Flying under the radar in the United States because of the imminent destruction of our republic is a drama playing out in the UN body called the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization or UNESCO. Under its cultural banner, UNESCO’s governing board, passed a resolution that awards East Jerusalem to Palestinian terrorists (and I don’t use this term exclusively as a pejorative, anyone who thinks the Palestinian Authority is not up to it beady eyeballs in encouraging terrorism is either a knave or a poltroon), brands Israel an occupying power, and basically denies all Jewish connection to Jerusalem.

5. Deeply deplores the failure of Israel, the Occupying Power, to cease the persistent excavations and works in East Jerusalem particularly in and around the Old City, and reiterates its request to Israel, the Occupying Power, to prohibit all such works in conformity with its obligations under the provisions of the relevant UNESCO conventions, resolutions and decisions;

…

7. Calls on Israel, the Occupying Power, to allow for the restoration of the historic Status Quo, that prevailed until September 2000, under which the Jordanian Awqaf Department (Religious Foundation) exercised exclusive authority on Al-Aqsa Mosque/Al-Haram Al-Sharif, and its mandate extended to all affairs relating to the unimpeded administration of Al-Aqsa Mosque/Al-Haram AlSharif, including maintenance, restoration and regulating access;

8. Strongly condemns the Israeli escalating aggressions and illegal measures against the Awqaf Department and its personnel, and against the freedom of worship and Muslims’ access to their Holy Site Al-Aqsa Mosque/Al-Haram Al Sharif, and requests Israel, the Occupying Power, to respect the historic Status Quo and to immediately stop these measures;

The game is given away in the last graf when the Temple Mount is only referred to by the Islamic name. This is no accident.

The resolution was drafted by Arabs and it has one primary purpose: the furtherance of the Arab narrative that there was no Temple in Jerusalem and thereby render any claim of a Jewish connection to Jerusalem illegitimate. Temple Denial, like Holocaust Denial, is as much a part of modern Islam as using your kids for suicide bombers or getting trampled underfoot in Mecca. The basic claim says that Solomon’s Temple either never existed, or if it did exist it was not located on the Temple Mount. The only legitimate religious structure on the Temple Mount is the al-Aqsa Mosque and this decidedly bogus shrine — there is not a whit of evidence that Mohammed ever made his way to Jerusalem and a lot of evidence to the contrary — gives muslims title to the Temple Mount and anything else they want.

The shrieking about excavations in East Jerusalem is because archaeologists of all stripes are involved in excavating areas that are very ancient and have a very Jewish flavor where muslims didn’t come to the Holy Land until over 700 years after the Resurrection and forcibly converted native Christian and Jewish communities to Islam. The Awqaf mentioned is the Islamic body that governs the al-Aqsa mosque. It has been actively involved in using construction at the mosques as a cover for actually obliterating archaeological evidence.

This was the vote, note that there were more abstentions than yes votes and that the abstentions seem to be driven as much by dependence upon Middle East oil and hosting ginormous numbers of muslim “immigrants” as any ambivalence about the resolution:

Mexico’s ambassador walked out rather than cast the vote his government had directed him to cast and will probably be removed from his job. And now the UNESCO director general, Irina Bokova, has slammed the resolution as divisive and dismissive of the claim Christianity and Judaism have on Jerusalem.

“The heritage of Jerusalem is indivisible, and each of its communities has a right to the explicit recognition of their history and relationship with the city. To deny, conceal or erase any of the Jewish, Christian or Muslim traditions undermines the integrity of the site, and runs counter to the reasons that justified its inscription on the UNESCO World Heritage list.

“Nowhere more than in Jerusalem do Jewish, Christian and Muslim heritage and traditions share space and interweave to the point that they support each other. These cultural and spiritual traditions build on texts and references, known by all, that are an intrinsic part of the identities and history of peoples. In the Torah, Jerusalem is the capital of King David, where Solomon built the Temple and placed the Ark of the Covenant. In the Bible, Jerusalem is the city of the passion and resurrection of Jesus Christ. In the Quran, Jerusalem is the third holiest site in Islam, where Muhammad arrived after his night journey from Al Haram Mosq (Mecca) to Al Aqsa.

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“When these divisions carry over into UNESCO, an Organization dedicated to dialogue and peace, they prevent us from carrying out our mission. UNESCO’s responsibility is to foster this spirit of tolerance and respect for history, and this is my absolute daily determination as Director-General, with all Member States. I am committed to this under all circumstances, because this is our raison d’être — to recall that we are one single humanity and that tolerance is the only way forward in a world of diversity.”
Temple Denial claims

Naturally, the Arab world responded to this the way they respond to most any affront, real of perceived, with death threats.

The resolution will undoubtedly pass and Israel, recognizing this fact, has severed cooperation with UNESCO. The real mystery is why the Obama administration could not have twisted a few arms to support one of the few steadfast allies we have left in the world… I jest, of course. There is no mystery. Obama may possibly not be an outright anti-Semite but he wears his hostility to Israel and his obeisance to the Arab world on his sleeve and so he did the easy thing of playing to Jewish Democrat voters by our vote but let the Arabs have their way with the only democracy in the Middle East.