Danny Ayalon sets out Israel’s claim to Jerusalem

Ayalon and the Truth about Israel advocacy organization which he founded, have just released the latest in its series of short video primers on the Israel-Palestinian Conflict.

By JEREMY SHARON
Danny Ayalon sets out Israel’s claim to Jerusalem in video The Truth About Jerusalem (credit: Danny Ayalon)
“Empires came and left, conquered, colonized and occupied Jerusalem, never turning it into their capital, while the Jews, Jerusalem’s indigenous people, continued living in and returning to Jerusalem despite the hardship and danger involved,” declares Danny Ayalon in his new video on the Holy City.
Ayalon and the Truth about Israel advocacy organization which he founded, have just released the latest in its series of short video primers on the Israel-Palestinian Conflict, this time on Israel’s capital, setting out the reasons the Trump administration would be justified in moving the US embassy to Jerusalem.
Ayalon, a former deputy foreign minister and ambassador to the US, lays out Israel’s historical connection to Jerusalem; the construction of the two ancient Jewish Temples in the city; the forced exiles first by the Babylonians and then the Romans; the ongoing Jewish presence in the city despite oppression by numerous regimes; and the yearning by Jews all around the world to return and rebuild it.
Ayalon also points out that no other nation other than the Jews made Jerusalem its capital throughout its long history, including Arab rulers, and the fact that Jerusalem has been a majority Jewish city since the middle of the 19th century.
 
“Jerusalem was always the center of Jewish life, even for those living far away in the four corners of the earth. Special fast days and rituals mourn the destruction of the city, and daily prayers express the hope of a full return,” Ayalon notes.
The real question, he concludes, is not why the US embassy should be moved to Jerusalem, but why it has taken so long to do so.