From Yerushalayim With Love

Name:
Location: Israel

Sunday, December 10, 2006

Land for Sale: Land for Peace, Land for Money

Whoever runs the State of Israel right now has enabled negotiations to take place to sell part of the Old City of Jerusalem to the Roman Catholic Church. Apparently, it's being done for the money - the revenue from the projected influx of Christian pilgrims.
Wouldn't it make more sense to sell to Disney or some similar corporation than to sell to a Religious Rival, a Competitor? (Is Mickey Mouse an idol? How about Snow White? Grumpy?)
Can Israel request in return a space set aside in Vatican City for the Diaspora Yeshiva, which will be displaced if the sale goes through? No? Well, would His Eminence have room for, let's say, a Shtiebl?

Don't our politicians know that the Land of Israel belongs to the Jewish People, not to governments elected for years or weeks at a time? Once a government has parted with Israel's territory, subsequent governments have a precedent to cite...
Sovereign soil is not for sale. Halacha prohibits it and common sense forbids it. You can't continually sell bits of your country or there'll eventually be none left. You can't sell land for peace and you can't sell land for money.

Selling off a piece of the Old City of Jerusalem is like chipping a fragment off an enormous diamond. OK, in exchange for the diamond you can get gold. And for gold you can get anything man can do, anything man can make. But man cannot make a diamond as big as the original. And man cannot make land.