Author Elie Wiesel has thrown his weight behind the AIPAC, WJC and ADL campaigns to try to get the Obama administration to change course on what looks to be a tense spring and summer for the US-Israel relationship.
Wiesel weighed in with an ad in today’s Washington Post in which he did his best to reverse what the New York Times described yesterday as the “far-reaching shift” shift in how Washington sees the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and its impact on U.S. security interests in the region.
Suspiciously, the ad was run after last week’s reports (hat tip to Didi Remez!) that Benjamin Netanyahu had personally appealed to Wiesel to use his influence with Obama to get the administration to back off U.S. demands that Israel halt settlement construction in Arab East Jerusalem and take other steps to launch a credible peace process. (Remember that the WJC ad was apparently cleared by Netanyahu in advance.)
Wiesel’s ad suggests how desperate the Israel Lobby here — and perhaps Netanyahu, too — has become. An op-ed by Elie Wiesel shouldn’t find much difficulty getting published in any major newspaper, including the Post and the Times. Apparently, Wiesel and his backers felt either that a full-page ad would make more of a splash or the Post and the Times found his piece less than compelling.
Wiesel makes unsupportable claims like,
Today, for the first time in history, Jews, Christians, and Muslims all may freely worship at their shrines. And, contrary to certain media reports, Jews, Christians and Muslims ARE allowed to build their homes anywhere in the city.
About access to Islam’s most sacred Jerusalem site, the al Aqsa mosque, however, A March 29th report from AFP contradicts Wiesel’s assertion.
Police said Muslim men under the age of 50 and all non-Muslims were from Monday barred from entering the compound — which is sacred to both Muslims and Jews. Police did not say when the restrictions would be lifted.
Authorities have also tightened restrictions on access to Israel from the occupied West Bank, closing checkpoints to general traffic.
The restrictions on the Palestinian territory are to be lifted on April 6 after the conclusion of Passover when Jews commemorate their biblical exodus from Egypt. The holiday begins at sunset on Monday.
And one cannot help but be struck by the similarities in the way Wiesel describes the relationship of Jews to Jerusalem and how Serbs feel about Kosovo.
Of Jerusalem, Wiesel writes:
For me, the Jew that I am, Jerusalem is above politics. It is mentioned more than six hundred times in Scripture—and not a single time in the Koran. Its presence in Jewish history is overwhelming. There is no more moving prayer in Jewish history than the ones expressing our yearning to return to Jerusalem. To many theologians, it IS Jewish history, to many poets, a source of inspiration. It belongs to the Jewish people and is much more than a city, it is what binds one jew to another in a way that remains hard to explain.
Compare that to an article in the Christian Science Monitor from October 2007, in which Robert Marquand wrote,
For Serbians, Kosovo is not just a territory It is an epic poem, a deep pool of collective heroic memory, a cradle of religious and national identity dating to the 14th century – even if it is now 90 percent Albanian, dominated by a language that 99 percent of Serbs can’t understand, and hasn’t been controlled by Belgrade for nearly a decade.
In this proud Balkan capital, the idea of losing Kosovo has never quite taken hold, experts say. It was always a blurry future issue. Now, with Dec. 10 fast approaching, European and US diplomats and nongovernmental organizations hope that local politicians will prepare the public for a change, and focus on Serbia joining Europe.
But the most telling part of the ad is Wiesel’s statement that “Jerusalem is above politics.”
Perhaps for Wiesel Jerusalem really is above politics. But he should open his eyes and see that he is being coached, prodded and co-opted by individuals and groups whose mission is clearly political — recognition of the annexation of occupied territory that virtually every country in the world, including the United States, considers a violation of international law.
Debra DeLee, president of Americans for Peace Now, responded to Wiesel’s ad and his claim that Jerusalem is not a political issue.
I would have loved to agree with you that Jerusalem is above politics. Perhaps, as a transcendent symbol, it is. But Jerusalem is not just a Jewish symbol. It is also a holy city to billions of Christians and Muslims worldwide. It is Israel’s capital, but it is also a focal point of Palestinian national aspirations. It is home to some 400,000 Israeli Jews, but also to more than 200,000 Palestinians. It is a city of people and of traffic jams, of playgrounds, of sewer systems, hospitals, schools and monstrous housing projects. It is a city in which Israeli Jews and Palestinian Arabs, with conflicting national narratives and aspirations are entangled in an untenable embrace of enmity.
The rest of her letter is well worth reading and can be viewed here.
Oh come on. The Al Aqsa Mosque is freely available for worship 99% of the time. The Israelis restrict access when they are worried about riots.
Hey RZ, that’s not fair. The Israelis don’t want chaos, the want an all Jewish city. Now, they use chaos to deal with the Palestinian problem; though if the Palestinians would kindly exit the scene we could have peace in Jerusalem. They are much more moderate than their forbear Joshua.
This line is truly distasteful:
“[Jerusalem] is mentioned more than six hundred times in Scripture—and not a single time in the Koran.”
(‘So what?’ one might reply.)
Weisel has exactly one purpose in mind when he points to
the attachment of Jews to Jerusalem: to proclaim exclusive ownership.
“It belongs to the Jewish people.”
And so, by implication, he means that it belongs to nobody else.
It’s an utterly disgusting reasoning; there’s no other way put it.
Patrick, the claim is not true. The Koran recounts the midnight flight of Mohammad from Mecca to Jerusalem, further Jerusalem is referenced many times as the sacred city and in other terms.
But, one can also argue that the Koran says “there is no God.” It says “there is no God but God,” but technically they are correct.
If Wiesel and all these other Jewish people feel such an attachment to Jerusalem, why don’t they go there? Personally, I’d be glad to be rid of all these zionists, they are far more trouble than they’re worth.