JERUSALEM’S UNIVERSAL CHARACTER NEEDS TO BE RECOGNIZED.

the united kingdom three millennia ago, and that King Solomon built the temple, the house of prayer for all peoples.

Should Jerusalem be recognized as the capital of the modern state of Israel, as President Donald Trump did Wednesday? I believe that there should be a modern state of Israel. I believe that it should be in Zion, in the biblical Land of Israel, with proper recognition of other peoples who live there. I believe that its capital is obviously Jerusalem. That is what Israel declares its capital to be, and generally we recognize the capitals that nation-states choose for themselves.

I am sympathetic to the argument that after the wars of 1948 and 1967 it was wise not to prejudge the outcome of potential peace agreements by recognizing the status of Jerusalem. But it has been fifty years now since Jerusalem was united under Israeli sovereignty, Israel will always identify Jerusalem as its capital, and not recognizing those facts diplomatically has not evidently advanced the prospects for peace. So the recognition by the United States of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel strikes me as both defensible and anticlimactic.

Jerusalem is the capital of Israel, the state of the Jewish people, but it is not a city only for Jews. The rights of Arabs, both Muslim and Christian, must be recognized,