This was written and posted on the morning of June 1, Israel time. Sadly – in vain.
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For President Donald Trump, today is Jerusalem Decision Day.
Over and over, to millions and millions of people whose vote he was after, this man pledged emphatically and unequivocally that, should they make him president, he would immediately move the United States Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
It’s something his supporters really, really wanted. They greeted his repeated pledge – which almost became a mantra – with loud cheers, exuberant applause and standing ovations.
They believed him.
They believed him and they dismissed his sneering opponents who scoffed and said, “It’s what all presidential candidates have promised for years and years. You’ll see. Donald Trump will find an excuse and a reason not to make good on his word.”
Will these detractors and naysayers be vindicated? Is the man who bowled along through the most upsetting election campaign in American history – with his vow to change everything drawing out of their homes to vote multitudes of disaffected and PC-cowered citizens, blowing his opponents out of the water and leaving pollsters and pundits in wrecked disbelief in his wake – is he really going to be like all the others on this crucial issue?
We’ll know today. Today – on June 1, 2017, come 11:59 pm, we will know if they were right.
Today he has to decide whether he will sign a waiver postponing the embassy’s relocation to Jerusalem – a move that will recognise the city as the capital of the Jewish state – or whether he will stay his hand and allow the relocation to go ahead.
He has another important decision to make today – in fact as I write this the news networks are poised to go the White House and hear whether President Trump is going to stay with the Paris Accord on Climate Control or pull the US out of it.
But the climate issue pales into total insignificance alongside the Jerusalem one.
Why is it so important? Leaving the Bible aside for just a minute (if I dare) – it is important because America’s position on Jerusalem is a measure of how moral and just the United States is – or is not.
Jerusalem belongs to the Jews. It just does. It has for thousands and thousands of years. Again, I’m not talking about what the Bible says. I’m talking about history – archeologically verified history. The city was the capital of the nation for centuries when it dwelt in the land, when it was a free kingdom and when it returned from captivity to become a free kingdom again. It was its capital even when the Land of Israel lay inside the Roman Empire – until they destroyed Jerusalem in AD 70 and ploughed it into the ground in AD 135. And it remained their capital in the hearts of the exiled Jews for thousands of years after they were driven out of their land. Every day, for the past 2000 years, every Jew who has prayed has prayed to return to the land of Israel and to the city of Jerusalem. That’s hundreds of millions of devoted prayers. The Jewish people bound themselves to the city and bound the city to themselves, pledging their oath of allegiance from Psalm 137: “If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget its skill! If I do not remember you, let my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth—if I do not exalt Jerusalem above my chief joy.”
Barely escaping the unrelenting and unprecedented efforts to annihilate them, the Jews came back – to the coastal plain and the Negev, to the Golan and the Galilee, to Samaria and Judea, and to Jerusalem.
From the mid-19th century, Jews were the majority population in their city, and they have been the majority now for 170 years. In 1948 their new government was installed in half of the city, and in 1967 – in a war of self-defense – they drove the occupying Jordanian forces from the rest of Jerusalem and united it under the Star of David.
In fact, right up into the 1960s, when a terror group brutally championing the cause of a fabricated nation calling itself “the Palestinians” came along, no other nation has ever laid claim to Jerusalem as capital nor sought to make it capital. Not one.
Jerusalem is the Jews’.
Bringing the Bible in: The name of Jerusalem appears in the Jewish Bible (the Tanach or “Old” Testament) 610 times.
It appears not once in the Muslim Koran.
Therefore:
– No faith other than the Jewish faith sees Jerusalem as capital.
– No nation other than the Jewish nation has ever had Jerusalem as its capital
– No other nation than the nation of Israel has any historical claim to Jerusalem as capital.
And despite this irrefutable fact, NO other nation apart from Israel has its designated capital rejected by the international community.
There is one word for that – Anti-Semitism.
To try explain a decision NOT to move the US Embassy to Jerusalem by saying that another group also has a claim to the city and that that group and those who support it could respond with violence would be to make a pathetic and cowardly excuse.
Is Donald Trump a man of his word? Will he do what is, simply, right? Or will he sign the waiver and put off moving the embassy for the 43rd time, as all presidents have done since 1995?
Today we will know.
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Dear Stan, dear responders.
Of course we want the good thing to happen. We hope this world will change its mind about Israel and the God of Israel. We hope that there will be peace with Arab states. We hope that President Trump will allow the American embassy to be in Jerusalem. The Arabs don’t believe in the God of Israel and President Trump made clear, that he hasn’t a personal relationship with God. Now you know, like I do, that when you don’t accept God to be your Father, you stay under the influence of THE enemy. God said that, particularly in the last times, he will blind those who don’t want to obey Him. Even when they want to do the good thing, they will go in the false direction. President Trump is thrilled with Israel and He likes the Jews very much. As a businessman, He likes the way the Jews made their country and how they prosper. And because he want to do the good thing, he thinks he can’t move the embassy now, because the peace with the Arabs is on stake. He wants to do good, but he can’t.
Not the Jews made their country. God gave it to them. He opened a few windows in time, where he made it possible for Israel to come into existence. But even in those times, the world did not change. God worked though believers, individuals, like Mr. Balfour, to have influence on leaders. The Balfour Declaration in 1917 was such a window. But soon afterwards British politics changed. It got worse and worse. The Jordanian army, that fought against Israel in de war of independence in 1949, was led by British officers.
Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help. His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; in that very day his thoughts perish. Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the LORD his God. Psalm 146:3-5.
Why does God blind the unbelievers? Only God is worthy to receive the honour and the glory for liberating his people and the establishment of the state of Israel. No one else.
Do you want to change things for the good for Israel? Look up to Him Who can help. Pray to him without hesitation and steadfastly. He will do what is necessary and then in one way or another he will use you to do real things for the best of Israel and the world.
So sad… I fear the US State dept etc ‘got to him’ – far more than any anxiety about war etc… He has another 6 months to learn the folly of his mistake otherwise I fear he will not get a second term. Broken promises are bad enough. Broken promises on Israel have serious repercussions. Thankfully the Almighty is in control and Jerusalem remains the City of the Great King no matter what the nations do or think!!!
Stan, all American Jews and Christians must contact Mr. Trump and let him know just how disgusted and disappointed we are about him going against his word and betraying our greatest ally, Israel! If he expects our continued support and respect, he has to correct this grievous mistake and prove himself as a man of his word!
Stan, I agree with every word you said. But he has only been President for less than 5 months and I am trying to give him the benefit of the doubt. I think that most of us who voted for him saw someone different. We saw an honest man who loves his country and he loves Israel. Maybe he’s not who we thought. But we still can hope and pray.
Every President of the USA prior to Trump, has been a “friendly foe” of Israel. I pray that this President will not be the same as the previous Presidents were. I advise everyone who voted for this man, to write to him and let him know that moving the embassy to Jerusalem was a main reason you voted for him.
We all know there can NEVER be peace. Not until the Lord returns! Does Trump realized that? Does he really believe he can bring peace? Or is he playing a game at this point and just playing along and doing as the elites want him to? Time will tell. PRAY! He is surrounded by evangelical christian’s who are supposed to be advising him. I surely hope they are sharing God’s Word with him about Israel.
We are already at war and have been for 69 years. No – my own conviction is that this is the first issue he needs to deal with. NOT dealing with it only perpetuates the state of war we live in. Not to draw too many comparisons, though I can draw some, but the reasoning behind Chamberlain’s giving of the Czech’s Sudetenland to Hitler was that it might help to bring about peace. Hear me well – I am not joining those attacking your president. I am not firing off angry words in his direction. I just know that four presidents before him have given the same “reason” for signing the waiver – that it could detrimentally affect chances for peace between Israel and the Palestinian Arabs. What America’s leadership needs to accept (and I had hoped that after more than a quarter of a century of accumulated unassailable evidence this president would make his approach to the Middle East knowing this) is that there is NO CHANCE for peace between Israel and these Arabs if it is predicated upon feeding the Arab belief that they will get part of the land of Israel for their state and part of Jerusalem for their capital. This isn’t going to happen because, simply, the ingredients for such a peace agreement do not exist. Tell me – who will give the United States victory in its wars? Not Donald Trump. Those victories, if they come, will be given by God. It is a biblical principal that the nation that blesses Israel will be blessed by God. You want the Lord to grant you victory in your wars against ISIS and Islamic terrorism and an expansionist aggressive Russia etc? Stand unequivocally with Israel. Not as a neutral referee between Israel and the Arabs, but squarely on Israel’s side. This is the key.
Announcing the move, the White House insisted it did not represent a weakening of his support for Israel. “While President Donald J. Trump signed the waiver under the Jerusalem Embassy Act and delayed moving the US Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, no one should consider this step to be in any way a retreat from the President’s strong support for Israel and for the United States-Israel alliance,” the White House statement said.
The White House said the president still stood by his promise to move the embassy.
“President Trump made this decision to maximize the chances of successfully negotiating a deal between Israel and the Palestinians, fulfilling his solemn obligation to defend America’s national security interests. But, as he has repeatedly stated his intention to move the embassy, the question is not if that move happens, but only when.”
“It’s a question of when, not if,” an official said, adding that Trump “doesn’t think the timing is right, right now.” The official added: “In timing such a move, he will seek to maximize the chances of successfully negotiating a deal between Israel and the Palestinians.”
We must remember, timing is everything. Donald Trump is God’s choice for President of the USA. I believe with all of my heart that the reason he had to be President, is for Israel’s sake.
President Trump is dealing with an awful lot since he took office less than 5 months ago. It’s almost unbelievable how this man and his administration is under constant attack not only by liberals, and the media, but by his own party!
I still believe that he will move the embassy, but not until other issues have been dealt with. The USA can not deal with several wars at a time. And you do realize that once that embassy is moved to Jerusalem… there will be war.
Shame on you Mr President, I voted for you because I thought you were a man of your word.
There goes his, “Believe me, I will do it.”
Mr. President, today…DO NOTHING and US Public Law, the will of the American people, JUSTICE, is finally realized for Jerusalem. This may be the most important thing you DON’T DO in your presidency.