Is there any Israely or sympathizer here who can explain to me why Jerusalem should be "all Israeli"?

Question

And please, no "it's our divine right".

Answer 1

You see how one simple question brings out so much arguement in YA? Better to remain hopeless, there will not be peace, sorry for that. I personally believe it is God's city, not any humans, but because us humans fight so much, the only way it can be stopped is to divide it up. Here in YA there's no peace , do you think it will come in Israel/Palestine one day? ....in the end, may god forgive us all, and in the end he will judge. Peace!

Answer 2

In the last 2000 years, the only government to allow freedom, including religious freedom, in Jerusalem has been Israel. Under Jordanian rule until 1967, Jews were refused access to their most holy of sites, the Kotel. There is no justifiable reason for Jews to give up their holiest site to a regime with a history of anti-Semitism and Jewish oppression. Why exactly do the Palestinians deserve to have East Jerusalem? Because Jordan conquered it in 1948? That is a very weak reason. The Palestinians had 19 years to found a state with Jerusalem as its capital, and choice instead to live under Jordanian rule - a rule as mentioned above that was particularly oppressive to Jews. Their claim to the city is no stronger - and actually weaker- than Israel's.
Many people who ask this question state, as you do, that divine right or destiny are invalid justifications. How then can you accept the US's westward expansion. If I remember my American history correctly, the catchphrase for this subject matter is "manifest destiny". The American people thought they had a right to expand from ocean to ocean simply because it was their destiny. That is why the US is what it is today, because of the belief that their destiny including annexing the western half of the region. Is Israel's claim of destiny any weaker? Jerusalem is THE city to the Jewish people - Jewish literature from all ages is replete with the praises and symbolism of Jerusalem. The capital of Judaism, regardless of Israel, is and always has been Jerusalem. To many, the Six Day War was Israel's manifest destiny, and this is as acceptable a reason as was America's reaching the Pacific.

EDIT: After reading some other posts on this board *cough*mark*cough* I feel it is my duty to add some factualy accuracy here. For starters, Jews ruled Jerusalem for well over 80 years. King David conquered the city in circa 1000 BCE. Until 70 CE the city remained the capital of a Jewish nation, except for 70 years following the Babylonian exile before the return on the Persians. For the next 1900 years the city would not be under Jewish control but saying it was under Muslim control for 1200 years is misleading. Unlike Judaism, Islam is a religion and not a race, and to pretend that all Muslims are on and the same is wrong. While it may have been under Muslim rule for 1200 years, that was divided out among different Muslim groups, and nearly all Turkish. Jerusalem has barely been under Arab control, and never under "Palestinian" control, as there has never been a Palestine and certainly not one with Jerusalem as a capital. The second thing I would like to address is the statement that the city is equally holy to all three religions. The issue here is that there is no universal "holy scale" for comparing relative holiness; that being said, Jerusalem is still more important to Judaism than to either of the other two religions. According to accepted sources, Jerusalem is Islam's third holiest city after Mecca and Medina. To contrast, few people can even name Judaism's third holiest city - and even if one could, it's importance is completely negligible as compared to Jerusalem that it's rendered irrelevant. In Judaism, there's only Jerusalem, whereas in Islam it is an honourable mention. Christianity believes the city is holy, but centers its religion in Rome (Catholic at least). There are many denominations of Christianity so it is impossible to address them all individually, but the simple fact is that Christians did not bother with the city until rumor spread that the Muslims were defiling the holy sepulchre - and promptly lost interest after a century. Jerusalem is a depository of holy sites for Christianity, and not a holiness capital as it is for Judaism. Enough said.

Answer 3

Because Jerusalem has never been the Capital of any state except a Jewish one. Simple really.

Answer 4

splendid - and it replaced into staffed completely via PALESTINIAN JEWS. comparable with the Palestine Philharmonic Orchestra - completely JEWISH. Ditto with the Palestine Brigade, that fought with the Allies against Hitler. a hundred% JEWISH. The call 'palestine' replaced into given via the ROMANS, to the area till now prevalent as JUDEA, homestead of the JEWS. Palestinian JEWS have been residing there for the previous 3500 YEARS - non end. those ARE the 'natives' - the PALESTINIAN JEWS. via how, the Arabs have been additionally busy in the process WW2: combating FOR HITLER AND THE NAZIS. ***~The Palestine submit then grew to develop into the JERUSALEM submit, and nevertheless exists as we communicate, of direction. that's *nevertheless* a JEWISH newspaper! ****~The Philistines have been an historical, sea faring people who had already ceased to exist long till now the appearance of as we communicate's Palestinian Arabs. i might could describe your submit as: EPIC FAIL

Answer 5

Because God gave us that city and it's much better to be under the Israeli's then Arabs.


TABATHA- I'm so confused. You're a Jew, yet you think that they should give East Jerusalem over to the Palistinians?? Why?? God gave us that city and so much more and to give it to someone else?? So many lives were lost for the liberation of Jerusalem and to give that to Arabs?? Then they must have lost their lives for absolutely nothing.

Tabatha- Whoa. Okay. I didn't mean any of that disrespectfully. I really do beleive that you're feelings for Israel are very strong. But they have been fighting w/ the Arabs for thousands of years and now all of a sudden they want peace?? I beg to differ.

Answer 6

Some very solid points have been said, I don't need to repeat them.

But I can add these historical facts:

1. There's no denial that Jerusalem was the center of Jewish life since the time of the first Temple - 410 years. And after exile to Babylon for 70 yrs, we didn't just go anywhere... we returned to Jerusalem, and rebuilt our Temple. It stayed central to us for some 420 years. Since the destruction of that rebuilt Temple, Jews from anywhere and everywhere have made valiant attempts to visit Jerusalem. We mourn the Destruction of the Temple and City ever since - its mentioned in our prayers 3 times a day ever since then.

No other religion has anything that comes close to this in comparison. Jerusalem has never been forgotten, never abandoned, and never will be.

2. Islam built their mosques on the Temple mount many centuries later. To start off with, Jerusalem was no more important to Islam than Beirut, Dakkar, or Poughkeepsie. It was just another city. Any historian of Islam will tell you that Islam tends to "adopt" practices, ideas, and values of the local population, often in positive ways. But here, they decided to "adopt" Jerusalem as well, and call it their holy city. "Prophesies" were dreamed up and talked about centuries later to support the claims - rewriting history if I ever saw it.

3. Christianity's holy sites obviously extend from its Jewish roots, the religion was born out of Judaism.

Finally, in the end, the ONLY group that has constantly and vigilantly protected holy sites for all religions is Israel.

No bargaining, just simple logic and common sense.

Answer 7

No Israeli says it should be "all israeli" they say the city belongs only to Israel. It isnt like Saudi Arabia that forbids non Muslims from entering Mecca and Madinah. Anyways when Jordan took over East Jerusalem and the West Bank, they kicked out all the Jews.

Answer 8

Yes, I can.

When the whole of Jerusalem is under Israeli rule, everyone has access to all the holy sites. Compare this with what happened when Jordan controlled part of Jerusalem. Do you know what they did with the holy Jewish sites?

They turned them into horse stables.

In addition, I don't think Arab nations can complain about Jerusalem because non Muslims can't even enter Mecca. As ZK points out!

All that being said, I think that the reality is that Israel may have to give East Jerusalem over to the Palestinians; they have suffered terribly and must have the same rights and freedoms as everyone else.

But do remember that Israel represents less than one per cent of the entire Middle East, and Jerusalem is incredibly special to Jews.

EDIT TO WHOO

Look, in an ideal world, then of course I would prefer for Israel to have the whole of Jerusalem. But just because I'm Jewish DOESN'T mean I can't sympathize with the Palestinians.

And what I meant in my answer was that, ultimately, I think Israel MAY have to compromise with regard to East Jerusalem. Just as the Palestinians will have to accept no right of return to Israel.

I genuinely believe that for a lasting peace to be achieved, both Israelis and Palestinians will have to make massive compromises and that they will both be unhappy about them.

I guess it will all depend on how badly they all want peace.

The one thing that is non negotiable is Israel's security, of course.

And WHOO, if you have any doubts as to my feelings for Israel, I suggest you read my response to EU CITIZEN'S post about Israel and Lebanon.

Answer 9

Maybe cause most Israelis (78%) are Jews, and Jews have have continuously been there since 2000 BCE. Jews have been a majority religion in that City for over 3,300 years.

Oh yeah, and the Jews were there waaay before the Christians and Muslims.

Does that answer anything? Or more like, DID THIS PENETRATE YOUR SKULL?

Answer 10

Yep, of course I can. They fought for the land and God has given them the land. It's the Israelis' for centuries. Germany, France, Russia, Mexico, Ghana, and others have their own lands, why not Israel? Jerusalem is the symbol of the Jewish nation, also.