Palestine and Jerusalem, and the myth it belongs to the arabs

IRAN AWARE
MARCH 21, 2012

The TRUTH hurts.., from Snyder Talk: several factual statements that contradict conventional wisdom that is based on ignorance or hatred of Israel:

1. People we call “Palestinians” today are in large measure descendants of a hodgepodge of unruly Arabs that none of the Arab nations wanted to absorb following Israel’s War of Independence in 1948, and for good reason.  For instance, Palestinians who migrated to Jordan following Israel’s War of Independence created havoc for King Hussein, so he booted them out killing thousands of them in the process during Black September.  Click here and here for details.  “Palestinians” then fled to Lebanon and helped to foment theLebanese Civil War which lasted for more than 15 years and cost untold more lives.
2. The Romans changed the name of Israel to Palestine following the Bar Kochba rebellion in 135 B.C.  Click here for details.  They chose that name to insult Jewish people because the Philistines were Israel’s mortal enemies.
3. Until 1948, anyone who lived in the country we call Israel today was regarded as a “Palestinian”, including Jewish people.  Click here for details.
4. The number of Jews forced out of Arab countries in 1948 was greater than the number of Arabs who chose to leave “Palestine” for what they thought would be a short time while the Arab nations “drove the Jews into the sea”.  Since tiny Israel defeated the combined Arab armies, they found themselves homeless.
5. Rather than absorb the “Palestinians” who were displaced by the War of Independence, the Arab nations opted instead to set up refugee camps for them.  They did this to create squalid living conditions for “Palestinians” in hopes of garnering global support for an anti-Israel PR campaign.  Click here for details.  It’s worth noting that Israel absorbed more than 850,000 Jewish refugees from Arab countries following the War of Independence.  Click here for details.
6. Yasser Arafat (an Egyptian, click here for details) commandeered the name “Palestinian” in 1964 when he created the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO).  Click here for details.  The primary purpose of the PLO was and is to destroy Israel.  Click here for details.

Jerusalem will no longer be built on hate. Jerusalem’s future will not be written on its destroyed past.

By Marc Israel Sellem Evil spirits surround Jerusalem. from (JPost)

Small-minded people are trying to undermine the foundations of the eternal castle; denying its past, erasing its identity. They are trying to take possession of King David’s holy city.

No, I will not testify about the Jewishness of Jerusalem. Testimony will be given by the ancient coins found among the remains, etched with names of Kings of Judea. Testimony will be given by the burned stamps carrying biblical names. Testimony will be given by the walls of hope, built by Nehemiah, the rebuilder of Jewish settlement in Jerusalem over 2,300 years ago. Testimony will be given by the tremendous stone walls which surround Temple Mount, the site of the Second Temple, about which the Romans said nothing so magnificent had been seen anywhere in the world. Testimony will be given by the ritual baths carved in Jerusalem stone on the pilgrims’ route.

No, I will not testify about the Jewish nation’s devotion to Jerusalem.

Testimony will be given by the desperate etchings left by pilgrims on the stone walls of Jerusalem. Testimony will be given by the Holy Ark curtains, the wine goblets and other ritual objects which carry the image of the Western Wall stones in every place which Jews reached around the world. Testimony will be given by the prayers, the hymns and the liturgy recited in Morocco and Spain, in the mountains of Ethiopia and in the steppes of the Ukraine, etching the memory of Jerusalem in every heart.

No, I will not testify about the freedom of Jerusalem. Testimony will be given by the millions of pilgrims; Jews, Christians and Muslims who – for the first time in 2,000 years – have complete freedom of religion and worship in Jerusalem, who enjoy the status quo of mutual respect and of the safeguarding of the sacred places to the three religions, protected by the government of the sovereign State of Israel. Testimony will be given by the state archeological sites and museums in Jerusalem which preserve and tell the story of Jerusalem throughout the generations.

For 2,000 years, since my forefathers were expelled from it under the Roman sword, Jerusalem was destroyed and rebuilt time and after time. And when we merited to return to Jerusalem, we chose to stop the cycle of destruction, to return our beloved city to its eternal mission: “…that the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established as the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it”; A city in which all believers can raise their eyes upward.

We must condemn those who wish to return Jerusalem to the cycle of denial and bloodshed, and who wish to erase its Jewish past in the name of political struggle.

One of Jerusalem’s greatest rabbis once said, “If we were destroyed, and the world with us, due to baseless hatred, then we shall rebuild ourselves, and the world with us, with baseless love.” Jerusalem will no longer be built on hate. Jerusalem’s future will not be written on its destroyed past. Shame on those who wish to erase Jerusalem’s eternal story.