I no longer have HBO, and therefore no longer watch “Real Time With Bill Maher.” I don’t really miss it, I can watch the highlights on YouTube if I want to. Most of the time I agreed with Maher, but once in a while his opinions are erroneous or simply supercilious.

I read that on Friday evening’s show, he took Israel and Donald Trump’s side by supporting the premise that Jerusalem is now the capital of Israel.

“I hate to agree with Donald Trump, but it doesn’t happen often, but I do. I don’t know why Israel — it has been their capital since 1949, it is where their government is. They’ve won all the wars thrown against them. I don’t understand why they don’t get to have their capital where they want,” he said.

Maher’s claim is that when you win a war, you get to keep the land. If this was entirely true, Germany, Italy, and Japan would be part of the United States.

What Maher is referring to is the Arab Israeli War in 1948, prior to the United Nations recognizing Israel’s statehood. Israel did keep much of the embattled land. However, Jerusalem has always been claimed by three religious entities; Muslims, Christians, and Jews. For Trump to support Israel’s claim to Jerusalem as its own is literally an insult to the two other religions.

In 1,000 B.C.E., King David took control of Jerusalem and it was under Jewish control. During the Crusades, the Ottoman Empire took control of the city and ruled over it from 1517 until 1917. Islam was now the primary religion practiced in Jerusalem.

In the Tora, Jerusalem is said to have been the location where Abraham nearly sacrificed his son, Isaac. Issac’s son, Jacob, who later took the name ‘Israel,’ claimed Jerusalem as the capital and the future of all Jews, and “the site that the Lord your God will choose from among all your tribes, as a place established in His name.”

According to the Quran, Jerusalem is the location where the Prophet Muhammad ascended into heaven and talked to God in the seventh century.

For Christians, Jerusalem is where Christ was crucified and died on Mount Golgotha. The spot where he ‘rose from the dead’ is now the cite of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Jerusalem is located about 50 miles away from Bethlehem, where the Christ child was born.

Maher is very wrong when he claims that Palestinian leaders refuse to negotiate peace in the region. It is Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who refuses to enter into serious negotiations with his neighbors. This is centered around the fact that Israel and the United States are two of the last countries who refuse to recognize Palestinian’s request for statehood. Nearly every nation in the United Nations sides with the Palestinian people.

I hope that Mr. Maher reads this and learns something. I am fully aware that he is anti-Muslim; a little education won’t hurt; much.

Op-ed by James Turnage

SOURCE

Image courtesy of DonkeyHotey

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