Jerusalem

With PM Olmert threatening to agree to divide Jerusalem, Dore Gold former Israeli Ambassador to the UN, spoke at the Great Synagogue tonight. He mentioned a number of points about Jerusalem which are not generally known about, discussed or reported in the Israeli or international media as follows:

1) Just 10 years ago it was accepted mainstream US-Israeli policy for Jerusalem to remain united under Israeli sovereignty. This was the heart of the US-Israel consensus.

2) In 1996-1997 when PM Netanyahu signed on to that part of the Oslo agreements which mentioned Hebron he said that in return Israel would build the Jerusalem neighbourhood of what is called Har Homa. The US agreed and twice vetoed any international condemnation in the UN Security Council.

3) Ambassador Arthur Goldberg who signed UN Resolution 242 on behalf of the US at the end of 1967 said that it is intentional that Jerusalem does not appear in that Resolution. When Jordan was in control of the divided city of Jerusalem between 1948 and 1967 it destroyed over 55 synagogues in the Old City and prevented any Jew (not just from Israel but from anywhere in the world) from worshipping at the Kotel. Therefore the status quo before the six day war could not be justified.

4) The Chief of the General Staff of the IDF, Mofaz, in 2001 said of the Taba negotiations "The ability of Israel to defend its strategic rear will be damaged." The IDF will not be able to "provide an answer to the threat from the east" to the population centres of Israel.

5) The immunity which used to attach to religious sites has been lost and Islamofascism will now destroy non-Muslim religious sites. Hamas is the Palestinian faction of the Muslim Brotherhood which has adopted this world view. Just look at the destruction at Josef's Tomb and the demolition work recently at the Temple Mount.

6) The (false) Palestinian narrative is that Israel is the colonial invader and they were the authentic native population. This is why they deny the Temple was ever in Jerusalem. Even in 1863 the British Foreign Office Consul General reported that there were 15,000 people in Jerusalem 8,000 of whom were Jews.

Of course demolition work at the Temple Mount has revealed artefacts from the First and Second Temple periods on the Temple Mount. It must now be time for the Third Temple in a united Jerusalem.

It must be zman l'moshiach.