Jerusalem: Jewish and Islamic takes

 

I was at a neighbors celebrating Yom HaAtzmaute (Israeli Independence Day) and watching an Israeli broadcast of the ceremonies at Herzl's tomb.

During the ceremony one of the speakers read Psalm 137 that is set "on the rivers of Babylon". In the song the psalmist writes

If I forget you, O Jerusalem,
    may my right hand forget its skill.

May my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth
    if I do not remember you,
    if I do not consider Jerusalem my highest joy.

We were driven to Babylon in 597 BCE* (much as the Cherokees were driven from the eastern US to Oklahoma centuries later) and the psalm was sung shortly thereafter.

Mohammed was born on 12th day of Rabi-ul-Awwal in the Islamic year of 571 (according to http://www.amaana.org/prophet/milad.htm); that translates into a Julian calendar date of 30 September 1175 (per http://www.sizes.com/time/cal_islam.htm).

That would "strongly suggest" that the link Jews and Judaism have with Jerusalem is far older than Islam.

Jerusalem, while not Judaism's only "holy city" (Hebron, Tiberias, Tzfat/Sefad are others), is Israel's capitol and is "the" most holy. "From Tzion (Israel) comes the Torah, and G-d's word from Jerusalem."

The main holy places for Muslims are respectively: Mecca, Al-Madina or Yathrib ( both of them are in Saudi Arabia ), Jerusalem or Al-Quds as it's called in Arabic. (http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_are_the_holy_cities_of_Islam)

Even when Bavil (Babylon) dominated Jewish learning, rabbis received s'mekah (ordination) only in Israel.

Jews have been in Jerusalem since before David selected it as his capitol; the city never has been without Jews, even when the Temple was razed by the Babylonians and Romans and when it was captured by the newly created-by-the-British kingdom of Jordan (a true "Palestinian" state).

To be fair, Moslems have shared Jerusalem for centuries; but they never occupied it exclusively, and their connection to the city is less by several thousand - thousand - years compared to Judaism's history with the city.

The Moslem's attachment to Jerusalem is a mosque they had the chutzpah to build on top of the remains of the Temple, showing total disregard for the "other" people of the Book. Modern Moslems are no different. When Jews left Aza (Gaza), they left homes, hot houses, and synagogues - that the Moslems promised to respect. Today, the homes are hovels, the hot houses are destroyed, and the synagogues desecrated.

Jerusalem is Israel's capitol; it is not a city to be divided ever again, not by POTUS, not by force of arms.

* BCE = Before Current Era

Yohanon