Al Jazeera Rejects Iran’s Offer to Liberate Jerusalem
A few well-aimed verbal blows at an Iranian diplomat by an Al Jazeeera show host placed in bold relief the difference between Israel’s forward-looking vision and the Muslim world’s militant backwardness.
Host Feisal Al-Kassam was interviewing Iran’s Tamir Muswai when he suddenly broke into an agitated tirade: “You [Iranians] want to liberate Jerusalem? And what will you do with it? Will you join it to Baghdad, which the world sees as the filthiest capital in the world? Will you join it to Beirut, which has become the biggest garbage dump in the Middle East?… The Arab world tells you: ‘If you want to liberate Jerusalem for me, I don’t want you to.'”
The message is that, though the Arab world wants Jerusalem for itself, it knows that under Jewish Israeli sovereignty, Jerusalem represents accomplishment, beauty, prosperity and freedom.
For instance, it is a major draw for visitors from around the world. Over 3.1 million tourists visited Jerusalem in 2018, and close to 3.5 million in 2019. This is more than the total number to the countries of Lebanon, Iraq, Syria and Yemen combined. More than half the Arabs living in eastern Jerusalem said they would prefer to be citizens of Israel – and many others were scared to agree aloud, according to the mukhtar of Sur Baher, an Arab village in eastern Jerusalem.
Jerusalem under Israeli control has become a bastion of freedom and progress – freedom of religion and access to religious sites, growth in hi-tech and other advanced industry, architectural and ecological beauty, and a draw for visitors of all religions from all over the world.