Patterico's Pontifications

5/13/2018

U.S. to Open Embassy in Jerusalem Tomorrow

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 7:59 pm



U.S. Presidents talked about it for a long time, but did no act. For all his faults — and he has many — Trump actually did something about it. The New York Times doesn’t like it:

When Israel declared its independence in 1948, President Harry Truman rushed to recognize it. He took just 11 minutes, and Israelis, about to go to war to defend their infant state, were euphoric.

Seventy years to the day — and nearly as long since Israel declared the holy city of Jerusalem its “eternal capital” — the United States will formally open its embassy on a hilltop here two miles south of the Western Wall.

The embassy’s move from Tel Aviv and President Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital — reversing decades of American foreign policy — comes at a moment so fraught with both pride and peril that Israelis seem not to know what to feel.

. . . .

To Palestinians, the official unveiling of the embassy is just the most concrete and latest in a cavalcade of provocations from Washington and the Israeli government.

“It’s might makes right,” said Hind Khoury, a former diplomat for the Palestine Liberation Organization who now heads a sustainable development nonprofit based in Bethlehem. Not only are Palestinians now expected to forget about Jerusalem, she said, but also the losses of their homes in 1948 and again in the fighting of 1967.

Calm down, Hind. The U.S. is moving its embassy to the country’s capital.

It is, of course, possible that this move will contribute to terrorist attacks. If that happens, that will be the fault of the terrorists — not of Israel for placing its capital in Jerusalem, or of Donald Trump for moving the U.S. embassy to Israel’s capital.

[Cross-posted at The Jury Talks Back.]

President Trump Hard at Work on Restoring Lost Jobs…

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 10:19 am



…in China.

Sunday Music: Bach Cantata BWV 100

Filed under: Bach Cantatas,General,Music — Patterico @ 9:51 am



It is the seventh Sunday of Easter. The title of today’s cantata is “Was Gott tut, das ist wohlgetan” (What God does is done well).

Today’s Gospel reading is John 15:9-17:

Jesus Prays for His Disciples

“I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word.Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you. For I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them. They knew with certainty that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me. I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours. All I have is yours, and all you have is mine. And glory has come to me through them. I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name, the name you gave me, so that they may be one as we are one. While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe by that name you gave me. None has been lost except the one doomed to destruction so that Scripture would be fulfilled.

“I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them. I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified.”

The text of today’s cantata is available here. The opening chorale is translated as follows:

What God does is well done,
His will remains righteous;
however he begins my affairs,
I will silently keep to Him.
He is my God,
who in need
knows well how to sustain me;
therefore I let Him alone rule.

Happy listening!

[Cross-posted at The Jury Talks Back.]


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