Facts Arab-Palestinians
Would Rather Not Admit About Israel
Statue of Maimonides at Cordoba , Spain .
In doing my research and writing various articles about the
Arab-Israeli Conflict I was asked some pointed questions about my conclusions
in some of my recent articles, which
dealt – as most of them do – with the history of Israel: biblical, post-biblical
and international laws and treaties.
I had stated in one of my articles the following sentence: “Only
one people has ever made Jerusalem its capital and only one people ever
established their ancestral indigenous and biblical homeland between the River
Jordan and the Mediterranean Sea: the Jews.”
I had also added that: “the Jews were the remaining aboriginal
indigenous inhabitants of the Land for two millennia before the Muslim religion
was even created.”
The commenter, nevertheless, had correctly pointed out that most
people, because they have been exposed for such a long time to anti-Israel Arab
propaganda, falsely believe that there has not been a continuous Jewish
presence in the Land of Israel for the last 2,000 years. Many also have the Miss-conception
that the UN created the State of Israel, this is a farce.
The land of Israel has been in existence for over 3700 years and
the Modern reconstituted State of Israel was decreed by post WWI international
law and treaties executed by the Supreme Allied Powers which allocated the
formerly occupied territory by the defeated Ottoman empire and they specified
Mesopotamia, Syria and other territories to the Arabs and Palestine, the
historical ancestral land of the Israelites to the Jewish people as their
reconstituted homeland.
They are thus unaware that the historical territory of the land of Israel was never totally cleansed of Jewish presence. Thus,
the Arabs would rather you forget also that Jews lived for two millennia
in Mesopotamia and in what became later known as British created Iraq.
Indeed Jews had resided for over 3,200 years in that territory
from the Babylonian Captivity 586 CE onwards. It was when International
treaties executed by the Allied Supreme Powers in 1920 which incorporated the
Balfour Declaration as international law and once the number of Jews in
Palestine-Israel became substantial enough to merit the subsequent
implementation of those international treaties and guarantees.
Furthermore, due to the haste-full departure of Britain in 1948 and the desertion of its commitment to implement the
Mandate for Palestine as agreed by post WWI international law and treaties.
The Jewish leadership declared independence and Israel was re-established in 1948. The UN resolution to advance the
sovereignty of the Jewish state, and was only carrying out some of the terms of
the international treaties.
The post WWI League of Nations and the post WWII United Nations
that took over from the League have no authority to create or modify
international treaties.
The UN according to its charter can only recommend its
resolutions and the same applies to the ICJ - International Court of Justice,
thus, those recommendations must be adopted by the parties, if any of the
parties rejects the resolution, it has no affect or validity.
In our case and point, the Arab Israeli Conflict. The Arabs
rejected outright the UN resolutions that could of altered the conflict to a
peaceful coexistence.
After the Declaration of independence of the Jewish state; the
Iraqi Arabs persecuted and drove the Jews from their ancient homes of over 2400
years and confiscated all their assets, turning them into refugees who found
sanctuary in Israel ; at that time a fledging impoverished country barely able to
support them at the time. A great number of Jewish refugees were created that
it outnumbered the Arab refugees in a ratio of 2 to 1, as one Arab state after
another in the Middle East and North Africa persecuted and drove out their Jewish populations who resided
in those countries for over two millennia, while confiscating all their assets.
A crime, which hardly is ever recognized.
Arab-Palestinians and their anti-Israel supporters try to delude,
deceive and convince the world that the Jews just appeared in the early 20th century
after being dispersed for over two thousand years from their biblical ancestral
homeland. That is a flat out lie and flies in the face of factual recorded
history. But facts never seem to matter to Arabs and pro-Arabs. So the
following brief history lesson will be for them an inconvenient truth.
Let me start by quoting from an article written in The Weekly
Standard, May 11, 1998 by Charles
Krauthammer:
"Israel is the very embodiment of Jewish continuity: It is the only
nation on earth that inhabits the same land, bears the same name, speaks the
same language, and worships the same God that it did 3,000 years ago. You dig
the soil and you find pottery from Davidic times, coins from Bar Kokhba, and
2,000-year-old scrolls written in a script remarkably like the one today
advertising ice cream at the corner candy store."
The Jewish People trace their origin to Abraham, he who is
called the Holy Convert, the first Jew, who established the belief in only one
God, the creator of the universe. Abraham, his son Yitzhak (Isaac), and grandson Jacob
(Israel), are referred to as the patriarchs of the Israelites who lived in
what was then the Land of Canaan which today do not exist; later to become
known as the Land of Israel. They and their wives are buried in the Ma'arat
HaMachpela, the Tomb of the Patriarchs, in Hebron, Judaism’s second holiest city. (Genesis Chapter 23).
The name, Israel , derives from the name given to Jacob (Genesis 32:29). His 12
sons were the ancestors of the 12 tribes that later developed into the Jewish
nation. The name Jew derives from Yehuda (Judah) one of the 12 sons of Jacob.
You will find the names of the tribes listed in Exodus 1:1. Yehuda (Judea ) is also
the biblical name of the southern region of what the world calls by its Arab
name – the West Bank . Shomron (Samaria ) is the northern half.
Modern Israel shares the same language, culture, tradition and Jewish faith passed through generations
starting with the founding father Abraham and the Jews have had a continuous
presence in the land of Israel for over the past 3,400 years.
Menorah plundered from the Temple , depicted on the Arch of Titus, Rome .
In 70 AD, Rome destroyed the Holy Temple and conquered the Jewish nation, yet only part of the
population was sent into exile. Even after the Second Jewish Revolt against the
continuing cruel Roman occupation, Jews, though banned from Jerusalem ,
survived for centuries in other Jewish towns including Rafah, Gaza , Yavne, Ashkelon , Jaffa
and Caesarea as well as throughout Galilee and the Golan. Ruins of synagogues built in post-biblical
Byzantine times are found scattered throughout the Golan and an epic act of
Jewish resistance to the Roman legions took place at Gamla, high upon the Golan Heights . Here
again, the Jewish presence predates the modern Syrian claims to the Heights by
two millennia.
Interestingly, early seventh century battles raged between the
Persians and the Byzantines over the Land of Israel . The Byzantines were oppressing the Jews and a Jewish general,
Benjamin of Tiberius, was able to raise an army of twenty thousand Jewish men
from villages and towns in northern Israel to support the Persian cause against the oppressors. This again
points to extensive Jewish life in the land well after the erroneous and false
Arab claim that Jews had not lived in the land during the last 2,200 years.
The height of Jewish prominence was again achieved in the tenth
century. In Tiberius, by the shores of Lake Kinneret , the Sea of
Galilee , a symbol system for Hebrew vowels
was created which eventually gained universal acceptance. But with the advent
of the Crusades in Israel during the 12th century, and the massacres of
thousands of Jews in Jerusalem and throughout the land, the Jewish population reached its
lowest point. But Jewish populations again revived, strengthened by new Jewish
immigrants arriving constantly from the Diaspora. Many such returnees settled
in Safed, Tiberius, Hebron and Jerusalem .
These are the four Holy Jewish cities of the Land with
Jerusalem, north, south, east and west, the eternal over 3,200 year old Jewish
capital and veritable jewel in the crown. Jews traveling from Europe , such as
the remarkable medieval explorer, Benjamin of Tudela, had to overcome immense
perils while crossing lands at war with one another. They had to avoid death or capture by
bandits, or at sea from North African pirates and Crusaders based in Cyprus or Malta . That they came at all, however, remains a tribute to the
earliest efforts to keep Israel populated with its aboriginal and ancestral
folk and abide by the religious commandments to go up to the land of Israel and
reside there.
A brief list of Jews returning to the historical ancestral land
reveals a constant arrival of people joining existing Jewish villages and
communities, themselves always at the mercy of alien occupiers.
According to the Center for Online Judaic Studies, here are just
a few of the names of early Jewish returnees consisting of some Rabbinical
leaders:
1075:1141 Yehuda Halevi, poet.
1135: 1204 Maimonides, philosopher.
1210: Settlement in Israel of three hundred French and English rabbis.
1267: Nachmanides arrives in Israel .
1313: Estory Haparchi arrives: The first geographer of Israel .
1538: Renewal of rabbinic ordination in Safed.
1561: Joseph Nasi leases Tiberius from Turkish sultan.
1700: Yehuda HeChasid and his followers arrive in Jerusalem .
1777: Large Hassidic group settles in Galilee .
1797: Rabbi Nachman of Bratzlav’s trip to Israel .
1808: Disciples of Elijah, Gaon of Vilna, settle in Jerusalem .
This very partial list of Jewish immigrants, who arrived well
before the 20th century, is an inconvenient truth to the Arab
and pro-Arab propagandists who would have you believe their delusions and myth
that the Jews only arrived much, much later.
The national coins, the pottery, the
cities and villages, the ancient Hebrew texts…all support the empirical fact
that Jews always had a continuous presence in that land for over 3,100 years
and the fact that Jewish villages and towns were to be found in all parts of
the ancient Jewish homeland and throughout all the preceding years, up until
the present time, certainly dwarfs and debunks any claims that other people in
the region may have; especially the Arabs who came from neighboring Arab
countries and today call themselves Arab-Palestinians.
TIMELINE IN ISRAEL aka Palestine 1200 BC to 2015
PHILISTINES, JEBUSITES & ISRAELITES
1200 - 1020 BC
1200 - 1020 BC
1020 - 745 BC
ASSYRIANS
745 - 597 BC
745 - 597 BC
EGYPTIANS III
609 - 605 BC
609 - 605 BC
BABYLONIANS
604 - 538 BC
604 - 538 BC
PERSIANS
538 - 332 BC
538 - 332 BC
GREEKS
332 - 140 BC
332 - 140 BC
HASMONAEANS - ISRAELITES
140 - 63 B.C.
140 - 63 B.C.
ROMANS
63 BC - 300
63 BC - 300
BYZANTINES - Christian
313 - 611
313 - 611
PERSIANS II
611 - 628
611 - 628
BYZANTINES II
628 - 636
628 - 636
CALIPHATES
636 - 661 (1099)
636 - 661 (1099)
UMAYYADS
661 - 749
661 - 749
ABBASIDS
749 - 877
749 - 877
TULUNIDS
877 - 906
877 - 906
ABBASIDS II
906 - 935
906 - 935
IKHSHIDIDS
935 - 969
935 - 969
FATIMIDS
970 - 1079
970 - 1079
SELJUKS
1079 - 1098
1079 - 1098
CRUSADERS -
Christians they killed many Jews and Muslims
1098 - 1187
1098 - 1187
AYYUBIDS
1187 - 1260
1187 - 1260
MAMLUKS
1260 - 1517
1260 - 1517
OTTOMANS
1517 - 1917
1517 - 1917
BRITISH MANDATE
1920 - 1948
1920 - 1948
1948 - 1967
1967 - 1982 All of Territory west of the
1993 - 2000
DISENGAGEMENT, HAMAS OCCUPATION OF GAZA
2005 - PRESENT
2005 - PRESENT
How many holidays do the Arabs-Muslims
celebrate due to historical events in the land of ancient Israel
and Jerusalem .
The Jewish people celebrate most of their
holidays and fast days in memory of Jerusalem
and Israel
since 70 AD (that is over 2,000 years).
Pleading the Jewish goal and aspiration
to return to Israel
and rebuild the Temple
in Jerusalem
- where it was before it was destroyed and desecrated by the enemies of the
Jews. Many of the Jewish prayers for thousands of years recite the love of Israel
and the Jewish aspirations to return to their ancestral land and bring back its
glory and holiness.
At Jewish weddings they break a glass in
memory of Jerusalem
and the aspiration to return and build the Jewish Temple
in Jerusalem .
Every day at the end of the meal the Jews
recite a blessing and thank G-d for providing sustenance and beseech G-d to
return and rebuild the temple in Jerusalem .
Most Jewish prayers mention our pleading
to return to Jerusalem
and rebuild the temple.
YJ Draiman
2 Comments:
Thank you for this post. Where is there a translated version of Loti's book? Would be very interested to be in contact with you.
B'vracha from Hebron,
David Wilder
hebron@hebron.org.il
dwilder@gmail.com
I found this book some years ago in the open stacks in the Judaica section of the National Library on Giv`at Ram in Jerusalem. Unfortunately, forgot to copy down the year of publication. I believe that the French original came out in 1896, so the English version probably came out later. Look under Pierre Loti. You could also check the online catalogue of the HU university library.
Best Wishes, Shabbat Shalom
Pierre Loti's Observations of Jerusalem & the Jews There, 1894 -- Part One
Note that Loti calls the country Judea and that the Muslim sanctuary built on the Temple Mount is identified with the place of the ancient Jewish Temple and is important precisely for that reason.
Notes
--The Mughrabi Gate is so named after Arabs from North Africa settled nearby since the Middle Ages. In fact, the Jewish prayer place at the Western Wall was enclosed on the western side, facing the Temple Mount, by houses of the Mughrabi Quarter.
--Mount Moriah is a late name for the Temple Mount, originally called Mount Zion.
--The Mount Zion of today is roughly speaking, the areas of the Jewish and Armenian Quarters, incorrectly named Mount Zion on account of the Byzantine Nea Sion church once there, now a ruin.
--The New Testament claims --perhaps in words written after the fact-- that the Temple will be destroyed [Matt 24:2; Mk 13:2; Lk 21:6]. The claim that the Temple "will never be rebuilt" seems part of a later Christian tradition building on these NT verses.
Pierre Loti [1850-1923] was a French naval officer and widely traveled on that account. Less famous than Flaubert, he was elected to the Académie Française. His novels emphasized the exotic, the sensual, and love [real name: Louis-Marie Julien Viaud]. He disparages the Jews he sees in Jerusalem, but recognizes the ancient, vanished Jewish Temple as giving importance to the present Muslim sanctuary built in its place.
[Photos from Focus East, Early Photography in the Near East 1839-1885 (Jerusalem: Israel Museum 1988)]
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Coming: more from Pierre Loti on Jerusalem and Hebron, Jews in Muslim lands, etc.
Pierre Loti's Observations of Jerusalem and the Jews There [1894] -- Part Two
Loti continues his description of Jewish prayer at the Western Wall prayer place: [Photos from Focus East, Early Photography in the Near East 1839-1885 (Jerusalem: Israel Museum 1988)]
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Coming: more on Jews in Jerusalem, Gerry Adams--liar and hypocrite, more follies of peace in the Middle East, etc.