The debates continue: Haaretz reports yesterday (not for the first, or last time) on World Jewry’s role in Israeli Peace concessions, most specifically over Jerusalem, and who should control what percentage of it. Israel, as most know, is unique in that it represents many things – both religiously and culturally – for millions of Jews (and Christians, and Muslims) throughout the World. To many diaspora Jews, including myself, Jerusalem represents Israel in it’s entirety, as well as the apex of our religion. We daven in her direction; on Pesach we exclaim: b’shana haba b’yerushalayim, next year in Jerusalem!

We are invested in her wellbeing; we visit her whenever we can; we care so, so deeply. So certainly, many argue, diaspora Jews should have a say in how Israel negotiates our beloved city. Notably, as the Haaretz article points out, organizations throughout the diaspora (mostly in these United States) have spoken out against PM Ehud Olmert’s willingness to let Jerusalem go. The Orthodox Union, for example, “called on the Israeli government not to alter its stance on Jerusalem several times.“

But is it our place to say what Israel can or cannot do? If we are so invested in Israel and her cause, many Israelis wonder, why don’t we make aliya and fight for tzahal? In response to the ongoing argument, last week PM Olmert replied that the “question was determined a long time ago, and the Israeli government has the sovereign right to negotiate on behalf of Israel.”

I understand both arguments being made – though clearly I side with one in particular. While Olmert insists that because diaspora Jews are not in themselves Israeli citizens, they should have no role in Israels decisions. Of course, in the case of any other government or state, that would be completely reasonable. Were any country to tell the uber-proud U.S. of A. how to handle their foreign policy or internal affairs, we would probably blacklist them.

Israel, however, is no typical government or state – for several reasons: within her territories, as previously noted, lie the holiest sites of the Abrahamic religions – no other country has that scenario, or dilemma for that matter. Further, Isarel continues to be a specifically Jewish state. So that while non-Jews can and do reside within her boundaries, Israels first and primary purpose was to serve as a “national home for the Jewish people” (Balfour Declaration, 1917).

Former Israeli minister Natan Sharansky (whom I was fortunate enough to hear speak at IU several weeks ago,) recently created the group “One Jerusalem” which opposes the Government plans. Sharansky commented beautifully:

“In matters that pertain purely to security,” Sharansky said, “I accept that anyone who does not live here [Israel] does not need to interfere, and that in order to have that right, one also must bear the obligations. But to say that this is so regarding Jerusalem is, in the best-case scenario, a matter of national ignorance. The link between the Jewish people and Jerusalem is our moral justification for the State [of Israel], and there is no way to give that up. The link to Jerusalem and yearning for Jerusalem is something that unites Jews across generations. It is the basis for religious and less-religious Jews.”

Last March I spent ten days in Jerusalem, attending a conference but also taking in the sights and sounds of a people and city whom I love so much. I found myself one night, at nearly 2am, walking through the streets of the old city with a few friends. The beauty of a silent night within the gates of a city which has such magnificent history for our people, surrounded by walls and stones thousands of years old, it became all the more clear to me that Jerusalem was the defining piece in Israels puzzle. She is that which defines so many of us and consequently we must never, ever let her go.

אִם־אֶשְׁכָּחֵךְ יְרוּשָׁלִָם תִּשְׁכַּח יְמִינִי

Tonight, and every day, pray for Jerusalem.

שַׁבָּת שָׁלוֹם