JERUSALEM RECOGNISED

JERUSALEM RECOGNISED

The exact three middle letters of Jerusalem are USA

Jerusalem has been the capital of only one nation in the history of the world – Israel. Until 1948,when the Jordanians conquered the eastern half of the city, Jerusalem was a unified city, its occupation by Jordan not recognized by the world at large.  Its only period of division was 1949-1967. 

1,000 years before Christ, King David conquered Jerusalem and made it the national capital of the Jewish people. This was the first Jewish state. After periods of exile and return, Jerusalem became the capital of the people a second time a few centuries before Christ.  This was the Hasmonean Kingdom, the second Jewish state.

The Romans then conquered the Hasmoneans. From the end of the Roman Empire until the 20^th century, Jerusalem changed hands many times.

There is, of course, no mention of Jerusalem in the 33 paras. of the Koran, which talks about other holy places. Christians and Muslims come to Jerusalem – not despite the Jews but because of their return. Devout Christians say they are very pleased Jews returned and have regained the Temple Mount because it is a pre-condition for Jesus to return. We, in turn, are always glad to help another Jew to make “Aliyah!”

After the Romans, not only was there never a nation of “Palestine”, but there was never a country, territory, or a single province of “Palestine” even remotely similar in its geography to modern Israel.

The first return after the defeat of the Romans was   at the declaration of Korash (Cyrus) when the Jews came from only one country. At the present return, after 2,800 years, Jews have  come from every corner of the world.  This is the third time a Jewish state existed on these lands.

At no time in the nearly two millennia that elapsed between the second and third Jewish states was Jerusalem ever the political, cultural, or religious capital of any nation. It was nothing more than a minor city within a Gentile empire. The UN Partition Plan of 1947 made Jerusalem an international city. This was accepted by the Jews, and rejected by the Arabs. War commenced, followed by Israel’s declaration of independence in 1948. The Arabs responded by attempting to annihilate Israel. Israel beat them back, securing an armistice with its Arab neighbours in 1949 – when Jerusalem was divided between “east” and “west based neither on reason, geography, or history, merely the armistice lines.

Jerusalem ceased to be divided in 1967, when it was reunited under Israeli control after Jordan attacked Israel, and Israel, in self-defense, acquired the West Bank, including “east” Jerusalem.

Love for the city of Jerusalem was not just studied in the Bible and Talmud and mentioned in the liturgy. It was expressed in the concrete form of laws and customs before the Destruction, after the Destruction, throughout the Diaspora, and within the city - from 70 C.E. until the present. 

If not for “If I forget thee Jerusalem…..”  there would be no Jews today.[psalm 137]