Fig Tree in Israel
A Recreation of the Jewish Temple
Below is an interesting questionnaire for Palestinian Advocates
If you are so sure "Palestine, the country, goes back through most of recorded history," I expect you to be able to answer basic questions about that country of Palestine:
1. When was it founded and by whom?
2. What were its borders?
3. What was its capital?
4. What were its major cities?
5. What constituted the basis of its economy?
6. What was its form of government?
7. Can you name at least one Palestinian leader before Arafat?
8. Was Palestine ever recognized by a country whose existence, at that time or now, leaves no room for interpretation?
9. What was the language of the country of Palestine?
10. What was the prevalent religion of the country of Palestine?
11. 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.
12. and, finally, since there is no such country today, what caused its demise and when did it occur?
You are lamenting the "low sinking" of a "once proud" nation.
Please tell me, when exactly was that "nation" proud and what was it so proud of?
Here is the least sarcastic question of all: If the people that are mistakenly called “Palestinians" are anything but generic Arabs collected from all over -- or throw outs 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?
The truth: these people are Illegal squatters on the land in the Country of Israel.
The King James Version (KJV) of the Bible mentions "Palestina", not Philistia as the Romans called the region. Check your Bible, the verses are below and see if it reads "Palestina." I believe the KJV is the correct scripture because the manuscripts that the KJV is based upon came out of Antioch. Antioch was known for exactly recording the "word" (Bible) of God. The first mention of Palestina is in Exodus. I think if your Bible says Philistia or something else it is wrong because your Bible's the manuscripts came from Alexandria known for its pursuit of philosophy based on human reason and wisdom and not God’s word.
Now, Palestine never existed and there never was a Palestinian people or a Palestinian culture. God prophesies in the Old Testament verses below when He says "Palestina" or Palestine will be destroyed. Also the scripture strangely mentions smoke from the north. I do not know what to make of that. So, all the way back to Moses, God knew (actually at the creation) that a future state of Palestine would exist and be destroyed.
The first thing we must do is to identify who the real Palestinians are. Neither they nor Palestine are mentioned in the Koran. Why?
A little lesson in history: The etymology of the word "Palestinian" in English is derived from the Old French word "Philistin," from Late Latin it is "Philistinus," and from Late Greek, "Philistinoi." They were not an Arab or a Semitic people, but were more closely related to the ancient Greeks and originated in the Aegean region of Asia Minor. Any student of the Bible knows that the Philistines were enemies of Israel.
In the history of the Philistines is also the story of the young Hebrew man, David, son of Jesse, who was incensed that a Philistine warrior was allowed to challenge the one true God. The enemy of Israel had advanced to the Valley of Elah and there challenged the Israelites. They produced a gigantic champion, Goliath of Gath. David volunteered to fight the giant and went out to face him with his slingshot and five smooth stones he had retrieved from a dry river bed. He slipped one of the stones into his sling and smote the Philistine on the forehead. He used the giant's own sword to behead him. Jehovah God gave David the courage and skills not only to face Israel's enemy, but to kill the challenger. The Israelites pursued the Philistines all the way to the city of Ekron.
The Philistines were ultimately defeated, absorbed into the Babylonian/Persian Empire, and by the late fifth century BC, had disappeared.
In 135 BC, Simon bar Kokhba, a Jew, proclaimed himself Prince of Israel, Son of the Star, the Messiah, and led a revolt against the Romans. The Roman governor and two legions of soldiers were defeated. Bar Kokhba controlled the state of Israel from the Fort of Herodium just south of Jerusalem. His coins were inscribed, "Year one--the redemption of Israel."
The Roman emperor, Hadrian, in response razed 985 villages and killed almost 600,000 Jews. Hadrian wiped Jerusalem and Judea off the map and deliberately renamed the area Palaestinia after the Jews' ancient enemy, the Philistines.
SO, SPREAD THE WORD. WANTED: NON-ARAB PHILISTINES
As soon as all these peace-loving nations can prove that Philistines are back, then let's persuade the Arab League to absorb them as refugees the way Israel did with the Jews and all nations have done. Let them then turn over the territories that have become a nightmare for the Jewish people to the Philistines. You can be certain of one thing: there will probably be some pretty large dudes in the bunch. Goliath was a Philistine, and from what I know about him, he was not what you would call a "happy camper." I expect life will not be too pleasant for mythological Palestinians when they meet the original Philistines.
To fulfill the reality of a Palestinian state, the world must demand that the vast majority of the land occupied by Arabs in Judea and Samaria be returned to Israel. The people that call themselves "Palestinians" must return to the Arab lands from which they came. Then true Palestinians, the proven descendants of the Philistines, could have their land. Since there are none to be found on this planet, perhaps the next Mars rover will find them.
Prior to the 1948 rebirth of Israel, people who used the word “Palestinians,” were referring to Jews, not Arabs. The Jews living in “Palestine,” then under the control of the British, called themselves “Palestinians.” The Jewish newspaper now called the Jerusalem Post was then called the “Palestine Post.”
Sometime after the 1967 Six-Day War when Israel captured Judea, Samaria and East Jerusalem from Jordan and the Gaza Strip from Egypt, Yasser Arafat, leader of the Palestine Liberation Organization began his terrorist war against Israel literally inventing a new national identity of Arab “Palestinians” as a pretext for doing so.
1. There is no language known as Palestinian.
2. There is no distinct Palestinian culture.
3. There has never been a land known as Palestine governed by Palestinians. Therefore there are no historic Palestinians. It’s a political fantasy sold to the world by those opposed to a Jewish national homeland called Israel.
Good Luck if you were born in Jerusalem
In a legal brief filed with the US Supreme Court, Hillary Clinton has urged the justices not to call Jerusalem part of Israel. At issue is the birthplace designation on passports given to US citizens born in Israel. The Administration's policy is to require those born in the Jewish capital to have their place of birth listed as Jerusalem rather than Israel. This rule applies to no other capital city on earth; its only purpose is to refuse to acknowledge that Jerusalem is the capital of the Jewish state.
The Supreme Court has agreed to take up the case of nine-year-old Menachem Zivotofsky, who was born in Jerusalem in 2002. His parents want his birthplace listed as Israel. Congress passed a law in 2004 requiring Israel be listed as the place of birth to those born in Jerusalem at their request, but the State Department headed by Hillary Clinton has refused. Truly there are powerful forces within our own government determined to divide the Holy City of Jerusalem.
Obama's Israeli Foreign Policy
I believe Obama & his administration are making the biggest foreign policy mistake in U.S. history by not supporting Israel. In fact, I would say the administration & the Democratic (now called the Communist Party by many Americans) Party overall are anti-Semitic.
Numerous American leaders over the decades have expressed their perception that Israel and the USA have a “special relationship,” that Israel’s enemies are America’s enemies, and that American aid to Israel is money well spent. Most recently, these sentiments were articulated by House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi, Senator Harry Reid, Vice President Joe Biden, and President Barack Obama. They continue to be in favor of the continued American financial support for Israel, amounting to about $3,000,000,000 per year in recent years.
Yet critics of Israel complain that the USA gives too much money to Israel and that the “special relationship” is a liability for the USA. These critics support their assessments with wildly exaggerated claims regarding the size of US aid to Israel, with accusations that Israel is bankrupting the USA, and with the warning that US money encourages Israeli obduracy, stokes the Israel-Arab conflict and generates anti-American sentiment in Muslim countries. In short, they blame Israel for America’s difficulties abroad.
Enemies of both the USA and Israel exploit American support for Israel to foment anti-American sentiment. It is a grave strategic error by Americans to place credence in such anti-Israel propaganda.
Since US support is of vital importance to Israel’s security, an examination of these critics’ claims seems worthwhile.
Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East. Democracies are an endangered species, so they can be expected to support one another and to have mutually beneficial relationships stronger than those between democracies and totalitarian states.
The U.S.–Israel “special relationship” grows in part from the resonance of a common Bible and a host of Judeo-Christian features.
As western democracies, Israel and the USA have shared strategic interests, shared civic and political values, and the personal, cultural, and political bonds that exist naturally between free peoples. The supreme commander of NATO operations in Europe and head of the U.S. European Command (EUCOM), General John Craddock, speaking before the U.S. House Armed Services Committee in 2007, called Israel a “model state” and America’s closest ally in the Middle East. He noted that Israel consistently and directly supports U.S. interests and U.S. policy in the region.
Israel is among the few countries in the world, and the only Middle Eastern state, to consistently stand alongside the United States on strategic issues in the UN and in other venues for international cooperation. Israel votes with the USA in the UN about 94% of the time. No other nation holds that record.
But amicable support alone cannot justify tens of billions of taxpayer dollars in US aid to Israel. Happily, the USA has two very strong reasons to conclude that money to Israel is an investment for which the American people get a truly excellent return.
First, there is a financial reciprocity in this “special relationship” quite unlike any other that the USA has. Much, and in many years most, of the money that the USA gives Israel has been used by Israel to purchase goods and services, both military and civilian, from the USA, so that American aid money is recycled back into the American economy. Nearly 90% of US aid to Israel is military, and Israel spends about 75% of that buying U.S. goods. This aid has been described as an indirect American subsidy to U.S. arms manufacturers.
But, second, there is more to this issue than merely Israel’s using American money to help the US economy. Israel is a very powerful military ally as well. The security cooperation between Israel and the United States is vast, and Israel has consistently been a major security asset to the United States, an asset upon which America can
In the field of military intelligence Israel is arguably the world’s leading expert in collecting intelligence on terrorist groups and in counter-terrorism. It provides intelligence and know-how to the U.S. According to Maj. Gen. George J. Keegan Jr., former head of U.S. Air Force intelligence, America’s military defense capability “owes more to the Israeli intelligence input than it does to any single source of intelligence,” the worth of which input, he estimated, exceeds “five CIAs.” He further stated that between 1974 and 1990, Israel received $18.3 billion in U.S. military grants. During the same period Israel provided the U.S. with $50-$80 billion in intelligen¬ce, research and developmen¬t savings, and Soviet weapons systems captured and transferre¬d to the U.S. Mossad and other Israeli intelligence agencies are among the world’s premier humint intelligence collectors.
Israeli and American intelligence agencies continuously exchange information, analyses, and operational experience in counter-terrorism and counter-proliferation. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security and its Israeli counterpart share technical know-how in defending against terrorist attacks, countering unconventional weapons, cyber-threats, combating the drug trade. On the battlefield, Israeli armaments protect Bradley and Stryker units from rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs), while Israeli-made drones and reconnaissance devices allow for safe surveillance of hostile territory. U.S. fighter aircraft and helicopters incorporate Israeli concepts and components, as do modern-class U.S. warships. The IDF has furnished U.S. forces with its expertise in the detection and neutralization of improvised explosive devices (IEDs), the largest cause of American casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Alexander Haig described Israel as “the largest US aircraft carrier, which does not require even one US soldier, cannot be sunk, is the most cost-effective and battle-tested platform. It is located in a region which is critical to vital US interests. If there would not be an Israel, the US would have to deploy real aircraft carriers, along with tens of thousands of US soldiers, which would cost tens of billions of dollars annually, dragging the US unnecessarily into local, regional and global conflicts.”
The strength of the Russian Navy and declining political reliability of Prime Minister Erdogan’s anti-American and anti-Israeli regime in Turkey has increased the importance of Israeli cooperation in this vital area…. The Israeli Air Force (IAF) has had extensive combat experience over the Mediterranean and could play a dominant role in the Eastern Med. A classified U.S. Navy study, not available to the public, reportedly has concluded that IAF alone could destroy the entire Soviet Fleet in the eastern Mediterranean. By one estimate, Israel could launch 20 times as many air attack sorties as an aircraft carrier air wing or 12 times as many air combat sorties. Even if only 10 percent of the Israeli Air Force were committed to sea control missions, Israel could project more air power than could a U.S. carrier in the eastern Mediterranean. The small Israeli Navy, meanwhile, is a modern force comprised of fast missile boats that pack considerable punch. .… Even if Israel sits out a military conflict Jerusalem could make a major difference in the outcome by permitting U.S. warplanes to use Israeli air bases.”
In short, support for Israel has been a very profitable investment for the USA. Israel is an ideal ally for America in the Middle East. Haifa is one of the safest and most hospitable ports for the 6th Fleet, a dependable base for pre-positioning emergency military stores for deployment in neighboring countries, and a base for close-by sophisticated medical services. In contrast, the problems the United States faces in the Persian Gulf today stem from the fact that it does not have an Israel equivalent there. Absent a strong, loyal, and dependable ally in the region, the United States has had to deploy, redeploy, and redeploy again, at a cost that easily exceeds a trillion dollars. Repeated U.S. administrations came to power predisposed to associate with the Arab world and to disassociate from Israel; but in the end, most came to acknowledge the worth of Israel as a steadfast ally in a volatile region. From Lyndon Johnson to George Bush II most U.S. Presidents have come to see that US support for Israel has been the most cost-effective national security investment for America since World War II and the Marshal Plan.
In summary, Israel’s enemies are America’s enemies. Israel fights the same Islamo-fascist terrorism that brought down our WTC, blew up a large chunk of the Pentagon, blew a huge hole in the USS Cole, killed more than 3,000 innocent American civilians, and cost our economy as yet unascertained billions of dollars. Israeli-American strategic cooperation is not a given, it is not automatic, it is not a knee-jerk reaction to shared values, and it is not a panacea; but without it the world would be a much more dangerous place. Israel helps keep America safe. It is an incredible bargain.
Jehovah Shalom
Alan
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