Jerusalem declared illegitimate by Obama, Kerry and McCully
Now that large parts of Jerusalem, the unrecognised capital of the Jewish State, have been declared illegal and illegitimate by all and sundry, it is timely to point out a few incontrovertible facts.
Michael Kuttner
The “A” team of Obama, Kerry and McCully joined by a motley assortment of hostile, ignorant and unsavory nations represented at the corrupt United Nations managed to unite and issue an edict which for all intents and purposes delegitimizes any Jewish presence in the heartland of Israel in general and Jerusalem in particular. Their pathetic resolution unleashed an avalanche of comments ranging from unadulterated adoration to hasty denials of malevolent intent. Murray McCully, the New Zealand Foreign Minister looking like a sheep caught in the glare of an incoming train, expressed amazement at the furious Israeli reaction to his stupendous piece of international diplomacy. Those who hope that the new NZ Prime Minister will disavow this shameful charade are bound to be disappointed. Theresa May after having voted for this worthless gesture then hastily tried to distance herself from it thus demonstrating once again that British duplicity is still alive and well. Julie Bishop the Australian Foreign Minister maintained that she would have voted against but then contradicted herself by trotting out the usual mantra against Jewish settlements and Jerusalem.
Meanwhile Kerry unleashed a torrent of frustrated fulmination against Israel while at the same time virtually ignoring 68 years of Arab rejectionist actions against peace and their enthusiastic embrace for terror and refusal to acknowledge a valid Jewish right to any sort of country. Obama is winding himself up for a similar stellar performance before he schleps himself out of the White House exit. Hollande of France not wanting to miss an opportunity to ingratiate himself with the mullahs of Iran is hosting yet another fruitless gang up conference to tell Israelis exactly how to commit national suicide.
While all these “experts” are busy handing out gratuitous advice and with the help of the likes of UNESCO disconnecting any Jewish legitimacy to places which have seen a Jewish presence for three thousand years, life in our Capital carries on.
At least three times a week I commute into Jerusalem, usually a 20 minute trip, and every time I do so wonder at the transformation taking place. The construction of roads, fast rail connections, light rail lines, apartments and public buildings is unprecedented and it is changing the face of the city from a neglected backwater of the Ottoman Empire to a modern thriving metropolis in the heart of the start up nation. Following the shameful resolution cosponsored by NZ, Malaysia, Venezuela and Senegal, the ramifications if it were ever to be implemented become starkly evident. Here are some of the toxic results that would impact every Jewish citizen of Israel and Jerusalem in particular.
First and foremost there would be another bout of ethnic cleansing. The first took place when the Jordanian Arabs illegally controlled half of Jerusalem from 1948 to 1967. McCully’s brilliant piece of diplomacy would result in the expulsion of all Jews and once again the denial of Jewish worship at Judaism’s holiest sites. Here it is in black and white: Abbas said that “no Jew, civilian or otherwise, would be permitted to live in the future Palestinian state he envisions.” Abbas stated, according to Reuters that, “In the final resolution, we would not see the presence of a single Israeli – civilian or soldier – on our lands.”
If this abortion of a resolution was ever to be carried out it would see a UN sanctioned Judenrein policy implemented as part of a two State solution, the first such anti Jewish cleansing since the demise of Nazi Germany.
Mount Scopus would once again be off limits to Israelis which means that Hadassah Hospital would be out of bounds and the Hebrew University Campus unable to remain open.
The oldest Jewish cemetery on the Mount of Olives would be desecrated again and its graves violated.
City Hall as well as Mamilla and the King David Hotel would be within mortar and machine gun range of Arab terrorists firing from the walls of the Old City. Thriving shopping malls and public parks will revert to no man’s land where any sign of an Israeli would result in a barrage of gunfire. Houses in Talpiot and French Hill would be targets and life generally in most parts of the Capital would become intolerable.
Road access to Jerusalem from the coastal plain would become hazardous with terror ambushes taking place at places where the much touted Palestinian Arab State now cleansed of Jews, controlled territory. The high speed rail connection to Tel Aviv and the airport would be unusable as would the revolutionary light rail network connecting Jerusalem to its suburbs.
It would be impossible to travel to the Dead Sea. The Malha Mall and the Biblical Zoo as well as Teddy Stadium would all have to close as once again Arab snipers from the heights of Gilo would be able to target anyone there.
Jerusalem suburbs would need to be evacuated and thousands of families displaced. High tech enterprises and other commercial businesses offering employment to thousands would have to be demolished.
This is just a small sample of the mayhem and destruction which necessarily follows a logical implementation of the resolution passed at the UN. This does not even take into account the actions which would follow in Judea and Samaria. The bottom line is that a logical corollary of the international community’s one sided and totally irrational obsession with the Jewish State has consequences on an unimaginable scale. Anyone who thinks that we are going to meekly implement any of the delusionary demands passed by a morally corrupt collection of diplomats and politicians is in for a rude awakening.
The hypocrisy of those who gratuitously question whether Israel can be both a Jewish and democratic State is beyond belief. While massacres on a grand scale are unfolding in front of our eyes and Islamic terror increases, the only threat to international peace apparently is our refusal to become another Czechoslovakian Munich type offering.
A predictable byproduct of this resolution branding a Jewish presence in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria illegitimate and illegal was provided this week. Emboldened by the UN’s revisionist version of Jewish history Abbas and friends feel no more need to negotiate. In one fell swoop the UN has managed to sabotage any hope of meaningful compromises.
A clear example of the Palestinian Arab and Islamic concept of religious freedom took place this Tuesday and is a foretaste of what we can expect if the UN has its way. Guiding an overseas group of students around the Temple Mount, one of Israel’s most respected archaeologists was accused by Islamic guards shadowing his every word of describing the site as the Temple Mount – Har Habayit in Hebrew. They hauled him off to the Israeli police and demanded that he be expelled from the area. The police replied that he was actually not breaking any law but then disgracefully requested him to refrain from using any description which implied a Jewish connection. Following the UNESCO decision and now the NZ sponsored UN resolution, our misnamed “peace” partners now feel emboldened to eradicate any semblance of Jewish historical and present day connection to Judaism’s holiest site. It is already forbidden for Jews to pray there and the next logical step if Jerusalem were to ever be Palestinian Arab controlled would be the physical cleansing of Jews.
Textbooks used in Palestinian Arab schools including those run by UNRWA (to which NZ and Australia send taxpayers’ money) teach the next generation that Israel is illegitimate and Jews are targets for murder.
With the imprimatur of the international community the stage is now set for a concerted campaign of further demonization. The UN is already composing a blacklist of companies that do business in Judea, Samaria and Jerusalem.
If Jerusalem, Hebron, Shiloh, Efrata, Eli, Bet El and hundreds of other places where Jews have lived for millennia are officially sanctioned as illegal and illegitimate the next logical step should be for the UN to also proscribe the Books of the Bible.
Michael Kuttner is a Jewish New Zealander who for many years was actively involved with various communal organisations connected to Judaism and Israel. He now lives in Israel and is J-Wire’s correspondent in the region.
Meant to say four or five hundred years of living in those Middle Eastern countries.
Many of the ‘Hebrews’ you mention are also refugees from the surrounding Arab countries cited by you, who fled, post World War II, due to Arab pogroms against them after four or five generations of living in those Middle Eastern countries. The ‘Palestinians’ were not named as such until Israel won the war waged on them in 1967 and the area was claimed from the previous Jordanian rule. It seems prior to that there was no need to assert Palestinian proprietorship.
There is no country Palestine – it is disputed territory until such time as borders are agreed between the Israelis and the Arabs of that area. Originally it was Judea/Samaria and is highly significant to Jewish people historically, culturally and religiously. Despite that every effort has been made in offers to ‘share’ the territory between the two peoples, however to no avail. The Arab people want the lot.
Tell me, Adrian Jackson, where do your ancestors come from? For how many years have they been attached in any way to the land you now reside in, in Australia, or NZ? Land that was invaded and taken only some 229 years ago, with those who came having absolutely no past connection at all. With this in mind, how does your analogy stand up?
Yes there are Hebrews who have lived in Palestine for hundreds of years but many are recent immigrants from Europe and other places in the 19th and 20th century.
On the other hand the Palestinians and Arabs have not come from these overseas places and are residents of the so called Middle East (West Asia) for thousands of years just like the Lebanese, Jordanians, Iraqis, Persians, Syrians, Turks and Kurds.
Israel has pushed the world to far and now there is a backlash.
Israeli voters need to get rid of their ultra right wing government and elect some rational and progressive parliamentarian.
Well, we cannot let any of that come to pass, under any circumstances. According to David Singer, Sydney lawyer, UN Security Resolution 2334 actually violates Article 80 of the UN Charter, so how could any attempt to enforce this obscene and ridiculous resolution ever be made?
It beats me how people operating on the level of the UN Security Council could put a Resolution to the vote without checking whether or not it’s allowed by the UN Charter.
That is a horrifying read – and one that reads like the nightmare
Of the Holocaust. Trump now is the key – its no coincidence he’s been
Voted in – Israel will not give in to ignorance, black-listing, black-mail or
Grand larceny. The few remaining decent Arab states must stand firm and
Complicit within the realms of aiding peace in the region