I refer to two recent articles about Israel titled, ‘Jerusalem is the Mother of all and not the lover of one’ and ‘Over 120 countries at the UN condemn Jerusalem decision’.

In the first article Fr Artemio Vitores, guardian of the Basilica of the Nativity, is quoted as saying: “If it [Jerusalem] is turned into the capital of Israel, or of Palestine, it will be an excluding action and there will not be room for others.” He is half correct. Jerusalem has been the capital of Israel since 1948, whether Syria, Bangladesh or Venezuela acknowledge it or not.

Its parliament is there as is almost every other government office. When meeting Israeli officials, all foreign diplomats come to Jerusalem. The US declaration changes no facts, only the location of its embassy.

However, Fr Vitores is completely correct that if Jerusalem became the capital of ‘Palestine’ it would be exclusionary. His concerns for Christians under Muslim rule are real.

In 1944, under British rule, Jerusalem had 29,400 Christians. When Israel united West with East Jerusalem in 1967 there were only 12,646 Christians, a 57 per cent decline when Jerusalem was under Jordanian (Muslim) rule.

In the 2015 census there were 12,400 declared Christians in Jerusalem, a stable population for 50 years under Israeli control since priests and nuns don’t have children to replace people who die.

This article noted that Christians in Bethlehem declined from 20 to 1.4 per cent under Jordanian and Palestinian rule.

Ramallah, the capital of the Palestinian authority was mainly Christian in 1948 and is now 90 per cent plus Muslim. Similar declines happened over the entire Muslim world because of the burning of Christian churches, the rape and murder of Christians and the looting of their shops.

Where are UN declarations about the treatment of Christians in Muslim lands? The Jerusalem issue is an excuse to divert attention and anger from the corrupt government of the Palestinian Authority and its aging dictator, serving his 13th year of a four-year presidency.

During the 19 years Jordan ruled Jerusalem’s Old City, it destroyed every synagogue in the Jewish Quarter, using their ruins to house horses and donkeys and used Jewish headstones as latrines. Jews were refused entrance to their Jewish holy places. Today, all holy sites are managed by their respective religion and are open to all, except for Temple Mount which is under Muslim control and they don’t allow Jews.

The second article claims, “More than 120 countries defied President Trump”. From 2012-15, of 97 resolutions passed about a specific country, 83/97 or 86 per cent were against Israel.

Wouldn’t you think issues concerning modern-day slavery in many Arab countries, women’s rights, North Korea’s threat to annihilate the US and Europe with nuclear weapons to be worthy of the UN’s attention?

No, because the UN is controlled by the “dark side” and suffers from a Jerusalem Delusion Complex.

One example is the UN Council on Human Rights. Of 29 countries the UN reported as retaliating against citizens that help the UN civil rights work, nine are on the UNCHR. This august body includes such human rights luminaries as Cuba, Venezuela, Cambodia, Nigeria, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Egypt.

Israel is the only democratic country between Cyprus and the Far East. It deserves far better support from other democracies around the world

The commission supervising human rights is substantially composed of countries with appalling human rights records.

So, who ‘defied’ Trump?

The above countries ruled by heartless and callous dictators who disregard human rights alongside North Korea, Iran, Bangladesh, Congo, Zimbabwe and Malta. Does Malta really want to be counted as supporting such oppressive dictatorships?

The article claimed the declaration “reversed decades of US policy”. Did it? In 1995 the US Congress passed the Jerusalem Embassy Act almost unanimously. It required the US embassy to relocate from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and recognised Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. That was 22 years ago. How did Trump implementing this law reverse policy?

Jerusalem consists of the Western part, which has been mainly Jewish since 1860 when the first settlement (Jewish) was built outside the city walls and the second in 1869. The area was a complete wilderness. It was never Arab territory, despite their total embargo of food and water to the city in 1948.

Jerusalem’s eastern section contains the Old City and houses built outside its walls by Jews, Arabs and Christians. It includes: the Jewish Quarter founded 1,200 years ago; Hadassah Hospital, built in 1934 by Jews and serving people of every religion throughout the Middle East; the Hebrew University, established 1918; and other Jewish institutions captured in 1948 when Jordan conquered part of Jerusalem in a war it started.

In 1967, Jerusalem was re-united after Jordan started another war by shelling West Jerusalem. How did they become ‘occupied territory’? Because Obama reversed US policy by allowing the UN to pass a resolution declaring them all to be ‘occupied territory’.

This whole furore is because the Arabs claim Jerusalem as their third holiest city and they must rule it, but it was only in Arab hands between 1948 and 1967. Jerusalem is mentioned in the Old Testament 669 times and appears in the New Testament 146 times. It is never mentioned in the Koran and was ignored by Islamic scholars for hundreds of years.

It is holy for Jews and Christians, and to turn it into the third holiest place in Islam it was necessary to interpret one phrase in the Koran – about Mohammed ascending to heaven from the ‘farthest place’ – meaning ‘the farthest place’ was Jerusalem.

Presto, this turns a Jewish and Christian holy place into a third place Muslim holy site. Mecca and Medina are Muslim holy cities. Why is the claimed third holy Muslim city equal to the holiest sites in Christendom and Judaism? Because naïve reporters continue to repeat Arab claims as gospel.

The “defiant” resolution, introduced by Yemen and Turkey, was passed by 107 non-democratic countries, 56 states of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation with the collaboration of the EU. Of 193 members, the UN has only 86 full-fledged democracies (Human Rights Watch). The resolution exposes the non-democratic nature of the UN, which is way past its use-by date.

Yemen, with three to four million people starving to death, feels its most important issue is where a US embassy should be located. Turkey, a police state whose dictator Erdoğan has imprisoned hundreds of journalists and over 150,000 citizens he claims triedto overthrow his government, attacks the only country in the Middle East where gay rights are recognised, freedom of speech is sacred, and a woman was elected Prime Minister.

Israel is the only democratic country between Cyprus and the Far East. It deserves far better support from other democracies around the world rather than their siding with corrupt and oppressive regimes only because they fear their Muslim citizens would turn violent.

Those who condemned the US decision to move its embassy to Jerusalem would do well to remember that countries, as well as people, are known by their friends as well as their enemies.

Howard Golden is a juris doctor from the University of Wisconsin in Madison Wisc.

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