Tens of thousands turned out for the annual Jerusalem Day march through the streets of Jerusalem to the Kotel. Along the way, we stopped outside the American Consulate on Agron Street for a mass protest rally against US President Hussein Obama’s pronouncements about dividing the Land of Israel and Jerusalem, G-d forbid.
The flag of American waved on the roof of the Consulate building behind the protest bandstand, where a large sign proclaimed: GOD GAVE ISRAEL TO THE JEWS! After Meir Indor, head of the Algamor Terror Victims Association spoke of the dangers of any further territorial compromise, speakers read a Declaration of Allegiance to a united Eretz Yisrael and a united Jerusalem, in Hebrew, English, French, and Arabic. As a oleh from America, I was asked to address President Obama in English. Holding a Bible in hand, I read out the following declaration:
JERUSALEM DAY DECLARATION
We have gathered here today, citizens of the State of Israel, to pledge our allegiance to Jerusalem, our eternal united capital, and to pledge allegiance to the entire Land of Israel. On this day which marks the reunification of Jerusalem, 42 years ago during the Six Day War, we proclaim to the President of the United States, to the people of the America, and to all the nations of the world, that we will not budge from our Holy City and our Holy Land!
In the words of our holy Rabbi, Rabbi Tzvi Yehuda HaKohen Kook, spoken to reporters on that very day, “We announce to all the world that by wondrous kindness of G-d, we have returned to our home, to our holy city. From this day forth, we shall never budge from here! We have come home!”
The L-rd God of Israel bought this day about. It was G-d who returned us to our Land and Holy City, and no man, no mortal of flesh and blood, however powerful he may be, Mr. President, can take these gifts of G-d from us.
Jerusalem is the eternal capital of the Jewish People, and the Jewish People alone. Jerusalem is the city of our kings, of King David and King Solomon, Jerusalem is the city of our HolyTemple, Jerusalem is the city of our prophets, the prophets of Israel, the prophets Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel.
In the words of Rabbi Kook, “We have come home through the wondrous acts of G-d. And the pinnacle of our homecoming is in our return to Jerusalem. All of the rulers of the world cannot alter this Divine historic fact. “The counsel of the L-rd endures forever!”
We make this declaration of loyalty to our beloved Holy City and to our G-d given homeland in affirmation of the word of G-d to the Jewish People as set down in the Bible, as it says: “And G-d appeared to Isaac and said, ‘Do not go down to Egypt; dwell in the Land that I have given to you. Live in this Land, and I will be with you and I will bless you, for to you and to your descendants I will give all of these Lands, and I will keep the oath that I swore to your father Abraham.’”
This book is our deed to the Land of Israel. The Bible - the eternal word of G-d. G-d gave this Land to the Jewish People. Therefore, on Jerusalem Day, we call out to the President of United States, and to the people of America, and to all the believers in the Bible the world over, to stand by us, the people of Israel, in defending the unity of our ancient capital, Jerusalem, and the indivisible unity our ancient, Promised Land.
President Obama, in the words of a great American, Martin Luther King, we call out in a loud, united voice, “WE HAVE A DREAM!”
We have a dream, Mr. President – a dream of 2000 years, as the Psalmist King David proclaimed in the Bible: “When the L-rd brought the exiles back to Zion, we were like those who dream.” For 2000 years the Jewish People dreamed of returning to our Holy City, and now that G-d has brought us back, we will never budge from here! We will never budge from here! We will never budge from here!
Therefore, we, the People of Israel, call out in a loud united voice, just as King David proclaimed in the Book of Psalms: “If I forget Jerusalem, may I forget my right hand; may my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth; if I don’t remember and set Jerusalem above my greatest joy.”
On this joyous day, during our celebration of the unification of Jerusalem under Jewish sovereignty, we appeal to United States President Obama, and to our friends and allies, the American people, with a holy request and a warning. Help us fulfill the promise of G-d to the Jewish People. Stand by us in making Jerusalem the undivided capital of the Jewish People forever. For, as the Bible promises, whoever blesses the Jewish People will be blessed, and whoever wrongs them will be damned forever.
