Obviously, as a Christian, I get the bigger picture of why Jerusalem should be the capital of Israel and why the US should move the embassy to Jerusalem.
Trump made a statement that the US would recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and move the US embassy there in observance. I don’t see a problem with that since Jerusalem is the location of the 1st and 2nd temple and known as The City of God. Jerusalem was the seat of David’s throne, the same throne that Jesus will reign from.
So…why is the UN involved? Apparently there was an “emergency” assembly to vote (128 to 9) to repeal the US decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. So now, Trumps recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel is “Null and Void”. Togo, Micronesia, Nauru, Palau, Marshall Islands, Guatemala and Honduras were the only countries to take the US/Israel side on this position. I’m guessing those 7 countries are about to start receiving huge economic starter packages.
Does this mean anything?
Will Trump use this as justification to defund the US?
Will Trump shove his recognition of Jerusalem as the capitol of Israel down the UN’s throat until they submit?
The Useless Nations should have seen significant funding reduction long ago anyway… I don’t mean full defund, because we need to have some skin in the game to properly maintain and wield clout.
Aid only for those who aid us–definitely defund the Franco-German Axis of Antisemitism, at least.
Sadly It just isn’t a cut and dry problem. All three major Abrahamic religions have some claims to the city. Yes it was a Jewish city but since both Christianity and Islam are offshoots of Judaism, they also see the city as holy. That is the problem from that side. So we have a City holy to 3 of the largest religions in the world which also have a history of beating each other up over it.
Now fast forward to the middle of last century. After WW2 we came in there and told the other countries in the area that they have to give up some of their land and give it to the same people they have historically been at odds with. That took an already touchy issue and made it explosive. So that is the general backstory of why it is so touchy. Add in the Palestine situation, etc and you have an even more divisive situation.
So here we have what could be considered the city that could be seen as the Holy City of about 4.3 of the 7.5 Billion people on earth. To call it the capital of Israel is kind of like licking the last cookie on the plate so nobody else can take it while you have another in your hands.
I am pro Israel. I am not even saying it should not be the Capital. But as with many things lately, it is the way things were done that are going to cause the trouble. And all ofd this doesn’t even take into account that Palestine, as a De Jure state considers Jerusalem their capital. So recognizing it as the Capital of Israel causes even more conflict there.
All the above boils down to this. Jerusalem and the middle east is a tinderbox. It is in constant conflict with ancient arguments and disagreements still fought about today. It has to be handled carefully to keep the damage to a minimum. What Trump did was throw gas and it and light a match. The UN is trying to blow it out before the fire starts. Like Trump or hate him, agree that Jerusalem should be the capital of Israel or not, the way this was done is going to get a lot of people killed.
Tom Clancy presented an interesting idea in The Sum of All Fears: Have the city become Neutral Ground, the communities of each faith electing representatives to lead the city government as a triumvirate.
If anybody has a claim to the West Bank, it’s Jordan, but they elected not to take it back when Israel offered because Palestinians are notoriously bad neighbors–King Hussein’s dad took them in and they thanked him with a freakin’ assassination attempt IIRC. I don’t pretend to have all the answers, or most, or necessarily even ANY, though; my business is obscure facts and inconvenient pain-in-the-ass data, so that those who DO seek the answers have more pieces of the puzzle to put it all together with.
Precisely. Trump is the first president in a long time showing outright common sense on a lot of issues. Which has all the handwringers completely confused.
Jerusalem is key and it has nothing to do with 3 religions. For the first time in 2000 years under Israeli control all 3 religions have access and are safeguarded. You can’t believe the fights between different Christian factions, and by fights I mean blood on the ground.
If they can split Jerusalem, it is viewed as a great separation between us Jews and the land G-D gave us. Jerusalem only became important to Islam after we returned to our land.
I will say this and it has ZERO to do with the vote in the UN, but rather based on what I have seen in Africa by UN people. The UN is a path to big money and a permit to do anything you want.
The best thing President Trump could do is stop all money to the UN, tax the land in NY, and tell them to leave the USA.
I don’t believe this is correct. The UN vote, as I understand it, was to condem Trump’s decision, not to void it. I don’t see how a UN vote can change US policy on this if the US doesn’t want to change it.:
"In a collective act of defiance toward Washington, the United Nations General Assembly voted 128 to 9, with 35 abstentions, for a resolution demanding that the United States rescind its Dec. 6 declaration on Jerusalem, the contested holy city.
“The resolution is nonbinding and therefore largely symbolic, but the vote indicated the extent to which the Trump administration’s departure from a 50-year international consensus on Jerusalem’s status has unsettled world politics and contributed to America’s diplomatic isolation.”
Nothing but a temper tantrum. Does Islam not lay claim to any city in the world? If I take Kevin Spacey and make up a religion around him, can I claim Mecca and demand joint custody?
People are always going to be upset about something.
The loudest do the least. If your country doesn’t have running water and your representative needs to buy a vowel for his name then you really dont need to be criticising the US.
But yoni is right. The UN is pointless. The Cold War is (was) over. They should PNG everybody, take down or modify the Colt Python statue (either make it a Detective snubbie or fix the barrel), and turn it into low rent housing as foretold by Heavy Metal.
We got phones and Internet. If we need to call someone, we will.
Jerusalem is the only city in which three of the world’s biggest faiths can call their own, or have a significant historical link. That, I get. But the UN interfering in the affairs of a nation-state in which they have no control, no. The countries bitching about it the most are the ones who hate us the most, so, yeah, I don’t care. Bitch all you want, you will hate us regardless of what we do.
If only the UN was so worried about things that actually matter like terrorist and slave states being on the human rights council. If they put in a fraction of the effort used for this issue towards the real atrocities in this world they might have some sense of credibility.
Yerushalaim is never mentioned in the Koran. It appears something like 850 times in the Torah, Jerusalem is also mentioned in the New Testament. It’s really simple: this is just another excuse for violent muzzies to be violent. They didn’t care about the city until it was returned to the Jews.