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From: moshb@juno.com Date: Sun 9 May 1999 Subject: VIPAC - Support Israel Dear Sir: This week the Jewish People celebrate the 32nd anniversary ofthe reunification of the City of Jerusalem. But more than the reunification we celebratre the first time in almost two thousand years that we can pray at the holiest site of our religion in complete freedom. From 1948 until 1967 while the Western Wall of the Temple was in Arab hands no Jews were permitted to see the Wall let alone pray before it. For the centuries before access to the Wall was restricted by both the Arab and Christian rulers. Under Jewish rule all holy sites in the city of Jerusalem are acessible to all. The current discussion concerning the possibility of granting limited sovereignty to the Arabs over part of Jerusalem will put all these freedoms into jeopardy. The Palestinian Arabs have been used as pawns in a power struggle of their rich bretheren for years. It is time to put an end to all this talk. THe security of the World and the freedom of religion is at stake. Jerusalem must remain totally in Israeli control. It was not in 1948 that the people of Israel first declared Jerusalem as its capital. It was 2817 years earlier in 869 BCE. Jerusalem has been Israel's capital for almost half the time the world exists. And will be G-d willing forever. THe following essay was written in 1948. It bears repeating in our day as a reminder of how the World has treated the Jews and its People over time- especially in our century. This letter first appeared as an editorial in the summer of '69 in the Times of Israel (long defunct): A Letter to the World from Jerusalem by Eliezer Ben Yisrael I am not a creature from another planet as you seem to believe. I am a Jerusalemite - like yourselves a man of flesh and blood. I am a citizen of my city an integral part of my people. I have a few things to get off my chest. Because I am not a diplomat I do not have to mince words. I do not have to please you or even persuade you. I owe you nothing. You did not build this city; you did not live in it; you did not defend it when they came to destroy it. And we will be damned if we will let you take it away. There was a Jerusalem before there was a New York. When Berlin Moscow London and Paris were miasmal forest and swamp there was a thriving Jewish community here. It gave something to the world which you nations have rejected ever since you established yourselves-a humane moral code. Here the prophets walked their words flashing like forked lightning. Here a people who wanted nothing more than to be left alone fought off waves of heathen would-be conquerors bled and died on the battlements hurled themselves into the flames of their burning Temple rather than surrender and when finally overwhelmed by sheer numbers and led away into captivity swore that before they forgot Jerusalem they would see their tongues cleave to their palates their right arms wither. For two pain-filled millennia while we were your unwelcome guests we prayed daily to return to this city. Three times a day we petitioned the Almighty: Gather us from the four corners of the world bring us upright to our land; return in mercy to Jerusalem Thy city and dwell in it as Thou promised." On every Yom Kippur and Passover we fervently voiced the hope that next year would find us in Jerusalem. Your inquisitions pogroms expulsions the ghettos into which you jammed us your forced baptisms your quota systems your genteel anti-Semitism and the final unspeakable horror the holocaust (and worse your terrifying disinterest in it)- all these have not broken us. They may have sapped what little moral strength you still possessed but they forged us into steel. Do you think that you can break us now after all we have been through? Do you really believe that after Dachau and Auschwitz we are frightened by your threats of blockades and sanctions? We have been to Hell and back- a Hell of your making. What more could you possibly have in your arsenal that could scare us? I have watched this city bombarded twice by nations calling themselves civilized. In 1948 while you looked on apathetically I saw women and children blown to smithereens after we agreed to your request to inter- nationalize the city. It was a deadly combination that did the job. British officers Arab gunners and American made cannons. And then the savage sacking of the Old City the willful slaughter the wanton destruction of every synagogue and religious school; the desecration of Jewish cemeteries; the sale by a ghoulish government of tombstones for building materials for poultry runs army camps- even latrines. And you never said a word. You never breathed the slightest protest when the Jordanians shut off the holiest of our places the Western Wall in violation of the pledges they had made after the war- a war they waged incidentally against the decision of the UN. Not a murmur came from you whenever the legionnaires in their spiked helmets casually opened fire upon our citizens from behind the walls. Your hearts bled when Berlin came under siege. You rushed your airlift "to save the gallant Berliners". But you did not send one ounce of food when Jews starved in besieged Jerusalem. You thundered against the wall which the East Germans ran through the middle of the German capital- but not one peep out of you about that other wall the one that tore through the heart of Jerusalem. And when that same thing happened 20 years later and the Arabs unleashed a savage unprovoked bombardment of the Holy City again did any of you do anything? The only time you came to life was when the city was at last reunited. Then you wrung your hands and spoke loftily of "justice" and need for the "Christian" quality of turning the other cheek. The truth is-and you know it deep inside your gut- you would prefer the city to be destroyed rather than have it governed by Jews. No matter how diplomatically you phrase it the age old prejudices seep out of every word. If our return to the city has tied your theology in knots perhaps you had better reexamine your catechisms. After what we have been through we are not passively going to accommodate ourselves to the twisted idea that we are to suffer eternal homelessness until we accept your savior. For the first time since the year 70 there is now complete religious freedom for all in Jerusalem. For the first time since the Romans put a torch to the Temple everyone has equal rights. (You prefer to have some more equal than others.) We loathe the sword - but it was you who forced us to take it up. We crave peace - but we are not going back to the peace of 1948 as you would like us to. We are home. It has a lovely sound for a nation you have willed to wander over the face of the globe. We are not leaving. We are redeeming the pledge made by our forefathers: Jerusalem is being rebuilt. "Next year" and the year after and after and after until the end of time- "in Jerusalem!" ___________________________________________________________________ You don't need to buy Internet access to use free Internet e-mail. Get completely free e-mail from Juno at http://www.juno.com/getjuno.shtmll or call Juno at (800) 654-JUNO [654-5866] |
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