Morris has just published his ninth book on the topic, and says it will be his last: “I have written enough already on a conflict that has no solution, thanks chiefly to the consistent Palestinian negation of the two-state arrangement.” His current book aims to “expose the goals of the Palestinian national movement, which are to destroy the Jewish national enterprise and to inherit all of Palestine for the Arabs and Islam.”
The efforts to have Jerusalem included in the platform of what was long a Jewish “household” party in the United States shows that the struggle for world acceptance of Jewish control over its own historic holy city is far from a done deal. If anything, it could be that the newly included clause emphasizing that Jerusalem is subject to future negotiations might have negative repercussions. “You fought to have this clause included,” Israel supporters will be told, “so certainly you won’t thwart fair-and-square negotiations!”
Yet, what is there to negotiate? Should we part with the Temple Mount and its Western Wall? Should we give away the Old City and its Jewish Quarter? Should we agree to another wall down the middle of the city, a gun-rest for Arab snipers as they aim at Jewish targets? Should we agree to have the tens of thousands of Jews in Pisgat Ze’ev, Gilo, and other neighborhoods living in enclaves surrounded by the Palestinian Authority?
We have no choice, and there is nothing to negotiate: Jerusalem is the Eternal Holy City of the Jewish People and the undivided capital of the State of Israel, nothing more and nothing less. The Democratic Party platform will simply have to be amended once again.
To participate in our eastern and northern Jerusalem bus tours, e-mail [email protected] or visit our website at www.keepjerusalem.org.
Chaim Silberstein is president of Keep Jerusalem-Im Eshkachech and the Jerusalem Capital Development Fund. He was formerly a senior adviser to Israel’s minister of tourism. Hillel Fendel, past senior editor at Israel National News/Arutz-7, is a veteran writer on Jerusalem affairs. Both have lived in Jerusalem and now reside in Beit El.
