Jerusalem, Israel's Indivisible Capital

"No way. Why is this your business? This is an area that is in dispute, the Western Wall is not Israeli territory and is located in the West Bank."
"This is Trump's show; all the rest are extras, including Prime Minister Netanyahu."
U.S. White House spokesman

"These comments, if true, were not authorized by the White House."
"They do not reflect the U.S. position, and certainly not the President's position."
White House official

"No Israeli leaders [will be permitted to accompany Trump to the Western Wall]."
"He's going to the Western Wall mainly in connection with the theme to connect three of the world's great religions ... and to highlight the theme that we all have to be united against the enemies of all civilized people."
H.R. McMaster, Trump National Security Adviser

Psalms 137:5-6, “If I forget thee O Jerusalem, may my right hand forget its skill. May my tongue cling to my palate if I do not remember you, if I do not bring up Jerusalem at the beginning of my joy.”  Indeed, Jerusalem is mentioned 349 times by name in the Tanakh, the Jewish Bible, demonstrating its centrality to Judaism

How cavalier is that? Pretty well on a par with the United Nations' UNESCO (Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization), guided by the Organization of Islamic Cooperation declaring three consecutive resolutions that there is no "legal validity" to Israel's historical heritage claim to the Old City of Jerusalem and the Temple Mount (Western Wall/Wailing Wall), all that is left of the historical Temple(s) of Solomon dating to 957 B.C.E., the one destroyed by the Babylonians who laid sack to Jerusalem and slaughtered almost a million Jews in 586 B.C.E.

The Jewish population of ancient Israel was scattered into forced exile. In 538 B.C.E. Jews were given permission by Cyrus the Great to rebuild the Temple of Solomon in its second iteration. In the year 70 of the Christian Era, the Roman Emperor Vespasian responded to Jewish refusal to obey the edicts of Rome, sending his son Titus to sack and destroy the second Temple. And once  again the Jews were sent into exile, the great diaspora where Jews were scattered around the world, though some Jewish presence always remained in Jerusalem.

By the 7th Century Islam was founded, based by the Prophet Mohammad on the tenets and sacred writings and the prophets of the Old Testament of Judaism and on Christianity. When Muslim rule prevailed, the Muslim caliph ordered an Islamic shrine to be constructed over the ruins of the Second Temple, where the Dome of the Rock sits, since 691 C.E. The al-Aqsa Mosque dates from roughly the same period, standing in the courtyard of the ancient Temple. To deny Jewish claims on its own heritage is a sacrilege of history.

When Donald J. Trump was running for President of the United States, as unlikely then as it appeared that he would succeed, he boasted that he was prepared to recognize Jerusalem as the eternal capital of the Jewish state, Israel reborn. Now, he is on the cusp of a visit to the Holy Land, to travel to Israel, to Saudi Arabia, and to the Vatican; touching as it were, the three major religions of the world rooted in Abrahamic memory as their founder. At the same time, purportedly focusing on the conflict with violent Islam. But violent Islam is, in fact, Islam; Muslims are enjoined by their sacred texts to engage in jihad. And they do.

In meeting with the Saudi king, even Donald J. Trump would not suggest he be permitted to visit Mecca, which by Islamist decree is forbidden entry to any but Muslims. Yet this man who understands history as little as he understands diplomacy, integrity and honesty plans to visit the ancient wall, all that is left standing of the most sacred symbol of Judaism, restraining the nation's Prime Minister from accompanying him. It is as though Prime Minister Netanyahu, visiting Washington, made an official appearance at the Lincoln Memorial, forbidding Trump to be present.