Lebanese-American TV host, Jeanine Pirro, claims that President Donald Trump's decision to move the U.S. embassy in Israel to Jerusalem has "fulfilled Biblical prophecy."
"[Trump] recognizes the reality that everyone else in the west willingly blinds themselves to – and that is that Jerusalem is the one and only capital of Israel," Pirro said on Fox News, while she was in Israel to cover the opening of the new embassy.
"Trump is simply putting his imprimatur on what has been history in the last 2500 years: that Jerusalem has only been the capital of one people’s country or kingdom, and that people is the Jews. And that country is and was Israel," the former county judge and district attorney continued.
Pirro, whose TV program Justice With Judge Jeanine airs on Fox News, went on to defend the existence of modern-day Israel.
"The empires that tried to destroy Israel and its capitol Jerusalem are long gone, yet the Jews still speak the same language and practice the same religion, which is the foundation of our own Judeo-Christian nation," she wrote.
She compared Trump to the Biblical Persian King Cyrus, who, according to the Torah, allowed the Jews to return to and rebuild Jerusalem after being taken captive by the Babylonians.
"[Trump] like King Cyrus before him, fulfilled the biblical prophecy of the gods worshipped by Jews, Christians and, yes, Muslims, that Jerusalem is the eternal capital of the Jewish state and that the Jewish people deserve a righteous, free and sovereign Israel."
Many were quick to criticize Pirro's comments
"Nutty as a fruitcake"
Some are just glad she is no longer working as a judge
What does the Biblical prophecy actually say?
While Pirro's views on Israel are readily shared by the supporters of the Zionist state, others have called into question the interpretation of the Biblical passage.
"According to the Hebrew Bible (Genesis 15:18-21), God promised Abraham (Ibrahim, in Arabic) to give him and his descendants a land to inhibit, and thus Abraham moved along with his successors to the land of Canaan," Mohammad S. Moussalli, a well-known Lebanese writer and journalist wrote for the Arabian Gazette in March.
"This biblical text 'to your descendants' attests that the land was given to ALL descendants of Abraham, not to Jacob’s successors restrictively. Since the above biblical text did not specify or exclude any of Abraham’s descendants, no matter of other supplementary text or supposition."
Palestinians and many other Semitic peoples, just as the Jews, trace their lineage to Abraham. Therefore, the Biblical prophecy would apply to them as well, following Moussalli's explanation.
Regardless of what was written thousands of years ago, Trump's decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital in December has serious implications for millions of Palestinians and goes against the will of the international community. The decision was widely condemned by nations around the world, including close U.S. allies.
Pirro has a history of controversial comments
Despite Pirro's Arab heritage – both her parents immigrated to the U.S. from Lebanon – she has long promoted a hawkish stance toward the Middle East. In 2015, following terror attacks in France, Pirro advocated for a brutal crackdown on Muslim extremists.
"We need to kill them. We need to kill them, the radical Muslim terrorists hell-bent on killing us. You're in danger. I'm in danger," she said in an on-air rant.
"I've been telling you for a year that they're coming for us. That there is a reverse crusade in progress, a Christian genocide. Hundreds of thousands of innocents killed in the Middle East."
Pirro also equated the mainstream advocacy group, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), with terrorists, criticizing the group being invited to worship at the national cathedral in Washington, DC.
"They have conquered us through immigration. They have conquered us through interfaith dialogue," she said. "As this Islamic cancer metastasizes throughout the world ... and as it goes through Europe, it is headed our way."