Lenin famously said: A lie told often enough becomes the truth.
Daniel Pipes reviews the history of the tenuous Muslim connection to Jerusalem and the Arab attempt to obliterate the very real and paramount bond between Judaism and that city. His conclusion:
Palestinian denial of the Jewish connection to Jerusalem has two likely long-term implications. First, it suggests that the Palestinian focus on Jerusalem has reached such a fervor that it might now sustain itself regardless of politics, thereby breaking a fourteen-century pattern. Jerusalem appears to have developed into an abiding Muslim interest, one generating feelings of entitlement no longer related to utilitarian considerations.
Second, this denial severely diminishes the prospect of a diplomatic resolution. The Palestinians‚ self-evidently false history alienates their Israeli interlocutors even as it lays claim to sole rights over the entire city. As a result, future negotiations over Jerusalem are bound to be yet more emotional, askew, and difficult than past ones.
No matter how many times they tell this lie, it will never become the truth. But that may not matter. To invoke another cliché, truth is often the first casualty of war.
