Israel Matzav

Netanyahu goes dhimmi

When the Churva synagogue re-opens on Monday, one very important guest will be absent: Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu (Hat Tip: Shy Guy).

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu does not plan to attend the historic reopening of the Hurva synagogue in Jerusalem's Old City on Monday. A senior diplomat told Arutz Sheva's Hebrew news service that the PM will absent himself in order to avoid conflict with the United States or the Palestinian Authority.

The prime minister will address crowds at the Hurva ceremony by video instead. The diplomat who spoke to Arutz Sheva would not divulge the exact content of Netanyahu's address, but hinted, “we're not sure that the nationalists are going to like what he intends to say.”An official statement from the Prime Minister's Office confirmed that Netanyahu would not attend the Old City ceremony, but said his absence would be due only to time constraints. “The Prime Minister has a very full schedule these days,” the statement said.

So he's going to build 1,600 housing units in Ramat Shlomo (in a few years, when he gets around to it), but he's going to give up on the nation's heart, the Old City of Jerusalem? If this is true, what a putz!

By the way, I would love to know this 'diplomat's home country. It might bear on the story's credibility.

UPDATE 3:29 PM

Here's more:

What really is the "fact" that the radical editorial writer ignored is that Jews who believe otherwise, that the city is actually all Israel's, are perhaps 98% of all world Jewry, excluding maybe Ehud Olmert and Tzipi Livni and Rahm Emanuel. Not only that but there is a common misconception. The claim is made is that Israel unnaturally "expanded" the city when it absorbed eastern areas after 1967.

But if we review the UN recommendation of November 29, 1947 to partition the Mandate area, we will see that the borders of Jerusalem, as a corpus separatum, extend to Shuafat, past Abu Dis and to Bethlehem as well as to Motza, larger than the municipal boundaries today. So what are they talking about, these concessionists who wish to yield, surrender and kowtow?

In not showing up, Netanyahu will not be taking advantage of a wonderful opportunity to say this. To remind the world of Jerusalem's place in the soul of the Jewish people, its religion, culture, literature, art and history. To recall to his listeners that not only was the Hurva Synagogue destroyed by Arabs, but another 30 or so synagogues were desecrated after 1948, and that thousands of graves on Mount of Olives were destroyed and that on the Temple Mount, the Waqf authorities are destroying and ransacking Jewish artifacts.

We, as Zionists, as Jews returning to our homeland, build. We create. They destroy.

And we let them destroy.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 1:35 PM