Excerpts;
Some 39 years have gone by, and a pall of gloom now hangs over Jerusalem, and on over parts of the country too. The elation is gone. Not only is the Temple Mount not in our hands, but other parts of the city too are only formally under Israeli control, and, in fact, are no longer “in our hands.” Israel’s capital is divided not only between Jews and Arabs, but between Jews and Jews. The sense that Jewish and Israeli identity would be weakened if Israel fails to retain a grip on its historic parts is diminishing. And the smaller the national and emotional solidarity with the capital, the smaller the desire to fight for its unity.
In the first years after the liberation, Jerusalem Day was marked as a national holiday. Over the years, with the decline of the day’s national and emotional status, it became the holiday of the religious communities. In the annual flag procession, like the one to be held today, youth movement members are hardly seen anymore. The number of school trips to the city has been dramatically reduced, not only for security reasons. The heart is growing distant and detached from that which Jerusalem symbolizes. The heart’s inclination is followed by (non) action.
If the nation is ready to break the oath, “If I forget thee oh Jerusalem, let my right hand wither,” there is all the more reason to break it when it comes to other parts of the country.
PM: Jews Will Never Have Different Home
Excerpts;
“There never was and there never will be another home for the Jewish people,” Olmert said in an unusually nationalistic and emotion-filled address at the official Jerusalem Day ceremony at Ammunition Hill, just four hours after returning from his first official visit to the US as premier.
Although Olmert said that Jerusalem was never more “Jewish, whole and united” than it is today, statistics released for the holiday indicate that its Jewish population, as a percentage of the total number of residents, continues to fall, with parity between Jews and Arabs forecast in 25 years, barring expected city boundary changes.
One-third of the city’s 720,000 residents are Arabs, and Olmert has stated that he was willing to cede at least six outlying Arab neighborhoods in the city to the Palestinian Authority as part of a final peace treaty.
Commentary;
Too bad that Olmert’s spoken words at such events as Jerusalem Day don’t translate and extrapolate into policies and actions in keeping with the Jewish, Torah way and the eternal bond and inseparable connection between a Jew and his land, the Land of Israel. When policies and actions don’t match flowery words spoken for public consumption fostering apathy, those flowery words tend to be seen as shallow, phoney. It is this government-fostered apathy which it’s arm, Israel’s MSM, builds on in all aspects of reporting and editorializing.
Then he alludes to “parity between Jews and Arabs forecast in 25 years.” Where is he getting the data to support this claim? From the same “pa (sic)” stats cited by the Americans Bennet Zimmerman, Roberta Seid and Michael Wise in their study entitled ‘Arab Population in the West Bank and Gaza: The Million Person Gap’ which disproves bogus, vastly overstated “pa (sic)” demographics stats?
For context, click here, here and here. MB