Judea & Samaria - It's Jewish Because of Jerusalem

Without Zion, There Is No Zionism

Throughout two thousand years of exile, generation after generation of Jews prayed in the direction of Israel and Jerusalem with the sacred words: “Next Year in Jerusalem.” At the turn of the 20th century, the Zionist Congress discussed, and eventually ruled out, the possibility of establishing a Jewish State in Uganda.

The outcome of this discussion was the coining of a phrase that would ultimately determine the Jewish People’s future in their homeland: “There is no Zionism without Zion.” Incontrovertibly, one of the key historic moments in the annals of the State of Israel was the liberation of the Temple Mount and the Western Wall during the Six Day War, along with Judea and Samaria. Many Israelis still remember where they were when they first heard the exulted voice of Motta Gur (the Commander of the liberating Paratroopers) speaking into his radio: “The Temple Mount is in our hands! The Temple Mount is in our hands!” In every generation, Jerusalem and Judea andSamaria were seen as one land that Jews aspired to return to and build anew.The intertwined nature of Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria is the result of an interdependent relationship of millennia and the longing to return to “the Land of Zion and Jerusalem.”

Jerusalem – The Heart of Israel and the Heart of the Conflict

Jerusalem is surrounded on three sides (north, east and south) by Judea and Samaria, which protect and strengthen Israel’s capital. Without Judea and Samaria, Jerusalem will be surrounded by those who oppose freedom and it will replace Sderot as the new frontier in Israel’s war on terror.

In every round of negotiations, the PA has consistently demanded Jerusalem as the capital of a future Palestinian State. Yet Israel’s enemies have not relied solely on the outcome of negotiations. In recent years, quietly, steps have been taken to undermine Jerusalem’s status as a united capital. In Jerusalem’s eastern and western neighborhoods, thousands of Arab families have settled and built illegally, with the assistance of radical Islamist third parties.  International bodies such as UNESCO ignore history, archeological evidence and common sense to disconnect Jerusalem' holy sites from a Jewish connotation Today, more than ever, it is clear that without Judea and Samaria, Jerusalem is lost.