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Jerusalem Is the Center of Gravity

(Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies-Bar-Ilan University) Efraim Inbar - UN Security Council Resolution 2334, adopted on Dec. 23, 2016, declared the Jewish Quarter, the Western Wall, and the Temple Mount in Jerusalem to be occupied territory and any Jewish presence there illegal. Even if President Donald Trump will move the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem, it is not at all clear that the rest of the world will fall in step. West Jerusalem is not disputed territory and there should be no legal or political problem moving an embassy to the Western part of the city. But many foreign ministries have not yet put to rest the November 1947 UN resolution which calls to internationalize the city under UN control. They simply do not want the Jews to have full control over the eternal city, and are eager to help the Palestinians prevent such control. There is no Zionism without Jerusalem, an issue that commands consensus in Israel. Most Israelis continue to believe that Jerusalem and the Temple Mount are more important than peace, and are ready to fight for it. Jerusalem also carries great strategic value. Control of Jerusalem secures the only highway from the Mediterranean coast to the Jordan Valley. If Israel wants to maintain a defensible border in the east, it must secure this axis via an undivided Jerusalem. The writer is professor emeritus of political studies at Bar-Ilan University, and the founding director of the BESA Center.
2017-01-27 00:00:00
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