Mecca & Jerusalem

[50_RiaL]

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4jNVtlUkgg]Why Palestinians don't like this video. - YouTube[/ame]

 

[TheOldSchool]

While I support Israel...

I have to say that's clearly one of the stupidest, most super-biased videos I've ever seen. And on top of that the publisher uses poor grammar and corny ass music???

My goodness. Both sides just keep throwing wood into the fire.

 

[waltky]

Granny says, "Dat's right - Jerusalem belongs to the Jews - dat's why dey call it Jew-rusalem...

Mayor says Jerusalem can't be split
Sep 3,`13 -- Jerusalem's mayor presides over perhaps the most complicated city in the world: deeply divided between Arab and Jew, religious and secular, rich and poor, and claimed as a capital by both Israelis and Palestinians.

But Nir Barkat, a successful former high-tech entrepreneur and venture capitalist, told The Associated Press that Jerusalem is thriving like never before and in a re-election pledge insists the key to success is keeping its various fragments united. With peace negotiators discussing the potential future partition of Jerusalem, Barkat emphatically says the city can't be split and urges negotiators meeting in Jerusalem Tuesday to take any such talk off the table. "It will never function, it will never work. It is a bad deal," he said during an interview in his office at City Hall. "Doing a bad deal is worse than no deal."

Jerusalem is Israel's largest city and its 800,000 residents are split almost evenly among secular and modern Orthodox residents, Muslim Palestinians and ultra-Orthodox Jews. The Arab population lives almost entirely in east Jerusalem, the sector captured by Israel in 1967 and claimed by the Palestinians as their capital. Elected in 2008, in a victory seen as a backlash against ultra-Orthodox control of the city, Barkat claims to have stopped the exodus of tens of thousands of secular Jerusalemites, invigorated cultural life in the city and improved quality of life for the city's Arabs. But it remains one of the poorest cities in Israel. Barkat, who is seeking a second five-year term in October, laid out his goal of maintaining Jerusalem as "the center of the world" - a city that is open and accessible to all.

Drawing on the city's ancient history, Barkat said Jerusalem has always been at its finest when it allowed all those who entered its gates to feel equality and a sense of belonging. He said Jerusalem had to go "back to its roots" and rediscover what made it so special. "Jerusalem of 3,000 years ago was not divided into tribes. All people that came to worship ... at the Temple felt that Jerusalem belonged to them as much as it belongs to everyone else and that feeling created a very special atmosphere of belonging," he said. "There is only one way this city can function - it is a united city that all residents and visitors are treated honestly and equally. It is the only model."

Before turning to politics, Barkat was the first chairman of Checkpoint Software, a leading maker of computer security technology, and an Israeli business magazine recently ranked him as the country's richest politician with an estimated net worth of roughly $125 million. Barkat earns a symbolic salary of one shekel a year and drives his own car to work. Israel captured east Jerusalem, home to key Jewish, Muslim and Christian holy sites, from Jordan in the 1967 Mideast war and annexed the area in a move that has not been recognized internationally. The fate of Jerusalem remains at the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. While past peace talks have discussed partition options, Israel's current prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, says that is out of the question.

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[waltky]

Uncle Ferd a big fan o' her - he thinks she's a honey...

Nikki Haley: U.S. Embassy move in Israel 'absolutely the right thing to do'
Dec. 10, 2017 -- U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley is defending President Donald Trump's plan to move the U.S. Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

Asked on Sunday's Face the Nation program on CBS why -- given the violence and tension in the Middle East -- this is a priority and in America's best interest at this point in time, Haley replied, "This is a move the American people have asked for for 22 years and, six months ago, the Senate overwhelmingly again asked for the embassy to be moved." She went on to say every recent presidential candidate -- regardless of his or her political party -- has recognized Jerusalem as Israel's capital and agreed the U.S. embassy should be located there. "President Trump is the only one who had the courage to actually do that," Haley said. "What this does is basically do what we do in almost every other country, which is put the embassy in the capital city and Jerusalem is where the prime minister is, the president is, the parliament, the supreme court. It makes sense for our embassy to be there."

U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley appeared on Sunday's "Face the Nation" and defended U.S, President Donald Trump's plan to move the U.S. Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.​

Interviewer John Dickerson pressed further on why Wednesday's announcement needed to be made now and if the move is worth the violence it has sparked. Haley countered: "Because it is the right thing to do. It is absolutely the right thing to do. "Look, for the last 22 years, everyone around every president has said, 'Just wait, just wait, just wait.' And President Trump is not going to wait any more," Haley said. "It's the right thing to do because it is just reality. Jerusalem is the capital of Israel. They have said that. When the American people say they want something, it is their will that we are supposed to follow."

She said Trump avoided speaking last week about boundaries and borders in the region because the final status of Jerusalem is between the Palestinians and the Israelis to determine. "It's not for the Americans to decide, so we are doing what we do in every other country. Israel should be no different and then we are going to continue to support the peace process," she said. "Courage breeds leadership. What you saw, was you saw a courageous move by the president. And, of course, any time you have to use courage, any time you have to go against the status quo, you're going to have people saying, 'The sky is falling.' But the sky is not falling. If anything, what we are going to see is both sides are going to come to the table. They are going to decide what they think Jerusalem should look like and we are going to support that process."

Nikki Haley: U.S. Embassy move in Israel 'absolutely the right thing to do'