by Gail Winston, Founder,
MEIR (Mid East Information Resource);
co-chair Chicago Women in Green
Yom Yerushalayim Sama'ach! Happy Jerusalem Day! 1997/5757
The battle lines are [still]
drawn for Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, without which the security and
sovereignty of Israel is at extreme risk. Israel cannot defend Jerusalem
if she surrenders Judea and Samaria as a territorial sacrifice for the
sake of the word "peace" . [Nor can she save the Jewish State
of Israel is she abandons any part of the 3000 year old ancient Jewish
Capital of Jerusalem.]
The Muslim Arab world, supported
by Muslim non-Arab countries [totaling 57 Muslim countries], the F.S.U.
(Former Soviet Union), non-aligned nations, Europe, Japan and Africa
as well as the Vatican will press Israel to give up sovereignty of Jerusalem,
IF Jewish abandonment of Judea, Samaria and [Gaza] continue the Oslo
precedents.
We must not permit the surrender
of Jerusalem, or of Judea and Samaria, as that loss is implied by the
Oslo linkage interpretation to the Camp David Agreements and has been
abandoned unilaterally by Peres and Rabin at Oslo I & II. Giving
up under the bludgeon of U.S. pressure would not only make Israel's
defense impossible, it would also break the morale of Israel's population.
Israel's fate could become that of the Lebanese Christians. Arab Moslems
might not mind, but Jews (and Christians) should.
Many frontier Zionists in Judea
and Samaria left comfortable homes in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, New York,
Chicago and other locales to create pioneering facts, to maintain a
Jewish presence in the land of our heritage. If there is to be a true
peace, there is no reason for any part of Israel to be Judenrein. Without
true peace, defending Israel along truncated, indefensible borders would
be national suicide.
Israel is urged by the world
to evacuate these towns, villages and cities to make room for a Palestinian
radical, irredentist homeland. This PLO "entity" intends to
make East or "Arab" Jerusalem its capital. Soon to be "President"
Yassir Arafat continually declaimed [in 1997]: "The Palestinian
boy and girl will raise the Palestinian flag over the mosques, churches
and synagogues of Jerusalem, which will be the capital of the State
of Palestine and ONLY that state. And anyone who doesn't like it can
go drink Gaza sea water."
The United Nations considers
60% of Jerusalem to be part of the 'West Bank'. [Current American President
Barack Obama wants the U.N. flag to fly over the Kotel (Western Wall)
of Jerusalem’s Jewish Temple Mount.]
But how does one define East
or "Arab" Jerusalem? All the land Jordan occupied in 1948
that includes North and South Jerusalem? Including the Jewish Quarter
where Jordan destroyed 58 Jewish synagogue? Mt. Scopus where Hadassah
Hospital and Hebrew University were cut off after the massacre of 77
doctors and nurses? The Western Wall of the Jewish Temple Mount, the
holiest site in Judaism, where access was denied from 1948 to 1967,
contrary to international agreements and guarantees?
Today Jews cannot pray ON the
Temple Mount, (but that is the fault of Jews). If you doubt that access
to Jewish holy sites will be the "normal" in this "New
Middle East", listen to the public pronouncements of Arafat and
his highest officers of the New Palestinian State. They promise no Jews
will pray at the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron, Rachel's Tomb in
Bethlehem, or 43 other Jewish holy sites.
Does the United States recognize Muslim Arab sovereignty over the parts of the Jerusalem that Jordan captured during the 1948 war? Only Pakistan and Britain recognized Jordanian sovereignty over any part of western Palestine. No other nation, including the United States, ever did.
The Bible and even the Koran
is filled with prophecies of the Jews' return to Jerusalem. In the 2683
years [nearly 2700 years] since the destruction of the First Temple
and throughout the 2 Diasporas, Jews have prayed daily for the return
to Jerusalem. Zionism is Zion. Zion is Jerusalem. Jerusalem is Israel
- the heart and soul of Israel. We have peace now that the Eternal Golden
City is united. All faiths now worship in freedom. All holy places are
protected.
Jerusalem has been the physical
and spiritual capital of the Jewish people for 3001 years as of 1997.
There's always been a strong Jewish presence (except when the Jews were
forcibly kept out) and a continuous Jewish presence since 1267. Jews
were the majority of the population in Jerusalem since 1850.
American Jews voted for Jimmy
Carter, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, two Bushes, and now Barack Obama
on faith, in part, because they promised to uphold the Democratic and
Republican Party platforms recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital and
moving the American Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. To our dismay,
Ronald Reagan's September 1982 "Peace Plan" and the Clinton
State Department with its 3 Jewish Arabists, (holdovers from the first
Bush presidency) Dennis Ross, Aaron Miller, Dan Kurtzer and later Ambassador
Martin Indyk have promoted a policies of pressuring Israel into surrendering
vital territory to appease the Arabs. At the same time, enemies of Israel
are being shipped the most advanced American weaponry that even America’s
NATO allies have not yet received. Again, we Jews and pro-Israel Christians
are being deceived and Israel's survival is at risk.
The pressure of successive
administrations on Israel, is to no small extent, our own fault. American
Jews have permitted successive American Presidents to endanger Israel's
security. These Presidents may have argued: "You don't have to
agree with our reasoning; you are free to cause a war by not doing so
but you will ultimately be responsible for killing your own young men,
so don't depend on future American support, aid or arms."
We may never know what really
occurs in talks between the U.S. and Israel. However, the attitudes
of our American governments is our responsibility [as Jews wherever
we live], insofar as it is formed upon the dominant public opinion as
molded by and in the media. We have empowered our government to develop
such manipulative techniques as attested to in the memoirs of the Camp
David negotiations and still hidden in the secrets of the agreements
signed in Oslo, Cairo and Washington. By our silence and passivity we
encouraged Carter's, Reagan's, two Bush's, Clinton's, and now Obama’s
pro-Arab State Department policies. Our failure to act has been compounded
by the divisions in local Jewish communities and their lack of political
foresight and understanding.
Israel shouldn't be forced
to mortgage her economic future by relinquishing territory, oil [Abu
Rudeis in Sinai], 73% of her fresh water resource, strategic defenses
and sovereignty for an ephemeral, cold peace.
Leadership in the Jewish community
has been developed to meet the urgent needs of fund-raising to provide
essential community services. These leaders may, or may not be the best
leaders for political action, especially if they are cautious to avoid
conflict with American Administrations who institute policies against
the best interests of Israel and the survival of the Jewish people.
However, since the community as a whole perceives that the job is being
done, it is difficult, if not impossible, for new leaders with political
or public relations experience to play a meaningful role. The job of
political PR (Hasbara) for Israel is not being pursued adequately by
Jewish leadership in America. Israel doesn't have the necessary budget
to engage is such a vital undertaking. At one point after the 1982 Lebanon
War, Israel asked the Diaspora communities to assume direct responsibility
for Hasbara but we Jews in the Diaspora never tackled the job adequately.
The American media make mayhem
of misunderstanding.
In the midst of Israel's tremendous
sacrifice of the Sinai for peace, the media, perhaps briefed by the
State Department, began an attack which has never lessened upon Judea,
Samaria and Jerusalem by means of the techniques of linkage with a false
interpretation of the Camp David Accords. Oslo I and II are the results.
The almost certain loss of the Golan and the probable loss of Jewish
sovereignty in Jerusalem follow from those ignominious surrenders.
It should be painfully clear
to all Jews in the Diaspora, that the job of Hasbara in their own countries
[including Israel] is essential. We may never match the billions of
petro-dollars poured into Muslim Arab propaganda, but nothing could
match the zeal of turned-on Jews, to defend the survival of Israel.
Judea and Samaria are Israel's
key to survival. Jerusalem is our soul; Israel is our heart and upon
Israel's survival depends our own.
This was first published in 1984. Today's concessions are 'deja vu' big time. Just plug in the Declaration of Principles, the concessionary giveaways of Gaza and Jericho first; the rest of the 'West Bank' by May 1998; the evacuation of 10,000 Jewish men, women and children from Gush Katif/Gaza and Northern Samaria. Jerusalem is on the table for negotiation for the first time by any Israeli government; 73% of Israel's water resource is at risk; the entire Golan Heights looks like [it will be] a sacrifice to Syria...and what are we doing?!!
Russian version