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Why the International Community Should Follow Trump's Lead on Jerusalem

(BESA Center for Strategic Studies-Bar-Ilan University) Lt. Col. (res.) Dr. Mordechai Kedar - Now that President Trump has recognized Jerusalem as Israel's capital and announced plans to relocate the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem, Arab and Muslim leaders have been trying to frighten other nations out of following his lead. The world should consider a few salient points. Jerusalem is one of the most ancient capitals in the world. It became the capital of Israel's monarchy during the reign of King David - around 1000 BCE, over 3,000 years ago, when the capitals of the countries who now refuse to recognize it were still swamps, forests, or deserts. The history of the Greeks and the Romans, the oldest nations of Europe, proves that Jerusalem was the capital of the Jewish nation in ancient times. The Jews are the only indigenous people of the Land of Israel. They lived in Jerusalem for over 1,600 years prior to the birth of Islam in 610 CE. It is unacceptable in the modern world for Muslim threats of terror attacks and mass rioting to be granted sufficient clout to limit or direct the political decisions of world powers. No other country in the world accepts external dictates regarding the location of its own capital city. Relocating all foreign embassies to Jerusalem will serve as a significant step forward in the quest for peace between Israel and the Arab and Islamic world. Once all foreign embassies move to Jerusalem, Israel's enemies will be forced to realize that their prolonged struggle to destroy the Jewish state has failed. They will have to accept Israel as a fait accompli, a state there is no longer any reason to fight - which, incidentally, is the definition of "peace" in the Middle East. Jerusalem is not holy to all Muslims. The city is holy to Sunnis, not Shiites. Due to internal rivalries, the Umayyad (Sunni) dynasty wanted to downplay Mecca's importance at one point in history, ca. 680 CE, and tried to initiate a Hajj pilgrimage to Jerusalem instead of Mecca. This fact, based on Islamic sources, turns any claims to Jerusalem as intrinsically holy to Islam into fake news originating in seventh-century power struggles among Muhammad's followers. The writer, a senior research associate at the BESA Center, served for 25 years in IDF military intelligence.
2017-12-20 00:00:00
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