1967 Lines? Jerusalem and the United States and the People Who Backed Israel's Claim to Jerusalem

Nadene Goldfoot                                                  

USA Congress in Washington DC.

President Bush b: June 12, 1924,
President from January 20, 1989 to January 20, 1993
From Texas and a Republican with VP Danforth Quayle

In 1990, the USA Congress, under the 1st Bush, President George Herber Walker Bush, passed a resolution declaring that "Jerusalem is and should remain the capital of the State of Israel" and "must remain an undivided city in which the rights of every ethnic and religious group are protected."

President George Bush proclaimed that "The basis of our position remains that Jerusalem must never again be a divided city.  We did not approve of the status-quo before 1967;  in no way do we advocate a return to it now."
                                                                       

June 20, 1989 to August 23, 1992
Secretary of State  James Baker, born April 28, 1930 in Houston, Texas He was "U.S. Secretary of State and White House Chief of Staff under President George H. W. Bush. As Secretary of State, he helped oversee U.S. foreign policy during the end of the Cold War and dissolution of the Soviet Union, as well as during the Gulf War."

Secretary of State James Baker stated that "I am also very aware of the great significance Jerusalem has for the Jewish people as well as people of all religions.  Clearly, Jews and others can live where they want, east or west, and the city must remain undivided."
                                                                           

UN Embassy in Tel Aviv

The United States has never had its embassy in Jerusalem because American policy is that the final status of the city is a matter for negotiation.  A consulate is located in East Jerusalem to handle matters relating to the Palestinians living in the territories.  All other people of Israel must go to Tel Aviv for their affairs to be handled when in need of the US Consolate.
                                                                       

Golda Meir and Moshe Sharrett, Ben Gurion on left,  in 1948, Declaration of Israel as a State

It was after 1948 that the UN General Assembly voted on three resolutions calling for the internationalization of Jerusalem.  That's because the Jews had won the war started by the Palestinians who attacked the moment of declaration of the state of Israel.  Israelis won their War of Independence.
                                                                               
The matter was dropped in the UN until Israel gained control of the city of Jerusalem by this adversity upon the Jews to be attacked  in the Six Day War of 1967.   Since then, the UN, which for 19 years ignored Jordan's OCCUPATION OF JERUSALEM, has adopted numerous resolutions criticizing Israel for altering the status of Jerusalem and putting it in their rightful place as the  united capital of Israel.  This was the same position that it was under King David of Israel, founder of the city, in 1010 BCE to 970 BCE, some 3,000 years ago.  It has remained in this position as capital of the Jewish people's land of Israel and of Judah, even after being destroyed in 70 CE by the Romans.  It was unimportant to all but the Jews.
                                                                            

Arthur Goldberg, born 1908, died 1990 from Chicago, skilled in labor disputes
responsible for merger of CIO and AFL labor unions,
Under President Kennedy from 1960 to 1962 Sec of Labor,
Supreme Court Justice 1962-1965
US delegate to UN from 1965 to 1968.

Ambassador to the UN, Arthur Goldberg, drafter of  UN Resolution  242, said that, "Resolution 242 in no way refers to Jerusalem, and this omission was deliberate.  Jerusalem was a discrete matter, not linked to the West Bank." He was president of the American Jewish committee from 1968 to 1969.
                                                                               

Jerusalem before the 1967 temporary lines

In several speeches at the UN in 1967, Goldberg said, "I repeatedly stated that the armistice lines of 1948 were intended to be TEMPORARY.  This, of course, was particularly true of Jerusalem.  At no time in these many speeches did I refer to East Jerusalem as OCCUPIED TERRITORY."  Evidently former President Obama disagreed with this writer in what he was implying.  Note that Goldberg was a skilled arbiter in labor disputes.  I think he would have won this debate with Obama.

IN FACT:
                                                                     

                                                                             

After the capture of the Old City (East Jerusalem) in 1967, Israeli authorities found that hundreds of squatters had made their homes in the district.  Israeli civil engineers cleared the ruins to rebuild the quarter, but only after offering compensation or alternate housing to the squatters.
                                                                             
During Jordanian rule, the Old City was neglected.  Much of East Jerusalem lacked even the most basic municipal services.  They did not have a steady water supply, plumbing or even electricity!  As a result of reunification, these and other badly needed municipal services were extended to East Jerusalem.
                                                                             

In 1979, Jerusalem was still  home to 3 basic religions.  Judaism, Islam of people in the Old City and Christianity.  Never has their religious freedom ever been curbed under Israeli rule like it was under Jordanian rule.  A few months after Israel took control of the city, there was hysteria going around against Israel's conduct in Jerusalem towards other religions.  It was  from the Christian group of Saint Vincent de Paul of Jerusalem that repudiated these false rumors.  They said "Our work here has been made especially happy and its path smoother by the goodwill of Israeli authorities...smoother not only for ourselves, but more importantly, for the Arabs in our care.  The recent war, moreover, has revealed Israel  to us---both the soldiers and the civilians---as deserving of our deepest admiration."
                                                                       

Teddy Kollek, b: 1911 in Vienna, Austria, immigrated to Palestine in 1934.
Served as Israeli minister in Washington from 1950-1952.Director-general of Prime Minister from 1952,
Mayor of Jerusalem in 1965.  He made special efforts to promote Jewish-Arab cooperation in the city
following the reunification of Jerusalem in 1967.  

          Also in 1979, the Christian Archdeacon of Christ Church in Oxford, England, wrote:  "Jerusalem has been now for 12 years a city of freedom and friendship with free movement throughout the city and free access to the holy sites of the 3 main religions for anyone in the world....From my own personal conversations and observations, I testify that Jerusalem has never been so fairly administered, or made accessible to adherents of all three monotheism, as well as to the general tourist sightseer or visitor...as has been the undoubted achievement of Teddy Kollek and his administration.
                                                                         

By April 1990, the House of Representatives of the USA debated another resolution about Israel restating again that Jerusalem was to be the undivided capital of Israel.
                                                                         

 It was Representative Bill Emerson who praised "the spectacular track record of the  Israeli government in providing access and accommodation to Muslims, Christians and Jews who regard the city as THE HOLY PLACE IT TRULY IS."
                                                                           

 Chairman Dante Fascell of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, observed that "since Israel gained control of the Old City in 1967, it has been open to WORSHIPPERS OF ALL FAITHS."
                                                                           

President James Earl Carter, Jr. b: 10/1/1924
President from 1/20/1977 to 1/20/1981 from Georgia, Democrat.  VP was Walter Mondale

Even former President Jimmy Carter and Sunday school teacher, who later turned against Israel in his scathing books, acknowledged that religious freedom has been enhanced under Israeli rule.  He wrote: "Palestine, Peace-Not Apartheid."  " In this book Carter argues that Israel's continued control and colonization of Palestinian land have been the primary obstacles to a comprehensive peace agreement in the Middle East. That perspective, coupled with Apartheid in the titular phrase Peace Not Apartheid (which many regard as a subtitle) and allegations of errors and misstatements in the book, sparked criticism."   Before he wrote the book, he had said, "There is "no doubt" that Israel did a better job safeguarding access to the city's holy places than did Jordan.  "There is unimpeded access today, Carter noted.  "There wasn't from 1948-to 1967 under Jordan's rule."
                                                                       

State Department in Washington DC

The US State Department noted that, "throughout Israel, there are strong guarantees of freedom for all religious faiths."
                                                                           
That is because Israeli law stipulates that, "Whoever does anything that is likely to violate the freedom of access of the members of the various religions to the places sacred to them" will "be liable to imprisonment for a term of 5 years."
                                                                             

Pashtos of Pakistan and Afghanistan who are visiting in Jerusalem
Their history is that many of them rightfully claim to be descended from our Lost Ten Tribes
when Assyrians attacked Israel in 722 BCE and carted off our best of people.

Since 1967, hundred of thousands of Muslims and Christians---many from Arab countries that remain in a state of war with Israel---have come to Jerusalem to see their holy places.  Arab leaders are free to visit Jerusalem to pray if they wish to,                                                        

Al-Aksa mosque

Anwar Sadat, (1918-1981)
President of Egypt (1970-1981)

just as President Sadat did at the Al-Aksa mosque.  Muslim rights on the Temple Mount, the site of 2 major mosques, have not been infringed.

Although the Temple Mount was and still is  the holiest site in Judaism, Israel has left the Temple Mount under the control of Muslim religious authorities, which was a decision made by Moshe Dayan in the 67 war.
                                   

Donald Trump b: June 14, 1946
New President Jan.2017
6'3" tall and a billionaire-3.7 billion
business man, forte-making deals
Republican.

Harry S. Truman, b: May 8, 1884-d: Dec 26, 1972
from Missouri, Democrat-VP Alben Barkley
5'8" tall and lived with his in-laws
small business owner of Haberdashery Shop
President from 1945 to 1953

Up until Resolution 2334 that Obama had written a few days before leaving office after 8 years of serving, the United States has been most supportive of Israel and her stand with her capital, Jerusalem.  Now at a very critical point since this 2334, we have a new President with a completely different outlook as to the position of the USA in the world of affairs.  It was President Truman who brought about Israel who was president from 1945 to 1953 and it is Trump who stands behind Israel in her claim to this city.

Amazing how both these Presidents' names start with TRUM, isn't it?

Resource:  Myths and Facts-a concise Record of the Arab-Israeli conflict by Mitchell G. Bard and Joel Himelfarb
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palestine:_Peace_Not_Apartheid

Watching C Span Debate Israel's Position on Living in Judea and Samaria

Nadene Goldfoot                                        

 
Our Congress commenced today, this first day of the new year of 2017 and what were they talking about?  Israel.  They were debating a resolution backing Israel's position after Obama shocked everyone with Kerry voting against Israel at the UN, and then having the Chutzpa to defend this stand afterwards, breaking a 30 some year practice to be defensive for the tiny Democratic state of Israel who is fighting for her life.
                                                                           

The Democrats were against Israel while I was watching, and the last I noticed was from Vermont.  They are aghast that 600,000 Jews now live in their ancient homeland and think it is strictly land for the Palestinians to claim as Palestine.  Good Grief!
                                                                         

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel meeting with Arab citizens 

Does anyone realize that there are 1.7 million Arabs living in Israel?  They are full citizens with every right anyone else has there.  May I remind our people that there is but one Israel and 49 Muslim majority states already?  Yet another Muslim state, Palestine, is to be 100% Muslim?                                        
                                                                         

Why do these  Democratic Congressmen allow a Palestine to be strictly Muslim without any Jews living there at all and yet it's fine that Israel is so Democratic to have so many Muslims living among them?  No one has brought this fact up.
                                                                           

Is the United States all one religion like England started off to be?  One had to be Episcopalian there.  That's why the Pilgrims left in 1620.  So that's okay for the Palestinians because they have already stated it will be Judenrein, like Germany wanted to be.  If Israel can hold 1.7 Arabs in their 8,000 sq miles of land, why can't the Palestinians have 600,000 Jews in their Palestine I'd like to know?  Why is it that whatever they want--no one questions it?
                                                                             

Israel has already done this with Gaza and got in return land holding families to be turned into an arsenal and platform in their backyard in which to shell Israel from.
                                                                           

Your argument is so lame.  Israel has the right to have as many Jews living in their own ancient homeland as they wish.  It was their land originally and was granted to them again by all the nations of the world who belonged to the League of Nations.  It was granted state's rights again by the UN.  International lawyers such as Professor Eugene Kontorovich have stated that Israel is in the right to do so.  They had been attacked in an aggressive war by a gang of armies and they won.  That means everything.  It means they now have their own land back, despite what Europe thinks.
                                                                               
Listen, world.  Europe has never been fair to the Jews.  We have suffered anti-Semitism for thousands of years.   It's time you realize that your pronouncement against Israel is age-old anti-Semitism and you have not-through the United Nations of today, been treating Israel fairly at all.

It has always been Israelis who have fought their wars.  No American has ever had to fight for them.  It was Israelis who fought in 1967 when 5 countries attacked them.  It was Israelis who won the battle allowing their families to finally be able to visit the Wailing Wall and the Temple Mount where their Temple of Solomon had once stood.                                                        

Israel expects borders which will be defensible, not the 1967 Armistice borders, that will not constitute a temptation to a potential aggressor as did these pre-1967 lines.  Israel has, since 1967, offered to negotiate with the Arab Governments a true peace which would also provide for secure borders.  Israel has insisted that it makes no prior conditions, and that everything will be open for discussion in the negotiations.  Israel must have a few positions on where the secure borders ought to be.  Israel has never wanted to annex a large Arab population , but its position is that the River Jordan should no longer be open to crossing by Arab troops and that, to assure this, there must be an Israeli foothold in the Jordan Valley.  These conditions  are as they stood in 1973.  Now, 2017 is upon us; Forty-four years have since passed.  Arabs have been attacking during these years.  Peace has been wanted by Israel but the Arabs still opt for attacking them.  And the Chutzpa of it all is that the world, including some in Congress, expect Israel to sign on any paper for a 2-state solution.  They expect nothing from the Arabs!

                                                                             
Israel has been most fair to all their people as the Republicans who spoke today explained.  They said much that you  Democrats were not listening to.  I've never been so ashamed of a group of people in my life as the Democrats who spoke today against Israel.  I'm certainly glad I switched over years ago from being a Democrat to a Republican.  What used to be a party for Jews is sticking it to them and they don't even realize it in their desperation to defend their party.  Who is the party who is hurt by it?  Israel.  May the Republicans win their debate today.