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Jewish World Review August 18 , 2000 / 17 Menachem-Av, 5760
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http://www.jewishworldreview.com --
IT'S BECOME TRENDY to call for a "sharing" of Jerusalem
by Israelis and Palestinians.
It's the post-Camp David mantra: "A
shared Jerusalem is the key to peace."
Unfortunately, what the pundits are
talking about is not so much a sharing as it is a
blueprint for redividing the city. The logic is that the
Holy City is sacred to three great faiths. Politically
and historically, say the equalizers, it is as vital to
Palestinians and all Muslims as it is to Israelis and all
Jews. This phony equalization is as unfair as it is
historically incorrect.
It may not be trendy, but let me say
it: The Jewish state of Israel has a far greater right
and claim to Jerusalem than do the Palestinians or any
other people or faith.
Look at the facts. Jerusalem has been
the symbolic and core site of Jewish faith for more than
3,000 years. It is Jerusalem where Jewish kings reigned,
where Judaism had its most glorious moments, where the
first and second temples stood. It is in the direction of
Jerusalem that Jews face when they pray.
It was the tragic loss of Jerusalem
that Jews mourned for 2,000 years, and it is Zion — a
synonym for Jerusalem — that gave its name to the
liberation movement that led to Israel's rebirth:
Zionism.
I have no doubt that Jerusalem has
deep meaning to Muslims, just as it does to Christians.
But that does not equal the force of Judaism's historic
ties. And much Islamic and Palestinian attachment began,
I'm afraid, the day the Jewish state captured the Old
City from the Arab Legion that illegally occupied it from
1948 to 1967.
The equalizers like to remind us that
Jerusalem is "the third-holiest city in Islam" (after
Mecca and Medina), yet it is not even mentioned by name
in the Koran. It has never been an Arab capital, nor did
the Palestinians push to declare it their capital during
the 19 years when Arabs controlled it.
Instead, Arab Jerusalem was a
provincial backwater, a slovenly city where children
played amid open sewers, where health care depended in
large measure on foreign missionaries, where religious
sites were neglected or desecrated and which Jews from
anywhere were forbidden from entering.
All that changed when Israel reunited
the city. Jerusalem blossomed for the benefit of all its
people and became a jewel city where all faiths
(including Muslims from countries with which Israel has
no diplomatic relations) have unfettered access to holy
sites.
Yes, there are problems. Palestinians
frequently complain the municipality favors Jewish
neighborhoods. But interestingly, with growing talk of
Yasser Arafat taking over, there's a dramatic rise in
Muslim and Christian Palestinians asking for Israeli
citizenship.
At Camp David, Israeli Prime Minister
Ehud Barak offered Arafat a peace deal that included
continued Islamic control of Muslim holy sites,
Palestinian boroughlike autonomy in some predominantly
Arab neighborhoods and full Palestinian sovereignty in
other areas of Greater Jerusalem. There the Palestinians
could establish their capital.
It was a giant step for the Israelis;
Arafat turned it down and took off on a tour to garner
support for his negativism.
The word is that with the exception of
such paragons of progressive thinking as the leaders of
Saudi Arabia and Iran, many heads of state have quietly
signaled him to rethink the Israeli offer. Let's hope he
does it so that Jerusalem can be truly shared, not
By Richard Z. Chesnoff
JWR contributor and veteran journalist
Richard Z. Chesnoff is a senior correspondent at US News
And World Report and a columnist at the NY Daily News. His latest book is Pack of Thieves: How Hitler & Europe
Plundered the Jews and Committed the Greatest Theft in History.
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