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The Question of Jerusalem
Oregon Magazine ^ | May 1, 2002 | Larry Leonard

Posted on 05/05/2002 8:14:09 PM PDT by WaterDragon

David Northfield, reporting Saturday morning, 04/06, on KGW-TV (Portland, OR), during tape footage of the "Palestinian" demonstration on Pioneer Square in Portland, mangled the news beautifully by just being ignorant. He didn't offer a single argument to the "Palestinian" claims. When done intentionally, this is called softball interview, and means the "journalist" favors the subject's point of view. That's called bias. When combined with a lack of interest in the facts, it's sloppy work, to boot.

I doubt if Mr. Northfield knows a single thing about the subject -- which proves he belongs in the mainstream media, where "broadcast journalist" is an oxymoron.

Here's what he should have known before airing a report on the subject. Not that he would have used it all. It's what in the news business is known as background research. Media outlets, if they are to be considered credible, must find out this sort of information before dealing with a major news topic. Just sticking a microphone in somebody's face and asking them how they feel is not enough. He could have learned what you are about to read in a half an hour on the internet, but it seems that as far as he is concerned, you aren't worth ten minutes of research.

For a long time prior to the Roman occupation adjacent to the time of Christ, the residents of the area in dispute were referred to in the Old Testament of the Christian Bible (taken from the Jewish Torah) as Canaanites. They had no connection with Islam because the religion would not be created for another thirty-five centuries, give or take a few. The Romans (probably in deference ot local custom) took to calling it "Palestinia," from which we get Palestine, but it isn't in any Latin lexicon to which I have personal or internet access. Arabic is said to have a similar word, falestyn, but no dictionary of that tongue I have found includes the term. The only internet reference to it seems to be in modern documents written in the Russian language. That's a dead end, too, because Russian dictionaries I've checked don't include it, either.

My research on the broader subject indicates that before the land was called Canaan (the Promised Land of the Torah and Old Testament), the area was made up of city states with kings -- quite similar to patterns familiar to students of Athenian/Spartan Greece. Like the inhabitants of ancient Greece, classical Rome and even a great many in modern India, the people of the land to be called Canaan were polytheists. The idea of monotheism (the worship of a single god) seems to have first developed in the tribes of Iron Age Juday, which, if my information is correct, worshipped Yaweh -- the deity today called God by Christians and Allah by Moslems...(snip)

The reason why this matters is that an Arab Mr. Northfield's camera caught on tape said that "Palestinians" have a "right" to include Jerusalem in any settlement because it is their holy capitol. Jerusalem, however, was not founded by Moslems.

It was originally called Urusalim (see historical descriptive below) by the city's earliest residents, the Jebusites. Probably most of them were Semites. (With the possible exception of the lighter-skinned, blue-eyed Circassians, all Arabs are Semitic. So are Jews.) God only knows who the Jebusites prayed to. It could have been "Shalem". Maybe a god named "Jebu". It is certain that none were Moslems. When the legendary King David won the city in battle, he renamed it after himself. Sometime after that it got its current name, which is similar to the Jebusite original but in Hebrew is a word that means "city of peace". Considering its long history of warfare, it's an ironic title....(snip)


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs; Miscellaneous; Philosophy; US: California; US: Idaho; US: Oregon; US: Washington
KEYWORDS: jerusalem; mediastupidity; priorrights
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To: Chunga
>You are a proven liar,

Isn't it a bitch? Try as you might you just can't get this thread killed, and your record out of public view!

101 posted on 05/09/2002 1:56:43 PM PDT by skraeling
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To: skraeling
Look at the proven liar skraeling spinning his web, trying to intentionally deceive lurkers on this thread! The sentence

"The Jews of today aren't the same Jews written about in the Bible and we are the true heirs of the promises of God"

was written by me to show an EXAMPLE OF A VIEWPOINT held by certain anti-semitic Lost Tribe theorists, and skraeling KNOWS IT...yet he deceptively attempts to ascribe this viewpoint to me!

skraeling, you're not only a liar and a deceiver...you're a bonafide yo-yo. LOL.

102 posted on 05/09/2002 3:38:41 PM PDT by Chunga
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To: PaulKersey
Your response to Chunga at post #86 is truly the only appropriate one. I believe it accurately reflects the feeling of most of us on this thread, and on the related threads which he is spamming with his nitwit attacks.
103 posted on 05/14/2002 9:53:15 AM PDT by Mare Tranquilitatus
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To: Mare Tranquilitatus
>Your response to Chunga at post #86 is truly the only appropriate one.

Thanks. This kid Chunga is just a little piss ant. An ankle-biter. He can't play in the yard with the big dogs so he stays on the porch and just yaps to hear his own noise!

104 posted on 05/21/2002 8:34:18 PM PDT by PaulKersey
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