Love of the Land: A Peace of Obama's Mind

A Peace of Obama's Mind

Jay D. Homnick
American Spectator
19 March '10

There is a wall of sorrow
Standing in Jerusalem
Repentance, joy and knowledge
Are her adornments, her refrain,
You can build yet upon her
The foundations deeply lain
Though she's all that does remain…
The many travelers near her
Taking pictures, going home
Never see her sorrow
Never hear her moan
I've been to her midst darkness
And I almost passed her by…
She is our reminder
Her expression not quite stone
Her silence is her beauty
And her sorrow is our own…

-- Avraham Rosenblum
The Kotel Song, 1980

The last time I said Kaddish at the Holy Wall
I looked at those stones
At those holy stones
And I realized those stones are not made out of stone.
The holy stones are made out of tears
Tears of my father
Tears of my grandfather
And I looked at those holy stones and I saw six million little tears…

-- Shlomo Carlebach
I Heard the Wall Singing, 1968

Jerusalem is in the news again. Something to do with a few housing units being announced in a way calculated to anger Vice President Biden upon his arrival in Israel. An insult, said Joe, echoed by Hillary, amplified by Gibbs, magnified by Axelrod. No thought of the insult expressed by the visit of Biden, with Obama still loath to come in person after 15 months in office.
Putting the proximate cause of strife aside, a much larger issue emerges from this event. It is of utmost historical significance and is ignored at the peril of reality.

It is the notion that Jerusalem will be divided in a final peace treaty. This is now just short of explicitly accepted in all government and media discussions of the negotiating process. What is more, diplomats, bureaucrats and pundits have now begun to signal comfort in the expectation that the Arab half of Jerusalem will then become the capital of the Palestinian state.
This is one of those classic bits of myth that lodge themselves into otherwise reasonable crania but explode upon the minutest examination.

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Love of the Land: A Peace of Obama's Mind