They could just keep quiet.
On the day when an American president is about to issue an historic proclamation, 70 years in the making, recognizing that Jerusalem, the city where the Kings of the House of David ruled for hundreds of years, where the eyes of millions of Jews are trained three times a day, four times on Shabbat and Holidays, is, indeed, the capital of the Jewish State – on that day, out of politeness if not for actually believing all this national and historical stuff, they could shut up.
Especially since, in their announcement on Tuesday, the Reform movement states that President Trump’s announcement “affirms what the Reform Jewish Movement has long held: that Jerusalem is the eternal capital of the Jewish people and the State of Israel.”
Why can’t the Reform be happy for just one day that the connection between the Jewish State and the eternal city of the Jewish people has been acknowledged by the leader of the free world?
You’re not crazy about President Trump?
The rest of us would also rather have received this recognition from President Truman, same day he recognized the State of Israel. Either of the Bushes would have been fine, too, same for Reagan. And Clinton? We would have gone gaga had Bill Clinton stood up and told the world Jerusalem is the capital of Israel. Would have been cool had Obama made this announcement.
But they didn’t, so we’ll take Trump, gladly, gratefully. Why can’t the Reform, just for today?
They called his expected announcement “ill timed,” as if there is a good time to reverse 2,000 years of Replacement Doctrines, both the Christian and the Muslim.
Because that’s what this is about, make no mistake: if the Jews are acknowledged universally as the sovereign power in Jerusalem then this is it – it’s our city, it’s our country, it’s our national and religious history back on track.
Makes no difference if you’re sitting impatiently, waiting for King Messiah to hurl through the gate to the sound of trumpets, or you’re nursing a glass of whiskey at a bar in downtown Tel Aviv – if you have any sense of history, if you haven’t yet lost your notion of being a link in a chain that began with an elderly guy from Mesopotamia riding his camel with his beautiful wife all the way to Canaan some 3,500 years ago – then Today, Wednesday, December 6, 2017, has to be a huge spot in history for you.
Not if you’re Reform.
They announced that “the White House should not undermine [its peace] efforts by making unilateral decisions that are all but certain to exacerbate the conflict.”
Why is that?
Why should Fatah and the Hamas reject an offer to have their own state just because it would involve recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital? Can you imagine? A few million Arabs, some of them living in the most stressful conditions on the planet, refusing to receive their own state just because Jerusalem is now the capital of Israel.
Why? Because of that old replacement doctrine. Because if the Jews are back, then all the claims by Christians and Muslims that their religions are the true word of God, handed down after God had rejected the Jews would fly in the face of a strong, vibrant, rich, and very much alive Jewish State.
But there’s another Replacement Doctrine.
Look at the final line in the Reform Movement’s announcement, where they tell President Trump: “We welcome the opportunity to work with the White House to realize the day when Jerusalem truly becomes a beacon of peace.”
If Jerusalem is the capital of the Jewish State, and the Jewish State is the biggest and most thriving Jewish center in the world, and can take care of itself in dealing with its Arab neighbors, thank you very much – then who will need the Reform Movement?
How would it ever hold on to the place it used to have within American Jewry? Never mind the fact that its numbers in Israel are smaller than those of the Scientologists – in America they are being abandoned in droves, turning irrelevant with a future paved with gentiles in mixed marriages.
Should a US President recognize Jerusalem as the capital of an Israel that is majority-Orthodox, where the shul you never set foot in is strictly orthodox, where the Reform whining over their entitlement to holy real estate by the Kotel is a nuisance few care about – what will happen to the Reform movement?
Hopefully, they will endure the same fate that will eventually befall the rest of the replacement movements.
Good bye, and may your next religious pick be a success.