Sunday, December 9, 2007

Jewish Freedom of Religion and Jerusalem

Sometimes religion and politics do mix and in some places in the world, they have no choice but to. Jerusalem is such a place. The generally held belief, however, of Jerusalem being equally holy to three religions is simply not true.

Unlike other faiths, Judaism has but one religious center in the world, and that place has remained so for some 3000 years. Jerusalem.

Whereas Christianity moved its religious seat from Jerusalem to "New Jerusalem" (aka, Rome) to "New Rome" (aka Constantinople/Istanbul) and so on, Judaism is under Biblical directives to never exchange its religious seat for any other.

Time and place have such profound meaning in Judaism.

And Islam does not embrace Jerusalem but rejects it for Mecca and Medina.

Therefore, the question of retention of Jerusalem in Israeli sovereignty is a matter of whether or not Jews have freedom of religious creed. Any attack on Jewish political rights to Jerusalem is perforce an attack on Judaism itself. Any expert on Judaism can tell you that.

There is a fear among many secular experts of International Law, that to rationally discuss this reality of Judaism, it to potentially stir up radicals on both sides of the Israeli/Palestinian issue. This argument, however, creates a devaluation of Jewish Human Rights even before the debate can begin. Only by discussing this matter openly, can a separation of church and state exist. Otherwise, all that exists is a separation of Jews from their own religious creed. And that is profoundly wrong, both morally and from the perspective of Jewish Human Rights. ...God may not like it very much either...

Therefore the hope of this blog is to open up discussion from both political and religious perspectives on Judaism and Jerusalem in order to lay a more solid foundation for lasting peace in the Middle East.

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