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. 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.

A great deal of the scholarship I am aware of has it that the Romans, in order to put it in the Jews' faces in and after AD 70, renamed the land from Judea to Palestina (in mock "honor" of the Jews' ancient and hated rivals, the Philistines). I believe that to have been the case, and it makes sense. The name stuck, so now we are stuck with the name.

Jerusalem became a city of importance only after King David made it his capital and built the first Jewish Temple there. Its importance to the Christians is similarly Biblical. Jerusalem is not mentioned even once in the Koran, but the Muslims claim a tradition that Mohammed ascended to heaven on his white horse from the Temple Mount.

A post that claims to know a great deal, and to be able to correct erroneous ideas WE may have, itself is full of error.

The original Israelite invasion under Joshua leveled the city and exterminated its people, whether its then name was "Urusalim" or whatever it was-- it was a Canaanite (Hamitic) city.

The "Jebusites" were just a recent people, just a clan, an extended family, of mixed non-Jewish origin who moved/inwandered into the ruins of the city in the interim, till David found it worthwhile to dispossess them. Their tenure there was not only not the original one, but was post-Joshua! They had been there some 200 years at the most, when David drove them and their weak, primitive village from the site and made it the site of his capital city.

The occupation of the site dates from some 5000 years ago (3000 BC), and there was definitely a (small) city there at the dawn of history, as this passage fails to say. It also was considered holy, and its king a "priest of the Most High God" in c2150 BC when Abraham visited the area and gave tithes to its then king, Melchi-zedek "King of Righteousness."

Neither the Jebusites, nor any other Canaanites, were Semites, as this article says, but were a Hamitic people-- Canaan was a descendant not of Shem, but of Ham!

The Circassians were a member of a group of peoples of the northwestern Caucasus, aka Caucasians. These blue-eyed peoples are probably left over from the Northern Kingdom, aka The Lost Tribes of Israel, who were taken captive and moved there by the Assyrians. For more details, click on my Profile.

It is interesting tht the area where God chooses to do much of his "work" and where he wants the Jews is so centrally located.

Israel is the spirtitual center of the world.

The geographical hub also; three continents converge there: Asia Europe and Africa.

I believe that Jerusalem will eventually be the capitol of the world. And as Zechariah 12 says Jerusalem will be a cup of trembling (Look at Arafat tremble!) and a burdensome stone to all who come against it.

Araphat is like a moth around a flame he must have Jerusalem and the closer he gets the sooner he will self destruct.