Who Owns Jerusalem

There was a time when I, raised on British boys books (specifically those of G. A. Henty), the stories of  Radisson and Groseillers as well as Walt Disney’s  Davy Crockett and the Christian driven moral rightness of the white race, believed in the absolute logic that there should be an Israel. The thought of a people, long separated from their homeland, almost exterminated by a cruel dictator (whom my father had gone to war to fight against) being finally given a land to call their own seemed only right. It never entered my young mind that there could be another side to the story, that there could be some people who were affected negatively by the creation of a new country. I remember in 1967  meeting a fellow camp counsellor ( at a summer camp for Jewish boys) who had just returned from Israel where he had fought in the 1967 Arab-Israel war. I was so envious - not because he had been in a war, but because he had been part of building a new country.

In the past 40 years, my view as to the justice of the very existence of Israel has changed significantly. I, perhaps sadly, seem to have lost my rose coloured glasses. I now understand that the western powers who allowed for and supported the development of Jewish homeland were far more concerned about controlling that part of the planet where there was more known oil in the ground than anywhere else, as well resolving their collective guilt for not stopping the near complete genocide of all Jewish people in Nazi occupied Europe. It seemed to me in the mid-sixties (being a church going person) that the Bible was an accurate history and that all of those glorious stories of the Jewish people escaping the bondage of Egypt and being guided to a promised land made absolute sense. It had to be true. I never considered the possibility that other people might have a different understanding of the past and that their God(s) might have promised them something different. It also, much to my shame, made sense to me that as the people who were already there were not using the land to its maximum advantage and that as the Israelis who were able (with large influxes of cash from the west) to do so - of course they should be able to lay claim to the land.

Clearly the political machinations of the “world powers” in the 20 or so years leading up to the Second World War, and the compex, convoluted dance of those players (and all of the new ones) that continued after that war have created in the MIddle East a Gordian Knot of epic proportions. A knot that seems unlikely to be undone in my lifetime unless a modern day equivalent of Alexander the Great comes along. An additional twist was just added to that knot that will ensure that only the sharpest of swords has a chance of resolving the problem.

President Trump announced a week or two ago that the USA would move their embassy from Tel Aviv  to Jerusalem. This single act formally declares that the USA recognizes Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. It implies that in spite of the fact that for many people, Jerusalem is a contested city - in part because it is sacred to all three of the mainstream religions that evolved in that area - Israel has first claim to it. It suggests that any possibility of a long term negotiated peace between Israel and its Arab neighbours (and displaced citizens) is now officially dissolved.

There was motion at the United Nations today - condemning Trump and the USA for making such a rash move. Trump, in his usual bombastic fashion had made it clear that countries that voted for that motion would no longer be seen as being friendly to the USA and would no longer be eligible for loans/grants etc. Canada has a long standing policy of working towards a two country solution in the Middle East; that is that there needs to be room for both the Israelis and the Palestinians. Declaring Jerusalem to be the capital of Isreal makes such a solution impossibe. Everyone knows that. There were only 21 other countries who chose not to vote. There may have been good reasons not to vote for this UN resolution - but it feels as if Trump acted like the bully he is, and we let him. While Canada may have something to lose in terms of free trade if the USA president decides he does not like us and he might even decide that his country will do nothing to help Canada if the North Koreans attack the North American continent but it seems to me that at some point we need to stand up a say what we think is right. At some point we need to stand up to the bully - that is what we tell our kids to do.