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Tell Obama about Our Right to the Land

(Israel Hayom) Nadav Shragai - During President Barack Obama's visit to Israel in mid-March, the planned conversation will once again revolve around security issues. Even the traditional visit to Yad Vashem - if it occurs - will derive its power from the vision of the State of Israel as a refuge for the surviving remnant. What will be missing is any discussion of Jewish rights to the land. At the same time, such a discourse figures prominently in the conversations of Palestinians. They are not afraid to wax on endlessly about their past here, to rewrite and falsify their own history. Security is important, but it is not everything. It is impossible to base a demand for international legitimacy without the Bible, our patriarchs and matriarchs, Jerusalem, the Temple Mount and the City of David. The City of David contains a Herodian drainage ditch with the etching of a menorah. On display is the bell from the robe of the Temple's high priest. The Temple Mount represents the greatest unilateral concession that any nation and religion has ever made to another: placing our most holy place under the supervision of a competing religion, Islam. Our friends need to hear that the historical, religious, legal and emotional connection of the Jewish people to Jerusalem is no less powerful than that of the Palestinians. They need to hear that we are not occupiers of this land, that there are Jews for whom this land is sacred, just as it is for the Palestinians. That we too are connected to this land by bonds of love and tradition. Yes, we are here by right of force, but even before that, we are here by the force of our rights.
2013-02-21 00:00:00
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