Vatican muscling in on Jerusalem

Vatican muscling in on Jerusalem
By Stan Goodenough

January 4th, 2006

The Roman Catholic Church says the Jewish state cannot be trusted to
exercise control over the city of Jerusalem – ancient and eternal capital of
the people of Israel.

In a statement whose arrogance and contempt he seemingly could not see, the
Vatican’s legal advisor in Israel, David Jaeger, told an international
conference in Haifa Tuesday that Jerusalem was too important a city to leave
in the hands of either “Palestinians” or Jews.

Jaeger’s view was that the status of Jerusalem required the approval of the
international community as a whole.

Ironically the Vatican, which claims to be spiritual home to one billion of
the world’s Christians, rejects the biblical stipulation granting
everlasting possession of ancient Canaan, inclusive of Jerusalem, to the
Jewish people.

Since 1947 it has sought to have Jerusalem internationalized, confident that
with Rome’s massive global constituency the pope will be able to exercise
substantial control over the city.

Jaeger is historically on solid ground when he says the Palestinian Arabs
should have no say over Jerusalem. The city has never been an Arab capital
and the “Palestinians” have no historic or national rights to it (or to any
other part of Israel’s biblical homeland).

The Jews, by contrast, have venerated the city as their holiest site for
over 3000 years. Israel is the only nation that has ever had Jerusalem as
its capital. During centuries of exile, Jews everywhere prayed daily to
return to Jerusalem in order to be able to once again worship their God in
this place.

Jerusalem is described in the New Testament as the “City of the great King,”
referring to Jesus of Nazareth who also bears the title King of the Jews.
The book of Revelation, foretelling Jesus’ return to Jerusalem, calls Him
the Lion of the Tribe of Judah – i.e. He remains Jewish.

In recent history, it has only been while under Jewish administration that
Jerusalem has flourished and that protected access to all of its holy places
(including Christian and Muslim sites) has been guaranteed.

Between 1949 and 1967, when the Arab kingdom of Jordan occupied the eastern
part of the city, the rights of Jews and Christians to visit their holy
places was restricted, sometimes denied. The Jewish Quarter of the Old City
was left to rot, its synagogues sacked and burned.

Despite this, the Vatican believes it should have a say that could deny the
right of the Jewish people to keep their beloved capital in their hands.
Copyright 2002-2004 Jerusalem Newswire

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I'm glad to see Stan Goodenough (a long lost relative - we both descend from Mayflower Pilgrims John and Priscilla Alden, as we discovered in his Jerusalem office where I went to meet him and present him with a copy of Beyond Babylon: Europe's Rise and Fall in 1995) speaking out strongly against the vile Vatican's designs on Jerusalem, and I agree that the Muslims can't be trusted to protect holy sites, and the Catholics can't be trusted, but Israeli rule hasn't guaranteed Christian and Jewish rights to pray or worship upon the Temple Mount as he very wells knows, having been taken into "protective custody" (just like I was once also) for trying to exercise his religious rights upon the Temple Mount.

The Third Temple on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem blog