By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion....If I forget thee, O Jerusalem

THE REAL NEWS TODAY IS THAT PRESIDENT TRUMP IS KEEPING HIS PROMISES -- TODAY IT'S JERUSALEM. The news this week has been full of President Trump's alert that he will soon announce that the US Embassy in Israel will move from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. • • • US RECOGNIZES JERUSALEM AS ISRAEL'S CAPITAL. Fox News notes that the move ends the long-time policy that Jerusalem's final statues would be determined by peace talks. President Trump on Wednesday announced that the United States recognizes Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, saying that every country has the right to determine its own capital. The President ordered the State Department to begin moving the US Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv, a move that fulfills a campaign promise made to religious conservatives, but one that could inflame tensions across the Middle East. In his announcement, Trump said that the US government recognizes Jerusalem as the capital of Israel as an honest acknowledgement of a seven-decade old fact. While President Trump recognizes that the status of Jerusalem is a highly sensitive issue, he said that he does not think it will be resolved by ignoring the simple truth that Jerusalem is home to Israel’s legislature, its Supreme Court, the prime minister and as such the capital of Israel.” • President Trump's decision makes the US the first country to move its embassy to Jerusalem, which is claimed by both Israelis and Palestinians. Other countries who have diplomatic relations with Israel seem determined to keep their embassies in Tel Aviv. The embassy move will not be immediate and could take three or four years. There are currently about 1,000 personnel in the embassy in Tel Aviv to consider, as well as there being no facility in Jerusalem ready to serve as the embassy site. • Before President Trump's announcement, Middle East leaders, French President Macron have advised President Trump against officially recognizing Jerusalem as Israel's capital. And, ahead of the announcement, Trump spoke Tuesday with Palestinian President Mahmood Abbas, Jordanian King Abdullah and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has said he supports the US moving its embassy. President Trump also reportedly called Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sissi and Saudi King Salman to inform them of his decision.But Abbas has warned of the “gravity of consequences” should the move become official for “the peace process and security and stability in the region and world.” An international affairs advisor for Abbas said that the move “totally destroys any chance that he [Trump] can play a role as an honest broker” in Middle East peace negotiations. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned that moving the capital was a “red line” for Moslems, and such an action could result in Turkey severing diplomatic ties with Israel. • The controversy surrounding the move of the embassy dates back decades. A law passed in 1995 under the Clinton administration considers Jerusalem the capital and mandates the move of the embassy. But the law allows for a loophole used by former Presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama -- an option to issue waivers every six months to delay the move from Tel Aviv. Trump also used the loophole, which Republicans have long called to be closed. Trump’s first waiver was signed in June, which drew praise from the Palestinians and some disappointment from Israel. Administration officials told Fox News on Tuesday that Trump will still sign a waiver to keep from jeopardizing State Department funding while the relocation process begins. • • • THE MOVE TO JERUSALEM IS FULL OF RISKS AND REWARDS. Both sides in the conflict, Israel and the Palestinians, claim parts of the city as theirs, but various Old Testament prophets pronounced woes upon those who would “divide” the land. On Tuesday, WND wrote : "President Donald Trump is getting ready to do something big and risky in the Middle East -- something no other President has dared to do. So big, and so risky, that it could either spark a new Palestinian uprising, or lead to the long coveted but elusive peace pact that every president since Jimmy Carter has tried to broker." • President Trump reportedly has the backing of Saudi Arabia, home of Islam’s most holy mosque, to make this move. He quoted from his speech to the Arab world in the Saudi Arabia meeting earlier this year in calling for Jews, Christians and Moslems to put aside terrorism and work for peace and a "beautiful future." • This is a clear sign of the coalescence of a new Trump initiative to take charge in the rudderless Middle East and to zork towzrd a real Israeli-PAlestinian peace. Both the New York Times and the Jerusalem Post have reported on a new Israeli-Palestinian peace deal that the Trump administration is said to be close to rolling out that would have backing from Saudi Arabia. Under the plan, the Palestinians would receive limited sovereignty, Israel would remain in the vast majority of its settlements, and Egypt would deliver to the Palestinians a slice of the northern Sinai to go along with Gaza. The new capital of “Palestine” would be in Abu Dis, a suburb of East Jerusalem. While Saudi Arabia has denied it is backing such a plan, Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas was said to be “visibly upset” and scrambling to contact Arab and European leaders to tell them to pressure Trump to back off from both the embassy move and the radically re-oriented peace plan. But, the anti-Trump NYT reported on Tuesday that : “The news on Friday that Mr. Trump would recognize Jerusalem as the Israeli capital suggested that ideas once considered beyond the pale are now seriously being considered.” In addition, regional officials told the NYT they believe the 32-year-old Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman might be willing to try to force a settlement on Palestinians in order to garner Israeli cooperation in a potential upcoming war against Iran." • Laurie Cardoza-Moore, president and producer of the pro-Israel Proclaiming Justice to the Nations, told WND she has not heard that the decision to move the embassy to Jerusalem is in any way tied to a new peace plan, adding, “If it is, it will upset the Evangelical Christian base” of President Trump that is excited about the President’s plan to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. • Clare Lopez, vice president for research and analysis for Washington-based Center for Security Policy, said she is suspicious of Saudi intentions in cozying up to Israel, but she believes the budding relationship could help Israel in the short run : “I am inclined to support the Trump-Saudi initiative -- not because I think it will succeed (it can’t, as long as Islamic doctrine obligates the killing of Jews and re-conquest of all land ever held by Moslems), but rather because it is a sober, thoughtful and generous plan and because it will once again expose the jihadist regimes in Gaza and Ramallah for exactly what they are.” Lopez believes Trump’s pledge to move the US embassy to Jerusalem is part of that overall strategy, with the objective being to counter the Iranian regime’s aggressive regional expansion and support for Islamic terror organizations like Hamas and Hezbollah : “I think the President has analyzed the situation correctly and concluded that the most critical, immediate threat to the national security of the US, our foremost ally in the region, Israel, and Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states, is Iran." Lopez expects extreme push back to Trump’s plans for the embassy move by anti-Israel elites in the media, the federal bureaucracy, NGOs and in academia : “I think President Trump knows this and is already strides ahead of them all. Besides which, he is a tough and determined champion for American interests first -- and standing with the Jewish State of Israel and its eternal & undivided capital in Jerusalem is simply the right thing to do for the US.” • • • THE TRUMP MIDDLE EAST PLAN AND PALESTINIAN INTRANSIGENCE. Thomas Lifson wrote in American Thinker on Wednesday that : "Once again, President Trump proves that he is no ordinary politician, and exposes the nature of the DC Swamp. Every recent President has promised to move the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem as a candidate, only to fail to deliver. But not President Trump! He alone has the guts and the honesty to start to deliver." This point, says Lifson, matters not only to evangelical and Jewish supporters of Israel, but to every American sick and tired of Washington, DC politics-as-usual. It tells us in the most direct possible way that BS walks, and Donald Trump delivers." • Trump’s speech on Wednesday recognized that protests may follow, but he was firm that all parties in the region must accept the reality of a peace that is acceptable to every party. That, according ot Lifson, will not prevent #NeverTrump skeptics from warning that today’s words are just words, and actions are needed that may or may not happen. Lifson says : "Time will tell, and if Trump doesn’t deliver, his image as a truth-teller, not a mealy-mouthed politician, will suffer even greater damage than his predecessors." • The unending barrier to peace is what Israeli diplomat Abba Eban famously called the Palestinians' ability to “never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity.” The “peace process” has proven again and again to be futile in the face of the Palestinians’ goal of destroying Israel. But, #NeverTrump Republicans and their Progressive brothers are clueless. Lifson points out the title of a Brookings Institution article -- ”Why is Trump undoing decades of US policy on Jerusalem?” • They have already been burning Israeli and American flags in Gaza. There will be street demonstrations all over the Middle East (and no doubt elsewhere in the Moslem world from Indonesia to "Londonistan" and "SanFranistan" as some conservative writers call Western centers of radical islamic terrorism appeasement). • Hamas, the most belligerent Palestinian terror group, is calling for a “day of rage” Friday, urging Palestinians to protest President Trump’s plan to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital. Hamas, designated a terrorist organization by the US, encouraged Palestinians in an official Arabic statement to send a message “with all available means” to Israel after the upcoming Friday prayers. It added that making Jerusalem the Israeli capital was crossing a “red line” : “We call on the people of Palestine to declare ‘rage day’ on Friday against Israel, denying the US plan to move its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. The youth and the Palestinian resistance in the West Bank need to respond with all means available to the US decision that harms our Jerusalem. Jerusalem is a red line and the resistance will not allow any desecration of it.” Senior Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh also called upon people to stand against efforts to “Judaize” Jerusalem, according to the official group account in Arabic. Hamas’ English social media accounts, which tend to offer a watered-down version of hostile statements, said the Palestinian leadership urges Palestinians to organize “demonstrations” against Israel and the US. • We have so often repeated the historical fact that Jerusalem has been the capital of the Jewish people for three thousand years that is is useless to repeat it. But, suffice it to say that Hamas may call the Holy City "our Jerusalem" as part of every muezzin call to prayer -- that will not erase the fact that Jerusalem is Israel's -- and the Jewish people's -- capital. If Palestinians and their Moslem supporters want to worship at the holy site of Islam in East Jerusalem, they need to admit this fact. • Hamas has also called on Palestinian factions to declare days of anger on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday and to hold demonstrations in cities and in front of Israeli embassies and consulates. According to Hamas’ charter, which outlines key principles and policies, the terror group aims to establish a state of Palestine “with Jerusalem as its capital” and states that “not one stone” of the city can be given up : “Jerusalem is the capital of Palestine. Its religious, historic and civilizational status is fundamental to the Arabs, Moslems and the world at large. Its Islamic and Christian holy places belong exclusively to the Palestinian people and to the Arab and Islamic Ummah...Not one stone of Jerusalem can be surrendered or relinquished. The measures undertaken by the occupiers in Jerusalem, such as Judaization, settlement building, and establishing facts on the ground are fundamentally null and void.” • Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Monday that moving the capital was a “red line” for Moslems. But, Erdogan has moved Turkey so far into the radical islamic column and so badly damaged Turkey's democratic constitution that his words were to be expected and ignored. • Pope Francis predictably called for the “status quo” of Jerusalem to be “respected” in advance of Wednesday’s announcement by President Trump : “I make a heartfelt appeal so that all commit themselves to respecting the status quo of the city in conformity with the pertinent resolutions of the United Nations. I cannot keep quiet about my deep worry about the situation that has been created in the last few days,” adding that he wishes “wisdom and prudence prevail in order to avoid adding new elements of tension to a global panorama that is already convulsed and marked by so many cruel conflicts.” The Pope perhaps ought to "keep quiet" himself. He has supported the two-state solution but has been a clear supporter of Palestinian Authority positions; during his 2015 visit to Israel he made a highly politicized tour of the Bethlehem side of the security barrier that was built to end deadly Arab suicide bombings that maimed and murdered so many Israelis and called PA president Abbas an "angel of peace." • • • THE JOY OF RECOGNITION. President Trump stated in his speech that he recognizes that the status of Jerusalem is a highly-sensitive issue, but he does not think "the peace process is aided by ignoring the simple truth that Jerusalem is home to Israel’s legislature, supreme court, President, and Prime Minister." President Trump recognized that "the specific boundaries of Israeli sovereignty in Jerusalem are subject to final status negotiations between the parties." President Trump reaffirmed "United States support for the status quo at the Temple Mount, also known as Haram al Sharif." He said that he is committed to achieving "a lasting peace agreement between Israelis and Palestinians" and is "optimistic that peace can be achieved....Delaying the recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel has not helped achieve peace over the past two decades." The President said he "is prepared to support a two-state solution to the dispute between the Israelis and Palestinians, if agreed to by the parties." • Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded to the President’s announcement with the acknowledgment of the deep significance of the day : “This is a historic day. It’s been the capital of Israel for nearly 70 years. Jerusalem has been the focus of our hopes, our dreams, our prayers for three millennia. Jerusalem has been the capital of the Jewish people for 3,000 years. It was here that our temples stood, our kings ruled, our prophets preached,” Netanyahu said. “From every corner of the earth, our people yearned to return to Jerusalem, to touch its golden stones, to walk its hallowed streets. So it’s rare to be able to speak of new and genuine milestones in the glorious history of this city. Yet today’s pronouncement by President Trump is such an occasion. We’re profoundly grateful for the President for his courageous and just decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and to prepare for the opening of the US embassy here. This decision reflects the President’s commitment to an ancient but enduring truth, to fulfilling his promises and to advancing peace. The President’s decision is an important step towards peace, for there is no peace that doesn’t include Jerusalem as the capital of the State of Israel. I share President Trump’s commitment to advancing peace between Israel and all of our neighbors, including the Palestinians. And we will continue to work with the President and his team to make that dream of peace come true. I call on all countries that seek peace to join the United States in recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and to move their embassies here. I also want to make clear : there will be no change whatsoever to the status quo at the holy sites. The Jewish people and the Jewish state will be forever grateful. This has been our goal from Israel’s first day. Israel will always ensure freedom of worship for Jews, Christians, and Moslems alike. President Trump, thank you for today’s historic decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.” • In the Jewish Press on Wednesday, David Israel scolded the Jewish Reform Movement for the same flaw Pope Francis displays -- the Reform Movement could not "just keep quiet." Their statement, tied to their Progressive positions, criticized President Trump, saying he was just "proclaiming" what everybody already knew, that the President's announcement “affirms what the Reform Jewish Movement has long held : that Jerusalem is the eternal capital of the Jewish people and the State of Israel.” • David Israel asked : "Why can’t the Reform be happy for just one day that the connection between the Jewish State and the eternal city of the Jewish people has been acknowledged by the leader of the free world? You’re not crazy about President Trump? The rest of us would also rather have received this recognition from President Truman, same day he recognized the State of Israel. Either of the Bushes would have been fine, too, same for Reagan. And Clinton? We would have gone gaga had Bill Clinton stood up and told the world Jerusalem is the capital of Israel. Would have been cool had Obama made this announcement. But they didn’t, so we’ll take Trump, gladly, gratefully. Why can’t the Reform, just for today?" • David Israel went on to make a very serious point : "They called his expected announcement “ill timed,” as if there is a good time to reverse 2,000 years of Replacement Doctrines, both the Christian and the Moslem. Because that’s what this is about, make no mistake: if the Jews are acknowledged universally as the sovereign power in Jerusalem then this is it -- it’s our city, it’s our country, it’s our national and religious history back on track. Makes no difference if you’re sitting impatiently, waiting for King Messiah to hurl through the gate to the sound of trumpets, or you’re nursing a glass of whiskey at a bar in downtown Tel Aviv -- if you have any sense of history, if you haven’t yet lost your notion of being a link in a chain that began with an elderly guy from Mesopotamia riding his camel with his beautiful wife all the way to Canaan some 3,500 years ago -- then Today, Wednesday, December 6, 2017, has to be a huge spot in history for you." • Just a note : the Reform Movement is a small group. • • • DEAR READERS, whether you are Jewish or Christian, President Trump has struck a chord in your heart. • Christians sing : "Jerusalem, Jerusalem, lift up your gates and sing Hosannah in the highest, hosannah to your King." Since the Middle Ages, Psalm 137 was performed at the Vespers celebration of Wednesday, according to the rule of St. Benedict, set in 530 AD. In the present liturgy of the Mass, Psalm 137 is read or sung the 4th Sunday of Lent. In the Roman Catholic Church since Vatican II, the last three verses of the psalm were removed from liturgic books because of their perceived cruelty being incompatible with the Gospel message. In the Eastern Orthodox Church and those Eastern Catholic Churches that use the Byzantine Rite, Psalm 137 (known by its Septuagint numbering as Psalm 136) is read at Matins on Friday mornings throughout the year, except during Bright Week (the week following Easter Sunday) when no psalms at all are read. But, as recently as 1978, Boney M and a Rastafarian group recorded a hit of Psalm 137, "Rivers of Babylon," that you can find on You Tube < https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2FgDles4xq8 > The recording sold 2 million copies in the UK alone and was a worldwide hit. I warn you that you cannot listen to it just once. • Psalm 137 may have been the last Psalm to be written. It is a lament about the Jews being taken away from Jerusalem after the House of David, which had ruled for at least 400 years, fell and Jerusalem was conquered by the Babylonians in 586 BC. Although the writer is not mentioned by name, he was doubtless a victim of the exile. He expressed the homesickness on the part of those carried off into exile in a foreign land. Rabbinical sources attributed the poem to the prophet Jeremiah, and the Septuagint version of the psalm bears the superscription : "For David. By Jeremias, in the Captivity." • • There seems no better way to honor President Trump's proclamation and the joy in Jerusalem and for all Jews, and Christians, than to read Psalm 137 -- here in the King James Version : "By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion. We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof. For there they that carried us away captive required of us a song; and they that wasted us required of us mirth, saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion. How shall we sing the Lord's song in a strange land? If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning. If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth; if I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy. Remember, O Lord, the children of Edom in the day of Jerusalem; who said, Rase it, rase it, even to the foundation thereof. O daughter of Babylon, who art to be destroyed; happy shall he be, that rewardeth thee as thou hast served us. Happy shall he be, that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the stones." • • And in the Tehillim, there is the Hebrew rendering of the Psalms, Chapter 137 (sorry, I can't align it from the right). אעַֽל־נַֽהֲר֨וֹת | בָּבֶ֗ל שָׁ֣ם יָ֖שַׁבְנוּ גַּם־בָּכִ֑ינוּ בְּ֜זָכְרֵ֗נוּ אֶת־צִיּֽוֹן: בעַל־עֲרָבִ֥ים בְּתוֹכָ֑הּ תָּ֜לִ֗ינוּ כִּנֹּֽרוֹתֵֽינוּ: גכִּ֚י שָׁ֨ם שְׁאֵל֪וּנוּ שׁוֹבֵ֡ינוּ דִּבְרֵי־שִׁ֖יר וְתוֹלָלֵ֣ינוּ שִׂמְחָ֑ה שִׁ֥ירוּ לָ֜֗נוּ מִשִּׁ֥יר צִיּֽוֹן: דאֵ֗יךְ נָ֖שִׁיר אֶת־שִׁ֣יר יְהֹוָ֑ה עַ֜֗ל אַדְמַ֥ת נֵכָֽר: האִם־אֶשְׁכָּחֵ֥ךְ יְ֜רֽוּשָׁלִָ֗ם תִּשְׁכַּ֥ח יְמִינִֽי: ותִּדְבַּ֚ק לְשׁוֹנִ֨י | לְחִכִּי֘ אִם־לֹ֪א אֶ֫זְכְּרֵ֥כִי אִם־לֹ֣א אַֽ֖עֲלֶה אֶת־יְרֽוּשָׁלִַ֑ם עַ֜֗ל רֹ֣אשׁ שִׂמְחָתִֽי: זזְכֹ֚ר יְהֹוָ֨ה | לִבְנֵ֬י אֱד֗וֹם אֵת֘ י֚וֹם יְרֽוּשָׁ֫לִָ֥ם הָ֖אֹֽמְרִים עָ֣רוּ | עָ֑רוּ עַ֜֗ד הַיְס֥וֹד בָּֽהּ: חבַּת־בָּבֶ֗ל הַשְּׁד֫וּדָ֥ה אַשְׁרֵ֥י שֶׁיְשַׁלֶּם־לָ֑ךְ אֶת־גְּ֜מוּלֵ֗ךְ שֶׁגָּמַ֥לְתְּ לָֽנוּ: טאַשְׁרֵ֚י | שֶׁיֹּאחֵ֓ז וְנִפֵּ֬ץ אֶת־עֹ֜לָלַ֗יִךְ אֶל־הַסָּֽלַע: