2.27.2007 | "The Judaization of Jerusalem"

Now there's an odd phrase. Being old-fashioned, I always thought that Jerusalem started as a "Jewish" city: The City of David. As in King David. As in the unifier of Israel and Judah, around 1000 BCE. Jerusalem is where David's son Solomon built the first temple. For this reason alone the city has been central to the Jewish people ever since.

The phrase, from a United Nations functionary, is part of a complaint against there being any Jews in the Middle East. This is reported on by Anne Bayefsky at NRO with the only slightly exaggerated headline, "Jews Seek Racial Domination!". The Cliff's Notes version: The United Nations is an organization dedicated to completing the task of genocide. This time, by accusing the Jewish people of genocide because, among other things, Israel has built a wall to keep terrorists out. The money quotation from the UN functionary:

"The Wall being built in East Jerusalem is an instrument of social engineering designed to achieve the Judaization of Jerusalem…"

Perhaps "genocide" is too extreme. Yet this word routinely pops up when the "human rights" brigades start their goose-stepping.

[As an aside, it seems that whenever you see soldiers goose-stepping, as in, say, Iran's armed forces, you can bet your bottom dollar that they are in the service of a totalitarian regime.]

From Ms. Bayefsky's article, a sample:

The primary tool of the U.N.’s point-man for whipping up modern-day anti-Semitism is to pillory the Jew as racist extraordinaire. Israel is the evil equivalent to apartheid South Africa. Referring to apartheid 24 times in his report, he proclaims: “Israel’s laws and practices in the OPT certainly resemble aspects of apartheid.” He fails to mention, predictably, that one-fifth of Israel’s population is Arab — citizens who vote and hold seats in the Israeli parliament — while Arab countries are Judenrein. And Israel is the apartheid state?

I am pleased that someone else has noticed that when the Arabs scream about those racist Jews, they themselves are not troubled by having Jews living among them. For the simple reason that, with very limited exception, after the creation of Israel in 1948, Jews were kicked out of their ancestral homes in Arab nations, or left before being kicked out. Or killed.

I wonder if those Jews, and their descendants, can sue for a "right of return" in the various Arab lands that kicked them out? If memory serves, approximately the same number of Jews left Arab lands as Arabs left what became Israel. But, when it comes to Jews, who's counting?

From a Christian perspective, it is essential that all of Zion be in-gathered into what is the modern state of Israel. And within Israel, Jerusalem, the place of our Lord's Passion, death, and resurrection. Not to mention that Jesus was a lineal descendant of King David.

Finally, the care and keeping of the Jews is a holy task for Christians. They are our brothers, and we must be ever mindful that "he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep" (Psalm 121:4).