While the media are hyperventilating over the fist bump in Saudi Arabia, former U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman blasted Biden's trip to Israel, saying it was "insulting and humiliating for Israel."
First, President Biden refused to go to the Western Wall. Then he told Israeli officials that he was going to a hospital in East Jerusalem and that no one from the Israeli government could join him on the trip. Imagine if a foreign leader was visiting places in the United States and insisted that no one from the U.S. government could accompany him or her!
But it gets worse. When Biden went to East Jerusalem, they took the Israeli flag off the presidential limousine. That might not seem like a big deal, but the Israelis certainly noticed and didn't appreciate it.
Whenever the President travels to another country, it's customary to have the U.S. flag and the flag of the host nation, in this case, Israel, on the presidential limousine. But when Biden's staff removed the Israeli flag, they were sending a clear message that they didn't recognize Israeli sovereignty over East Jerusalem.
Once again, powerful people in Washington seem to want to divide Jerusalem. No Israeli government can allow that, and American Christians should be mortified that an American administration is pushing such an insane idea. It's not going to happen.
Jerusalem has never been the capital of any nation other than the Jewish nation of Israel. Prior to that, it was a backwater province of some conquering power — whether it was the Roman empire or the Ottoman empire.
Jerusalem has never been the capital of a "Palestinian state" or of an Arab-Muslim nation. Efforts to deny the history of Jews in Jerusalem are also an attack on the biblical account of Christ's ministry.
The only time when the three major faiths — Judaism, Christianity, and Islam — could worship freely in peace in Jerusalem has been when Israel exercised sovereignty over the city.
President Joe Biden also said his model for peace is a "two-state solution based on the 1967 borders." In 1967, East Jerusalem was occupied by Jordan. The Western Wall, the holiest site in Judaism, is located in East Jerusalem.
Jerusalem is the eternal, undivided capital of Israel. There is no Israeli government — left, right, or center — that will surrender Israeli sovereignty over any part of Jerusalem. At JDFI, we unequivocally stand for and with Israel and ask that you pray with us for this divinely appointed nation.
