What is Palestine and Palestinians?
In recent history the area called Palestine includes the territories of present day Israel and Jordan (see map above. For earlier history of the term see article). From 1517 to 1917 most of this area remained under the rule of the Ottoman Empire.
Ottoman Empire was dissolved at the end of World War I. Its successor, modern republic of Turkey, transferred Palestine to British Empire control under the Lausanne agreement that followed WW I.
In 1917 Great Britain issued the Balfour Declaration for "the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people". In 1922 Britain allocated nearly 80% of Palestine to Transjordan. Thus, Jordan covers the majority of the land of Palestine under British Mandate. Jordan also includes the majority of the Arabs who lived there. In other words, Jordan is the Arab portion of Palestine.
The residents of Palestine are called "Palestinians". Since Palestine includes both modern day Israel and Jordan both Arab and Jewish residents of this area were referred to as "Palestinians".
It was only after the Jews re-inhabited their historic homeland of Judea and Samaria, that the myth of an Arab Palestinian nation was created and marketed worldwide. Jews come from Judea, not Palestinians. There is no language known as Palestinian, or any Palestinian culture distinct from that of all the Arabs in the area. There has never been a land known as Palestine governed by Palestinians. "Palestinians" are Arabs indistinguishable from Arabs throughout the Middle East. The great majority of Arabs in greater Palestine and Israel share the same culture, language and religion.
Much of the Arab population in this area actually migrated into Israel and Judea and Samaria from the surrounding Arab countries in the past 100 years. The rebirth of Israel was accompanied by economic prosperity for the region. Arabs migrated to this area to find employment and enjoy the higher standard of living. In documents not more than hundred years, the area is described as a scarcely populated region. Jews by far were the majority in Jerusalem over the small Arab minority. Until the Oslo agreement the major source of income for Arab residents was employment in the Israeli sector. To this day, many Arabs try to migrate into Israel with various deceptions to become a citizen of Israel.
Even the Chairman of the Palestinian Authority, Arafat himself, is not a "Palestinian". He was born in Egypt. The famous "Palestinian covenant" states that Palestinians are "an integral part of the Arab nation" -- a nation which is blessed with a sparsely populated land mass 660 times the size of tiny Israel (Judea, Samaria and Gaza included).
All attempts to claim Arab sovereignty over Israel of today, should be seen with their real intention: The destruction of Israel as a Jewish state and the only bulwark of the Judeo-Christian Western civilization in the Middle East.
- Additional Resources:
- The True Identity of the So-called Palestinians
- The History and Meaning of "Palestine" and "Palestinians"
- The Jewish Claim to The Land of Israel and the origin of the term "Palestine"
- What is a Palestinian Arab?
- The Arabs in Palestine
- Palestine Facts
- Who cares about Palestinians?
- Do the Palestinians Deserve a State?
Oslo accords and "Peace Process"
The Oslo "Peace" accords have not brought peace. The number of terror attacks against Israel and the number of Israelis killed by Arab terror bombings greatly escalated after Oslo to a level that has not been seen since 1948 (see statistics). The Palestinian Authority has repeatedly violated all aspects of the agreement (see full report of violations).
Recent armed violence by the army of Arafat confirm the predictions that this agreement would escalate the conflict rather than subdue it (see article). In the history there are many examples of international "peace agreements" that were rapidly followed by major wars. A well known relevant case is the Munich agreement signed by Chamberlain from Great Britain and Hitler from Germany in 1938, which was rapidly revoked by Hitler as German armies invaded Czechoslovakia in 1939 (see article).
The P.L.O.'s Charter still calls for the destruction of the State of Israel. Fatah Constitution that is adopted as the unofficial constitution of the Palestinian Authority also calls for the destruction of the Jewish State in most of its clauses.
Posted on Wed Aug 24 2005 00:57:45 GMT-0300 (Hora oficial do Brasil) by WJHII
The True History of Palestine: The Nation-State Fallacy
By William John Hagan
The Houston Home Journal (Warner Robins, GA) Print Edition 08/24/2005
The current debate on the inevitable future of the “Palestinian Nation” seems to lack one simple fact: Palestine has no past and was never a sovereign nation. The closest thing the Palestinian people have to a history is that there was once a British Colony from which they had stolen their modern name.
After the Allied victory in World War Two, it became clear to even the most anti-Semitic Westerners that the Jewish People deserved to have their nation restored. The Nation of Israel’s first record of historically existence is a mention in the Book of Exodus (3:16), however, even earlier references are made in Genesis to the tribes of Israel. It is both biblical and historical fact that Israel was founded by Moses after the Jewish expulsion from Egypt by Ramases II. This would place this event sometime between 1290 and 1224 BC. The reality that the Palestinians want to keep from you is that there has been a Jewish presence in Israel for almost 3300 years.
The history of the Palestinian People in far more recent than that of their Jewish neighbors. In fact, “Palestine” was created by the British Empire in the days after World War II. According to Rockwell Lazareth author of the essay “Who are the Palestinians?”, “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.”
The most disturbing reality is that the “Palestinians” are not even Arabs at all but Canaanites who have over the years adopted Arab culture and language. For all their history, the Canaanites have been a nomdic sea-faring people who traveled between such nations as Lebannon, Syria,and Turkey but making a premenant home in no land. The British allowed these modren Palastinian Canaanites to set up their tents in colonial Palestine so they could be used as a cheap source of labor for the citrus industry. This historical fact leaves the so-called Palestinians with a far more blundering claim to Israel than illegal Mexican immigrants would have to the United States.
In 1948, the British rewarded their fruit pickers by dividing the colony of Palestine into two states: one Jewish and the other Arab or should we say “Canaanite”. It was at this moment that the term Palestinain was first used to exclusivly refer to nomadic Canaanites. The Palestinains responded to the England’s generosity by invading the newly reborn Isreali state, with help from the armies of Egypt, Lebanon, Syria and Iraq. To the world’s amazement Israel emerged the victor. The Arabs further demonstrated military prowess by, again, invading Israel in 1967. This time they lost control of Jerusalem, the West Bank, and Gaza.
In the years that followed, Yasser Arafat’s PLO murdered thousands of Israelis, in fact he made Bin Laden look like a piker. Today, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is fulfilling Arafat’s dying wish and taking land from the industrious Israeli’s so that a Palestinian Nation can be born. The Israelis had taken the deserts of Gaza and turned them into an oasis of prosperity, all while under the guns of PLO terrorists. These very settlers who sacrificed their own children for a greater Israel are today being sacrificed by Sharon to the False Idol of Appeasement.
Letters to the editor of The Houston Home Journal may be e-mail to: mailto: rgambill@evansnewspapers.com (Please Include Your Name and Location)
William John Hagan can be contacted directly by e-mail at: William_Hagan@excite.com
Or visited on the Web at:
http://williamjohnhagan.blogspot.com
TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; Government; Israel; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections; United Kingdom; War on Terror KEYWORDS: appeasement; arafat; bible; egypt; hagan; israel; palestine; plo; ramases; settlers; sharon; terrorism
I would have more confidence in his writing if he could spell.
Gaza will become a sewer within 6 months.
More like six weeks..
Interesting. Who is John Hagan?
Sorry, I was deaf as a kid so I leave that to my editors and microsoft. I haven't seen the print version yet,so please excuse the spelling error. Bill
Well, I think that if the Palestinians ("nomadic Canaanites"), after having been given Gaza, continue with terror against Israel, then Israel should be, and hopefully will be, ruthless.
bump for later
I'm no expert on the Palestinian / Israeli question. In fact, I'm no more than an interested bystander. And I happen to agree that Sharon is nuts for abandoning Gaza. Appeasement will not solve anything while the militant groups continue to advocate the destruction of Israel.
You'd have to ask Webster's,but it just sounds like good old fashion PC History.
As for the statements about Moses 1250 etc, it is by no means accepted history but decidedly contentious. Leading Egyptian scholars doubt Moses existed as a historical personage. The word is Egyptian for "son of". There are any number of "so-and-so"moses in Egyptian history, but "son of" without a who the son is of, is unknown.
Some scholars think Israel as a distinct nation dates only from 900 BC, which is old enough to establish "3000 years" and one would think, sufficient. Established monotheism appears to date only to the return from the Babylonian captivity around 540 BC (reign of Cyrus) - pre-exile Israel was pagan-polytheist.
The claims are evidence the writer is pushing literalist claims, not present ones.
As for the statement that all western nations thought Jews deserved their own state after WW II, it is not accurate. The Brits fought against the establishment of Israel and sought to prevent emigration to colonial Palestine. Jews waged a terrorist war for independence against British troops. Britain left at the time it gave up most of its colonies - it was too poor to keep them after WW II. A UN mandate sought to divide the country but was unrealistic and unenforced. War determined the initial boundaries of the new state. The US was quick to recognize and support Israel. Britain was cool.
The 1956 war, when the Israelis were the ones doing the attacking, in concert with France and Britain, is left out. The US forced a climb down that humiliated Britain nd France. France became a patron of Israel at that time - that is where Israel got its nuclear technology for example, working with the French.
As for the statements about Arafat, yes he was an out and out terrorist from the start. A Moscow trained one. Left out of his history here is the fact that he tried to take over the kingdom of Jordan in a revolution in 1970, getting the Palestinian population of Jordan to rise against the ruling minority Hashamite tribe. That failed, with 5000 killed, and set him packing to Lebanon. Which served as his terror base until 1982 when Israel again was the one doing the invading, to smash the PLO. The US under Reagan saved the PLO diplomatically, earning truck bombings and a near war with Syria for our pains, and still bundled Arafat off to Tunisia and safety.
Arab nationalists want Israel destroyed. Islamic fundamentalists want Israel destroyed. Israel does not in the least require moldly old books to enforce its claim to live, all it needs is common sense and the bravery of its sons. No permission is needed from heaven or earth to defend oneself against implacable and unjust enemies. It is entirely normal for control of a country to rest on the right of conquest. Challenging a previous result is called war, and fully justifies the previous winner in winning again, as ruthlessly as he needs to.
As for claims to the place, it has been ruled by Eyptians, Babylonians, Assyrians, Persians, Greeks, Romans, Byzantines, Arab Muslims, Christian Crusaders, Turks, the British, and modern Israel. The only constant in its history is turmoil and unending strife. The only claim anyone has ever had to it is conquest. It is all they have had and all they have needed, it is all Israel has today and all it needs.
Most "Palestinians" are actually from the area formerly known as the Trans-Jordan. Hussein of Jordan didn't want them back when Israel was made a nation by the UN. Thus the people were stuck in crappy refugee camps and their situation was never made better by any of the Arab nations, because to do so would have been to acknowledge the existence of Israel. So those people sat in those camps for a couple of generations in poverty breeding terrorists.
Good anaylsis. I am glad I am not stuck in a place like that.
A little more detail... The First Palestinian State by Emanuel A. Winston Dec 10, '03 / 15 Kislev 5764 Oh. You didn’t know there was a First Palestinian State? It’s not necessary to go back to 1964 when, with Egypt’s help, the PLO (Palestinian Liberation Organization) was formed - with the sole intent of engaging in terror for the purpose of conquering the Jewish State, with the assistance of all the Arab/Muslim nations. Those goals of the PLO have not changed.(1) Yasser Arafat was elected Chairman of the PLO in 1969. Arafat and his terrorists ended up in the Kingdom of Jordan after a series of unsuccessful wars by the Arab/Muslim nations against Israel. There, they arrogantly walked the streets of Amman well-armed and with supreme confidence. They intimidated the people of Jordan. Between 1967 and 1971, the PLO challenged King Hussein for political control of Jordan. Hussein made 26 agreements to keep the Peace. Arafat signed them all and broke them all. The last straw would be when Arafat put out a kill order for King Hussein’s brother, who commanded the Jordanian Army and, particularly, the special Bedouin troops who had clashed numerous times with Arafat’s thugs. This was not going to be Arafat’s State by coup d’etat, but it was a lesson in his MO (Modus Operandi). Hussein’s Army was called up and a memorable slaughter of Arafat’s followers took place, an event the Arab Palestinians called "Black September".(2) The major conflict began in September 1970, but took 17 months until Arafat’s terrorists fled, mostly into Lebanon. However, many crossed the Jordan and were rescued by Israeli settling pioneers on the west side of the Jordan River. In Lebanon, the Arab Palestinians were greeted with open arms by their so-called brother Arabs. It was a case of mistaken identity, which the Lebanese did not know then was a one-sided hudna (time of false peace, rest and re-arming for Arafat’s terrorists). To this day, the Lebanese people bitterly regret opening their borders to Arafat’s Arab Palestinians. Then, it began. Arafat first established the parameters of a terror state much as they started to do in Jordan before Black September. Wherever they gained critical mass in numbers and arms, that area of the city or country became theirs. Every street corner was an Arab Palestinian ‘checkpoint’ to collect pass-through money, but also, frequently, to rape women passengers, steal cars and extort whatever they wanted. As in Jordan, Arafat’s Arab Muslim Palestinian gunman acted as conquerors, threatening everyone, looting and taxing through terror. As Arafat expanded his control over Christian and Muslim Lebanese, they too became part of the conflict that became a 12-year Civil War, killing 100,000 Christian and Muslim Lebanese. Lebanon had once been called the Paris of the Middle East, the Garden of Eden spot for vacationing Arabs, with a Banking Center for the Arab world - but all that was destroyed. The Christians and Muslims had worked out a ‘peaceful, political accommodation’ to run Lebanon and, particularly, Beirut. Arafat had stirred them up, so now they were bitter enemies, attacking each other and fighting Arafat’s Palestinian Mini-State of Terror. The killings went on day and night, with whole villages massacred, with a retaliatory massacre soon after. Arafat turned the various Arab refugee camps into his bases of operation. Weapons and explosives were stored in apartment building, hospitals and schools, using the civilians as human shields. As confusion and terror reigned, Arafat continued to expand his mini-State of Palestine with the presumption that one day all of Lebanon would be a Palestinian State. Arafat’s methods were a mirror image of what Americans found in Iraq, particularly Bagdad, where Saddam’s family and Republican Guards wreaked havoc. Granted, Saddam’s regime was larger and very well-funded, but the hideous brutality was virtually the same. Arafat’s gunman roamed the streets with modified pick-up trucks, manned with 30-50 caliber guns mounted in back. They were looking for various factions of Christian militia to gun down, but Muslims were also shot dead - as were any of the few Jews who still lived in Lebanon. (By that time, the Arab/Muslim nations had ejected almost all of their Jews (approximately 800,000) and had confiscated all their property and assets - personal and community. In effect, this was a replay of Hitler and Europe’s confiscation of all that their Jews owned.) Arafat launched frequent terrorist cross border attacks into Israel from his safe Mini-State in Lebanon - just as does Hezb’Allah does now. Hezb’Allah, a fierce terror organization based in Lebanon, is run by Syria and funded by Iran. When those attacks became intolerable, Prime Minister Begin gave Defense Minister Gen. Ariel Sharon permission to attack Arafat’s Terror State in Lebanon. The IDF (Israel Defense Forces) discovered and exposed many things that were photographed, catalogued and described in books published subsequently about the savagery of Arafat’s treatment of his Lebanese brothers. As today, the Left-leaning liberal media ignored what Israel had discovered, but they did castigate Israel for daring to respond to Palestinian terror attacks. Israel’s early encounters came from what then was called the RPG Kids (Rocket-Propelled Grenade). These were 9- to 11-year old kids who were trained (on Arafat’s orders) to use rocket-propelled grenades and hide behind their seemingly innocent youth. Many Israeli soldiers were killed because they hesitated to kill mere children. However, these were not ‘mere’ children; they were fully trained Palestinian killers who were merely smaller than Arafat’s regular terrorists. They were trained from early childhood to hate, kill and obey their master. (That education to hate, kill and obey continues to this day in the Palestinian Authority.) The IDF discovered miles of machine-dug tunnels, stocked full of arms, ammunition and plans for the next major war against Israel - aimed at her elimination. These were the pre-stocked positions for planned advancing Palestinians, with regular Syrian troops, into Israel. I believe it was the Austrians who supplied the huge tunnel-digging machines, which could dig wide tunnel into the Lebanese mountains, thus allowing large trucks to deliver their deadly loads.(1) When Israeli troops broke through into Beirut in 1982, they were again shocked at what they found. Much the same as in 2003, American troops were shocked when they entered various compounds of Saddam Hussein and his two sons, Uday and Qusay. Torture rooms, masochistic sex rooms and always the fields of hundreds of thousands executed Iraqis - with Shi’ites and Kurds topping the list. In 1982 when the Israeli soldiers entered the hospitals in Lebanon, they found Lebanese Christians’ bodies stacked like cordwood in the hallways. Their blood had been totally drained for transfusions into Arafat’s wounded, ‘more worthy’ fighters (on Arafat’s orders). Arafat’s men often used a special torture and death on captured prisoners. Copying the Roman technique of drawing and quartering captured prisoners for the amusements of the crowds, Arafat used four cars to slowly pull a man apart by driving in four different directions. Here, too, the mob of Arafatian Arabs found this to be exciting and cheered. This ‘mind-set’ is endemic in most Arab nations; we recall the two Americans in Mosul, Iraq, being shot, pulled from their car, having their throats slit, and being mutilated. Then the mob moved in to crush their heads with cement blocks, and to stamp on the two doomed soldiers.(3) The surrounding mobs cheered delightedly. This, in turn, was similar to the lynching the Arab Palestinians committed against the two Israeli soldiers who made a wrong turn into Ram’Allah,(4 ) and the frequent lynching of their own people who they accuse of being ‘collaborators’.(5) Then, there was the matter of the village leaders in Lebanon (the mukhtars of the village) paying baksheesh, a.k.a. protection money, to keep his own village protected from Arafat’s murdering marauders. One mukhtar refused to pay protection money. So, Arafat’s collectors kidnaped the mukhtar’s teen-age daughter, raped her, cut off her breasts and delivered her back to the mukhtar’s doorstep in a gunny sack.(1) No tax collector of a mini-state could have been more convincing. There were thousands of these examples, photographed, catalogued, books written and all seemingly forgotten - except for some.(1) This was Arafat’s First Palestinian State, which was crumpled by the invasion by Israel in 1982, when Arafat and his killers came under American protection as they shipped out to Tunis. Later, under the auspices of Oslo, Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres resurrected Arafat, gave his Arab Palestinians and Arafat a reprieve and invited them back. Most recall what followed their return. Since Oslo was signed September 13, 1993 - 1,500 Israelis (and at least 45 Americans) were brutally murdered and hundreds of thousands wounded - many maimed for life. Without the exact count of the Arab Palestinians tortured and murdered at Arafat’s orders in those territories handed to him under Oslo, there have been hundreds. Then, one must add in those suicide bombers - the young men, women and children convinced or brainwashed to blow themselves up in order to kill Jews and ascend to Muslim Paradise and receive 72 virgins. When Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu turned over Hebron under pressure from America (expecting gratitude from America, which he did not get), the Palestinian businessmen begged Israel not to leave. They knew what was coming. In all the territories given over to Arafat and his Palestinian Authority, every business, manufacturer, farm suddenly had a new partner in one of Arafat’s officers. That was Al Capone’s business: the protection racket, which Arafat carried to astonishing levels of corruption. Even the Arab Palestinians in the Eastern section of Jerusalem want Israeli citizenship, before they fall under the control of Arafat at the behest of the Bush Administration - now a not-so-silent partner of the Geneva Accords. Wherever Arafat and his Arab Palestinians achieved a critical mass, they tried to produce a State born out of terror, torture, blackmail and extortion. The Arab Palestinian State that the Bush Administration is trying to create through the Road Map - and now through aberrant Leftist Jews, employed by the E.U. (European Union) - cannot be anything else but what it has always been. It doesn’t matter that Israel is forced back to her indefensible 1967, or even her 1949, borders, or that there is no wall to separate terror from civilization. Arafat and his Arab Palestinians have proven time and again that any entity they can control, be it a state or merely a city, immediately becomes a base for launching terror and suppressing their own people. After all, why would Arafat and his Arab Muslim Palestinians rule any differently than Saddam of Iraq, the Assads of Syria, the Ayatollahs of Iran, etc.? Should Israel and Bush be foolish enough to actually give Arafat or his successor a large base of operations called a ‘state’, with Jerusalem as its capital, rest assured that, like Saddam’s Iraq, Syria or Iran, they will begin absorbing high-tech weapons of mass destruction, including NBC (Nuclear, Biological and Chemical), and their reach will be shockingly far. They are already linked up with Syria and Iran, and had been closely linked to Iraq, and will probably be again when Bush pulls the American troops home - before elections. This new terrorist state will never be satisfied with a Palestinian State on only the ‘West Bank’. The new state will use the Palestinians in Jordan, who are already 75% of the population (or more), to overthrow King Abdullah. Then, it is just a matter of time before they subvert the region, in lockstep with the other terror state of Syria. So, this is the preamble to what will be the Second State of Palestine, courtesy of the Bush family and a weakened Israeli Prime Minister. Look at a map of the neo-Palestinian State, the centerpiece of a chain of Islamic nations going north and south, which are to be a choke chain for Israel and the region. This then will be the legacy of Bush and Sharon to the Free World and the people of Israel - guaranteed terror for millions in Israel and the Free West for years to come. Arafat’s terror state will have many godfathers - not the least of whom would be Yitzhak Rabin, Shimon Peres, Yossi Beilin, the U.N., the Europeans, Colin Powell and the pro-Arab U.S. State Department, the Bush family, James Baker III, among many others. As I said at the beginning, the Arab Palestinians had a first terror mini-state in Lebanon, which demonstrated the prototype and Arafat’s MO - terror and murder. The godfathers know all of this, but they plunge ahead - often with Israel’s acceptance of a born-to-die fate, which some Jews have accepted as their destiny. They would rather be de-Judaized as their entrance into acceptance by the world of nations. Let us hope and pray that a new leader will emerge who will understand that Israel must say: "No!" to their American friends; "No!" to the Europeans; "No!" to the U.N.; "No!" to the Arab League; and "Absolutely no!" to acceptance of a so-called mini-state of unremitting terror. Footnotes: 1. PLO: Now the Story Can Be Told by Eliyahu Tal; WZO (World Zionist Organization, 1982). Listing “Terror Attacks Perpetrated Against Israeli Diplomatic Missions (1969-79)” with photos, foreign allies, funders, victims and witnesses stories; “Terrorists & Child Terrorists in Action”: "On a summer night in 1964, 3 years before the Six Days War, Yasser Arafat forded the River Jordan, climbed a hill near Nablus [Shechem], fired one shot from his pistol and declared: "The ‘Jihad’ (holy war) has begun." PLO in Lebanon: Documents, Research & Photos, edited by Prof. Rafael Israeli. The PLO Exposed by Britain Israel Public Affairs Committee; December 1982. 2. "Black September in Jordan 1970-71", from OnWar.com. Within the space of two hours on September 6, 1970, PFLP [Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine] gangs hijacked a TWA jet, a Swissair jet, and made an unsuccessful attempt to seize control of an El Al airplane. About two hours later, another PFLP group hijacked a Pan Am jet and forced the crew to fly to Beirut airport, where the airplane landed almost out of fuel. The next day, the airliner was flown to the Cairo airport, where it was blown up only seconds after the 176 passengers and crew had completed their three-minute forced evacuation. 3. "Lynch of American Soldiers"; "On the Objective Support of Terror" from http://phaedo.typepad.com/phaedo/2003/11/on_the_objectiv.html. 4. "Italian TV Apologized to the PA for Screening the Video of the Lynching of the 2 Israeli Soldiers of Ramallah" from Israel’s Media Watch on Arutz Sheva News Service on October 18, 2000; also on http://geocities.com/CapitolHill/2527/press104.htm. 5. "Lynch in Manger Square, Bethlehem - while AP tries to Hide the Pictures"; March 15, 2002, from http://gamla.org.il/english/feature/lynch2a.htm. http://www.israelnn.com/article.php3?id=3069
Poverty does not breed terrorism, most terrorists are upper or upper middle class. Islam breeds terrorism, but it takes money to be one.
Like everything else about Islam, Palestine is founded on lies, plagarism, murder and hatred.
The article at the Houston Home Journal is no longer there.
Ping!
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That is a most excellent article, needs its own thread.
If you listen to the media describe events in Israel, and you know just a tiny bit of history, you easily find out that the entire Arab/Palestinian story is a lie. How many times do you hear the phrase- "return the land to the Palestinians"? Maybe we need a new definition of "return". To me it means a possession you once had and lost. My personal favorite was a FOX reporter interviewing "Palestinians" in Gaza who were now optimistic life would get back to normal - "like it was before the Intifadah" -. Uh? You mean Arabs were living normal lives, working in Israel, traveling unencumbered in Israel, before they decided to start butchering Jews again? Israel's fault.
And when, not if, the Palestinian's "state" fall flat on it's face because it was given and provided rather than earned, the anti-Semitic Euros and Left will continue to cover and make excuses for the Pali's. They won't be held to account, it will always be Israel's fault regardless of what Sharon or any other Israeli leader does or doesn't do.
Ironically, only the Turks could control the feral behavior of the Arabs they ruled. They were not "infidels" and knew who they were dealing with.
"Jews waged a terrorist war for independence against British troops." Huh? What Israel waged was a true Insurgency -- they targeted the British Military not civilians. The US government, and most analysts, define terrorism as targeting civilians. "The 1956 war, when the Israelis were the ones doing the attacking, in concert with France and Britain, is left out." I guess by your definition the US was the one doing the attacking in Iraq. You appear to have forgiotten the numerous UN resolutions Egypt violated. Sound familiar? "On August 9, 1949, the UN mixed armistice commission upheld Israel's complaint that egypt was illegally blocking the canal. un negotiator Ralph Bunche declared: "There should be free movement for legitimate shipping and no vestiges of the wartime blockade should be allowed to remain, as they are inconsistent with both the letter and the spirit of the armistice agreements." On September 1, 1951, the security council ordered egypt to open the canal to Israeli shipping. egypt refused to comply. The egyptian foreign minister, muhammad salah al-din, said early in 1954: The arab people will not be embarrassed to declare: We shall not be satisfied except by the final obliteration of Israel from the map of the middle east (Al-Misri, April 12, 1954)." You also must be unaware of the numerous attacks on Israel from Egyptian Fedayeen prior to 1956 and the massing of armies on Israel's borders. "Israeli Ambassador to the un, Abba Eban, explained the provocations to the security council on October 30: During the six years, during which this belligerency has operated in violation of the armistice agreement, there have occurred 1,843 cases of armed robbery and theft, 1,339 cases of armed clashes with egyptian armed forces, 435 cases of incursion from egyptian controlled territory, and 172 cases of sabotage perpetrated by egyptian military units and fedayeen in Israel. As a result of these actions of egyptian hostility within Israel, 364 Israelis were wounded and 101 killed. In 1956 alone, as a result of this aspect of egyptian aggression, 28 Israelis were killed and 127 wounded." http://amichai.com/war/process/56war.html In your mind does only the US and the West have the right to self-preservation via self-defense?
"Palestinians" are descended form Ammonites, Moabites, and Arabs. They are not Canaanites.
Yes the US attacked Iraq. No the UN doesn't have anything to do with any of it, being a toothless talking shop with no relevance to the control of territories or the safety of peoples. Israel, Britain, and France attack Egypt in 1956. Bare fact, nothing more to be read into it. Nowhere did I say or imply that attacking enemies is forbidden by anyone or anything. On the contrary, I explicitly said disputing the outcome of the last conquest is called waging war.
You appear rhetorically to buy into legalistic theories you don't not actually believe and that have no operative force in the real world. You also avoid, distort, or deny obvious historical facts for reasons apparently connected to apologetics about them. You impute inferences about rights of self preservation etc where none have been so much as hinted. To me, all are symptoms of the same underlying problem. A reluctance to live in the real world, taking facts as they are.
No doubt the legalistic fantasies involved weren't made by you, and you are kicking against them. Fine by me, but why live inside that straightjacket at all? Things are so much clearer out here. Where no man needs to ask for what he can defend with his own hands.
"They blew up hotels, civilians were killed, it was a terrorist war." "Hotels?" Plural? One Hotel, The King David which happened to be MILITARY HEADQUARTERS for the British forces. It is you who are having trouble with historical facts and who are "lying" and or ignorant of such salient details. Further three separate advance warnings were given prior to the bombing but ignored by the British who were in denial about the threat from a bunch of Jews. "You appear rhetorically to buy into legalistic theories you don't not actually believe and that have no operative force in the real world. You also avoid, distort, or deny obvious historical facts for reasons apparently connected to apologetics about them. You impute inferences about rights of self preservation etc where none have been so much as hinted. To me, all are symptoms of the same underlying problem. A reluctance to live in the real world, taking facts as they are. " Uh, I'm not the subject here and spare me the psychobabble. Talk history and facts. Give references, but leave out the ad hominem signs that you have lost the debate.
Poverty may not breed terrorism, but the poverty of those people in the camps is used in the brainwashing of those educated in terrorism.
Very insightful and disturbing report.
It is worse than appeasement. That word dealt with pre-existing nations, one appeasing the demands of another. In this case, no existing nation is presenting demands to a preexisting nation.
We do hear that the Gaza settlers have been ejected from land that "Palestinians want" as part of a future state however...we hear that, of course, from the MSM.
So, just what is the idol, false or otherwise? Israel? No. Hamas? No. Peace? No.
The idol is money. There is a bet, the same bet played w/ regards to Egypt and the Sadat deal (and recall, the precedent for leaving 'settlements' was set at that time.
Egypt didn't sign off on peace for free. Egypt gets cash, annually, that is as predictable as the Nile from the U.S.A.; 4 Billion US Dollars per year unless I am mistaken.
So, the formula now is the same as then: enough money, year after year, flowing into the pockets of corrupt islamic regimes (Abbas now, Hamas (maybe) later but whatever....
Enough money will provide the means by which Islamic nut cases will be quieted, regardless of the "national" soil of their origin. Enough money will be provided such that enough towel heads will in effect be paid for enduring the presence of Israel in their midst. It is a kind of reverse tax, or better, reverse 'protection money'.
(Of course, asking who the big winners are in the recent run up in oil prices does help this analysis any either, right?)
In effect, Israelies are paying rent. And, oh yes ... the land use chit that was enjoyed in the Gaza area has been recently revoked.
I hope I am wrong ... I hope this is a tactical retreat, with the idea of a future strategic victory in the hazy future. I have a hunch that year after year of bribing towel heads is not going to get the job done. Indeed, what is going on in Iraq is the only source of hope in this mess.
bump again
Then who are the Canaanite descendents?
They were terrorists. In their practices they were more restrained than AQ or Hamas, on a par with the IRA and not around as long. But terrorists they were. It doesn't matter how much lipstick you put on the pig.
Terrorism targets civilians as do the IRA, AQ, Hezbollah and Hamas. "International and Domestic Terrorism - FBI definitions Terrorism is defined as violent or criminal acts against a civilian population for the purpose of coercion, and promoting a political cause or agenda. When those crimes occur within the United States, and are perpetrated by an individual or group associated with a domestic cause, they are defined as domestic terrorism. When they are perpetrated by an individual or group from outside the U.S., then it is defined as international terrorism. Also, beginning 1986 it has been a violation of federal law for any group or individual to commit an act of terrorism against U.S. interests or U.S. citizens even in a foreign country. " http://c21.maxwell.af.mil/cts-fed.htm "How do you define terrorism? The Intelligence Community is guided by the definition of terrorism contained in Title 22 of the US Code, Section 2656f(d): —The term “terrorism” means premeditated, politically motivated violence perpetrated against noncombatant targets by subnational groups or clandestine agents, usually intended to influence an audience." http://www.cia.gov/terrorism/faqs.html Your laundry list indicates the targets of the Israeli insurgency were Military and Government. Your view of history is upside down. You condemn people fighting for survival and side with the British who abrogated all responsibility, legal and moral, to side with the Arabs. The British were an occupying force from a continent away acting in disregard of international commitments, a Mandate, and a responsibility imposed upon them and accepted by them by the victors of WW1, the Treaty of Versailles, and the League of Nations. The bad guys here were the British who violated both their word and their moral authority in failing to give Jews a country and in siding with the Arabs. They whittled away the land of Israel giving the lions share to Transjordan to placate the Hashemites for their loss of Mecca and Medina. They prohibited Jewish immigration to placate the local Arabs thus adding immeasurably to the number of Jews left in Hitler's Europe. They limited Jewish land purchases. Both limitations were in direct contravention to the Mandate they had accepted and were obligated to abide. The British actively sided, supported and fought with the Arab countries who attacked Israel after the UN voted its creation and Israel was declared a country in 1948. History has become so politicized that simple concepts have lost all meaning. In Iraq the left calls acts of terror perpetrated on civilians an insurgency. BBC, Reuters say one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter again disregarding the targets of even 9/11. The far left calls the acts of Western Governments terrorism. You rush to label acts of war against an occupying power terrorism focusing on the identity of the perpetrators and not on the acts or the intended victims. Neither the left nor your approach are correct. There still exists the concept of insurgency outside of terrorism and outside of regular forces in uniform.
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