What Occupation?

Events in Jerusalem the last two weeks have spiked public interest in the Arab-Jewish conflict in the Holy Land.  The usual sides are drawn and taken, the usual rhetoric is thrown around.

Anyone following the news with a cool head knows that a small gang of Arabs used the Al Aqsa mosque recently to hide weapons, before launching a murderous attack on Druze guards.  Subsequently the Israelis installed metal detectors to protect against a repeat performance, and the Arab Muslim leadership has mounted a rather ridiculous (so fatuous as to be comical) protest. Sadly, that protest inspired another Arab youth to slaughter a Jewish family in their own home, so it is not comical. At all.

The status of Jerusalem is interesting. It was a Jewish city for about 3,000 years. It was slated to be a neutral site in the 1948 UN plan, but when the Arabs went to war against the UN plan, they occupied it. During Arab occupation from 1948 to 1967, Jews were not permitted to access holy sites in Jerusalem.

Then in 1967 when the Arabs attacked Israel again, and lost again, they lost Jerusalem to the Israelis (probably forever.)  Since 1967 the Israelis have always permitted different faiths to worship at the holy sites. They still do, despite intense danger and provocation. Throughout, the Jewish presence in Jerusalem (and other West Bank territories) is called “the Occupation” by the Arabs, and by much of the world.

All of this inspired ThinkAnewActAnew decided to ask some different questions:

1. If the UN drew borders for a Jewish state and an Arab state in 1948.
2. And if the Jews accepted those borders, but the Arabs did not.
3. And if the Arabs have been at war to erase those borders, ever since.
4. Why does Israel have to keep on respecting those borders?
5. And why does the world blame Israel for violating borders that the Arabs say don’t exist?
6. And why does the world let the Arabs get away with calling it “an occupation”?