If you are a generation removed from the Holocaust, just seventy years past, then it is understandable why the Jewish/Israeli people are concerned about the preservation of Israel’s very existence.
But for now leaders Benjamin Netanyahu and Mahmoud Abbas are focused on Earthly matters. Should the New Jerusalem become the centre of negotiations after contested settlements around Jewish and Palestinian States, it will be difficult for the world not to entrust Israel with a very heavy burden. That burden will be the light Jews have carried for many centuries. It will be upon the rock of tolerance for Palestinian neighbours, Islam and the respect for free worship that Israeli security and ultimately its future will be built. Not missiles or tanks.
It is also not hard to criticise Israeli government’s approach to dealing with Palestinian grievances. Israelis do it every day in political and social life.
Total victory over your opponent requires total destruction. Let one survive and it will re-establish growth to avenge and inflict retribution for past harm and defeats. Winning contested spaces by military means can attempt to be Machiavellian towards total destruction, or they can be concluded with compromise, and permit communities to move into a new peace. No country and its people can withstand a perpetual state of conflict with its neighbours.
If you also believe humanity today is a little bit wiser about this path of destruction then peace talks will eventually prevail.
The complexities of Jerusalem, with its very deep religious and political motivations are often hard to understand.
The New Jerusalem to most is a biblical concept. To others it is a dream and a hope. And to a few, a truth in waiting as the Holy Capital of the Kingdom of Heaven.
“I saw an angel of the Lord coming and saying to me: Trouble not thyself so greatly, concerning the salvation of Jerusalem.” (3 Baruch 1:3) The New Jerusalem will be the earthly location where all true believers will spend eternity with God. “
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| Al Quds “The Holy Sanctuary, City of the Temple” or Yerushaláyim "Abode of Peace" is the closest Humanity gets to Heaven. From the Divided Cities Series. 1991 |
Jerusalem should strive like all the divided cities to heal the wounds of their past. It should be given the chance to be unified but with a compassion for Palestinian desires to share this fabled city within an equal desire to make it the unified capital of Israel.
For all the glory of God and his ways there is still the Earthly solution to political failures. What the Lord gives the Lord can take back.
The economic crisis sweeping Europe is producing some serious political questions. One of which is how much isolationism is worth supporting before it becomes a hindrance to economic progress. Israel/Palestine can flourish, but a divided city reflects a divided land. The Levant just isn’t that big to chew it forever.
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