The Congressional Record is a unique source of public documentation. It started in 1873, documenting nearly all the major and minor policies being discussed and debated.
“THE TRUMP JERUSALEM” mentioning the U.S. Dept of State was published in the Extensions of Remarks section on pages E10-E11 on Jan. 8, 2018.
The State Department is responsibly for international relations with a budget of more than $50 billion. Tenure at the State Dept. is increasingly tenuous and it's seen as an extension of the President's will, ambitions and flaws.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
THE TRUMP JERUSALEM
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HON. SCOTT TAYLOR
of virginia
in the house of representatives
Monday, January 8, 2018
Mr. TAYLOR. Mr. Speaker, I include in the Record a statement on behalf of my constituent, Rabbi Dr. Israel Zoberman. Rabbi Zoberman is the Founding Rabbi of Congregation Beth Chaverim in Virginia Beach, Virginia. Born in Chu, Kazakhstan (USSR) in 1945, he is the son of Polish Holocaust Survivors.
The Trump Jerusalem Declaration is the first recognition by a U.S. President since the 1948 establishment of the Jewish State of Israel, with President Truman's support, that Jerusalem is indeed its rightful, not only de-facto, capital. How ironic and telling that both President Truman and Trump were opposed by their State Department when taking their critical moves. The United Sates, the world's only superpower and Israel's major ally, reached out to the world's only sovereign Jewish state to assure its questioned authentic narrative at a time of fateful crossroads in the Middle East and beyond.
Israel has the anomaly of being powerful yet vulnerable given its limited geography and sworn enemies. If Israel's Jerusalem narrative were false, it might unravel its bond with the entire Land of Israel. No wonder that both the Israeli government ruling coalition and opposition have applauded President Trump's forthright action. The Trump Declaration is flexible enough concerning actual arrangements yet to be made by the Israelis and Palestinians. In a so far moribund and stagnant Peace Process, Trump's reshuffling of the cards and providing a ``reality check,'' particularly to the Palestinians, will hopefully gather fruitful momentum. Israel knows that its Palestinian problem is not going away, threatening its Jewish and Democratic character. The Palestinians may finally realize that time is not necessarily on their side.
Israel's past Prime-Ministers Barak and Olmert offered generous concessions that were nonetheless rebuffed by the Palestinians whose expectations are always higher. The late Prime-Minister Sharon's painful return of Gaza with a flourishing Israeli community has been rewarded with Hamas and Islamic Jihad rockets and terror tunnels. Arab leaders have historically paid lip-service to their Palestinian brethren, while Israel absorbed close to a million Jewish refugees from Arab lands. The Sunni Arab world is currently preoccupied with a nuclear ambitious and aggressive Shia Iran whose menacing presence is growing close to Israel's borders. Israel, characterized by Iran as ``little Satan'' and the United States as ``big Satan,'' is a credible partner in counteracting Iran's worrisome posture.
How is it that the Arabs in general and the Palestinians in particular ``have never missed an opportunity to miss an opportunity,'' to quote the late Abba Eban, Israel's eloquent Foreign Minister and statesman. They unwisely rejected United Nations 181 Partition Resolution of November 29, 1947, whose 70th anniversary was just celebrated by the Jewish people and still protested by Palestinians blind to history's opportunities and facts. The Palestinian leaders have been lacking the courage to confront their bitterly divided people with historical truth and reality that the Jewish state is deeply rooted, longer than anyone else, in its ancestral homeland. The Holocaust, unfortunately, is not a figment of Zionist imagination as some Palestinian, Arab and Iranian leaders claim. Jordan lost East Jerusalem and the West Bank in the 1967 Six-Day-War, after King Hussein was warned not to attack Israel.
An active movement to delegitimize Israel, perceiving it as a European colonial invader, is emboldened by the numerical and material influence of the 57 Muslim nation-states, including 22 Arab countries, represented in the United Nations U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley should be hailed as a heroic voice of steadfast support for Israel, with President Trump's indispensable encouragement, in that deaf institution betraying its foundational promise. Coupled with hypocritical Europe's fading guilt for the monumental Holocaust, there is a preposterous charge that the Israeli-Jewish saga has no historical leg to stand on with Jerusalem ever a Muslim entity and the Temple Mount including the Western Wall/Noble Sanctuary void of vital Jewish as well as Christian memories. Totally disregarded are a great Biblical heritage, unbroken Jewish presence, millennial prayers and efforts to fully return to the physical and spiritual birthplace of ``Zion and Jerusalem.''
It is a non-starter for peaceful coexistence to reject Jewish peoplehood represented in the Jewish state. Israel has turned into a collective target, being demonized and dehumanized with never-dying anti-Semitism, Western civilization's oldest disease that Israel's rebirth sought to cure. Given that Israel is perhaps the only nation whose very existence is being challenged and living in a hostile environment, it is a wonder that Israel created a robust democracy protecting human rights in a region abhorring them, rejecting progressive ideas.
Rather than the Palestinians despairing, a two-state creative solution is within reach with joint arrangements in Jerusalem, however with a de-militarized Palestinian state friendly to both Israel and Jordan. A future confederation involving Israel, Jordan, and Palestine is not farfetched. Surely both sides can find in their separate and even conflicting narratives meeting points and common agendas for an assured bright future, for both peoples are destined to forever be neighbors. Palestinian education sans honoring its terrorists and ceasing hatred for Israel and Jews is urgently needed. Even Egypt and Jordan who signed peace treaties with Israel have neglected to teach their populations basic facts concerning Israel, and to welcome its eager friendship. In this sacred season of the lights of Chanukah and Christmas we remember that both Jews and Christians are at risk in the Middle East. Jerusalem and the hills of Judea and Samaria, once the setting for inspiring prophecies, have ironically and tragically been deprived of Shalom's divine gifts of genuine peace.
The British Foreign Secretary Lord Balfour Declaration on November 2, 1917 which empowered the Zionist movement with international clout is significantly reinforced by President Trump Jerusalem Declaration on December 6, 2017. President Trump is now enshrined too in Jewish history. He also is the first sitting U.S. President to pay a visit at the Western Wall, Judaism's holiest site. Both declarations allow for compromise by both sides whose century old rivalry may yet turn into a mutually rewarding source of healing.
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