Temple Menorah Stamp Affirms Jewish Claim to Land

[amor]

The wars of 1948 didn't lead to any Arabs settling in either Israel or Palestine.

[Guest]

The Promise

Balfour's support for a Jewish homeland became known in history as the Balfour Declaration which was issued in the form a letter to Lord Rothschild on November 2nd, 1917. It stated:

"His Majesty's government looks with favor upon the establishment in Palestine of a national homeland for the Jewish people."

One month later, in December of 1917, the Turks surrendered Jerusalem to British.

http://www.aish.com/h/iid/48961161.html

The Betrayal

But talk is cheap, and when it came to the reality of creating such a state, the British had many other considerations and interests to take into consideration, as we shall see presently.

Failed Promises

Despite the support of certain British political figures, the British Foreign Ministry and others were generally much more pro-Arab, and the British government got busy carving out Arab countries from the lands of the Ottoman Empire.

Through their efforts the country of Iraq was created in 1921. It was a monarchy with Faisal ibn Hussein, the son of Hussein the Sherif of Mecca, as king. Soon thereafter Iraqi oil started to flow to the West.

Iraq has the second largest known oil reserves in the world (after Saudi Arabia) and it is no wonder the British were interested in having a bond with this country as well as other oil-rich Arab states.

Another country created by the British in 1922 was Jordan. In 1923, the British installed Abdullah ibn Hussein, another son of the Sherif of Mecca, as emir of the new country called Trans-Jordan, later Jordan. Jordan was confined to the East Bank of the River Jordan and did not include any part of the West Bank. (Jordan encompassed 75% of the total area of the British Mandate. In 1922 the British separated this territory from the mandate territory on the west bank of the Jordan River (which they called Palestine) and made it off-limits to Jewish settlement.)

Why were the sons of the Sherif of Mecca made rulers of these countries?

The British wanted alliances with all the Arab kingdoms. They had shored up support for the Ibn Saud of the Arabian Peninsula, who had fought the Turks alongside them. Ibn Saud got Saudi Arabia.

But when that happened, the British had to pay off the Hussein Sherif of Mecca, who was in charge of the Islamic holy sites and who had also sided with British against the Ottomans in WW I. (The Hussein family are Hashemites, the tribe of Mohammed, the founder of Islam, and have been traditionally the keepers of Holy City of Mecca.)

They had to give him and his children some land, so they gave them Iraq and Trans-Jordan ― the land on the East Bank of the River Jordan.

King Abdullah of Jordan was not adverse to the creation of a Jewish State and even met secretly with members of the Jewish Agency.. He paid for his moderation with his life when he was gunned down by an assassin on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem on July 20th, 1951. His brother, King Faisal I of Iraq, was also willing to live at peace with a Jewish State and even welcomed the return of the Jewish people to the land of Israel

No Israel

Yet despite all this country-making, and despite the Balfour Declaration, the British could not get around to creating a country called Israel.

Why not?

There was a clear British bias against the Jews as is readily apparent to anyone who has studied the series of White Papers issued by the British government in the 1920s and 1930s.

The reasons for this bias were:

The British had to deal with the issue of an Arab majority living in what was left of Palestine. They came up with all kinds of partition plans all of which were rejected by the Arabs. (Not all Arabs were opposed; King Faisal of Iraq signed an agreement with Chaim Weizman calling for peace and cooperation.)

Many members of the British government and military were clearly anti-Semitic and had a romantic/patronizing attitude toward the Arabs.

The Arabs had oil and England needed oil. In the final analysis, the British had to take into consideration what was in their best interest. Looking after their strategic interests and placating tens of millions of Arabs was more important in their eyes than saving a few hundred thousand Jews, even though this went against the conditions of the mandate that they were granted in 1920.

Meanwhile the poor Jews, not knowing that the British were going to back out of their promise, kept migrating to the land.

The third migration or aliyah (1919-1923) brought 35,000 Jews to the land. The fourth aliyah (1924-1928) brought 80,000 Jews to the land. The fifth aliyah (1929-1939, as Hitler rose to power in Germany) brought 250,000 Jews to the land.

Arab Riots

The Arabs made it clear that they were not going to sit still for a Jewish state. In August of 1929, due to the instigation of the preachers in the mosques, a series of riots broke out in which many Jews were massacred.

The New York Times,

in its history of Israel (Israel: from Ancient Times to the Modern Nation, pp. 38-39) writes of this time:

The riots of August, 1929, were ignited in Jerusalem over a rumor spread by Arab leaders that Jews were going to destroy Al-Aqsa Mosque, Islam's third most holy shrine. Fighting soon spread throughout Palestine. The worst massacres were in Hebron, sacred to Jew and Muslim alike, where 67 Orthodox Jews ― men, women and children ― were slaughtered by Arabs and 50 more wounded. Pierre van Paassen, a reporter, described the horror that he witnessed by lamplight in a Jewish seminary in Hebron: 'The slain students in the yard, the dead men in the synagogue, slashed throats and mutilated bodies.' By the time order was restored 133 Jews had been killed, 399 wounded.

The 1930s saw more rioting and more massacres, especially in Jaffa and again in Hebron.

In response, the British convened the Peel Commission which almost totally did away with the Balfour Declaration that had originally promised a Jewish homeland in Palestine on both sides of the River Jordan.

In July of 1937, the Peel Commission issued a report which said that all the Jews should be confined to a tiny state that would include a sliver of land along the Mediterranean coast and a small piece in the north abutting the west side of the Lake Kineret (Sea of Galilee).

The Arabs greeted the Peel Commission recommendation with a revolt which lasted until 1939.

The Arab Revolt was led by Haj Amin Husseini (c. 1893-1974), who was originally appointed as the Mufti of Jerusalem by the British. It is interesting to note that in addition to hundreds of Jews who were killed by Arabs, some 3,000 Arabs died in this revolt at the hands of other Arabs and at the hands of the British.

For all the British criticism of Israel today, at that time the British were not shy in their efforts to quell the rioting. They introduced the policy of housing demolition and used artillery to shell rebellious towns.

The revolt was finally crushed and the Mufti fled first to Beirut and later to Europe, where he became an ally of Adolph Hitler, organizing a Bosnian S.S. unit to kill Jews in the Balkans.

http://www.aish.com/h/iid/48961161.html

[Guest]

wars.... lead to any Arabs settling in either Israel or Palestine....

Dangerous Grounds You Stand Upon Dear One

I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for my people and for my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted my land. Joel 3:2

But Then Again You Are English????

~

Palestinians are not the Indigenous people of the Holy Land The Palestinian narrative, which is now widely accepted as a fact of history around the world, is the result of a systematic indoctrination through propaganda.

The Palestinians are neither the "Indians" nor the "Africans" of the Holy Land.

Most Palestinians immigrated to the Holy Land between the 19th and 20th centuries, during the Ottoman rule (1516 – 1918) and the British Mandate rule (1918 – 1948).

Jewish settlement in Palestine during the British Mandate period and development works by the government created new and varied industries and construction projects, thus creating an abundance of work places, which attracted immigrant workers from Arabic and Muslim countries.

Arabs penetrated into the land of Israel (the ancient name of Palestine) in 4 waves.....

http://rslissak.com/content/arab-muslim-waves-immigration-palestine-land-israel-drrivka-shpak-lissak

[Botz]

Thanks for posting that Joe....

Another factor to bear in mind when considering the demography of the land under both the Ottoman Empire and the British mandate is that Arab immigration to the area was

without restriction...Jewish immigration to the land was restricted by both the Ottomans and the British...especially at the time Europe was coming under the cloud of rising

anti-Semitism when many more European Jews could have gained safe passage to the land of their fore-fathers. It is a terrible blot on British history, and as a Brit I am deeply

sorry we played such a treacherous and ungodly role towards the Jews...it is utterly shameful.

The people now called Palestinians at one time tried to take over Jordan, but were ousted from the land and went to plague Southern Lebanon were they were given refuge,

as a repayment the lowest estimate they are believed to have murdered is approx 100,000 Lebanese and it is estimated they raped 100,000 young Lebanese women....the population

of Lebanon is around 2,000,000 so you can do the maths.

The Lebanese President Suleiman Franjieh spoke from the heart concerning the Palestinians whom he had supported for 35 years when he said publicly:

"...I never expected the day would come when I would ask G-d to forgive my sins because I served a people who did not deserve to be served or supported"

Is it any wonder that the Shiite Moslems actually welcomed the Israelis when they invaded, because at last they would see the back of these murderous beasts who

called themselves Palestinians.

When I hear such reports, and look into the merciless and depraved actions many of them have committed against fellow human-beings, I get an inkling of the sort of

people the Canaanites were, and why G-d eventually brought swift judgment upon them...

Today, thanks to short memories, media lies and the support of bleeding heart liberals, the Palestinians have emerged as a displaced, down-trodden people who deserve

the sympathy of the world and the full support of their efforts to wrestle away what small patch of covenant land the Jewish people can now call home again.

[amor]

Palestinians Botz, who are so called because they come from Palestine, are actually normal people, no different from you or me. I find your desire to portray them as in some way different sub-human, perhaps, distasteful.

Yes in Lebanon were Palestinian refugees make up 10% of the population and have very limited rights, Palestinians were involved in the factional bloodshed of the civil war as were many other groups both Lebanese and foreign - remember the involvement of both the Israelis and Syrians in this conflict. As far as brutality goes well you give a quote from a Lebanese warlord himself very involved in shedding the blood of others. It's alo woth remembering the attacks on the Palestinian campsduring the conflicts. Do you remember, for example, the massacre at th Sabra and Shattila

Down a laneway to our right, no more than 50 yards from the entrance, there lay a pile of corpses. There were more than a dozen of them, young men whose arms and legs had been wrapped around each other in the agony of death. All had been shot point-blank range through the cheek, the bullet tearing away a line of flesh up to the ear and entering the brain. Some had vivid crimson or black scars down the left side of their throats. One had been castrated, his trousers torn open and a settlement of flies throbbing over his torn intestines.

The eyes of these young men were all open. The youngest was only 12 or 13 years old. They were dressed in jeans and coloured shirts, the material absurdly tight over their flesh now that their bodies had begun to bloat in the heat. They had not been robbed. On one blackened wrist a Swiss watch recorded the correct time, the second hand still ticking round uselessly, expending the last energies of its dead owner.

On the other side of the main road, up a track through the debris, we found the bodies of five women and several children. The women were middle-aged and their corpses lay draped over a pile of rubble. One lay on her back, her dress torn open and the head of a little girl emerging from behind her. The girl had short dark curly hair, her eyes were staring at us and there was a frown on her face. She was dead.

Another child lay on the roadway like a discarded doll, her white dress stained with mud and dust. She could have been no more than three years old. The back of her head had been blown away by a bullet fired into her brain. One of the women also held a tiny baby to her body. The bullet that had passed into her breast had killed the baby too. Someone had slit open the woman's stomach, cutting sideways and then upwards, perhaps trying to kill her unborn child. Her eyes were wide open, her dark face frozen in horror.

From here

A massacre commited by the Israeli directed Gemaylist Lebanese Christian militias. An Israeli inquiry, theKahanecommision, found that The Israeli leadership at the time bore considerable responsiblity for this massacre.

In the conflicts in the region few of those with power really has clean hands, but that gives no justification for wholescale vilification for any group or community.

It's easy but shameful, simplistic and profoundly unChristian to pick on the victims of a tragedy and seek to blame them for their misfortune. i reitterate the Palestinians are as evil or as good as the Israelis or the people of Sussex. you and I are no better than they are; they are no better than us.

[Botz]

Palestinians Botz, who are so called because they come from Palestine, are actually normal people, no different from you or me. I find your desire to portray them as in some way different sub-human, perhaps, distasteful.

Hi amor,

That is simply not true. Many of the people now called Palestinians came from the surrounding Arab countries and flooded what was then Palestine, because of the influx of Jews and how the land prospered

under their ministrations with a viable economy developing. It is also documented in UNWRA reports that many of the so-called Palestinian refugees had only ever spent a short time in the land, and that amongst

them were also an unknown amount of illegal immigrants. No one denies that the German people were normal human beings, but during the second world war much that was done in the name of Germany was

disgusting and atrocious to a degree not seen amongst civilised human beings....I know they weren't all Nazis, but the culpability lay with their leaders and ultimately those that served their national interests.

I have not tried to portray them as sub-human, I have tried to demonstate that as a people group the Palestinians have behaved reprehensibly...history speaks for itself

Yes in Lebanon were Palestinian refugees make up 10% of the population and have very limited rights, Palestinians were involved in the factional bloodshed of the civil war as were many other groups both Lebanese and foreign - remember the involvement of both the Israelis and Syrians in this conflict. As far as brutality goes well you give a quote from a Lebanese warlord himself very involved in shedding the blood of others. It's alo woth remembering the attacks on the Palestinian campsduring the conflicts. Do you remember, for example, the massacre at th Sabra and Shattila

I guess it is easy to blink the eye at approx 100,000 Lebanese murdered and 100,000 woman raped by Palestinians.... I well remember Sabra and Shattila...I don't think it was ever truly proven who had ultimate responsibility

but I do not condone what happened by any stretch...yet it hardly bears comparison.

In the conflicts in the region few of those with power really has clean hands, but that gives no justification for wholescale vilification for any group or community.

Their actions speak for themselves. I'm British...when I have spoken to some older Jewish people they have stopped speaking to me when they found out I was British, simply because of what

my nation is responsible for....I do not like it, but I understand why they might react that way. So perhaps you can understand why I don't buy into Palestinian lies and half-truths when I am

convinced that behind their leadership is the single aim of wiping Israel off the map.

It's easy but shameful, simplistic and profoundly unChristian to pick on the victims of a tragedy and seek to blame them for their misfortune. i reitterate the Palestinians are as evil or as good as the Israelis or the people of Sussex. you and I are no better than they are; they are no better than us.

These 'victims of a tragedy' as you call them have every opportunity to change their hateful ways as a people group...but they would as soon murder each other as the Israelis...they are fuelled by hatred, governed by fear

and subject to the crushing yoke of Islam...and yes that is a generalization. I know they are not all like that, but that is how I perceive them as a whole, and what I have seen does nothing to convince me they deserve

the right to become a nation, least of all to become a nation by demanding Israeli land....of which they will never be satisfied until they have taken it all and killed or expelled every Jew.

I don't find it hypocrisy as a Believer to talk like this....because this is how it is, I'm not presenting anything that should come as a shock to anybody, and don't mistake my anger at them for lack of love...I've spoken

to a fair few Palestinians and shared Jesus with some... I've also told some of them a few home-truths and had very strong arguments.

[amor]

Botz, for the sake of clarity, can you give a source for your statistics on rape and murder?

[amor]

civil war100,000I've been looking and the statistics I can find for the Lebanese civil war 1975 - 1990 estimate around 100,000 dead in total. Given that this war had a large groups participating: secular militia,s Christian militias Sunni militias, Shia militias, Druze militia, Palestinian militias even Armenian and Kurdish militias. In addition the Lebanese army, the Syrians, the Israelis the Americans and the French; given also that a fair amount of the conflict war intra-communal the various Christian maronite militias slaughtering each others member, secular and religious Shia fighting it out and intra-Pslestinian feuds; laying the responsibility of so many deaths on Palestinians seems exaggerated.

[amor]

Their actions speak for themselves. I'm British...when I have spoken to some older Jewish people they have stopped speaking to me when they found out I was British, simply because of what

my nation is responsible for....I do not like it, but I understand why they might react that way. So perhaps you can understand why I don't buy into Palestinian lies and half-truths when I am

convinced that behind their leadership is the single aim of wiping Israel off the map.

Yes, the crimes of British Imperialism are many, henious and varied and I think you'll find plenty of others across the globe including Palestinianswho still resent, with good reason what the British Empire did. I don't though see the connect between guilt-tripping about being British and denying the reality of the Palestinian predicament.

[amor]

These 'victims of a tragedy' as you call them have every opportunity to change their hateful ways as a people group...but they would as soon murder each other as the Israelis...they are fuelled by hatred, governed by fear

and subject to the crushing yoke of Islam...and yes that is a generalization. I know they are not all like that, but that is how I perceive them as a whole, and what I have seen does nothing to convince me they deserve

the right to become a nation, least of all to become a nation by demanding Israeli land....of which they will never be satisfied until they have taken it all and killed or expelled every Jew.

Remember they're not all Muslim and certainly not all religious. Have you considered that their anger might come from being dispossesed, denied the right to self-determination and for many being forced to live squalid lives in refugee camps? As to nationhood the reality accepted by most is that they can hope for a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza, leaving a secure Israel within its 1967 borders.