A letter to the World from Jerusalem

A Letter to the World

from Jerusalem

by Eliezer Ben Yisrael

I am not a creature from another planet,

as you seem to believe. I am a

Jerusalemite - like yourselves, a man of

flesh and blood. I am a citizen of my

city, an integral part of my people.

I have a few things to get off my chest.

Because I am not a diplomat, I do not

have to mince words. I do not have to

please you, or even persuade you. I owe

you nothing. You did not build this city;

you did not live in it; you did not defend

it when they came to destroy it. And we

will be damned if we will let you take it

away.

There was a Jerusalem before there was

a New York. When Berlin, Moscow,

London, and Paris were miasmal forest

and swamp, there was a thriving Jewish

community here. It gave something to

the world which you nations have

rejected ever since you established

yourselves – a humane moral code.

Here the prophets walked, their words

flashing like forked lightning. Here a

people who wanted nothing more than to

be left alone, fought off waves of

heathen would-be conquerors, bled and

died on the battlements, hurled

themselves into the flames of their

burning Temple rather than surrender,

and when finally overwhelmed by sheer

numbers and led away into captivity,

swore that before they forgot Jerusalem,

they would see their tongues cleave to

their palates, their right arms wither.

For two pain-filled millennia, while we

were your unwelcome guests, we prayed

daily to return to this city. Three times a

day we petitioned the Almighty: “Gather

us from the four corners of the world,

bring us upright to our land; return in

mercy to Jerusalem, Thy city, and dwell

in it as Thou promised.” On every Yom

Kippur and Passover, we fervently voice

the hope that next year would find us in

Jerusalem.

Your inquisitions, pogroms, expulsions,

the ghettos into which you jammed us,

your forced baptisms, your quota

systems, your genteel anti-Semitism, and

the final unspeakable horror, the

holocaust (and worse, your terrifying

disinterest in it) - all these have not

broken us. They may have sapped what

little moral strength you still possessed,

but they forged us into steel. Do you

think that you can break us now after all

we have been through? Do you really

believe that after Dachau and Auschwitz

we are frightened by your threats of

blockades and sanctions? We have been

to Hell and back - a Hell of your making.

What more could you possibly have in

your arsenal that could scare us?

I have watched this city bombarded

twice by nations calling themselves

civilized. In 1948, while you looked on

apathetically, I saw women and children

blown to smithereens, after we agreed to

your request to internationalize the city.

It was a deadly combination that did the

job. British officers, Arab gunners, and

American-made cannons. And then the

savage sacking of the Old City; the

willful slaughter, the wanton destruction

of every synagogue and religious school;

the desecration of Jewish cemeteries; the

sale by a ghoulish government of

tombstones for building materials, for

poultry runs, army camps - even latrines.

And you never said a word.You never breathed the slightest protest

when the Jordanians shut off the holiest

of our places, the Western Wall, in

violation of the pledges they had made

after the war - a war they waged,

incidentally, against the decision of the

UN. Not a murmur came from you

whenever the legionnaires in their spiked

helmets casually opened fire upon our

citizens from behind the walls.

Your hearts bled when Berlin came

under siege. You rushed your airlift "to

save the gallant Berliners". But you did

not send one ounce of food when Jews

starved in besieged Jerusalem. You

thundered against the wall which the

East Germans ran through the middle of

the German capital - but not one peep

out of you about that other wall, the one

that tore through the heart of Jerusalem.

And when that same thing happened 20

years later, and the Arabs unleashed a

savage, unprovoked bombardment of the

Holy City again, did any of you do

anything?

The only time you came to life was when

the city was at last reunited. Then you

wrung your hands and spoke loftily of

"justice" and need for the "Christian"

quality of turning the other cheek.

The truth is - and you know it deep

inside your gut - you would prefer the

city to be destroyed rather than have it

governed by Jews. No matter how

diplomatically you phrase it, the age old

prejudices seep out of every word.

If our return to the city has tied your

theology in knots, perhaps you had better

reexamine your catechisms. After what

we have been through, we are not

passively going to accommodate

ourselves to the twisted idea that we are

to suffer eternal homelessness until we

accept your savior.

For the first time since the year 70 there

is now complete religious freedom for all

in Jerusalem. For the first time since the

Romans put a torch to the Temple,

everyone has equal rights. (You prefer to

have some more equal than others.) We

loathe the sword - but it was you who

forced us to take it up. We crave peace -

but we are not going back to the peace of

1948 as you would like us to.

We are home. It has a lovely sound for a

nation you have willed to wander over

the face of the globe. We are not leaving.

We are redeeming the pledge made by

our forefathers: Jerusalem is being

rebuilt. "Next year" and the year after,

and after, and after, until the end of

time – "in Jerusalem!"

Ed. notes: This Letter - written by Eliezer Whartman

- originally appeared in the summer of 1969 as an

editorial in the long-defunct Times of Israel.

It is amazing how its words resonate so well 44 years

later. And it is so sad that these words still need to be

said after all this time.

As of today, no country in the world has its embassy

in the capital of Israel.

As of today, people and governments around the

world are still talking about dividing Jerusalem,

about sharing Jerusalem.

Although the US Congress has been gung-ho in its

support for moving the US Embassy to Jerusalem, it

is not happening. We appreciate the enthusiasm and

support of many US congressmen for Jerusalem

remaining the undivided capital of Israel...

But the fact remains that the United States of

America does not recognize Israeli sovereignty over

any part of Jerusalem, let alone considering it our

capital. Therefore, read this letter again and again

and share it with others.