Today Israel is celebrating Jerusalem Day, the 44th anniversary of the reunification of the city according to the Jewish calendar. In the Arab/Muslim Spring of 1967 Israel's extremely hate filled neighbors, with the help of its equally extremely hate filled Muslim non neighbors, promised a war "to drive Israel into the sea." Not passively waiting for their death, Israel launched a pre emptive strike (yep, Israel "started" the 1967 war!) destroying Egyptian planes parked on an airfield. Israel's neighbors then attacked from all sides to fulfill their deadly promise.
Six days later the war ended; Israel miraculously triumphed. The impossible, suicidal "1967 borders"--in reality armistice lines from the 1948 Israel War of Independence that the Arabs/Muslims also started to prevent the creation of Israel--were gone and the city of Jerusalem was reunited. In violation of international law and signed agreements Jordan divided the city in 1948, denying Jews access to the section it illegally ruled; destroying important Jewish and even Christian sites. As Victor Sharpe explains
The British officered Jordanian Arab Legion had forced out at gunpoint the Jewish residents of the Old City and the neighboring Jewish villages: It was Apartheid and ethnic cleansing, Arab style.
The Legion went on to desecrate the Jewish graves on the ancient Mount of Olives and use the headstones as latrines. They desecrated over 50 synagogues and forbade Jewish pilgrims to worship at their holy places. They had turned the Via Delarosa, the Way of the Cross, into a filthy, sewerage strewn alley through which Christian pilgrims were forced to walk.
Only Britain, which had previously administered "Palestine" under a League of Nations mandate prior to World War ll and had reneged on its promises to allow Jews into the country, effectively imprisoning them in Europe to be slaughtered, and its former imperialist colony, the Muslim Pakistan, agreed to this division; while other nations officially did not they didn't complain. Only Israel, only Jews protested.
Jordan cut the Holy City in half with barbed wire and erected walls, complete with snipers along the dividing line who killed many Jews in the western half of the city.
General Moti Gur broke through the lines to retake Jerusalem reporting the position of his troops to the Israeli command, triumphantly announcing, "The Temple Mount (Har HaBayit in Hebrew) is in our hands."
The Temple Mount is where the First and Second Jewish Temples stood before being destroyed by Titus and the Roman Empire respectively; a mosque with the golden dome was illegally constructed there hundreds of years ago.
The Western Wall, erroneously called by some the Wailing Wall, is what remains of the Temples. Jews pray there day and night; others can visit virtually. Now the city is free and accessible to people of all religions; all religious sites are respected.
Last year in Jerusalem! This year in Jerusalem! And, as Jews have proclaimed for thousands of years upon concluding their Passover ritual meal and their final Yom Kippur prayer, "Next year in Jerusalem!"
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