If you’ve been listening to NPR or the BBC or almost any news channel, you’ve been told again and again these days that Jerusalem is a city “holy to three faiths.” This is comforting for those who don’t like to make distinctions; it doesn’t, however, adequately convey the fact that Jerusalem as an entire city means far more to Jews and to Christians than to Muslims. For Muslims, Mecca and Medina are the two supremely holy cities, off-limits to non-Muslims. The qibla, or direction toward which Muslims face while prostrate in prayer, is Mecca. For a very short period, when first in Medina, Muhammad, in an attempt to win Jewish converts, had his followers when praying face north toward Jerusalem. After this attempt failed, Muhammad turned against the Jews, killed many of them, and directed the qibla southward, toward Mecca.
Muhammad’s abandonment of Jerusalem explains the fact that this city is not mentioned even once in the Qur’an. After Palestine was occupied by the Muslims, its capital was Ramle, 30 miles to the west of Jerusalem, signifying that Jerusalem meant very little to them.
Islam rediscovered Jerusalem 50 years after Muhammad’s death. In 682 CE, ‘Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr rebelled against the Islamic rulers in Damascus, conquered Mecca, and prevented pilgrims from reaching Mecca for the Hajj. ‘Abd al-Malik, the Umayyad Caliph, needed an alternative site for the pilgrimage and settled on Jerusalem, which was then under his control. In order to justify this choice, he relied on Qur’an 17:1, which states:
“Glory to Him who caused His servant to travel by night from the Sacred Mosque to the Farthest Mosque, whose precincts We have blessed, in order to show him some of Our Signs, He is indeed the All-Hearing, the All-Seeing.”
The meaning the Umayyad Caliph ascribed to this verse was that “the furthest mosque” (al-masjid al-aqsa) must have been in Jerusalem (although there was no mosque in Jerusalem during Muhammad’s lifetime) and that Muhammad was conveyed there from Mecca one night, on the back of al-Buraq, a magical horse with the head of a woman, the wings of an eagle, the tail of a peacock, and hoofs reaching to the horizon. He tethered the horse to the Western Wall of the Temple Mount and from there ascended to the seventh heaven together with the angel Gabriel.
And that is how Jerusalem, which is not mentioned even once in the Qur’an, took on the significance it has for Muslims, who simply appropriated it, at a time when Mecca was temporarily off-limits, and assigned it to be the place — the “farthest mosque” — to which Muhammad travelled from Mecca (the isra), before he ascended to the seventh heaven (the miraj). That Night Journey begins from a rock on the Temple Mount, the holiest site in Judaism, upon which both the First and Second Temples were built. Muslims appropriated for their own purpose the Temple Mount, which they renamed Al-Haram al-Sharif, the Noble Sanctuary, upon which were built the Dome of the Rock, from which, Muslims believe, Muhammad ascended into heaven, and the al-Aqsa Mosque, where Muhammad prayed after his Night Journey. This appropriation of the main Jewish site — the Temple Mount — for the Muslim narrative, is not surprising: Islam has taken over a great deal from the prior monotheisms, including Moses and Jesus (as “prophets”); it is natural that it would also lay claim to physical sites holy to Judaism and Christianity.
For Christians, Jerusalem is central to the faith. It’s the site of the temple where Christ was taken to be circumcised, the temple where Mary was taken to be presented, the city into which Christ makes his entrance on “Palm Sunday,” the place where Christ kicked out the moneylenders from the temple, the place where, on a hill, Christ was crucified after carrying the cross through its streets, and where He was buried, at the site of what is now the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.
Compare the role of Jerusalem in Judaism. It has been the center of Jewish life, and longing, since 3000 B.C. Some Orthodox Jews still turn physically toward Jerusalem in prayer, while other Jews, while praying, turn their thoughts toward Jerusalem. For centuries Jerusalem was the capital city of Jewish kingdoms, the city of King Solomon and King David, the location of Judaism’s holiest sites (the Western Wall, the Temple Mount), and the historical focus of Jewish political life. It has been continuously inhabited by Jews for nearly 5000 years. As the Psalmist says, “If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning. If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth; if I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy.”
So we must remember that Jerusalem, then, is far less significant for Muslims than it is for Jews and Christians. Sites in Jerusalem important to the Jewish and Christian faiths — the Western Wall, the Temple Mount, the Via Dolorosa, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, and many others — you do not need to be either a believing Jew or a Christian to know that those sites really exist, and that they are revered by both. But for you to believe that Muhammad flew on his winged steed Al-Buraq from Mecca to Jerusalem, and from there ascended to the Seventh Heaven, you have to be a Muslim.
Now that President Trump has become the first president to honor his campaign pledge to move the embassy to Jerusalem, showing up all those presidents before him who made similar promises but then refused to honor them, let’s remember the prevarications of his predecessors. It begins with Bill Clinton, who in his campaign attacked George H. W. Bush for not moving the Embassy to Jerusalem, and promised that he, Clinton would do so. When he became president, Clinton promptly forgot that promise, having decided it would merely complicate his incessant attempts at “peacemaking” with Arafat. That “peacemaking” led to nothing, since Arafat in the end rejected even the huge concessions, amounting to 96% of the West Bank, which Ehud Barak, in a fit of madness, had offered him.
Next came George W. Bush who, in his own campaign for president, criticized the failure of Clinton to follow through and move the embassy, a charge with which he also saddled his opponent Al Gore. But when Bush was elected, he did nothing about moving the embassy himself. To be fair, he was president during the 9/11 attacks, and had many other Middle Eastern and Islamic matters on his mind, including the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan, and that may help explain his failure to follow through on his embassy promise.
Barack Obama did not discuss the Jerusalem Embassy issue during his campaign, but he declared in a 2008 campaign speech, “Jerusalem will remain the capital of Israel, and it must remain undivided.” Sounds good. But not only did he backtrack on this almost immediately, but in his last press conference he warned against moving the American Embassy to Jerusalem. His administration also attempted, unfortunately with success, to prevent Americans born in Jerusalem from listing Israel as their place of birth. One wonders if, in light of Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, whether that issue will be re-litigated.
Tired of the earlier promises, and prevarications, from the Executive Branch, Congress had passed the Jerusalem Embassy Act of 1995 on October 23, 1995. It was intended to initiate and fund the relocation of the Embassy of the United States in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, no later than May 31, 1999. It was an attempt to withhold 50 percent of the funds appropriated to the State Department specifically for “Acquisition and Maintenance of Buildings Abroad,” as allocated in fiscal year 1999 until the United States Embassy in Jerusalem had officially opened. The act also called for Jerusalem to remain an undivided city and for it to be recognized as the capital of the State of Israel. The proposed law was adopted overwhelmingly, by the Senate (93–5), and the House (374–37).
What Trump has done is extraordinary. He has forged ahead, despite all the grim warnings of terrible consequences; it seems fears of Middle East mayhem were grossly exaggerated. Several thousand Arabs, not more, in the West Bank, have rioted, and have been held well in check by tear gas and rubber bullets and water cannons; in Gaza, a total of 4,500 Arabs have gathered at six different spots along the border with Israel and thrown rocks and burning tires into Israel; two rockets were fired by Hamas into Israel. The Israelis returned live fire only against those identified as the ringleaders of the violence; two “Palestinians” have been killed. Compared to previous demonstrations, these have been comparatively small and restrained. “Days of wrath” is what Hamas’ leader Ismael Haniya promised. So far, not much wrath.
As for Arab leaders, most were muted in their protests. Egypt’s El-Sisi, who has good relations with Netanyahu, counselled “caution.” Right now El-Sisi is most concerned not with where the American embassy is placed, but with how to wipe out the terrorist groups — ISIS, and the more uncompromising members of Hamas — in the Sinai, and how to keep up the pressure in Egypt itself on the Muslim Brotherhood, which has been attacking Copts with impunity.
King Abdullah of Jordan, King Hassan of Morocco, and other Arab leaders have expressed dismay over the embassy move, claiming that it would be harmful to the “search for peace.” But there is already peace between Arabs and Israelis, a peace that remains durable as long as Israel is strong enough to repel any aggressors, whether or not such a peace is formally recognized in a treaty. The peace-keeping force in place — no other one is needed — is the IDF. And the basis for that peace-keeping is “deterrence.” It worked during the Cold War to keep the peace between the United States and the Soviet Union, and it’s been working fairly well for the Israelis ever since the Yom Kippur War. “Peace” is different from, and may even be undermined by, a “peace treaty” that would push Israel back to something like the pre-1967 lines with minor adjustments — that is, the 1949 Armistice Lines — for these are borders that would make it hellishly difficult for the IDF to defend Israel adequately, and would only invite further Arab aggression.
King Abdullah of Jordan has been warning ever since last February that, as he repeated after Trump made his announcement in early December, this week, “moving the embassy at this stage will have repercussions in the Palestinian, Arab and Islamic arenas and threatens the two-state solution.” But succumbing to Arab threats and not moving the embassy, after Trump has been discussing making that move ever since the campaign, would also have “repercussions in the Palestinian, Arab, and Islamic arenas.” It would make the Arabs, and especially Mahmoud Abbas and the “Palestinian” Arabs, think they can yet again make an American administration yield to their demands. One should not be surprised at King Abdullah, or Abdel-Fatah El-Sisi, or other Arabs, for their standard-issue warnings about the embassy move, but compared to protests in the past, the tone is relatively subdued, for they understand Trump will not be bullied, and besides, they have now far more important worries than the ever-present “Palestinians.”
As mentioned above, El-Sisi has a lot on his plate. He has to deal with the ISIS terrorists in the Sinai who recently killed more than 300 Sufi Muslims in a mosque. But he has also been fighting a different terrorist threat from Hamas and its collaborators in the Sinai and in Gaza, who have preyed on Egyptian police and soldiers. He has to worry about attacks on Coptic churches and homes from the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt proper. He has used methods, in crushing these enemies, that the American Congress considers too harsh, and some $300 million of Egypt’s $1.5 billion in annual aid has been cut as a result. But in Arab terms, he’s an enlightened despot, an Egyptian nationalist, friendly to Netanyahu, eager to cooperate with Israel on security matters, unenthusiastic about wasting Egyptian resources and risking trouble with the Americans for the “Palestinians” who, to judge by their behavior in Gaza and the Sinai, are not well-intentioned toward El-Sisi. He has laconically expressed his dismay at the embassy move (it “would undermine the chances of peace in the Middle East”), been a measured voice of calm among his fellow Arabs, and put Egypt’s interests first — including its interest in maintaining good relations with its main supplier of arms and foreign aid, the United States.
King Abdullah of Jordan does not have a terrorist threat akin to that facing El-Sisi in the Sinai, but he does have a different worry: Syria seems now to be firmly in Shi’ite Iran’s camp. There are now more Iranian troops (70,000), including Revolutionary Guards, in Syria than there are troops in the Syrian army (50,000). In addition, Iran pays salaries for 250,000 mainly Shi’ite troops, consisting of Lebanese Hezbollah, Afghan militias, and Palestinian, Pakistani, and other militiamen. Equally troubling to King Abdullah, in Baghdad the Shi’ites now control the government that, under Saddam, was firmly in Sunni Arab hands. King Abdullah would like the American government, and for that matter, though naturally he doesn’t talk about it, the Israeli government, to help contain both Hezbollah and, behind that group, the Iranians. He will utter the expected condemnation of the embassy move, but do nothing more. After all, he needs the $1.3 billion in annual American aid Jordan now receives.
As for Saudi Arabia, behind the scenes its relations with Israel have never been better. Israel and Saudi Arabia share intelligence because they share the same dangerous enemy: Shiite Iran. The Saudis have in recent years not always been happy with the “Palestinians”: two years ago they cut off aid to them over policy differences, then restored it, but they thereby demonstrated that the “Palestinians” cannot count forever on Saudi aid. Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman has bigger fish to fry than Mahmoud Abbas, Saeb Erekat, and the perennially complaining “Palestinians.” He’s planning a complete overhaul of the Saudi economy, spending $640 billion on a new megacity that will emphasize high-tech companies and technically-advanced Saudi employees. He will need cooperation with the Americans for this project. And to keep an aggressive Iran at bay he is already getting intelligence help from the Israelis, who are certainly of greater value now to Saudi well-being than are the ever-demanding “Palestinians.” No wonder his father criticized Trump’s embassy announcement in the mildest possible terms as “irresponsible and unwarranted,” which in the context of heated Muslim rhetoric, hardly counts as criticism at all.
In Yemen, where Sunnis ruled for decades, the Shi’a Houthis have managed to seize, and hold, both northwestern Yemen and also the capital, San’a. The day before Trump announced the embassy move, a Houthi sniper killed Ali Abdullah Saleh, who had ruled Yemen for 34 years. Though a Sunni himself, Saleh had in recent years been allied with the Houthi, but just this month had switched sides. Now he is dead and the Iran-backed Houthis, despite an intensive Saudi bombing campaign lasting many months, still control San’a and have tightened their grip. The Saudis cannot afford to lose to the Shi’a in Yemen.
Meanwhile, the Saudis are also worried about Iran’s ally Hezbollah in Lebanon. Even though the Lebanese Shi’a are only 27% of the total population, over the past few decades they have created the country’s most powerful military force, Hezbollah, and gained more and more power at the expense of Lebanese Sunnis. The recent opera-bouffe attempt by the Saudis to engineer the resignation of Said Hariri was prompted by their belief that he could not stand up to Hezbollah, whereas his older brother Bayaah, so the Saudis thought, might be made of sterner stuff. In the end Said Hariri changed his mind, took back his resignation, and decided to stay on as Prime Minister. For the Saudis, the worry about Shi’a Iran remains, a worry that focuses for now on Yemen, where the Houthis are holding their own, and on Lebanon, where Hezbollah pulls the strings, and on Syria, where both Hezbollah and the Iranians have helped ensure that Bashar al-Assad would not be toppled. For now, this Shi’a threat both to the north and to the south is far more important to the Saudis than where the American embassy may be built in Jerusalem several years hence.
With all this going on in the Middle East, two parties were most vocal in attacking Trump’s move.
The first was Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish leader who was his usual bombastic self. He declared that if Trump moved the embassy, that would be a “red line” for Muslims. He threatened to break off relations with Israel were Trump to act on his promise. Perhaps Erdogan will wait, claiming that he meant the “red line” would be crossed only when the new embassy is actually built and open for business, thus giving him time to reconsider. He can always invoke “changed circumstances” at a later date.
Turkey has a lot to lose from breaking off relations with Israel. The huge natural gas fields Israel possesses just offshore were originally planned to be connected to Europe through a Turkish pipeline. Turkey was to be paid with gas, enabling the country to diversify its sources of energy. Furthermore, the extremely close military and security ties between Israel and Turkey, that ended with the Mavi Marmara incident in 2010, have over the past seven years been slowly and painfully re-established, under pressure from the Turkish military; now Erdogan threatens to undo all the progress that has been made. Because of the Mavi Marmara incident, the aerial reconnaissance capabilities of the Turkish air force suffered mightily from being cut off from Israel. A plan had already been prepared by the Turkish military to procure high-definition electro optics and radar pods from Israel to be used in RF-4E Phantom planes. But because of Erdogan, the contract with Israel was canceled. In another project with Israel planned before 2010, 170 Turkish M60 tanks had been modernized. Plans were made to upgrade another batch of 169 tanks and offer them to the international market, but they were shelved when relations cooled and Israeli know-how was no longer available. Finally, Turkish tourism suffered when Israeli tourists, once an important segment of the market, dropped by 90% from 2010, and only in the last year have the figures again started to rise. If Erdogan were to cut off relations, Israeli tourism, and the large sums it generates for Turkey, will again collapse.
So, as we have seen, were Erdogan to break off relations with Israel, as he threatens, Turkey would suffer in many ways: it would lose access to abundant and clean energy close to home (Israel’s natural gas); it would no longer be able to rely on the help it used to receive from the Israelis in defense matters, both in the sharing of intelligence, and in the weaponry that Israel either manufactured and supplied to Turkey or, if the weaponry were American-made, that Israel’s military helped the Turkish military to upgrade. The loss of Israeli tourists, for a second time, would be a heavy blow to Turkey’s tourism industry. So would the loss of Israel as a major consumer of Turkish goods, including plastics and rubber, minerals, textiles, concrete, asbestos, ceramics, glass machinery, and cars. Finally, if Erdogan, who has few friends in Washington, were to break off relations with Israel, Turkey would undoubtedly pay a price, with both Congress and the Executive branch. And even if Turkey were no longer to have Israeli help in customizing or upgrading them, it will still need access to American weapons systems.
Along with Erdogan, the other most vocal party to denounce Trump consisted of the “Palestinians” — the Palestinian Authority and Hamas. Mahmoud Abbas repeatedly warned Trump not to announce any embassy move to Jerusalem as the capital of the Jewish state. He “warned of the dangerous consequences such a decision would have to the peace process and to the peace, security and stability of the region and of the world.” But there has never been a true “peace process” with the “Palestinian Arabs,” who’ve repeatedly claimed that they intend to make Jerusalem the undivided capital of their future Palestinian state, a state which, many “Palestinians” insist, will be made free of all Jews and which, the “Palestinians” of Hamas claim, will include all of Palestine. Their rhetoric makes clear that their ultimate goal, whatever interim arrangement might be temporarily accepted in order to gain a base from which future attacks could be launched, remains a “Palestinian” Arab state from the Jordan to the sea.
The Hamas leader Ismail Haniya has gone even further than Abbas. He said the US decision on recognising Jerusalem as the capital of Israel is a “war declaration against Palestinians,” and called for a new “Intifada”, or uprising.
Haniya said in a speech in Gaza City on Thursday that US President Donald Trump’s recognition “killed” the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.
“This decision has killed the peace process, has killed the Oslo [accord], has killed the settlement process,” he said.
“The US decision is an aggression, a declaration of war on us, on the best Muslim and Christian shrines in the heart of Palestine, Jerusalem.”
The “peace process” between Israel and the “Palestinians” has been a farce for several decades. It was a farce when in 2000 Ehud Barak offered the “Palestinians” 96% of the West Bank, including even the Temple Mount, and Arafat turned the offer down. From the Muslim point of view, there cannot be a permanent “peace” between Muslims and non-Muslims that leaves the latter in control of land that was once Muslim, which must, therefore, revert to Muslim possession. Any outcome that left the despised Jews still in control of any land that had once belonged to Muslim Arabs would be intolerable for any Muslim population and would, therefore, be only a stopgap measure, needing further correction, whatever lip service might be given to that idea by some “Palestinian’ political figures hellbent on reassuring the West.
Then there was Hezbollah, which answered Trump by announcing in its Beirut newspaper Al-Akhbar “Death to America,” thereby outdoing, in the rhetoric of rage, both Hamas and the Palestine Authority. Now Hezbollah’s Nasrallah has just called for a third intifada against Israel.
Iran, Hezbollah’s powerful supporter, has been crying “Death to America” for nearly the past 40 years, and none of it seems to have scared the Americans. But Hezbollah, and Iran, have managed to frighten the Sunni Arabs, who see them as more dangerous, right now, to their interests than either America or Israel. The Sunnis are all deeply worried about an aggressive Iran and its Shi’a proxies, from the Houthis in Yemen who threaten Saudi Arabia from the south, to the Shi’a who rule in Baghdad, to the Shi’a militia, Hezbollah, which helped to rescue the Alawite despot Assad in Syria, to Hezbollah’s home base in Lebanon, where it is now more powerful than the Lebanese army, and fills the Lebanese Sunnis with apprehension. The Shi’ite crescent of which Sunni leaders have long been warning now exists. The Sunnis in Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon are more anxious about Iran and its Shi’a proxies than they are about whether the American government formally recognizes what, in all its dealings with the Israeli government, it has for nearly half a century informally recognized: that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel. The embassy in Jerusalem is years away from being built, and can be dealt with, if need be, at a later date. The threat from Iran and its allies is an immediate one. The Houthis are swaggering through San’a, unsubdued by Saudi bombs; Hezbollah is swaggering through Beirut, uncooked by the likes of Said Hariri. Right now Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Jordan need both American military aid and, especially in the case of Saudi Arabia, Israeli intelligence assistance.
There have been surprisingly few protests in Muslim lands in Asia against Trump’s embassy announcement. Those that have taken place have been distinctly underwhelming, with pitiful turnouts: “hundreds” turned out in Pakistan, “a thousand” in Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia). “Hundreds” again held a rally in Kashmir. In Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim nation, with 260 million people, only “three hundred” people participated in a protest in front of the American Embassy in Jakarta, where they shouted “go to hell, Israel.” In Afghanistan’s capital, Kabul, a few hundred demonstrators held up signs in front of the American embassy; only one protester set one American flag on fire. Not exactly massive demonstrations by Muslims anywhere in Asia. Those were the figures as of Saturday morning. Perhaps the protests are just off to a slow start.
In Arab countries, the turnout has also been unimpressive. As of Saturday morning, three days after Trump’s announcement, only a few hundred people had turned up to demonstrate at al-Azhar in Cairo to protest. The Grand Imam of al-Azhar, Ahmed El-Tayeb, announced he would not meet with Mike Pence when he visits Egypt. I’m sure the Americans can survive that. In Jordan, there were several protests around the country, each with a few hundred people, demanding that Jordan cut diplomatic ties with the American government. That, of course, would leave Jordan without the $1 billion in annual American aid it relies on. No demonstrations at all were reported in Saudi Arabia or the Gulf sheikdoms; the Saudis limited their comments to the bare minimum, first calling the planned embassy move “unjustified and irresponsible” and later describing it as “disappointing.” On Saturday, the Saudi government told media outlets in the kingdom to severely limit their coverage of Trump’s embassy decision. It also issued a statement warning Saudi citizens in Jordan not to take part in anti-American demonstrations. The Saudi imams of the Grand Mosques in Mecca and Medina — clearly under orders from the Royal Court — did not even mention Jerusalem in their Friday sermons. This is hardly the ferocious denunciation of Trump that the “Palestinians” expected from the most important Arab country. In Mogadishu, a few hundred Somalis marched, chanting slogans against Trump. In Istanbul, there have been reports of “thousands” of protestors, who left the mosques after Friday Prayers to join demonstrations, with no report more specific as to the number of those “thousands,” but clearly it was not in the tens of thousands. In Afghanistan, the biggest demonstration was in Herat, with 2,500 protesters. It appears that the largest demonstration outside Gaza and the West Bank was in Beirut, where close to 5,000 Palestinians and Lebanese marched to a cemetery near the Shatilla refugee camp where Christian Falange troops under Elie Hobeika carried out a massacre of “Palestinians” in 1982.
For all the dire warnings about the “Palestinian’’ response, there has actually been less violence, according to the Western journalists on NPR,, in both the West Bank and Gaza than during previous Arab outbursts. About 3,000 in the West Bank threw rocks, marbles, Molotov cocktails. 28 people were arrested and about 65 injured. Two rockets were fired into Israel from Gaza by Hamas; in return, the Israelis bombed a Hamas training compound and ammunition warehouse. A grand total of two people have been killed in Gaza; no one has yet died in the West Bank. An NPR reporter in the West Bank, described most Arabs going about their business, not rushing to join demonstrations, which has become a young man’s game. Besides, there is no change on the ground: Jerusalem was Israel’s capital, and continues to be its capital. Trump was recognizing, not creating, a fact of life.
According to Bassam Tawil, an Arab journalist in Israel, the Arabs who demonstrate or riot often follow the same script: Western journalists are alerted by local Arabs that a protest is about to begin, or has just started, and they are told where to go to record the violence being staged accommodatingly for their cameras and the international news outlets. Tires are burned, rocks are thrown, molotov cocktails may be tossed by the Arabs, and, in response, water cannons are turned on, tear gas canisters are thrown, rubber bullets fired, as slowly, methodically, Israeli soldiers push the rioting Arabs back.
Demonstrations elsewhere in the Arab and Muslim world have been almost comically small. Arab leaders understand that Trump cannot be moved; about this embassy question he is, and in the best sense, implacable; many in the Arab world and in Western Europe tried for months to dissuade him, but having thought about the matter at great length, he had made up his mind, and was determined to follow through. He is unlikely to be swayed in the slightest by Arab threats that he’d better change his mind or else. If anything, this may make him more eager than ever to have the building of the embassy begin at once so that it is up and running during his first term.
And what can the “Palestinians” actually do? They are now refusing to meet with Vice President Pence. So what? In 2016, the “Palestinians” received, both directly and through UNRWA, over $712 million from the American taxpayers. They received this year close to $1 billion, directly and through UNRWA. That amount could be cut, or eliminated altogether, if the “Palestinians” continue to create whatever mayhem — such as that threat of a “third intifada”– they can, continue to excoriate their benefactors the Americans, and refuse to resume even the pretense of “peace” negotiations with the Israelis. But now, with Trump, they have to worry about the price they may have to pay.
Some have said this announcement was not good timing on Trump’s part. I disagree. I think this was a perfect time to announce the Embassy move. Trump becomes both the first president to honor his campaign promise on this matter, and the first, too, to abide by, rather than seek a waiver from, the Jerusalem Embassy Act of 1995. But even more to the point, Trump realizes that the most important Sunni countries in the Middle East feel themselves to be in a state of maximum peril, and it has nothing to do with Israel.
While this war between Sunnis, their camp headed by Saudi Arabia, and the Shi’a, headed by Iran, is going on, many other countries — Yemen, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan — are also involved. The “Palestinian” claim on Arab attentions has dimmed; the war with Israel no longer dominates Arab hearts and minds.
As Bassam Tawil has written here, the “Palestinian” media circus has already begun. Photojournalists have, as Tawil described, been summoned by the Palestinian Authority to take pictures of “Palestinians” setting fire to posters of Trump and to flags of America and Israel. The scenes are arranged in such a way as to make it seem that a “handful” of violent protesters are really a multitude. In fact, Tawil says, whenever photographers do not appear for these staged demonstrations, the “spontaneous” group of indignant “Palestinians” also are known to disappear — apparently they maintain their indignation only insofar as there are photographers to capture it.
To sum up:
1. President Trump has honored his campaign pledge, in contrast to his pusillanimous predecessors, to move the American Embassy to Jerusalem. In this he is also fulfilling the Jerusalem Embassy Act of 1995, passed overwhelmingly by both houses of Congress. He has listened to, and rejected, the warnings of nearly a dozen Arab states.
2. The President is aware that this is a moment of maximum peril for the Sunnis of Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Syria, Jordan, and Lebanon. Iran’s Shi’a Houthi allies have withstood a ferocious Saudi bombing campaign in San’a, and may yet win much more of Yemen, giving Iran a potential base from which to threaten the Saudis from the south. Hezbollah, battle-hardened from fighting in Syria, dominates Lebanon. Most of Syria is now firmly back in Alawite (Shi’a) control. Assad owes his survival in large part to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard and to Hezbollah.
3. In Iraq Iranian Revolutionary Guards have helped defeat ISIS. ISIS is gone, but the Guards are still in Iraq. The government in Baghdad, now Shi’a-controlled, is firmly in Iran’s orbit, much to Sunni Arab chagrin.
4. In Lebanon, even though the Sunnis are as numerous as the Shiites (both have 27% of the population) they have no separate armed force, equivalent to Hezbollah, to defend their interests.
5. The Sunnis are justifiably alarmed by the “Shi’a crescent” that now extends from Iran through Iraq and Syria to Lebanon and the Mediterranean. That is much more worrisome to King Abdullah than the embassy move about which he, like most other Arab leaders, has uttered only pro-forma warnings about possible damage to peace-keeping.
6. Though it is not undermined directly by any Shi’a power, Sunni Egypt has an interest in helping its fellow Sunnis in limiting Iran and its proxies (Hezbollah, the Houthis) from extending their power. That means supporting Saudi Arabia in Yemen, helping the Sunnis in Iraq from being overwhelmed by the majority Shi’a, and even, possibly, aiding Sunnis in Lebanon to create a militia of their own capable of resisting Hezbollah. This could even include supplying Egyptian soldiers, paid for with Saudi funds. In the Sinai, ISIS members (Wilayat Sinai) attack those whom they regard as not real Muslims, such as the more than 300 worshippers killed in a Sufi mosque a few weeks ago, and the soldiers and police of an Egyptian government they believe to be un-Islamic. El-Sisi has during the last year drawn closer to Hamas, which appears to have ceased its previous cooperation with ISIS, but ISIS remains potent in the Sinai even without such aid. Furthermore, the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt proper continues to attack Coptic churches and worshippers. El-Sisi needs American military aid, and understanding, too, for there are Americans keen to punish his government for supposed “human rights” infractions, insufficiently aware of what it takes to deal with enemies like ISIS, and the Muslim Brotherhood. El-Sisi has no interest in sacrificing good relations with America, and Egyptian national interests, for the sake of those “Palestinians” who never have been, and never will be, satisfied as long as Israel continues to exist. El-Sisi is one of those Egyptian nationalists who believes his country has done more than enough for the “Palestinians” by taking part in four costly wars (the 1948-49 war with Israel, the Sinai Campaign in 1956, the Six-Day War in 1967, the Yom Kippur War in 1973), and from now on his policy is strictly Egypt First.
President Trump has now heard from the likes of Mahmoud Abbas, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and Jimmy Carter (they were all horrified by Trump’s embassy announcement). Many around the world have criticized him for the very thing that most deserves praise. He understands that appeasement of Muslim Arabs does not sate, but whets their appetites for more. Had he given in to Arab and “Palestinian” threats, and decided that despite his campaign promise he should, just like Bill Clinton, George Bush, and Barack Obama, keep the American embassy in Tel Aviv, that would not have promoted peace negotiations, but only encouraged Arab intransigence. Trump grasped the significance of the Sunni-Shi’a split in the Middle East, and took advantage of the historical moment. The “days of rage” will come and go (more Israeli and American flags will be burned, more tires set on fire, more rocks thrown, and there will be more photo ops for Western journalists eager to exaggerate the Arab and Muslim response), and the “Palestinians” will discover that they no longer matter to other Arabs as they once did, and — it must be frightening for Mahmoud Abbas to realize — they never will again. The American embassy will be built, inexorably, in Jerusalem, Israel’s eternal capital. There’s no going back. The dogs bark, the caravan moves on.
CRUSADER says
Truth matters.
Gratitude.
Deus Vult.
mortimer says
Dear Crusader, I’m not sure about your point, but if you say ‘truth’, I presume you are talking about LIVING IN REALITY and observing what is ACTUALLY in front of us, rather than SEEING VISIONS of things that are NOT THERE IN REALITY. That is what schizophrenics see.
The fanatical Left and fanatical Muslims behave like non-medicated schizophrenics. They believe their delusional visions are real.
The claim that Jerusalem is the ‘ETERNAL CAPITAL OF PALESTINE’ is an obvious, subjective DELUSIONAL VISION that cannot be deduced from anything objective.
The Red-Green Axis is locked in a very subjective and neurotic PSYCHODRAMA depicting themselves as heroes and those who resist their DOMINANCE as evil.
Westman says
Ben Shapiro may have well defined the reason for the Red-Green fellow-traveling. Neither wants, for their own reasons, to live in a meritocracy. That notion is based on the left’s fantasy that, even if they personally are lazy, a disparity of wealth means there is discrimination and so everything should re-distributed. Of course, when Islam has dominance it will eat the liberals for lunch.
As a certain UK Muslim explained, “…you work, give us the money! Allah snackbar!, we take the money.”.
le mouron rouge says
mortimer,
Amen!
“In that day, I will restore David’s fallen shelter- I will repair its broken walls and restore its ruins- and will rebuild it as it used to be, so that they may possess the remnant of Edom and all the nations that bear my name,” declares the Lord, who will do these things.
“The days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when the reaper will be overtaken by the plowman and the planter by the one treading grapes. New wine will drip from the mountains and flow from all the hills, and I will bring my people Israel back from exile.
“They will rebuild the ruined cities and live in them. They will plant vineyards and drink their wine; they will make gardens and eat their fruit. I will plant Israel in their own land, never again to be uprooted from the land I have given them,” says the Lord your God.
– Amos 9:11-15
This is what the Lord Almighty says: “I will save my people from the countries of the east and the west. I will bring them back to live in Jerusalem; they will be my people, and I will be faithful and righteous to them as their God.”
– Zechariah 8:7-8
“Do not be afraid, for I am with you; I will bring your children from the east and gather you from the west. I will say to the north, ‘Give them up!’ and to the south, ‘Do not hold them back.’ Bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the ends of the earth- everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made.” Isaiah 43:5-7 NIV
Who has ever heard of such things? Who has ever seen things like this? Can a country be born in a day or a nation be brought forth in a moment? Yet no sooner is Zion in labor than she gives birth to her children
– Isaiah 66:8
Oliver says
Brilliant
I never saw some of these before
Flavius Claudius Iulianus says
Wow Mortimer. What set you off? I saw CRUSADER’s comment as an innocent thumbs-up to Hugh’s article. That’s all.
CRUSADER says
Yup. That’s what it was.
Nevertheless, it’s great to see the extended participation on the topic of truth
and truth telling. Always good to flesh more intricacy onto a string of thought.
Things get discovered or uncovered that way.
Thumbs up.
Certainly what Trump does is also to bring about attention and focus on matters which have remained in shadow or deliberately disguised.
Those who tend to criticize Trump miss a fundamental: to criticize the finger pointing at the moon is to miss the heavenly glory, as Bruce Lee would say.
That is to say, we are seeing the ugly for what it is, and the potential for something different come into sight. Dogs will bark rabidly while the caravan proceeds along!
Bravo.
Interesting that in Jerusalem there is an exhibit which holds the plans for building the new Temple, with features and dimensions and construction materials already selected.
Who really knows what the future is to have in store….
gravenimage says
Hugh Fitzgerald: Trump and the Embassy: The Dogs Bark,The Caravan Moves On
…………………..
I hope President Trump stands strong in the face of this stupidity.
Savvy Kafir says
Yes! I hope he proves to be immune to the histrionics of the politically correct & the devotees of the Religion of Perpetual Outrage.
This could have been an excellent opportunity to smoke out the Stealth Jihadis; but the mainstream media & the sheeple they cater to don’t have any interest in noticing that Muslims are behaving very badly … declaring war, that sort of thing.
dumbledoresarmy says
I think he’s had a fair bit of practice, over the months since his inauguration, at ‘waiting out’ tantrums, even violent tantrums.
Dave says
Thanks for this thorough examination of the state of things. I pray for more wisdom like this and less stupidy.
ALIIKAUA says
In many ways the relocation of the embassy to Jerusalem is a strong assertion of a commitment to Peace in a sacred place that inherently gives pause before action to the heart, mind and soul.
A good friend shared with me the concept of “RODEF SHALOM”, for true peace is the ultimate goal for every soldier.
Wonderfully written and informative.
Mahalo Nui Loa a me Maluhia O Ke Akua
??
CRUSADER says
~ ~ ~ Rodef Shalom ….”Pursuant Peace”
Wise men have had this to say in this matter:
Si vis pacem, para bellum : “If you want peace, prepare for war”.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Michael Nollet says
Just look at the story of Moo-Ham-Head’s mystical, magical steed, El-Buraq. With his each and every stride, his hooves could reach the horizon. This enabled Moo-Ham-Head to make the Night Journey from Mecca to Jerusalem (a distance of 300 miles), ascend to Allah’s Garden to converse with Allah and Jesus, come back down to Earth, and then travel back to Mecca, all in a single night.
Question: Wouldn’t Moo-Ham-Head have been blown off El-Buraq’s back by the slipstream? And wouldn’t sand have blown into El-Buraq’s eyes, rendering him blind?
And where did Moo-Ham-Head park El-Buraq, while Moo-Ham-Head was up in Heaven palavering with Allah and Jesus? El-Hajj Amin al-Husseiny said that Moo-Ham-Head parked El-Buraq next to the Western Wall, which would make that place sacred to Muslims, too. But wouldn’t El-Buraq’s droppings have profaned the place?
kabooooooooooooooooooooom says
Mad m0ehamhead and Burak sure did some crazy stuff. Pre Atomic/Nuclear weapons one is tempted to question why m0e and Alli-boy didn’t just whack all the infidels, thus leading to World peace with m0e running the show?
don vito says
m0e and Alli-boy needed dhimmis to pay taxes, oh yeah and slaves too.
maghan says
Why do Arabs believe this kind of ridiculous stuff? Because they are congenitally stupid. Big Foot is more believable.
Bezelel says
Very informative article covering current events, I did read years ago that iran wants to be able to put a choke hold on the persian gulf, thereby controlling the oil flow. Basically they just want to control everything. The p.a. has been crying wolf for a long time. I’m hoping for too long for anyone to actually care enough to join their fantasy of driving the Jews out of Israel.
Diane says
Thank you for this detailed explanation of. EVERYTHING!
Older Canadian says
Perhaps it is my age, or I am so fed-up with this nonesense, that I find myself actually smiling at the outrage of someting like the right for any country to choose their own capital. Especially from a country that has existed for thousands if years in spite of everyone and I mean everyone at one time or another doing their best to erradicate them.
kabooooooooooooooooooooom says
Rumour has it Whine-Minister Trudeau of Kanadistan is considering new legislation to make Mekka the Capital of the Ummah stretching from Ottawa, through Eurabia, to the sands of Arabia.
Competing Caliph candidate Erdygang went into apoplectics at the news.
POTUS wisely ignored both ball retrievers.
kabooooooooooooooooooooom says
Its all in the socks. https://goo.gl/ZSmQuP
Don McKellar says
That country has only existed since 1948. Prior to that it has been either a province of one empire or another or a non-country region, for a couple of thousand years. For much of that time there were very few Jews who even lived there! There was never a country called Palestine with its own government, and Judah as an independent country stopped existing back in 586 BCE. Israel is a country founded on religious nonsense and contested by a more violent brand of religious nonsense called Islam.
Dov Berrol says
Every civilization on the planet has it’s own distinct birthplace, language, philosophy and theology and mythology and community history. As the Japanese have the islands of Japan, Shinto theology, Japanese language and literature, so does the Jewish / Israelite / Judean nation. And as the Japanese have Edo (Tokyo), and the Greeks have Athens, and the Italians have Rome, and the Arabs have Mecca, the central city of Jewish civilization is Yerushalayim.
gravenimage says
True, Dov.
le mouron rouge says
Don McKellar says
Dec 9, 2017 at 7:32 pm
That country has only existed since 1948.
*****************
The burden of the word of the LORD for Israel, saith the LORD, which stretcheth forth the heavens, and layeth the foundation of the earth, and formeth the spirit of man within him.
Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round about, when they shall be in the siege both against Judah and against Jerusalem.
Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round about, when they shall be in the siege both against Judah and against Jerusalem.
In that day, saith the LORD, I will smite every horse with astonishment, and his rider with madness: and I will open mine eyes upon the house of Judah, and will smite every horse of the people with blindness.
And the governors of Judah shall say in their heart, The inhabitants of Jerusalem shall be my strength in the LORD of hosts their God
– Zechariah 12:1-6 (Circa 520-470 BC)
Like birds hovering, so the Lord of hosts
will protect Jerusalem;
he will protect and deliver it;
he will spare and rescue it.”
– Isaiah 31:6 (Circa 701-671 BC)
eduardo odraude says
Everybody has some sort of metaphysics, even atheists and agnostics. The only question is whether a person is aware of his metaphysical view and reflects on it — as some people, religious and otherwise, do — or if, on the other hand, a person mistakenly supposes he has no metaphysics. Everyone has some speculations or inklings they incline toward when they wonder what underlies everything. Atheism can no more be proved than theism, and even agnosticism has lurking behind it some sort of assumptions about, or imagination of, the All.
maghan says
Sheer stupidity. The HISTORICAL and archaeological evidence is there EMPIRICALLY that proves that Israel and Jerusalem were sites of Jewish existence long before plagiarized Islam was even dreamed of.
The Arabs invaded all of West Asia under the banner of a phony and fairy tale Islam. That did not stop them from rape, plunder and theft in the places they conquered. They invaded as far as Spain but the valiant Spaniards eventually kicked them out. Israel is continuing that tradition.
Benedict says
The predicament of Israel includes a complex proliferation of enmities and loyalties that defy intelligent political analysis. The unexpected is due to happen as a result of Trump’s decision.
Oliver says
Russia, a few years ago, recognized Jerusalem as the capitol of Israel
A few points
Israel ‘s parliament meets in Jerusalem
The prime minister’s office is there
The United States has had a consate therr for decades.
Expat88 says
That is one of the best articles I have ever read. Thank you.
Don McKellar says
So basically, to drop this novel down to a workable length, one bunch of religious nonsense (Islam) has less time and investment in Jerusalem than two other bunches of religious nonsense (Judaism and Christianity).
Frankly, if you remove all religious non-history out of it and focus on real history and archeology, Islam has even less claim to it. For them it is symbolic of their conquests and domination over other religions. That’s why there is even such a thing as a “Palestinian” today.
As the modern Israel are the conquerors of that city now, and are uncontested for quite some time now with it as the country’s fully functional capital, they have full authority to do anything they want. What they should do starting tomorrow is start to dismantle the “dome of the rock”. Now is the time. Just go with the flow.
gravenimage says
Don, the idea that Hugh Fitzgerald–who is a rational Atheist–is pushing religion here is ridiculous.
And you do not have to care anything about religion to see that Israel is a free and democratic nation and ally of the West being threatened by the Muslim world surrounding her.
Oliver says
+90
+1 is not enough
le mouron rouge says
Well said gravenimage.
gravenimage says
Thanks, Oliver and le mouron rouge.
eduardo odraude says
Besides, religion is no more nonsensical than atheism or agnosticism. All of those stances are metaphysical attitudes toward the all. They are all based on inklings, speculations, perceptions. You cannot “prove” atheism any more than you can “prove” a religion. Atheism is just a different variety of “nonsense” to the religious kind. And agnosticism, too, though it takes no obvious stance, has underlying it some sort of “nonsensical” — or rather, metaphysical — inclinations as well, and those of course cannot be “proved” either. There is no avoiding metaphysical inclinations and speculations; we all engage in them in some fashion. The only question is whether they will be conscious and reflective, or unconscious and taken-for-granted. But have them everyone does. And the fact that we cannot “prove” our conclusions does not mean they are valueless and all equally wrong or right or that there is no truth. All the lack of “proof” indicates is that we cannot, at least as mortals, know the answer in a perfectly infallible way, and that we often or usually see only through a glass darkly. But whatever the ultimate truth of things may turn out to be, it certainly does exist, and metaphysical reflections of all kinds may have value in at least bringing us closer to the truth, though we never entirely arrive at it while we live.
Dov Berrol says
Thank you for this valuable analysis. It is critical that we kuffar understand the extent with which the Muslim nation has used taqquiya and tawrya to deligitimize and Jewish connection to what the British labelled as the Mandate of Palestine. And how their strategy of lying and deceipt has successfully turned much of the world against us Zionists.
One slight correction required here: the Jewish / Israelite / Judean connection goes back to 1,000 BCE not 3,000 BCE. The Exodus from Egypt is dated from around 1,200 BCE, and the completion by King Solomon of the First Temple in Yerushalayim on Har Mamoriah was around 970 BCE.
CM says
You’re right that David conquered the Jebusites and established Jerusalem where he built his palace and established it as the capitol in 1,000 BC. His son built the temple around 970 BC. The Exodus was around 1446 BC according to archeologists. Maybe the author meant Jerusalem was in Jewish hands for 3,000 years, (off and on a few hundred years when driven out). And yes, the Muslim nation has been busy intimidating the rest of us with threats and lies of taqquiya..
Here’s a link:. http://www.bible.ca/manuscripts/bible-archeological-evidence-of-the-Exodus-Egyptian-Oppression-Hebrew-Conquest-Israel-Sinai-inscriptions-Jacob-in-Egypt-Joseph-Moses-inscription.htm
CRUSADER says
Islam Watch reveals how lies and deceptions are integral to Islam:
Knowing Four Arabic Words May Save Our Civilization from Islamic Takeover
…Takiyya
is defined as dissimulation about ones Muslim identity…
…Tawriya
is defined as concealing, and it could be called “creative lying”…
…Kitman
is characterized by someone telling only part of the truth. The most common example of this is when a Muslim says that jihad really refers to an internal, spiritual struggle…
…Muruna
means using “flexibility” to blend in with the enemy or the surroundings…
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
maghan says
Those 4 all sound like CNN.
Hugh Fitzgerald says
You are right — please see my mea culpa, mea maxima culpa in a reply to Wellington below.
maghan says
The Ancient Egyptians never mention the Exodus in their history. Manetho who documented the history of Ancient Egypt discuss the invader Hyksos who were eventually expelled.
But in sheer historical terms Jerusalem is central to Judaism and Christianity. Arabs have as much legitimate claim on Jerusalem as Jews have on Mecca. They invaded, and conquered and stole, raped and desecrated the Jewish historical Temple Mount.
Just disgusting thugs and blackguards.
Michael says
Look out for marbles!
Wellington says
A question for Hugh Fitzgerald that I would appreciate his answering: How can one assert, as you have, that Jerusalem has been a Jewish city going back to 3000 B.C? Abraham, assuming he is not a composite figure (and even if he is a composite figure) is usually placed around 1900 B.C. and initially in southern Mesopotamia (Sumeria) before moving “West.” That is to say sometime in the early Old Babylonian period of Mesopotamian history (c.2000-1600 B.C.) and following shortly after the 3rd Dynasty of Ur (c.2100-2000 B.C.). I trust you see the “problem” here. Perhaps I’m missing something but I have been under the impression that Jerusalem was originally a Canaanite stronghold that MAY date back as far as 2000 B.C. but became a Jewish city only in the time of the united monarchy (Saul, David, then Solomon).
Thanks for any response you might give. Would like to nail this down just for accuracy’s sake.
gravenimage says
Wellington, 1900 BC until the present is over 3000 years.
And there is also archaeological evidence that traces back Jewish presence in Israel back to t least the 12 century BC. I think 3000 years is a good rough reference point.
Wellington says
But, gravenimage, what prompted me to request what I did from Fitzgerald are his statements above that Jerusalem has been Jewish since 3000 B.C. and is a 5000 year old Jewish city. Big difference between 3000 years ago and 3000 B.C.
le mouron rouge says
Wellington,
I agree with your assessment. It is estimated that King David ruled from 1010-970 BC.
And Gad came that day to David and said to him, “Go up, raise an altar to the LORD on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.”
So David went up at Gad’s word, as the LORD commanded.
And when Araunah looked down, he saw the king and his servants coming on toward him. And Araunah went out and paid homage to the king with his face to the ground.
And Araunah said, “Why has my lord the king come to his servant?” David said, “To buy the threshing floor from you, in order to build an altar to the LORD, that the plague may be averted from the people.”
Then Araunah said to David, “Let my lord the king take and offer up what seems good to him. Here are the oxen for the burnt offering and the threshing sledges and the yokes of the oxen for the wood.
All this, O king, Araunah gives to the king.” And Araunah said to the king, “May the LORD your God accept you.”
But the king said to Araunah, “No, but I will buy it from you for a price. I will not offer burnt offerings to the LORD my God that cost me nothing.” So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver.
And David built there an altar to the LORD and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. So the LORD responded to the plea for the land, and the plague was averted from Israel
– 2 Samuel 24:18-25
Bezelel says
Wellington, I can’t clarify but I can make more questions. My favorite Bible mystery concerns Melchizedek AKA the king of Salem later known as Jeru-Salem. I think some debate would be in order here.
Wellington says
Bezelel: Yeah, the “Melchizedek matter” is a puzzler. My overall take on it is that this arguably represents a classic example of where mythology and history intersect and extracting any historical part from the mythological element is deuce difficult.
gravenimage says
Sorry, Wellington, I had missed that–I thought the reference was to 3000 years rather than 3000 BC–as, indeed, Hugh intended it to be.
GPT says
I think 5000 was a typo
Hugh Fitzgerald says
You are of course correct and I was wrong. I can’t figure out how I could have been off by 2000 years but here is what I think happened. As I was typing, I had lodged in my head the number “3000” — referring to the number of years the Jews were in Jerusalem. But instead I wrote “3000 B.C.” and once I had done that, the figure of “5000 years”– 3000 plus 2000 (or 2017) followed..
Wellington says
A simple and understandable mistake. Thanks for responding.
CRUSADER says
Excellent. Mystery now solved and reasonably acknowledged.
The typo made for interesting conversation, nevertheless.
The dreaded typo is the bane of publishing, yet it has met its Waterloo via Wellington.
All the best, gentlemen.
Here’s to many further engagements from the lessons of history.
May we learn from it what we can. Very sad schools rarely teach history properly.
Bezelel says
Double thanks for clearing that up, I’ve been away from the keyboard all day and just saw it. Now if we can just get the imams clear up all the garbage in the koran so that all those mis-understanders of islam will stop committing heinous acts.
Oliver says
The other day, the online cartoon :Dry Bones” asked an interesting question.
The Muslims promised days of violence, etc. Question
When have they ever had a day of peace, love and friendship.
(First part might be a little off in wording)
gravenimage says
Spot on.
le mouron rouge says
Excellent comment!
jewdog says
It was recently announced that Italy, Greece, Cyprus and Israel have signed a 4.5 billion dollar contract to build a gas pipeline to Europe. This will bypass Turkey and Russia and looks like a strategically adept move.
gravenimage says
Good.
Dum Spiro says
See relevant comments from recent US Presidents here:
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/939006911629869056/video/1
You have to give credit to an elected official who actually keeps his promises…
— Spero
Larry says
When Allenby’s Allied Egyptian Expeditionary Force captured Jerusalem 100 years ago this week the mosques on the Temple Mount were being used as stables for horses and donkeys (and not being cleaned properly even for stables, they were quite literally full of shit) and in a serious state of disrepair.
The only road and railway to Jerusalem were military and pilgrims weren’t allowed to use them. Not just Christian or Jewish, but muslim. Not that it mattered much to the muslims, but Jerusalem didn’t matter to them.
When the Ottoman Empire built the Hijaz railway to take pilgrims to Mecca it had a station at Amman, only a couple of day’s walk from Jerusalem, but they didn’t do anything to improve the road from Amman to Jerusalem, or improve the crossings of the Jordan. No bridges were built, not even any improvements to the fords were undertaken.
Why?
Because Jerusalem has never been important to the muslim world except when it has been held by someone else. They didn’t care about it in antiquity until the Crusaders captured it, and once it had been retaken it was again ignored. From the time of the destruction of the Kingdom of Jerusalem until 100 years ago its only importance to the various muslim states that ruled it was the cash that could be extorted from Christian and Jewish pilgrims. None of which was ever spent the region.
The first road built in the area after the time of the Crusades was during the construction of the Suez Canal, and was built by the Canal consortium and was a military road so that the Ottomans could project a military threat to the Canal Zone.
le mouron rouge says
In the mean time, General Edmund Allenby and his British troops were getting into position to apprehend Jerusalem. Allenby was known as a Christian and follower of the bible. It is reported that the night before the invasion, Allenby prayed that he might take the city without destroying the holy places. He had wired London for instructions and had received a scripture verse as a reply; “As birds flying, so will the LORD of hosts defend Jerusalem; defending also he will deliver it; and passing over he will preserve it” (Isaiah 31:5).
He was so excited about this verse that he read it aloud before all his troops that were positioned in the foothills of Jerusalem. Allenby commandeered every available aircraft for a fly-over. On the morning of December 10, what seemed like hundreds of planes skirted low over the Temple mount.
When the planes went up a cloud covering hid them so that they were not seen, only their sound was heard. Fliers were dropped that said, ‘surrender immediately, you don’t have a prayer.’ and were signed by Allenby. What the General did not know was that the Turks believed in an old prophesy that they would never lose the Holy City until “a man of Allah came to deliver it”. According to reports, the signature of Allenby on the paper dropped from the sky was interpreted by them to mean the word ‘Allah’ in Arabic meaning ‘God’ and ‘beh’ in Arabic that means ‘son’. The Turks were looking at a demand to surrender signed by Allah-beh, the son of God. In response, they hoisted a white flag and surrendered the city without firing a single shot.
From Cross to Light – https://crosstolight.com/general-allenby-takes-jerusalem/
Larry says
I have no idea where they got a lot of that from, but most of it is pure fiction.
I had a couple of great uncles who were actually there (although they shouldn’t have been, their Regt was miles away, but they went up for a look), and there was no massed flyover, because Allenby only had about 8 or 9 planes available at the time.
There was also no pamphlet drop. What scared the Ottomans into surrendering was the thought that Allenby was going to turn his Australian and New Zealander mounted troops loose on them.
Golem2 says
+1
gravenimage says
le mouron rouge–with all respect–I believe your story about Allenby is apocryphal.
le mouron rouge says
Larry, Golem2, gravenimage,
Definitely my bad, I clearly failed to vet this information properly.
Haste makes waste.
Thank you for bringing this to my attention.
Flavius Claudius Iulianus says
I always learn something new by reading Hugh’s articles. This one is no different. His articles are dense with useful information. Thanks Hugh.
This article has a little gem that I just must restate:
“… appeasement of Muslim Arabs does not sate, but whets their appetites for more.” Never were truer words written.
Chand says
Hugh Fitzgerald says: “…………….there is no change on the ground: Jerusalem was Israel’s capital, and continues to be its capital. Trump was recognizing, not creating, a fact of life.”
That is it. Wasn’t really that significant a move. And the reaction in the Muslim world is muted now, given the Shia-Sunni tensions.
Moreover Hugh says: “Though it is not undermined directly by any Shi’a power, Sunni Egypt has an interest in helping its fellow Sunnis in limiting Iran and its proxies (Hezbollah, the Houthis) from extending their power. That means supporting Saudi Arabia in Yemen, helping the Sunnis in Iraq from being overwhelmed by the majority Shi’a, and even, possibly, aiding Sunnis in Lebanon to create a militia of their own capable of resisting Hezbollah. This could even include supplying Egyptian soldiers, paid for with Saudi funds.”
This is a repeat of his suggestion in an earlier essay that a Sunni militia be created (with external help) in Lebanon to counter Hezbollah.
The Sunnis in Lebanon are already influenced by the Jihadi groups like Alqaeda and ISIS in neighboring Syria, not only to take on the Shias, but to establish a Sunni Caliphate in Lebanon. It seems almost certain that a Sunni group in Lebanon, created with external Egyptian and Saudi help (with US backing and blessing) would be in grave danger of being taken over by fundamentalists/radicals. As had happened with the Saudi-Turkish-UAE-Qatari backed Sunni rebel groups fighting Assad in Syria.
Counter balancing the Shia militias in Lebanon would be good only if the Sunni militias remain non-Jihadi or non-Islamic fundamentalist as that would be counter productive.
But then Iran, in Hugh’s eyes, seems to be the greater threat in the region, if I’m not wrong. I, however, consider Sunni fundamentalism/Jihadism to be equally, if not bigger, a threat.
Janakiraman Rajalakshmi says
Excellent article by Hugh Fitzgerald. Thank you.
BBC has always been anti Israel , anti Trump & pro muslims. Nothing new.
Ibrahim itace muhammed says
Hugh Fitzgerald, you always present invalid arguments when it comes to the issue of Jerusalem. we are saying Jews cannot have exclusive ownership of the whole city, because their ancestors met Palestinian ancestors there before Abraham,what more of the children of his grandson Jacob. The decision taken under UN resolution No. 181 partitioning the land between Palestinians and Israelites is a reflection of cogent and irrefutable historical evidence. Recognition of all Jerusalem as capital of evil Zionist state by mad devil Trump cannot reverse UN resolution No. 181 .It is just a worthless piece of paper the mad Jewish Slave devil Trump śigned. It has no legal effect whatsoever under international law.
simpleton1 says
It seems that Ibrahim has mounted his “high al-Buraq”
Climber says
Ibrahim itace muhammed, you erroneously assumed the newly formed U.N. had jurisdiction in Jerusalem in a legal sense. Resolution 181 was a failed attempt to bring resolution to the fighting by bringing the sides to agreement. Israel agreed to the 181 partition , but the Arabs chose not to agree, thus no agreement, and thus no legality….only presence. On presence, see Julius Stone.
CRUSADER says
Islam Watch reveals how lies and deceptions are integral to Islam:
Knowing Four Arabic Words May Save Our Civilization from Islamic Takeover
…Takiyya
is defined as dissimulation about ones Muslim identity…
…Tawriya
is defined as concealing, and it could be called “creative lying”…
…Kitman
is characterized by someone telling only part of the truth. The most common example of this is when a Muslim says that jihad really refers to an internal, spiritual struggle…
…Muruna
means using “flexibility” to blend in with the enemy or the surroundings…
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Golem2 says
Oh, stop it. You sound like a fool.
CRUSADER says
~ ~ ~ Rodef Shalom ….”Pursuant Peace”
Wise men have had this to say in this matter:
Si vis pacem, para bellum : “If you want peace, prepare for war”.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
maghan says
The mad Arab and his fairy tale fantasies is at it again. Advice: stop drinking or smoking that crazy stuff.
gravenimage says
The vile Ibrahim itace muhammed wrote:
Hugh Fitzgerald, you always present invalid arguments when it comes to the issue of Jerusalem. we are saying Jews cannot have exclusive ownership of the whole city, because their ancestors met Palestinian ancestors there before Abraham,what more of the children of his grandson Jacob. The decision taken under UN resolution No. 181 partitioning the land between Palestinians and Israelites is a reflection of cogent and irrefutable historical evidence. Recognition of all Jerusalem as capital of evil Zionist state by mad devil Trump cannot reverse UN resolution No. 181 .It is just a worthless piece of paper the mad Jewish Slave devil Trump śigned. It has no legal effect whatsoever under international law.
……………………………
References to UN resolutions from the appalling Ibrahim itace muhammed are just ludicrous.
He has affirmed that Muslims are going to destroy Israel and commit genocide against the Jews. He only mentions this UN resolution because he believes it will help Muslims accomplish wiping out the Jews.
CRUSADER says
Newt Gingrich wrote encouragingly and forebodingly:
The world is currently overwhelmed with the pace of social, technological, and political change that is occurring, and is ultimately stunned and essentially paralyzed.
Watching the world from Rome in Italy, I have been struck by how many things happening across the globe are radically different from our previous expectations and past analyses. In fact, they are so different that none of the patterns and models I have learned in the past can accommodate them.
The more I have thought about the current period of rapid change, uncertainty and reaction our world is living through, the more I am convinced that we are closer to Alvin Toffler’s concept of future shock than any traditional pattern we have commonly understood and accepted.
Human history is an ever-changing ecosystem that is constantly evolving, reacting and adapting with the passage of time. Toffler argues in his book “Future Shock” that the world has an adaptive range – a particular amount of change it is capable of implementing within a certain timeframe.
There are times throughout history when worldly change is collectively methodical and slow – below the adaptive range threshold – leading to a period of boredom and stagnation. When the acceleration of change is above the adaptive range threshold, the world experiences what Toffler calls future shock.
The world is currently overwhelmed with the pace of social, technological, and political change that is occurring, and is ultimately stunned and essentially paralyzed. Everything from our established institutions and societal structures, to our foundational American beliefs and values, are being challenged and forced to react to this exponentially rapid rate of global transformation.
Consider the following eight items:
1. At one point Thursday, the digital currency Bitcoin was valued at more than $19,000. On Dec. 31, 2016, it was trading at $968. This represents a more than 1,800 percent increase.
2. Chinese President Xi Jinping has gained power that rivals Mao Zedong and is initiating a fully totalitarian regime in China (complete with a citizen loyalty scoring system). China may soon pose an existential challenge to the United States, unlike any we have faced.
3. The collapse of Puerto Rico stands to completely transform Central Florida.
4. Catalonia is seeking to secede from Spain, and two Italian provinces desire more independence from Italy.
5. North Korea has developed intercontinental ballistic missile technology that could potentially hit any target in the United States.
6. Germany’s open-door refugee policy has led to record attacks on German police by migrants, and there’s little the police can do to contain the situation.
7. Personal privacy has been completely redefined by data collection technology through smartphones and web browsing, while the threat of hacking puts all of our information at risk of exploitation by criminals and foreign governments.
8. Uber is planning to buy approximately 24,000 driverless cars from Volvo (now owned by Geely Global, a Chinese multinational company). The data collection implications are staggering.
This realization that the entire world may actually be in shock over these rapid changes has helped to clarify a few things for me about American politics and culture – specifically the importance and staying power of the Make America Great Again movement.
Americans have been watching these rapid global changes and they have intuited that their futures will be more secure if America is boldly standing on the global stage with maximum strength. I am convinced this is one of the principle feelings driving the nationalist desire for greater sovereignty that we have seen in America and other Western countries.
The news media have continued to miss this, because capturing the turmoil of America and the world requires a much broader cultural sweep – a wider view of developments – than focusing narrowly on the White House, politics or supposedly relevant distractions.
Président Xi Jining’s rise to power in China is a perfect example. The changes in China could have a significant impact on the world for the next century. Yet the American news media barely spent any time on Xi’s three-hour speech laying out his plan to make China the dominant world power.
What has become clear to me is that Make America Great Again is not a simple campaign slogan – it is an imperative.
America must be great if it is going to break out of the chaotic state of future shock and lead the world through these massive transitions to adopt fundamental and lasting innovative change.
AMEN
Wellington says
A salient post, CRUSADER. My compliments.
Traditional America in charge of the world is a far better prospect than China in charge of the world. In fact, ONLY traditional America can achieve the proper change, the valid change, the sapient change, the defensible change, the ethical change, what is best for mankind as a whole.
The other options are all terrible: 1) an authoritarian regime like China leading the world; 2) the Western Left leading the world; 3) the Islamic sphere of mankind leading the world (worst prospect).
Of the four options above, only one is aligned with freedom, i.e., traditional America (and allies of said traditional America). The other three are not. One knows this or should know it.
And, for what it is worth, I think the most dangerous of the three I listed above which are inimical to freedom, the single most powerful and influential force against liberty in our time, is the Western Left because it is the enemy within———and the enemy within, nine times out of ten, is a greater menace than the enemy without (the other two malignancies I mentioned should come with a caveat, to wit, the Islamic menace has also become, to some extent, the enemy within because of indefensibly stupid Western immigration policies). This is why the Western Left must be relegated to an inconspicuous corner of the human condition even more so than the other two massive errors mankind has produced, which I noted above and which other two are loathsome indeed in and of themselves.
gravenimage says
CRUSADER, you are right that there is a lot of change going on in the world, and that some of it is unprecedented.
But not all of it.
I think some things like Bitcoin are a fad with little substantive backing it; hence, its putative worth being all over the map. I think it might turn into an actual useful medium of exchange at some point in the future, but it is nowhere near there yet.
And Islam, given its violent history, would actually have been quite easy to see as a threat were we to appease it–had anyone being paying any attention. Grimly, few were, or are even now.
There is no doubt that we face a great many challenges right now; if we face them squarely and remember our own values I think we will ultimately be OK–but this, as things stand right now, is a *very* big IF.
Here is hoping the New Year is saner.
Tim says
Hugh, thanks for the excellent article. Perhaps I’m wrong but I’m afraid you may have been sucked in by the insidious Left when you stated early on in your article, “Islam rediscovered Jerusalem 50 years after Muhammad’s death. In 682 CE”……….it is this seemingly insignificant “CE” reference that concerns me. But “seemingly insignificant” items is how the Left works. It is how they undermine and attack Western Civilization by the destruction of the edifice brick by brick. Their principle target is always Christianity. They know, destroy Christianity and you destroy the West……..and they are slowly achieving this. They have already completely achieved this in Europe, or at least Western Europe. The Bede came up with the BC/AD dating system in the 8th or 9th Century but the Left targeted this two or three decades ago. I see they have gotten to you. CE & BCE is now endemic within academia. A poll of college kids about what does AD/BC mean would prove interesting. Of course CE & BCE mean the same as AD/BC but without that nasty Christianity thingy. Disregard the seemingly insignificant at your own peril.
eduardo odraude says
Historian Stephen Morillo suggested a solution that can be interpreted either as Christian-oriented or as secular: Abandon the letters BC/BCE/AD/CE altogether and just use a plus or minus sign, which is also more immediately legible. We are in the year +2017. Classical Greek civilization began around -500. Easier and quicker to read dates in that form, I think.
gravenimage says
Yes–throwing out all references to Christianity are much, much “easier”…
eduardo odraude says
Notice that BCE (before the Common Era) and CE (Common Era) cannot be interpreted as references to Christ, even though that system remains centered on the traditional date of Christ’s birth. By contrast, getting rid of the letters and using plus and minus signs can be interpreted as Christ-centered, but can also be interpreted otherwise, since there are no words of interpretation involved with the plus/minus system. The Christo-centric dating system, but with no words either sanctifying or profaning it, is what remains. I don’t like BCE and CE, since to my mind they negate Christ’s significance, but I can live with the simple plus/minus system, which is neutral.
Wellington says
Just read your second comment, eduardo. With respect again, I don’t want “neutral.” I want both the classical and Judeo-Christian tradition emphasized because Western Civilization is easily the greatest civilization in world history and using BC/AD is just one way of illustrating this. Pointing out that ancient Greece invented both philosophy and democracy is another way of demonstrating this. And mentioning, as I often did, that Roman law is used by more countries than any other legal system on earth is yet another way of driving home the greatness of the West. Just sayin’.
gravenimage says
Hear, hear, Wellington.
Wellington says
Though an agnostic, eduardo, when I taught history at the college level for almost thirty years I told my classes right up front I would use the BC/AD way of dating because it was: 1) the traditional way of dating; 2) there was no good reason to replace it; and 3) it would annoy people who were pc/mc. I said additionally that if someone wanted to use BCE and CE, they could (and of course with no penalty by me), but that I never would. Can’t remember a single complaint.
So, I must respectfully disagree with your suggestion and align myself with Tim because doing away with BC/AD represents just one more way, however minor, to eradicate from the pages of history the fact that Western Civilization is very much rooted in the Judeo-Christian tradition (the classical tradition of Greece and Rome too but using their respective dating systems now would be artificial to say the least).
gravenimage says
🙂
CRUSADER says
How ironic that Jerusalem is supposedly the “Abode of Peace”.
From wiki-pedia:
A city called Rušalim in the execration texts of the Middle Kingdom of Egypt (c. 19th century BCE) is widely, but not universally, identified as Jerusalem. Jerusalem is called Urušalim in the Amarna letters of Abdi-Heba (1330s BCE). The name “Jerusalem” is variously etymologized to mean “foundation (Sumerian yeru, ‘settlement’/Semitic yry’ ‘to found, to lay a cornerstone’) of the god Shalem”; the god Shalem was thus the original tutelary deity of the Bronze Age city.
The form Yerushalem or Yerushalayim (Jerusalem) first appears in the Bible, in the Book of Joshua. According to a Midrash, the name is a combination of Yhwh Yir’eh (“God will see to it”, the name given by Abraham to the place where he began to sacrifice his son) and the town “Shalem”.
The earliest extra-biblical Hebrew writing of the word Jerusalem is dated to the sixth or seventh century BCE and was discovered in Khirbet Beit Lei near Beit Guvrin in 1961. The inscription states: “I am Yahweh thy God, I will accept the cities of Judah and I will redeem Jerusalem”, or as other scholars suggest: “Yahweh is the God of the whole earth. The mountains of Judah belong to him, to the God of Jerusalem”.
Shalim or Shalem was the name of the god of dusk in the Canaanite religion, whose name is based on the same root S-L-M from which the Hebrew word for “peace” is derived (Salam or Shalom in modern Arabic and Hebrew).[51][52] The name thus offered itself to etymologizations such as “The City of Peace”, “Abode of Peace”, “dwelling of peace” (“founded in safety”), alternately “Vision of Peace” in some Christian authors. The ending -ayim indicates the dual, thus leading to the suggestion that the name Yerushalayim refers to the fact that the city initially sat on two hills. However, the pronunciation of the last syllable as -ayim appears to be a late development, which had not yet appeared at the time of the Septuagint.
gravenimage says
Jerusalem would be quite peaceful were it not for ravening Muslims there.
Wellington says
Agreed, gravenimage. Replace Muzzies with Christians, Buddhists, Hindus, Sikhs, Taoists, Confucianists, agnostics, etc.————–ah, a long list that could include most anyone but Muzzies————-and peace in Jerusalem would be secure. More or less worldwide too.
gravenimage says
So true, Wellington.
Jerusalem would have some crime, like any big city–but nothing worse.
CRUSADER says
Glad to see someone also use the word Muzzies. It is a likening to some effect to Nazis
as well as those who wish to muzzle others. Good going.
Also, making a plus or minus out of Timelines (BCE/CE….BC/AD) has some sense to it,
but why make a change if it truly isn’t all that necessary, since we use the time frame around the world anyway. Yes, I can see it partially offending some Buddhist or Jain in spots of the world, but minus just means before a plus, the plus of the cross of Christ.
BCE means before common era, in which the CE is identified with Christ. Can’t lose, either way it goes.
Needling the secularists and politically correct fanatics is worth something, for sure.
However, maybe the metric system change makes some sense….
Matthieu Baudin says
“… I think this was a perfect time to announce the Embassy move. Trump becomes both the first president to honor his campaign promise on this matter, and the first, too, to abide by, rather than seek a waiver from, the Jerusalem Embassy Act of 1995. But even more to the point, Trump realizes that the most important Sunni countries in the Middle East feel themselves to be in a state of maximum peril, and it has nothing to do with Israel…”
Yes, yes. Time to end the farce. Jerusalem as capital should be secured and we’ll all be happier with the passage of time.
Ibrahim itace muhammed says
Jay Boo, what is wrong with a miracle where Prophet Muhammad’s donkey talked and performed functions like rational human being ?Did any Muslim worshipped that donkey as you worship the Satan you call Holy Spirit?
Linnte says
Ibrahim, there is ONE sin that condemns a person to hell and is unforgivable, as our Bible says, and that is blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. Every other sin, God will forgive, but not blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. Certainly you have read this in our Bible, yes? Be careful for your soul, Muslim.
Linnte says
The Al-auxa mosque wasn’t built until 706, and the Dome was built in 691. Muhammads supposed night ride couldn’t have happened at all because there were no Mosques in Jerusalem in 622.
And Dan Gibson’s studies prove the whole of Islam is based on lies and deceite.