Later this month, Bibi Netanyahu will likely be reelected Israel’s prime minister. Covering his campaign, Reuters noted yesterday that Netanyahu’s theme is essentially “The whole world is against us”—which the news agency at once implicitly ridicules and confirms.
“The great danger to the world is not from Jews building in our ancestral capital in Jerusalem, it’s from nuclear weapons in Iran,” Netanyahu said on Monday in a speech in the holy city, to which both Israel and the Palestinians stake claims.
It’s worth noting that the Palestinian “claim” to Jerusalem began in 1967, as a construct of Yasser Arafat, after Israel’s victory in the Six-Day War reopened the city to all faiths but under Israeli control. Before, when Jerusalem was under the control of Jordan, ancient Jewish gravestones were made into paving stones and Jews were kept out.
On what grounds do the Palestinians stake their claim? Religion? Well, the Koran mentions Jerusalem exactly zero times. The Torah, on the other hand, cites it over 800 times, while Jewish synagogue services are oriented toward Jerusalem, which is the subject of every Passover seder’s concluding statement, “Next year in Jerusalem.”
So that leaves history as a cause. Let’s recap: Even after the Romans destroyed Solomon’s Temple, its second destruction, in 70 A.D., Jews were never not present in Jerusalem. Muslims captured the city in the 7th century, lost it to the Crusaders centuries later, then recaptured it, then lost it, and over the last millennium about a gillion entities have controlled it—none of them known colloquially or ethnically as Palestinians.
At this point, it’s tempting to stipulate that the “Palestinians” can raise Jerusalem as an issue when Egypt returns Alexandria to the Greeks, except that the “Palestinians” didn’t found Alexandria the way Jews founded Jerusalem. So never mind.
That this fiction of a legitimate Palestinian claim to Jerusalem continues to gain currency pretty much confirms Netanyahu’s theme, no?
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He refuses to play the fool!
The Islam and its promoters are dishonest, insatiable aggressors, not logical, rational, respectful or moral.
According to Islam’s irrational audacity, Spain still belongs to Islam as well as any other country where they have ever laid claim or even coveted.
“What’s yours is mine and what’s mine is mine.” is their mantra and Modus Operandi.
According to logic, if Israel had to give Jerusalem to them, they should return Constantinople and the Haggia Sophia to the Christians.
Problem is, many countries have swapped hands throughout recorded history.
There is no reasoning with irrational aggressors and hate-lust-fueled people. There is only rejection, censure, discipline and perhaps, containment.
Problem is the US, UK, UN and NATO have been facilators and participants in Islamic dishonesty, irrationality and brutality.
@ Uncle Samuel | January 9, 2013 at 8:40 am
There is no reasoning with irrational aggressors and hate-lust-fueled people. There is only rejection, censure, discipline and perhaps, containment.
Problem is the US, UK, UN and NATO have been facilators and participants in Islamic dishonesty, irrationality and brutality.
—————
I agree with your statements, but observe that Western cultures appear to have lost their robust confidence – or seem very confused. Islam is invading all of Europe, the America’s and parts of Asia – apparently becoming stronger in a very messy way. I’ve yet to hear a remedy to stop this hoard of barbarians walking into our lives and forming their ghettos.
As for the Northern Egyptians and Arabs who call themselves ‘Palestinians’ and want Jerusalem… Hilarious! They’re only Islamic provocateurs to afflict Israel – even their Islamic cohorts despise them. Perhaps while standing on the abyss of Islamic eternity Bibi can give them a little push over the edge, eh?
Islam is being vigorously beaten in Africa. The fastest growing religion in the world is Christianity. Wait until the Chinese Christians start heading out to the Islamic heathens,
Well, that’s good news.
I’m an atheistic pagan, under sentence of death twice by Islam.
The only threat Christians pose is terminal boredom.
LOL! Yeah.
“Why does the world go along with the Palestinians’ inventions of history?”
Because it’s easier than getting your buses and cafeterias blown up.
See here:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ea/World_Muslim_Population_Pew_Forum.png
Joel Engel: At this point, it’s tempting to stipulate that the “Palestinians” can raise Jerusalem as an issue when Egypt returns Alexandria to the Greeks, except that the “Palestinians” didn’t found Alexandria the way Jews founded Jerusalem.
Huh? David conquered Jerusalem (1 Chronicles 11:4-5). He didn’t found it. And the scientific evidence indicates that Palestinians form a cohesive grouping that has strong genetic affinity to the original inhabitants of the area. More important is that the current generation of Palestinians can trace their own family roots in the area.
Huh? David conquered Jerusalem? How do you know that? Are you saying that the Bible is true? If you are saying that the Bible is true then you also know what else God has to say about Jerusalem, the Eternal City of God.
My promises are worthless, as are yours when compared with the Creator of the Universe – assuming that you are appealing the veracity of the Bible for the vindication of your argument.
David Yotham: Huh? David conquered Jerusalem? How do you know that?
There is quite some historical evidence concerning the existence of Jerusalem before the ancient conquest by Israel.
Really? And from what sources and what was their point of view? You’ve made an appeal to the Bible, with which I agree. The archeologists and diggers of history however – they also appealed to that holy record and it’s unfailing accuracy.
Archeological evidence dates habitation of Jerusalem to the Chalcolithic Period.
God gave Israel to the Jews.
Period.
By the way, is that the Kaaba as your avatar? If so, that is forbidden under Shar’ia. 😉
Yeah, plus, it’s part of the black flag of Al Qaeda. Missing are the crossed swords.
For the hell of it, the Jews should claim Tenochtitlan as their second capital. I’ll wager that in 24-hours, the Palestinians, the UN and the adoring, fawning American Left will swear that the ancient Aztec city was home to a flourishing Islamic community before Cortez and his pony soldiers wrecked it.
Any takers?
Joel Engel: It’s worth noting that the Palestinian “claim” to Jerusalem began in 1967
Mohammed travels to the “remote mosque of which We have blessed the precincts”, which is identified by name in the Hadith as Jerusalem. The Hadith were collected somewhat earlier than 1967 (eighth century).
Another symp. Are you and Valerie the same person? What can I tell you, dude? Play yourself. Y’all can rewrite history as much as you like. Give yourself all kinds of Judaic and Christian sounding names. Where the rubber meets the road, y’all will still lose cuz Islam is still, like Dagon, another pagan abomination that will not stand before the One True God. We know how the story ends: we win, you lose. So, play yourself.
So Mohammed, born 800 miles away in Jerusalem, is now a Palestinian?
Was Arafat, born in Cairo, also a Palestinian?
If it helps her ass get into the White House in 2016, Hitlery Clinton will also become Palestinian.
Sorry, born in 800 miles away in MECCA–obviously not in Jerusalem.
This guy doesn’t know that Saudi Arabia was Jewish territory.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Kingdom_of_Israel_1020_map.svg
Joel Engel: So Mohammed, born 800 miles away in Jerusalem, is now a Palestinian?
No, Mohammed was not a Palestinian. However, you had falsely claimed that the Koran doesn’t mention Jerusalem, and suggested that the connection of Jerusalem with Islam was only made in 1967.
Joel Engel: Was Arafat, born in Cairo, also a Palestinian?
Arafat was born of Palestinian parents.
The Quran doesn’t mention Jerusalem explicitly ever, there’s just the single mention of Mohammed’s night flight to the “great mosque of the north”. Depending on how one looks at it that’s either a Muslim appropriation of a Jewish holy site, or Muslim acknowledgment that Har HaBayit, the Temple Mount was a sacred place before Mohammed and Islam.
You’re straining at gnats trying to equate the Hadith’s interpretation (one that postdates Mohammed’s life by a century or more) of one possible inferential reference to Jerusalem in the Quran to the hundreds and hundreds of times that Jerusalem, Yerushalayim, is mentioned in the Torah and the rest of the Tanach, the Hebrew Bible.
BTW, if you accept the Hadiths’ interpretation of Mohammed’s night flight as a reference to Jerusalem, do you also accept Muslim claims to the Western/Wailing Wall because Mohammed allegedly tethered his horse there?
It’s interesting that you equate traveling merchants and a hermeneutic interpretation of one passage in the Quran, with two ancient Jewish commonwealths and centuries of Jewish political sovereignty in your zeal to see the other side. If you could point to a Muslim counterpart to yourself, that would hopeful, but I’m sorry to say that there aren’t any Yafeh Nefeshes on the Muslim side.
CarsInDepth.com: You’re straining at gnats trying to equate the Hadith’s interpretation (one that postdates Mohammed’s life by a century or more) of one possible inferential reference to Jerusalem in the Quran to the hundreds and hundreds of times that Jerusalem, Yerushalayim, is mentioned in the Torah and the rest of the Tanach, the Hebrew Bible.
We’re not making that inference. Rather, we were correcting a misimpression provided in the original post.
Our position has to do with the long habitation of the Palestinians in the region giving them legitimate claims. (By the way, the New Testament also postdates Jesus by generations, and much of the New Testament is letters of interpretation written by the apostles after the time of Jesus.)
The Koran does not mention Jerusalem.
Arafat was born in 1929. Your endlessly elastic definition of “Palestinian” emphasizes the point I was making.
Joel Engel: The Koran does not mention Jerusalem.
It mentions it indirectly, and the Hadith makes the connection clear.
Joel Engel: Your endlessly elastic definition of “Palestinian” emphasizes the point I was making.
Elastic? We’re using it in a very precise and specific manner, as a genealogical grouping persistent over time.
It would help in your argument against Palestinian historical inventions—which are plentiful—, not to substitute your own inventions.
Joel, people wilfully have short memories, so they’ve forgotten the NEVER AGAIN of the post-WWII concentration camps. Even Jews have forgotten that cry as they embrace the so-called dispossessed Arabs who want to claim Gaza, Judea, and Samaria as their own. So, we are watching the run up to another Holocaust and many are thanking their stars that they are not in the Islamics gunsights, except they are. Saturday people first, then Sunday people, or so the Arabs of Gaza, Judea, and Samaria say.
Then there is this, as long as Jews keep folding like a cheap suit to the world’s ridiculous demands that make Israel out to be an abusive adult and the Arabs abused, retarded children, people will look at the Arabs and say, “poor thing” and buy into their lies. Israel needs to out its foot down and stop asking to be patted on the head like a Labrador saying ‘love me, love me, love!’ When Israel puts its foot down and says, “I’m your frickin’ daddy, and you wouldn’t have jack without me, not an atomic bomb, not even a Savior,” the rest of the world will spare her the hypocritical twaddle and take her seriously.
Finally, this, this world is sick. The only thing it understands is brute force and the power of a gun to the head. Don’t apologize or make excuses for whacking the Islamics who come to whack your people. When the anti-Semitic bastards at the UN come prating their usual BS, Israel’s gotta go thug on them, go Brooklyn gang-banger and ask, “what? You got a problem wid dat? Huh? Huh? You want me to whack your arse next?” Go crazy on them start and they’ll taking you seriously.
This apologetic, nice guy crap don’t work, Israel. Give it up!
The burden of the word of the LORD for Israel, saith the LORD, which stretcheth forth the heavens, and layeth the foundation of the earth, and formeth the spirit of man within him.
Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round about, when they shall be in the siege both against Judah and against Jerusalem.
And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it.
(Zechariah 12:1-3)
Yes, we all know how the story ends. Israel did not claim the land by being a pussy. Israel will not remain in the land by giving it up. Israel had better be prepared to fight. In Israel’s corner, if she does not reject Him (I wonder about that) is the only person she needs to bring the victory home.
Your question has a very simple answer.
Palestine has become an issue for the modern Left. Therefore, it has acquired all the trappings of a typical Leftist cause, foremost of which is emotion.
For the past 40 years, the Left has been using emotion to support its arguments to the extent that it has replaced logic and facts as the driving force behind their thinking. No longer is a mere “fact” considered a staple of a coherent discussion. Instead, he or she who can gin up the most passion and feeling somehow wrestles away the informational high ground from the other position. Feelings now suborn facts to secondary importance in the Leftists’ world view. That is why Palestinians play the victim card so well; they understand who their primary audience is.
Oh, and anyone with a normally-functioning brain and a whit of original thinking can clearly see that most journalists are Lefties and use the same emotionally-driven reasoning as a substitute for real, classic journalism.
1. Why does the world go along with the Palestinians’ inventions of history?
Short, oversimplified answer: Because most of Western civilization has a death wish. It’s obvious in Europe but becoming firmly rooted in the USA also. I gather it’s not absent among liberal Israelis.
2. Wow, this post brought out some crazies in full regalia.
3. So far, Bill Jacobson has refused to admit what Bill Buckley recognized 50 years ago: today’s conservatism cannot advance democratically when such people share its spotlight. Sometimes a step backward must precede several steps forward.
At present the above does not apply to the Left, which has learned to package its craziness and hate as moral indignation. Life is not fair. Too bad so sad. Just deserts for squandering the Reagan legacy.
http://www.fireandreamitchell.com/2013/01/07/muslim-appeaser-john-brennan-who-calls-jerusalem-al-quds-nominated-by-obama-to-lead-the-cia/
“…Obama has also nominated clueless, Muslim appeaser Jhn Brennan to lead the CIA. The same John Brennan who said that 20% or so of prisoners released from Gitmo is ‘not bad’ and the same John Brennan who referred to Jerusalem as ‘Al-Quds’ has been nominated to lead the CIA. Why does Al-Quds matter? Aside from it being the Arabic translation of Jerusalem, it also refers to the al-Quds Brigades which is the armed wing of the Palestinian Islamist organization Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ). Especially active in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. The al-Quds Brigades are receive orders from the PIJ leadership in Damascus, Syria. Again, to you 69% of Jews who re-elected Obama, be very proud of yourself…”
My fellow Americans, we need to get on our faces before the G-d of Israel and repent for America’s sins. The government is flirting with the fire of the wrath of His Holiness. Plead for mercy and deliverance. That is what constructive thing you can do rather than waste blogspace arguing with a Muslim.
Zachriel: Hadith – Bukhari and Muslim, Narrated Abu Sa’id, r.a.
The Prophet SAAWS said, “Surely, you will follow the ways of those nations who were before you, in everything as one arrow resembles another, (i.e. just like them), so much so that even if they entered a hole of a sand-lizard, you would enter it.”
They said, “O Allaah’s Messenger! Do you mean to say that we will follow the Jews and the Christians?”
He SAAWS replied, “Whom else?” (By meaning the Jew and Christians) …”
Zachriel: Your Koran says follow Jeshua. Search the Tanahk also, there you will find peace and love.
Thus saith the Lord of hosts, I remember that which Amalek did to Israel, how he laid wait for him in the way, when he came up from Egypt. Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass.
1 Samuel 15:2-3
Zachriel:
http://www.templemount.org/quranland.html
“…WHAT THE QUR’AN REALLY SAYS
by Shaykh Prof. Abdul Hadi Palazzi
THE QUR’AN SAYS THAT ALLAH GAVE THE LAND OF ISRAEL TO THE JEWS
AND WILL RESTORE THEM TO IT AT THE END OF DAYS…
Viewing the Jewish return to Israel as a Western invasion and Zionists as recent colonizers is new. It has no basis in authentic Islamic faith. According to the Qur’an, no person, people or religious community can claim a permanent right of possession over any territory. The Earth belongs exclusively to God, and He is free to entrust sovereignty over land to whomever He likes for whatever time period that He chooses.
“Say: ‘O God, King of the kingdom (1), Thou givest the kingdom to whom Thou pleasest, and Thou strippest off the kingdom from whom Thou pleasest; Thou endowest with honour whom Thou pleasest, and Thou bringest low whom Thou pleasest: all the best is in Thy hand. Verily, Thou hast power over all things.'”(2) [Qur’an 3:26]
From the above Qur’anic verse we deduce a basic principle of the Monotheistic philosophy of history: God chooses as He likes in the relationship between peoples and countries. Sometimes He gives a land to a people, and sometimes He takes His possession back and gives it to another people…
Both the Jewish and Islamic Scriptures teach that God, through His chosen servant Moses, decided to free the offspring of Jacob from slavery in Egypt and to constitute them as heirs of the Promised Land. Whoever claims that Jewish sovereignty over the Land of Israel is something new and rooted in human politics denies divine revelation and divine prophecy as explicitly expressed in our Holy Books (the Bible and Koran).
The Qur’an relates the words by which Moses ordered the Israelites to conquer the Land:
“And [remember] when Moses said to his people: ‘O my people, call in remembrance the favour of God unto you, when he produced prophets among you, made you kings, and gave to you what He had not given to any other among the peoples. O my people, enter the Holy Land which God has assigned unto you, and turn not back ignominiously, for then will ye be overthrown, to your own ruin.'” [Qur’an 5:20-21]
Moreover – and those who try to use Islam as a weapon against Israel always conveniently ignore this point – the Holy Qur’an explicitly refers to the return of the Jews to the Land of Israel before the Last Judgment – where it says: “And thereafter We [Allah] said to the Children of Israel: ‘Dwell securely in the Promised Land. And when the last warning will come to pass, we will gather you together in a mingled crowd.'” [Qur’an 17:104]
Therefore, from an Islamic point of view, there is NO fundamental reason which prohibits Muslims from recognizing Israel as a friendly State…”
beloved2: Therefore, from an Islamic point of view, there is NO fundamental reason which prohibits Muslims from recognizing Israel as a friendly State…”
Of course not. Nor can every injustice can be addressed in a peace settlement.
“…ISLAM AND NORMALIZATION OF RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN ISLAMIC STATES AND THE JEWISH STATE
PLO documents can in no way be regarded as Islamic. The PLO leaders are a gang of criminals and thieves, and Arabs will be the main victims of any supposed “Palestinian State” under their leadership.
I do not believe that Islam is the factor preventing normalization between Arabs and the State of Israel. The real problem is that members of the ruling classes in Arab countries believe their authority and power would be threatned by democracy, modernization, and education in the Arab world. They use a distorted interpretation of Islam as a political tool, and unfortunately the majority of uneducated Arabs believe their poisonous propaganda.
I believe that we must return to the time when Islam was in the vanguard of scientific progress and interfaith dialogue. Instead of false “leaders” such as Qadhafi, Saddam Hussein, Arafat [el-Husseini] or Yasin, we Muslims again need true leaders such as al-Ghazali, Ibn Rushd and Ibn Khaldum.
King Faysal of Iraq said: “The Arabs, and particularly the educated ones among them, must look at the Zionist movement with the deepest sympathy.”
Tragically, true leaders such as Faysal were silenced, and fanatics such as Haj Amin al-Husseini prevailed.
The evil consequences of the victory of fanaticism are clear for all to see: Jews expelled from Arab countries where the lived in peace for over one thousand years, “Palestinian” refugees, terrorism, etc. To avoid future mistakes, we must learn from our past ones.
Unfortunately, there are Arabs who believe that they must fight against Israel until they completely destroy it (a tragedy which I do not believe the God of Israel will ever permit to happen – Never again!)…”
In addition to numerous Masters Degrees, Prof. Palazzi hold a Ph.D in Islamic Sciences by decree of the Grand Mufti of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia…”
I like the story that starts out with the leaders of Israel and “Palestine” sitting down at the Peace Table. The leader of Israel says “Before we begin I would like to talk about the atrocious attacks of the Muslims against the Jews in Jerusalem 2000 years ago”. The Palestinian leader says “What attack on Jews? There was no such thing as Muslims 2000 years ago”. The Israeli leader responds with, “Good. Now that we have that settled, we can begin.”
“… ‘The whole world is against us’—which the news agency at once implicitly ridicules …”
There go those Jews with their disproportionality again.
Typical, that their response to the Holocaust, pogroms throughout history, and now trendy among the international chattering class set to blame Israel for all that ails the Middle East, if not the world, is disproportionate paranoia.
When will the Jews stop provoking us with their disproportionate responses!!!
An excellent summary with all the important details is here.