Look at the cause-and-effect. It’s not complicated. It’s not the embassy. It’s Israel.
An absurdity has come to an end: The idea that Jewish Jerusalem is “disputed” territory, that Jerusalem is not the capital of Israel, that Israel has no sovereignty over Jerusalem, any part of Jerusalem, that a person born in Jerusalem is not born in Israel, that Jerusalem is equally Jewish and Palestinian in any way (history, industry, spiritual significance, size of population).
President Donald Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and his transfer of the American embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem are long overdue — the realization, it is vital to remember, of a bipartisan sentiment, a bill passed by Congress with overwhelming bipartisan support.
So why the tumult in Gaza? Why the tragic deaths and suffering there? Why the violence? As the Wall Street Journal observed, the big deal in Gaza is not the embassy move. The big deal is Israel. The embassy move was an excuse for Hamas to attack Israel.
Item: Lost amid all the pictures of violence on the Israel-Gaza border is the news item that last week Israel bombed a(nother) terror tunnel in Gaza. It takes a long time to build these tunnels. The most recently destroyed one was likely begun long before Trump announced his recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. The purpose of the tunnel is to sneak IDF-clad Hamas operatives into Israel proper in order to launch mass killings and sow confusion — so that Israelis will flee from southern Israel and thus allow Hamas to take it over. These are not potential immigrants looking for a job and a better life, or even to escape persecution. These are invaders looking to supplant the local Israeli population.
Item: The suffering in Gaza is not due to any action that Israel initiates there. Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005. It restricts movement in and out of Gaza only in response to Hamas’ actions there — such as diverting humanitarian aid (concrete for housing) to construct terror tunnels.
This historically based, cause-and-effect in Gaza does not make it into much of the reporting from Gaza, which has reduced the violence there to: Embassy moved, Palestinians protest, as if these protests haven’t been going on for six weeks in explicit objection to the creation of Israel.
Alas, the elision of facts, the ignorance of history, made it into other critical reportage last week, also about Jerusalem. Even so respected a medium as the Washington Post got it all wrong when it referred to reunification of Jerusalem during the Six Day War 51 years ago in quotation marks, as in the “reunification” of Jerusalem, since virtually no country around the world recognizes Israel’s annexation of Jerusalem.
As if 13 years — from 1967 to 1980, the year that Israel did annex East Jerusalem — did not exist.
As if Israel annexed Jerusalem in 1967.
As if the reunification of Jeru-salem during the Six Day War was a political act.
As if the anniversary of the reunification of Jerusalem celebrated last Sunday meant anything other than the tearing down of the fences that divided the city, and the restoration of religious freedom of the Western Wall.
As if Jordan’s division of Jeru-salem in 1949 and its exclusion of Jews (not just Israelis) from praying at the Western Wall should be put in quotation marks — as in the “division” of Jerusalem.
Consider the irony. The Washington Post story quoted at great length Gazans who bemoaned being confined to a prison by Israel, locked into Gaza by a border fence (actually, two fences, for the Egyptian side of Gaza also has a fence, so that Gaza terrorists not enter Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula). Yet, the Jordanian fence that divided Jerusalem and came down in 1967 deserved the demeaning reference, the “reunification” of Jerusalem.
It would be wonderful if the fence between Gaza and Israel came down. It will come down if Gazans wish to enter Israel for the same reason why Americans enter Canada: for peaceful purposes.
But no. According to the Washington Post, Jerusalem was “reunified,” while Gaza is an Israeli prison.
If the Washington Post cannot get the simplest historical facts into its reportage from Israel these days, what can you expect?
Expect:
Jerusalem was “reunified”; Israel’s annexation of Jerusalem was rejected. The 13-year gap between fences coming down and Israel’s annexation of Jerusalem (1967-1980) is ignored.
Expect:
Embassy moved; violence breaks out in Gaza. Hamas’ intent to destroy Israel is ignored.
Prime Minister Netanyahu said: Peace can only be built on truth. The reason why Hamas and Abbas are apoplectic about Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem and his embassy move is because Jerusalem’s status as the capital of Israel is true. If peace cannot acknowledge reality, it will not come.
Copyright © 2018 by the Intermountain Jewish News
