Letters to the Editor: Readers react to the UNESCO resolution

One wonders what the result would be were Iran to sponsor a resolution calling on UNESCO to recognize Islam as the only valid global religion.

By LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Letters (photo credit: REUTERS)
Letters
(photo credit: REUTERS)
The recent United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization vote (“UNESCO: No Jewish link to Temple Mount,” October 14) can have no real practical effect in that it does not change the facts of biblical history or the archeological findings scientifically supporting the rich Jewish history of the area. The caveat arises if one examines the deeper meaning of the vote and the effect it will have on the countries that voted in favor or abstained.
Votes in favor of the resolution deny the Christian scriptures that make very strong references to the Temple Mount. Supporting the resolution is inexplicable behavior from supposed Christian countries such as Russia, Mexico, Nicaragua and Nigeria, in actually denying the fundamental basis of their state religion.
The abstention by Argentina was in contravention of that country’s constitution, which says the state must support Roman Catholicism. The abstention casts doubt on the Christian narrative, the very basis of the Roman Catholic religion. Other countries with Christianity as a state religion that abstained may have done so to avoid alienating their Muslim communities.
But this conduct by Christian countries actually goes much deeper and can have far-reaching repercussions: It buys perfectly into the Islamic narrative that Islam is the only true religion.
One wonders what the result would be were Iran to sponsor a resolution calling on UNESCO to recognize Islam as the only valid global religion, with Jerusalem and the Palestinian people at its center.
PETER BAILEY
Hod Hasharon
As UNESCO has decided to deny that the Jews were ever on the Temple Mount, I guess the 2 billion Christians around the world will have to rethink the story of Jesus overturning the tables of the money changers at the Temple.
The suggested narrative, apparently, is that there was no Temple; therefore, no tables and maybe even no Jesus.
GERALDINE THEMAL
Kiryat Tivon
Should the ruling by UNESCO be accepted at face value, it is tantamount to saying that the Jews don’t exist. If that’s the case, for a people that isn’t here, we have surely gone through some major tribulations and successes over thousands of years.
UNESCO and all the other UN bodies can no longer be considered arbiters of rational thinking.
Along with such anti-Israel/Jewish bias, they should be considered what they clearly are: complete nonentities that shouldn’t exist.
STEPHEN VISHNICK
Tel Aviv
The Holocaust and what preceded it were a challenge to our survival based on a denial of our humanity. The BDS movement and what has preceded it have culminated in the latest monstrous lie, which is again a challenge to our survival, this time based on a denial of our identity and our heritage.
But there is a positive side to the UNESCO monstrosity. First, it clearly separates those nations for which truth has meaning and must be respected, from those guided by hatred and those guided by avarice, cowardice and opportunism. Second, it is to be hoped that the move will represent a clarion call to Jews all over the world, but especially in Israel, demanding that we define our own identity.
This means taking a stand vis a vis our heritage and our history in order to decide who we are, who we want to be and who we should be.
GEORGE S. MOSCHYTZ
Jerusalem
Your October 13 editorial “UNESCO on the mount” is an interesting example of contradictions.
It starts by condemning UNESCO for questioning Jewish connections to the Temple Mount as foolish and political. Then it discuses the endless determination of the Arabs to establish this lack of connection. The Arabs seem to have the strange belief that history will affect who has the right to control the Old City.
In spite of all this wisdom, the writer goes on to state that Jewish claims to ancient findings mean nothing with regard to Israel’s right to sovereignty. That this is in direct contradiction to what was previously said in the same editorial does not seem to at all bother the writer, who states that the sovereignty of no other nation has ever depended upon archeology.
This might be true, but it could be because no other nation has ever come back to its homeland? Does the writer believe it is a coincidence that millions of Jews have come to this very land? Could they all have been confused about where to go? Does the writer really believe that the entire world having called Palestine a Jewish land for endless years does not affect our right to sovereignty?
HARRY RESNICK
Kfar Saba
It is worth quoting the Talmud, which advises us that when the Sanhedrin voted unanimously to condemn to death an accused murderer, he was acquitted. But I forgot: UNESCO has denied its existence, exactly like the burning of Jewish books throughout the ages by those who sought our total destruction.
It is this open, old-fashioned antisemitism that I believe will lead the free world (or what is left of it) to realize that it now has to choose between gangsterism or sustainable democracy – death and destruction or rule of law.
KALMAN BOOKMAN
Jerusalem
Imagine voting on whether the Temple Mount and Western Wall are Muslim! They are not Muslim in any way. The Temple enclaves existed long before a Muslim was ever born. The fact that the Muslims have unbelievable political power does not permit them to rewrite history.
It is time for UNESCO, which has become an agent of Muslim theology and political power, to be disbanded. It has no place in this world. There must be no more funding. Let it die peacefully.
BATYA KOENIGSBERG
Jerusalem
UNESCO decided that Israel and the Jews have no ties with the Temple Mount because it is still working on the basis that the earth is flat.
HENRY ISRAEL
Jerusalem
A dear friend has said that UNESCO stands for Unelected Nobodies Expressing Stupid Conclusions Outrageously.
MICHAEL PLASKOW
Netanya
Prior to the vote, in “UNESCO to vote today on resolution that denies Jewish ties to Temple Mount” (October 13), you quoted the Israeli ambassador to the UN body, Carmel Shama-Hacohen, as writing: “These facts and evidence will leave no doubt” as to the “deepest and longest Jewish presence in Jerusalem since ancient times.” But it is the way that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu relates to facts on the ground that is important.
It should be made clear that the Temple Mount, Judaism’s holiest site, is and always will be controlled only by the Jewish people, as should all of our holy sites, thereby leaving no doubt as to the ownership of this land.
In all that he does, Netanyahu denies our legitimate claim to the land, and in his arrogance, he refuses to accept responsibility for all the misery this brings. He takes the coward’s way out. He folds and makes concessions to the enemy, and hunts down any Jew with the faith and courage he lacks.
PHYLLIS STERN
Netanya
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s original pithy criticism of the dastardly UNESCO resolution – that it might just as well have denied the link between peanut butter and jelly – would, I believe, have been better and more accurately and strongly stated had he compared it to denying the link between peanut butter and peanuts.
YERUCHAM REICH
Jerusalem