The 3,300-year-old nation of Israel

Roanoke Times ^ | March 14 2002 | MARLIN THOMPSON

[xvb]

The 3,300-year-old nation of Israel

By MARLIN THOMPSON

WHY DO they hate us?

In a Sept. 20 speech to Congress, President Bush asked this question. Most Arabs and Muslims knew the answer, even before they considered who was responsible for the attacks on America.

Most of our leaders, the media and even some Middle East authorities, including Israelis, try to obscure the root cause. They say we are resented by the Muslim world because we have U.S. troops in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. They say it's because of our economic sanctions against Iraq, Libya and Iran, and our support for repressive Middle East regimes with feudal monarchies. Also, it's because of our decadent lifestyle.

Those are all secondary issues. The main reason is our years of unstinting support for Israel.

Four thousand years ago, in Genesis, God told Abraham, "I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you." Mount Moriah - now the Temple Mount in Jerusalem - is where Jewish and Christian tradition holds that Abraham almost sacrificed his son Isaac. Isaac's son Jacob was renamed Israel by God, and given the promise of the land of Canaan (now Israel) and a covenant that he and his descendants would be "God's people."

Israel became a nation in 1312 B.C., and since then Jerusalem has been the Jewish capital. In 586 B.C., the first Jewish temple (on today's Temple Mount) was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzer, king of Babylon. In 70 A.D., it was the Roman Empire's turn to conquer Israel and destroy the second Jewish Temple, slaughtering or driving out much of the Jewish population.

The Romans called the land Palestine for the Philistines, as a humiliation to the Jews who had defeated the Philistines centuries earlier. Many Jews left because conditions of life were made unbearable, yet thousands stayed and rebelled for centuries to rebuild a Jewish nation in this Holy Land.

Over the next 1,878 years - the diaspora - various peoples, religions and empires, including Christian crusaders, the Ottomans and, briefly, the British marched through Jerusalem. None was interested in building a nation there.

Included in these "invaders" were the Arabs. In 636 A.D., Arab marauders came to the land and uprooted many Jews, but they did not form an Arab nation, certainly not a "Palestinian" nation.

The name "Palestine" is mentioned four times in the Bible, not once in the Koran. The name "Jerusalem" is mentioned 767 times in the Bible, not once in the Koran.

No nation, other than ancient Israel and the reborn nation of Israel in 1948 has ever reigned as a sovereign national entity in the land of Canaan.

Modern Israel is a miracle. This tiny nation is the fourth-greatest military power in the world.

In November 1947, the U.N. General Assembly voted to partition the British mandate of Palestine into two territories that were envisioned as future states - one predominantly Jewish, the other Arab. Six months later, on May 14, 1948, hours before the British withdrew, the state of Israel was proclaimed and immediately recognized by the United States and the Soviet Union.

At that moment 54 years ago, the Palestinians had a state, or a territory designated for a creation of their state. If reason had governed, two small nations might have thrived as neighbors at peace. But it was not to be.

On May 15, one day after Israel's declaration of statehood, the Arab regimes of Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq and Syria set their armies in motion with the stridently declared objective of driving the Jews into the sea. History shows they failed.

The Arabs had 250 million people; Israel, 3 million. The Arabs had 1.5 million square miles of territory; Israel, 7,500 square miles.

The Arabs failed again in 1956 at Suez and, even more decisively, in the Six Day War of 1967, which ended in humiliation, especially for Egypt, whose soldiers threw down their weapons and fled on foot back across the Sinai, with some 10,000 perishing in the retreat.

The final failure was in the 1973 Yom Kippur War, which began with an Egyptian and Syrian attack on Oct. 6, the Hebrew Day of Atonement and the 10th day of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

After four wars and tens of thousands of Arab and Israeli deaths, the Arab states had enough. In a series of historic blunders, they ensured the Palestinians' continued statelessness. Having spent lives and treasures to no point, Egypt and Jordan agreed to peace.

The Israelis did not take any land from the Palestinians, but won it in battle from the Arab nations after being attacked, so there are no "occupied territories." Through those 25 years of confrontation and 28 troubled years since, no Arab country except Jordan has allowed Palestinians to immigrate in significant numbers, extended rights of citizenship or committed resources to relieving the misery in the refugee camps.

About 2 million Palestinian refugees have lived in camps in Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Egypt since 1948, and about 1 million live in the West Bank and Gaza. If the oil-rich Arab regimes and the Palestinian Authority have such compassion for the refugees, why do they leave them in camps?

Israel has absorbed 2 million Jews from the Soviet Union and the Arab nations, at great expense, yet there are no Jewish refugee camps.

The Palestinians are just an excuse for the Arabs, a means to have a surrogate guerrilla army within Israel. Generations of young, born in the camps, have no profession but violence, no ambition but martyrdom, no creed but rage.

So today, Palestinian youths strap explosives to their bodies and blow themselves to eternity, somehow imagining it will help secure for their people the state they could have had in 1948, except for the tragic miscalculations of their Arab brethren. The virulent hatred is flamed by militant Muslims, who have declared a holy war of terror against Israel - and the United States for supporting Israel.

Without us, they would again try to drive the Jews into the sea, and if Israel could be destroyed the United States would no longer be the enemy.

It's all about Israel.

[sanchmo]

Great article, although I have one point of clarification:

The name "Palestine" is mentioned four times in the Bible.
I didn't think it was, and I could find it in a Bible Gateway search. If the term was first used by the Romans after the destruction of Jerusalem, I wouldn't expect it to be in the Bible much, since the vast majority of the Bible - including the New Testament - was written pre-70AD.

[jonatron]

"Philistia", concordance word 6428 appears 8 times:

Psa 60:8 Moab [04124] [is] my washpot [05518] [07366]; over Edom [0123] will I cast out [07993] (8686) my shoe [05275]: Philistia [06429], triumph [07321] (8708) thou because of me.
Psa 83:7 Gebal [01381], and Ammon [05983], and Amalek [06002]; the Philistines [06429] with the inhabitants [03427] (8802) of Tyre [06865];
Psa 87:4 I will make mention [02142] (8686) of Rahab [07294] and Babylon [0894] to them that know [03045] (8802) me: behold Philistia [06429], and Tyre [06865], with Ethiopia [03568]; this [man] was born [03205] (8795) there.
Psa 108:9 Moab [04124] [is] my washpot [07366] [05518]; over Edom [0123] will I cast out [07993] (8686) my shoe [05275]; over Philistia [06429] will I triumph [07321] (8709).
Isa 14:29 Rejoice [08055] (8799) not thou, whole Palestina [06429], because the rod [07626] of him that smote [05221] (8688) thee is broken [07665] (8738): for out of the serpent's [05175] root [08328] shall come forth [03318] (8799) a cockatrice [06848], and his fruit [06529] [shall be] a fiery [08314] [00] flying [05774] (8789) serpent [08314].
Isa 14:31 Howl [03213] (8685), O gate [08179]; cry [02199] (8798), O city [05892]; thou, whole Palestina [06429], [art] dissolved [04127] (8738): for there shall come [0935] (8804) from the north [06828] a smoke [06227], and none [shall be] alone [0909] (8802) in his appointed times [04151].
Joe 3:4 Yea, and what have ye to do with me, O Tyre [06865], and Zidon [06721], and all the coasts [01552] of Palestine [06429]? will ye render [07999] (8764) me a recompence [01576]? and if ye recompense [01580] (8802) me, swiftly [07031] [and] speedily [04120] will I return [07725] (8686) your recompence [01576] upon your own head [07218];
			"Phlistine," or "Palestinian" means "immigrants."

[Billthedrill]

Israel became a nation in 1312 B.C., and since then Jerusalem has been the Jewish capital.

But not continuously. As long as we're seeking historical perspective, we should note a little problem they had with first the Egyptians, then the Babylonians. And it's a matter of no little irony that the Temple was restored...by Iranians.

I'm not much of an adherent to the "ours by right" argument on anybody's part. This area has changed hands by conquest constantly since Abe bought Hebron, and it is held by the force of arms now, just as it has ever been. Christian, Jew, and Muslim have all invoked God as justification for killing one another over it. I suspect that God probably has other ideas...

[John O]

And it's a matter of no little irony that the Temple was restored...by Iranians.

This has me scratching my head. Solomon built the first temple. Herod built the second temple. There hasn't been a third temple.

Explain please?

God Save America (Please)

[onedoug]

Though it always had been in the heart and spirit of the diaspora. "Next year in Jerusalem," has been uttered by Jewish voices ever since.

Islamism, or the sharia based imposition of Islam, for which the so-called "Palestinians" are current fodder, is inconsistent with western civilization. I only hope western civilization collectively wakes up to this fact before it's too late.

[Eternal_Bear]

A God that chooses one nation over others is a human creation. Pure and Simple.

[FourtySeven]

VERY interesting. Thanks.

[Ancesthntr]

Herod did not build the 2nd Temple. He merely enlarged the Temple plaza by building retaining walls around Mt. Moriah, thus allowed more earth to be added to the area around the already-existing Temple. The 2nd Temple was built about 500 years before Herod was even born. This was some 70 years after the 586 BCE destruction, and the re-building was permitted/encouraged by Cyrus the Great, emporer of Persia (i.e. Iran). Of course, observant Jews will tell you that G-d rebuilt the Temple, using Cyrus as his instrument, but it certainly wasn't Herod.

[onedoug]

"Pure and Simple."...except that essentially the entire turbulent flow of our history, culture and civilization is from thence derived.

[rebdov]

There are 14 references to the Land of the Philistines-PLISHTIM

Genesis 21:32, 21:34

Exodus 13:17

Samuel I 27:1, 29:11, 30:16, 31:09

Kings I 5:1

KingsII 8:2, 8:3

Jeremiah 25:20

Tsefania 2:5

Chronicles I 10:9

Chronicles II 9:26

[Billthedrill]

Ancesthntr beat me to it - Cyrus the Great (the "anointed of God" in the Old Testament) restored the Temple. He was either a Mede or a "Persian" but either way called himself Iranian - that is what that area of the world has been known as since time immemorial. The root of the word is "Aryan," which is what they are, racially, and what the Nazis weren't. I was playing with words a bit...sorry...

[Robert_Paulson2]

read the book of ezra and nehemiah, then get back with us.

[rebdov]

I don't know what book you are using but a lot of your verse numbers are incorrect. In Psalms 60:10 (not 8) it speaks of the Philistines as a people.

I wonder how all those verse numbers are about two off consistently?

Whoever is doing the translating in that book is consistently translating Pileshes as the land of the Philistines, whereas it is clear from the context and all Jewish commentators that Pileshes refers to the people.

[John O]

Thank you. I didn't have time to do the research but remembered it being called Herods temple.

GSA(P)

[sanchmo]

I've seen references to Philistia, to Philistines, and to the land of the Philistines. But the article said:
The Romans called the land Palestine for the Philistines, as a humiliation to the Jews
and The name "Palestine" is mentioned four times in the Bible.

[aimhigh]

A God that chooses one nation over others is a human creation. Pure and Simple.

Ignorance on display. A reading of the Bible clearly shows that God chose Isreal to display Himself. His prophecies through Moses have been clearly fulfilled. Israel is the only country dispersed and restored in accordance with those prophecies. The Bible can be proved in one word - ISRAEL. That is why the liberals side with the palestinians.

[John O]

So the temple was actually built by Jews headed by Nehemiah and Ezra under the permission of Cyrus.

If foreigners had built the temple I don't think the Jews would have used it.

Thanks for the refresher on history though.

GSA(P)

[jonatron]

Sorry if there were some innacuracies in those quotes, I had just copied them from a www-site.

"P'lashet" is used at ex. 15.14 in the "dwellers of Philistia" That's not to legitimize Yassir Arafat's claim, because neither he nor "his people" are indiginous to Eretz Yisrael. Neither were the real Philistines of biblical times, as indicated by their name.

It's most likely that the contemporary "Palestinians" are mostly related to Esau, which means their home is Seir, in Jordan.

Arafat did try to take over Jordan, but King Hussein mercilessly slaughtered Arafat and his gangs.

[shield]

You might want to study the meaning of Daniel 11:14.