John R. Houk
© March 31, 2012
The American people have spoken via their representation in Congress that Jerusalem must be recognized as the capital of Israel. This happened in 1995. Every President since then through today has not honored American representation to recognize Jerusalem as the Israeli capital. That would be two Democrats and one Republican: Clinton, Bush and Obama.
As far as Israel is concerned Jerusalem is the capital. Jerusalem is the City of David. Jerusalem is the citadel of Zion. Jerusalem is the city of God’s Presence. If Israel was more Jewish Observant than secular, there would be a stronger feeling the Temple Mount is being desecrated with the existence of two non-Jewish Mosques where the Temple of God should exist.
It is the existence of those two Mosques and the violence of Islam that the nations of the world refuse to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. In 1948 Israel fought for its existence to be an independent nation as all the surrounding Muslim nations vowed to invade the nascent nation to drive all the off their land of heritage and into the sea. Israel was greatly outnumbered. The Arab-Muslim army that was the most successful against the emerging Jewish Defense Forces (IDF) was Jordan’s army then dubbed the Arab Legion. The Arab Legion’s success against Israel can be attributed to one factor. The officer leadership of the Arab Legion was British including the Arab Legion’s commanding General. Under the leadership of the British the Arab Legion drove to the gates of the Jewish Quarter of the Old City Jerusalem. Israel was forced to surrender the Old City which was the Eastern half of Jerusalem. In effect the Old City half of Jerusalem was conquered by Jordan with the help of Great Britain.
Under the protection of the Arab Legion; Muslims desecrated Jewish Synagogues, graves, Jewish places of historical significance and forced Jews of the Jewish Quarter to leave their homes that had roots into the thousands of years. That was 1948. In 1967 another alliance of Muslim-Arab nations tried to destroy Israel. Israel won handily and recovered East Jerusalem along with the Judea-Samaria area dubbed the West Bank by Jordan.
I believe it was a miracle of God Almighty that Israel was preserved and became the Jewish State. Israel became a safe haven for Jews to move back to without worry of a government persecuting them for being Jewish. Unfortunately the trade-off of freedom from persecution was to live in eternal vigilance to repulse Jew-haters that desire Jewish blood for merely returning to a sliver of land that was promised as an eternal possession from God Almighty to be a blessing to all the nations of the world.
Jewish people will disagree with this but part of that blessing is the coming of the Messiah Jesus Christ the Son of God. Salvation is of the Jews. Jesus has brought Redemption to all who believe in His death, burial and Resurrection as Lord. Redemption is here for individuals but full Redemption will come for nations and the earth at the Messiah’s Second Coming. Salvation is of the Jews. Jewish possession of Israel and the Holy City of Jerusalem is a precursor to the Second Coming Jesus Christ the Son of God and the son of David. In the plan of God the Jews are essential in the Redemption of the nations and the earth.
Whether a Biblical Christian (UNFORTUNATELY there is a large segment of Christianity that is more influenced by humanism and less influenced by the Bible) or a Jewish person, it should be agreed upon that Jerusalem is Jewish and is the capital of Israel.
That being established I am on record that the United States of America has played the dhimmi by not backing Israel by joining Congress and recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
The American diplomatic corps via the State Department has the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv as do the other nations of the world that have diplomatic relations with Israel. America does have a Consulate in Jerusalem. I understand from Caroline Glick that the State Department via the Consulate is downright hostile to Jewish Israeli citizens that approach with personal business. Glick relates a personal tale about the American Consulate in Jerusalem that reflects the attitude of President Barack Hussein Obama toward Israel. Check it out and be prepared to be annoyed.
JRH 3/31/12
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The State Department's Jerusalem syndrome
By Caroline Glick
March 30, 2012, 8:28 AM
I went to the US Consulate this week to take care of certain family business. It was a thoroughly unpleasant experience. I think it is ironic that two days after my extremely unpleasant experience at the consulate, State Department Spokeswoman Victoria Nuland refused to say what the capital of Israel is. It was ironic because anyone who visits the consulate knows that the US's position on Jerusalem is in perfect alignment with that of Israel's worst enemies.
Last time I went to the consulate was in 2007. At that time the building was located in the middle of an Arab neighborhood in eastern Jerusalem. It was unpleasant. In fact it was fairly frightening. Once inside the building I couldn't shake the feeling that the Americans had gone out of their way to make Israeli-American Jews feel uncomfortable and vaguely threatened.
But then, I was able to console myself with the thought that the US has been upfront about its rejection of Israel's right to assert its sovereignty over eastern Jerusalem. By treating Jews as foreigners in their capital city and behaving as though it belongs to the Arabs by among other things hiring only Arabs as local employees, the US officials on site were simply implementing a known US policy. True, I deeply oppose the policy, but no one was asking me, and no one was hiding anything from me.
The new consulate is much different, and much worse. The State Department opened its new consulate in Jerusalem in October 2010. It is located in the Jewish neighborhood of Arnona. It was built on the plot that Israel allocated for the US Embassy after Congress passed Jerusalem Embassy Act in 1995 requiring the US government to move its embassy to Jerusalem. I read that construction began in 2004. I haven't been able to find out whether when construction began it was to build the embassy or a new consulate so I don't know yet whether the Bush administration thought it was building an embassy that the Obama administration turned into a consulate or if the Bush administration thought it was building a consulate that the Obama administration completed.
Whatever the case, the fact that the building that was supposed to be an expression of US recognition of Israel's capital in Jerusalem is being used as the consulate is an unvarnished act of aggression against Israel and Congress.
If I am not mistaken, the US Consulate General in Jerusalem is the only US consulate in the world that is not subordinate to the embassy in the country where it is located. When it was located in a hostile Arab neighborhood in eastern Jerusalem, the fact that it was not subordinate to the US Embassy in Tel Aviv was upsetting. But it was also easily justified in light of US policy of not recognizing Israeli sovereignty in eastern, southern and northern Jerusalem.
But Arnona is in western Jerusalem. It is a Jewish neighborhood that even the most radical Israeli leftists don't envision transferring to the Palestinians in any peace deal. Putting the consulate in Arnona - and on the site reserved for the embassy no less - is the clearest expression of American rejection of all Israeli sovereign rights to Jerusalem imaginable.
And the fact that it is located in the heart of a Jewish neighborhood is far from the only problem with the building.
Israelis who live in Jerusalem and need US consular services are required to go to the consulate in Jerusalem. You can't just go to Tel Aviv to avoid the unpleasantness. This again is due to the fact that the US does not recognize ANY Israeli sovereignty over Jerusalem. From the State Department's perspective, people who live in Jerusalem -- even in Arnona and Rehavia and Ein Kerem etc. -- live in a DIFFERENT COUNTRY from people who live in Tel Aviv and Netanya. We can no more receive services from the embassy in Tel Aviv than we can receive services from the embassy in Amman.
I will be writing more about the US's adversarial treatment of Israel as embodied in its treatment of Jerusalem in next week's Jerusalem Post column. But suffice it to say here that Victoria Nuland's statement to AP reporter Matt Lee, (posted below in case you missed it), is a true depiction of America's policy on Jerusalem - and though it, on Israel.
It would be useful for someone to get Mitt Romney on record discussing his position on Jerusalem. Assuming that he says - like every other Republican presidential candidate - that he supports transferring the US embassy to Jerusalem, he should further be asked to explain how, if he is elected president, he will force the State Department to change its policies towards Israel and respect US law by treating Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
UPDATE from Yisrael Medad:
The following is an email I received from Yisrael Medad from the Begin Center. He writes an excellent blog www.myrightword.blogspot.com
Yisrael follows the US Consulate in Jerusalem far more closely than I and here is what he was to say:
I am old enough to recall pre-1967 when the Consulate in "West Jerusalem" was where it always was for some 150 years - at Agron Street. The library was great. And by the way, the building you mention is the offices of the consular section. Political, economic and other matters are still at Agron, where the Consul-General lives.
But to the politics: A rather disturbing pattern of behavior has emerged from the US Consulate-General in Jerusalem over the past years that would point to a need for Congressional review and oversight.
Except for matters of passports, visas and birth registration, all other activities whether social, educational, scientific, sports, etc. are blatantly discriminatory in that no Jewish American citizen, who lives in the area supervised by the Consulate, can benefit from or take part in. They are intended for Arabs solely.
Jews resident in the area of Judea and Samaria face a policy of exclusion and that, we maintain, would seem to be unconstitutional and illegal. In the same geographical area under the jurisdiction of the Consulate there exist two separate and not equal populations: Jewish and Arab, whether Muslim or Christian.
Is what they are doing legal by American law? Is it in the spirit of the democratic foundations of American democracy? Can the Consulate adopt exclusionist policies that separate between peoples based on race in the same geographic area? Can it create the "state of the West Bank"?
There are almost 350,000 Jewish residents in the communities located in the territory for which the C-G is responsible (the almost 300,000 Jews in the newer Jerusalem neighborhoods and within the Old City is another matter). Almost 15,000 are American citizens. They do not benefit from any of these cultural, social or funding outreach activities and other programs and monies. Jews don't count, other than deserving consular needs like birth registration, visas, etc.
I think it would be a helpful for the House Foreign Relations Committee to hold hearings on the manner in which the US Consulate in Jerusalem is run. Jewish US citizen residents of Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria should be brought in to give testimony.
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ALL of Jerusalem is Israel’s Capital
John R. Houk
© March 31, 2012
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The State Department's Jerusalem syndrome
About Caroline Glick:
I grew up in Chicago's ultra-liberal, anti-American and anti-Israel stronghold of Hyde Park. Hyde Park's newest famous resident is Barack Obama. He fits right into a neighborhood I couldn't wait to leave.
I made aliyah to Israel in 1991, two weeks after receiving my BA in Political Science from Beir Zeit on the Hudson -- otherwise known as Columbia University. I joined the Israel Defense Forces that summer and served as an officer for five and a half years.
From 1994-1996, as an IDF captain, I served as Coordinator of Negotiations with the PLO in the office of the Coordinator of Government Activities in Judea, Samaria and Gaza. In this capacity I was a core member of Israel’s negotiating team with the Palestinians.
After leaving the IDF at the end of 1996, I worked as the assistant to the Director General of the Israel Antiquities Authority.
I then returned to geo-politics serving as Assistant Foreign Policy Advisor to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu in 1997-1998.
From 1998-2000 I went back to the US where I received a Master's in Public Policy from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government in June 2000. Although I spent most of my free time hiking in New England, it did not escape my attention that the vast majority of the faculty at the Kennedy School were not particularly fond of America -- or of Israel.
In the summer of 2000 I returned to Israel and … READ THE REST
© 2012 Caroline Glick
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