Posted on 04/05/2002 8:28:06 AM PST by samtheman
Unfortunately, your warm and fuzzy justification doesnt match the facts in evidence.
1) Jews have been a minority in that region for most of its history. Also of note is the fact that many of those in the region who are now Muslim are decendants of Jews.
2) Jews have exercised dominion over the region for only a fraction of it's history. Those with equal claim to the region would include Iranians, Iraqis, Syrians, Khurds, Egyptians, Turks, Greeks, Italians, Arabs, French and English.
3) The ethnic ties of European Jews to the region has never been established.
4) Since there has been continuous human habitation of the region for over 450,000 years the fact that Abraham wandered in from Iraq and claimed the land doesn't negate the claim of the people already living there.
BY THE SAME MAN AND ORGANIZATION
But all of that is astronomical speculation. The fact is, Jews have lived in the area since biblical times. Arabs, among others, have wandered in and out. The strongest modern claim to the area is the Ottomans, aka the Turks.
As for the point of the article, I think you're missing it: there is no Palestinian people. There is no Palestine. Both are fictions.
Yes, the existence of a separate Palestinian identity serves only tactical purposes. The founding of a Palestinian state is a new tool in the continuing battle against Israel ... -- Zuheir Muhsin, late Military Department head of the PLO and member of its Executive Council, Dutch daily Trouw, March 1977The Prophet Muhammad said, "War is deception"
-al-Bukhari, al-Jami al Sahih
As many, including Professor Lewis, have pointed out, "From the end of the Jewish state in antiquity to the beginning of British rule, the area now designated by the name Palestine was not a country and had no frontiers, only administrative boundaries; it was a group of provincial subdivisions, by no means always the same, within a larger entity.---Politically motivated mythology of "Palestine"
From Shuly (Israel Chamber of commerce)
Nationhood and Jerusalem
- Israel became a nation in 1312 B.C.E., two thousand years before the rise of Islam. Arab refugees in Israel began identifying themselves as part of a Palestinian people in 1967, two decades after the establishment of the modern State of Israel.
- Since the Jewish conquest in 1272 B.C.E. the Jews have had dominion over the land for one thousand years with a continuous presence in the land for the past 3,300 years. The only Arab dominion since the conquest in 635 C.E. lasted no more than 22 years.
- For over 3,300 years, Jerusalem has been the Jewish capital Jerusalem has never been the capital of any Arab or Muslim entity. Even when the Jordanians occupied Jerusalem, they never sought to make it their capital, and Arab leaders did not come to visit.
- Jerusalem is mentioned over 700 times in Tanach, the Jewish Holy Scriptures. Jerusalem is not mentioned once in the Koran.
- King David founded the city of Jerusalem. Mohammed never came to Jerusalem.
- Jews pray facing Jerusalem. Muslims pray with their backs toward Jerusalem.> > Arab and Jewish Refugees
- In 1948 the Arab refugees were encouraged to leave Israel by Arab leaders promising to purge the land of Jews. Sixty-eight percent left without ever seeing an Israeli soldier. The Jewish refugees were forced to flee from Arab lands due to Arab brutality, persecution and pogroms.
- The number of Arab refugees who left Israel in 1948 is estimated to be around 630,000. The number of Jewish refugees from Arab lands is estimated to be the same.
- Arab refugees were intentionally not absorbed or integrated into the Arab lands to which they fled, despite the vast Arab territory. Out of the 100,000,000 refugees since World War II, theirs is the only refugee group in the world that has never been absorbed or integrated into their own peoples' lands. Jewish refugees were completely absorbed into Israel, a country no larger than the state of New Jersey.
The Arab - Israeli Conflict
- The Arabs are represented by eight separate nations, not including the Palestinians. There is only one Jewish nation.
- The Arab nations initiated all five wars and lost. Israel defended itself each time and won.
- The P.L.O.'s Charter still calls for the destruction of the State of Israel. Israel has given the Palestinians most of the West Bank land, autonomy under the Palestinian Authority, and has supplied them with weapons.
- Under Jordanian rule, Jewish holy sites were desecrated and the Jews were denied access to places of worship. Under Israeli rule, all Muslim and Christian sites have been preserved and made accessible to people of all faiths.
The U.N. Record on Israel and the Arabs
- Of the 175 Security Council resolutions passed before 1990, 97 were directed against Israel.
- Of the 690 General Assembly resolutions voted on before 1990, 429 were directed against Israel.
- The U.N was silent while 58 Jerusalem Synagogues were destroyed by the Jordanians.
- The U.N. was silent while the Jordanians systematically desecrated the ancient Jewish cemetery on the Mount of Olives.
- The U.N. was silent while the Jordanians enforced an apartheid-like policy of preventing Jews from visiting the Temple Mount and the Western Wall.
wrong again!
Every ethnic group in the region has transitory residency. There are NO indigenous people. The Semitic Hebrews have wandered in and out of the region multiple times, as have the other peoples. The majority of the modern Israeli's are not semitic, but European.
The Biblical reference has no signifigance in an historical perspective. Every person alive today had ancestors alive in Biblical times. Extending that arguement we can all trace our ancestory to the region via Noah and Adam & Eve.
There is no doubt that there have been Jews in teh Holyland for a long time. The point is that there is no logical claim to their exclusive dominion over the land.
God may have given the land to Abraham, but Christ established a new and everlasting Covenant. "Ownership" of the holyland has passed to "Jew and Gentile" alike.
The point is that there is no logical claim to their exclusive dominion over the land.Their "exclusive domination" is over less than 1% of the Arab lands. The "Palestinians" came along later and "discovered" that domination. If the Arab countries really cared about the Palestinian people, they'd have given them homes long ago, instead of giving them the boot, like Jordan booted them, and Kuwait booted them, and the others generally don't tolerate them.
It's all a lie, this support for the "Palestinians", a lie in service to evil dictatorships who need a distraction from the horrid messes in their own back yards.
You miss the point. The dispute is not about the other 99%. Neither side is willing to live in peace. I have spent a great deal of time in Israel. I have lived in Jaffa, Tel Aviv and Caesarea. I have seen the squalor that many Arabs are forced to live in in Israel.
I am no fan of the PLO. Modern Israel is NOT a devine entity. It is a racist nation, biased greatly against any non-jew. The tragedy is that the Israeli's and Palestinians are two sides of the same coin.
Please don't try to pull at our heartstrings about the "Palestinians living in squalor". They were offered a homeland by Barak. The refused it. They choose their squalor... under pressure from their Arab "friends".
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