Category Archives: Hillel Fendel

Open Letter to Prime Minister Netanyahu and the new unity Government on Jerusalem

Dear Prime Minister Netanyahu and the New Unity Government Ministers,

As you finally usher in this unity government, many crucial challenges face you: the fallout from the Corona pandemic, existential security challenges, a difficult economy, and more. However, one challenge stands out in particular: Jerusalem.

This week we celebrate 53 years of the liberation of Jerusalem, yet there are still significant threats that are facing our united Capital: terrorism – over 5,000 attacks or attempted attacks over the past five years alone; demographics – Arabs have grown to some 40% of the city’s population, many of whom are hostile; delegitimization – forces that deny Jerusalem’s Jewish roots and legacy; and rampant illegal Arab construction – with tens of thousands of such units in Jerusalem today.

The new government, under your leadership, must make Jerusalem a top priority – not only in word, but in deed – especially given today’s unique geo-political and health reality.

In this letter, our organization, Im Eshkachech-Keep Jerusalem, which deals in advocacy, education, and policy research, sums up for you FIVE of the major challenges and opportunities now facing Jerusalem, as well as the broad steps we recommend you take in the coming period.

Jerusalem Passing Corona Challenges with Flying Colors!

So how’s Yerushalayim faring during these harrowing Corona days?
At these times, it doesn’t take much to see that Jerusalem continues to live up to its reputation as a city of kindness.
In Jerusalem, as in Haifa and Be’er Sheva, Magen David Adom has established drive-in testing centers that can process “hundreds to thousands” of people a day. With malls and markets, such as the famous Machaneh Yehuda shuk, closed down, Mayor Lyon announced that the municipality would establish a “virtual mall” for Jerusalem businesses. In addition, a loan fund for up to 100,000 NIS is being established. And more…
But it’s impossible, even now, to ignore the political front. When the Corona crisis began to get out of hand in eastern Jerusalem, the Palestinian Authority wished to show that it, and not Israel, was in charge. But it crossed a red line when it began distributing health instructions via buses sporting the PA logo – as the Oslo Accords forbid the PA from operating in Jerusalem. Israel arrested the Jerusalem Fatah leader who organized the campaign, and Israel Police began forcefully breaking up gatherings larger than the permitted size.
Until the world realizes that Jerusalem the Holy is the eternal capital of the Jewish People, our struggle continues: We must ensure that Yerushalayim remains united under Israeli sovereignty, with a large Jewish majority – as indicated by history, ethics, security and simple logic.

The Geneva Initiative: Replacing One Futile Plan with Another

More than 16 years after the publication of the Geneva Initiative delineating a physical border in the heart of Jerusalem, those who dreamed it up are having second thoughts.

The division of the Holy City, according to the Geneva plan, would be underscored with three border-crossing points between Israel and the Arab state smack inside the city – unimaginable and unworkable. And in fact, the Israeli team continuing to work on the plan now admits that the original initiative is “irrelevant,” and now proposes keeping Jerusalem as an “open” city, capital to two states at once. They acknowledge, however, that they do not know how security could be maintained under such an arrangement.

Yet they continue to present this option as if it were realistic. A jointly-run Jerusalem would have to be isolated from the rest of Israel by tight borders in order to assure that people and goods from the Arab state not cross freely into the Jewish State. Similarly, the city would be separated from the “mainland” Arab state – and Israel would have to rely on the PA security forces to oversee the crossings there.

True, Jerusalem today is an open city to both Jews and Arabs. But they all live and work under one clear sovereignty; they know that Israel is boss. This would not be the case with shared sovereignty.

In this light, let us note the welcome and blessed expansion of Jewish neighborhoods. Work on tripling the size of Nof Tzion, south of the Old City, has been briskly underway for the past few months.

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.

Our “Next Year in Jerusalem” Will Outlast Their “Blood and Fire”

Some things never change. In honor of the 32nd anniversary of its first murderous terrorist attack, the Islamic Jihad announced, again, that Jerusalem will remain their “eternal capital”: forever, no matter what the cost.

Actually, Jerusalem was never an Arab capital for even a day in its long history! As we must continue to explain until the message has been spread far and wide, Jerusalem has no religious significance in Islam – and its political significance is on a “use and dispose” basis.

Just last week Jewish visitors filmed a PA garbage truck emptying its contents there – precisely at the spot where stood the Ezrat Nashim [lit., Women’s Section] when the Holy Temple was extant.

Imagine the Jews, citing Moses and the Old Testament, claiming that Moscow or New York is its “eternal holy city” and that they will never abandon their goal of rendering it its everlasting capital! Such an assertion has as much validity as the Islamic claim to Jerusalem.

The Islamic Jihad was formed in Gaza in 1981 with the stated objective of destroying Israel. Two of its founders are wanted by the FBI for their role in conducting IJ’s terrorist activities.

Iran’s Sinister Role
When Prime Minister Netanyahu speaks of the great danger posed by Iran, he is not referring only to the country’s nuclear ambitions. He means also the terrorist bodies that Iran has supported and continues to fund all over the Middle East, and not only against Israel. The many thousands of rockets and missiles ready to be fired at Israel from both Gaza and Lebanon are largely due to Iranian funding and support.

But in truth, everything begins and ends with Jerusalem – and the Muslims know this as well. Record numbers of tourists continue to visit Yerushalayim, record numbers of Jews and others visit the Temple Mount, and in general the city is so profusely flourishing that even the majority of Arabs in the area prefer to be registered as residents of Israel and not the Palestinian Authority. With hard work, faith, courage and optimism, our festive “Next year in Jerusalem!” prayers will outlast their fanatic zeal to kill, and die, and kill some more, simply to destroy the success that is the Jewish State, Israel.