Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News: Jordanian sheikh: Allah gave the land of Israel to the Jews

Al Quds and other Arab media outlets published this amazing article this weekend:

Sheikh Ahmad Adwan, who introduces himself as a Muslim scholar who lives in Jordan, said on his personal Facebook page that there is no such thing as “Palestine” in the Koran. Allah has assigned the Holy Land to the Children of Israel until the Day of Judgment (Koran, Sura 5 – “The Sura of the Table”, Verse 21), and “We made the Children of Israel the inheritors (of the land)” (Koran, Sura 26 – “The Sura of the Poets”, Verse 59).

"I say to those who distort their Lord’s book, the Koran: From where did you bring the name Palestine, you liars, you accursed, when Allah has already named it “The Holy Land” and bequeathed it to the Children of Israel until the Day of Judgment. There is no such thing as 'Palestine' in the Koran. Your demand for the Land of Israel is a falsehood and it constitutes an attack on the Koran, on the Jews and their land. Therefore you won’t succeed, and Allah will fail you and humiliate you, because Allah is the one who will protect them (i.e. the Jews).”

The sheikh added: “The Palestinians are the killers of children, the elderly and women. They attack the Jews and then they use those (children, the elderly and women) as human shields and hide behind them, without mercy for their children as if they weren’t their own children, in order to tell the public opinion that the Jews intended to kill them. This is exactly what I saw with my own two eyes in the 70’s, when they attacked the Jordanian army, which sheltered and protected them. Instead of thanking it (the Jordanian army), they brought their children forward to (face) the Jordanian army, in order to make the world believe that the army kills their children. This is their habit and custom, their viciousness, their having hearts of stones towards their children, and their lying to public opinion, in order to get its support.”

It is worth mentioning, that the above mentioned sheikh visited Israel and met Jewish religious scholars. The “Israel in Arabic” site conducted an interview with him, in which he said that the reason for his openness towards the Jewish people “comes from my acknowledgment of their sovereignty on their land and my belief in the Koran, which told us and emphasized this in many places, like His (Allah’s) saying ”Oh People (i.e the Children of Israel), enter the Holy Land which Allah has assigned unto you” (Koran, Sura 5 – “The Sura of the Table”, Verse 21), and His saying “We made the Children of Israel the inheritors (of the land)” (Koran, Sura 26 – “The Sura of the Poets”, Verse 59) and many other verses.

He (Adwan) added: “(The Jews) are peaceful people who love peace, who are not hostile and are not aggressors, but if they are attacked, they defend themselves while causing as little damage to the attackers as possible. It is an honor for them that Allah has chosen them over the worlds – meaning over the people and the Jinns until the Day of Judgment. I made the reasons for Allah’s choice clear in my books and pamphlets. When Allah chose them, He didn’t do so out of politeness, and He wasn’t unjust other peoples, it is just that they (the Jews) deserved this.”

The Israel in Arabic site, which appears to be an Israeli site, has a much fuller interview in Arabic.

When Adwan visited Safed (Tzfat), it was covered by Israel's Orot TV:

MUQATA: How to Annoy Abbas - All of Eretz Yisrael is OURS!

Sick of the Palestinians displaying their "map of Palestine"? Nothing will enrage them more than this (and in Arabic as well to make sure they get the message).

By the Law Among Nations, Jerusalem Belongs to Us Jordan’s annexation of the East Jerusalem was never recognized by the international community.

Rabbi Shlomo Goren blowing the Shofar near the Western Wall in June 1967

Contrary to the claims made by Palestinian leaders, various NGOs, and certain members of the international community, international law fully recognizes the Jewish people’s claim to Jerusalem, where they have historical roots dating back over 3,000 years and have been the largest ethnic group in the city since 1820.

Ernst Frankenstein, a British authority on international law said, for example, that the Jewish people have a right to their ancestral homeland and ancient capital city in Jerusalem based on the fact that the Jewish people never relinquished their historic claims to the area.

Furthermore, Frankenstein claimed that Roman, Byzantine, and other successors lacked a “continuous and undisturbed presence” in Israel that would dispossess the Jewish claim to the land. In fact, the Ottoman Turks, who owned the Land of Israel prior to WWI and the British Mandate, renounced their claim to all of the land of Israel in the Treaty of Lausanne in 1923. When the Balfour Declaration was drafted there was no Palestinian “nation.” In 1919, Palestine was a sparsely populated land where Lord Balfour claimed that only 700,000 Arabs lived, of whom a large number migrated within recent history.

In contrast, there were far more Jews in the world in need of a homeland in 1919 than there were Arab residents in Israel and there existed a significant Jewish minority that continued to live in Israel. As the Blackstone Memorial, signed by Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court Melville Fuller, proclaimed in 1891, Israel, which included Jerusalem, is the “inalienable possession” of the Jewish people “from where they were expelled by force.”

The Balfour Declaration was drafted with the goal of establishing a Jewish national home in the Land of Israel. The “civil and religious” rights of the Arabs were to be respected, yet politically, the country was supposed to belong to the Jews. The Balfour Declaration was ingrained into international law at the San Remo Conference. Through San Remo, “The Jewish people have been given the right to establish a home, based on the recognition of their historical connection and the grounds for reconstituting this national home,” Jacques Gauthier, an expert on international law, had explained.

Thus, the Palestine Mandate, which included a united Jerusalem was established with the goal of guiding “towards independence and self-governance those races, peoples or communities who for various reasons are not yet able to stand alone” – in this case the Jewish people – according to J. Stoyanovsky writing in The Mandate for Palestine. Around the same period of time, the international community discussed setting up mandates to assist other nations in similar situations, such as the Armenians, although in their case it wasn’t implemented.

Contrary to Palestinian claims, none of the resolutions passed since the San Remo Conference renounce the Jewish claim to a united Jerusalem. U.N. Resolution 181, although it called for Jerusalem to be an international city, never held any force under international law and it was rejected by the Arab side. Furthermore, the resolution states that a referendum was to be held after 10 years to determine changes to the city’s status; since Jerusalem had a Jewish majority, it was expected that a united Jerusalem was to become a part of Israel after 10 years. Furthermore, U.N. Security Resolution 242, of which all peace negotiations are based on, deliberately makes no mention of Jerusalem and does not call upon Israel to withdraw from all of the territories it captured in 1967. And finally, when Jordan controlled east Jerusalem, Jordan’s annexation of the area was never recognized by the international community; and since that date, Jordan has relinquished all of her claims to Jerusalem.

Thus, Israel has the strongest claim to Jerusalem according to international law.

Visit United with Israel.

Scottish church says Jews have no scriptural claim to Holy Land

(JTA) -- The Church of Scotland published a paper denying that "scripture" provides a basis for Jewish claims to Israel. 

The paper, entitled “The Inheritance of Abraham,” rejects "claims that scripture offers any peoples a privileged claim for possession of a particular territory.” The paper further states that “reconciliation can only be possible if the Israeli military occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem and the blockade of Gaza are ended.”

The report was published online this week by the Church and Society Council of the Church of Scotland ahead of the church's general assembly on May 18. The report's introduction describes it as the council's "latest reflection on the ‘questions that need to be faced,' as the political and humanitarian situation in the Holy Land continues to be a source of pain and concern for us all."

While the 10-page report does not mention the upcoming meeting, its final chapter, entitled "Proposed Deliverance," calls on the church to "urge the UK Government and the European Union to use pressure to stop further expansion of Israeli settlements in the Occupied West Bank."

The Scottish Council of Jewish Communities said Friday that the paper is “an outrage to everything that interfaith dialogue stands for” and “reads like an Inquisition-era polemic against Jews and Judaism.”

"The arrogance of telling the Jewish people how to interpret Jewish texts and Jewish theology is breathtaking,” the Jewish council said.

The council further declared that the paper “closes the door on meaningful dialogue” and called on the church to withdraw it ahead of its forthcoming General Assembly.

Obama embraces biblical Israel By Nathan Diament

Today, on an airport tarmac outside Tel Aviv, President Obama not only took his first physical steps toward a new relationship with Israel and her supporters, but a critical symbolic step. For the first time in any of the many speeches and remarks he has delivered during is presidency on the topic of Israel, Mr. Obama explicitly invoked and embraced the Jewish people’s historic footing in the Holy Land, dating back to biblical times.

After descending the steps of Air Force One and being greeted by Prime Minister Netanyahu and other Israeli leaders, President Obama stated:

“I know that, in stepping foot on this land, I walk in the historic homeland of the Jewish people.... More than 3,000 years ago, the Jewish people lived here....The founding of the Jewish state of Israel was a rebirth—a redemption unlike any in history....The sons of Abraham and the daughters of Sarah are fulfilling the dream of the ages.”

For four years, since the president’s spring 2009 address to the Islamic world in Cairo, Israelis and Jews in the United States and elsewhere have harbored a deep concern that President Obama did not know of or understand this biblically-rooted commitment to building a modern state of Israel.

Obama’s Cairo address was heard, rightly or not, by Jewish ears to anchor the rationale for modern Israel’s existence in Western recompense for the Holocaust. And over the course of four years of speeches and press conferences --at the State Department, the United Nations, AIPAC conferences and elsewhere --President Obama did not redress this impression.

Today, at Ben Gurion Airport he did so in his first statement in Israel. Tomorrow, the presidential itinerary will provide another moment for his embrace of biblical history as he visits the Shrine of the Book which houses the ancient Dead Sea Scrolls --physical testimony to the millennia old presence of Jews in the Holy Land.

Among the artifacts there, is a scroll of the Book of Isaiah. That prophet’s words still provide inspiration to many today. President Obama will certainly be familiar with Isaiah’s prophetic vision of nation’s beating their swords into plowshares, and may invoke it as he explores new opportunities to pursue peace negotiations.

But Isaiah also said: “I have set watchmen upon thy walls, O Jerusalem, which shall never hold their peace day nor night.” Modern Israelis and those who support the Jewish state see ourselves as fulfilling this ancient charge today. President Obama’s recognition and acknowledgment of this is a welcome and blessed step in the relationship of today’s American and Israeli governments and peoples.

Nathan Diament is Executive Director for Public Policy at the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America.

No peace or security until settlers leave Jerusalem, Abbas saysPA president claims Israel has been trying to destroy al-Aqsa Mosque and rebuild ‘alleged Temple’ in its stead

Jerusalem is a Muslim and Christian city, and there will be neither peace nor security until the Israeli occupation, settlements, and settlers leave the city, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said on Tuesday.

Abbas made the remarks in a statement published in commemoration of the 43rd anniversary of the torching of Jerusalem’s al-Aqsa Mosque by Denis Michael Rohan, an Australian Christian, Israel Radio reported.

Rohan entered the mosque on the Temple Mount on August 21, 1969, and set the building alight. He was tried and found clinically insane, and hospitalized in Israel until his repatriation five years later.

Despite Rohan’s conviction, Abbas claimed in his statement that Israeli authorities were aware of Rohan’s intentions. He further charged that Israel’s actions vis-a-vis the Temple Mount have been aimed at destroying the mosque and building in its stead “the alleged Jewish Temple.”

“The arson attack at the hand of a fanatic criminal happened under the nose of the Israeli occupation authorities. It was the beginning of a series [of attacks] that have not been interrupted since that fatal day,” the statement read. “Their ultimate goal is to rob Muslims and Christians of their holy shrines, destroy the Al Aqsa mosque and build the alleged Jewish temple.”

Former Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat made similar comments in 2001 in commemorating Rohan’s attempted destruction of the mosque.

In a statement then made on Arafat’s behalf and published in the Palestinian press, PA Executive Council Zakhariya al-Agha said that the Palestinian people will continue along the path of Jihad until the occupation ends.

The Truth About Israel Why Are We Afraid to Speak the Real Truth? By: Rabbi YY Jacobson

Israel Today

Exactly forty years after 11 Israeli athletes were slain in the Munich Olympic Games, there's no doubt that Israel today is facing a complex reality, with more varied and serious threats than we've seen before. Shimon Peres, Israel’s President, told CNN this week that Iran has declared “open war on Israel.” This he said after Iran and Hezbollah staged a deadly attack in Burgas, Bulgaria last Wednesday, killing five Israeli tourists and a Bulgarian citizen, and wounding some 30 Israelis.

Then there is the threat from Syria, which threatened to use “chemical weapons” against its foes, and the never ending threat from its neighbors, Hamas, Hezbollah, the PA, and today also Egypt.

During such times, it is vital that we, the Jewish people, stand firm and united. First and foremost, we must articulate to ourselves—and to the world—the truth about Israel.

Not Even a Foot

In this week’s Torah portion (Devarim), Moses, bidding farewell to his nation just weeks before his passing, narrates the experiences of the young nation during their forty-years of wandering in the Sinai wilderness, en route to the Holy Land.

Their long trek, from Egypt through the Sinai Peninsula, to the Eastern bank of the Jordan, forced them to pass neighboring countries, all of them antagonistic toward the Israelites. Moses records his instructions to the Israelites on how to treat these neighboring nations. His words are both shocking and stunning; their moral power resonates to this very day.

“G-d said to me,” Moses recalls (1), "Give the people the following instructions: ‘You are passing through the borders of your brothers, the descendants of Esau, who dwell in Seir [Southeast of Israel]. Although they fear you, you must be very careful. You shall not provoke them, for I will not give you even one foot of their land. As an inheritance to Esau I have given Mount Seir.’”

Moses continues the instruction: “You shall purchase food from them for money so that you may eat; also water shall you buy from them for money so that you may drink.”

From Seir, also known as Edom, the Hebrew’s continue their journey northward toward the territory of Moab, located at the East of the Dead Sea. This is Moses’ message to the Hebrews once again:

“G-d said to me, ‘You shall not distress Moab and you shall not provoke war with them. I will not give you their land as an inheritance, since I have already given Ar [the capital of Moab] to Lot’s descendants as their heritage.”

As the Jews continue their voyage up north toward the country of Ammon, today's Jordan, Moses has this to say to his people:

“G-d spoke to me saying… ‘You will be coming close to the Ammonites. You shall not distress them and you shall not provoke them, for I shall not give any of the land of the descendants of Ammon to you as an inheritance; to the descendants of Lot have I given it as an inheritance (2).”

These words, uttered 3,284 years ago (in the year 1273 BCE), one month before Moses’ dies, are startling. When the world was still a moral desolate desert, a barbaric pagan society, Jews were barred from taking even a single inch from the territories of Seir, Moab and Ammon. “I will not give you even one foot of their land,” G-d declares to Israel. Not only can you not build homes on their territory, you mustn't even stand on their soil without permission. You can’t enjoy a falafel with humus without their consent. Why? Because their land does not belong to you, the Israelites; it belongs to another nation. Do not lay a finger on that which is not yours.

The Eternal Lesson 

Why does the Hebrew Bible record these apparently insignificant instructions of Moses concerning the Jewish encounter with the three countries of Seir, Moab and Ammon? What historical relevance is there in this lengthy and detailed account? Especially considering that the Torah is far more a book of moral instruction than a work of historical data. What moral message does this tale express?

The answer is dramatically clear. The Torah is communicating to us the circumstances surrounding the ultimate Israelite conquest and settlement of their homeland, Eretz Israel, so that when the United Nations, the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the European Union, the State Department and all of the Arab countries will decry Israel as an apartheid state, occupying Palestinian soil and controlling land annexed from another nation, the Jewish people will be able to open their own constitution, the Torah, and present its unwavering message:

“Listen ye, defenders of morality and human rights! Do not preach to us about stolen land. At a time when most tribes and nations were slaughtering their very own children to pagan gods (3); in a milieu when parents regularly practiced infanticide, murdering their weak newborn children; in an era when cannibalism was a routine diet, and most people lacked the slightest idea about the very notion of right and wrong -- Jewish children growing up in a desert were taught that they could not touch that which did not belong to them. They could not step foot into a territory that was not theirs. When your great-great grandparents were still entrenched in barbaric Pagan rites, our children were studying G-d's instruction to cultivate absolute respect for the property and nationhood of others.

“It was under these guidelines that the nation of Israel conquered and settled the Land of Israel, knowing full well that this was their land to embrace. The very same G-d who instructed them not to set foot on foreign soil, granted the Land of Israel – the entire territory from the Jordanian till the Mediterranean – as His gift to the Jewish people. It is not stolen land; it is the eternal heritage of the Jewish people.”

Israel became a nation in 1313 BCE, 2,000 years before the birth of Islam. Forty years later, in 1273 BCE the Jews conquered Eretz Israel and enjoyed dominion over the land for a thousand years. Even after the Babylonians and then the Romans put an end to the Jewish sovereignty, Jews continued to reside there throughout all of their history. In short, the Jews have had a continuous presence in the land of Israel for the past 3,300 years.

“You Are Thieves”

The great 11th Century French sage and biblical commentator, Rashi (Rabbi Solomon Yitzchaki), one of the greatest sages in the history of the Jewish people, asks the following question in his commentary on the opening verse of Genesis.

If the Hebrew Bible is a book of Jewish theology and law, why does it begin with the story of creation, and not proceed immediately to the story of Exodus and the first mitzvah given to the Jews?

Rashi, who wrote these words as Christian crusaders were attempting to “purge” the land from Muslim rule, presents an incredible answer.

One day in the future, Rashi says, the nations of the world will turn to the Jewish people and declare, "You are thieves! You have stolen the land of Israel from non-Jewish tribes.” What ought to be the appropriate Jewish response?

To answer this question, the Bible commences its text with the story of creation of the universe, in order to grant the Jew the best and truest answer to the accusation that he is a bandit. The entire universe, the Bible is saying, belongs to G-d. He created it. Every piece of land belongs to Him, and He chose to give the Land of Israel to the Jewish people.

To call Israel occupiers of the West Bank and Eastern Jerusalem is akin to calling France occupiers of Paris or Britain occupiers of London. The Bible -- a book embraced by billions of Muslims and Christians as the word of G-d -- states clearly that the entire country, including the West Bank and Jerusalem, is G-d's eternal gift to the Jewish people.

In fact, our ownership of Israel surpasses that of any other nations ownership of its country. Every other nation in the world bases its claim to its land on conquest. A people came, conquered the indigenous people, took the land, settled it, and called it by a new name. "Might makes right" is the historical claim of almost all nations in history. With one exception: Eretz Israel. This country belongs to the Jewish people because, as the Bible states hundreds of times, G-d gave it to them as their eternal heritage. It is the most moral claim, because G-d is by definition the essence of morality.

What About the Palestinian People?

How about the ingrained notion that the Palestinians are fighting for their ancient homeland annexed by the Jews? The truth about this matter has been so deliberately obscured that even to raise the issue seems strange to many people.

Let us reflect on some undisputed historical facts. (Please read till the end and think about the points being made here before you dismiss them instinctively).

In the 1967 war, did Israel annex territory from a Palestinian nation? No. Not a single inch. There is not, nor has there ever been, a Palestinian nation. Israel captured the West Bank and Eastern Jerusalem from Jordan's King Hussein and the Gaza Strip from Egypt, after they declared war against the Jewish State. It was only following the Six-day War in 1967 that Arab refugees living in these territories began identifying themselves as part of a "Palestinian people." One must wonder why these Palestinians suddenly discovered a national identity after Israel won the war, but not during the "Jordanian occupation"?

Yashiko Sagamori, a spokesman for the National Unity Coalition for Israel, made the point very well in a recent article:

”If you are so sure that Palestine, the country, goes back through most of recorded history, I expect you to be able to answer a few basic questions about this country of Palestine:
When was it founded and by whom?
What were its borders?
What was its capital?
What were its major cities?
What constituted the basis of its economy?
What was its form of government?
Can you name at least one Palestinian leader before Arafat?
Was Palestine ever recognized by a country whose existence, at that time or now, leaves no room for interpretation?
What was the language of the country of Palestine?
What was the prevalent religion of the country of Palestine?
What was the name of its currency? Choose any date in history and tell what was the approximate exchange rate of the Palestinian monetary unit against the US dollar, German mark, GB pound, Japanese yen, or Chinese yuan on that date.
Since there is no such country today, what caused its demise and when did it occur?
And here is the least sarcastic question of all: If the people you mistakenly call ‘Palestinians’ are anything but generic Arabs collected from all over – or thrown out of -- the Arab world, if they really have a genuine ethnic identity that gives them right for self-determination, why did they never try to become independent until Arabs suffered their devastating defeat in the Six Day War?”

Mr. Sagamori stated the facts correctly. There has never been a land known as Palestine governed by Palestinians. Palestinians are regular Arabs, indistinguishable from Jordanians, Syrians, Lebanese, Iraqis, Egyptians, etc., who have all lived for hundreds of years under Turkish rule, and then, after World War I, under British rule. At that time even Jews living in the Holy Land were called “Palestinians.” There is no language known as Palestinian. There is no distinct Palestinian culture. There is no such an entity as a "Palestinian people."

The name "Palestine" was created in the second century after the Romans committed genocide against the Jews, burnt the Temple and declared that the land of Israel would be no more. From then on, the Romans promised, it would be known as Palestine. The name was derived from the Philistines, a Goliathian people conquered by the Jews centuries earlier. It was a way for the Romans to add insult to injury. (They also tried to change the name of Jerusalem to Aelia Capitolina, but that had even less staying power.)

The present conflict between Israel and the Arabs has absolutely nothing to do with any occupation. In 1967, when there was not one Jewish settlement and no occupation, five Arab countries -- Jordan, Syria, Egypt, Iraq and Lebanon joined by Saudi Arabia -- contrived a plan to annihilate Israel and "drive the Jews into the sea." Israel fought back and won the war -- and the territories from which it was attacked. Keep in mind that in 1967 the Arabs controlled 99.9 percent of the Middle East lands. Israel represented less than one-tenth of 1 percent of the land mass. But even that was too much for the Arabs. They wanted it all. No matter how many land concessions the Israelis make, it will never be enough.

During the summer of 2000 at Camp David, Yasser Arafat was offered by Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak 98 percent of the "occupied territories" and a first time ever Palestinian State with its capital in East Jerusalem. Arafat rejected the Israeli offer and initiated three years of horrific bloodshed in Israel. Then in 2005, Israel evacuated every last Jew from Gaza, giving away Gaza exclusively to the Arabs. The result? Gaza became Chamastan, and Israel had not enjoyed a day of peace coming from Gaza.

The History of the Palestinians

In Hal Lindsey's book "Everlasting Hatred: The Roots of Jihad," he traces the history of the people now being called the "Palestinians." I want to quote a few critical paragraphs.

“In the 7th century, the Muslims took control of Palestine for the first time. From 635 CE until 1917, the Muslims ruled it, with only a few interruptions by the European Crusaders. During that span of time, the land was reduced to total desolation. Many people who traveled the land in the 19th century remarked on the fact that Palestine was as desolate as the moon and very few people lived there.

”In 1867, Mark Twain remarked about his visit to the Holy Land in his book, ‘The Innocents Abroad.’ He lamented: 'Stirring scenes occur in the valley [of Jezreel] no more. There is not a single village throughout its whole extent – not for 30 miles in either direction. There are two or three small clusters of Bedouin tents, but not a single permanent habitation. One may ride 10 miles hereabouts and not see 10 human beings.’ Twain described the country as ‘A desolate country whose soil is rich enough but is given over wholly to weeds. A silent, mournful expanse. We never saw a human being on the whole route. There was hardly a tree or a shrub anywhere. Even the olive and the cactus, those fast friends of a worthless soil, had almost deserted the country.’

”By all eyewitness accounts of that era, Palestine was a total desolation. There were virtually no trees and no people. Because of lack of trees, the weather changed and it rarely ever rained. The irrigation systems of the once fertile valleys were all destroyed, rendering most areas into malaria-ridden swamps. The terraces of the mountainsides were torn down, causing terrible erosion that left only barren rocks. This was the condition of Palestine by the beginning of the 19th century.

”It was at this time that Jews began to flee severe persecutions in Russia and Eastern Europe. In the mid-1800s, some Jews came to Palestine and, with the generous aid of some successful Jews, began to buy property from Muslim Ottoman Turks. The Muslims thought the land was worthless anyway, so they sold it to the ‘dumb Jews’ for extremely inflated prices.

”To everyone's amazement, the Jews were very successful at reclaiming the land. Many of them died from malaria and the rigorous life the work demanded, but they performed an agricultural miracle that made the land very productive again. As a result of their success, poor migrant workers from the surrounding Muslim countries began to flood in to work for the Jews. The Jews literally became victims of their own success – almost all of the people calling themselves "Palestinians" today are the descendants of those migrant workers.

”When the Hashemite Tribe, who were rulers over Mecca and Medina for centuries, were driven out by the Saudis, the British gave them control over the vastly greater numbers of 'migrant workers' in Trans Jordan. The British said this would be, in effect, "The State of Palestine." Instead, the Hashemites, who make up only about 20 percent of the population, turned it into their own kingdom and called it the Kingdom of Jordan.

”When the Jordanians and Egyptians controlled the so-called West Bank and the Gaza Strip for 19 years (1948 to 1967), there was never a thought of giving the disorganized mass of 'migrant workers' a state. Why? Because they knew there were no cohesive, homogeneous people known as 'Palestinians.'

”The current efforts of Jordan and Egypt and all the rest of the Muslim Middle East nations to give these same people a state is clearly a ploy to get a foothold inside Israel. It is a strategic accommodation to establish a base from which the final assault against Israel can be made. What they couldn't do militarily is now being facilitated through the United Nations and the E.U.

”Muslims will never accept a permanent presence of infidels in what they claim is sacred Islamic soil. Especially Jewish infidels, for which the Koran reserves its most vehement condemnations. In their minds, the Koran and Allah will not let them accept Jews in what they view as their third holiest site.”

The Truth About the Refugees

Harvard University professor Ruth Wisse wrote these wise words in The Wall Street Journal (June 16, 2003):

“Unfortunately, the Arab war against Israel is no more a territorial conflict than was al Qaeda's strike against America, and it can no more be resolved by the 'road map' than anti-Americanism could be appeased by ceding part of the U.S. to an Islamist enclave. From the moment in 1947 when Jewish leaders accepted and Arab rulers rejected the U.N. partition plan of Palestine, the Arab-Israeli conflict bore no further likeness to conventional territorial struggles. Arab rulers defied the U.N. charter by denying the legitimacy of a member state. Arab countries refused to acknowledge the existence of a single Jewish land. Arab rulers did not object to Israel because it rendered the Palestinians homeless. Rather, they ensured that the Palestinians should remain homeless so that they could organize their politics around opposition to Israel.

“At any point during the past 55 years, Arab governments could have helped the Palestinian Arabs settle down to a decent life. They could have created the infrastructure of an autonomous Palestine on the West Bank of the Jordan and the Gaza territory that Egypt controlled until 1967, or encouraged the resettlement of Palestinians in Jordan, which constitutes the lion's share of the original mandate of Palestine. Rather than fund the Palestine Liberation Organization to foment terror against Israel they could have endowed Palestinian schools of architecture, engineering, medicine and law. What Israel did for its refugees from Arab lands, Arabs could have done much more sumptuously for the Palestinians displaced by the same conflict. Instead, Arab rulers cultivated generations of refugees in order to justify their ongoing campaign against the ‘usurper.’”

Every decent human heart goes out to the pain of innocent Arab children, women and men who grew up in impoverished refugee camps. Their suffering should evoke the compassion of all moral men. But let us be clear on the matter: Their suffering has absolutely nothing to do with Israel. Their profound agony is the result of the Arab and Palestinian leaders who have in a most cynical way used them as weapons in their bloody battle against Israel, robbing them from any prospect of a brighter future.

This abuse of the Arab refugees by their leaders began back in 1948. For the most part, the refugees were encouraged by Arab leaders to leave Israel, promising to purge the land of Jews. Sixty-eight percent left their homes without ever seeing an Israeli soldier.

Out of the 100 million refugees after World War II, theirs is the only refugee group in the world that was not absorbed or integrated into their own peoples' lands. Jewish refugees which numbered the same amount as Palestinian refugees were completely absorbed into Israel, a country no larger than the state of New Jersey. Yet the Arab refugees were intentionally not absorbed or integrated into the Arab lands to which they fled, despite the vast Arab territory. Why? Because cynical Arab leaders realized that the true value of the refugees was not as Arab brothers but as pawns to be used against Israel.

The Best Kept Secret

The early founding fathers of modern Israel, even if they were not religious, were deeply steeped in the realization of the Jewish Biblical connection to the land. David Ben Gurion, for example, had an appreciation of the necessity of anchoring a modern, even secular, Israeli state in biblical and Jewish tradition.

Yet, tragically, this has changed dramatically in recent years. You will rarely, if ever, hear an Israeli leader state the truest and most moral justification for a Jewish presence in the Holy Land: G-d’s gift to the Jewish people. I am sure our leaders are trying to do the best for their country, but the practical consequences of this policy are counterproductive.

The Arabs are protesting against Israel, saying, “You have annexed our land; you are building settlements on our soil; you are intruding into our territories.”

And Israel routinely responds: “Yes, you have the right to create on these territories a Palestinian state, but we have a right for self-defense.”

The world, we know, has embraced the Arab point of view. Condemnation of Israel as an apartheid state has become the norm. Is this pure anti-Semitism? I do not think so.

The world is sympathetic to the Arab propaganda against Israel, because Israel itself has embraced the Arab version of "truth." Israel never refuted the core Arab claim that the territories captured in the 1967 war constitute ancient Palestinian land. Israel only states, that notwithstanding the validity of the Arab claim, she has a right for self-defense.

So the world says: “OK, so defend yourself in your territories, not in theirs.”

This, I believe, remains Israel's profoundest diplomatic and strategic error. In many of its actions, it treats the 1967 territories as though they belonged to Israel; yet in its words, Israel agrees to the Arab claim that this is Palestinian land. So the world is confused: The Arab position is clear to all; the Israeli position is shrouded in mystery. Do they believe this land belongs to them or not? If yes, let them stop saying that they consent to create a Palestinian State there. If not, why do they still maintain a presence there?

The Arabs are not confused. Israel is. And when Jews are confused about who they are and what they believe in, the world resents them. "You are the nation who heard G-d speak at Sinai; if you guys can't speak moral truth, you must be up to something really devilish."

As long as the status of the entire country remains ambiguous, the terror campaign against Israel will, Heaven forbid, continue. The Arabs will view Israel's moral and political ambiguity as a green-light to proceed with their aspiration to "liberate all of Palestine from the Zionist entity." And the world will sympathize with this craving for statehood and freedom. Israel must stand up and put an end to the ambivalence around Jewish ownership of the land. Israel must state clearly that "There will be no more negotiations on even a single inch of the land of Israel. We have attempted to negotiate land for peace with our neighbors; we have offered them 98 percent of the territories and an independent state side-by-side with our state. Yet they have reciprocated by sending suicide bombers to our pizza shops, cafés, supermarkets, schools, and private homes. They have blown to pieces hundreds of innocent Jewish men and women. One cannot give land to leaders who teach their followers to play soccer with Jewish skulls and who inculcate in their children's hearts, from infancy onward, with venomous hatred toward the people of Israel."

Israel should allow anybody who wishes to depart for another country to do so. There are 22 Arab countries in the Middle East, and one tiny Jewish country, the size of New Jersey. Israel must reclaim its permanent sovereignty over all of the territories and crush every vestige of terror. Jews should be encouraged to live in their entire homeland. This will save not only countless Jewish lives, but also scores of Arab lives. It will once and for all purge the region from continuous bloodshed and terror.

This is not occupied territory. It is the land of Israel, given by G-d to the Jewish people. Let's set the record clear: This is Jewish land, not Arab land. Let all Jews and people of moral standing unite and encourage Israel to bring life and peace to all good people in the region, Jew and Arab alike.

No One Is Stealing Palestinian Land

In response to a recent essay I had written, the following letter was sent to me by one of my readers.  This is a common theme amongst two sets of people supporting the Palestinian cause: those with unmistakable animus toward Israel and Jews and others just misinformed by consistent, unremitting propaganda (a category I place this writer in).

I am 100 percent in favor of freezing settlements. What settlers are doing there is the same as what my European ancestors did to my Native American ancestors. Stealing land. It should stop. My inclination is to want Israel to go back to the 1967 borders, but I admit that I do not have the historical knowledge to understand the wars that increased the boundaries. So I'm not firm on that. But the further expansion of borders is very wrong, in my opinion.
So you might want to stop e-mailing me. Or tell me what right settlers have to take Palestinians' land. 'Cause I just don't get it?

My reply: 

Hi -- thanks for giving me the opportunity to explain to you why this is not Palestinian land and never was.  If you approach what I will reveal with an open mind, you'll recognize that the Palestinian argument is at best disingenuous and at worst an outright lie.  

From an historical standpoint, Jews have lived in the land of Israel for nearly 4,000 years, going back to the period of the biblical patriarchs (c. 1900 BCE).  The story of the Jewish people; Israel; its capital, Jerusalem; and the Jewish Temple has been one of exile, destruction, and rebirth.  In its 3,000 years of history, Jerusalem has been destroyed seventeen times and eighteen times reborn.  During these periods of disbursement, there has always remained a constant Jewish presence in the land of Israel and in Jerusalem.  For those Jews forced into exile throughout the world, one theme has remained constant: the dream of returning to their homeland, Eretz Yisrael, to rebuild and restore her to the glory of old.  Throughout the millennia, Diaspora Jews to this day face towards Jerusalem during prayers.

As early as 1209 BCE, Merneptah, the son of Ramses II, following a great victory over Libyan and seafaring armies invading Egypt, made mention of  Israel and the Jewish people.  To commemorate his military successes, he ordered the carving of four large stones, one of which became known as the Merneptah Stela or Israel Stela.  This engraved stone made reference to a revolt by Jews in Israel which Merneptah massively repressed.  It is the earliest non-biblical reference to Jews as a socio-ethnic unity, powerful enough to be mentioned along with other major city-states that were also neutralized by Merneptah.

By 1000 BCE, the Israelite kingdom, also known as the United Monarchy under David and Solomon, reached its greatest extent (1004-928 BCE).  Solomon's Temple, also known as the First Temple, was, according to the Torah and the Bible, the first Jewish Temple in Jerusalem.  It functioned as both a religious site and a focal point of worship, and it was completed in the 10^th century BCE.

Grievously, as is often in the case throughout history, successors to great leaders lack the vision of their forefathers.  Such was the case of Rehoboam, Solomon's son, ascending to the throne in 930 BCE. 

Due to Rehoboam's harsh administration of the northern tribes and preferential treatment of his own, following Solomon's death, civil war between Judea and Samaria broke out.  The united monarchy split apart, with Jerusalem becoming part of the southern kingdom of Judea and ten tribes in the north constituting the northern region, Samaria.  This proved disastrous for the Jewish people, as a succession of invasions spanning millennia soon befell the once-United Kingdom.

The northern region, Samaria, became known as Israel.  It continued to exist as an independent kingdom until its conquest in 722 BCE by the Assyrians.  Judah remained independent until 586 BCE, when this region -- containing Jerusalem, deemed the capital of the Jewish people by Solomon's father, King David -- was razed by the Babylonians under the kingship of Nebuchadnezzar.  Following the conquest by the Babylonians, tens of thousands of Jews were deported to Babylonia, where they remained until freed and allowed to return thanks to the largess of Cyrus the Great.  Reinvigorated by their return to Jerusalem, the Jews began to reconstruct the Second Temple, which was completed in 516 BCE.

Despite incessant propaganda by the Palestinians, Muslim Arabs, and their leftist supporters, it is important to recognize that the United Kingdom comprised two separate Jewish entities: Judea in the south, and Samaria in the northern hills.  Only after thousands of years was this area west of the Jordan River renamed the West Bank by the Jordanians following their illegal occupation subsequent to Israel's War of Independence in 1948.

As mentioned, the Second Temple was built in 516 BCE only to be destroyed in 66 CE by yet another invader, the Romans.  It was carried out by their procurator, Florius, in response to a Jewish revolt against bitter treatment.  Since the sacking the Second Temple, the Western Wall, the last vestige of this holy shrine, stands on the spot where it was built in East Jerusalem.  Jerusalem remains the most holy site in the most holy city of the Jewish religion, venerated by Jews throughout the world, and is mentioned no fewer than 825 times in the Jewish liturgy.  Other than Muhammad's alleged ascension to heaven from that city in a dream, there is no other mention of it in the Qur'an.  Yet despite overwhelming historical credence, Israel's sworn enemies (Mahmoud Abbas chief among them), falsely espouse that they cannot understand Jewish claims to this land.

As Roman oppression reached a boiling point 66 years following the sacking of the Second Temple, the Romans once again were faced with a Jewish rebellion.  This one was massively repressed in 132 CE, resulting in the slaughter of 600,000 Jews.  As further punishment, the Romans sought to blot out Jewish connection to this land (sound familiar?) byrenaming it after what was up to then Israel's worst enemy: "Philistia."  The name became bastardized, and hence the entire area became known as Syria Palaestina, the egregious locution ascribed to this Jewish land in modern times.  Just this past week, a rabble group from the "Occupy Boston" ensemble began divisively referring to Israel as Palaestina during their illegal trespass of the Israeli Consulate.

Taken in context of the historical record and the timeline herein, it exceeds credulity that an intelligent person would accept the Islamic narrative claiming Judea/Samaria as Muslim land.  Islam and its conquest of "Palestine" did not begin until 633 CE -- 1,800 years after the Jewish recognition in Merneptah Stela, 1,600 years past the grandeur of the United Monarchy of Kings David and Solomon, and 500 years subsequent to the sacking of the second Temple.

Post-conquest, Jews remaining in their homeland of 1,300 years were powerless.  Forced into second-class citizenship, using a term by famed author Bat Ye'or, they lived in dhimmitude, had no rights, and were made to suffer dearly.  Despite being conquered and ruled by no fewer than ten empires, governments, and dynasties which controlled the Holy land prior to the British Mandate, Jews have always inhabited this land.  Despite massacres, pogroms, expulsions, and forced conversions, Jews have dwelled in their capital, Jerusalem, and surrounding cities and towns such as Hebron, Nablus, and Jericho since time immemorial.  All of these comprise ancient Jewish land that the Palestinians, with impertinence and chutzpah, deem their own.  To consider Jewish construction "settlements" in any part of this land constitutes contempt of historical fact.

By perpetuating the canard of an ancient Palestinian Arab connection to the Holy land, the Islamists have duped a good part of the world into believing one of the greatest hoaxes in history.  To state that Jews are "stealing" Palestinian land only reinforces a maxim made prominent by the infamous Nazi propaganda minister, Joseph Goebbels: "If you tell a lie long enough, people will begin to believe it."

The imperative of Jewish sovereignty; Jewish sovereignty speaks to the purpose and promise of the State of Israel and to everyone who is inspired by that vision. By MOSHE DANN

As the PA/PLO presses for UN recognition of statehood, the question of who has sovereign rights over Judea and Samaria becomes critical. Historically and legally part of the Jewish national homeland, it is also claimed by Palestinians. To whom does this area belong? A uniquely Jewish definition of sovereignty provides a compelling answer.

Sovereignty, the ability of a government to act independently and in its own interests, is the essence of statehood. Applying just authority and institutions to assure the protection and well-being of its citizens are what conventional statehood is about. A relatively modern concept associated with 16th-century French philosopher Jean Bodin, then later with Hobbes, Rousseau, Hegel and others, sovereignty is the expression of national independence and the right and responsibility to rule.

The roots of Jewish sovereignty in Eretz Yisrael (the Land of Israel), however, are not modern. They are biblical, grounded in Jewish thought and history: the first and second Temples, commonwealths and civilizations that flourished in the Land of Israel, especially in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria.

A thousand years ago, the great biblical and Talmudic commentator Rashi explained Jewish sovereignty. When the Jewish people conquer, settle and re-establish political sovereignty in the Land of Israel, the nations of the world will accuse them of stealing the land. His reply: Other nations simply occupy their lands; God Himself gave Eretz Yisrael to the Jewish people as an everlasting inheritance. This suggests an understanding of Jewish sovereignty that transcends politics.

Sovereignty, like beauty, may be only in the eyes of the beholder, but it also says something about those who behold it. Unlike that of other countries and contexts, the concept of Jewish sovereignty in Eretz Yisrael adds a distinctly intimate dimension – Shechinah, God’s Presence, an eternal bond between the Jewish People and the Land of Israel, a reverence for The Land itself as sacred.

The State of Israel, therefore, on behalf of the Jewish People, has the obligation and responsibility to say the truth: Eretz Yisrael, including Judea and Samaria, legitimately, legally and historically belongs to the Jewish People; it always has and always will. Proclaiming Jewish, rather than simply Israeli sovereignty is an authentic statement of the relationship between the Jewish People and the Land of Israel.


DECLARING JEWISH sovereignty clearly and unequivocally will correct the distortion and misunderstanding of those who ignore or deny Jewish history and international law grounded in the League of Nations and in its Mandate for Palestine.

The Jewish return to Eretz Yisrael and the establishment of a state, Israel’s towering achievements in science and technology, its contributions to world civilization and myriad creative innovations are physical, material representations of a profound spiritual dimension – the fulfillment of Jewish sovereignty and destiny.

Jewish sovereignty speaks to the purpose and promise of the State of Israel and to everyone who is inspired by that vision.

It is a statement of affirmation, not apology – of commitment, not appeasement. It is what true Zionism is all about. Israel’s failure to express Jewish sovereignty over Judea and Samaria weakens its diplomatic position and strengthens those who contest its claim. Sovereignty Now.

The writer is a historian, writer and journalist living in Jerusalem.
moshedan@netvision.net.il