Israel is now beginning to celebrate seventy 70 years of modern independence. The Jewish People had an independent Kingdom here in the very same place thousands of years ago. None of the peoples of that time or our ancient enemies still exist. But seventy years ago after a slow painstaking Zionist
revolution, the Jewish People here in the Holy Land of Israel were able to reach the stage where a new Jewish State could be declared, defeat its military enemies and exist/thrive.
Seventy years ago, when Israel's first Prime Minister, David Ben-Gurion, declared Israel's Independence from the occupation of the British Mandate, the odds of the tiny, weak Jewish population here to survive at all were extremely poor.
Very few of the countries that voted on November 29, 1947, in the United Nations General Assembly to "approve" the right for the Jews to have a country expected the country to be viable and survive. They didn't care either; they just wanted to act nice to the pathetic remnant of Jews after the Nazi Holocaust. There was more sympathy to the Arabs, whom they recognized as the rightful "owners" of the Land claimed by the Zionist Jews. That's one of the reasons why most countries located their embassies in Tel Aviv. For them, Jerusalem was Christian and Muslim, not Jewish.
Of course the "elephant in the room" is the Holocaust and how no country took a stand to protest the early anti-Jewish discrimination/restrictions or protect Jews in an official way. The United States entered the war for other reasons, and they had no battle plan to destroy the death camps.
Even though, Christians in the western world/culture use the Bible to swear on, they don't really take Ancient Jewish History seriously or connect it to modern Jewry.
Many American Presidents pledged to move the embassy to Jerusalem when campaigning. But once in office they just followed the State Department policy, or like Obama who had also pledged to help establish a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital, they were clearly lying, saying anything to get a vote and funding from Jews. Remember that American Jewry is giving much less to Israel and Jewish causes nowadays, but they are very big in funding American political things, especially Leftist.
Donald Trump has shaken up American politics in more ways than one. He came from real estate business and reality TV. The politicians and pundits never expected him to get the Republican nomination and certainly never thought he'd defeat Hillary Clinton in the elections. But with the relatively new primary system, the American People spoke, and they chose Trump.
And Donald Trump is the first American President willing to "put his money where his mouth is," officially recognize Jerusalem as Israel's Capital City and move the American Embassy to there. Recent talk is that not only will it be done before the end of his presidential term but in a couple of months, around Israeli Independence Day.
Admittedly I'm a cynic, especially when it comes to politicians, but since Trump has been consistently hurrying the move rather than delaying it, maybe Gd willing it will become reality. What do you think?
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| The Knesset, Israel's Parliament, in Jerusalem, of course |
Last night's party was amazing and so totally different from the American Independence Day events we had attended in the past. First of all, this was an official embassy event and in Jerusalem, in Binyanei Hauma. All the food was kosher, including the menu, meat, fish and parve, instead of a table or two of kosher food. In prior years we'd see lots of Arabs, a few men in kippot, and sometimes I seemed to be the only woman who covers her hair. The 2019 celebration felt Jewish and Israeli, even YESHA.
