Israel's Eternal Capital
New York
e all hear much these days
about competing Jewish and
Muslim claims to Jerusalem
and how a political division of the city is
necessary if there is to be any peace. But
what if the Muslim claim to Jerusalem is
largely contrived and inflated?
The evidence shows that it is.
Whereas Jerusalem is Judaism's holi-
est city, mentioned over 600 times in
the Bible and in dozens of prayers and
rituals, Jerusalem is not mentioned once
in the Quran, nor has it ever served as a
Muslim or Arab capital. Nor have Arabs
or Muslims been a majority in the city in
recent times: Jerusalem has been majority
Jewish since the middle of the 1800s.
Whereas Jews face Jerusalem in prayer
and major Jewish rituals — including the
conclusion of the Pesach seder and Yom
Kippur — end with the age-old affirma-
tion,"Next year in Jerusalem;' Muslims
undertake pilgrimage to Mecca and face it
in prayer.
Whereas Jerusalem has served as the
capital of one people — the Jews — three
times in history, it has never been the
capital of another people. When Jordan
controlled the historical eastern half of
the city (1948-67), it became a
backwater, Amman remained
Jordan's capital and no Arab
leader other than Jordan's King
Hussein ever even visited the
place.
Today, Mahmoud Abbas'
Fatah, which controls the
Palestinian Authority (P.A.),
talks endlessly about liberating
Jerusalem and its terror wing
is named the Al Aqsa Martyrs
Brigade (after the name of
one of the two mosques built
by Muslims upon Temple
Mount). However, significantly, neither
the Palestine Liberation Organization nor
Fatah charters that were drafted during
Jordan's control of the city even mention
Jerusalem.
Yet it is seriously suggested that Israel
should re-divide the city. It is often sug-
gested that this only means making the
Arab neighborhoods of the city into a
Palestinian capital, with the rest remain-
ing under Israeli control.
This is an illusion. Jews constitute a
majority even in the eastern half of the
city. All the Jewish holy sites, including the
Temple Mount, are in eastern Jerusalem
— precisely the areas that Palestinians are
demanding that Israel give up
— not the modern suburbs of
western Jerusalem.
Moreover, Arab rulers have
never respected or protected
Jewish holy sites, including
Jordan, regarded today by
many as among the most mod-
erate and responsible of Arab
regimes. During Jordanian
rule, the 58 synagogues in the
old city were destroyed and
40,000 ancient Jewish grave-
stones were used to pave roads
and Jordanian army latrines.
Despite signed agreements, Jordan did not
permit Jews to visit Jerusalem's holy sites.
Therefore, any division of Jerusalem not
only carves out part of the heart of the
Jewish people, but would also endanger
Israel by introducing terrorists within
rocket and rifle range of the western half
of the city.
And, of course, if concessions are made
over Jerusalem's holy sites, one can only
imagine — after witnessing the torching
and destruction of Joseph's Tomb and the
Jericho synagogues, once Israeli forces
were withdrawn — what fate lies in store
for Jewish sites once the P.A. obtains
control.
— Israel forgot its own motto.
A good part of the government's case
revolved around charges that Rosen and
Weissman had discussions with represen-
tatives of the Israeli government about
what the duo learned from U.S. officials.
Being able to prove that Israeli officials
already had learned of the information
directly from U.S. officials or had been
the original source of the information
that the U.S. officials had told Rosen and
Weissman was critical to the defense.
So one would assume that Israel would
make the officials with whom Rosen and
Weissman spoke available for interviews
and possible testimony.
That assumption would be wrong.
Request after request to the Israeli
Embassy in Washington and its attorneys,
and to officials in Israel were denied.
They would not agree to an interview,
even in Israel; they would not agree to an
exchange of information, even through
attorneys; they would not agree to help in
any way.
This was not the case of Jonathan
Pollard or anything similar; yet the Israeli
government, like American Jewish groups,
reacted as if it were. How was it fair for
the Israeli government to benefit from the
work of these AIPAC employees when it
was convenient and then abandon them
when there was a little controversy? Was
this a result of U.S. pressure?
Now U.S. v. Rosen and Weissman is over.
The government has admitted defeat;
the two men and their families are left to
try to pick up the pieces after a four-year
struggle. A number of things that would
have been revealed at trial will now stay
under wraps, perhaps forever.
But some things do not have to be for-
gotten; and for that to happen, there are
questions that must be answered. ❑
Actually, we do not even need to imag-
ine — the Muslim waqf, which controls
Jerusalem's Temple Mount, has undertak-
en renovations and construction programs
that have already destroyed priceless
Jewish antiquities on that site.
Various P.A. officials over the years have
also denied the Jewish religious and his-
torical connection to the city. The former
P.A. minister of religious affairs, Hassan
Tahboub, asserted, "The Western Wall is
Muslim property. It is part of the Al Aqsa
Mosque. Once we control it, Jews must
remain six feet away from our holy wall."
Muslim claims to Jerusalem are largely
invented. Jerusalem interests Muslims
only insofar as they want to divest the
Jewish people of it. Giving the P.A. a slice
of Jerusalem will not bring either justice
or peace. ❑
Morton A. Klein is national president of
the Zionist Organization of America. The
Michigan Region hosted Klein and National
Executive Director Gary Ratner on June 17
at Congregation Shaarey Zedek, Southfield.
Before an audience of 130 people, Klein spoke
on "The Future of Jerusalem - Whose City is
it?" To learn more about the ZOA-Michigan
Region, contact (248) 282-0088 or e-mail
info@mizoa.org .
Ex-AIPAC Staffers from page C2
AIPAC at the time, and representatives of
three other major Jewish organizations.
The defense sought help from the repre-
sentatives of the organizations attending
the dinner to show that the information at
issue already was public and being openly
discussed by U.S. officials.
One of the attendees had his organiza-
tion decline the invitation to meet and be
interviewed; one agreed to meet but said
he did not remember any details of the
meeting (despite its critical importance
at the time); and one agreed to meet but
was reluctant to testify about what he had
heard.
How could all these community groups
cause their officials to run from simply
telling the truth of what happened when
doing so could have made the difference
between jail or freedom for one of their
colleagues?
Finally, AIPAC and the American Jewish
community as a whole were not the only
ones to ignore the Israeli principle of
never leaving a soldier on the battlefield
Abbe D. Lowell represented Steve Rosen, who
has filed a defamation lawsuit against AIPAC.
Baruch Weiss and John Nassikas served as
defense attorneys for Keith Weissman.
Answering
Israel's Critics
The Charge
The head of the International
Atomic Energy Agency, Mohammed
El Baradei, said last month that
Israel hampers the agency's work
and violates international law.
The Answer
El Baradei was referring to the
reported Israeli attack on Syrian
nuclear facilities last year. Without
that attack, most analysts agree that
the nuclear race in the Middle East
would be even more advanced.
— Allan Gale, Jewish Community
Relations Council
of Metropolitan Detroit
@ Jewish Renaissance Media July 16, 2009
C3