By any realistic standard, the U.S. embassy’s move to Jerusalem has been a resounding success - by Evelyn Gordon

By any realistic standard, the embassy move has been a resounding success. In the space of just one year, countries around the world have gone from a situation in which recognizing Jerusalem was unthinkable to one in which it is being discussed, debated and even acted upon. And as long as this trend continues, it’s only a matter of time until actual embassy moves follow.

Evelyn Gordon..
Analysis from Israel..
23 May '19..
Link: http://evelyncgordon.com/one-year-later-the-us-embassy-move-has-produced-lasting-gains/

The first anniversary of the U.S. embassy’s move to Jerusalem sparked multiple articles in the Israeli press declaring it a failure for both U.S. President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. From the left-wing Haaretz to the centrist Times of Israel, headlines trumpeted the fact that only one minor country, Guatemala, has followed America’s lead. And even that might prove fleeting, as several candidates in next month’s Guatemalan election have pledged to return the embassy to Tel Aviv.

All this is true, but it also misses the point. And it thereby obscures the real and lasting gains of the embassy move.

To understand why, it’s worth recalling America’s own history on this issue. In 1995, Congress passed the Jerusalem Embassy Act, which ordered the embassy relocated from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. It was approved by overwhelming bipartisan majorities in both the House (374-37) and the Senate (93-5). And in every subsequent election, every presidential candidate, whether Republican or Democratic, pledged to honor this directive.

Yet despite this consensus, it still took more than 20 years for the move to happen. Successive presidents, both Republican and Democratic, proved reluctant to defy international opposition. Consequently, they exercised a provision of the law allowing the move to be postponed due to national security considerations. These presidential waivers were renewed every six months for more than two decades.

In contrast, recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital was never been mooted as a possibility by any other country in the world. Outside America, not a single mainstream party, whether liberal or conservative, ever considered an embassy move, much less actively supported the idea.

Expecting other countries to go from having never even thought about moving their embassies to actually doing so in the space of just 12 months was always fatuous. Indeed, I warned a year ago that “Jerusalem isn’t going to be flooded with new embassies anytime soon.” If it took America more than two decades to move its embassy despite a bipartisan consensus that was codified in legislation, it will clearly take time for countries that have only just started considering the issue to reach the point of being ready to actually make the move.

What Trump’s decision did accomplish, however, was to break the global taboo on thinking and talking about this idea. Never again will recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital be an inconceivable option. Indeed, in many countries, it has already become a hotly debated one. And the more the idea is discussed, the more realistic the possibility becomes.

Not Today, Not Tomorrow. Israel, Australia, and Jerusalem - by Stephen M. Flatow

...Some supporters of Israel think that they have to be grateful for whatever few crumbs the world throws our way. They think the Jews will look unreasonable unless they praise that which deserves no praise. I disagree. I say that turnabout is fair play.

Stephen M. Flatow..
Algemeiner..
19 December '18..

The Australian government has decided that Israel’s capital should be torn in half, resuming the apartheid-like status that prevailed the last time the Arabs occupied part of Jerusalem.

Would the Temple Mount be in Israel’s part of Jerusalem? Nope. Judaism’s holiest site is “Palestinian,” according to the Australians.

What about the Western Wall? Not that either. It’s “occupied territory.”

How about the Old City’s Jewish Quarter, where Jews have lived since time immemorial? Off-limits to Jews.

The Mount of Olives, the world’s oldest Jewish cemetery? Not a chance.

What about other Jewish sacred sites in and around the Old City walls, such as Solomon’s Pools or the Tower of David? If Australia has its way, they will be renamed Suleiman’s Pools and the Tower of Daoud.

Australia’s decision to recognize only “western Jerusalem” as Israel’s capital is not “a step in the right direction,” as some pundits have claimed. It’s an outrageous attempt to promote the redivision of Jerusalem — to give the most Jewishly significant part of the city to the Palestinian Authority.

The Central Bus Station is not where the priests of ancient Israel led the Temple service, and the Ben-Yehuda pedestrian walkway is not where countless Jews have prayed and wept throughout the centuries for the return of the Jewish people to their land. The construction of neighborhoods to the west of the Old City began in modern times to alleviate overcrowding within the city walls.

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Ensuring sovereignty over Jerusalem is a legal battle Israel cannot afford to lose - by Prof. Hillel Frisch

More important than achieving international recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital is the necessity of ensuring Israeli sovereignty over the city itself. This means prohibiting Palestinian Authority officials from residing in Jerusalem, especially those involved in surveillance and intimidation of Arab residents and the organization of protest and incitement against Jewish residents. Establishing a liaison office at the Israeli police department in Jerusalem would allow Arab Jerusalemites to report harassment.

Dr. Hillel Frisch..
BESA Center Perspectives Paper No. 1,012..
22 November '18..
Link: https://besacenter.org/perspectives-papers/jerusalem-sovereignty-arab-residents/..

Benjamin Netanyahu takes pride in having played a key role in President Trump’s decision to move the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Israel’s capital and in coaxing other states to follow his example. At the same time, there are worrying signs that in Jerusalem itself, the government is failing to ensure Israeli sovereignty over a united Jerusalem. It is allowing a substantial Palestinian Authority presence in the Arab neighborhoods of Jerusalem, from which they intimidate and coerce Jerusalem’s Arab residents to further the PA’s interests and undermine Israeli sovereignty.

The recent abduction in Ramallah and prolonged incarceration of Issam Aqel, a Jerusalem resident, by the PA’s General Intelligence Agency, for selling land in Jerusalem, and Israeli moves against the abduction reveal how extensive and intimidating is the PA’s presence in Jerusalem.

To begin with, the abduction only came to light because the Jerusalem resident was a citizen of the US, a fact that emboldened the family to publicize the event. One suspects that the abduction of other Arab residents who are not fortunate enough to be US citizens may never have come to light for fear of further retribution by the PA.

Worse yet, Aqel had gone to the Israeli police before his visit to Ramallah to warn the authorities that he might be in danger. He evidently hoped the Israeli police would react promptly in case he was abducted. Aqel carried a blue identity card and is an official resident of Jerusalem. He had hoped that this would protect him.

Yet when Aqel was first abducted, the Israeli police did nothing, claiming that he had left voluntarily for Ramallah. It was only after his arrest hit the news that the Israeli authorities responded by arresting Adnan Gheith, a long-time Fatah activist in Jerusalem, and Jihad al-Faqih, an officer in the PA’s General Intelligence in charge of Jerusalem. Gheith has a long record of leading violent demonstrations against the police and Jewish inhabitants in Silwan and of organizing both violent and non-violent vigils surrounding the Temple Mount.

NY Times Travel Section Writes Jerusalem Out of Israel - by Ira Stoll

For a newspaper that has a whole marketing campaign about how “the truth can’t be glossed over,” “the truth has no agenda,” “the truth pulls no punches,” and “the truth requires taking a stand,” trying to pretend that Jerusalem isn’t the capital of Israel is an odd exercise in spineless self-deception.

Ira Stoll..
Algemeiner..
13 November '18..

Sunday’s New York Times travel section features an article suggesting “Five Places To Go In Jerusalem.” But readers curious about which country Jerusalem is in get no help from the Times: the article, strangely, doesn’t mention the word “Israel.”

Refusing to acknowledge the reality that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel is a departure from the way the Times treats other countries. The same Times Sunday travel section, for example, also includes an article about Oslo. A Times headline refers to it as “the Norwegian capital,” and the article describes it as “this compact Norwegian city. … Norway’s forward-thinking capital.” Earlier pieces in the Times‘ “Five Places To Go” series included articles about cities that the Times identified as “Düsseldorf, Germany,” and “San José, Costa Rica.”

If you are tempted to give the Times a pass on this on the basis that Jerusalem is so well known as Israel’s capital that it goes without saying, think again.

(Continue to Full Column)

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BBC News continues to deny audiences relevant Jerusalem background information - by Hadar Sela

...While there is nothing new about the BBC’s failure to provide its audiences with the full range of information necessary for their understanding of the background to these stories concerning the relocation of foreign embassies to Jerusalem, the fact that it adopts that editorial policy – committed as it is to “due impartiality” under BBC editorial guidelines and even as it repeatedly tells audiences that “Jerusalem’s status is one of the most contentious issues between Israel and the Palestinians” – is truly remarkable.

Hadar Sela..
BBC Watch..
05 November '18..

On November 2nd the BBC News website published its latest report on the proposed relocation of a foreign embassy to Jerusalem – “Israel’s Netanyahu welcomes Brazil Jerusalem embassy vow“.

“Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu has welcomed a decision by Brazil’s president-elect to move its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

Mr Netanyahu praised it as “historic, [and] correct”. Palestinians called the move “provocative and illegal”.

Jair Bolsonaro, a far-right politician, expressed strong support for Israel during his election campaign.

Jerusalem’s status is one of the most contentious issues between Israel and the Palestinians.

Israel considers the whole of Jerusalem as its capital, while the Palestinians seek East Jerusalem as the capital of a hoped-for Palestinian state.”

As was the case in an article published last month, a problematic backgrounder video by Yolande Knell dating from December 2017 was promoted in this latest report. Later on readers found a typical BBC ‘nothing worth mentioning happened before 1967’ portrayal of the story’s background:

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Highlighting the absurdity and bias that passes for scholarship at the UN - by Elder of Ziyon

Saying that the Israeli claim to sovereignty has no basis in UNGA 181 is correct. Neither do any Arabs. And UNGA 181 is not international law. And the Arabs rejected it anyway!

Elder of Ziyon..
29 June '18..

The International Conference on Question of Jerusalem was held in Rabat, Morocco, this week, with an assortment of the usual anti-Israel speakers and Palestinian apologists.

A talk about the legal status of Jerusalem by Ziad AbuZayyad, a former PA minister, highlights the absurdity and bias that passes for scholarship at the UN.

After slyly saying that Jerusalem was founded by Canaanites and then "occupied" by King David, he jumps through legal hoops to pretend that "Palestine" has a legal claim to Jerusalem and Israel has none:

To conclude, the status of Jerusalem under the international law is still defined and ruled by the UNGA Resolution 181 as an area of non-sovereignty, under international supervision.

...All Israeli measures in city are null and void.

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As expected, BBC R4 ‘Today’ listeners sold short by Knell’s portrayal of Jerusalem - by Hadar Sela

...While it is standard BBC practice to avoid informing audiences of the history and status of Jerusalem before June 1967 – including the internationally unrecognised 19 year-long Jordanian occupation of parts of the city – obviously that practice does not contribute to meeting the BBC’s public purpose obligation to provide its funding public with “accurate and impartial news, current affairs and factual programming of the highest editorial standards so that all audiences can engage fully with issues across the UK and the world”.

Hadar Sela..
BBC Watch..
27 June '18..

The BBC’s domestic coverage of the Duke of Cambridge’s visit to Jordan, Israel and the Palestinian Authority controlled territories continued on June 26th with no fewer than three items aired on BBC Radio 4’s ‘Today‘ programme.

In addition to reports from the corporation’s royal correspondent Jonny Dymond and during the news bulletin, listeners also heard a report by the BBC Jerusalem bureau’s Yolande Knell.

During that report Knell – like Jeremy Bowen in the previous day’s programme – brought up the topic of the objection of an Israeli minister to the wording of the itinerary put out by the Royal Household.

Knell: “On his solo trip the prince will watch Jewish and Arab Israeli children playing football. But political differences here aren’t always so easy to overcome. Israeli politicians are criticising his schedule for presenting Jerusalem’s Old City as part of the occupied Palestinian territories.”

Obviously if the BBC’s domestic audiences are to understand the reason for the objection to that description of the Old City of Jerusalem as ‘occupied Palestinian territory’ they would need to be told of the inclusion of Jerusalem in the territory assigned by the League of Nations to the creation of a Jewish homeland. They would also need to be informed of the belligerent British-backed Jordanian invasion and subsequent ethnic cleansing of Jews who had lived in Jerusalem for generations from districts including the Old City in 1948, together with the destruction of synagogues and cemeteries, as well as the fact that the 1949 Armistice Agreement between Israel and Jordan specifically stated that the ceasefire lines were not borders.

However in typical BBC style, Yolande Knell erased all the history prior to June 1967 from her simplistic account:

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The day Jerusalem won - by Ron Proser

...every kindergartener knows that prior to Trump’s decision, the Middle East was a calm, peaceful place, and the Palestinians were spending the rest of the year meditating and doing yoga.

Ron Proser..
JNS.org..
14 May '18..

The opening of the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem, the capital of Israel, is the fulfillment of what many Jews dreamed of, regardless of their political opinions, and carries historic and diplomatic weight that could affect the entire region.

For 70 years, we have heard many countries, including our greatest friend, make excuses about it “not being the right time” to move their embassies to Jerusalem, and we’ve heard over and over why such a move couldn’t happen so long as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict continued.

In 1995, the U.S. Congress enacted a law requiring the United States to relocate its embassy to Jerusalem. But every president since then has taken care to use a loophole in the law to delay the move once every six months.

Then Donald Trump arrived—a new president, an outsider who wanted to think outside the box. Trump is an unusual politician who reminds us that politicians really can keep their promises.

When he said during his presidential campaign that if elected, he would move the embassy to Jerusalem, he meant it.

Six months ago, when the president declared his intention, the predictors of doom and gloom rose up. The Palestinians declared three days of rage over the decision, and some warned that the move would send the Middle East up in flames. Because every kindergartener knows that prior to Trump’s decision, the Middle East was a calm, peaceful place, and the Palestinians were spending the rest of the year meditating and doing yoga.

(Continue to Full Column)

Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook which has additional pieces of interest besides that which is posted on the blog. Also check-out This Ongoing War by Frimet and Arnold Roth. An excellent blog, very important work. 

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Better Visit Jerusalem’s Old City Before it Disappears Forever! - by Simon Plosker

...Given that the Old City is probably the most important tourist destination in Israel, we would definitely put it on anyone’s bucket list of places to visit. But the only thing that looks to be disappearing is commonsense on the part of the author of this feature, Business Insider editors for keeping Jerusalem in the article, and The Independent for blindly republishing the piece.

Simon Plosker..
Honest Reporting..
06 March '18..

A feature in Business Insider UK and republished in The Independent is a great example of the intersection of gross stupidity between United Nations bodies and the media.

In “15 destinations to cross off your bucket list before they disappear,” the first destination comes as a major surprise:

While it is perhaps something of a mercy that the article recognizes that the Jerusalem’s Old City is actually located in Israel, there is certainly no good reason for it to be located in this feature.

One wonders how much research the author of the piece actually did. After all, relying on a clearly politically motivated maneuver by Jordan at UNESCO as far back as 1982 is hardly credible. Indeed, the Old City has survived pretty well considering it was added to the endangered list some 36 years ago. Doesn’t that speak volumes?

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The embassy will move . . . and the world won’t end - by Jonathan S. Tobin

...The world held off on recognizing western Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, in part because of the expectation that a peace treaty was inevitable, and because others were simply waiting for the next war to result in the extinction of the Jewish state. Nothing changed after Israel’s victory in the 1967 Six-Day War that united the city. Some continued to wait for a peace the Arab world pledged not to make, while others still clung to the fantasy.

Jonathan S. Tobin..
JNS.org..
26 February '18..

Maybe it wasn’t such a big deal after all.

Instead of waiting until 2019 or 2020, the U.S. embassy to Israel will move from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem in May. On Friday, the Trump administration said the ceremony converting a Jerusalem consulate into the embassy would coincide with Israel’s 70th birthday celebrations.

The current U.S. embassy in Tel Aviv, which will be relocated to Jerusalem in May. Credit: Wikimedia Commons.
Unlike Trump’s initial announcement recognizing the holy city as Israel’s capital, the reaction to this latest one turned out to be substantially low-key. The Arab world and Muslim populations didn’t take to the streets to protest or commit mayhem. Countries that were already critical of Israel and of Trump’s stand issued pro forma statements. The Palestinian Authority protested the idea of the United States celebrating a date they regard as the anniversary of their Nakba (“disaster”), but that’s as far as it went.

All of which ought to alert the peddlers of conventional wisdom about the conflict that this isn’t the only thing they’ve been wrong about. They’ve been telling us for decades that the actions currently being taken by Trump would wind up setting the world on fire. But there’s more to the lesson that the embassy saga teaches, other than Jerusalem not being as big a deal to the Islamic world as we’ve been told.

(Continue to Full Article)

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Reviewing the BBC’s presentation of Jerusalem history or lack thereof - by Hadar Sela

...There is of course nothing new about the BBC's failure to provide its audiences with the full range of information that would enhance their understanding of the background to stories concerning Jerusalem. But while that practice has been in evidence for years, the failure to provide even one accurate, impartial and comprehensive account of the relevant history of the city which was the topic of dozens of BBC reports on multiple platforms in one month alone is obviously remarkable.

Hadar Sela..
BBC Watch..
08 February '18..

The US administration’s announcement of its recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital on December 6th 2017 prompted an exceptionally large number of BBC reports on all its various platforms.

In six of the twenty-two written reports on the story that appeared on the BBC News website throughout December, no historical background was given at all. In eight of those articles audiences were given ‘background information’ on the city of Jerusalem that eliminated its history prior to June 1967 – for example:

“Israel occupied the area in the 1967 Middle East war and regards the entire city as its indivisible capital. The Palestinians claim East Jerusalem as the capital of a future state, and according to 1993 Israel-Palestinian peace accords, its final status is meant to be discussed in the latter stages of peace talks.

Israeli sovereignty over Jerusalem has never been recognised internationally, and all countries, including Israel’s closest ally the US, maintain their embassies in Tel Aviv, Israel’s commercial capital.

Since 1967, Israel has built a dozen settlements, home to about 200,000 Jews, in East Jerusalem. These are considered illegal under international law, though Israel disputes this.” [emphasis added] BBC News website, 4/12/17

And:

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Can you imagine? The BBC’s narrative on ‘East Jerusalem’ omits relevant context - by Hadar Sela

...Despite its public purpose obligation to provide audiences with “impartial news and information to help people understand and engage with the world around them” the BBC has not produced any content relating to the failure of the agreement that the Palestinians signed over two decades ago to guarantee freedom of access for Jews to religious sites under the control of the Palestinian Authority and to safeguard those sites. However, the BBC’s copious multi-platform amplification of the simplistic narrative according to which a Palestinian capital in ‘East Jerusalem’ is the “formula for peace” continues apace.

Hadar Sela..
BBC Watch..
19 January '18..

Although the BBC has been telling its audiences that “the Palestinians want East Jerusalem to be the capital of a future Palestinian state” for many years, since the US president’s announcement of recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital on December 6th 2017 that messaging has been promoted on a variety of BBC platforms on an almost daily basis.

BBC portrayals of the topic usually include the narrative seen in a frequently reused backgrounder on Jerusalem produced by Yolande Knell in which audiences were led to believe that a Palestinian capital in “east Jerusalem” is an already agreed component of the two-state solution rather than a topic to be discussed in final status negotiations.

“Of course, Palestinians see things starkly differently. They want east Jerusalem as their capital.

And that’s part of the long-standing international formula for peace here, known as the “two-state solution”.

Knell also portrayed the two-state solution in terms that dovetail with the PLO’s interpretation of that term.

(Continue to Full Post)

Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook which has additional pieces of interest besides that which is posted on the blog. Also check-out This Ongoing War by Frimet and Arnold Roth. An excellent blog, very important work. 

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Examining the Islamic World’s Ho-Hum Response to Trump’s Jerusalem Declaration - Prof. Hillel Frisch

Arab and western leaders alike responded to President Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital with dire warnings of imminent uproar. That uproar didn’t materialize, probably because the Islamic world is too mired in its own domestic problems to mobilize over Jerusalem.

Prof. Hillel Frisch..
BESA Center Perspectives Paper No. 700..
28 December '17..
Link: https://besacenter.org/perspectives-papers/assessing-islamic-worlds-ho-hum-response-trumps-jerusalem-declaration/

Ominous warnings about Arab fury characterized the reactions of most Arab and western leaders to President Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, despite Trump’s clear statement that the decision in no way jeopardizes final status talks over Jerusalem between Israel and the Palestinians.

The Arab League, which is composed of 22 mostly Arabic-speaking states, warned that the announcement “deepens tension, ignites anger, and threatens to plunge the region into more violence and chaos.” Hamas was even more graphic: Trump’s decision, the movement assured, “opens the gates of hell.”

According to Riyad Mansour, the ambassador and permanent observer of Palestine at the UN, the decision heightened tensions and risks “the complete destabilization of this volatile situation.”

The Israeli authorities braced for a possible conflagration by announcing the dispatch of several battalions to the West Bank to augment the forces already in the area.

So what happened?

The Fantasy of an International Jerusalem - by Martin Kramer

One-hundred years ago, over a lunch, the internationalization of Jerusalem became irrelevant—and it remains so.

Martin Kramer..
Mosaic Magazine..
28 December '17..

In the uproar over President Trump’s announcement of U.S. recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, one constant refrain has been the insistence that, by longstanding international consensus, the city’s status has yet to be decided. In the portentous words of the recent UN General Assembly resolution protesting the American action, “Jerusalem is a final-status issue to be resolved through negotiations in line with relevant United Nations resolutions.”

The most “relevant” of those prior resolutions was the November 1947 resolution proposing partition of Palestine and envisaging, in addition to two independent states, one Arab and one Jewish, an entirely separate status for Jerusalem as a city belonging to no state but instead administered by a “special international regime.”

One might have thought that the wholesale Arab rejection of the entire partition plan, in all of its parts, would also have put paid to the idea of an internationalized Jerusalem. Evidently, however, this fantasy is too convenient to lie dormant forever.

That is why it’s useful to know that, almost exactly three decades before the 1947 UN plan, internationalization of Jerusalem was killed—and killed decisively. Who killed it? Thereby hangs a tale, but here is a hint: it was neither the Arabs, nor the Jews.

(Continue to Full Essay)

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In a Nutshell: The State Department's Jerusalem - Then and Now - by Yisrael Medad

QUESTION: So the answer to the question is Jerusalem, correct?AMBASSADOR SATTERFIELD: That’s exactly right.

Yisrael Medad..
My Right Word..
08 December '17..
Link: http://myrightword.blogspot.co.il/2017/12/the-state-departments-jerusalem-then.html





Remember this from June 8, 2015?

MR RATHKE: Not in the habit of doing victory dances. Go ahead, Matt.
QUESTION: Well, just – can you remind us all what city – or what the United States regards as the capital of Israel?
MR RATHKE: Well, since I think – to come to the – maybe the nub of the issue, since Israel’s founding, administrations of both parties have maintained a consistent policy of recognizing no state as having sovereignty over Jerusalem. So we remain committed to this longstanding policy, and this decision today helps ensure that our position on the neutrality of Jerusalem remains – it remains clear.
QUESTION: That applies to both West Jerusalem and East Jerusalem?
MR RATHKE: Again, no change to our policy to announce.
QUESTION: Well, but I mean the contested part of Jerusalem is just the east part. Not even the Palestinians claim the west part.
MR RATHKE: Again, Matt, I’ve got no change to our policy to announce.

What a difference. From yesterday's briefing:

Pres. Trump Has a Capital Idea on Jerusalem - by Sohab Ahmari

...As for Palestinian groups’ threat of staging days of rage and rioting, that’s not so much an argument against Trump’s decision as it is a case study in why peace has remained elusive for so long.

Sohab Ahmari..
Commentary Mgazine..
06 December '17..
Link: https://www.commentarymagazine.com/foreign-policy/middle-east/israel/trump-has-capital-idea-jerusalem/

The journalistic class is apoplectic over President Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. But conservatives, including those skeptical of this president, should add it to the list of Trump-administration foreign policies that deserve praise. The case for recognizing Jerusalem, and relocating the U.S. Embassy there, is formidable. Talk of the move throwing the region into chaos is overwrought and out of touch with Mideast reality.

For starters, moving the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem is in line with the democratic will of the American people. Congress in 1995 enacted a law requiring the State Department to make the relocation, but since then successive administrations of both parties have taken advantage of a waiver to delay it. The waiver process was written into the law. Even so, more than two decades of executive resistance amounts to defiance of Congress. Even die-hard Never Trumpers must admit: There is something refreshing about this administration’s willingness to carry out the law rather than sidestep it.

Yet professional peace-processors don’t care much for the foreign-policy preferences of the American people. They contend that Trump’s capital idea (pun intended) will scuttle any chances for a negotiated settlement to the seven-decade-long conflict. In this, they echo the Palestinian president-for-life, Mahmoud Abbas, who on Wednesday characterized the move as America’s “declaration of withdrawal” from the peace process.

Here’s the problem with this line of argument: What peace process?

(Video) Seventy years since UN General Assembly Resolution 181. Is It True the UN Created Israel? - Amb. Dore Gold

...He then reminded the UN, “The people which faithfully honored for 2,500 years the oath sworn by the Rivers of Babylon not to forget Jerusalem – this people will never reconcile itself with separation from Jerusalem.” Jerusalem had to be part of Israel. Eight days later he announced to the world that “for the State of Israel there has always been and always will be one capital only – Jerusalem the Eternal.” Ben-Gurion wasn’t dealing with the location of embassies.

Amb. Dore Gold..
Institute for Contemporary Affairs..
21 November '17..
Link: http://jcpa.org/video/true-un-created-israel-seventy-years-since-un-general-assembly-resolution-181/

We’re now approaching the 70th anniversary of UN General Assembly Resolution 181, what is also known as the Partition Plan which was adopted on November 29, 1947. It is often incorrectly asserted that the United Nations created the State of Israel by means of Resolution 181. That is completely untrue.

UN Resolution 181 took the idea that first began to emerge around the 1917 Balfour Declaration, emerged also with the League of Nations Mandate from 1922, but now called explicitly for an independent Jewish state alongside of an Arab state. What Resolution 181 did 70 years ago was it provided international legitimacy for the Jewish claim to statehood. It was a morally significant action, but like all UN General Assembly resolutions, it was not legally binding.



But what established Israel were not the actions of the United Nations. What actually established Israel was the Declaration of Independence by Israel’s first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, on May 15, 1948. To this day, what establishes states are not actions in the UN, despite what Mahmoud Abbas might hope. If you look at recently established countries – East Timor, Kosovo, South Sudan – all of them were established by a declaration of independence of their leaders. Even more recently in Kurdistan there was no declaration of independence. They don’t have an independent state.

Resolution 181 has a very important section that calls for the internationalization of Jerusalem by creating a separate entity known in Latin as a corpus separatum. This is not just an issue for historians because the internationalization proposal contained in Resolution 181 kept resurfacing over the years. For example, on March 1, 1999, the German ambassador to Israel wrote a note verbal to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Israel which stated that the basis for any resolution of the issue of Jerusalem would be the corpus separatum from 1947 from Resolution 181. Germany at the time had the presidency of the European Union so it wasn’t just the opinion of one country; it conceivably could have represented all European states.

Shortly thereafter, a campaign began at the United Nations which called for reviving Resolution 181, led by the Palestinian UN Observer, Nasser al-Qudwa. Yasser Arafat actually had been at the UN headquarters visiting Secretary-General Kofi Annan. When I saw this happening as Israel’s ambassador at the time, I turned to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Ariel Sharon for instructions – and I remember as though it was yesterday.

NY Times Publishes ‘Correction’ With Two Errors on Jerusalem Terror Attack - by Ira Stoll

...Whatever else can be said for this episode, it’s not an example of Times journalism at its best. And if you think you might file a complaint with the newspaper’s public editor about it, forget it; the Times has eliminated the job.

Ira Stoll..
Algemeiner.com..
21 June '17..

The New York Times has published a correction emphasizing that it doesn’t consider Jerusalem’s Old City part of Israel — and highlighting the newspaper’s own double standards and failures to grasp basic geography.

The correction, in the June 21 print edition of the Times, reads as follows:

Because of an editing error, an article on Saturday about knife attacks in the Old City section of East Jerusalem referred incorrectly to a claim of responsibility for the attacks by the Islamic State. It was not the group’s first for attacks on territory internationally recognized as part of Israel; the status of East Jerusalem is disputed.

What the Times doesn’t report, but is disclosed by the website Newsdiffs.org, which tracks the stealth changes to Times articles published online, is that this Times correction is itself a correction of an earlier version of the correction.

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Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook which has additional pieces of interest besides that which is posted on the blog. Also check-out This Ongoing War by Frimet and Arnold Roth. An excellent blog, very important work. 

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Surprise? NY Times Inaccurately Calls Jerusalem a ‘Divided City’- by Ira Stoll

...the Times news coverage isn’t supposed to be pushing political goals; it’s supposed to be reporting on reality. If the Times is going to start describing Jerusalem as a “divided city” then consistency would dictate that it should at least apply the same description to Washington, DC and to New York City, both of which are riven by geographic, demographic, and socio-economic divides as formidable as any in Israel’s capital.

Ira Stoll..
Algemeiner.com..
19 May '17..

The New York Times previewed President Donald Trump’s visit to Israel and the 50th anniversary of the reunification of Jerusalem with a news article that inaccurately described the Israeli capital city as “divided.”

Here’s the full sentence that is the problem: “Some experts speculate that the new tension may make Mr. Trump more likely to fulfill an Israeli dream: having the United States move its embassy to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv, tacitly supporting Israel’s claim that the divided city is its eternal capital.”

The Times didn’t name these “experts” or explain why their speculation was worth passing along.

Worse is the Times description of Jerusalem as “the divided city.” That may be the Times claim, but it’s certainly not “Israel’s claim.”

Maybe the newspaper meant to write “undivided”?

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Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook which has additional pieces of interest besides that which is posted on the blog. Also check-out This Ongoing War by Frimet and Arnold Roth. An excellent blog, very important work. 

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(Video) From Time Immemorial – The Everlasting Jewish Tie to the Land of Israel

On Israel's Independence Day, UNESCO passed a resolution demanding that Israel disavow Jerusalem as its capital.

TheJerusalemCenter..
03 May '17..
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vsvw4NS1MnI&feature=youtu.be



This resolution is part of the ongoing Palestinian campaign to delegitimize Israel in the international arena and disseminate false history and libel against the State of Israel. It ignores the continuous Jewish presence in the Land of Israel throughout the past 2,000 years - as documented in this new Jerusalem Center video.



The Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs is a leading independent research institute specializing in public diplomacy and foreign policy.

Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook which has additional pieces of interest besides that which is posted on the blog. Also check-out This Ongoing War by Frimet and Arnold Roth. An excellent blog, very important work. 

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