In the annals of Jewish history, following millennia of wandering throughout foreign lands as guests rarely accepted as natives, suffering privations too numerous to recount; December 5, 2017 will be remembered as seminal moment.
To the consternation of many, President Trump announced to the world his intention of recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. In doing so he will become the first American president to take that unprecedented step since the founding of the Jewish state in 1948.
Even before a planned speech on Wednesday proclaiming his formal recognition, the naysayers in this country, the customary anti-Israel cabal of European nations, and the Muslim World concordant only in their hatred of Israel have united in opposition to the move.
Federica Mogherini, an Italian politician and the current High Representative of the European Union, is aghast, stating:
"A way must be found, through negotiations, to resolve the status of Jerusalem as the future capital of both states.” What that way is after 69 years of wars, terrorism, and intransigent, faux negotiations Ms. Mogherini failed to mention.
Likewise, Germany’s acting foreign minister, Sigmar Gabriel chimed in: “unilateral U.S. recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital would inflame Middle East tensions." One can only assume the foreign minister has been stranded on a far-off Island, unaware of the Syrian civil war, Hizb’allah taking over Lebanon, civil war in Yemen, Palestinian knifings and vehicular killings of Jews in Israel, ISIS, Hamas, the Taliban, and Iran acting as the puppeteer to all these nefarious groups. To him, recognition of Jerusalem will first “inflame the Middle East.”
Not missing a beat, on Tuesday Palestinian national and Islamic groups issued a joint statement calling for three days of “popular anger” to protest President Trump’s move, beginning on Wednesday throughout the Palestinian territories and in demonstrations at United States embassies and consulates throughout the world. Setting aside generational recalcitrance, an educational system that lauds killing of Jews from preschoolers on up, payment of subsidies to families of shahids (martyrs) who kill Jews, naming of streets and boulevards memorializing such people. But look out Israel, look out world, now they’re really angry.
Prior to the unofficial announcement, President Trump informed “President” Abbas; entering his 9th year of an elected four-year term, of his intentions. Unsurprisingly the “former terrorist,” cofounder of Fatah, and paymaster of the 1972 Olympic massacre of Israeli athletes warned of the dangerous consequences such a decision would have to the peace process and to the peace, security, and stability of the region and of the world.”
Peace process? At the behest of President Clinton, on July 11, 2000 the Camp David summit convened. Ehud Barak offered to form a Palestinian state initially on 73% of the West Bank (that is, 27% less than the 1967 Green Line borders) and 100% of the Gaza Strip. In 10–25 years, the Palestinian state would expand to a maximum of 92% of the West Bank (91 percent of the West Bank and 1 percent from a land swap). From the Palestinian perspective this equated to an offer of a Palestinian state on a maximum of 86% of the West Bank. Unwilling to settle for anything less than 100%, Yasser Arafat nixed what even ardent supporters of the Palestinian cause said was a very good deal. Israel was willing to take a chance and give up a tangible asset, land for a Palestinian state, in return for the dream of a final peace. It wasn’t to be.
An even sweeter deal was likewise rejected by Abbas in 2008. In an interview that year by Israel’s Channel 10 he unbelievably admitted he rejected an offer from Israel’s Ehud Olmert, which included placing Jerusalem’s Old City under international control because he was not allowed to study the map. Prophetically, then Israeli Prime Minister, Olmert told him: “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.”
On November 25, 2009 Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared a 10-month settlement freeze as a gesture to Abbas and then President Obama after being lambasted for months by the latter that the settlement issue was the major impediment to restarting what has become to this day the cliched peace talks. Following his settlement announcement, Netanyahu implored Abbas:
"Now is the time to begin negotiations, now is the time to move forward towards peace," he said. "Israel today has taken a far-reaching step toward peace, it is time for the Palestinians to do the same.” Although not unexpected, his admonitions fell upon deaf ears. Seeing not a scintilla of movement toward the negotiating table, Netanyahu ended the freeze on September 26, 2010. Immediately, the decidedly pro-Palestinian Obama Administration, France, Britain, and the United Nations pounced upon Israel for not extending the freeze indefinitely.
Revisionist history aside, any rational human who decries President Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as purely a political move defies credulity. Long before the 7th century Jerusalem has been the ancestral capital of the Jewish people. Despite centuries of peremptory emigration and diaspora, forced conversions, and countless invasions, Jews, both physically and spiritually have maintained a continuous relationship to Jerusalem.
The President’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's undivided capital is quite laudable and long overdue, but in reality it’s a recognition of an existing fact. To those who will pin the inevitable violence that will surely follow his proclamation and mourn the death of the “peace movement,” be assured the aforementioned is proof there never was a peace movement.
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