palestinians

RACISM: An African History of Slave Lords

Posted on by Helena

A man in a coffee shop. A white Muslim woman wearing a Burqua.  An exchange of heated words. Fear.   A conversation that escalates.  He says he doesn’t like her religion.  She says that in Luke 19 Jesus said to kill the people of unbelief.  And suddenly the man is accused of hate speech and racism, and booted from the coffee shop.

Simultaneously, al-Zawahiri, the new leader of al-Qaeda, called on all Muslims to commit Jihad against the US as the first enemy of all Muslims.  Shhh, not a word.

Simultaneously, in Israel, 41 Palestinians are dead and over 700 wounded after they stormed Jerusalem in protest of Trump claiming it belonged to the Jews.  A violent and bloody encounter in which bombs were set, fires were flared and terrorism erupted.  Apparently, the Palestinian call to jihad is not racism.

Al Zawahiri has called for violence, and Muslims are responding in kind.

And yet, somehow, a man in a coffee shop is the focus.

The bottom line is that Hamas, al-Qaeda, ISIS, etc…, want all non-Muslims out of the Middle East – including Israel.   And they are willing to do anything to achieve that goal.   But somehow ‘racism’ is the man in a coffee shop.

Racism has become a target word, it is used to derail and denigrate and even to jail people who are no longer afforded the freedom of opinion.   If I don’t ‘like’ al Zawahiri, does that make me racist?   If I don’t approve of Burqua’s, does that make me racist?  White men are targeted continually in the media, their color and their gender boisterously declared to be unfit for existence.   But that isn’t racist…?

If M13 gang members want to kill me and I declare them to be evil, is that racist because their countries of origin are not white?

What is Racism?

First we have to define “Race”:    “A race is a grouping of humans based on shared physical or social qualities into categories generally viewed as distinct by society. First used to refer to speakers of a common language and then to denote national affiliations, by the 17th century the term race began to refer to physical traits.”

It would then follow that “Racism” is simply a means of categorizing this “grouping of a people who share common physical or social qualities”.  

Instead, racism has become a pejorative.   And somehow ‘white people’ are the only perpetrators and literally everyone of every other culture, faith, belief, color, and gender are the victims.  Despite the fact that racism, in its pejorative, has existed since the beginning of time, MSM has determined its roots to be firmly bound in the US.   And thus, it is termed an American institution.

Whoa there Cowboy!

In fact, research papers would have us believe that racism did not exist in the ancient cultures of Greek and Roman society, because they had ‘no concept of race or racial oppression’. WOW!

According to many such authors, race has been redefined and is only a reference between black and white.  Obviously, these authors fail the most basic tenant of definition – ‘race is a grouping of humans on shared physical or social qualities…”   There is no negative expression in this definition, there is only a classification.  Thus it would follow that these same authors are the ones responsible for creating a divisive black and white quality to the term ‘racism’.  When in fact it is typically these ‘shared social and physical qualities’ that cause people to group and form bonds when they are in a foreign atmosphere.   Chinatown is a classic example – it is a social preference wherein a shared culture can feel secure.

When Muslims came to Germany in France in hordes, they created their own spaces, blocks, neighborhoods within the cities.  They didn’t diverge and integrate.  When “expats” move to another country, the first thing they look for is the locale that harbors similar social and cultural peoples.

One Socialist writer went so far as to determine that capitalism created racism and that racism did not exist in the slavery of Jews in ancient times because it was not ‘color motivated’.    OUCH!

No one denies the color motivation that occurred in the US, including the slave trade.   But few remember their history enough to delve into the slave trade of the Barbary Coast in the 1600’s in which the African nations of  what are now known as Morocco, Libya, Algeria and Tunisia ritually raided the European coastal regions of Spain, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, France, Ireland and England and captured and enslaved their victims, sometimes devastating entire towns.  Bringing them back to their respective African nation, the slaves that survived the tortuous journey would be inspected and sold based on their perceived physical qualities.

Africans and Middle Eastern societies have a sordid history of enslaving.

It wasn’t until the 17thcentury that European navies began to fight back against the African and Middle Eastern corsairs who at this point had trafficked, tortured and brutalized millions of predominantly white people.   This barbaric slave trade resulted in the galley slaves who were forced to row the ships of these Corsairs sitting in their own filth and excrement each day until they died.  Women were either used for housework or for sex, but were still required to beg on the streets for money to pay rent and buy their own food.

Was this racism?   It certainly was not a product of capitalism.  It was most definitely a social enslavement because it targeted Europe – not other African nations.  Therefore, it can be considered racist.  And – the perpetrators were not white.

Do I have the freedom of speech to state this piece of history?   Or will I be called a racist because I provide this as a reminder that white people were the victims of racism and slavery at the behest of Africans and Middle Eastern societies?  Will I be persecuted because the Barbary Coast enslavement that was perpetrated for roughly 300 years doesn’t fit the narrative of racism as a white American institution?  Will I be booted from Starbucks?  Vilified?

For Telling The Truth.

 

Israel and Jerusalem – It is Complicated

Posted on by Helena

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.  

Refugees, War and Toxic Waste – Who Have We Saved

Posted on by Helena

Every time we bomb a country we create refugees. And then we cry foul and no one wants them. So who have we saved?

The absurdity of the cycle is that we supposedly enter a country to rid it of the bad guys, destroy the country, leave cities in rubble, and then wipe our hands, “Whew, glad we saved all those people!” Really? In actuality, what we accomplished was a tally of refugees that has grown to such devastatingly high proportions that they now have absolutely nothing and will die of hunger and disease.

In Syria, the number of refugees is now over 3 million. In Iraq since the beginning of the Iran-Iraq war and through the Gulf War, there have been over 4 million displaced Iraqi refugees. Yemen is the new Syria with estimates of 250,000 refugees, although a large number of Yemen refugees are Somali’s who sought refuge in Yemen from Somalia and now want to come back. In South Sudan, 700,000 have been displaced while 150,000 have fled and are refugees.

The UN has stated that there are currently about 50 million people worldwide displaced, seeking asylum or of refugee status. It is the largest number in history and yet we continue to add to that with every bomb we drop. We are supposed to be teaching respect and freedom, and democracy, but instead we are teaching war and destruction and devastation.

Solution: If you want to curb the number of refugees seeking asylum, stop bombing their country.

Granted, we aren’t responsible for every internally erupting country in the world. But the main categories of refugees include: Afghantistan, Syria, Iraq, Palestinian, and Somalis.

In the 1980’s, a number of European countries took advantage of the internal instability of Somalia to negotiate the disposal/dumping of 10 million tonnes of toxic waste along Somalia’s shoreline in exchange for $80million. Radiation related diseases have since become a major issue. Humanitarian?

In Syria, the chemical weapons were confiscated and then dumped. Where? Why in the Mediterranean of course where UN officials state that by adding chlorine the toxicity will be somewhat diffused. What is the impact of these chemicals and chlorine on sea life? That wasn’t considered.

In Afghanistan, the Bagram military base has a huge pit where they burn everything from televisions to computers, to all forms of electronics, waste, rubber, plastics, etc… Huge green and black plumes hover in the sky 24 hours a day. The gases are said to be causing respiratory illnesses, chronic allergies and various cancers among the Afghans as well as the military troops.

In Iraq, some estimates claim that 11 million pounds of hazardous waste was left behind when the US pulled out in 2010. What was the solution? To form a committee to analyze the problem. Ta-da! The National Defense Authorization Act ordered studies. So what the heck is this Act? It is a law that specifies the expenditures and budget for the Defense Department. So who is solving the hazardous waste problem? Not a clue, they are still assessing whether it exists while lawsuits begin pouring in.

But the burn pits took their toll and huge numbers of civilians and military are now claiming that the ‘Iraqi crud’ is causing lung cancer, anemia, and liver, kidney, and heart problems.

Solution: Stop starting wars. Let them solve their own problems while we concentrate on ours.

My father was an experiment in the Army. In the 1950’s he was ordered to Nevada to witness the nuclear tests. Officers were required to stand in the frontline while radiation consumed them. Soldiers were allowed to get some cover in bunkers but were still exposed. Decades later, my father contracted lung cancer which expanded to bone cancer, stomach cancer, a brain tumor and ultimately a very painful death.

So who did we save?

Palestinians Shunned – a reason?

Posted on by Helena

Why are Palestinians shunned?  It is not just Israel, it is everywhere in the Middle East, their brothers and sisters.  Palestinians were originally defined as people that lived along the coastline of the Mediterranean on the land that is now Israel.  They were Arab, Jewish and Christian.  Most of the Christians fled to South America.  As the Jewish people were pushed from their lands in Iraq, Syria, Iran, Lebanon, etc… they fled to ‘Israel’.  Albeit the population grew because they had nowhere else to go.  But the Palestinians have nowhere else to go now either.  No one wants them.  They are refugees everywhere.

So, why does the media concentrate only on Palestinians within Israel? There are approximately 1.3 million Palestinians in Israel, 3.3 million in Jordan, 500,000 in Chile, 430,000 in Syria, 400,000 in Lebanon, 330,000 in Saudi Arabia, 225,000 in North and South America, 44,000 in Egypt, 40,000 in Kuwait, 310,000 in ‘other Arab states, and 308,000 in ‘other countries’.

Exactly how do they fair when in their Arab brother countries?

In Jordan and Syria, most Palestinian refugees have been integrated into society; however, in Jordan, only Palestinian refugees displaced by the 1948 War have Jordanian citizenship and enjoy largely favorable treatment on par with Jordanian nationals. Refugees from the Gaza Strip who did not hold Jordanian passports at the time of their flight in 1967 have been denied citizenship and are mostly confined to the “Jerash” camp. In Syria, Palestinian refugees have not been granted citizenship but have been accorded equal treatment with Syrian nationals in almost all respects. Palestinian refugees in Lebanon have fared considerably worse; sectarian tensions and the activities of the PLO have prevented their integration into Lebanese society. The majority of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon live in UNRWA refugee camps or other unofficial camps and shelters, often in conditions of abject poverty. They face restrictions on their right to work, access to education and healthcare, and ownership of property. Only those displaced in 1948 have residency rights in Lebanon whereas all other Palestinian refugees are deemed illegal immigrants.

Outside of the Operation Areas, Palestinian refugees face even more of a precarious existence.

In Egypt, Palestinian refugees are treated as foreigners and face significant restrictions on their ability to access education, government services, and employment. Renewal of residency permits is difficult and there are reports of frequent detention of Palestinian refugees by the authorities in Egypt. Iraq, once a refuge for Palestinian refugees, has now become a country of persecution; many Palestinians were targeted in, and fled from, Iraq following the fall of the Saddam Hussein regime.

In the Gulf States, particularly Kuwait, Palestinians are treated as foreign migrant workers with no permanent residency rights.

Approximately 59% of the population reside in refugee camps:

In Gaza there are approximately 1.2 million ‘registered’ refugees.

West Bank – 740,000

Syria – 500,000

Lebanon – 450,000

Jordan – 2 million

The discrepancy in populations verses registered refugees is huge. But foreign aid is based on refugee count, not population. Which opens another topic – how much money is funnelled to the Palestinians annually? By whom? And where is it spent? Have they built schools and hospitals and industry? Have they built roads and water systems and farmed crops? Do they make clothes and build homes and temples?  Or are they a welfare state wherein they do – nothing?

We constantly talk of their ‘plight’, their losses, their poverty, their poor conditions, but what has changed since they became refugees?  Those that lived in Palestine lost their homes in 1948, they were evicted by the UK.  Nearly 60 years of ‘aid’ has absolutely nothing to show for it.  Once again, welfare produces nothing.  It doesn’t ‘lift’ people out of poverty, instead it creates even greater poverty.   There is one notable exception to Palestinian refugees.  Those that fled to Chile worked the fields, made goods, sold products – and prospered.   It was hard, damn hard, but they had no choice and so they lifted themselves up.  These Palestinians were all Christian. They took no handouts, no UNRWA funding, no governmental aid. They didn’t live in refugee camps, they are well educated and have risen above their plight.

In 1950 when aid began pouring in to the Middle East, it supported about 750,000 ‘refugees’. Today the number is 5 million and growing without restriction. All children, grandchildren down the line of eternity – are grandfathered in. It is a shambles. The one example of UNRWA schools and medical facilities for the Palestinians is in a town outside of Damascus. But we obliterated Damascus, it lies in rubble. So much for that. Syrian refugees from Palestine became refugees once again after the country was bombed and Al Nusra and ISIS took over. Most fled to Jordan where they idle in camps in dire need of attention.

No one in the camps work. They are not required to and have little to no supportive education to enable them to work. It is the supreme example of pouring money down the drain of entitlement without creating a self sufficiency of production. Sixty years worth of nothing.

But why do the Arabs hate them so much? One theory is that the Palestinians have a knack for ingratiating themselves in their host country. Perhaps out of boredom, perhaps out of a need to feel a cause, or a purpose, whatever it is, Palestinians typically find themselves on the losing side of a civil uprising whether in Jordan, Iraq, Kuwait or wherever.

Lesson: no one likes an ingratiating bully…

ISRAEL – God is the Pilot

Posted on by Helena

When looking at the borders of Israel, sometimes we research a few years or decades into history and there the research ends. A conclusion is made. An editorial is created. Opinion is terse. And, the media moves on.

First, who are the Palestinians?

They are Arabs who claim to have descended from 6th century conquerors and from indigenous peoples who have lived there since ‘time immemorial’. Most historians agree that the identity of Palestinians was created in the late 20th century in response to the identity of Zionists.

The word Palestine is derived from a 5th century BC word to define a strip of coastal land that stretched from Phoenicia to Egypt. It was used to collectively define all people that lived in this region. Who lived there?

The Canaanites were a pagan tribe of diverse people who were known as the sea people for their great trading and wares. Current Arab thought is that to claim the Palestinians are direct descendants of the Canaanites pre-dates the Israeli’s claim and thus gives Arabs dominate rights to Palestine. But this is simply a theory with no basis in fact. The supposition was first made in 1961 by Yasser Arafat. Some claim the Canaanites are ancestors of Jews, Christians, Greek, Roman and Arab peoples. What we do know is that we – don’t know and most of our knowledge of Canaan comes from the Hebrew Bible.

When did the borders of Israel become such a hotbed?

Prior to the land being gifted to the Jews, Israel was the property of the British and the boundaries also included what is now Jordan. Prior to the British rule the land was controlled by the Ottoman Turks. The Ottoman Empire was one of the largest in history. It embraced three religious millets; Jewish, Christian and Muslim. Each millet was segregated. And although the Ottoman’s proclaimed tolerance, preferences were obvious; only a Muslim could be in the government, children of non-muslims were forced out of homes and raised Ottoman Muslims, and an ‘extra’ tax was imposed on non-muslims..

Prior to that, Israel was occupied as a portion of the Eastern Roman Empire under Constantinople, a Christian. Prior to that it was ruled by a Jewish tribe, the Maccabees, prior to that the Greeks – then the Persians – then the Babylonians – then Assyrians and prior to that it was ruled by King David of the Jewish Kingdoms which takes us to about 1000 BC.

It has a history of endless conquering. So, to say that it somehow belongs to the Arab Palestinians – is simply – wrong. The semantics of who was living on the land has always been overruled by who was ruling and who was conquering.

How and why was Israel defined in modern day?

During the late 1800’s anti-semitism was prevalent and Jews were being pushed out of Europe and Russia and settling in Palestine. Their population was considerably less than the Arab population, but they outrightly purchased land and founded towns. WWI was the result of the British and the French uniting to conquer the Ottoman Empire. Dividing the spoils, today’s Syria and Lebanon were given to the French, and today’s Jordan, Iraq and Israel were given to the British. Arab nationalism was rising and they became enraged at having to share the land. The Arabs rioted and the British got nervous. In 1922 the British Mandate for Palestine divided Israel from Jordan and cited Israel as a Jewish state ruled by the British and Jordan as an Arab state ruled by the Hashemite family. Over the next 13 years, Jewish immigration to Israel rose significantly, although still they were outnumbered by Arabs.

In 1935, the rise of anti-Semitism across Italy, Germany, Austria and throughout the Arab world created renewed immigration to Israel to escape persecution. But the Arab population in Israel was hostile and riots rose once again. In 1937, the British sought to fix the problem they created and partitioned Israel into two states with a strip of land from Jerusalem to the port city of Jaffa being called an ‘international zone’. Arabs on the Jewish side were told to move and Jews on the Arab side were told to move. The Arabs rejected the plan and riots and revolts continued.

By 1939, WWII was in full blown chaos and the Jews were now targets in a much larger revolt and extermination. The Arabs of Palestine were pro Nazi. The Jews fought alongside the Brits and the schism extended. By the end of the war Israel was still a hotbed of ethnic hostility. The British decided to wipe their hands of the mess and give the problem to the UN. The UN went back to the solution previously raised in 1935 and decided partitioning the country was the best idea. The Jews reluctantly agreed, but the Arabs did not. Britain pulled out all its troops, and with the angst of a civil war looming, nearly 200,000 Arabs fled to neighboring countries.

In 1948 the Jews declared war on the Arabs. The ethnic cleansing that ensued was promulgated by both Jews and Arabs. Hundreds of thousands of Arabs continued to flee while refugee camps held scores of displaced Arabs from Palestine. By the spring of 1949 a cease fire was stipulated.

In contrast to the exodus of Arabs, this time frame saw more and more Jews arriving in Israel as they were being systematically targeted in their home countries of Iraq, Libya, Tunisia, Egypt, Morocco, Algeria and Iran. It is estimated that the total Jewish population of these Arab countries was about 1 million. Northern Iraq had a Jewish population that had lived there peaceably for 2000 years. But after WWII, Arab hostilities toward that population increased dramatically, persecution, arrests, floggings, and murder became their life. The British government ordered the Jews to vacate their homes throughout the Middle East, leave their possessions, their businesses and take one suitcase for their exodus to Israel. They had nowhere else to go.

Rife with border skirmishes, in 1956 Egypt, Jordan, and Syria blocked passage through the Suez Canal and Red Sea. This move prompted the British and French to intervene and deploy troops to support Israel by way of their own interests in the Suez.

The next decades saw the UN Resolution 242, the Six Day War, The War of Attrition, the rise of the PLO, the Yom Kippur War, a short lived peace agreement, the Lebanon War, the Intifada, the Gulf War, The Madrid Conference, and ultimately the Oslo Agreement I and II.

The Jewish people have never been compensated for the land and possessions they lost as refugees from the Middle East. There is no mandate in place to give them back their lost land in Iraq, Libya, Egypt, etc… The Jews were ‘given’ a very small spot of land that they could call their own and name Israel.

Perspective: the Middle East is roughly the size of the United States. Israel is roughly 2 ½ times the size of Rhode Island. Giving away half of that to the Arabs seems a bit preposterous when taken into a pure context. It would seem more plausible for the remaining Palestinians to be absorbed into the neighboring countries of Jordan, Egypt, Lebanon and Iraq – just as the land the Jewish people owned was taken from them by the Arabs.

Today, Israel is 75% Jewish and 20% Arab. The number of Jews in Iraq? Zero. Number of Jews in their ancestral Lebanon? Zero. The number of Jews in Jordan? Zero. Egypt? Less than 10.

Just a thought.