Tuesday, November 27, 2007

One Jerusalem

Sunday evening I went to a meeting in Jerusalem organized by "One Jerusalem", an organization that is against the division of the city. Or should I say re-division, since Jeruslaem was divided into the western Jewish and eastern Arab halves from 1948-1967. Do we want to go back to this?
I went to the meeting because I agree with them, I cannot see one good reason why any Israeli government should agree to such a re-division of the city. Apparently PM Olmert is considering giving the Arab suburbs to the putative PA ministate on the West Bank in the negotiations following the Annapolis Conference. This would give the Arabs in negotiations what they failed to win in wars. Many brave Israeli Jews died fighting to reunite Jerusalem and give us security. To give it back now would only empower the Arabs, they consider such concessions a sign of weakness on the part of Israel, which it is.
The argument that eastern Jerusalem should be given back because it is populated by Arabs is a stupid argument, noone gives up part of a city because it is inhomogeneous. All cities have ethnic neighborhoods, so what? Also, there must be a limit, red lines that cannot be breached to attain a so-called peace with these enemies (Barak breached all these red lines when he negotiated with Arafat, now he is Defense Minister). Abbas is so weak that he could not stop even Fatah terrorists from firing mortars from east Jeruslaem into west Jerusalem, let alone Hamas and al Qaeda. It would be suicidal madness to give up part of the city and it would not bring peace, but invite war.
Several speakers hammered these points home, including Natan Sharansky, former Israeli Minister for Jerusalem, Gen. Moshe "Boogie" Ya'alon, former Defense Minister (fired by Olmert), Congressman Erik Cantor, Dep. Republican whip, from the USA, and Yehiel Leiter, Likud MK and Chairman of One Jerusalem. The speakers were visible on large TV screens, and they also played videos of Olmert when he was Mayor of Jerusalem vowing that he would never allow the city to be divided again!
Following his speech, Leiter invited the audience of about 1,000 from all over Israel, sheltering in a heated tent on the Sherover promenade (tayelet) that provides the best overall view of the City, especially at night, to a light show. There were bright searchlights located at strategic points around the city, clearly visible from where we were standing. Then a green laser light showed the distance and trajectory from one point to another, particularly from the Arab suburbs into the heart of the city. This was quite spectacular to see. It is between 2-4 km only from the Arab suburb of Shuafat to the King David Hotel, the Ben Yehuda Mall, the Knesset, etc. But what is not obvious from maps is the topology, that Shuafat is higher in elevation than the rest of the city, so that anyone with a mortar could wreak havoc on the city and bring it to a standstill. And this they want to give back? I repeat it would be suicidal madness to give these suburbs to any Arab entity, since any peace agreement signed would have no effect on a large minority of Palestinian terrorists intent on destroying Israel and taking over all of Jerusalem. Give them an inch and they will absolutely try for all of it. It would be the "thin edge of the wedge."
When we arrived we were given gold ribbons to wear. From now on those against redividing Jerusalem should wear gold ribbons for "Jerusalem of Gold." As David Ben Gurion said, "Jerusalem is the soul of the Jewish people and the heart of the State of Israel." It must never be redivided!

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