O, Jerusalem

It's Saturday night, Tisha B'Av, I am home from Shul having just listened to Eicha (Lamentations) and the Fast has begun. And I am thinking of the Olympics, especially about how the BBC refused to name Jerusalem as the capital of Israel (but named East Jerusalem as the capital of the future state of Palestine). And I can't help thinking how, putting aside the rank anti-Semitism and Arab-fawning that the Brits and many other peoples of the world are so good at, that we Jews do it to ourselves. The Jewish Federation has dropped the word 'Zionism' from its current charter because it is 'too controversial'. And the dickwit Democrat Jews who voted for Obama are just starting to see that maybe he isn't such a good friend of Israel after all despite all the high-flown rhetoric about 'Israel and Jerusalem, indivisible' (changed his mind soon after he said that, didn't he? Before kowtowing and humiliating himself and the US in front of various Arab leaders).
I put it to you that any Jew, any person, who looked at what the 9th of Av means and what Jews do to observe it and what we read in Eicha, would immediately understand the deep, true and real connection between Jerusalem and the Jewish people. For 2000 years we Jews have been yearning for our homeland and our Holy Temple. For 2000 years we fast from sunset to sunset, not drinking or eating, not bathing or using cosmetics and lotions, not having intimate relations and not wearing leather shoes, all customs of deep mourning We sit on the ground or on low chairs just as we do when sitting Shiva, mourning a dead parent, sibling, spouse or child R'L. 2000 years.
Ask non-Orthodox Jews how they express their Jewishness and you will hear many different replies. Some might go to a Seder on Pesach. Some might fast on Yom Kippur. Some might unplug on Shabbat. Or they might light Chanukah candles Some, an increasing number I think, would have not much more knowledge of Jewish custom and many would not even have that. So a secular or unaffiliated Jew who has had the usual crap Jewish education on offer from other secular Jews might be in love with Tikkun Olam and Tzedaka, maybe recognizing them as intrinsic Jewish Mitzvot, maybe not, but they sure won't know about Tisha B'Av.
And if you don't know your history then you will listen with your generous, caring Jewish heart to the nefarious, egregious pack of lies called 'the Palestinian Narrative', and before you can say 'Ben Gurion', you will side with them. Because, my dear secular/reform/progressive/reconstructionist/humanist Jew, if you don't learn and respect your history and heritage then how do you expect the rest of the world to respect you and your history and heritage?
You know, it is entirely possible to learn Jewish history both ancient and modern, and about Israel and the unbreakable link with the Jews, without being religious. A true reading of history will give across the facts; but history, unlike say, Maths, is easily warped and twisted according to the political bent of the teacher. But when you sit on the floor and fast and read Eicha, you know that all around the world Jews are doing the same. We have been doing so ever since the Romans destroyed the 2nd Temple and laid waste to Jerusalem, and renamed Judea 'Palaestina' and Jerusalem 'Capitolina'. And if you know a bit more you will know how at the end of the Seder we say, 'Next Year in Jerusalem' , also after the fast on Yom Kippur. And if you look at any version of the Siddur, you will see this yearning for Jerusalem, whether you are Ashkenaz or Sephardi. In the Grace after meals, we pray for Jerusalem. At every Jewish wedding we remember Jerusalem. This is NOT propaganda. Propaganda does NOT inform a people for 2000 years in a clear continuous line.
So when the Waqf tries to pretend that the Temples never existed, while deliberately trashing the archeological evidence; and when Arab 'historians' pretend either that today's Jews are not remotely related to the Hebrews or Jews of antiquity, or, comically, that the Palestinians are descendants of the original Canaanites; or that the Jews are in any way not entitled to Eretz Yisrael with Jerusalem as the capital; well, the world can only do that to us if we have allowed them to.
And unfortunately, we are allowing them to. I keep talking about the US because that's where the Jews are, apart from Israel (which has also created huge problems by not educating secular Israeli kids about ancient and modern history; there's nothing more secular than a secular Israeli); the rest of the Diaspora is piddling small compared to the numbers of American Jews. And, my American Jewish friends, if you don't wake up to your history and heritage then there will be no future for you. It will take a lot more than a few bus loads of Birthright kids to turn that around.
'if I forget you, Jerusalem, let my right hand forget what to do, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth'. A Jew without Torah is like a body without a soul. And a Jew without Jerusalem is lost, powerless and speechless.
Am Yisrael Chai.