Eretz Israel (The land of Israel)
God's promise to give the land to the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is found in the book of Genesis (Bereshit) beginning in Chapter 12 and more specifically in Chapter 15 which records God's covenant with Abram (Avram). Abraham, the father of the Jewish people was born around 2011 B.C. (B.C.E.), making the Jewish nation one of the most ancient peoples in history.
Genesis 15:18-21(NIV)
...On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram and said, "To your descendants I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates - the land of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaites, Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites and Jebusites.
The modern State of Israel is the fulfilment of Biblical prophecy concerning ancient Israel.
'Israel' is not a modern synonym for the 'Church' as the church has not 'replaced' Israel as has been taught erroneously in some strands of Christianity. Rather, modern Rabbinic Judaism and Christianity are 'sister' branches coming from the root of Biblical Judaism and both have their foundations in Eretz Israel (the Land of Israel).
Israel In Ancient Egypt - Archaeological Proof
Published on August 6, 2012 Using the latest archaeological evidence from the stables of Rameses ll to little-known ancient Egyptian texts, Egyptologist and Bible Archaeologist show that Israel did in fact exist and had a presence in ancient Egypt. This is the 2003 documentary "Who Was Moses?" If You Don’t Think The Jewish Exodus From Egypt Was Real, Then Watch This Video And Think Again |
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CBN News - July 13, 2015 Relatively few people realise the major role Christians played in the formation of the modern State of Israel. The new Friends of Zion Museum in the heart of Jerusalem reveals this hidden history. |
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Published on December 8, 2015
Historical film with footage from the Holy Land. Former trips by Europeans and especially the Holy Land and the actual situation of Jerusalem and Palestine in the interest range of different powers or ethnic groups. |
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Published on October 20, 2014
In November 1917 the British government made a pledge with the Jewish people through the Balfour Declaration to help establish a Jewish National Home in the territory known as Palestine. Find out what happened next ... |
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Palestine
Palestine came into being when the province of Judea was renamed "Syria Palaestina" after Israel's ancient enemies 'the Philistines' by the Roman Emperor Hadrian during the Roman conquest of 130 A.D. (C.E.). The original Philistine people existed until around 300 B.C. The Romans renamed Jerusalem "Aelia Capitolina" after the Emperor Hadrian (Aelias Hadrianus) and the god Jupiter Capitolinus - they built a temple to Jupiter on the site of the former Jewish Temple. The Jewish population rebelled against Rome and took up arms, it took the Roman Army three and a half years to quell the uprising and at the end of the war in 135 A.D., Rome banished the Jews from living in Jerusalem ending more than 1,100 years of uninterrupted sovereignty as Israel's capital. Renaming the land was an attempt to eradicate the Jewish connection to Israel. However, many small Jewish communities continued to exist throughout the land and a continual physical Jewish presence remained until the modern State of Israel was formed in 1948. The Jews are the 'indigenous' people of the land they never 'left'. They are the only people who have inhabited the land for over 3,000 years in spite of numerous attempts to eradicate them.
There is no written or spoken 'Palestinian' language, there is no known 'Palestinian' King, culture or religion, yet today millions of 'Palestinians' claim their ancestry goes back 'thousands of years' to the ancient Philistines 'and beyond' - even to the ancient Canaanites and Jebusites! Yet they have no history, artefacts, language or culture. These claims are all myths and until the 20th Century the name Palestine referred exclusively to the ancient land of the Jews, in fact until 1948 the only Palestinians in existence were 'Palestinian Jews'. The "Palestinian Brigade" that fought alongside the British during World War ll was entirely Jewish.
Today's Palestinian speaks, reads and writes in Arabic and comes from all over the Middle East, Pakistan, Africa including Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Somalia, Tunisia. Many arrived as itinerant workers under the British Mandatory Administration, these were predominantly from Pakistan and were recruited to drain malaria infested swamps and to build roads and infrastructure. Yasser Arafat himself is reported to have been Egyptian born and bred. During the British Mandatory Administration the Jews were always referred to as Palestinian Jews in order not to offend the Arabs who were simply referred to as 'Arabs.' After 1948 and the re-creation of a sovereign Jewish State, the name 'Palestinian' became defunct and the 'Palestinian Jews' became 'Israeli Jews.'
According to Webster's Unabridged Dictionary the definition of 'Philistine' is: "a member of non-semitic people who lived in southwestern Palestine from c.1200 B.C. on." Arabs are Semites and proud of being Arabs, the Philistines were non-Semites. This is also borne out by the definition in the Encyclopaedia Britannica: " Philistines, a people of Aegean origin who settled on the southern coast of Palestine in the 12th century B.C. shortly before the arrival of the Israelites... they occupied the coastal plain of Palestine." Random House Encyclopedia puts it this way: "Philistines, a non-semitic people who probably came to Philistia from Crete in about the 12th century B.C."
Another lie told of the Palestinian ancestry is that they are the descendants of the Jebusites, the original occupants of Jerusalem when it was called Jebus (Judges 19:10) during the Canaanite period. Western scholars agree that the Canaanites and Jebusites were Hamitic peoples who predate Arab existence by at least five centuries. The Egyptian Copts are Hamitic people and are the original Egyptians numbering around two million people today. Also the black-skinned Ethiopians are Hamitic people. Palestinian Arabs are Arabs and bear little resemblance to Hamitic peoples. So on one hand they declare a rich Arabic history at the same time claiming themselves to have descended from non Arabic Aegean Sea People that disappeared from history during the 2nd and 3rd centuries B.C., and also from another race the Arabs had no connection or physical characteristics with. They claim to be Arab at the same time as they refute it, yet their culture and language is Arab!
The following links provide more information regarding the invention of the Palestinian People:
http://chersonandmolschky.com/2014/01/09/palestinians-invented-people/
https://youtu.be/bZV2hF8DoN8?list=PLDhahiSXyQG7pN_ZU4eb_wRk9FTj0Is9v
Published on July 23, 2014
This video presents the historic background to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. If details in this video do not fit with what you have heard about the conflict it can be explained by the years of Arab propaganda against Israel.
There were Arabs in British Mandatory Palestine before the Jewish nationalist movement was founded in the late 19th century, but they considered this territory as part of Syria. No one claimed this territory belonged to a people called "Palestinians" until the Zionist movement began to inhabit the land.
Here are the links to the Palestinian National Charters of 1964 and 1968 in the UN website (read article 24 before and after the 6 day war, 1967).
http://www.un.int/wcm/content/site/pa...
http://www.un.int/wcm/content/site/pa...
The credit for this video goes to the Historical and Investigative Research and Francisco Gil-White.
https://youtu.be/HpWzrXnB-0U?list=PLDhahiSXyQG7pN_ZU4eb_wRk9FTj0Is9v
Published on March 1, 2014
Francisco Gil-White - The Nazis and the Palestinian Movement
http://www.al-rassooli.com/tiny-israel.html
Published on Facebook January 06, 2016 - A Japanese View of the Palestinians
*Also please read my personal note at the bottom of this page - Jenny (12 February 2016)
*********************
There is no written or spoken 'Palestinian' language, there is no known 'Palestinian' King, culture or religion, yet today millions of 'Palestinians' claim their ancestry goes back 'thousands of years' to the ancient Philistines 'and beyond' - even to the ancient Canaanites and Jebusites! Yet they have no history, artefacts, language or culture. These claims are all myths and until the 20th Century the name Palestine referred exclusively to the ancient land of the Jews, in fact until 1948 the only Palestinians in existence were 'Palestinian Jews'. The "Palestinian Brigade" that fought alongside the British during World War ll was entirely Jewish.
Today's Palestinian speaks, reads and writes in Arabic and comes from all over the Middle East, Pakistan, Africa including Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Somalia, Tunisia. Many arrived as itinerant workers under the British Mandatory Administration, these were predominantly from Pakistan and were recruited to drain malaria infested swamps and to build roads and infrastructure. Yasser Arafat himself is reported to have been Egyptian born and bred. During the British Mandatory Administration the Jews were always referred to as Palestinian Jews in order not to offend the Arabs who were simply referred to as 'Arabs.' After 1948 and the re-creation of a sovereign Jewish State, the name 'Palestinian' became defunct and the 'Palestinian Jews' became 'Israeli Jews.'
According to Webster's Unabridged Dictionary the definition of 'Philistine' is: "a member of non-semitic people who lived in southwestern Palestine from c.1200 B.C. on." Arabs are Semites and proud of being Arabs, the Philistines were non-Semites. This is also borne out by the definition in the Encyclopaedia Britannica: " Philistines, a people of Aegean origin who settled on the southern coast of Palestine in the 12th century B.C. shortly before the arrival of the Israelites... they occupied the coastal plain of Palestine." Random House Encyclopedia puts it this way: "Philistines, a non-semitic people who probably came to Philistia from Crete in about the 12th century B.C."
Another lie told of the Palestinian ancestry is that they are the descendants of the Jebusites, the original occupants of Jerusalem when it was called Jebus (Judges 19:10) during the Canaanite period. Western scholars agree that the Canaanites and Jebusites were Hamitic peoples who predate Arab existence by at least five centuries. The Egyptian Copts are Hamitic people and are the original Egyptians numbering around two million people today. Also the black-skinned Ethiopians are Hamitic people. Palestinian Arabs are Arabs and bear little resemblance to Hamitic peoples. So on one hand they declare a rich Arabic history at the same time claiming themselves to have descended from non Arabic Aegean Sea People that disappeared from history during the 2nd and 3rd centuries B.C., and also from another race the Arabs had no connection or physical characteristics with. They claim to be Arab at the same time as they refute it, yet their culture and language is Arab!
The following links provide more information regarding the invention of the Palestinian People:
http://chersonandmolschky.com/2014/01/09/palestinians-invented-people/
https://youtu.be/bZV2hF8DoN8?list=PLDhahiSXyQG7pN_ZU4eb_wRk9FTj0Is9v
Published on July 23, 2014
This video presents the historic background to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. If details in this video do not fit with what you have heard about the conflict it can be explained by the years of Arab propaganda against Israel.
There were Arabs in British Mandatory Palestine before the Jewish nationalist movement was founded in the late 19th century, but they considered this territory as part of Syria. No one claimed this territory belonged to a people called "Palestinians" until the Zionist movement began to inhabit the land.
Here are the links to the Palestinian National Charters of 1964 and 1968 in the UN website (read article 24 before and after the 6 day war, 1967).
http://www.un.int/wcm/content/site/pa...
http://www.un.int/wcm/content/site/pa...
The credit for this video goes to the Historical and Investigative Research and Francisco Gil-White.
https://youtu.be/HpWzrXnB-0U?list=PLDhahiSXyQG7pN_ZU4eb_wRk9FTj0Is9v
Published on March 1, 2014
Francisco Gil-White - The Nazis and the Palestinian Movement
http://www.al-rassooli.com/tiny-israel.html
Published on Facebook January 06, 2016 - A Japanese View of the Palestinians
*Also please read my personal note at the bottom of this page - Jenny (12 February 2016)
*********************
A tour and census of Palestine year 1695: No sign of Arabian names or Palestinians
by Robert Spencer of Jihad Watch
28 April 2014
Israel, Palestinian jihad, War is deceit
There was no Palestinian nationality before the 1960s, when it was invented in order to reposition what was then universally known as the Arab/Israeli conflict. Up to the invention of “Palestinians,” the Israelis were the tiny, besieged people amidst a huge number of hostile Arabs; after that invention, the “Palestinians” themselves became the tiny, besieged people against the big, bad Israelis. PLO executive committee member Zahir Muhsein said this in 1977:
The Palestinian people does not exist. The creation of a Palestinian state is only a means for continuing our struggle against the state of Israel for our Arab unity. In reality today there is no difference between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese. Only for political and tactical reasons do we speak today about the existence of a Palestinian people, since Arab national interests demand that we posit the existence of a distinct “Palestinian people” to oppose Zionism.
For tactical reasons, Jordan, which is a sovereign state with defined borders, cannot raise claims to Haifa and Jaffa, while as a Palestinian, I can undoubtedly demand Haifa, Jaffa, Beer-Sheva and Jerusalem. However, the moment we reclaim our right to all of Palestine, we will not wait even a minute to unite Palestine and Jordan.
The Israelis were mistaken ever to play along with this charade.
“A Tour and Census of Palestine Year 1695: No sign of Arabian names or Palestinians,” by Avi Goldreich (translated from the Hebrew by Nurit Greenger), The Palestine-Israel Conflict, April 27, 2014 (thanks to Inexion):
The time machine is a sensation that nests in me when I am visiting Mr. Hobber old books store in Budapest, Hungary. Hobber learned to know my quirks and after the initial greeting and the glass of mineral water (Mr. Hobber is a vegan) he leads me down the stairs to the huge basement, to the Jewish “section.”
The Jewish section is a room full of antiquity books on subjects that Mr. Hobber sees to be Jewish. Among the books there are some that are not even worthy their leather binding. However, sometime, one can find there real culture treasure. Many of the books are Holy Books that may have been stolen from synagogues’ archives: Talmud, Bible, Mishnah, old Ashkenazi style Siddur, and others. Customarily, I open them to see who the proprietor is; who was the Bar Mitzvah boy who received the book two hundred years ago and to whom did he pass the book at the end of his days. It is simply curiosity.
Many of the books are written in the German language. They are books of Jewish rumination written by Christians or assimilating Jews. Sometime one can find a hand written Talmud volume that is very expensive; thousands of Euros, set in the specially aired cabinet. Hobber knows their value. Sometime one can find a bargain such as the book Palestina by Hadriani Relandi — its original professional name Palaestina, ex monumentis veteribus illustrata, published by Trajecti Batavorum: Ex Libraria G. Brodelet, 1714. One can find such original books in only few places in the world, also in Haifa University.
[Original link for places where the book could be found and details about the author, etc.. Now down]:
http://libri-antichi.posizionamento-web.it/ palaestina-ex-monumentis-veteribus-illustrata.html
The author Relandi[1], a real scholar, geographer, cartographer and well known philologist, spoke perfect Hebrew, Arabic and ancient Greek, as well as the European languages. The book was written in Latin. In 1695 he was sent on a sightseeing tour to Israel, at that time known as Palestina. In his travels he surveyed approximately 2500 places where people lived that were mentioned in the bible or Mishnah. His research method was interesting.
He first mapped the Land of Israel.
Secondly, Relandi identifies each of the places mentioned in the Mishnah or Talmud along with their original source. If the source was Jewish, he listed it together with the appropriate sentence in the Holy Scriptures. If the source was Roman or Greek he presented the connection in Greek or Latin.
Thirdly, he also arranged a population survey and census of each community.
His most prominent conclusions:
1. Not one settlement in the Land of Israel has a name that is of Arabic origin.
Most of the settlement names originate in the Hebrew, Greek, Latin or Roman languages. In fact, till today, except for Ramlah, not one Arabic settlement has an original Arabic name. Till today, most of the settlements names are of Hebrew or Greek origin, the names distorted to senseless Arabic names. There is no meaning in Arabic to names such as Acco (Acre), Haifa, Jaffa, Nablus, Gaza, or Jenin and towns named Ramallah, El Halil and El-Kuds (Jerusalem) lack historical roots or Arabic philology. In 1696, the year Relandi toured the land, Ramallah, for instance, was called Bet’allah (From the Hebrew name Beit El) and Hebron was called Hebron (Hevron) and the Arabs called Mearat HaMachpelah El Chalil, their name for the Forefather Abraham.
2. Most of the land was empty, desolate.
Most of the land was empty, desolate, and the inhabitants few in number and mostly concentrate in the towns Jerusalem, Acco, Tzfat, Jaffa, Tiberius and Gaza. Most of the inhabitants were Jews and the rest Christians. There were few Muslims, mostly nomad Bedouins. Nablus, known as Sh'chem, was exceptional, where approximately 120 people, members of the Muslim Natsha family and approximately 70 Shomronites, lived.
In the Galilee capital, Nazareth, lived approximately 700 Christians and in Jerusalem approximately 5000 people, mostly Jews and some Christians.
The interesting part was that Relandi mentioned the Muslims as nomad Bedouins who arrived in the area as construction and agriculture labour reinforcement, seasonal workers.
In Gaza for example, lived approximately 550 people, fifty percent Jews and the rest mostly Christians. The Jews grew and worked in their flourishing vineyards, olive tree orchards and wheat fields (remember Gush Katif?) and the Christians worked in commerce and transportation of produce and goods. Tiberius and Tz'fat were mostly Jewish and except of mentioning fishermen fishing in Lake Kinneret — the Lake of Galilee — a traditional Tiberias occupation, there is no mention of their occupations. A town like Um el-Phahem was a village where ten families, approximately fifty people in total, all Christian, lived and there was also a small Maronite church in the village (The Shehadah family).
3. No Palestinian heritage or Palestinian nation.
The book totally contradicts any post-modern theory claiming a “Palestinian heritage,” or Palestinian nation. The book strengthens the connection, relevance, pertinence, kinship of the Land of Israel to the Jews and the absolute lack of belonging to the Arabs, who robbed the Latin name Palestina and took it as their own.
In Granada, Spain, for example, one can see Arabic heritage and architecture. In large cities such as Granada and the land of Andalucia, mountains and rivers like Guadalajara, one can see genuine Arabic cultural heritage: literature, monumental creations, engineering, medicine, etc. Seven hundred years of Arabic reign left in Spain an Arabic heritage that one cannot ignore, hide or camouflage. But here, in Israel there is nothing like that! Nada, as the Spanish say! No names of towns, no culture, no art, no history, and no evidence of Arabic rule; only huge robbery, pillaging and looting; stealing the Jews’ holiest place, robbing the Jews of their Promised Land. Lately, under the auspices of all kind of post modern Israelis — also hijacking and robbing us of our Jewish history.
Footnote
[1] From http://www.answers.com: “Adrian Reland (1676-1718), Dutch Orientalist, was born at Ryp, studied at Utrecht and Leiden, and was professor of Oriental languages successively at Harderwijk (1699) and Utrecht (1701). His most important works were Palaestina ex monumentis veteribus illustrata (Utrecht, 1714), and Antiquitates sacrae veterum Hebraeorum.”
The Palestinian people does not exist. The creation of a Palestinian state is only a means for continuing our struggle against the state of Israel for our Arab unity. In reality today there is no difference between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese. Only for political and tactical reasons do we speak today about the existence of a Palestinian people, since Arab national interests demand that we posit the existence of a distinct “Palestinian people” to oppose Zionism.
For tactical reasons, Jordan, which is a sovereign state with defined borders, cannot raise claims to Haifa and Jaffa, while as a Palestinian, I can undoubtedly demand Haifa, Jaffa, Beer-Sheva and Jerusalem. However, the moment we reclaim our right to all of Palestine, we will not wait even a minute to unite Palestine and Jordan.
The Israelis were mistaken ever to play along with this charade.
“A Tour and Census of Palestine Year 1695: No sign of Arabian names or Palestinians,” by Avi Goldreich (translated from the Hebrew by Nurit Greenger), The Palestine-Israel Conflict, April 27, 2014 (thanks to Inexion):
The time machine is a sensation that nests in me when I am visiting Mr. Hobber old books store in Budapest, Hungary. Hobber learned to know my quirks and after the initial greeting and the glass of mineral water (Mr. Hobber is a vegan) he leads me down the stairs to the huge basement, to the Jewish “section.”
The Jewish section is a room full of antiquity books on subjects that Mr. Hobber sees to be Jewish. Among the books there are some that are not even worthy their leather binding. However, sometime, one can find there real culture treasure. Many of the books are Holy Books that may have been stolen from synagogues’ archives: Talmud, Bible, Mishnah, old Ashkenazi style Siddur, and others. Customarily, I open them to see who the proprietor is; who was the Bar Mitzvah boy who received the book two hundred years ago and to whom did he pass the book at the end of his days. It is simply curiosity.
Many of the books are written in the German language. They are books of Jewish rumination written by Christians or assimilating Jews. Sometime one can find a hand written Talmud volume that is very expensive; thousands of Euros, set in the specially aired cabinet. Hobber knows their value. Sometime one can find a bargain such as the book Palestina by Hadriani Relandi — its original professional name Palaestina, ex monumentis veteribus illustrata, published by Trajecti Batavorum: Ex Libraria G. Brodelet, 1714. One can find such original books in only few places in the world, also in Haifa University.
[Original link for places where the book could be found and details about the author, etc.. Now down]:
http://libri-antichi.posizionamento-web.it/ palaestina-ex-monumentis-veteribus-illustrata.html
The author Relandi[1], a real scholar, geographer, cartographer and well known philologist, spoke perfect Hebrew, Arabic and ancient Greek, as well as the European languages. The book was written in Latin. In 1695 he was sent on a sightseeing tour to Israel, at that time known as Palestina. In his travels he surveyed approximately 2500 places where people lived that were mentioned in the bible or Mishnah. His research method was interesting.
He first mapped the Land of Israel.
Secondly, Relandi identifies each of the places mentioned in the Mishnah or Talmud along with their original source. If the source was Jewish, he listed it together with the appropriate sentence in the Holy Scriptures. If the source was Roman or Greek he presented the connection in Greek or Latin.
Thirdly, he also arranged a population survey and census of each community.
His most prominent conclusions:
1. Not one settlement in the Land of Israel has a name that is of Arabic origin.
Most of the settlement names originate in the Hebrew, Greek, Latin or Roman languages. In fact, till today, except for Ramlah, not one Arabic settlement has an original Arabic name. Till today, most of the settlements names are of Hebrew or Greek origin, the names distorted to senseless Arabic names. There is no meaning in Arabic to names such as Acco (Acre), Haifa, Jaffa, Nablus, Gaza, or Jenin and towns named Ramallah, El Halil and El-Kuds (Jerusalem) lack historical roots or Arabic philology. In 1696, the year Relandi toured the land, Ramallah, for instance, was called Bet’allah (From the Hebrew name Beit El) and Hebron was called Hebron (Hevron) and the Arabs called Mearat HaMachpelah El Chalil, their name for the Forefather Abraham.
2. Most of the land was empty, desolate.
Most of the land was empty, desolate, and the inhabitants few in number and mostly concentrate in the towns Jerusalem, Acco, Tzfat, Jaffa, Tiberius and Gaza. Most of the inhabitants were Jews and the rest Christians. There were few Muslims, mostly nomad Bedouins. Nablus, known as Sh'chem, was exceptional, where approximately 120 people, members of the Muslim Natsha family and approximately 70 Shomronites, lived.
In the Galilee capital, Nazareth, lived approximately 700 Christians and in Jerusalem approximately 5000 people, mostly Jews and some Christians.
The interesting part was that Relandi mentioned the Muslims as nomad Bedouins who arrived in the area as construction and agriculture labour reinforcement, seasonal workers.
In Gaza for example, lived approximately 550 people, fifty percent Jews and the rest mostly Christians. The Jews grew and worked in their flourishing vineyards, olive tree orchards and wheat fields (remember Gush Katif?) and the Christians worked in commerce and transportation of produce and goods. Tiberius and Tz'fat were mostly Jewish and except of mentioning fishermen fishing in Lake Kinneret — the Lake of Galilee — a traditional Tiberias occupation, there is no mention of their occupations. A town like Um el-Phahem was a village where ten families, approximately fifty people in total, all Christian, lived and there was also a small Maronite church in the village (The Shehadah family).
3. No Palestinian heritage or Palestinian nation.
The book totally contradicts any post-modern theory claiming a “Palestinian heritage,” or Palestinian nation. The book strengthens the connection, relevance, pertinence, kinship of the Land of Israel to the Jews and the absolute lack of belonging to the Arabs, who robbed the Latin name Palestina and took it as their own.
In Granada, Spain, for example, one can see Arabic heritage and architecture. In large cities such as Granada and the land of Andalucia, mountains and rivers like Guadalajara, one can see genuine Arabic cultural heritage: literature, monumental creations, engineering, medicine, etc. Seven hundred years of Arabic reign left in Spain an Arabic heritage that one cannot ignore, hide or camouflage. But here, in Israel there is nothing like that! Nada, as the Spanish say! No names of towns, no culture, no art, no history, and no evidence of Arabic rule; only huge robbery, pillaging and looting; stealing the Jews’ holiest place, robbing the Jews of their Promised Land. Lately, under the auspices of all kind of post modern Israelis — also hijacking and robbing us of our Jewish history.
Footnote
[1] From http://www.answers.com: “Adrian Reland (1676-1718), Dutch Orientalist, was born at Ryp, studied at Utrecht and Leiden, and was professor of Oriental languages successively at Harderwijk (1699) and Utrecht (1701). His most important works were Palaestina ex monumentis veteribus illustrata (Utrecht, 1714), and Antiquitates sacrae veterum Hebraeorum.”
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Debunking the Palestinian Lie YouTube Video explaining why Israel Opposes International Forces in the Jordan Valley |
The Balfour Declaration was initiated for good reason: The people of Israel have a critical role in the history of humankind by Michael Laitman (sourced online from The Jerusalem Post 05 November 2016)
Lord Arthur James Balfour and the text of the Balfour Declaration. (photo credit:WIKIMEDIA)
Almost a 100 years ago, Lord Arthur James Balfour, then Foreign Secretary of the United Kingdom and previously its Prime Minister, gave what became known as the “Balfour Declaration.” In a concise letter to Lord Walter Rothschild intended for transmission to the Zionist Federation of Great Britain and Ireland, Lord Balfour expressed “His Majesty's government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people.” The letter also communicated the commitment of His Majesty’s government to “use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object.”
Almost one hundred years later, the UN, via its agency, UNESCO, has denied Israel’s historic claim on Temple Mount. In just under 100 years, we have managed to win the favor of the world’s greatest power at the time, Great Britain, establishes a state with the support of an overwhelming majority of the world’s nations, and lose that support to the point that our own historic capital is not recognized as such, despite indisputable evidence that Jerusalem is and was the capital of the Jewish nation. How have we come to this?
A Nation Like No Other
It is with good reason that Lord Balfour and then British Prime Minister, David Lloyd George, initiated the declaration and recognized our right to establish a national entity in the Land of Israel. The people of Israel have a crucial role in the history of humankind. Mark Twain asked, “All things are mortal but the Jew; all other forces pass, but he remains. What is the secret of his immortality?” Like Twain, novelist and poet Johan von Goethe believed that “Every Jew … is engaged in some decisive and immediate pursuit of a goal… It is the most perpetual people on Earth.”
The roots of our nation go back to Abraham the Patriarch. When he was born, his homeland in the Fertile Crescent was a thriving civilization. Its people led a peaceful and prosperous life and enjoyed a sense of social cohesion. In the words of the Bible, “The whole earth was of one language and one speech” (Gen 11:1).
However, as it has been throughout human history, Abraham’s homeland began to fall prey to the growing human ego. The negative force that burst into the unified society tore it apart and nearly inflicted upon it civil war. The book, Pirkey de Rabbi Eliezer, states that “The sons of Noah were all of one heart and one speech.” But as their egos grew, so did their alienation from each other. Finally, “they wished to speak each other’s language but did not know each other’s language, so each took his sword and they fought with one another. Indeed, half the world was slain there by the sword.”
To cope with the crisis of his countryfolk, Abraham began to search for answers. In Mishneh Torah, Maimonides describes Abraham’s observations of nature all around him, until he finally discovered that one, unified force of love sustains the whole of reality. This force then divided into a positive force of love and unity, and a negative force of hatred and separation, and Abraham realized that the absence of the positive force in his society was the cause behind all the troubles.
Encouraged by his discovery, Abraham started calling out to the people that the solution to the hatred that erupted was to cover it with love, or as King Solomon put it centuries later: “Hatred stirs strife, but love covers all crimes” (Prov 10:12).
Since that time, unity has been the key element in the formation and perpetuation of the Jewish people. At the foot of Mt. Sinai, the Hebrews formally became a nation after they sealed their unity with a vow to unite “as one man with one heart.”
Once they achieved that level of unity, they were entrusted with fulfilling Abraham’s vision of a unified society and were tasked with being “a light unto nations” by setting an example of unity and mutual responsibility. Henceforth, they would be responsible for bringing harmony to the world and would be held accountable whenever strife that could not be covered with love broke out.
Yet, some 2,000 years ago, the Jews lost their battle against internal hatred, which caused the ruin of the Temple and their exile from the land. Worse yet, by losing their unity, they lost the ability to be a light unto nations and became pariahs wherever they went.
The only place where Jews were at home was Israel, but only if they were truly Israel—united above their egos and spreading their unity throughout the world.
A National Home for an International Purpose
Despite the rampant Jew-hatred, even the most rabid anti-Semites have always recognized our special role. Even Hitler wrote, “When I scrutinized the activity of the Jewish people, suddenly there arose up in me the fearful question whether inscrutable Destiny … did not, with eternal and immutable resolve, desire the final victory of this little nation.”
Lord Balfour and Lloyd George felt that Jews had a right to the land of Israel. But like every other person in the world, they felt that this land was intended for a higher purpose. By their declaration, they gave us a chance to reinstate our unity and become what we were meant to be, “a light unto nations,” shedding the light of unity and love of others the world over.
Perhaps it took longer than Balfour envisioned, but in the end the “national home for the Jewish people” was established. Now we must make good on our commitment, or the land will be taken away once more, as votes such as the one at UNESCO indicate. Baal Hasulam wrote that “we have been given the land, but we have not received it” (“A Speech for the Completion of The Zohar”). In other words, we live here, but we have yet to carry out our task.
In a world filled with crises that stem only from ill-will, nothing is more vital than an antidote for our egos. The world does not need another startup nation. It needs to see how people overcome their egos and unite above them. We—the historic pioneers, the ones who planted in the heart of every human being the tenets, “love your neighbor as yourself” and “that which you hate, do not do unto others”—are called upon to complete our task.
No one but us will be able to answer the question that historian T.R. Glover poses: “It is strange that the living religions of the world all build on religious ideas derived from the Jews. ...The great matter is not ‘What happened?’ but ‘Why did it happen?’ Why does Judaism live?” (The Ancient World). And the answer will not come in words; it will come in deeds, in unity that we will implement among ourselves and subsequently share with the entire world.
The Jewish Innovation that Everyone Needs
David Ben Gurion, the first Prime Minister of Israel, once said that “The spiritual image and inner soundness of the State of Israel will be the key element in our security and our international status” (Stars and Dust). We have reached the tipping point: Either we live by the values of unity and mutual responsibility on which our nation was established, and set a positive example to the world, or we will lose our right to this land in the eyes of the world.
Shortly after the establishment of the State of Israel, Baal Hasulam wrote, “Judaism must present something new to the nations. This is what they expect from the return of Israel to the land! It is not in other teachings, for in that we never innovated. Rather, it is the wisdom of bestowal, justice, and peace. In this, most nations are our disciples, and this wisdom is attributed to us alone” (The Writings of the Last Generation). Later in the book, Baal Hasulam adds that unless we carry out our role, “Zionism will be cancelled altogether. This country is very poor, and its residents are destined to endure much suffering. Undoubtedly, either they or their children will leave the country, and only a handful will remain, which will ultimately be swallowed among the Arabs. …A return such as today's does not impress the nations whatsoever, and we must fear lest they will sell Israel’s independence for their needs, needless to mention returning Jerusalem.”
The Choice Is in Our Hands
Almost a century after the Balfour Declaration, we are running out of time. But the choice is in our hands. If we choose unity over separation, we will reignite the force that made us into a nation to begin with. Maimonides wrote in A Guide for the Perplexed, “Had man knowledge of the human form, all the harm inflicted upon him and upon others would have been prevented. By knowing the truth, animosity and hatred disappear and people’s harming of each other ceases.”
We, the owners of the method of connection, must now establish it among ourselves and share it with the world. It has never been more pertinent and more vital for our future. The Balfour Declaration states our right to this land, but also our commitment to the world. We have the land; we have yet to be a light unto nations.
Michael Laitman is a Professor of Ontology, a PhD in Philosophy and Kabbalah, an MSc in Medical Bio-Cybernetics, and was the prime disciple of Kabbalist, Rav Baruch Shalom Ashlag (the RABASH). He has written over 40 books, which have been translated into dozens of languages. Click Here to visit his author page.
Almost one hundred years later, the UN, via its agency, UNESCO, has denied Israel’s historic claim on Temple Mount. In just under 100 years, we have managed to win the favor of the world’s greatest power at the time, Great Britain, establishes a state with the support of an overwhelming majority of the world’s nations, and lose that support to the point that our own historic capital is not recognized as such, despite indisputable evidence that Jerusalem is and was the capital of the Jewish nation. How have we come to this?
A Nation Like No Other
It is with good reason that Lord Balfour and then British Prime Minister, David Lloyd George, initiated the declaration and recognized our right to establish a national entity in the Land of Israel. The people of Israel have a crucial role in the history of humankind. Mark Twain asked, “All things are mortal but the Jew; all other forces pass, but he remains. What is the secret of his immortality?” Like Twain, novelist and poet Johan von Goethe believed that “Every Jew … is engaged in some decisive and immediate pursuit of a goal… It is the most perpetual people on Earth.”
The roots of our nation go back to Abraham the Patriarch. When he was born, his homeland in the Fertile Crescent was a thriving civilization. Its people led a peaceful and prosperous life and enjoyed a sense of social cohesion. In the words of the Bible, “The whole earth was of one language and one speech” (Gen 11:1).
However, as it has been throughout human history, Abraham’s homeland began to fall prey to the growing human ego. The negative force that burst into the unified society tore it apart and nearly inflicted upon it civil war. The book, Pirkey de Rabbi Eliezer, states that “The sons of Noah were all of one heart and one speech.” But as their egos grew, so did their alienation from each other. Finally, “they wished to speak each other’s language but did not know each other’s language, so each took his sword and they fought with one another. Indeed, half the world was slain there by the sword.”
To cope with the crisis of his countryfolk, Abraham began to search for answers. In Mishneh Torah, Maimonides describes Abraham’s observations of nature all around him, until he finally discovered that one, unified force of love sustains the whole of reality. This force then divided into a positive force of love and unity, and a negative force of hatred and separation, and Abraham realized that the absence of the positive force in his society was the cause behind all the troubles.
Encouraged by his discovery, Abraham started calling out to the people that the solution to the hatred that erupted was to cover it with love, or as King Solomon put it centuries later: “Hatred stirs strife, but love covers all crimes” (Prov 10:12).
Since that time, unity has been the key element in the formation and perpetuation of the Jewish people. At the foot of Mt. Sinai, the Hebrews formally became a nation after they sealed their unity with a vow to unite “as one man with one heart.”
Once they achieved that level of unity, they were entrusted with fulfilling Abraham’s vision of a unified society and were tasked with being “a light unto nations” by setting an example of unity and mutual responsibility. Henceforth, they would be responsible for bringing harmony to the world and would be held accountable whenever strife that could not be covered with love broke out.
Yet, some 2,000 years ago, the Jews lost their battle against internal hatred, which caused the ruin of the Temple and their exile from the land. Worse yet, by losing their unity, they lost the ability to be a light unto nations and became pariahs wherever they went.
The only place where Jews were at home was Israel, but only if they were truly Israel—united above their egos and spreading their unity throughout the world.
A National Home for an International Purpose
Despite the rampant Jew-hatred, even the most rabid anti-Semites have always recognized our special role. Even Hitler wrote, “When I scrutinized the activity of the Jewish people, suddenly there arose up in me the fearful question whether inscrutable Destiny … did not, with eternal and immutable resolve, desire the final victory of this little nation.”
Lord Balfour and Lloyd George felt that Jews had a right to the land of Israel. But like every other person in the world, they felt that this land was intended for a higher purpose. By their declaration, they gave us a chance to reinstate our unity and become what we were meant to be, “a light unto nations,” shedding the light of unity and love of others the world over.
Perhaps it took longer than Balfour envisioned, but in the end the “national home for the Jewish people” was established. Now we must make good on our commitment, or the land will be taken away once more, as votes such as the one at UNESCO indicate. Baal Hasulam wrote that “we have been given the land, but we have not received it” (“A Speech for the Completion of The Zohar”). In other words, we live here, but we have yet to carry out our task.
In a world filled with crises that stem only from ill-will, nothing is more vital than an antidote for our egos. The world does not need another startup nation. It needs to see how people overcome their egos and unite above them. We—the historic pioneers, the ones who planted in the heart of every human being the tenets, “love your neighbor as yourself” and “that which you hate, do not do unto others”—are called upon to complete our task.
No one but us will be able to answer the question that historian T.R. Glover poses: “It is strange that the living religions of the world all build on religious ideas derived from the Jews. ...The great matter is not ‘What happened?’ but ‘Why did it happen?’ Why does Judaism live?” (The Ancient World). And the answer will not come in words; it will come in deeds, in unity that we will implement among ourselves and subsequently share with the entire world.
The Jewish Innovation that Everyone Needs
David Ben Gurion, the first Prime Minister of Israel, once said that “The spiritual image and inner soundness of the State of Israel will be the key element in our security and our international status” (Stars and Dust). We have reached the tipping point: Either we live by the values of unity and mutual responsibility on which our nation was established, and set a positive example to the world, or we will lose our right to this land in the eyes of the world.
Shortly after the establishment of the State of Israel, Baal Hasulam wrote, “Judaism must present something new to the nations. This is what they expect from the return of Israel to the land! It is not in other teachings, for in that we never innovated. Rather, it is the wisdom of bestowal, justice, and peace. In this, most nations are our disciples, and this wisdom is attributed to us alone” (The Writings of the Last Generation). Later in the book, Baal Hasulam adds that unless we carry out our role, “Zionism will be cancelled altogether. This country is very poor, and its residents are destined to endure much suffering. Undoubtedly, either they or their children will leave the country, and only a handful will remain, which will ultimately be swallowed among the Arabs. …A return such as today's does not impress the nations whatsoever, and we must fear lest they will sell Israel’s independence for their needs, needless to mention returning Jerusalem.”
The Choice Is in Our Hands
Almost a century after the Balfour Declaration, we are running out of time. But the choice is in our hands. If we choose unity over separation, we will reignite the force that made us into a nation to begin with. Maimonides wrote in A Guide for the Perplexed, “Had man knowledge of the human form, all the harm inflicted upon him and upon others would have been prevented. By knowing the truth, animosity and hatred disappear and people’s harming of each other ceases.”
We, the owners of the method of connection, must now establish it among ourselves and share it with the world. It has never been more pertinent and more vital for our future. The Balfour Declaration states our right to this land, but also our commitment to the world. We have the land; we have yet to be a light unto nations.
Michael Laitman is a Professor of Ontology, a PhD in Philosophy and Kabbalah, an MSc in Medical Bio-Cybernetics, and was the prime disciple of Kabbalist, Rav Baruch Shalom Ashlag (the RABASH). He has written over 40 books, which have been translated into dozens of languages. Click Here to visit his author page.
The following extract is taken from Philippe Assouline's website:
http://philassie.blogspot.co.nz/
Israel Vindicated? 1948 as told in 1948 and by those who lived it.
Robert F. Kennedy, martyred liberal icon, was a reporter for the Boston Globe in 1948. He was sent in the spring of that year to Mandatory Palestine to cover the lead up to the British withdrawal. His dispatches are a fascinating glimpse back in time and invaluable historical records. And yet, they are also a testament to the ideological stagnation of the Arab world vis a vis Israel. Then, as now, Israelis saw themselves as fighting for survival against irrational enmity. Then as now, the Arab world abounded in hostility to the very idea of a Jewish presence in its midst which it justified by casting itself as the victim of Western conspiracies. R.F.K.’s accounts and other primary sources would appear to vindicate Israel’s version of events.
At the heart of Arab grievances against Zionism lay the claim that an indigenous people (the Palestinian Arabs) were ethnically cleansed by Zionist colonialists aided by the West. Zionists have long held that, though the Holy Land was not empty at the dawn of political Zionism, the Turkish backwater was in no way inhabited by a distinct people, nor did the Zionists ever adopt a policy of ethnic cleansing.
Kennedy in his first dispatch, puts the Arab claim (which was perhaps more controversial then) to rest almost as an afterthought:
“The Jews point with pride to the fact that over 500,000 Arabs in the 12 years between 1932 and 1944, came into Palestine to take advantage of living conditions existing in no other Arab state. This is the only country in the Near and Middle East where an Arab middle class is in existence.”
Kennedy later interviewed many people on the ground, on both sides of the conflict, and found himself focusing on the struggle for Jerusalem. The ancient Jewish Quarter of the city had been besieged by Arab forces and almost cut off from the rest of the Jewish population centers, long before the British left Palestine in May of 1948. What Kennedy observed is rampant hatred of Jews – not merely Zionists – on the part of ordinary Jerusalem Arabs, i.e., their neighbours:
The Arabs living in the old city of Jerusalem have kept the age-old habit of procuring their water from the individual cisterns that exist in almost every home. The Jews being more “educated” (an Arab told me that this was their trouble and now the Jews were going to really pay for it) had a central water system installed with pipes bringing fresh hot and cold water. Unfortunately for them, the reservoir is situated in the mountains and it and the whole pipe line are controlled by the Arabs. The British would not let them cut the water off until after May 15th but an Arab told me they would not even do it then. First they would poison it.
Within the Old City of Jerusalem there exists a small community of orthodox Jews. They wanted no part of this fight but just wanted to be left alone with their wailing wall. Unfortunately for them, the Arabs are unkindly disposed toward any kind of Jew and their annihilation would now undoubtedly have been a fact had it not been that at the beginning of hostilities the Hagganah moved several hundred well-equipped men into their quarter.Kennedy went on to recount how the Arabs had been arming volunteer fighters from as far as Pakistan and sending them into the borders of Mandatory Palestine long before May 1948, that is, under British noses. Once the war of 48 started in earnest, after May 15 of that year, R.F.K. made the following observation that, 65 years on, remains an accurate description of the current impasse:
The die has long since been cast; the fight will take place. The Jews with their backs to the sea, fighting for their very homes, with 101 percent morale, will accept no compromise. On the other hand, the Arabs say:
“We shall bring Moslem brigades from Pakistan, we shall lead a religious crusade for all loyal followers of Mohammed, we shall crush forever the invader. Whether it takes three months, three years, or 30, we will carry on the fight. Palestine will be Arab. We shall accept no compromise.”
In such a war, where people who have immutably refused partition also relish the thought of murdering thousands of innocents because they are Jews (a mere 3 years after Arab leaders supported the Nazis), expulsions are to be expected. Between suffering another genocide and expelling those who have attacked you to satisfy maximalist imperatives, the moral if unfortunate choice is undoubtedly the latter. And yet, if we are to trust first hand accounts over later renderings, the Palestinian Arabs who left overwhelmingly did so not compelled by Jewish forces. They left, rather, because of their own leaders and, by and large, without having ever seen a Jewish soldier.
Refugees by choice
Consider in support of this contention the recently released British intelligence archives from 1948:
"The Arabs have suffered a series of overwhelming defeats… Jewish victories … have reduced Arab morale to zero and, following the cowardly example of their inept leaders, they are fleeing from the mixed areas in their thousands. It is now obvious that the only hope of regaining their position lies in the regular armies of the Arab states.”
One would expect an intelligence report by the British military about the 1948 war to at least mention expulsions which, we are told today by myriad activists, were rampant. And yet there appears to not have been mention of such. On the contrary, the British report — and bear in mind that according to R.F.K. the British forces in Palestine were exceedingly hostile to Jews– mentions only flight fuelled by hysteria, groupthink and “cowardice.” That is, the exact opposite of forced expulsion.
The Refugees Speak… “Mad Hattery” and Myth
Most compelling perhaps is a 1961 in depth and extensive jewel of a piece on Palestinian Arab refugees by author and journalist Martha Gellhorn (wife of famed author Ernest Hemingway) for The Atlantic. Gellhorn travelled to numerous Arab states bordering Israel as well as to Israel itself in order to put a human face on what she called the “undifferentiated mass” of Palestinian Arab refugees. Her piece, though long, is a must read study on the birth of anti-Israel propaganda, and the pathologies that fuel it:
Sitting in his neat office, with my guide, the principal of the school (a former member of the Palestinian police), and the camp leader, I listened to the first of what became an almost daily Mad Hatter conversation.
It went like this:
“The Arab countries invaded Israel in 1948 to save the Palestine Arabs from being massacred by the Jews.”
“Were there massacres? Where?”
“Oh, yes, everywhere. Terrible, terrible.”
“Then you must have lost many relatives and friends.” This, being a tiresome deduction from a previous statement, is brushed aside without comment.
Indeed, Palestinian refugees interviewed by Gellhorn, time after time recounted tales of massacres and atrocities that could never, it seemed, be verified. Then as now, an echo chamber of myth and embellished tales of victimhood substituted for what ought to have been a sober look at the role of Arab leadership in bringing about the refugee crisis. Gellhorn paints a picture of widespread auto-indoctrination and an enforced orthodoxy of blame. To read the claims made by NGOs and Palestinian advocacy groups today is to notice that not much has changed at all. Today, as then, bien-pensants dogmatically cling to a version of events whereby outnumbered and outgunned Jewish forces were entirely to blame for the often destructive and foolish choices of Arab leadership, including the choice to wage genocidal war on nascent Israel.
The Last Vestiges of Journalistic Integrity and Professionalism?
The stark difference between today and the years following the Israeli War of Independence, however, is that journalists then were willing and even eager to challenge the accounts that they heard in order to ensure veracity. Coverage of the Middle East today is all too often a stale mix of cliché and condescension peddled as fact. It is an exceedingly rare thing to see a Palestinian account taken as anything less than the Gospel by today’s Western press.
Not so Gellhorn in 1961. Upon hearing tales of atrocities allegedly committed by the Jews of Jaffa to the city’s Arab inhabitants in 1948, Gellhorn reported the following:
Arab refugees tell many dissimilar versions of the Jaffa story, but the puzzler is: where are the relatives of those who must have perished in the fury of high explosive the infallible witnesses? No one says he was loaded on a truck (or a boat) at gun point; no one describes being forced from his home by armed Jews; no one recalls the extra menace of enemy attacks, while in flight. The sight of the dead, the horrors of escape are exact, detailed memories never forgotten by those who had them. Surely Arabs would not forget or suppress such memories, if they, too, had them.
As for those Arabs who remained behind, they are still in Jaffa–3000 of them–living in peace, prosperity, and discontent, with their heirs and descendants.
Gellhorn eventually tired of the tales that she was hearing. When she arrived to Israel, at the end of her trip, she confronted an Israeli Arab who, being in Israel, was free to speak candidly. The conversation is telling of the banalized double standards and lack of accountability that characterize the anti-Israel mindset and stain too many diplomatic initiatives to this day:
“In 1947, the United Nations recommended the Partition of Palestine. … The Jews accepted this Partition plan; … Are we agreed so far?”
“It is right.”
“The Arab governments and the Palestinian Arabs rejected Partition absolutely. You wanted the whole country. There is no secret about this. The statements of the Arab representatives, in the UN are on record. The Arab governments never hid the fact that they started the war against Israel. But you, the Palestinian Arabs, agreed to this, you wanted it. And you thought, it seems to me very reasonably, that you would win and win quickly. It hardly seemed a gamble; it seemed a sure bet. You took the gamble and you lost. …”
“Yes.” It was too astonishing; at long last, East and West were in accord on the meaning of words.
“Now you say that you want to return to the past; you want Partition. … Please answer me this, which is what I must, know. If the position were reversed, if the Jews had started the war and lost it, if you had won the war, would you now accept Partition? Would you give up part of the country and allow the 650,000 Jewish residents of Palestine -who had fled from the war–to come back?”
“Certainly not,” he said, without an instant’s hesitation. “But there would have been no Jewish refugees. They had no place to go. They would all be dead or in the sea.“
The More Things Change…
It is interesting to note how, a mere 13 years after the end of the Holocaust, weaponized revisionism was already in vogue among some pro-Palestinian advocates. Specifically, the Holocaust – which Palestinian Arab leadership eagerly supported – was already then recast to serve as a cognitive tool against its Jewish victims. Gellhorn reports being told, when mentioning the 6 million of who were butchered:
Oh, that is all exaggerated. [Hitler] did not [kill 6 million Jews]. Besides, the Jews bluffed Hitler. They arranged in secret that he should kill a few of them–old ones, weak ones–to make the others emigrate to Palestine.
Greta Berlin, organizer of the 2010 Flotilla to Hamas was lambasted for peddling the same arguments last year. Indeed conflation of Zionism and Nazism has become ubiquitous among so many claiming to defend justice.
Having encountered similar attitudes over and over in Beirut, the Jordanian-Occupied West bank, Gaza and Israeli Arab villages, Gellhorn’s frustration turned to outrage. Her pithy observation of the unspoken rules of victimhood is a perfect encapsulation of the moral nuance that is lacking today in reports and histories of the Middle East:
“It is hard to sorrow for those who only sorrow over themselves. It is difficult to pity the pitiless. To wring the heart past all doubt, those who cry aloud for justice must be innocent. They cannot have wished for a victorious rewarding war, blame everyone else for their defeat, and remain guiltless. Some of them may be unfortunate human beings…[b]ut a profound difference exists between victims of misfortune (there, but for the grace of God, go I) and victims of injustice.“
Today, victimhood – however counterfeit – compels sympathy, even when it shouldn’t. And to compel sympathy is to be right. With respect to the Middle East, moral standing and moral choices no longer intersect in public consciousness.
Gellhorn presciently concluded that the West, when speaking to or about Palestinian Arabs, would “require[] non-Arabs to treat Arabs as if they were neurotic children, subject either to tantrums or to internal bleeding from spiritual wounds.” While her language is incendiary, it is a fact that today, the politically correct all too often hold Israel responsible for the Arabs’ self-inflicted wounds — to put it bluntly, as if Arabs are essentially not fully capable adults. To thus pity the Arab “other” regardless of his choices is an egregious, despicable form of Orientalism. To rob Arabs of their agency is nothing more than racism masquerading as compassion. To hold them to no standard at all is to despise them. Indeed, what do the Palestinians have to show for 65 years of moral deflection, canonized exaggerations, and cultivated victimhood?
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1920 – Fabulous Footage of the Muslim-Jewish history
Fabulous video footage of the land of Israel from 1918. This video also does a wonderful job giving the background to the Muslim-Jewish conflict. There never was a Palestinian people, hear Anwar Nusseibeh, a Palestinian Arab leader, say so himself:
"The separation between Palestine, Syria, Trans-Jordan and Lebanon came about because France and England split up the region for spheres of influence. But we thought we were part of one (Arab) people and one country". - Anwar Nusseibeh, a Palestinian Arab leader from Jerusalem who served in the Jordanian government when Jordan occupied Judea and Samaria after 1948. Chazak Amenu - We Stand As OneThe stirring original English/Hebrew anthem recorded by over 50 Jewish Music artists including Abie Rotenberg, Avraham Fried and other renown Jewish artists calls for Israeli citizens to be strong despite the ongoing violence perpetrated by Arab terrorists. The song was made during the second intifada and served as an uplifting source of inspiration for all who heard it.
Springtime in Israel 1939
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* A personal note:
The Western Media also have a lot to answer for in running propaganda against Israel without first checking the veracity of the reports. When I lived in Israel during the first intifada, there were 300+ Foreign Correspondents living and working in Jerusalem, more than in Washington, London, Moscow or Beijing. The headlines were appalling and biased against the Israelis. I personally witnessed media 'set-ups' designed to cause a localised fracas and show Israeli police and border guards in a bad light when they responded. One morning out walking I came across press vehicles parked in the Muslim quarter of the Old City with lights and cameras set up in an empty space ready to record! At first it looked a little like a 'movie set' but as events turned out, it was a cynical attempt to draw border guards into a response that would later be reported as "Border Guards attacking innocent Palestinian civilians!," along with hysterical tourists also trying to intervene! It was all carefully orchestrated to cause maximum damage to Israel's reputation as a free and democratic country. I found the whole charade quite sickening! I also personally watched a report on television supposedly showing Israeli tanks coming against so-called "innocent civilians" in Jerusalem, in an area I knew well and one where maybe a bicycle, donkey or a handcart could negotiate, certainly not even a horse or a motor vehicle and certainly not wide enough for a tank!
It appears no-one questions reports such as these any more and therefore the media feed the anti-Semitism which results from such poorly reported events. Lazy audiences accept sloppy journalism with scandalous attention-seeking headlines and are happy to endorse the anti-Israel rhetoric ad nauseum.
O God, do not be silent! Do not be deaf. Do not be quiet, O God.
Don’t you hear the uproar of your enemies? Don’t you see that your arrogant enemies are rising up?
They devise crafty schemes against your people; they conspire against your precious ones.
“Come,” they say, “let us wipe out Israel as a nation. We will destroy the very memory of its existence.”
Yes, this was their unanimous decision. They signed a treaty as allies against you--these Edomites and Ishmaelites;
Moabites and Hagrites; Gebalites, Ammonites, and Amalekites; and people from Philistia and Tyre.
Assyria has joined them, too, and is allied with the descendants of Lot.
Psalm 83:1-8 (NLT)
- Jenny