Keeping Jerusalem

As most of you read these words, Egyptians are taking to the polls to elect their new president – and the outcome is liable to be fairly treacherous for their smaller neighbor to the northeast, Israel.

The Municipality of Jerusalem and Mayor Nir Barkat are trying to stay on everyone's good side. On the one hand, the city is working together with the Ir Amim organization – a group that promotes dividing Yerushalayim along Arab-Jewish lines – jointly sponsoring a seminar on the controversial topic of urban planning for eastern Jerusalem.

How does a state keep its capital city united? A strange question, and one that is clearly not an issue in most of the world. But in Israel, whose capital is the most coveted and contested city in the world, the problem is an acute one.

A brief review of Jerusalem's police blotter for recent days looks like this: * April 2: Haredi man, 55, is axed by Arab terrorist near Shaar Shechem (Damascus Gate); lightly wounded. * April 15: Seven Molotov cocktails are hurled at Jewish homes in Maaleh Zeitim, causing a fire in one of them. * April 19: Young worshipper on his way from Shimon HaTzaddik to Meah She'arim is stabbed by two Palestinian terrorists (moderate wound).

Who said Arabs lack imagination? Take the one who is in charge of thinking up new ways to perpetuate anti-Jewish sentiment, especially regarding Jerusalem. Here's what he came up with just last month: Accusing Israel of planning to destroy the Al-Aqsa Mosque atop the Temple Mount via artificial earthquakes.

A million Arabs plan to march on Jerusalem highlighting strange "accusations" that Israel is seeking to retain the Jewish character of its holy capital.

The fight for Jerusalem continues, on a number of quiet fronts. And if "want of a nail" can lose an entire war, as per Benjamin Franklin's poem, Yerushalayim can certainly be won via our close attention to issues that may not appear decisive or crucial.

Rabbi Porat oncesaid that his proudest parliamentary achievement was having sponsored and ensured the passage of a law entitled “Do Not Stand by Your Neighbor’s Blood”—rendering it a legal duty to offer assistance to someone in mortal danger. Based on a verse in Vayikra, Rabbi Porat’s law ensures that sanctity of life is a national value not only in word, but in deed.

Over the past year, KeepJerusalem has been keeping you informed in these pages about developments in Jerusalem that are likely to affect its Jewish future, for better or for worse. We strive to educate readers regarding the importance of a United Jerusalem under Israeli sovereignty.

While Republican presidential contenders Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich vie with each other in expressing ever-stronger support for Israel, polls show Romney has a better chance of unseating President Obama in the November election. It is for this reason that many Israel supporters would like contender Rick Santorum to withdraw from the Republican race to ensure Romney is chosen over Gingrich.

In a city of Jewish symbols, the Mount of Olives is perhaps the most symbolic of all: With a theatrical view of the Temple Mount and the Old City, it was the last stop for the Divine Spirit before the destruction of the First Beit HaMikdash and will be its first stop when Mashiach arrives.

Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat, elected three years ago on a strong "Jerusalem will never be divided!" platform, has changed colors.

In Jerusalem, even when it's relatively quiet on most of the city's fronts, the tensions always zero in on one place: The holiest spot in the world, the site of the Beit HaMikdash – the Temple Mount. Current events show once again that it is here that the battle to keep Jerusalem Jewish will be decided.

Begging his or her pardon in advance, the reader is asked to imagine a Muslim cemetery alongside the Western Wall. Horrific? Inconceivable? Yet this is precisely what is happening before the very eyes of the police and Jerusalem municipal authorities just across the Temple Mount, at its Eastern Wall.

JERUSALEM – Four U.S. congressmen took a Friday tour of eastern Jerusalem earlier this month and received a strategic briefing, courtesy of the Im Eshkachech-Keep Jerusalem organization.

Good news in Yerushalayim: The government is expected to grant final approval next month to the first new neighborhood in the capital's liberated areas in 14 years.

Reach out and touch the kingdom of King David; transcend time and jump headlong into the biblical accounts of King Solomon and those who succeeded him as Kings of Judea.

Editor's Note: This installment of Keeping Jerusalem was written by Hillel Fendel, who interviewed Chaim Silberstein, the usual co-author of the column.

With the world's eyes directed toward the United Nations, the most salient issues in the Israeli-Arab dispute in the Holy Land have been sharpened:

An international non-Jewish pro-Israel organization has declared: The UN must "reject any resolutions and actions that would violate Israel's legitimate sovereignty over all of Jerusalem."

Full gas in neutral. With nearly built-in enmity on the part of the U.S. to the most basic Israeli positions regarding Jerusalem, it is no wonder our efforts to keep Jerusalem continue to run up against so many obstacles.

The Islamic Waqf rests not in its efforts to rub out all Jewish connections to Jerusalem - so how can we even consider relaxing our efforts to keep the Holy City Jewish?

It's a well-known cliche that Jerusalem is "holy to the three main religions" - and in truth, it is not surprising. After all, the city was first holy to the Jews - and so it was inevitable that the rest of the world would ultimately jump on the bandwagon.

Many unanswered questions remain surrounding the fire that broke out in the Jerusalem Forest on Sunday, burning 40 acres and sending four people to the hospital.

Israel has taken a significant step this week toward enhancing the Jewish national character of the country. The Cabinet voted to appoint a ministerial committee to approve a uniform Hebrew naming system - not Arabic, not English - for all Jewish locations in the country.

It is true that support for Israel is very high among American voters. In fact, a poll of earlier this month showed that 56 percent of voters say they support Israel, compared to 10 percent who say they support the PA.

President Obama's recent remarks on Israel and the 1967 lines garnered wide attention both for what he said - most notably, that Israel must remain the same size it was before 1967 - and for what he should have said, but did not - that the Palestinian refugees are an Arab problem, not Israel's.

As we continue to focus on our Holy City of Jerusalem as the make-or-break issue in the bid for an agreement with Fatah-Hamas, it is important to note how the Arab and left-wing side of this dispute views Jews living in eastern Jerusalem.

As we saw in our last article, northern Jerusalem is a critical front in the Arab drive to take over parts of Jerusalem and to then form yet another Arab country in the Land of Israel.

Practically the primary front in the Arab war against Israel is Jerusalem. The Palestinian Authority and its Arab allies have made no secret of their intention to turn the Jewish nation's eternal holy city into the capital of yet another Arab state - as merely the first step of their plan to render the entire area Jew-free.