By David Harsanyi
Friday, October 14, 2016
The United Nations (UNESCO, to be specific) recently
adopted an anti-Israel resolution that disregarded the Jewish connection to the
faith’s two holiest sites, the Temple Mount and Western Wall. The motion was
supported by 24 nations, including Russia and China. Only six countries opposed it.
Now, the UN is too impotent to make history, much less
redraft it. Still, it’s never a waste of time to remind people of its long
record of empowering cheerleaders and perpetrators of violence against Jews.
It’s not merely that UN organizations like the “human
rights commission” or UNESCO are often led by Islamic supremacists, but that
the majority of first-world nations have — with few exceptions, like the United
States and the United Kingdom — been enablers of anti-Semitism for over 50
years.
This new motion, which claims freedom of worship has been
curtailed by “escalating aggressions and illegal measures,” was submitted by
the Palestinians and backed by various other twelfth-century strongholds like
Morocco (where it’s illegal to possess a Bible written in Arabic), Algeria (where
Muslim women cannot marry non-Muslim men and insulting Muhammad is punishable
by death), Iran (with restrictions too long to list), Pakistan (where the death
penalty or life in prison is mandated for apostasy), and Sudan (where
converting to Christianity is punishable by death.)
Did I mention UNESCO is an organization that claims it
encourages “international peace and universal respect for human rights”? Why
would the United States lend its credibility to such a sham?
For those of you unfamiliar with the specifics of this
effort: The UN has long fueled the false hope of Palestinians that they will
rule an ethnically cleansed, Judenfrei
West Bank (regrettably, a position embraced by United States, as well) with
Jerusalem as its capital. Since the very case for a modern Palestinian state is
built on a historical myth (read Benny Morris’s recent
Haaretz piece debunking the
biggest myth of Israel’s founding), historical fiction has been an enduring
feature of anti-Israel doctrine.
When Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon visited his
religion’s holiest site in September 2000, Arabs used it as a pretext to launch
the Second Intifada. Anti-Israel activists still talk about this Sharon visit
as if the man were leading the Crusaders towards Mecca. Most often, though,
Israel does what it can to avoid irritating the prickly sensibilities of Arabs
offended by the sight of Jews or Christians. The site itself is administrated
by an Islamic trust, not Israel. Politicians are told not to go there. And so
on.
But Israel, unlike every UNESCO nation that voted against
it, is a liberal democracy.
So a few years ago, a man named Yehuda Glick began
advocating for open access to the Temple Mount for people of all faiths. In
almost any other context or in any other place, this would be treated as a
liberal position. Arabs rioted, and Glick was shot four times by an Arab gunman
in an assassination attempt. Our ambassador to the United Nations, Samantha
Power, took to the floor to rail against the terrible “provocations” of both
sides.
At the time, the Palestinian Authority was fueling false
rumors that Israelis were going to block Muslims from entering the site.
President Mahmoud Abbas gave a speech claiming that “we have to prevent the
settlers from entering the Temple Mount by any means. It is our mosque and they have no right to
enter and desecrate it.” Settlers, by the way, are all Israelis living in
Jerusalem.
To put this in historic context, before 1967 (the year
Palestinians and their Western allies like pretend history began) Jews were
barred from these sites, which were often abused and neglected. Even today,
access to holy sites within Arab-majority areas is unsafe without armed
protection.
So when the Obama administration refuses to acknowledge
that Jerusalem is located in Israel, as it recently did in the official press
release of the president’s remarks at Shimon Peres’ memorial, it feeds this
conflict. Peres, a dove who was willing to bend for “peace” more than most of
Israel’s political establishment, had plenty to say on this issue, by the way.
In 2007, he argued for a Jewish majority in a unified Jerusalem wherein holy
sites “must remain under our control.”
According to Jewish tradition, the Temple Mount is where
God found the dust that was used to create Adam, where God tested Abraham by
asking him to sacrifice Isaac, where King Solomon built the First Temple, which
was later rebuilt and then expanded by Herod and destroyed by the Romans. Aside
from that, nearly every time experts dig in the area they excavate evidence of
an ancient Jewish presence in Israel — often confirming biblical accounts. It’s
going to take some heavy lifting to untether thousands of years of Jewish
history from Israel. And it’s going to take a much more competent organization
than the United Nations to get it done.
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