The Jewish march of the living in Jerusalem needs to be written in deeds. There will be ample room for flags, important in and of themselves, afterward. Many years ago, Theodore Herzl noted that "If we desire to lead many men, we must raise a symbol above their heads." The fate of Jerusalem, however, will be decided by the facts on the ground.
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Even before the so-called flag march – which will take place, or not, along one route or another – the future of the Old City of Jerusalem will be determined by thousands of Jewish visitors continuing to "march" to the Western Wall every single day, and by the residents of the city's Haredi neighborhoods, who have journeyed there via the Damascus Gate for 54 years now. Indeed, it is the seemingly innocuous and very routine act of walking to the Wall every day for morning, afternoon and evening prayers – not with flags but with prayer shawls, tefillin and prayer books – that represents the manifestation of this future.
Even more than flags, the future of the Old City will be determined by the pioneering spirit of Jewish families settling along this entire route. Just a few days ago, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas ordered the transfer of 140,000 shekels to the family of a terrorist who six years ago murdered two Jewish residents of the Old City. The response to the new equation Hamas seeks to create in Jerusalem must be to bolster this splendid settlement enterprise, which suffered tremendous blows in the riots of 1920, 1921 and 1929, and was resurrected following the Six-Day War in 1967.
These narrow alleys and pathways were home to prominent figures such as Dov Frumkin, a pioneer of Hebrew journalism; Eliezer Ben-Yehuda, the driving force behind the revival of the Hebrew language; Rabbi Yosef Navon, the father of Israel's 5th president, Yitzhak Navon; and Reuven Rivlin, the grandfather of current President Reuven (Rubi) Rivlin. Jews live here again, but they are few and need to be strengthened before riots similar to those we have seen in the distant and very recent past engulf them as well.
Secret and disgraceful diplomatic talks between Israel and Washington are presently taking place. The United States under President Joe Biden is trying to end Jewish settlement of the Old City, including the City of David, the Shimon HaTzadik neighborhood, and the Ma'ale HaZeitim neighborhood on the Mount of Olives – all under the guise of "calming the situation on the ground."
This will be the first test for Naftali Bennett, the person slated to be Israel's next prime minister. His "no" to this brazen American demand – behind which lies a detailed plan to divide Jerusalem – must reverberate across the globe. The same applies to the Har Homa neighborhood, where Biden now wants Israel to shelve construction plans; the same applies to the large Jewish neighborhood in Atarot, where a construction plan for its establishment has been ready for two decades; and the same applies to Jerusalem's Givat Hamatos neighborhood.
The deterrence attained by Hamas against Israel in Jerusalem – and there's no use in denying that Hamas did exactly that – will only be rectified with action: tens of thousands of Jewish visitors to the Western Wall and Temple Mount, buttressed, with government support, by Jewish settlement in the Old City; and a new-old equation that Israel implements on the ground by returning to the ancient historical kernel of Jerusalem. The flags will come after.
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