Trump is right... Get over it
THE ARTICLE, “Religious leaders call to cut Israeli ties” (Cape Argus, December 13), refers.
If ever proof was needed of the hypocrisy that pervades the media one need look no further than the eight articles and letters that appear in Wednesday’s edition of the local papers. Jerusalem is the target and Donald Trump and (by extension) Israel the villains.
Never mind the indisputable fact that Trump has done no more than recognise what has been a 3 000-year-old truth; that King David established the first Jewish kingdom in Jerusalem and, in doing so, centralised a historic, emotional and religious connection borne out in biblical text, through archaeological proof and by Jewish religious practices, beliefs and prayers.
In April 2016, Unesco passed a resolution stripping Jews of any connection with their most sacred site, the Temple Mount and Western Wall. This would be equivalent to denying Muslims any access to, and connection with, Mecca and Medina. Amazingly, France, Spain and Sweden supported this resolution, which is conceptually so dishonest that one can only wonder to what degree they understood its implications.
None of this resulted in an emergency session of the Security Council, as has Donald Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem. Neither did it result in any outcry in a media that allowed it to pass with nary a ripple.
Therefore the hysteria following Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem is strange indeed considering that the living proof of its existence as Israel’s capital has been there for the past 60 years without attracting the slightest interest.
The Knesset (parliament) was built in Jerusalem in 1958, the new Supreme Court was opened in 1992, various ministries were established during this period and the prime minister’s office and residence have been in Jerusalem since 1948, all without a squeak.
Are we now to believe that the decision by one country to move its embassy to Jerusalem is such an affront that it warrants such hostility? The truth is, the Palestinians and their supporters will seize any opportunity to advance their cause and react with violence.
Jerusalem is Israel’s capital. Get over it.