Keeping Jerusalem

Is Ramadan a holy month, or one of terrorism and warfare? The answer is "both."

Today, UNRWA maintains extensive office facilities in Jerusalem, including its local headquarters as well as the UNRWA Microfinance Department on Shlomo Zalman Shragai Street between Ramat Eshkol and Maalot Dafna, even as UNWRA does not recognize this area as Israeli Jerusalem.

Terrorist organizations across the world exploit the liberties and freedoms of democracies to bankroll their cruel operations, promote their evil agendas, and recruit the next generation of terrorists.

There are many who claim that Jerusalem is not actually united, as Jews barely ever enter any Arab neighborhoods. Note that there is no parallel claim that Arabs do not frequent Jewish areas...

The dangerous upgrade of Washington's relations with the PA, and the outrageous claims against Israeli law – present potentially great challenges to Israeli sovereignty in its united and historic capital.

The article is replete with phrases such as "the contested notion of King David’s presence in Jerusalem," "the dreams and aspirations of the Palestinian community: birds flying free, a blazing sun, flowers in the colours of the Palestinian flag," and "forced evictions, land grabs, demolitions…"

Most importantly, the Jewish presence in the area of the Mt. of Olives, and throughout eastern Jerusalem, has grown significantly in recent years.

Over the past 30-plus years, there has been a massive wave of illegal building in Arab neighborhoods of Jerusalem, for the express purpose of creating geographic contiguity from Ramallah in the north to Bethlehem in the south.

When the Israelis liberated all of Jerusalem in 1967, they kindly allowed the tenants to continue living there. The Arab squatters took advantage of the Israeli beneficence, and many of them either stopped paying the ridiculously low rent asked of them, or built on the land illegally-- or both

The Jewish people's inalienable right to the Land of Israel is not only biblical but is rooted in internationally recognized legal treaties and documents beginning a century ago.

Northern Jerusalem is a critical front in the Arab drive to take over parts of Jerusalem and then form yet another Arab country in the Land of Israel.

nce again, the world struggles, and fails, to understand that there is no essential difference between Zionism – the movement to restore a national Jewish presence in the Holy Land – and Judaism. It is impossible to be anti-Zionist without being anti-Semitic, and vice-versa.

The Arabs who refuse to leave or to pay rent for the Jewish properties parrot the idea that the area in which they illegally reside is the Arab neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah. Untrue: the neighborhood in which they have squatted is the 150-year-old Jewish neighborhood of Shimon HaTzaddik.

Opening a consulate in Jerusalem for the Palestinian Authority will raise the PA's standing in Washington, thus encouraging it not to make concessions and perpetuating the state of non-peace or worse.

It is critical to emphasize this point: The controversial houses were built in the Jewish neighborhood of Shimon HaTzaddik, and not, as most news reports would have you believe, in Sheikh Jarrah.

Atarot's sister-settlement, N'vei Yaakov, has now become two flourishing Jewish neighborhoods – N'vei Yaakov and Pisgat Ze'ev – in which many tens of thousands of residents reside.

A weakened Jerusalem significantly weakens Israel and its value to the United States.

According to Biden, the U.S. should have kept the Jerusalem carrot hanging just out of Israel's reach for as long as possible until America could squeeze out every possible Israeli concession.

The removal of the neighborhoods outside the security barrier from Jerusalem could be acceptable if they were to become separate Israeli municipalities.

For decades, Arabs in eastern Jerusalem have been building illegally, with the government and municipality barely contesting them (unlike the much stricter enforcement in the Jewish sections).

For Islam, which was founded when Judaism was about 2,500 years old, Jerusalem is only its third holiest city, following Mecca and Medina.

We must ensure that Yerushalayim remains united under Israeli sovereignty with a large Jewish majority. History, ethics, security, and simple logic all indicate that we must stand firm in the face of international Muslim pressure and propaganda.

The truth must be told. Had Netanyahu actually taken the steps he has so often outlined to build up the Jewish presence in Yerushalayim, Israel would not now be under the gun not to take the steps so necessary to ensuring full Jewish sovereignty in the Holy Land.

Are these Arab neighborhoods in East Jerusalem to b e given over to the Palestinians as part of the Trump Plan technically part of Jerusalem? The answer depends on how one looks at Jerusalem's complex and often fluctuating borders. The many changes in the city's borders over the past century have left several neighborhoods in a state of uncertainty.

In June 2015, a survey carried out by the PA-based Palestinian Center for Public Opinion found that 52 percent of Arabs living in eastern Jerusalem said they would prefer to be citizens of Israel. Note that this counts only those who weren’t afraid to reply to the pollster.

Arabs who live in eastern Jerusalem will not be allowed to set the stage for a PA state that includes Israel's capital.

Jerusalem is facing a double attack in the form of both illegal and legal Arab construction. This comes together with watered-down levels of Jewish construction in non-critical areas. The bottom line is that if not enough homes are built for Jews, and too many are built for Arabs

So, yes, Yerushalayim is becoming a more "open" city, but that means we need to significantly increase and expand the Jewish presence in it. Only a strong Jewish majority will ensure and secure Jerusalem for generations to come and enable us to continue to advance toward the Jerusalem envisioned by our prophets

This trend spells disaster not only for the Jews in Jerusalem, but for the State of Israel, which is liable to face pressure to divide the city in order to maintain its Jewish majority. If the current rates continue, Jerusalem's Arab population could actually reach parity with the Jewish population within 10-15 years.

The international community should relate to Palestinians’ claims to Jerusalem as nothing more than the desire to do away with Israel.