WHO ARE THE PALESTINIANS?
WHAT AND WHERE IS PALESTINE?Rockwell Lazareth
These and other questions will be addressed more fully as you go through this website. However, there is a preliminary historical fact that must be established now. There has never been a civilization or a nation referred to as "Palestine" and the very notion of a "Palestinian Arab nation" having ancient attachments to the Holy Land going back to time immemorial is one of the biggest hoaxes ever perpetrated upon the world! There is not, nor has there ever been, a distinct "Palestinian" culture or language. Further, there has never been a Palestinian state governed BY Arab Palestinians in history, nor was there ever a serious Arab-Palestinian national movement until 1964... three years BEFORE the Arabs of "Palestine" lost the "West Bank" and Gaza as a result of losing the 1967 Six-Day War (which the Arabs started).
Before the 1967 war, the Palestine Liberation Organization's (PLO) primary goal was to destroy Israel. Post-1967, their goal became two-tracked: Either (1) destroy Israel outright (the same pre-1967 goal) or (2) the creation of an Arab-Palestinian state to be used as a launching pad from which to destroy Israel. Different strategies - same ultimate goal... a state not along side Israel, but IN PLACE OF Israel. It's really that simple!
Israel became a nation in 1312B.C.E., two thousand years before the rise of Islam! Seven hundred and twenty-six years later in 586 B.C. these first ancient Jews in the Land of Israel [Judea] were overrun and its First Jewish Temple (on Jerusalem's Old City Temple Mount) was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar, king of ancient Babylon. Many of the Jews were killed or expelled; however many were allowed to remain. These Jews along with their progeny and other Jews who would resettle over the next 500 years, rebuilt the Nation of Israel and also a Second Temple upon the Temple Mount. Thus the claim that Jews suddenly appeared fifty years ago right after the Holocaust and drove out the Arabs is preposterous!
Then in 70 A.D. (nearly 2000 years ago), it was the Roman Empire's turn to march through ancient Israel and destroy the SECOND Jewish Temple, slaughtering or driving out much of its Jewish population. Many Jews left on their own because conditions for life were made unbearable in many respects... yet thousands upon thousands stayed and rebelled on for centuries in order to once again rebuilt a Jewish Nation in this Holy Land.
Over the next 2,000 years various Peoples, Religions and Empires marched through Jerusalem, Israel's ancient capital. None bothered, nor were they in the least bit inclined, to build a Nation of their own. The region was successively ruled by the Greeks, Maccabeans, Romans, Byzantines, Arabs, Egyptians, Crusaders, Mamelukes and finally the Ottoman Turks who indifferently governed the backward, neglected territory from the 16th century until the British drove them out during World War I (1914-18). It must be noted that in 636 A.D., when the Arabs marauders came to the land and uprooted even more of its Jews, they did not form any Arab nation there... and certainly not a "Palestinian" nation. They were simply "Arabs" who, as did others before them, moved into a geo-political area called "Palestine!" And remember this one fact... it was not the Jews who "usurped" (a favorite word from the Arab propagandists) the land from the Arabs. If anything, it was the Arabs in 636A.D. who overran and stole it from the Jews!
In Conclusion: No nation, other than the ancient nation of Israel and later again in 1948 with the rebirth of the Nation of Israel, has ever ruled as a sovereign national entity on this land. A mighty Jewish empire extended over this entire area before the Arabs and their Islam were even born! The Jewish People have one of the most legitimate Birth Certificates of any nations in the world. And if you want to talk religion, fine. G-d GAVE the Land of Israel to the Jewish People. And G-d does nothing by accident!
"PALESTINE?"
The term "Palestine" came from the name that the conquering Roman Empire gave the ancient Land of Israel in an attempt to obliterate and de-legitimize the Jewish presence in the Holy Land. The Roman Procurator in charge of the Judean-Israel territories was so angry at the Jews for revolting that he called for his historians and asked them who were the worst enemies of the Jews in their past history. The scribes said, ‘the Philistines." So, the Procurator declared that Land of Israel would from then on be called "Philistia" [further bastardized into "Palaistina"] to dishonor the Jews and obliterate their history. Hence the name "Palestine." One more thing. Very often one hears the revisionists and propagandists finding ancient historical links between the "Philistines" and the Arab "Palestinians." There is no truth to this claim! The Philistines were one of a number of Sea Peoples who reached the eastern Mediterranean region approximately 1250-1100B.C. They were actually an amalgamation of various ethnic groups, primarily of Aegean and south-east European origin [Greece, Crete and Western Turkey] ... but surely not of Arabian origin! These Philistines were not Arab... and neither was Goliath! The Arabs of "Palestine" are just that... Arabs! And these Arabs of "Palestine" have about as much historical roots to the ancient Philistines as Yasser Arafat has to the Eskimos!
If anything, the name "Palestine" was associated with Jews. In the years leading up to the rebirth of Israel in 1948, those who spoke of "Palestinians" were nearly always referring to the region's Jewish residents. In fact, Arab leaders rejected the notion of a unique "Palestinian Arab" identity, insisting that Palestine was merely a part of "Greater Syria."
THE RETURN TO ZION
The Land of Israel was never devoid of Jews, although at times, only in the tens of thousands. This was because the land was virtually uninhabitable when the Jews once again began their God-given right AND duty to return en masse to the land of their forefathers (the Zionist Movement) in the 1880s. The silly rhetoric about a massive Arab presence being overrun by "invading Jews" is quickly dispelled by Mark Twain, who visited the area in 1867. From his book, "The Innocents Abroad"... "A desolate country whose soil is rich enough, but is given over wholly to weeds... a silent mournful expanse.... a desolation.... we never saw a human being on the whole route.... hardly a tree or shrub anywhere. Even the olive tree and the cactus, those fast friends of a worthless soil, had almost deserted the country."
1880's
Palestine's early Jewish Zionists were idealistic pioneers who arrived in pre-state Israel with every intention of living in peace alongside their Arab neighbors and upgrading the quality of life for all of the land's inhabitants. The vast majority of Arabs came to the area after these early Zionists pioneers began to drain the malaria-infested swamps and rebuild the land! In doing so, these Jews created the economic opportunities and medical availabilities which attracted Arabs from both surrounding territories and far-away lands! In fact, over 90% of the Arabs migrated there within the last one hundred years. Most of the so-called "Palestinians" are in fact interlopers and squatters from Syria - and others places - mostly in the 1920s and 1930s who simply took possession of pieces of land in Israel. So much for their unfounded claims that they have been there since "time immemorial!"
Yet while the returning Jews were highly motivated to restore the land, the Arabs seethed with envy and hatred because they lacked both the leadership to inspire or motivate them for they were in fact historical strangers to this land! Unlike the Jews, these Arabs who immigrated there had no ancient attachments or historical memories to this homeland ... this ancient Land of the Jews!
In Conclusion: There Was No "Arab Palestinian" history before the Arabs created one somewhat after 1948 but especially after the June 1967 Arab-Israeli War! Archeological sites to this very day continue to yield artifacts with Hebrew writing, not some fictitious "Palestinian" or Arabic text! The so-called "Palestinian" Arabs were simply then, as they are now, Arabs no different culturally, historically or ethnically from other Arabs living in any other of the 24 Arab countries from which they emigrated and came into "Palestine!" Had the Chinese come to the area, they too would be called "Palestinians!" And had not the Arabs continued to brainwash generation upon generation into believing this HISTORICAL HOGWASH about some ancient "Arab Palestinian" ties to the Holy Land, most could have gotten themselves a real life by now with much less bloodshed and suffering for everyone concerned!
GREED, PRIDE, ENVY!
The Arabs of today controls 24 nations... 99½ percent of the ENTIRE Middle East land mass while Israel occupies only a 1/2 of 1 percent speck on this same map. But that's still too much land for the Arabs to spare. They want it all. As they shout out, "We will fight to our last drop of blood for for every last grain of sand!" And that is ultimately what all the fighting is about today. And no matter how many land concessions the Israelis might make for "peace," it will never be enough! Any peace treaty between Israel and the Arab world are ultimately meaningless. Even the Israeli-Egyptian and Israeli-Jordanian peace treaties are holding on by a single thread and if you were to read their government-controlled newspapers you'd think they were still at war with Israel!
PEACE IS IMPOSSIBLE!
-The Death of Compromise-
There's No More "Middle" in the Middle EastFrom the moment the Jewish People re-established sovereignty in their ancient homeland, they sought genuine peace with all of their neighbors. Unfortunately, their neighbors did not wish to share a peaceful existence with the Jews. They, like Bin Ladin, felt that they had a religious obligation to destroy the non-Muslim/Arab Jewish State... and all non-Moslem governments in the world. The Arab campaign against Israel is rooted not in any negotiable grievances but in a basic opposition to the very existence of Jewish sovereignty in THEIR Middle East! The ultimate intent of the Arabs is to separate out Judaism from Israel... and then to separate Israel from the face of the Earth.
The Question of Jerusalem
And the Temple MountFor over 3,300 years of history, Jerusalem (founded by King David) has been a capitol city for only the Jewish People. Jews have always lived in Jerusalem, except when they were massacred or driven out. There has, however, been a nearly unbroken Jewish presence in Jerusalem for the past 1,600 years. And since the early 1800's, the population of Jerusalem has been predominantly Jewish. Even when the Jordanians captured and occupied Jerusalem from 1948-67, they (the Jordanians) never sought to change it to their capital (replacing Amman) nor make it the capital of any "Arab Palestinian" people. In fact, Arab leaders from other Arab countries hardly ever bothered to visit Jerusalem! Only to the Jews has Jerusalem ever held special meaning!
Another myth deals with the issue of Jerusalem and its Temple Mount. The myth is that Jerusalem is really an Arab city and that it is a central focus of Islam. The truth is that the Arabs expressed very limited interest in the Temple Mount before 1967. Besides, Mecca and Medina (both in Saudi Arabia) are Islam's holiest cities!
One more thing about Jerusalem in general and its Temple Mount in particular. Jerusalem appears in the Jewish Bible 669 times and Zion (which usually means Jerusalem, sometimes the Land of Israel) 154 times, or 823 times in all. The Christian Bible mentions Jerusalem 154 times and Zion 7 times. Islam's Holy(?) Koran mentions Mecca hundreds of times. It mentions Medina countless times. It never mentions Jerusalem and with good reason. There is no historical evidence to suggest Mohammad ever visited Jerusalem! And if he did visit Jerusalem, it could not have been until 6 years after his death. Therefore, the notion that Mohammed ascended to Heaven from a rock in Jerusalem (today's Dome of the Rock) is even more ridiculous!
From 1948 to 1967, when East Jerusalem and the Temple Mount were under Jordanian rule, they were ignored by the Arab world. No Arab leader ever paid a visit, not even to pray at the al-Aqsa Mosque or the Dome of the Rock (both located on the JEWISH Temple Mount). Even the Arabs of "Palestine" placed so low a priority on Jerusalem that the PLO's founding charter, the Palestinian National Covenant of 1964, made no reference whatsoever to it. Only when the Jews recaptured it after the 1967 "Six Day War" (initiated by the Arabs) did the Arab world SUDDENLY grow very passionate about Jerusalem!
In truth, the Dome of the Rock and the Al-Aqsa mosques are just but two of hundreds of thousands of Muslim mosques around the world. Except for these two minor mosques, Jerusalem itself has no major Islamic significance. In fact, far more Christian shrines are in Jerusalem than Muslim ones!
When a Jew prays from anywhere in the world, he faces the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. When a Moslem prays, even while IN Jerusalem, he faces Mecca (in Saudi Arabia). So in many cases, even when a Moslem is in Jerusalem, his "hind quarters" are facing these two Jerusalem mosques! What does THIS tell you! And when Islamic suicide bombers try to take apart Jerusalem piece by piece, what does THAT tell you!
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