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Who Has the
Right to Palestine?
Before the following discussion,
I'd like to point out that I believe that the God (Father of
Jesus) that I claim is a God of love, grace, mercy and the desire for
humans to relate by "right relationships" AND who sent the Gospel...check
THIS.The Jerusalem Temple Mount area is considered to be on the top of Mt. Moriah where God spared Isaac. Today, The Muslim Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem sits atop Mt. Moriah and from which mountain top Mohammed is said to have ascended to Heaven. Before that, Jesus healed the blind and the sick there. And it is the site upon which Solomon built the original Hebrew Temple which housed the Ark of the Covenant.
I got into a friendly e-mail dialogue (Winter of
2001-2002) with a professional contact who actually was born into Christianity in a Muslim
culture near Damascus and lived in Seattle at the time. His
rightful concern following 9/11 was
that Americans not paint all Muslims as terrorists or terrorist-minded. Yet, on 6 August
2004, I heard a spokesperson estimate that as many as 50% of worldwide Muslims at least
secretly subscribe to the dreams of the terrorist, fascist, extreme, Islam agenda (see
item #16 below). And, by the way, he failed to see how,
whether subsequently modified by treaties or not, the Jews had any
original, exclusive right to any state in "Palestine". But, see last point below...Jerusalem is not
the core issue (it is just a symbol). While I have left the below outline in the original
e-mail format, I have added some additional points/content.
[Muslim agenda] [key Muslim thinker's influence] [terror]
Dear Hadi:
As pathologist
colleagues, I'm glad to have the info that you sent to me. I have revised/upgraded my original
response in view of some additional e-mails you've sent and some further learning on my part. I
have no ax to grind and am only interested in arriving at the truth. As I'd stated before, I've
been to Israel and into the "West Bank", etc. I am neither Jew nor Palestinian (Arabic or Muslim).
I'm copying this to some friends. Here's how I see it as of 4/26/02:
- As a Jesus believer
and follower (Christian), I unswervingly believe in the God-breathed ("inspired") inerrancy of
both the Old and New Testaments of the Bible; you've told me that you were born into
Christianity near Damascus. Unlike the Koran, the Bible is an accumulation of messages
delivered through the ages through many humans...the Koran coming through only one [special] man.
- My identity as a Jesus follower stands in
highest rank...ahead of my identity as an American, Caucasian, Southerner, physician,
pathologist, etc.
- Palestine: This
geographical name most probably originally derived from Egyptian delta migrations of a group
designated as "prst" about 2900-2700BC. About 1200BC, the Aegean sea people over-ran the
indigent eastern-Mediterranean coastal Phoenician and Hittites and were afterwards known as the
Philistines...the area becoming Philistia...a name rendered in Greek as "he Palaistine", a word
which Herodotus was the first to use (about 400+BC).
- The God of Abraham
gave (Genesis 12:1-7, Genesis 13:14-18, and 15:1-5 & 15:18-21) the
"Promised Land"...from the Nile River to the Euphrates River...to Abraham (between 2100-1500BC) & his offspring/descendants (a smaller
area of this larger land was subdivided out by God to Moses & the Jews/Israelites returning
from 400 years of Egyptian captivity, [boundaries defined, Numbers 34:1-15])...the Land of Canaan...an area less than
Israel occupies today. [By default...not having been detailed in the subdivision, the balance
of the larger Promised Land may have been for the descendants of Ishmael.] And we know exactly
where that is, regardless of any name given to it in the past or present. The part God-given to
the Jews clearly includes all of Jerusalem!! This suggests that the offspring are intended to
(both sides) be neighbors. This covenantal promise was to Abraham and his wife, Sara, and their
miraculous, legitimate, marital offspring via son Isaac (inferred from Genesis 12:1-3 and then modified by Genesis 16:11-16). Abraham, under his original name of Abram, first
had a son at age 86, Ishmael (Genesis 16), by the Egyptian handmaiden, Hagar, Ishmael being the
forerunner of the non-Jewish peoples of the Middle East. Then God changed his name to Abraham
and gave him the "Promised Land" as Isaac was born in about Abraham's 99th year & Sara's
90th. These verses include assurances of what a blessing the Isaac offspring will be to the
world. Verses indicate that the offspring of both Isaac and Ishmael will be vastly numerous.
[God of Abraham attributes
and names]
- Abraham was sent by
God to possess the "Promised Land" from the Canaanites in about 2000 BC. Abraham and Sara's
covenantal issue/descendants, the Israelites, were preceded to Egypt by Joseph (son of
Abraham's covenant...God-promised...son, Isaac). Joseph's siblings & their families were
then...en mass...driven to Egypt later, as a people, by a terrible famine...then into 400 years
of slavery (about 1900-1300BC) under Egypt. Then, having reproduced into millions, they were
set free by the miracles of God & lead from Egypt by Moses & kept in the desert 40
years (Providentially provided for) until an unbelieving generation died out. Then they were
lead back into the Promised Land by Joshua in conquest of the Promised Land. Joshua could not
bring down Jebus (city on Mt. Moriah...the inhabitants known as the Jebusites), the 11 acre
walled city which lay just barely south of the current Temple Mount within the southeastern
part of the current walled Jerusalem. David conquered Jebus in about 990BC, and it was then
renamed the City of David. David purchased the city threshing floor from Araunah for the Temple
Mount area. Later, this covenantal people (Israelites) of Abraham became divided into Israel
(northern tribes) & Judah (southern tribes) and were subsequently scattered/conquered. Said
to have originally been founded by Amorites & Hittites (Ezekiel 16:3), the City of David
became known as Jerusalem. About 1925BC, an Egyptian notice called the city Urusalimum. A
notice in a 1400BC site calls it Urusalim, and the Assyrians called it Ursalimmu. Later Greeks
and Romans called it Hierosolyma and the Arabs, El Kuds. In Hebrew, Jerusalem is Yerushalayim;
in Arabic, it is Bayt al-Mugaddas.
- The Israelites
[Jews] built the 1st Jerusalem temple under Solomon's reign (I Kings 5-6; 2 Chronicles
2-5). It was destroyed. In the book of Daniel, the angel Gabriel told Daniel [having previously
noted each set as years] (Daniel 9:25), "So you are to know and discern that from the issuing
of a decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince [Jesus] there will be 7
weeks [sets] and sixty-two weeks [sets]...[69 x 7 = 483 years]". [From 444BC to 33AD
(Jesus crucified) = 483 years.] And, Nehemiah rebuilt Jerusalem (March 444BC). At the start of
the rebuilding (which would be a miracle of God), Nehemiah declared to surrounding non-Jewish
peoples who taunted him, "The God of heaven will give us success. We his servants will start
rebuilding, but as for you, you have no share in Jerusalem or any claim or historic right to
it." (Nehemiah 2:20). [The entire city wall was rebuilt in just 52 days (Nehemiah 6:15); and
one might not be able to appreciate that miracle if you've not actually seen how huge the
Jerusalem walls...and individual stone blocks...are.] And then, after truly occupying Israel for years (I'm told that there has
not been a true occupation of Gaza/West bank by the Israelis), the Romans destroyed much of
Jerusalem and all of the Temple very early in the1st millennium AD. And the Jews were scattered
(as God had said that He would do to the Jews). For that Berkeley e-mail of the "Jews for
Justice" group to suggest that there have only been 414 years of "Jewish rule" in Israel is
ridiculous...causing me to discount and be uninterested in anything else they said in their
e-mail.
- The Bible gives firm
prophecy to the scattering of the Jews (after the Temple destruction, above), then the future
"ingathering" back to the Promised Land...that began in the late 1800s & accelerated in the
1940s. The modern Nation of Israel came in 1948, 0.2% of United-Nations-partitioned lands (8500
square miles) to Israel, the remaining to Islamic countries!!
- When I went to
Israel, I was impressed that the Israelis were an industrious people and freely took tourism
business into the Palestinian West Bank and employed non-Israelis to a great extent. They are
"producers," and they weren't "withholding" some share of opportunity from
Palestinians.
- I am told that the
Koran (Islam) never mentions Jerusalem...Jerusalem must have held no interest to the writer of
the Koran; the Bible (Jews & Christians) is replete with references to, and the centrality
of, Jerusalem.
- Israel has worked
hard to make themselves valuable (God said they would be a people of great value to all of
mankind), and their Jewish brothers in other parts of the world have donated huge sums of money
to the country of Israel "to help them". The Muslim countries dwarf the land area of Israel
(see #7, above), and they use their oil wealth for key families...not for the good of their
people (what do they donate to their Palestinian brothers?). There seems to be a great cultural
difference between the 2 sides in the stewardship of resources for the betterment of their
peoples-in-general.
- Envy and hatred are
sins which basically destroy the ones who hate and envy, and there is no excuse to proliferate
these TWO learned behaviors. Many peoples have risen above past hurts and adapted and made
their own way. In the USA, look at the story of the Mormons. In the 1800s, it was perfectly
legal to kill a Mormon in one state, and they were persecuted terrifically from New York
westward to Utah. They aren't filled with hate and envy as a people! I'm sad to say that
sources indicate that this mentality of killing, warring, and hatred actually arises from
numerous verses in the Koran (Qu'ran) and in practically any page in Al-Bukhari's (Islamic
scholars say this is the best one) Hadith (collection of Muhammad's sayings). That is, such are
not radical Islamists, they are actually doing just what Islam calls for! I'm told that
doubters should thumb through these writings themselves.
- In the absence of a
declared war, there can be no excusing of bombings that kill random members of the enemy
side...especially women and children...the suicidal homicide bombings. By engendering in the
schools a taught hatred of non-Muslims (especially the anti-Semitic aspect of hatred of
Jews)...plus an attitude of worshipfulness toward those who kill themselves in the act of
killing the enemy, Arafat (died in 2004) has created a societal monster that he cannot stop.
(This being recently superimposed on the ancient enmity declared between the descendants of
half-brothers Isaac and Ishmael...explicitly stated in Genesis 16:11-16, the Bible: "He
[Ishmael] will be a wild donkey of a man; his hand will be against everyone and everyone's hand
against him, and he will live in hostility toward all his
brothers.")
- As evidenced by
Arafat's rejection of the Clinton plan that would have returned 95% of the disputed lands to
the Palestinians, the Palestinian people (PA) are now suffering the consequences of Arafat's
(and his insider associates') greed for continuing power (if the discord is settled, Arafat's
importance declines and he has fear of having to "lead" and restrain the Palestinian radicals
who would continue to defy any agreement). His fear may give hint to a realization by Arafat
that his people have even become ungovernable as to foreign policy. People that I talk
with are having a very hard time finding an excuse for Arafat's rejection of the Clinton plan.
Or is it his greed? Some think that the hidden fear within Palestinians that Islam could be a
false religion drives the "never peace with Israel" mentality, and it is persuasive [brief note
about this...here].
- Quite the opposite
of your "99.9%-of-the media-are-against-PA" angle on the media, I see the media as continuing
to view the Palestinians as an oppressed people and therefore wanting to always give them one
more chance, no matter what they do...the media seem to me to be at least 60% in favor of
always writing how Israel should hold back retribution or offer
more.
- I have never heard
of any other arena of life in which two sides are at odds and one side is expected to give up
material things to another side just in exchange for promises...and with no real consequence
for broken promises. Your paper says the Israelis break promises; other sources point out how
the recent Lebanon pull back to the "blue line" resulted in Hesbolah wanting to immediately
fight and push further south. Apparently, the Palestinians were offered a "state" in 1947 and
rejected it. It does truly appear to me that the Palestinian Authority intends to agree to
nothing less than all of Israel so that "Palestine" is completely theirs: the Jews must be
pushed into the sea.
- The Real Issue: a
world view by deceased Islamic philosopher Sayyid Qutb (pronounced KUH-tahb)...a world-wide
religious Islamic theocracy is the issue [here]! And, on the 5 August 2004 Fox News
O'Reilly factor, Kamal Nawash (39 years old; immigrant at age 9; and director of the Free Muslim Coalition) was asked (there being concern for rising
American suspicion against Muslims in America and the fact that no Muslim organization
speaks out against barbaric Muslim activities) what percentage of worldwide Muslims are
"for" the extreme Islam agenda? I was shocked when he said about 50%.
I decided 10 years ago that the search for truth in the
secular, non-Christian affairs of life was a hopeless search...it is a hard enough search among
the brotherhood of Christian believers (Truth is in The Word). Explanations are always colored
by the point of view of the "sides". I don't have any hope of real peace on earth prior to the
return of Jesus for His 1000 year reign (then the Kingdom of God which drew near with Jesus
coming to Earth & the Kingdom of
Heaven ever after)...much less any real hope for peace in Israel. There can never be
sustained peace in the world in the absence of the majority of the world being followers of The
Prince of Peace...to follow any other is to be in the realm of the prince of lies, confusion,
and darkness (Satan). But the world should keep trying! All peoples should
lift their prayers [for peace and grace] regularly to the only One who has the power to bring peace!
Sincerely,
Ervin
In 2006, here is another former Muslim...a
woman...who dares to speak out [read her words].
***give me your comments about this
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check out the Highest
TRUTH
(posted 2002; latest update 28 March
2006; latest addition 6 October 2017)
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