Tel-Chai Nation

This year's Jerusalem Day was a very good moment in history. Here's one article about it for starters:

Jerusalem Day was being marked Sunday in Israel with special prayers, parades, and tours of the Israeli capital.

The date marks the reunification of the holy city under Jewish control in 1967, when Israeli military forces captured the part of the city that had been occupied by Jordan during the first 19 years of the modern Jewish State’s independence.

That part of Jerusalem included the Old City, where Judaism’s holiest shrine – the Temple Mount – is located.

The date is marked according to the Jewish calendar, the 28th of Iyar.

Part of the Six-Day War, which was full of multiple miracles of the tiny state and its limited military repelling several Arab nations, the capture of Jerusalem was especially significant because of the centrality of the city to Jewish history and tradition.

It had been the capital of the Jews since the ancient times of King David, whose son King Solomon built the Holy Temple. It was destroyed in 586 B.C.E by the Babylonians, later replaced by the Second Temple, which was destroyed in 70 C.E. by the Romans. Even in destruction, the site of the Temple is considered as holy by Jewish law and remains Judaism’s holiest shrine.

The only sad part was the Muslim riot on the Temple Mount, all because Jews were allowed up there today. But much of the rest was wonderful, including the March of Flags:

Tens of thousands of Israeli youths marched through Jerusalem’s Old City on Sunday afternoon for the annual Dance of Flags in celebration of Jerusalem Day and the unification of the city in 1967.

Students from dozens of yeshivas, pre-military academies, seminaries for young women and other religious institutions flocked to the Western Wall plaza, with men entering the Old City at the Damascus Gate and winding their way through the Muslim Quarter, and women passing through Jaffa Gate and the Jewish Quarter.

There were no security incidents during the march, despite earlier violence on the Temple Mount and the background friction of marchers parading through the Muslim Quarter.

The youths marching through the Arab neighborhood began their parade with boisterous singing and dancing outside Damascus Gate, singing various Jewish songs of praise and prayer for the unification of Jerusalem and the capture of the Temple Mount and the Western Wall during the 1967 Six Day War.

Amongst those songs sang frequently during the march, by both boys and girls, was the controversial “Zochreini Na” song, which recalls the Biblical hero Samson’s words as he toppled the temple of Dagan on the Philistines who had blinded him.

And mayor Moshe Leon thanked US president Donald Trump for moving the embassy to the Israeli capitol, and thus performing an act of justice. It's special thanks like those too that make this a most wonderous occasion.

Update: also worthy of note, this year's overseas 4th of July celebrations will be held at the US Embassy in Jerusalem. That too is impressive.

Labels: islam, Israel, Israeli Arabs, Jerusalem, jihad, jordan, Judaism, United States