The Palestinians are not a heritage, they are a nouveau creation as a result of WWI. Philistine defined a land – not a people. The present day “Palestinians” were comprised of various clans and tribes that fought against their fellow Arabs of the Ottoman Empire. The land never ‘belonged’ to them, they simply squatted there as Bedouins, roamers who refused to pay taxes. The land belonged to the Ottoman Empire, and when they lost WWI, Britain confiscated all the territories and divvied it up however they saw fit.
Today, 65% of Israeli Jews identify as secular or non-religious or atheist. But they are still the Jewish people, booted out of every country.
It is complicated.
It is these Arabs that have become a people without a home – and no one wants them. While the British and the UN created the problem in 1948, they have been unable to solve it.
The ‘discussions’ for a two state agreement, and there have been numerous, have been ongoing for fifty years with NO resolution. Still, the UN demands that someone figure it all out – because they can’t. What they can do is condemn from afar, like Pharisees on thrones. But even the nation that apportioned the EU land after the fall of the Ottoman Empire, Great Britain, can’t find a solution that Israel and Palestinian Arabs agree on. Instead, they seem to want Jerusalem to become a non-entity city belonging to ‘the churches’; Jewish, Christian and Islam. Something like Vatican City – except that Vatican City belongs to one church – Catholic.
I don’t imagine they would be too keen on the idea of apportioning Vatican City…
Fighting between the ‘Palestinians’ and Israeli’s is a near daily occurrence and has been for fifty years. The UN has done nothing to resolve the situation. Europe has done nothing to resolve the situation. The Middle East has refused to partition any of the land on behalf of the “Palestinians” because they know full well that they themselves expelled all the Jews from their lands during WWI and again during WWII.
It was the British who initiated the creation of an Israeli state after WWII given the Jewish people had been extricated from their homes in Europe and throughout the Middle East. It was an acceptable solution and let the Middle East off the hook of reinstating what they had taken. What it didn’t do was gratify the Arabs then living in Palestine. However, NO Arab country was willing to take them in with the exception of Jordan which now houses over 2 million or about 1/3 of the population. Most of the Palestinians in Jordan live in refugee camps – they are not granted citizenship or recognized by their fellow Arabs. Isn’t that rather odd?
And yet, these same nations within the Middle East demand Israeli land be given to the “Arabs” living in Palestine, and most importantly, Jerusalem. But the Palestinians didn’t even exist as a people historically, so giving them Jerusalem has no basis in law, Biblical heritage, or fact.
The Pope has weighed in stating that everyone must respect the status quo – but the problem is there is NO STATUS QUO, and there hasn’t been for fifty years, it is a perilous angst that has no end.
The end game is – do nothing out of fear – and hope that a miracle changes the hearts and minds of – everyone. The absurdity of no action is to believe that ‘inaction’ will somehow create – action because of God’s sovereignty. But that’s not how it works. Action is a part of God’s sovereignty. Taking a stance will require – a stance to be taken.
The Jewish people, whether by culture or by religion, have been wasted of their homes and land and possessions that were confiscated by the EU and the Middle East. They were granted a paltry speck of land that is now called Israel, in compensation. Despite the fact that the historical value is just as tremendous for the Christians of the world, most are quite willing to make a statement of ownership – because ownership does not mean anyone else is prohibited, it simply is a fact of title. Christians and Muslims alike may still visit. We don’t demand to be on the title proclamation! Because that isn’t important.
What is important, is finally making a decision, moving forward, and ending seventy years of endless tit-for-tat fighting.
You prompted a blog post, because it got lengthy for a comment, so I posted my reply to my blog, link below.
Your posts always are full of facts and full of great insights, including this one, I should say, and thank you for it. And your conclusion is correct, but I don’t see much resolution. It does help to have it all in context and understand the history independent of Establishment-approved versions…
https://trutherator.wordpress.com/2017/12/12/israel-the-zionists-and-now/
OK – without having read – yet – your post – I would say that the primary point is to make a, take a stance. To be forthright. To end the seventy+ years of pricking and pecking knowing that it will take a bit to calm the seethe. Either stance would have created a seethe. But at some point, a solution is more important than the seethe…
IF there were no native Arab inhabitants in the area we know as Palestine (and before WW2 even Zionists called it Palestine), then who were the people that were called Palestinians before WW2 and before World War One? What to call the non-Jewish Arabs living in Palestine during the times the Christians ruled there during the Crusades centuries, if not Palestinians?
Arguing over a word to try to claim there were no Arabs native to the land is disingenuous. Sure, over 2,000 years the land there was conquered by a dozen different powers, but then came the British, and when they controlled it, they called it Palestine and the inhabitants thereof Palestinians.
The same thing happened to (haha) Iraq. Which was not a thing since Babylon. At the time the Europeans carved out the boundaries and called it that, there were Shiite tribes here, Sunnis there, and the Kurds up there, and a few Yazidis too. But we still call them Iraquis to this day.
There were Arab populated populations in the areas the Zionists conquered in 1948 and they became Palestinians because they didn’t want to call themselves Jews. They were Palestinians just like the native-born Jews were also called Palestinians to that date.
There is a map out there with the lines drawn by UN personnel that denoted the majority Jewish areas and the majority Arab areas. The Zionists took what they wanted, and massacred Der Yassin to set the Arabs running off to make it easier to take the rest of it.
I feel like you missed the point. It isn’t about taking sides per se so much as resolving a very rash, stupid apportioning done 70 years ago by the Brits and the UN that has cost thousands of lives. It is about the idiocy of thinking that an integrated two state union of two cultures that inherently hate each other – will work. Maybe they should have divided Riyadh and Tehran when they were apportioning the Middle East and given half to the Jewish people who were at that point banished from all the Middle East losing their homes, possessions, jobs, etc… Integrating two cultures that want to kill each other is absurd. Maybe they should be apportioning a part of Jordan and Saudi Arabia? Syria? Why are the Arabs of Palestine in refugee camps in Jordan 70 years ongoing? Why are they ostracized by their own culture? Dividing Israel into pie segments has been disastrous to date, why would a ‘two state union’ suddenly work? They’ll still both send rockets over no matter what stupid doctrine/edict the UN announces. Something has to give – and given the mere size of the Middle East vs. Israeli land – it seems to me an easy choice. It isn’t about sides – it is about resolution once and for all.