By Steve Kramer
ALFE MENASHE, Israel — This week, EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini “guaranteed” to the Palestinian Arabs, EU support for a divided Jerusalem. She rebuked Prime Minister Netanyahu, “You know where the European Union stands. We believe that the only realistic solution to the conflict between Israel and Palestine is based on two states with Jerusalem as the capital of both, the state of Israel and the State of g along the 1967 lines. This is our consolidated position, and we will continue to respect the international consensus on Jerusalem until the final status of the whole city is resolved in direct negotiations between the parties.” JPost.com 12/12/17
Israel will not let the EU push it into a “peace agreement” that is suicidal. Europe is no novice at hating Jews and their country, Israel. Europe’s long history of Jew hatred began nearly 2,000 years ago when the great majority of Jews rejected the new religion of Christianity, many of whose progenitors were Jews. There have been waves of virulent antisemitism ever since, reaching its apex in the Holocaust.
While most of us grew up in the honeymoon period after WWII when the pendulum swung away from antisemitism, it has returned to being the norm once again in many locales. It is so ingrained in Europe that they can loudly denounce antisemitism while simultaneously perpetrating Jew hatred. The catch? It’s now called anti-Zionism, not antisemitism.
(If your news sources haven’t enlightened you to this disgusting trend in Europe, I suggest you read Caroline Glick’s latest article, “Europe’s war against the Jewish State.” In detail, Mideast expert Glick describes the campaign against Jews and Israel taking place in individual European states (Sweden in the spotlight) and by the European Union. carolineglick.com 12/12/17)
The EU stance, as vigorously proclaimed by Mogherini, is two states with Jerusalem as a joint capital. Why is two states the only solution? Because that’s what the Europeans and others who want to reduce Jewish power and influence want. Why must Jerusalem be a joint capital? For the aforementioned reason and because the Arabs insist they must have it.
Why has Europe paid so much attention to the Arabs’ demand? (I challenge anyone to give one cogent argument that Jerusalem must be divided into two capitals!) The effete Europeans have feared jihadi attacks on their soil; attacks in Israel, not so much. Even now, when terror is more common in Paris than in Jerusalem, the craven Europeans still defer to “Arab sensibilities.”
The first historical mention I can find of Jerusalem (Al Quds in Arabic) as the necessary capital of Palestine was in the 1988 Declaration of the State of Palestine. Jerusalem was never an Arab capital. The city was the Jewish capital for 2,000 years, until 70 CE; in modern times Jerusalem has had a Jewish majority since the mid-19th century. When the Western powers, operating through the United Nations, decided to partition Palestine into Arab and Jewish sections in 1947, they projected Jerusalem and Bethlehem to be internationally controlled entities. The Jews accepted the United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine while the Arabs refused to accept even one inch of territory for the Jews, thereby negating the resolution.
During Israel’s 1948 War of Independence, Transjordan (soon to be renamed “Jordan”) took control of the eastern part of Jerusalem, including the Temple Mount, while Israel controlled the modern, western part. From 1948-1967 the Jordanian kings, father and son, ruled over east Jerusalem and the so-called West Bank (Judea and Samaria). Neither made Jerusalem their capital. In fact, no other Arab monarchs even visited Jerusalem during this period. Meanwhile, in 1949 Prime Minister Ben-Gurion proclaimed Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. This was the third time Jerusalem was proclaimed as the Jewish capital, dating back to King David’s time, 3,000 years ago.
Because Jerusalem had become a sleepy backwater after the Ottoman Turks defeated the Byzantine Empire in the mid-15th century, there was never a call for Jerusalem to be a Muslim or Arab capital. After the British abandonment of its Palestine Mandate post-WWII, the surrounding Arab countries each wanted a piece of Palestine. In 1949, Egypt succeeded in gaining the Gaza Strip and the aforementioned Transjordan gained Jerusalem and the Judea and Samarian highlands.
It wasn’t until the founding of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) in 1964 that Palestinian Arabs began a serious effort to define themselves as a distinct nationality instead of generic Arabs. Even then, it took until 1988 (!) for them to call for the Israeli capital, Jerusalem, to be the capital of the State of Palestine.
We know why the Arabs want Jerusalem to be Palestinian capital: because the Jews have it. But why does the West wish for a Palestinian Jerusalem so fervently? 29 years of Arab yearning versus 3,000 years of Jewish yearning – plus the fact that Israel had already made Jerusalem its capital and seat of government – makes for an easy calculation: Jerusalem is the Jewish capital.
As alluded to in the title to this essay, the Europeans hate themselves. So much so, in fact, that they have opened their borders to millions of Muslims from the eastern Mediterranean, western Asia, and Africa, while simultaneously drastically reducing child births. The Europeans have even lost the love of their vaunted culture. Many now recognize a “need to revivify” their countries by mass immigration of peoples who have little desire to blend into Western culture.
Because of their loss of pride in themselves, and their fear of jihadi terror at home, the Europeans sold out to the Muslims. (How’s that working out for them?) Conveniently, the United Nations became a forum of the Muslims due to more than a quarter of its members being Muslim, along with their Third World partners and Western patsies. The European Union fits into the same mold, with the possible exception of some Eastern European nations (the governments, if not the people).
All this adds up to Israel standing nearly alone against long odds. The recent recognition by President Trump of the reality of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital is a start towards defeating the Palestinian Arab dream of usurping Jerusalem and Israel. Perhaps the Europeans will wake up while they still have something to save.
*
Kramer is a freelance writer living in Alfe Menashe, Israel. He may be contacted via steve.kramer@sdjewishworld.com