Seventy years ago, in the spring of 1948, the nation of modern Israel declared her independence. This year the celebrations are expected to be bigger than ever, thanks to America’s current President. Here is the reason.
Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs first alerted the world on February 25th that the United States planned to officially relocate its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem to coincide with Israel’s 70th anniversary.
In actuality, some staff was expected to move to an interim location like the present Jerusalem Consulate. A permanent embassy in Jerusalem is said to be still in the planning stage and will take time to complete.
According to a USA Today March 4, 2018 story, President Trump was even considering being in Jerusalem for the occasion.
Guatemala announced plans to move its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem as well.
Multiple Dates, Take Your Pick
Poster From Past Israeli Independence Day
The nation’s Independence Day will be observed in Israel on the 19th of April this year. For Israelis, the day actually began at sunset on Wednesday the 18th. And a torch-lighting ceremony Wednesday night kicked off the festivities.
But, on the Roman calendar, the 14 of May marks Israel’s 70th anniversary — not the earlier date corresponding to the Hebrew days and months.
The San Diego Union Tribune newspaper covered this in its article, “Date of U.S. Embassy move to Jerusalem shows how even the calendar is complicated in the Middle East“. The article said,
“And to complicate things further, Palestinians observe the day of catastrophe on May 15, the first day of the new state’s existence rather than May 14, the day independence was declared.”
According to the newspaper, a Palestinian official tweeted that relocating the US embassy on May 14th would add “insult to injury.”
Past and Present
Jerusalem, along with the territory surrounding it, is a problem beyond any human ability to permanently solve.
For starters, the predominately Muslim Palestinians at best, regard the Israeli Jews as intruders in the land where the Palestinians resided in 1948 and still view as theirs. To them, it is and was a big world out there, and the Palestinians don’t see why they should have to be the ones uprooted.
Israeli Jews, on the other hand, see the situation quite differently. Their families who migrated to the area after suffering waves of terrible massacres in other nations over many centuries — including the millions of Jews transported to the death camps of World War II — felt having their own homeland again was crucial to survival. And if not there, where?
Jewish and Christian students of the Bible also look at the territory as the very place God Himself promised and gave to the Israelites long ago.
Additional Hindrances
Other issues add more layers of complexity to the long drawn out on-again off-again negotiations. Several, like land division, continue to be front and center.
Entwined with the entire process, have been the struggles for political power — by those seeking to be on top individually, as a governing entity, and on the greater global stage.
Control of the sites sacred to each of the three main religions has remained one of the negotiating topics. No surprise there.
However, a bigger issue is the unspoken but infinitely more complicating matter of each group’s beliefs about the end time. If you want to learn more about that, read our ITN article, “August 25, 2014 ‑ Middle East”.
Photo Credits: Old City by Etienne Valois, License: CC BY-NC-ND 2.0; Poster photo by Benjamin, License: CC BY-NC-ND 2.0, Banksy Dove photo by Neil Ward, License: CC BY 2.0.
