SAVE JERUSALEM, SAVE THE WORLD: The Jerusalem Post sees the resolution of Jerusalem's status as a turning point in convincing Arabs that Israel is here to stay:

...The policy of refusing to recognize Israeli sovereignty over any part of Jerusalem, far from encouraging a resolution to the problem, is harmful to the cause of peace. It has encouraged the Arab world, and particularly radical movements like Hamas, to fuel fantasies of destroying the Jewish state.

Jerusalem, after all, for both Jews and Arabs, symbolizes Israel as a whole. Jerusalem was the capital of the ancient Jewish state, the site of the First and Second Jewish Temples, and the center of Jewish yearning over two millennia of exile.

It should be no surprise if many in the Arab world see success in denying Israel recognition in any part of Jerusalem as representing success in the campaign to deny Israel's right to exist.

The opposite policy - that of recognizing that Jerusalem, even if its borders are disputed, is Israel's capital - would have a proportionately positive effect on the prospects for peace: it would be taken in the Muslim world as further international rejection of the goal of destroying Israel. It is this goal that is the only real obstacle to peace; anything that contributes to its abandonment is an important step toward ending the Arab-Israeli conflict.

Bringing such a change in policy, however, would require an effort that would be truly...heroic.

Technorati Tag: Israel and Jerusalem.