Misc.
posts, with research (and a little subsequent editing, and subject to correction), regarding Israel and Palestinians
(and see end) [some is redundant, and I hope all is accurate]
“Over
4,000 years ago, there were small tribes living in Canaan, such as
Moabites, Amalekites, etc. There was no Palestine of people or land.
Then around 3,200 years ago, the 12 tribes of Israel, united under
King Saul into the first kingdom in the region, a Jewish theocracy
called “Israel.” That split into the kingdoms of Judah and Israel
(both Jewish), which were conquered by the Babylonian empire a little
over 2,500 years ago. This became the Persian Empire, which was
defeated by Alexander the Great, and Israel was controlled by the
Greeks.
The
Greeks were defeated by the Hasmoneans, and Israel once again became
a Jewish state about 2,200 years ago. The Hasmoneans were beaten by
the Romans, and there followed a series of kingdoms that controlled
Israel: Byzantine, Sassanid, Ummayad, Frankish, Christian, and
eventually the Mamluk Dynasty, which controlled the region in the
13th-16th centuries. This is the first time there is a governmental
Muslim presence in Israel, but again, it is not related to Palestine
as a people or nation at all. The Mamluks ultimately were absorbed
into the Ottoman Empire, which controlled the region until it was
defeated by the British in the 20th century. Nowhere in this
3,000-year history does Palestine or Palestinians exist or even get
discussed. The British created a mandate called “Palestine” on
July 24, 1922, which was the first mention of the word in thousands
of years.” -
https://pjmedia.com/rabbi-michael-barclay/2023/10/14/there-is-no-such-thing-as-palestinians-n1735136
Wikipedia
informs (which is only as good as its references, which the good OP
article lacks) The term "Palestine" first appeared in the
5th century BCE when the ancient Greek historian Herodotus wrote of a
"district of Syria, called PalaistinĂª" between Phoenicia
and Egypt in The Histories.[7] Herodotus provides the first
historical reference clearly denoting a wider region than biblical
Philistia, as he applied the term to both the coastal and the inland
regions such as the Judean Mountains and the Jordan Rift
Valley.[8][9][10][11] Later Greek writers such as Aristotle, Polemon
and Pausanias also used the word, which was followed by Roman writers
such as Ovid, Tibullus, Pomponius Mela, Pliny the Elder, Dio
Chrysostom, Statius, Plutarch as well as Roman Judean writers Philo
of Alexandria and Josephus.[12] There is not currently evidence of
the name on any Hellenistic coin or inscription.[13]
In
the early 2nd century CE, the term "Syria Palaestina"[a]
(literally, "Palestinian Syria"[14][15]) was given to the
Roman province of Judaea either before or after the suppression of
the Bar Kokhba revolt in 135 -
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_the_name_Palestine
I
add that what the radical Left charges is that Israel is an illegal
occupier (which seems to at least be inferred by the two-state
advocates, including Putin), denying them full ownership of their
historical land (which was mostly cleansed of a very wicked nation,
and later lost to conquerors due to Israel's infidelity to God, but
from what I see, thru a succession of conquerors part of their land
was given back to the Jews, who then gained more of it (whole giving
back almost all the land it controlled after Islamic wars) due to the
militant intolerance of Muslims to a Jewish state. Who had
no historical right to their militant intolerance to the Jewish
state.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Israel
has rejected Palestinian demands for a return of refugees as part of
a peace deal, arguing that it would threaten the country’s Jewish
majority." [Associated Press]
What
the liberal AP does not tell its readers (who are mostly headline
readers on Smart Phones) is that
The
Palestinian right of return is the political position or principle
that Palestinian refugees, both first-generation refugees (c. 30,000
to 50,000 people still alive as of 2012)[3][4] and their descendants
(c. 5 million people as of 2012),[3] have a right to return, and a
right to the property they themselves or their forebears left behind
or were forced to leave in what is now Israel and the Palestinian
territories. -
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palestinian_right_of_return
The
United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine provided for only 62%
of the land allocated to the Jewish state," [while] The land
allocated to the Arab State in the final plan included about 43% of
Mandatory Palestine and consisted of all of the highlands, except for
Jerusalem, plus one-third of the coastline. The highlands contain the
major aquifers of Palestine, which supplied water to the coastal
cities of central Palestine, including Tel Aviv. The Jewish State
allocated to the Jews, who constituted a third of the population and
owned about 7% of the land, was to receive 56% of Mandatory
Palestine, a slightly larger area to accommodate the increasing
numbers of Jews who would immigrate there. The Jewish State included
three fertile lowland plains – the Sharon on the coast, the Jezreel
Valley and the upper Jordan Valley. The bulk of the proposed Jewish
State's territory, however, consisted of the Negev Desert,[56] which
was not suitable for agriculture, nor for urban development at that
time. The Jewish State would also be given sole access to the Sea of
Galilee, crucial for its water supply, and the economically important
Red Sea.
"the
proposed Arab State would include the central and part of western
Galilee, with the town of Acre, the hill country of Samaria and
Judea, an enclave at Jaffa, and the southern coast stretching from
north of Isdud (now Ashdod) and encompassing what is now the Gaza
Strip, with a section of desert along the Egyptian border. "
"According to the plan, Jews and Arabs living in the Jewish
state would become citizens of the Jewish state and Jews and Arabs
living in the Arab state would become citizens of the Arab state."
By
virtue of Chapter 3, Palestinian citizens residing in Palestine
outside the City of Jerusalem, as well as Arabs and Jews who, not
holding Palestinian citizenship, resided in Palestine outside the
City of Jerusalem would, upon the recognition of independence, become
citizens of the State in which they were resident and enjoy full
civil and political rights.
Arab
leaders and governments rejected the plan of partition in the
resolution and indicated that they would reject any other plan of
partition.[9] The Arab states' delegations declared immediately after
the vote for partition that they would not be bound by the decision,
and walked out accompanied by the Indian and Pakistani
delegates.[116]...n 16 February 1948, the UN Palestine Commission
reported to the Security Council that: "Powerful Arab interests,
both inside and outside Palestine, are defying the resolution of the
General Assembly and are engaged in a deliberate effort to alter by
force the settlement envisaged therein."
Azzam
told Alec Kirkbride "We will sweep them [the Jews] into the
sea." Syrian president Shukri al-Quwatli told his people: "We
shall eradicate Zionism."[121] King Farouk of Egypt told the
American ambassador to Egypt that in the long run the Arabs would
soundly defeat the Jews and drive them out of Palestine.[ -
https://en.wikipedia.org
What
the Left charges is that Israel is an illegal occupier (which seems
to at least be inferred by the two-state advocates, including Putin),
yet there never was a Palestinian state, and the Jews regaining their
homeland was a result of being conquered by "occupiers,"
and who (from what I see) themselves were conquered (due to
disobedience to God) , and thru a succession of which the Jewish
state by born within their homeland, yet there remaineth yet more
land to be possessed from present occupants.
Palestinian Arab nationalism is largely a post-World War I phenomenon
that did not become a significant political movement until after the
1967 Six-Day War and Israel's capture of the West Bank. - https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jewish-claim-to-the-land-of-israel
"This
map [below] shows modern Israel compared to what ancient Israel
actually looked like at some point. The land God called Joshua to
take was much larger."
"The
big difference is that the West Bank, as well as the eastern side of
the Jordan River, is not part of modern Israel."
Source:
https://www.quora.com/How-does-modern-day-Israel-compare-to-the-conquered-lands-as-described-in-the-book-of-Joshua-Old-Testament/answer
Steve-Page-96
For many more maps:
http://www.jewishwikipedia.info/israelmaps.html
Map
below showing the status of Israel and the Israeli-occupied
territories as of 2018:
The
Jews regaining much of their ancient homeland and and statehood after
approx 2500 years of not possessing it, losing it to different
conquers/occupiers, and with dispersals, is unique, and providential,
glory to God who shall yet manifestly answer this question:
ISRAEL:
CHOSEN OR FORGOTTEN?
10/11/2023,
10:45:19 AM · 5
of 11
daniel1212
to daniel1212
Rather
than being unjust occupiers of "Palestinian" land, under
overt supernatural attestation of Divine command, the Jews conquered
a generationally wicked nation group due to being evil, exterminating
most (though DNA finds more than
90 percent of the genetic ancestry of modern Lebanese being
derived from ancient Canaanites, yet genes are not the same as
culture, which can radically evolve over the years while genes can
remain unchanged), due to disobedience, the Jews lost their
historical land to conquerors, and via a succession of which they
received most their land back, but not all that was promised them.
Excerpts
of research:
Israel existed as a Monarchy under the reigns of Saul, David, and
Solomon, yet due to disobedience the country later split into two
separate kingdoms: Israel (Ephraim) and Judah. The Northern Kingdom
of Israel was destroyed around 720 BCE, being conquered by the
Neo-Assyrian Empire. Later, Jewish revolts against the Babylonians
led to the destruction of Judah in 586 BCE, under king Nebuchadnezzar
II.
Neo-Assyrian Empire grew to dominate the ancient Near East throughout
much of the 8th and 7th centuries BC and ruled over all of
Mesopotamia, the Levant and Egypt, as well as parts of Anatolia,
Arabia and modern-day Iran and Armenia.
Despite being at the peak of its power, the empire experienced a
swift and violent fall in the late 7th century BC, destroyed by a
Babylonian uprising and an invasion by the Medes, an ancient Iranian
people who inhabited an area known as Media between western and
northern Iran. In the 7th century BC, all of western Iran and some
other territories were under Median rule, but their precise
geographic extent remains unknown.[4]
After the fall of Assyria between 616 BC and 609 BC, a unified Median
state was formed, which together with Babylonia, Lydia, and ancient
Egypt became one of the four major powers of the ancient Near East.
After Cyrus's victory against Astyages, the Medes were subjected to
their close kin, the Persians.[
From the early 6th century BC onwards, several Persian states
dominated the region, beginning with the Medes and non-Persian
Neo-Babylonian Empire, then their successor the Achaemenid Empire
known as the first Persian Empire, conquered in the late 4th century
BC by the very short-lived Macedonian Empire of Alexander the Great,
and then successor kingdoms such as Ptolemaic Egypt and the Seleucid
state in Western Asia.
After a century of hiatus, the idea of the Persian Empire was revived
by the Parthians in the 3rd century BC—and continued by their
successors, the Sassanids from the 3rd century AD. This empire
dominated sizable parts of what is now the Asian part of the Middle
East and continued to influence the rest of the Asiatic and African
Middle East region, until the Arab Muslim conquest of Persia in the
mid-7th century AD. Between the 1st century BC and the early 7th
century AD, the region was completely dominated by the Romans and the
Parthians and Sassanids on the other hand, which often culminated in
various Roman-Persian Wars over the seven centuries. Eastern Rite,
Church of the East Christianity took hold in Persian-ruled
Mesopotamia, particularly in Assyria from the 1st century AD onwards,
and the region became a center of a flourishing Syriac–Assyrian
literary tradition.
Greek and Roman Empire. In 66–63 BC, the Roman general Pompey
conquered much of the Middle East.[21] The Roman Empire united the
region with most of Europe and North Africa in a single political and
economic unit. Even areas not directly annexed were strongly
influenced by the Empire, which was the most powerful political and
cultural entity for centuries. Though Roman culture spread across the
region, the Greek culture and language first established in the
region by the Macedonian Empire continued to dominate throughout the
Roman period.
As the Christian religion spread throughout the Roman and Persian
Empires, it took root in the Middle East, and cities such as
Alexandria and Edessa became important centers of Christian
scholarship. By the 5th century, Christianity was the dominant
religion in the Middle East, with other faiths (gradually including
heretical Christian sects) being actively repressed. The Middle
East's ties to the city of Rome were gradually severed as the Empire
split into East and West, with the Middle East tied to the new Roman
capital of Constantinople. The subsequent Fall of the Western Roman
Empire therefore, had minimal direct impact on the region.
Byzantine Empire The Eastern Roman Empire, today commonly known as
the Byzantine Empire, ruling from the Balkans to the Euphrates,
became increasingly defined by and dogmatic about Christianity,
gradually creating religious rifts between the doctrines dictated by
the establishment in Constantinople and believers in many parts of
the Middle East. By this time, Greek had become the 'lingua franca'
of the region, although ethnicities such as the Syriacs and the
Hebrew continued to exist. Under Byzantine/Greek rule the area of the
Levant met an era of stability and prosperity.
In the 5th century, the Middle East was separated into small, weak
states; the two most prominent were the Sasanian Empire of the
Persians in what is now Iran and Iraq, and the Byzantine Empire in
Anatolia (modern-day Turkey) and the Levant. The Byzantines and
Sasanians fought with each other a reflection of the rivalry between
the Roman Empire and the Persian Empire seen during the previous five
hundred years. The Byzantine-Sasanian rivalry was also seen through
their respective cultures and religions. The Byzantines considered
themselves champions of Hellenism and Christianity. Meanwhile, the
Sasanians thought themselves heroes of ancient Iranian traditions and
of the traditional Persian religion, Zoroastrianism.
Territorial wars soon became common, with the Byzantines and
Sasanians fighting over upper Mesopotamia and Armenia and key cities
that facilitated trade from Arabia, India, and China.[27] Byzantium,
as the continuation of the Eastern Roman Empire, continued control of
the latter's territories in the Middle East. Since 527, this included
Anatolia, Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, and Egypt. But in 603 the
Sasanians invaded, conquering Damascus and Egypt. It was Emperor
Heraclius who was able to repel these invasions, and in 628 he
replaced the Sasanian Great King with a more docile one. But the
fighting weakened both states, leaving the stage open to a new power.
The nomadic Bedouin tribes dominated the Arabian desert, where they
worshiped idols and remained in small clans tied together by kinship.
Urbanization and agriculture was limited in Arabia, save for a few
regions near the coast. Mecca and Medina (then called Yathrib) were
two such cities that were important hubs for trade between Africa and
Eurasia.
While the Byzantine Roman and Sassanid Persian empires were both
weakened by warfare (602–628), a new power in the form of Islam
grew in the Middle East. In a series of rapid Muslim conquests, Arab
armies, led by the Caliphs and skilled military commanders such as
Khalid ibn al-Walid, swept through most of the Middle East, taking
more than half of Byzantine territory and completely engulfing the
Persian lands. In Anatolia, they were stopped in the Siege of
Constantinople (717–718) by the Byzantines, who were helped by the
Bulgarians.
The Byzantine provinces of Roman Syria, North Africa, and Sicily,
however, could not mount such a resistance, and the Muslim conquerors
swept through those regions. At the far west, they crossed the sea
taking Visigothic Hispania before being halted in southern France in
the Battle of Tours by the Franks. At its greatest extent, the Arab
Empire was the first empire to control the entire Middle East, as
well three-quarters of the Mediterranean region, the only other
empire besides the Roman Empire to control most of the Mediterranean
Sea.[32] It would be the Arab Caliphates of the Middle Ages that
would first unify the entire Middle East as a distinct region and
create the dominant ethnic identity that persists today.
Much of North Africa became a peripheral area to the main Muslim
centres in the Middle East, but Iberia (Al-Andalus) and Morocco soon
broke away from this distant control and founded one of the world's
most advanced societies at the time, along with Baghdad in the
eastern Mediterranean. Between 831 and 1071, the Emirate of Sicily
was one of the major centres of Islamic culture in the Mediterranean.
After its conquest by the Normans the island developed its own
distinct culture with the fusion of Arab, Western, and Byzantine
influences.
Motivated by religion and conquest, the kings of Europe launched a
number of Crusades to try to roll back Muslim power and retake the
Holy Land. The Crusades were unsuccessful but were far more effective
in weakening the already tottering Byzantine Empire. They also
rearranged the balance of power in the Muslim world as Egypt once
again emerged as a major power.
The dominance of the Arabs came to a sudden end in the mid-11th
century with the arrival of the Seljuq Turks, migrating south from
the Turkic homelands in Central Asia. They conquered Persia, Iraq
(capturing Baghdad in 1055), Syria, Palestine, and the Hejaz. Egypt
held out under the Fatimid caliphs until 1169, when it too fell to
the Turks.
Despite massive territorial losses in the 7th century, the Christian
Byzantine Empire continued to be a potent military and economic force
in the Mediterranean, preventing Arab expansion into much of Europe.
The Seljuqs' defeat of the Byzantine military in the Battle of
Manzikert in the 11th century and settling in Anatolia effectively
marked the end of Byzantine power. The Seljuks ruled most of the
Middle East region for the next 200 years, but their empire soon
broke up into a number of smaller sultanates.
Christian Western Europe staged a remarkable economic and demographic
recovery in the 11th century since its nadir in the 7th century. The
fragmentation of the Middle East allowed joined forces, mainly from
England, France, and the emerging Holy Roman Empire, to enter the
region. In 1095, Pope Urban II responded to pleas from the flagging
Byzantine Empire and summoned the European aristocracy to recapture
the Holy Land for Christianity. In 1099 the knights of the First
Crusade captured Jerusalem and founded the Kingdom of Jerusalem,
which survived until 1187, when Saladin, the founder of the Ayyubid
dynasty, retook the city. Smaller crusader kingdoms and fiefdoms
survived until 1291.
Mongol rule... societal clashing occurred between traditionalists who
wished to retain their nomadic culture and Mongols moving towards
sedentary agriculture. All of this led to the fragmentation of the
empire in 1260.
The Mongols eventually retreated in 1335, but the chaos that ensued
throughout the empire deposed the Seljuq Turks. In 1401, the region
was further plagued by the Turko-Mongol, Timur, and his ferocious
raids. By then, another group of Turks had arisen as well, the
Ottomans. Based in Anatolia, by 1566 they would conquer the Iraq-Iran
region, the Balkans, Greece, Byzantium, most of Egypt, most of north
Africa, and parts of Arabia, unifying them under the Ottoman Empire.
The rule of the Ottoman sultans marked the end of the Medieval
(Postclassical) Era in the Middle East.
The Ottoman Empire (1299–1918)..The Ottomans united the whole
region under one ruler for the first time since the reign of the
Abbasid caliphs of the 10th century, and they kept control of it for
400 years, despite brief intermissions created by the Iranian
Safavids and Afsharids.[38] By this time the Ottomans also held
Greece, the Balkans, and most of Hungary, setting the new frontier
between east and west far to the north of the Danube. Regions such as
Albania and Bosnia saw many conversions to Islam, but Ottoman Europe
was not culturally absorbed into the Muslim world.
By 1699, the Ottomans had been driven out of Hungary,
Poland-Lithuania and parts of the western Balkans in the Great
Turkish War. In the Great Divergence, Europe had overtaken the Muslim
world in wealth, population and technology.
The industrial revolution and growth of capitalism magnified the
divergence, and from 1768 to 1918, the Ottomans gradually lost
territory. Greece, Serbia, Romania, and Bulgaria achieved
independence during the 19th century, and the Ottoman Empire became
known as the "sick man of Europe", increasingly under the
financial control of European powers. Domination soon turned to
outright conquest: the French annexed Algeria in 1830 and Tunisia in
1878 and the British occupied Egypt in 1882, though it remained under
nominal Ottoman sovereignty. In the Balkan Wars of 1912–13 the
Ottomans were driven out of Europe altogether, except for the city of
Constantinople and its hinterland.
The British also established effective control of the Persian Gulf,
and the French extended their influence into Lebanon and Syria. In
1912, the Italians seized Libya and the Dodecanese islands, just off
the coast of the Ottoman heartland of Anatolia. The Ottomans turned
to Germany to protect them from the western powers, but the result
was increasing financial and military dependence on Germany... Enver
Bey's alliance with Germany, which he considered the most advanced
military power in Europe, was enabled by British demands that the
Ottoman Empire cede their formal capital Edirne (Adrianople) to the
Bulgarians after losing the First Balkan War, which the Turks saw as
a betrayal by Britain.
The British saw the Ottomans as the weak link in the enemy alliance,
and concentrated on knocking them out of the war. When a direct
assault failed at Gallipoli in 1916, they turned to fomenting
revolution in the Ottoman domains, exploiting the awakening force of
Arab, Armenian, and Assyrian nationalism against the Ottomans. The
British found an ally in Sharif Hussein, the hereditary ruler of
Mecca believed by many to be a descendant of Muhammad, who led an
Arab Revolt against Ottoman rule, after being promised independence.
.
The Entente, won the war and the Ottoman Empire was abolished with
most of its territories ceded to Britain and France; Turkey just
managed to survive.The war transformed the region in terms of
shattering Ottoman power which was supplanted by increased British
and French involvement; the creation of the Middle Eastern state
system as seen in Turkey and Saudi Arabia; the emergence of
explicitly more nationalist politics, as seen in Turkey and Egypt;
and the expansion of oil industry, particularly in the Gulf States.
When the Ottoman Empire surrendered to the Allies in 1918, the Arab
patriots did not get what they had expected. Islamic activists of
more recent times have described it as an Anglo-French betrayal. The
governments of the European Entente had concluded a secret treaty
before the armistice, the Sykes–Picot Agreement, between the United
Kingdom and France, with assent from the Russian Empire and the
Kingdom of Italy, to define their mutually agreed spheres of
influence and control in an eventual partition of the Ottoman Empire.
The agreement was based on the premise that the Triple Entente would
achieve success in defeating the Ottoman Empire during World War I
and formed part of a series of secret agreements contemplating its
partition. The agreement allocated to the UK control of what is today
southern Israel and Palestine, Jordan and southern Iraq, and an
additional small area that included the ports of Haifa and Acre to
allow access to the Mediterranean. France was to control southeastern
Turkey, the Kurdistan Region, Syria and Lebanon.
As a result of the included Sazonov–PalĂ©ologue Agreement, Russia
was to get Western Armenia in addition to Constantinople and the
Turkish Straits already promised under the 1915 Constantinople
Agreement. Italy assented to the agreement in 1917 via the Agreement
of Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne and received southern Anatolia.[8] The
Palestine region, with a smaller area than the later Mandatory
Palestine, was to fall under an "international administration".
Syria became a French protectorate as a League of Nations mandate.
The Christian coastal areas were split off to become Lebanon, another
French protectorate. Iraq and Palestine became British mandated
territories. Iraq became the "Kingdom of Iraq" and one of
Sharif Hussein's sons, Faisal, was installed as the King of Iraq.
Iraq incorporated large populations of Kurds, Assyrians and Turkmens,
many of whom had been promised independent states of their own.
The British had in 1917, endorsed the Balfour Declaration promising
the international Zionist movement their support in re-creating the
historic Jewish homeland in Palestine. Britain was granted a Mandate
for Palestine on 25 April 1920 at the San Remo Conference, and, on 24
July 1922, this mandate was approved by the League of Nations.
Palestine became the "British Mandate of Palestine" and was
placed under direct British administration. The Jewish population of
Palestine, consisting overwhelmingly of recent migrants from Europe,
numbered less than 8 percent in 1918. Under the British mandate,
Zionist settlers were granted wide rein to immigrate initially, buy
land from absentee landlords, set up a local government and later
establish the nucleus of a state all under the protection of the
British Army, which brutally suppressed multiple Palestinian Arab
revolts in the years that followed, including in 1936
The Territory East of the Jordan River and west of Iraq was also
declared a British Mandate when the Council of the League of Nations
passed the British written Transjordan Memorandum on 16 September
1922. Most of the Arabian peninsula, including the Holy cities of
Mecca and Medina, though not incorporated into either a British or
French colonial mandate, fell under the control of another British
ally, Ibn Saud, who in 1932, founded the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Middle_East;
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middle_Eastern_empires;
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sykes%E2%80%93Picot_Agreement
rather
than being unjust occupiers of "Palestinian" land, under
overt supernatural attestation of Divine command, the Jews conquered
a generationally wicked nation group due to being evil, exterminating
most. Later, due to disobedience, the Jews lost their historical land
to conquerors, yet with a remnant of Jews always being present, along with Arabs later Muslims, albeit with some Canaanite DNA, with no legal title to the land occupied, such as allocated by a government) and
via a succession of which they received most their land back, but not
all that was promised them. From what I see, the people latter called
"Palestinian" may be due to Israel's failure to utterly drive out the Canaanites, and who could have later had their own state, along with the Jewsbut rejected the
US partition plan.
When
Jews began to immigrate to Palestine in large numbers in 1882, fewer
than 250,000 Arabs lived there, and the majority of them had arrived
in recent decades. Palestine was never an exclusively Arab country,
although Arabic gradually became the language of most the population
after the Muslim invasions of the seventh century. No independent
Arab or Palestinian state ever existed in Palestine. When the
distinguished Arab-American historian, Princeton University Prof.
Philip Hitti, testified against partition before the Anglo-American
Committee in 1946, he said: "There is no such thing as
'Palestine' in history, absolutely not." In fact, Palestine is
never explicitly mentioned in the Koran, rather it is called "the
holy land" (al-Arad al-Muqaddash).
Prior to partition, Palestinian Arabs did not view themselves as
having a separate identity. When the First Congress of
Muslim-Christian Associations met in Jerusalem in February 1919 to
choose Palestinian representatives for the Paris Peace Conference,
the following resolution was adopted:
We consider Palestine as part of Arab Syria, as it has never been
separated from it at any time. We are connected with it by national,
religious, linguistic, natural, economic and geographical bonds.
In 1937, a local Arab leader, Auni Bey Abdul-Hadi, told the Peel
Commission, which ultimately suggested the partition of Palestine:
"There is no such country [as Palestine]! 'Palestine' is a term
the Zionists invented! There is no Palestine in the Bible. Our
country was for centuries part of Syria."...
Palestinian Arab nationalism is largely a post-World War I phenomenon
that did not become a significant political movement until after the
1967 Six-Day War and Israel's capture of the West Bank. - https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jewish-claim-to-the-land-of-israel
Yet
may
they, as with Jews, find peace and fellowship thru the risen Lord
Jesus which both religions deny.
As
for the poverty of Gaza, one should not be ignorant of the
political purposes behind the "plight of the Palestinians"
- which is a result of the Islamic 1948 intolerance of the Jews which
Muslims sought to expel since 1948. Whereby some non-supporters of
HAMAS are victims the the Islamic refusal to allow Palestinians to
become citizens in their country (aside from Jordan), for political
purposes. Jordan, and Syria.
Israel
comprises just 0.2 percent of the Middle East’s land mass while
Arabs of today controls 24 nations... 9
9½
percent of the ENTIRE Middle East land mass, and Muslims of most
surrounding nations have sought to kill or expel push the Jews from
their ancient national homeland even before as well as after 1947,
when Muslims, which came to be called Palestinians - a name cognate
with the Biblical Hebrew Pəlīštīm and used for the land of the
Hebrews from at least
450 BC (Herodotus) while the
residents of Judea and Samaria were considered Jordanians before
1948, including by themselves - rejected
the UN Partition Plan which would have established independent Jewish
and Arab states and an international control of Jerusalem. Before
that, under the 1922
international mandate the British were to help the Jews
reestablish their homeland in the territory.
The
Muslims would not tolerated the existence of the State of Israel in
1948 since the Arab community was still seeking to control the
entirety of the Palestine Mandate itself, thus five Arab armies
attacked Israel when it declared independence. Only to henceforth cry
victim when they lost this war and subsequent attempts to drive
Israel into the sea as it were.
As a distinct people Palestinians never were a nation before 1948 (and only a quasi-state from 1988) while about 20%
of Israeli citizens are Arabs, mostly Muslims, with only 14%
identifying as Palestinians, and live in homes they either own or
rent, and are not required to perform mandatory military service.
They have equal voting rights and Arabs currently hold 9 seats in the
120-seat Knesset and have also held various government posts,
including one who served as Israel’s ambassador to Finland and the
current deputy mayor of Tel Aviv. (
Myths & Facts Online - Human Rights in Israel and the
Territories) And see The
Real Reason Arabs in Israel Do Not Want to Live in 'Palestine'
Meanwhile,
most
Arab nations resist Palestinians immigration and refuse citizenship
to them, due to their warring nature, being a destabilizing factor in
both Israel and other nations, and for political purposes.
However,
despite tiny Israel attempting to live in peaceful co-existence with
its surrounding Muslim neighbors, even giving up almost all the land
is conquered in victory over Muslim attempts to exterminate them, it
is threatened and attacked by such, thus resulting in defensive
actions which are invoked by liberals as unwarranted aggression, but
which are warranted.
And
while I am sure Israel has engaged in some wrong actions, and some
discrimination exists, and is far from perfect tenants - including
allowing “gay” parades,” they are the victims of unjust
aggression by other nations.
...some ask why neighboring Egypt and Jordan don’t take them in....
The two countries, which flank Israel on opposite sides and share
borders with Gaza and the occupied West Bank, respectively, have
replied with a staunch refusal. Jordan already has a large
Palestinian population. Jordan’s King Abdullah II gave a similar
message a day earlier, saying, “No refugees in Jordan, no refugees
in Egypt.” Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi...warned of an
even more destabilizing scenario: the wrecking of Egypt and Israel’s
1979 peace deal. He said that with the presence of Palestinian
militants, Sinai “would become a base for attacks on Israel. Israel
would have the right to defend itself ... and would strike Egyptian
territory.”
https://apnews.com/article/palestinian-jordan-egypt-israel-refugee-502c06d004767d4b64848d878b66bd3d
And
as for the GDP of Gaza, what do you think this would be if the were
Chinese and lived peacefully with Israel? Meanwhile,
Hamas spends $100 million a year on military
infrastructure.Khatib)... As the residents of the Gaza Strip endure
daily hardships due to the dire economic situation in the enclave,
their Hamas leaders spend over $100 million a year on the group’s
military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, according to
estimates by both Israeli and Palestinian sources. Spending on
digging tunnels accounts for some $40 million of that annual sum. By
way of comparison, the budget of the last Hamas government, which
dissolved in April 2014, was $530 million. -
https://www.timesofisrael.com/hamas-spends-100-million-a-year-on-military-infrastructure/
And
as for US aid, much of that is returned via purchases.
Israel ends up sacrificing far more value in return for the nearly $4
billion it annually receives from Washington. That’s because nearly
all military aid to Israel—other than loan guarantees, which cost
Washington nothing, the U.S. gives Israel no other kind of
aid—consists of credits that go directly from the Pentagon to U.S.
weapons manufacturers. In return, American payouts undermine Israel’s
domestic defense industry, weaken its economy, and compromise the
country’s autonomy—giving Washington veto power over everything
from Israeli weapons sales to diplomatic and military strategy. When
Washington meddles directly in Israel’s domestic affairs, as it
does often these days, Israeli leaders who have lobbied for these
payments—including current Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu—are
simply reaping the rewards of their own penny-wise, pound-foolish
efforts.
The Israeli military, often ranked as the fourth-most powerful in the
world, has become an adjunct to American power in a crucial region in
which the U.S. has lost the appetite for projecting military force.
Israeli intelligence functions as America’s eyes and ears, not just
in the Middle East but in other key strategic theaters like Russia
and Central Asia and even parts of Latin America. Controlling access
to the output of Israel’s powerful high-tech sector is a strategic
advantage for the U.S. that alone is worth many multiples of the
credits Israel receives. -
https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/end-american-aid-israel
[and that source is actually opposing the amount of aid.]
The
only option here is to contend that the US should be an isolationist
country.
Friends with Benefits: Why the U.S.-Israeli Alliance Is Good for
America by Michael Eisenstadt, David Pollock ...
. The U.S.-Israeli alliance now contributes more than ever to
American security, as bilateral cooperation to deal with both
military and nonmilitary challenges has grown in recent years... it
is a two-way partnership whose benefits to the United States have
been substantial. The other, less tangible costs of the U.S.-Israeli
alliance -- mainly, damage to Washington's reputation in Arab and
Muslim countries, a problem also caused by American interventions and
decades of U.S. support for autocratic leaders in the Middle East --
pale in comparison with the economic, military, and political gains
it affords Washington.
Israel has also emerged as an important niche defense supplier to the
U.S. military, with sales growing from $300 million per year before
September 11 to $1.1 billion in 2006, due to the wars in Afghanistan
and Iraq. Israel's military research and development complex has
pioneered many cutting-edge technologies that are transforming the
face of modern war, including cyberweapons, unmanned vehicles (such
as land robots and aerial drones), sensors and electronic warfare
systems, and advanced defenses for military vehicles. -
https://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/friends-benefits-why-us-israeli-alliance-good-america
The U.S.-Israeli economic and commercial relationship now spans IT,
bio-tech, life sciences, health care solutions, energy,
pharmaceuticals, food and beverage, defense industries,
cyber-security, and aviation, to name just a few sectors.
Critical
components of leading American high-tech products are invented and
designed in Israel, making these American companies more competitive
and more profitable globally. Cisco, Intel, Motorola, Applied
Materials, and HP are just a few examples.
Israel is home to
more than 2,500 U.S. firms employing some 72,000 Israelis, according
to an estimate by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Thousands more jobs
are supported indirectly by these employers.
The Massachusetts Example
The New England-Israel Business
Council released a study that shows that Israeli-founded businesses
have generated about 9,000 jobs in Massachusetts alone, and
indirectly support an additional 18,000. These companies represent
nearly four per
cent of the state’s GDP. And that is just one
state. In Beersheva – less than an hour’s train ride from Tel
Aviv –American and Israeli companies are working side-by-side at
CyberSpark. It is a fast-growing, world-class, hi-tech office park,
adjacent to a top academic institution, Ben-Gurion University of the
Negev, and not far from where critical public-sector institutions,
such as the IDF’s cyber and intelligence units, will soon be
located. This unique eco-system is rapidly attracting more American
companies to take part in developing the defenses that will protect
the new economy. -
https://il.usembassy.gov/our-relationship/policy-history/fact-sheet-u-s-israel-economic-relationship/
One Arabs citizens of Israel:
Roughly 21% of Israel’s more than nine million citizens are Arabs.
The vast majority of the Israeli Arabs - approximately 83% - are
Muslims, 9% are Druze, and 8% are Christian. Some 52% of the Arab
citizens live in northern Israel, 20% in the “Triangle” region in
the center of the country, 18% in the Negev, and 8% in the mixed
cities (Acre, Haifa, Jaffa, Ramla, Lod, Nof Hagalil and
Maalot-Tarshiha), 1% in the Jerusalem Corridor (including West
Jerusalem) and 2% in the rest of the country.
Arabs in Israel have equal voting rights; it is one of the few places
in the Middle East where Arab women may vote.
...
The sole legal distinction between Jewish and Arab citizens of Israel
is that the latter are not required to serve in the Israeli army.
This was to spare Arab citizens the need to bear arms against their
brethren. Nevertheless, many Arabs have volunteered for military duty
– more than 1,000 in 2020 – and the Druze and Circassian
communities are subject to the draft.
Some economic and social gaps between Israeli Jews and Arabs result
from the latter not serving in the military...
In 2020, the Jewish People Policy Institute (JPPI) reported “a
dramatic rise in the share of Arab Israelis who define their primary
identity as ‘Israeli,’ and a concomitant sharp decline in the
share who self-identify as ‘Palestinian.’”...
The national election of 2021 was notable for a radical change in
Israeli politics, with the Ra’am Party becoming the first Arab
party to join a governing coalition. ... It could have brought down
the government at any time if it was dissatisfied with its direction.
.... -
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/the-status-of-arabs-in-israel
And
now, as of 11-4-23, the Israel,
as it periodically has since its founding in 1948, is once again foundtself fighting for its survival. And
it remains that Israel, not the “Palestinians” is
the entity which has the best historical, ancient claim to statehood
of its territory, having existed as a kingdom, which land it lost due
to disobedience to its covenant with God.
Which
- unlike Muhammad’s “revelations” and his wars of conquest, was
agreed to after profound supernatural demonstrations of Divine power,
leaving no mistake as to who was commanding Israel to exterminate the
generally wicked Canaanites from the land God chose for His people.
But,
as God warned, which the land and statehood it lost due to
disobedience to God, which land saw a succession of conquers, the
last of which gave the Jews a portion of its historical land back, as
part of the promise of God.
But
which militant Palestinian Muslims refused to tolerate, refusing the
US partition plan, and instead have sought the obliteration of the
Jews since, and thus HAMAS and Hezbollah, among other Palestinian
militant groups, staunchly oppose the Oslo Accords, and consider
the Abrahamic accords to be traitorous.
Yet
even with Islam violent wars have much been a historical constant.
And which is consistent with the prophecy given to the mother of the
Arabs regarding her son. the product of Abraham yielding to his
barren wife with a dead womb to have a child thru her, being
impatient, for God had promised a child to Abram and Sarah of a son
who would be the progenitor of a vast innumerable people. Genesis
15:1–16)
And he will be a wild man; his hand will be against every man, and
every man’s hand against him; and he shall dwell in the presence of
all his brethren. (Genesis
16:12)
Yet,
while being the clear victim of unjust attacks by recalcitrant
warring Muslims, Israel itself is suffering chastisement via the
wicked, which serves as a sword of such, (1Psalms 17:13) having much
adopted Western immorality, and overall rejecting the Messiah who
came as foretold, as spiritual savor, preceding the conversion of
Israel, as a remnant, and the Lord Christ’s physical rule in which
the Jews will worship the Lord of glory.
So
may all, including all Arabs,
as with Jews, now find peace and fellowship thru the risen Lord Jesus
which both religions deny. For, as in the past, the only
hope of peace was born in the Middle East.
Supplemental:
The
Hamas Covenant or Hamas Charter, formally known in English
as the Covenant of the Islamic Resistance Movement, was originally
issued on 18 August 1988 and outlines the founding identity, stand,
and aims of Hamas (the Islamic Resistance Movement).[1] A new charter
was issued by Hamas leader Khaled Mashal on 1 May 2017 in Doha.[2]
The
original Charter identified Hamas as the Muslim Brotherhood in
Palestine and declares its members to be Muslims who "fear God
and raise the banner of Jihad in the face of the oppressors".
The charter states that "our struggle against the Jews is very
great and very serious" and calls for the eventual creation of
an Islamic state in Palestine, in place of Israel and the Palestinian
Territories,[3] and the obliteration or dissolution of Israel.[4][5]
It emphasizes the importance of jihad, stating in article 13, "There
is no solution for the Palestinian question except through Jihad.
Initiatives, proposals and international conferences are all a waste
of time and vain endeavors."[6] The charter also states that
Hamas is humanistic, and tolerant of other religions as long as they
"stop disputing the sovereignty of Islam in this region".[7]
The Charter adds that "renouncing any part of Palestine means
renouncing part of the religion [of Islam]".[1] The original
charter was criticized for its violent language against all Jews,
which many commentators have characterized as incitement to
genocide.[8][9]
The
2017 charter accepted for the first time the idea of a Palestinian
state within the borders that existed before 1967 and rejected
recognition of Israel, which it terms as the "Zionist enemy".[2]
It advocates such a state as transitional but also advocates the
"liberation of all of Palestine".[14][15] The new document
also states that the group does not seek war with the Jewish people
but only against Zionism which it holds responsible for "occupation
of Palestine".[16] Mashal also stated that Hamas was ending its
association with the Muslim Brotherhood.[14] After a new charter was
scheduled to be issued in May 2017, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu's office issued a statement in which it accused Hamas of
trying to fool the world and also asked it to stop its terror
activities for a true change.[17]
Hamas
leadership's actions and terminology has remained antisemitic. An
example being, Hamas leader, Fathi Hamad's 2019 statement, who said
"You should attack every Jew possible in all the world and kill
them".[38][39][40][41] -
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamas_Charter
On
the destruction of Israel:
"Israel
will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it,
just as it obliterated others before it." (Preamble)
The
exclusive Moslem nature of the area:
"The
land of Palestine is an Islamic Waqf [Holy Possession] consecrated
for future Moslem generations until Judgment Day. No one can renounce
it or any part, or abandon it or any part of it." (Article 11)
"Palestine
is an Islamic land... Since this is the case, the Liberation of
Palestine is an individual duty for every Moslem wherever he may be."
(Article 13)
The
call to jihad:
"The
day the enemies usurp part of Moslem land, Jihad becomes the
individual duty of every Moslem. In the face of the Jews' usurpation,
it is compulsory that the banner of Jihad be raised." (Article
15)
"Ranks
will close, fighters joining other fighters, and masses everywhere in
the Islamic world will come forward in response to the call of duty,
loudly proclaiming: 'Hail to Jihad!'. This cry will reach the heavens
and will go on being resounded until liberation is achieved, the
invaders vanquished and Allah's victory comes about." (Article
33)
Rejection
of a negotiated peace settlement:
"[Peace]
initiatives, and so-called peaceful solutions and international
conferences are in contradiction to the principles of the Islamic
Resistance Movement... Those conferences are no more than a means to
appoint the infidels as arbitrators in the lands of Islam... There is
no solution for the Palestinian problem except by Jihad. Initiatives,
proposals and international conferences are but a waste of time, an
exercise in futility." (Article 13)
Condemnation
of the Israel-Egypt Peace Treaty:
"Egypt
was, to a great extent, removed from the circle of struggle [against
Zionism] through the treacherous Camp David Agreement. The Zionists
are trying to draw other Arab countries into similar agreements in
order to bring them outside the circle of struggle. ...Leaving the
circle of struggle against Zionism is high treason, and cursed be he
who perpetrates such an act." (Article 32)
Anti-Semitic
incitement:
The
Day of Judgment will not come about until Moslems fight Jews and kill
them. Then, the Jews will hide behind rocks and trees, and the rocks
and trees will cry out: 'O Moslem, there is a Jew hiding behind me,
come and kill him." (Article 7)
The
charter makes a point of the ideological difference between Hamas,
with its radical Islamic world view, and the secularly-oriented The
Palestine Liberation Organization, but pays lip service to the need
for Palestinian unity needed to face the Jewish enemy. It notes that
an Islamic world view completely contradicts The Palestine Liberation
Organization’s secular orientation and the idea of a secular
Palestinian state. Nevertheless, notes the charter, Hamas is prepared
to aid and support every “nationalist trend” working “to
liberate Palestine” and is not interested in creating schisms and
disagreements (Article 27). -
https://embassies.gov.il/holysee/AboutIsrael/the-middle-east/Pages/The%20Hamas-Covenant.aspx
Also see https://www.wilsoncenter.org/blog-post/hamas-words-and-deeds#:~:text=In%20its%20original%201988%20charter,%2C%20religious%20or%20sectarian%20grounds.%E2%80%9D
Actual
document: Hamas Covenant 1988 The Covenant of the Islamic Resistance
Movement 18 August 1988 -
https://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/hamas.asp
