmanuel Macron, “I think the sooner the Palestinians come to grips with this reality, the sooner we move toward peace,” (Ref. 15) And the sooner both parties move toward peace, the sooner both Jews and Palestinian-Arabs can reap the mutual benefits of peaceful co-exstance. “Many countries reacted with condemnation and dismissal of Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. “Leaders from around the world condemned the US and President Donald Trump for his historic recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, calling for Jerusalem’s status to be resolved by negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians. “Eight of the 15-member United Nations Security Council (UNSC) called for an urgent meeting to discuss Trump’s decision, according to media reports. - - - "Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has threatened to cut ties with Israel over the announcement, continued on Thursday his strong criticism of the US decision. “Erdogan also compared Trump to a ‘blender’ stirring up trouble in the region.” (Ref. 16) The Palestinian-Arab and Muslim tantrum over Trump’s Jerusalem actions is just one more example of Palestinian-Arab and Muslim behavior with regards to negotiations and agreements. Basically, their signature on an agreement isn't worth the ink, let alone the paper on which the agreement is written. To Palestinian-Arabs and Muslims, an agreement is to be kept only to the extent that it benefits them and can be abrogated at any time it is convenient. An agreement is only the basis for further demands. There are those in the West who hold the belief that negotiations with Palestinian-Arabs and Muslims can be conducted according to western standards and rules of negotiation. The truth is that such is not the case – Palestinian-Arabs and Arabs negotiate according to their rules, not those of the West. Unfortunately, too many in the non-Arab world hold to their naïve and unrealistic belief (which may be read as hope or wish) that the Arabs and Palestinians-Arabs will negotiate according the Marquis of Queensbury niceties of the Western world. There are none so blind as those who will not see![17] The Palestinian-Arabs must be made to understand that the offer on the table today is the best they will ever see. The longer they stall, the more they will lose – acceptance of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital is only the beginning! President Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital was an appropriate counter to the redirection of American policy by out-going President Barack Obama and former Secretary of State John Kerry. They reversed long-standing American policy “by engineering the United Nations Security Council Resolution declaring Judaism’s holiest places in Jerusalem to be occupied territory and a ‘flagrant violation under international law.’ It was President Obama who changed the status quo and made peace more difficult, by handing the Palestinians enormous leverage in future negotiations and disincentivizing them from making a compromised peace. “It had long been American foreign policy to veto any one-sided Security Council resolutions that declared Judaism’s holiest places to be illegally occupied. Obama’s decision to change that policy was not based on American interests or in the interests of peace. It was done out of personal revenge against Prime Minister Netanyahu and an act of pique by the outgoing president. “It was also designed improperly to tie the hands of President-elect Trump. . . - - - “The outrageously one-sided Security Council Resolution declared that ‘any changes to the 4 June 1967 lines, including with regard to Jerusalem,’ have ‘no legal validity and constitutes a flagrant violation under international law.’ This means, among other things, that Israel’s decision to build a plaza for prayer at the Western Wall — Judaism’s holiest site — constitutes a ‘flagrant violation of international law.’ . . . “Before June 4, 1967, Jews were forbidden from praying at the Western Wall. They were forbidden to attend classes at the Hebrew University at Mt. Scopus, which had been opened in 1925 and was supported by Albert Einstein. Jews could not seek medical care at the Hadassah Hospital on Mt. Scopus, which had treated Jews and Arabs alike since 1918. Jews could not live in the Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem, where their forebears had built homes and synagogues for thousands of years. These Judenrein prohibitions were enacted by Jordan, which had captured by military force these Jewish areas during Israel’s War of Independence, in 1948 . . . When the Jordanian government occupied these historic Jewish sites, they destroyed all the remnants of Judaism, including synagogues, schools and cemeteries, whose headstones they used for urinals. Between 1948 and 1967, the United Nations did not offer a single resolution condemning this Jordanian occupation and cultural devastation. - - - “. . . The United Nations all of a sudden determined that, subject to any further negotiations and agreements, the Jewish areas of Jerusalem recaptured from Jordan in 1967 are not part of Israel. Instead, they were territories being illegally occupied by Israel, and any building in these areas — including places for prayer at the Western Wall, access roads to Mt. Scopus, and synagogues in the historic Jewish Quarter — ‘constitutes a flagrant violation under international law.’ If that indeed is the new status quo, then what incentives do the Palestinians have to enter negotiations? And if they were to do so, they could use these Jewish areas to extort unreasonable concessions from Israel, for which these now ‘illegally occupied’ areas are sacred and nonnegotiable. [Emphasis mine] - - - “President Trump’s decision to officially recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital helps to restore the appropriate balance. It demonstrates that the United States does not accept the Judenrein effects of this bigoted resolution on historic Jewish areas of Jerusalem, which were forbidden to Jews. The prior refusal of the United States to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital was based explicitly on the notion that nothing should be done to change the status quo of that city, holy to three religions. But the Security Council Resolution did exactly that: It changed the status quo by declaring Israel’s de facto presence on these Jewish holy sites to be a ‘flagrant violation under international law’ that ‘the U.N. will not recognize.’ - - - “Since virtually everyone in the international community acknowledges that any reasonable peace would recognize Israel’s legitimate claims to these and other areas in Jerusalem, there is no reason for allowing the U.N. Resolution to make criminals out of every Jew or Israeli who sets foot on these historically Jewish areas. (Ironically, President Obama prayed at what he regarded as the illegally occupied Western Wall.) “After the UN, at the urging of President Obama, made it a continuing international crime for there to be any Israeli presence in disputed areas of Jerusalem, including areas whose Jewish provenance is beyond dispute, President Trump was right to untie his own hands and to undo the damage wrought by his predecessor. Some have argued that the United States should not recognize Jerusalem because it will stimulate violence by Arab terrorists. No American decision should ever be influenced by the threat of violence. Terrorists should not have a veto over American policy. If the United States were to give in to threats of violence, it would only incentivize others to threaten violence in response to any peace plan.” [Emphasis mine] (Ref. 18) In 1995, Congress passed the Jerusalem Embassy Act, which called on The United States to move the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. This was always delayed through the mechanism of a 6-month waiver by a president if it was felt inopportune to do so in the face of Arab threats of violence. Ever since, presidents spoke of the justice of moving the U.S. embassy and recognizing the fact that Israel’s capital is Jerusalem. But, until president Trump, they all succumbed to perennial Muslim Arab threats of intimidation and aggression. All the presidents since 1995 - Clinton, Bush and Obama - used the waiver. None had the courage to do what President Trump has now done. President Trump has defied the genocidal intentions and threats of terror and violence hurled towards the embattled Jewish state by much of the Islamic and Arab world. In doing so, he has corrected “a cruel policy adopted by large swathes of an often-hostile world, which would deny the Jewish people not only their historical and ancestral homeland but their very 3,000-year old capital: Jerusalem.” (Ref. 5) The United Nations is composed of nations that, today, might be considered to be united in only one regard, that of opposing the State of Israel! “An alien observing the United Nations' debates, reading its resolutions, and walking its halls could well conclude that a principal purpose of the world body is to censure a tiny country called Israel. “Beginning in the late 1960's, the full weight of the UN was gradually but deliberately turned against the country it had conceived by General Assembly resolution a mere two decades earlier. The campaign to demonize and delegitimize Israel in every UN and international forum was initiated by the Arab states together with the Soviet Union, and supported by what has become known as an "automatic majority" of Third World member states. “The campaign reached new strength in wake of the Arab oil embargo of 1973, when many African states were pressured into severing relations with Israel. In 1975, . . . the majority of the General Assembly adopted the {infamous} ‘Zionism is Racism’ resolution. At the same time, it instituted a series of related measures that together installed an infrastructure of anti-Israel propaganda throughout the UN. . . . “However, the legacy of 1975 remains fully intact: UN committees, annual UN resolutions, an entire UN bureaucratic division, permanent UN exhibits in New York and Geneva headquarters -- all dedicated to a relentless and virulent propaganda war against the Jewish state. Together, they have made the UN into Ground Zero for today's new anti-Semitism, which is the irrational scapegoating of Israel with the true intended target being Jews. Not only do these anti-Israel measures incite hatred against Israelis and Jews everywhere, but they have done not a thing to help the Palestinian situation. On the contrary: they give strength and succor to extremists. [Emphasis mine] “Paradoxically, one of the greatest violators of the UN Charter's equality guarantee has been the UN body charged with establishing and enforcing international human rights, the Human Rights Council. “The UN's discrimination against Israel is not a minor infraction, nor a parochial nuisance of interest solely to those concerned with equal rights of the Jewish people and the Jewish state. Instead, the world body's obsession with censuring Israel at every turn directly affects all citizens of the world, for it constitutes (a) a severe violation of the equality principles guaranteed by the UN Charter and underlying the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and (b) a significant obstacle to the UN's ability to carry out its proper mandate. - - - “The countless anti-Israel resolutions and related debates consume an astonishing proportion of the UN community's precious resources. . . . during the 61th Session of the General Assembly (2006-2007), the time spent by ambassadors on enacting the 22nd anti-Israel resolution of the year was time not spent on passing a single resolution on Sudan's genocide in Darfur. . . . Because every proposed UN resolution is subjected to intensive review by various levels and branches of government, a direct result of the anti-Israel texts is a crippling of the UN's ability to tackle the world's ills. “UN bias against Israel is overt in bodies such as the General Assembly, which each year passes some nineteen resolutions against Israel and none against most other member states, including the world's most repressive regimes. The World Health Organization, meeting at its annual assembly in Geneva in 2005, passed but one resolution against a specific country: Israel was charged with violating Palestinian rights to health. Similarly, the International Labour Organization, at its annual 2005 conference in Geneva, carried only one major country-specific report on its annual agenda -- a lengthy document charging Israel with violating the rights of Palestinian workers. “In the summer of 2004, the UN's International Court of Justice at The Hague issued an advisory opinion that followed the script of a political campaign orchestrated by the PLO representative at the UN . . . The busiest corridor of the Palais des Nations, the European headquarters of the UN in Geneva, displays no less than ten larger-than-life panels devoted to the Palestinian cause. The clear message, that the Palestinians are the world's greatest human rights victim; the clear implication, that Israel is the world's greatest human rights abuser. “There are three special UN entities dedicated to the Palestinian cause. The oldest is the Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Palestinian People and Other Arabs of the Occupied Territories, created in 1968. In 1975, the General Assembly added the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People. Supporting its work is the Division for Palestinian Rights. Lodged within the UN Secretariat, the Division boasts a sixteen-member staff and a budget of millions, which it devotes to the constant promotion of anti-Israel propaganda throughout the world. - - - “The anti-Israel apparatus within the UN, therefore, is of considerable magnitude, and cripples the functioning of the organization. The overt bias practiced against one state undermines the UN's credibility and integrity. . . .” (Ref. 19) On Thursday 21 December 2017, the United Nations once again demonstrated that it is united on only one issue – attacking Israel. On that day, a United Nations General Assembly resolution calling for the U.S. to withdraw its decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital passed overwhelmingly. Prior to the vote, President Trump said, "Let them vote against us . . . We don't care. But this isn't like it used to be where they could vote against you and then you pay them hundreds of millions of dollars." The symbolic vote from the General Assembly is not legally binding. The U.N. Security Council failed to adopt a similar resolution on Monday after the U.S. vetoed the measure. Security Council decisions carry the force of international law but not General Assembly votes. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu referred to the UN action as “this theater of the absurd."(Ref. 20) The Israeli Prime Minister had blasted the U.N. General Assembly vote, even before it took place, stating, “The State of Israel flatly rejects this vote even before it is held. Jerusalem is our capital, . . . The United Nations (UN) is a 'house of lies,' while Jerusalem will remain Israel’s capital despite any UN decision to the contrary. . . - - - “Jerusalem is the capital of Israel whether the UN recognizes it or not,” . . . “it took 70 years for the US to officially recognize it, and it will take more years until the UN also recognizes it.” (Ref. 21) This followed the United States veto of an earlier UN Security Council (UNSC) resolution that called for the withdrawal of Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. U.S. ambassador to the U.N., Nikki Haley, blamed the world body for being the real obstacle to peace, saying, “Israel will never be, and should never be, bullied into an agreement by the United Nations, or any collection of countries that have proven by their disregard for Israel’s security" to be highly biased against the Jewish state. She further said that the UN has done “much more to damage the prospects for Middle East peace than to advance them.” Furthermore, “The United States no longer stands by when Israel is unfairly attacked in the United nations. . . . And the United States will not be lectured to by countries that lack any credibility when it comes to treating both Israelis and Palestinians fairly."[22] She also warned theat “The United States will remember this , in which it was singled out for attack in the General Assembly for the very right of exercising our right as a sovereign nation.” (Ref. 23) The remarks from the U.S. ambassador came after “various thug regimes, gangster states, and Euro softies voted {for the} resolution . . . {She} made it clear that the U.S. runs its own house. . . . {Notably, t}he United Nations loves to hate Israel. It spends tons of time condemning, lecturing and wishing death to the Jewish State. . . . {and it} is a money-guzzling, corrupt disgrace.” (Ref. 24) The U.N. is today monumentally ineffective, with Israel-bashing topping the list of its priorities. Israel’s Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon offered a harsh rebuke to the assembled diplomats, telling them: “Those who support today’s resolution are like puppets pulled by the strings of the Palestinian puppet masters. You are like marionettes forced to dance while the Palestinian leadership looks on with glee.” (Ref. 25) The United Nations has irrefutably become captive to the Israel-hating nations and peoples of the world. Too many U.N. members do not care to see the State of Israel continue to exist as the only free and democratic nation in the Middle East. The U.N. and a great many nations will not support any realistic and practical solution to the Palestinian-Arab and Israel dispute. They will pontificate and castigate Israel, while drawing up innumerable impractical and unenforceable resolutions against the Jewish state – and now against the United States - that fly in the face of common sense and historical facts. The Palestinian-Arab tactics should be abhorrent to Western politicians and diplomats. Instead, they close their eyes, hold their noses and blame the Israelis for not making enough concessions to jump-start the “peace-process”. They refuse to admit the plain fact that there is no “peace-process”! In the past, Israel has gone along with the “peace-process” charade, perhaps naively, perhaps in order to acquiesce to the demands of its “friends”, or perhaps in the vain hope and illusion that the leopard would finally change its spots. Such has not been the case. “In many respects, the United Nations has failed to live up to its promise, but none so horribly as in its dealings with the State of Israel. It has permitted anti-Semitism, anti- Zionism and anti-Israel actions to become commonplace in its chambers and it has miserably failed to help the people that its original charter promised to protect, both Jewish and Muslim. It has kept Arab refugees in squalid refugee camps or more than 6 decades and offers them no hope of escape. Its peace keeping forces have proven totally ineffectual in maintaining peace and, as a supposedly impartial body, it has become a one-sided propaganda forum for those nations harboring an ingrained hatred of Jews and Israel. The U.N. has morphed into the A.I.U.N. – the Anti-Israel United Nations. (Ref. 26) As usual, the Palestinian-Arab leadership has found another excuse to avoid coming to a final peace agreement that would mean that they had acknowledged the right of Israel to exist as a Jewish nation in their midst. This time it’s America finally recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. “Breaking with years of courting the U.S., Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called yesterday for the United Nations to replace Washington as a Mideast mediator and suggested he might not cooperate with the Trump administration’s much-anticipated effort to hammer out an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal” (Ref. 27) Big deal! There never has been a “peace deal – Abbas and the Palestinian-Arab leadership have never wanted peace with Israel and they have been playing the naïve nations of the world for suckers for some 50 years now. Asking the United Nations to oversee peace negotiations between the Palestinian-Arab leadership and Israel is like asking ISIS to become head of a human rights commission. The U.N. has time and time again demonstrated its anti-Israel bias and its humiliating acquiescence to and acceptance of every Arab and Palestinian fabrication of truth and history concerning the Holy Land. President Trump’s announcement about Jerusalem provides Abbas and his ilk just one more excuse to avoid facing facts and agreeing to peace with the Jews. As a U.S. State Department spokesperson said about Abbas’ speechifying, it’s the “type of rhetoric that we heard {that} has prevented peace in the past.” (Ref. 27). America appears to finally had enough of Palestinian-Arab and Arab deceit. When will the rest of the world come to its senses? Palestinian-Arab Leader Mahmoud Abbas continued to behave like a petulant spoiled child who takes back all his marbles when he finds out he can’t win. In Arab fashion, he threatened to unilaterally abrogate an existing agreement with Israel and the international community and he repeated the lies and falsehoods that he and other Islamic leaders have spewed out about Israel and its historical place in the Middle East. On December 13, 2017, Palestinian Authority (PA) “President Mahmoud Abbas delivered a blistering speech to the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in response to President Trump’s Dec. 6 recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital—a policy long supported by bipartisan majorities in Congress. President Abbas: “Demanded countries ‘review their recognition of the State of Israel’ and consider breaking off diplomatic relations. “Declared that Palestinians would no longer be bound by previous agreements with Israel. “Denied any historical Jewish connection to Jerusalem, stating, ‘It is a Palestinian Arab Muslim Christian city, the eternal capital of the state of Palestine.’ He went on to falsely accuse Israel of violating the status quo at the Al-Aqsa Mosque. “Rejected direct, bilateral talks with Israel and announced his intent to use the international community to impose conditions on Israel. He called on countries to support Palestinian efforts to ‘join all international organizations and treaties as a natural right for them in order to affirm the existence of the State of Palestine in the international system.’ “ (Ref. 28) Israel and the international community continue to receive threats from Abbas about withdrawing from the so-called peace process and to negate agreements already reached if his demands aren't met. It’s time to unequivocally tell Abbas and the other Arab and Muslim leaders, ”Go to hell with your demands!” In response, “Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations (UN) Danny Danon . . . harshly criticized the statement by . . . Abbas that the PA is withdrawing from all peace agreements with Israel since the 1993 Oslo Accords. - - - “Abbas stated he will refuse any future US involvement in the peace process and threatened that there will be ‘no peace or stability’ in the region until Jerusalem is recognized as the Palestinian capital. “ ‘We will tell the Israelis that we are no longer committed to any agreement from Oslo until today,’ he said. “ ‘The Palestinian Authority is doing all it can to avoid any chance for negotiations and is actively thwarting initiatives towards reconciliation,’ Danon charged. “ ‘The international community must not allow Chairman Abbas to evade direct negotiations yet again. It must be made clear to the Palestinian leadership that they must stop their dangerous incitement which threatens the stability of the region,’ he concluded. (Ref. 29) “Abbas also threatened to push for full Palestinian membership in the UN, where the Palestinians currently have a non-member observer status. - - - “The PA will not accept any role for the US in the Mideast peace process ‘from now on,’ Abbas said, calling Trump’s decision a ‘crime’ that threatened world peace.” (Ref. 28) Once again, Palestinian-Arab leadership has threatened the world with a “it’s my way or the highway” attitude, the position that any international agreement signed by the Palestinian-Arabs is only in effect as long as it is to their benefit and such agreements can be unilaterally refuted at any time when it is convenient for them. And, once again, too many supposedly intelligent and fair-minded people have all-too-quickly agreed to these unconscionable and absurd demands and bought in to the outright lies being spewed forth. For some 70 years now, the useful idiots of the world have been taken for a ride by Palestinians-Arabs, their Arab and Moslem brethren, the Jew-haters of the world and the anti-Israel crowd. These do-gooders of the world have allowed themselves to submissively give in to the tantrums that make up the demands of the Palestinians-Arabs. These do-gooders are not simply naïve - they are unbelievably stupid, or they are realistically closet anti-Semites. These supposedly intelligent people have gleaned nothing from the long-learned upbringing of children or the responses that are appropriate when immature children go into temper tantrums in an effort to brow-beat their parents into giving them their way.[30] Maybe, just maybe, President Trump’s action is the start of a new day in dealing with those Palestinia-Arabs and other Arabs who have no real desire for a just Mid-East peace, who want to destroy the State of Israel, who want only to kill all Jews and other “infidels”, and who have held their own brethren hostage since 1948. Maybe we are witnessing the end of the “land for peace fantasy”. Maybe we are seeing the beginning of a truly realistic approach, one of “applying the stick”, instead of “offering the carrot”. It’s time, long since due, to change from a doomed and obviously failed approach to a new one. It’s also time for the rest of the world to stop paying lip-service to the Israel-haters and the Arab apologists and to get solidly behind a new program – it’s certainly worth a try. Repeated failure is not an option, it’s insanity.[4] ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- References:
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| 28 December 2017 {Article 314; Israel_37} |