“The Palestinian Problem” Pt. 1
Jeremiah 4:19
Today I want to try to my best ability to set the record straight about the issue at hand between the Jews and Arabs in the land named “Palestine” and the problem with the so-called “Palestinian refugees”.
There are many myths to this problem and as Joan Peters writes in her incredible book, “From Time Immemorial” about this problem, “It is perhaps the most pervasively misconceived image of any political situation in the world.”
But first…
Why is Israel Such a Unique Nation in The Middle East?
a. Because only Israel can claim that they are God’s creation.
No other nation in history can make that claim!
Jeremiah 12:7-9
Zechariah 2:8 “…for he who touches you (Israel) touches the apple of His eye.”
“Apple” = pupil
b. Because virtually every nation considers Israel as an obstacle to peace.
Just listen to the world diplomats, journalists, world leaders and television personalities! Their bias come through load and clear!
c. Because Israel has the strongest democracy and human rights in the Middle East.
The Arab countries that surround Israel are kicking and screaming to the democracy table! Not only that, but they are years behind in proper treatment of their people. Human rights are rarely a right given to most Arab countries!
Before Saddam Hussein was driven from his palace and pulled out of his pit, a Western Journalist once asked him how he felt about his nickname “The Butcher of Baghdad” because of his treatment of the Kurds in the northern part of Iraq. He said, “I reject any criticism of my use of gas against civilian populations. No one has come to me and said they are personally bothered by these gases. Frankly, I’m sick of having these self-righteous…types infringe on my personal freedom.”
President Hafez Assad of Syria is also on record for killing over 20,000 fellow Syrians when his army surrounded the city of Hama. His lynch men sealed the houses, pumped in cyanide gas, and later buried the city under a mound of dirt.
And the atrocities just go on and on!
Think about this…most of these Arab nations have been around since at least the first half of the 20th century, why are they still some of the most deadliest neighborhoods in the world?
Fact: The Middle East has spent more on weapons, fought more wars and suffered more causalities than any other region of the world in the last 70 years! Since the break up of the Soviet Union, nuclear weapons are now finding a new home in many of these hostile Islamic regimes. In fact some put the figure at 1 trillion U.S. dollars worth of destructive weaponry from 1973 to 1995!
In case you are wondering what the “Palestinian problem” is...in a simple definition, it’s the Arabs that live in refugee camps in Israel and the pressure they and the world body are putting on Israel to give them more land that makes up modern day Palestine. The argument also says that the Jews stole this land from the Arabs in 1948 and so the land really belongs to the Arabs.
This is a problem that has been written very little about in the last 30 years. But the books that are written the evidence supporting Israel in this issue is overwhelming to say the least. But there is much bias, ignorance, and anti-Semitism that has clouded the minds of many people.
My goal in this sermon is to just touch the very fringe of this problem and give you a snap shot of evidence to prove that the Palestinian problem is not because of the Jews but rather a huge propaganda campaign on part of the Arabs surrounding Israel.
As a 5th century B.C. historian Thucydides once wrote, “Most people will not take the pain to get at the truth of things, and are much more inclined to accept the first story they hear.”
How true!
This is not an attack against the Arab but rather setting the record straight in my view over this 60-year-old problem that has caused so much blood shed through the streets of the Middle East.
2 books that will help you further your study on this topic:
· “Philistine: The Great Deception”, by Ramon Bennett
· “From Time Immemorial”, by Joan Peters
1. The Origin of The Word “Palestine”.
Fact: The word “Palestine” cannot be found anywhere in the Bible!
We know that the official use of this word goes all the way back to the Roman Empire about 135 A.D. It was a substituted word for the biblical word “Judea”. The intention was to begin to erase historic Jewish identity and history! Since then, the land has been called “Palestine” or “Palestina”.
Now watch…The N. T., which was written while the Romans were in charge, mentions “Judea” 45 times and “Samaria” 12 times. Matthew 2:1 records that “Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea”. Matthew 2 tells us that Jesus came out of Egypt “into the land of Israel”. John 4 records that “He left Judea and departed again to Galilee.” In Acts 1:8 he told his disciples “to be witnesses in all Judea and Samaria.”
Key: Jesus was born and ministered in Israel not Palestine – it did not exist in biblical days!! Another buzzword to replace Judea is the word “West Bank”. And all the first Christians were Jews and Palestinian!
Yasser Arafat said that, “The Apostle Peter was a Palestinian who defied Rome.” And that the Jews are responsible for murdering Jesus “a Palestinian prophet.”
Dr. Geries Khoury, who has written the handbook for the present day intifada, “The Intifada of Heaven and Earth: A Palestinian Theology” writes, “Any believer who tries to justify through his theology the righteous right of Israel in Palestine is an infidel who denies God and Christ.”
The Arabs didn’t even come into the land until the 7th century! It appears that Palestine was never an independent nation and Arabs never claimed the land to which they now claim rights to until 1948.
2. The Amount of Land in Question.
This is an amazing issue! Look at the map…
Let’s go back to when the British captured Palestine from the Turks after WW1, the allies let them govern the country and set up a Jewish national homeland in all Palestine in accordance to The Balfour Declaration of 1917.
But the British turned on the Jews and their promise was withdrawn. With one stroke of the pen in 1922, they cut off a huge 77% of the entire area and gave it to King Abdullah who formed what is now known as Jordan. The British not only cut the Jews out of a vast amount of land but also restricted the immigration of Jews back to their land.
That takes us to 1947, the U.N. votes to slice 23 % of this remaining land between the Jews and Arabs.
Key: Today, most of the world believes this remaining 23% to actually be the entire 100% of Palestine, but in fact, it is less than one-quarter of the whole – more than three-quarters was cut off and made a sovereign Palestinian state in 1922.
The Jews were willing to settle for the huge loss of land to create their own Jewish homeland. But Arabs refused to accept the U.N.’s deal and demanded all Palestine – to establish another Arab state. For the next year the British in many ways supported the Arabs. The Jews fought fiercely and won their homeland back – half of the 23%.
Then on May 14, 1948, we know that the U.N. established a Jewish homeland that has been a sore spot to both British and Arab alike. The Arabs declared war on Israel and the Arabs were humiliated. On that day it was said to be, “The greatest shame in modern Arab history.” Israel won the war by a miracle of God. The odds were unbelievable! 7 trained armies against 18,000 Jews whom most did not even have a gun in hand!
Then in 1967 the Jews in lightning speed against the Egyptians won the 6-day war.
Then Israel was fiercely attacked again in 1973 on the Day of Atonement. It took Jews 3 days to get together 300,000 men to fight and defeat a 1.2 million Arab military. In 10 days they won a stunning victory again.
3. The Big Myth That Has Spread all Over The World.
In question to the land - no such land exists!!
· The head of the Dept. of Military with the PLO, Zubeir Moshin, said in a European paper in 1977, “Yes, the existence of a separate Palestinian identity serves only tactical purposes. The founding of a Palestinian state is a new tool in the continuing battle against Israel…In fact; there is no Palestinian people…”
· Then in another quote he says, “Only for political reasons do we speak of a Palestinian identity.”
· The distinguished Arab historian Bernard Lewis of Princeton University, honestly address this issue of the “Palestinian problem” and said, “The mythopoeic faculty is the ability to create myths, to believe in them, and to make others believe.”
The Arabs have mastered this and remember that to a Muslim, Jihad does not limit war to just the use of a sword, but also with their speech in the name of Allah!
· An Arab activist, Musa Almami writes, “In great need of a myth to fill their consciousness and imagination…
indoctrination of the myth of Palestine nationality would create identity and self-respect.”
· The British Palestine Royal Commission report states, “…Clearly there was no such age old or even century old “National identity”.
· It continues, “In the twelve centuries or more that have passed since the Arab conquest, Palestine has virtually dropped out of history.
The Palestinian’s case is only a suitcase full of lies! These lies are as desperate and diabolical as those of WW2!
The lies that Hitler spread around Europe starting in the 1930’s culminated with the Holocaust. His lies were so powerful that they murdered over 6 million Jews before Hitler’s murderous rampage was halted. Except for Sundays when the gas chamber operators went to church, the death camps operated 24/7 One of the saddest outcomes of Hitler’s lies was when the ashes of 200,000 Jews were brought back to Israel. The ashes were preserved in 30 huge jars.
William Hull who wrote about this in his book, “The Rise and Fall of Israel”, “These ashes, the cakes of soap which Germans had made from Jewish bodies, the lamp shades and coats made from skin stripped from Jewish bodies, these were all that remained.”
No wonder Josef Goebbels, the Nazi propaganda expert once said, “A lie spreads in proportion to its size.”
Millions of so-called “Palestinians” now claim that their ancestry goes back thousands of years to the Philistines and beyond. And yet ask one Arab Palestinian expert, “Show us the history, artifacts, language, archeology or culture! They come up with NOTHING!
An article that was found in a Middle Eastern paper said this, “Everyday I hear about Palestinians, and as it was not clear to me who they are, I decided to try and discover at least one of them. In East Jerusalem I met a man who identified himself as a Palestinian. He answered that he spoke Arabic. Then I asked him if he wrote Palestinian letters. “No, I write with Arabic letters and numerals.” I continued questioning him, and he answered that he did not know of any Palestinian king, president or prime minister. Finally I asked him if his religion was Palestinian, and he replied he was a Muslim.
I gave up, and now I am convinced that there is not and never has been a “Palestinian people”. (There were Philistines until 300 B.C., but that’s another matter). Nevertheless, these are those that want to create a “Palestine people in order to eradicate the people of Israel from the land of Israel.”
Going back to the 7th century, Arabs claim they have been spreading culture and a lifestyle into the land of Palestine…Philip Hitti, a leading Arab historian says, “…the invaders from the desert brought with them no tradition of learning, no heritage of culture to the lands they conquered…there is no such thing as Palestine in Arab history; absolutely not!”
He continues… “…there is no such thing as a Palestine in Arab history; absolutely not.”
Their claim that they lived and farmed in this area for 1000’s of years is a myth!
