Coins, stamps provide overwelming evidence that the original Palestinians were Jews. The Knesset should switch the name of Israel to Palestine. The use by Arabs of the name “Palestine” is cultural appropriation, the original Palestinians were Jews.
The Knesset must claim the name Palestine back to the Jews, the change of one word would reveal Arab lies. It is easy to prove that the original Palestinians were Jews, this will destroy the Arab narrative
By Ezequiel Doiny
Part 1 – The Knesset should switch the name of Israel to Palestine
On January 13, 2014 Elder of Zion wrote “I was wrong. There really are a Palestinian people.
“Mea culpa.
“Years of historical research on this blog has been rendered utterly useless by a concise yet brilliant post on Mondoweiss – by Mondo himself. Here it is in its entirety:
“I had no idea there was a coin that said “Palestine” on it! That proves that today’s Palestinians had a free and independent nation in 1927!
“Now, some residents of Palestine did not like the idea of a Palestinian currency and their leaders called to boycott it and to keep using the Egyptian pound – but, luckily, other Palestinians who were more forward thinking supported the idea, and it became the official currency of Palestine.
“Further research into the issue, once my eyes were no longer blinded by propaganda, shows that these forward-thinking Palestinians didn’t just stop there in their quest to build their nation. No, they built up other Palestinian institutions.
“For example, the Palestine international soccer (football) club, recognized by FIFA, played five international games in the 1930s. Unfortunately, they only won one, against Lebanon, 5-1. Goals in that game were scored by Palestinian players Herbert Meitner (2), Avraham Schneiderovitz, Gaul Machlis and Werner Kaspi.
“Time magazine in 1937 had a feature story on the inaugural performance of the Palestine Symphony Orchestra. The article starts off with “As a full Palestine moon rode one evening last week over Tel Aviv… thousands … began to move toward the Levant Fair Grounds. There they packed the Italian Pavilion to capacity to hear great Arturo Toscanini lead Palestine’s first civic orchestra through its first performance.” Yes, the Palestinians of 1937 were cultured and were lovers of classical music. A Palestinian opera was even performed in New York in 1934.
“There were, of course, Palestine stamps as well. This one shows an ancient Palestinian holy site in Bethlehem. (Unfortunately, it is not visible today, because there is an ugly tall wall that turned it into a fortress.)
“Palestinians worked hard to attract tourists to Palestine so they could proudly show off their country.
“The same Palestinians also created regional fairs to show off their products and to trade with their Arab neighbors:
“Palestinians even exhibited at the World’s Fair in New York in 1939.
“There was a Palestine Post newspaper, as well as the earlier Palestine Bulletin, written by the most prominent Palestinian journalists of the day.
“My research found that Palestinians were not only active in the 20th century, but they had been there through the millennia. This entry from an encyclopedia describes a stunning and encyclopedic work of Palestinian scholarship from the 4th and 5th centuries CE, written by hundreds of the brightest people in Palestine, known as the Palestinian Talmud. This work has been referred to by Middle Eastern and European scholars throughout the ages. That one work alone shows how strong the ties are between Palestinians and their land.
“There are plenty of other examples of scholarship researching the ancient culture of Palestine. Here. for example, is a 19th century book about the customs and traditions of Palestine over the ages.
“All in all, there is a massive amount of evidence and literature that all proves that throughout the centuries, there has been a people living in Palestine as well as their kin who longed to return to Palestine from their diaspora. In the 20th century, they became known to the Western world as Palestinians. These people ranged from the ordinary to the clerical to the political, always trying to improve the land of their ancestors which they held sacred. They never forgot Palestine and when they were given the chance, they jumped at building their nation in the land of Palestine.
“There are outsiders who invaded Palestine, though. They came in waves. Some settled there, some moved on, but none of them have been there as long as the Palestinians who were there originally. They often persecuted the people who identified as Palestinians, both the natives of Palestineand their cousins who came to rejoin them. They never identified as Palestinian themselves in the era of the coins, stamps, and orchestras. Yet this other group, which used to call themselves Southern Syrians or simply Arabs, makes claims today that they are the real Palestinians!
“Of all the peoples of the world, the Palestinians who deserve most to live there are the ones who have the strongest ancient historic ties to the land as well as the people who worked hardest to build a modern state in Palestine in the first half of the 20th century – against the wishes of the invaders. These Palestinians have an unbroken chain of history and culture from their ancestors living there in ancient times through today. The Palestinian people who worked to rebuild their nation are the ones who deserve to live there the most, from a historical, legal and moral perspective.
“Every modern, liberal person must support the human rights of these indigenous Palestinian people to live, in peace and security, in the land that they have lived in and longed for throughout the ages.
“Yes, there was a geographical area called Palestine for 2000 years. It might not have been the original name, but the residents who identified with it the most throughout that time are the ones who are the real Palestinian people.”
https://elderofziyon.blogspot.com/2014/01/i-was-wrong-there-really-are.html#.VuWlxfkrJaQ
(THE ARTICLE ABOVE WAS WRITTEN BY ELDER OF ZION)
The Knesset should switch the name of Israel to Palestine. The original Palestinians were Jews, the Knesset must claim the name Palestine back to the Jews, the change of one word would reveal Arab lies. It is easy to prove that the original Palestinians were Jews, this will destroy the Arab narrative.
The use by Arabs of the name “Palestine” is cultural appropriation, the original Palestinians were Jews.
Part 2 – The Knesset should enshrine Smotrich’s statement in law and forbid to call Arabs “Palestinians”, call them “Arabs” instead
On March 20, 2023 Arutz 7 reported “Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich spoke at an event in Paris on Sunday night, during which he stated that “the Palestinian people are an invention that is less than 100 years old.”
“Speaking at a tribute event in memory of Likud activist Jacques Kupfer, who died of cancer two years ago, Smotrich said, “Jacques’ truth must be told with all our might and without confusion, he said there is no such thing as Palestinians – because there is no such thing as a Palestinian people. We need to tell the truth without bowing to the lies and distortions of history, and without succumbing to the hypocrisy of BDS and the pro-Palestinian organizations.”
“Smotrich claimed in his remarks that he himself is Palestinian. “My grandfather, who was the 13th generation in Jerusalem, is the real Palestinian. My grandmother, who was born in Metula more than 100 years ago to a family of pioneers, is Palestinian.”
“He noted the rules of international law and said that “the rules have five characteristics that define a nation – history, culture, language, currency and historical leadership. Who was the first Palestinian king? What language do the Palestinians have? Has there ever been a Palestinian currency? Is there a Palestinian history or culture? There isn’t any.”
“There are Arabs who are in the Middle East and who arrived in the Land of Israel at the same time as the Jewish Aliyah and the early days of Zionism. After 2,000 years of exile, the people of Israel are returning home, and there are Arabs around who do not like it. So what do they do? They invent a fictitious people and claim fictitious rights in the Land of Israel just to fight the Zionist movement,” added the Minister of Finance.
“This truth should be heard here in the Elysee Palace. This truth should also be heard by the Jewish people in the State of Israel who are a little confused, this truth should be heard in the White House in Washington. The whole world needs to hear this truth, because it is the truth – and the truth will win,” said Smotrich.”
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/368961
What Smotrich said is true, there is no “Palestinian people”. The Knesset should enshrine Smotrich’s statement in law and forbid to call Arabs “Palestinians”, call them “Arabs” instead.
Calling them Arabs instead of Palestinians would make it clear that the conflict is not a Palestinian-Israeli conflict but an Arab-Israeli conflict depicting the real magnitude of the conflict where the only small Jewish State is facing the 22 Islamic States from the Arab League, where Israel and the Jewish People are the underdog.
On January 13, 2023 Melanie Phillips wrote in Israel Hayom “…There was no “Palestinian people” in antiquity. The “Palestinian people” didn’t exist at all until it was invented in the 1960s in a strategy to destroy Israel cooked up by Yasser Arafat, the Egyptian-born head of the Palestine Liberation Organization, in cahoots with the Soviet Union.
“During the 1920s and 1930s, many of the Arabs who were the 20th-century ancestors of today’s “Palestinians” poured into what is now Israel and the disputed territories from neighboring Arab states in pursuit of the prosperity they believed would result from the return of the Jews to their ancestral Jewish homeland.
“Despite this, the “Palestinians” have gone to laughable lengths to assert that they were the original inhabitants of the land. For example, they have claimed to be descended from the Philistines – who were in fact ancient Greeks. PA chief Mahmoud Abbas has claimed that the “Palestinians” are indigenous to Israel because they are descended from the Canaanites. “This land is for its people, its residents and the Canaanites who were here 5,000 years ago – and we are the Canaanites!” he declared in 2019. There is no evidence for this whatsoever…”
https://www.israelhayom.com/opinions/an-ancient-spoon-stirs-american-mischief-against-israel/
The Romans renamed the Jewish Kingdom of Judea with the name “Palestine” after the Bar Kochba revolt. The Jewish Virtual Library describes “In the 2nd century CE, the Romans crushed the revolt of Shimon Bar Kokhba (132 CE), during which Jerusalem and Judea were conquered, and the area of Judea was renamed Palaestina in an attempt to minimize Jewish identification with the land of Israel. According to Lewis Feldman, the appellation was likely chosen because it was common to use the name of the “nearest and most accessible tribe.”
The Jewish Virtual Library explains “…the Philistines were a non-Semitic people who left Crete and arrived in Canaan at the beginning of the 12th century B.C.E. The Philistines inhabited the Mediterranean coast of Canaan during the period of the Book of Judges…”
The Palestinians have no connection with the ancient Philistines, they themselves admit to be Arabs. Article 1 of the Palestinian National Charter of 1968 declares “Palestine is the homeland of the Arab Palestinian people; it is an indivisible part of the Arab homeland, and the Palestinian people are an integral part of the Arab nation.”
https://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/plocov.asp
On March 23, 2012 MEMRI reported “Hamas Minister of the Interior and of National Security Fathi Hammad Slams Egypt over Fuel Shortage in Gaza Strip, and Says: “Half of the Palestinians Are Egyptians and the Other Half Are Saudis” (Please see video in the link below)
On April 12, 2018 David Israel wrote in the Jewish Press ” Addressing the ninth annual Islamic Beit al-Maqdes (the term is borrowed directly from the Hebrew Beit HaMikdash – the Temple) International Conference, Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas said “Palestinians and Jordanians are one people in two states – Jordan and Palestine…”
As the Palestinians themselves declare they are Arabs. The Knesset should forbid using the word “Palestinian”, call them Arabs instead. Calling them Arabs instead of Palestinians would make it clear that the conflict is not a Palestinian-Israeli conflict but an Arab-Israeli conflict depicting the real magnitude of the conflict where the only small Jewish State is facing the 22 Islamic States from the Arab League, where Israel and the Jewish People are the underdog.
The Arab League calls the conflict “the Arab-Israeli conflict” not the “Palestinian-Israeli conflict”. The website of the Arab League reports ” The Arab-Israeli conflict is one of the most complex and prolonged historical conflicts known to the contemporary world…The Palestinian issue represents the central issue of the Arab countries, and it is at the core of the interest of joint Arab action and a permanent item on the agenda of the League Council at its various levels. The Palestinians, and the interest of the Arab League in the Palestinian issue dates back to before the announcement of the establishment of “Israel”.1948, where it issued Resolution No. 16 regarding the boycott of Zionist goods and products on 2/12/1945, then the university held an Inshas Summit in the Arab Republic of Egypt on 5/29/1946, to issue a set of resolutions in support of Palestine, including Resolution No. 3, which states that Zionism is an imminent danger, not only for Palestine, but for all Arab countries and Islamic peoples. Therefore, standing up to this sweeping danger has become a duty for all Arab countries and Islamic peoples…”
http://www.leagueofarabstates.net/ar/Palestine/Pages/about.aspx?RID=1
Jews have been persecuted and expelled from most Middle East Countries and they managed to find refuge in Israel, a country smaller than New Jersey. Jimena.org reported that since 1948, 850,000 Jews have been expelled from Algeria, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Lybia, Lebanon, Morocco, Syria, Tunisia,Yemen and other Middle East Countries. Israel is the only safe heaven for Jewish refugees in the Middle-East.
The conflict is not Palestinian-Israeli, it is Arab-Israeli and it should be described accurately. To describe the conflict accurately Israeli government officials should always use in the background a picture of Israel’s map surrounded by the 22 maps of Arab League countries to remind the audience of how small Israel (the ONLY Jewish State) is compared to the 22 Islamic States. Also the Israeli PM should always use a picture of Mecca next to Jerusalem in the background, outdoor banners with a picture of the Kaaba in Mecca next to a picture of Jerusalem’s Temple Mount should be placed next to each entrance of Jerusalem’s Old City to remind visitors that Jerusalem is the spiritual capital of Judaism while Mecca is the spiritual capital of Islam.
On August 15, 2014 I wrote in the Gatestone Institute “The current Palestinian narrative is that all Muslims in Palestine are natives and all Jews are settlers. This narrative is false. There has been a small but almost continuous Jewish presence in Palestine since the destruction of Jerusalem by Rome two thousand years ago, and, as we will see, most of the Muslims living in Palestine when the state of Israel was declared in 1948 were Muslim colonists from other parts of the Ottoman Empire who had been resettled and living in Palestine for fewer than 60 years.
“There are two important historical events usually overlooked in the Arab-Israeli conflict.
“One is the use that Muslim rulers made of the jizya (a discriminatory tax imposed only on non-Muslims, to “protect” them from being killed or having their property destroyed) to reduce the quantity of Jews living in Palestine before the British Mandate was instituted in 1922. The second were the incentives by the Ottoman government to relocate displaced Muslim populations from other parts of the Ottoman Empire in Palestine.
“Until the late 1800s entire ancient Jewish communities had to flee Palestine to escape the brutality of Muslim authorities. As Egyptian historian Bat Ye’or writes in her book, The Dhimmi:
“The Jizya was paid in a humiliating public ceremony in which the non-Muslim while paying was struck in the head. If these taxes were not paid women and children were reduced to slavery, men were imprisoned and tortured until a ransom was paid for them. The Jewish communities in many cities under Muslim Rule was ruined for such demands. This custom of legalized financial abuses and extortion shattered the indigenous pre-Arab populations almost totally eliminating what remained of its peasantry… In 1849 the Jews of Tiberias envisaged exile because of the brutality, exactions, and injustice of the Muslim authorities. In addition to ordinary taxes, an Arab Sheik that ruled Hebron demanded that Jews pay an extra five thousand piastres annually for the protections of their lives and property. The Sheik threatened to attack and expel them from Hebron if it was not paid.”
“The Muslim rulers not only kept the number of Jews low through discriminatory taxes, they also increased the Muslim population by providing incentives for Muslim colonists to settle in the area. Incentives included free land, 12 years exemption from taxes and exemption from military service.
“Bat Ye’or continues:
“By the early 1800s the Arab population in Palestine was very little (just 246,000) it was in the late 1800s and early 1900s that most Muslim Colonists settled in Palestine because of incentives by the Ottoman Government to resettle displaced Muslim populations because of events such as the Austro-Hungarian Occupation of Bosnia-Herzegovina, the Crimean War and World War 1. Those events created a great quantity of Muslim Refugees that were resettled somewhere else in the Ottoman Empire… In 1878 an Ottoman law granted lands in Palestine to Muslim colonists. Muslim colonists from Crimea and the Balkans settled in Anatolia, Armenia, Lebanon, Syria and Palestine.”
“Justin McCarthy, a professor of history at the University of Louisville, writing in his Annotated Map, “Forced Migration and Mortality in the Ottoman Empire,” also notes that there were about five million Muslims displaced due to the Austro-Hungarian occupation of Bosnia-Herzegovina, the Crimean War, Balkan wars, the Turkish war of independence and World War I.
“Sergio DellaPergola, from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, in his paper “Demography in Israel/Palestine: Trends, Prospects and Policy Implications,” provides estimates of the population of Palestine in different periods. As the demographic data below shows, most Muslims living in Palestine in 1948 when the State of Israel was created had been living there for fewer than 60 years:
“1890: Arab Population 432,000
“1947: Arab Population 1,181,000
“Growth in Arab population from 1890 to 1947: 800,000”But the Muslims not only settled the Jewish Homeland during Ottoman times, also during British Mandate Palestine there were waves of Muslim immigrants. Daniel Pipes explains in his book review for Joan Peter’s “From Time Immemorial”: “Joan Peters came across a “seemingly casual” discrepancy between the standard definition of a refugee and the definition used for the Palestinian Arabs.“In other cases, a refugee is someone forced to leave a permanent or habitual home. In this case, however, it is someone who had lived in Palestine for just two years before the flight that began in 1948…“…Miss Peters came across a statement by Winston Churchill that she says opened her eyes to the situation in Palestine.“In 1939 Churchill challenged the common notion that Jewish immigration into Palestine had uprooted its Arab residents.“To the contrary, according to him, “So far from being persecuted, the Arabs have crowded into the country and multiplied till their population has increased more than even all world Jewry could lift up the Jewish population…“Arabs crowded into Palestine?“As Miss Peters pursued this angle she found a fund of obscure information that confirmed Churchill’s observation.“Drawing on census statistics and a great number of contemporary accounts, she pieced together the dimensions of Arab immigration into Palestine before 1948…“Miss Peters concludes that “the Arab population appears to have increased in direct proportion to the Jewish presence…Although the Jews alone moved to Palestine for ideological reasons, they were not alone in emigrating there. Arabs joined them in large numbers…“…Non-Jewish immigrants came from all parts of the Middle East, including Turkey, Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Transjordan (as Jordan was once known), Saudi Arabia, the Yemens, Egypt, Sudan, and Libya.“Thanks to British unconcern, Arab immigrants were generally left alone and allowed to settle in Mandatory Palestine.“So many Arabs came, Miss Peters estimates, that “if all those Jews and all those Arabs who arrived in … Palestine between 1893 and 1948 had remained, and if they were forced to leave now, a dual exodus of at least equal proportion would in all probability take place. Palestine would be depopulated once again.”“…What took hundreds of thousands of Arabs to Palestine?“Economic opportunity. The Zionists brought the skills and resources of Europe.
“Like other Europeans settling scarcely populated areas in recent times—in Australia, Southern Africa, or the American West—the Jews in Palestine initiated economic activities that created jobs and wealth on a level far beyond that of the indigenous peoples. In response, large numbers of Arabs moved toward the settlers to find employment.“The conventional picture has it that Jewish immigrants bought up Arab properties, forcing the former owners into unemployment.Miss Peters argues exactly the contrary, that the Jews created new opportunities, which attracted emigrants from distant places. To the extent that there was unemployment among the Arabs, it was mostly among the recent arrivals.“This reversal of the usual interpretation implies a wholly different way of seeing the Arab position in Mandatory Palestine.“As C. S.Jarvis, governor of the Sinai in 1923-36, [DP: this corrects the 1984 text, which wrongly ascribed the following quote to Winston Churchill] observed, “It is very difficult to make a case out for the misery of the Arabs if at the same time their compatriots from adjoining states could not be kept from going in to share that misery.”“The data unearthed by Joan Peters indicate that Arabs benefited economically so much by the presence of Jewish settlers from Europe that they traveled hundreds of miles to get closer to them.“In turn, this explains why the definition of a refugee from Palestine in 1948 is a person who lived there for just two years: because many Arab residents in 1948 had immigrated so recently. The usual definition would have cut out a substantial portion of the persons who later claimed to be refugees from Palestine.“Thus, the “Palestinian problem” lacks firm grounding. Many of those who now consider themselves Palestinian refugees were either immigrants themselves before 1948 or the children of immigrants. This historical fact reduces their claim to the land of Israel; it also reinforces the point that the real problem in the Middle East has little to do with Palestinian-Arab rights.”http://www.danielpipes.org/1110/from-time-immemorial
Part 3- The Palestinian Arabs already have a State in Jordan
The Jewish-Arab partition was already implemented when Jordan was created out of British Mandate Palestine. This happened at the same time (and was done by the same British Empire) than the India-Pakistan partition. The Palestinians already have a State in Jordan
The British planned the India-Pakistan Partition in 1947 to solve the Hindu-Muslim conflict, and also at about the same time planned the partition of British Mandate Palestine into an Arab Kingdom (Jordan) next to a Jewish State.
The concept of creating “two states for two peoples” was seen as the best solution by the British rulers in the 1940s. The British planned the India-Pakistan Partition in 1947 and the creation of Jordan as an Arab Kingdom next to Israel about the same time. Globalsecurity.org describes the history of the India-Pakistan partition of 1947.
“Mohammad Ali Jinnah, a Western-educated Muslim lawyer, persuaded the participants at the annual Muslim League session in Lahore in 1940 to adopt what later came to be known as the Pakistan Resolution, demanding the division of India into two separate sovereign states, one Muslim, the other Hindu.. On June 3, 1947, Mountbatten, the viceroy (1947) and governor-general (1947-48), announced plans for partition of the British Indian Empire into the nations of India and Pakistan, which itself was divided into east and west wings on either side of India. The June 3, 1947 Partition Plan was prepared by Mountbatten in consultation with the British Government. It was based on a fundamental principle that transfer of power should take place according to the wishes of the people.”
“The principle of partition was specified in the plan : The all Muslim majority areas were to constitute part of Pakistan and similarly the Hindu majority areas were to go to India…(2)” “…What followed was “ethnic cleansing” – a term that was to gain currency later in the 20th century…Partition unleashed untold misery and loss of lives and property as millions of Hindu and Muslim refugees fled either Pakistan or India…Partition resulted in the forced movement of 20 million people (Hindus and Sikhs to India and Muslims to Pakistan). Most estimates of the numbers of people who crossed the boundaries between India and Pakistan in 1947 range between 10 and 12 million.”
The same British who planned the India-Pakistan Partition in 1947 to solve the Hindu-Muslim conflict, also planned the partition of British Mandate Palestine into an Arab Kingdom (Jordan) next to a Jewish State. If Pakistan absorbed MILLIONS of Muslims from India, Jordan must absorb Palestinian refugees.
Why Muslims who escaped India during the Pakistan-India partition are not considered “refugees” today but Arabs who escaped Israel are?
The India-Pakistan partition was created with the idea of “Two States for two peoples” and it was understood Pakistan was supposed to absorb Muslim refugees from India, (at the SAME TIME) the British DELIBERATLY AND MALICIOUSLY SET ISRAEL FOR FAILURE when they separated Jordan from British Mandate Palestine without making it clear it was in the context of a “Two States for two peoples” framework under which JORDAN WAS EXPECTED TO ABSORB ARAB REFUGEES.
Before World War I Palestine was a part of the province of Southern Syria in the Ottoman Empire. In 1916, before WWI ended, the British and the French signed the secret Sikes-Pikot agreement defining their proposed spheres of influence in the Middle East if they won the war. According to the agreement France was allocated to Northern Iraq, Syria and Lebanon while the British would rule over Palestine and southern Iraq.
In 1920, following the provision of the Mandate to France and Britain at San Remo, the UK took control of British Mandate Palestine (Mandatory Palestine) in what is today Israel and Jordan, land captured from the Ottoman Empire.
The McMahon-Hussein correspondence reveals details of a secret deal between Sir Henry McMahon, High Commissioner of the UK in Egypt, and the Sharif of Mecca, Hussain Bin Ali, by which the British would give control of lands captured from the Ottoman Empire to the Sharif of Mecca’s family if the Arabs assisted the British in fighting the Turks during WWI.
In 1921 the UK created the Emirate of Transjordan (Jordan) in the land of Mandatory Palestine East from the Jordan river and appointed Abdullah, son of the Shariff of Mecca, as King of Jordan. (Britain also appointed Abdullah’s brother Faisal as King of Iraq). Jordan was officially under British Mandate Palestine and obtained independence in 1946.
In 1948 when the British Mandate of Palestine finished and the Jewish State of Israel was created, Iraq, Jordan and Egypt (all puppet Kingdoms from the UK) attacked the newborn Jewish State.
In 1948 British General Glubb Pasha lead the Jordanian Arab Legion commanded mostly by British Officers* to expel all the Jews from Hebron, East Jerusalem and the West Bank. Not only they did ethnic cleansing but they destroyed dozens of ancient synagogues and 60,000 Ancient Jewish Tombstones in the Sacred Ancient Jewish Cemetery of Mount of Olives to try to erase all evidence of Jewish History in the West Bank. In 1956, after his service in Jordan, the criminal General Glubb, responsible for ethnic cleansing of Jews, was knighted by the Queen. General Glubb was appointed Knight Commander of The Order of Bath by Queen Elizabeth.
Below is a list of British officers that commanded the Jordanian Arab Legion:
*(Divisional Headquarters (under Brigadier Lash), Artillery Batteries/troops (under Lt-Col Hearst),1st Brigade (under Col. Goldie), 1st Regiment (under Lt-Col. Blackden), 3rd Regiment (under Lt-Col Newman), 3rd Brigade (under Col. Ashton), 2nd Regiment (under Maj. Slade) (Details from Laffin (1982a), Lunt (1999), Collins & Lapierre (1972).
The Palestinian National Charter of 1964 defined Palestine as the pre-1967 territory of the State of Israel – specifically excluding the West Bank and eastern Jerusalem, claiming they belonged to Jordan. When the area was part of Jordan, the Palestinians affirmed they did not want that land. In 1967, Israel ended the Jordanian occupation of Judea and Samaria (that had started in 1948). In 1968 the Palestinians changed their charter to claim Judea and Samaria (besides, of course, the rest of Israel).
“Palestine and Jordan are one…” said King Abdullah in 1948.
“The truth is that Jordan is Palestine and Palestine is Jordan,”said King Hussein of Jordan, in 1981.
Jordan was created with land from British Mandate Palestine, 78% of the Jordanian population is Palestinian.
The Queen of Jordan is Palestinian, Jordan’s next King will be the son of a Palestinian.
Declaring that Jordan is Palestine seems to be supported by Saudi Arabia with fears the State of Palestine will be controled by Hamas. On June 30, 2022 David Singer wrote in Arutz 7 “Saudi Arabia has sent US President Joe Biden and the United Nations (UN) a clear message to abandon the idea of creating a new Arab State between Israel and Jordan in an article published in Al-Arabiya News on 8 June headlined: The Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine…MBS has not sought to publically distance himself from Shihabi’s article. Shihabi lays the groundwork for his proposal: “The Palestinian problem can only be solved today if it is redefined. The issue in this day and age for people should be not so much the ownership of ancestral land but more the critical need to have a legal identity—a globally respected citizenship that allows a person to operate in the modern world. Labor in this day and age is mobile and having citizenship in a country that facilitates such mobility is critical to human development. The most logical vehicle for this redefinition and hence for the solution to the Palestine problem is the kingdom of Jordan. Over the last seventy-five years, Jordan has developed into a relatively well-governed state, although the impact of regional political turmoil has caused it to fail economically and become heavily reliant on foreign aid for its survival. It is this Jordanian governance infrastructure that needs to be captured and put to productive use in integrating the millions of Palestinians and Jordanians into a modern, reasonably well-functioning state that would, in an era of real peace and economic integration with Jordan’s neighbors, have a much higher chance of growth and prosperity. “This proposed enlarged kingdom would include present-day Jordan, Gaza, and the ‘West Bank’ (areas populated by Palestinians attached in a contiguous manner and physically connected to Jordan, i.e., not broken up into islands).” Shihabi dismisses Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) and Jordan claims to be separate entities: “Jordanians and Palestinians are as similar as any people can be. They are Sunni Arabs from the same neighbourhood. Merging them will not create any long-term ethnic or sectarian fault lines.”
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/355782
Jordan was a British invention and continued to be a puppet Kingdom of Britain after the British carved it out of British Mandate Palestine in 1946.
On April 12, 2018 David Israel wrote in the Jewish Press ” Addressing the ninth annual Islamic Beit al-Maqdes (the term is borrowed directly from the Hebrew Beit HaMikdash – the Temple) International Conference, Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas said “Palestinians and Jordanians are one people in two states – Jordan and Palestine…”
If Israel’s sovereignty over Jerusalem is not recognized, Jordan’s sovereignty over Aman should not be recognized either since both were part of the Ottoman Empire before WW1.
The Jewish-Arab partition was already implemented when Jordan was created out of British Mandate Palestine. This happened at the same time (and was done by the same British Empire) than the India-Pakistan partition. The Palestinians already have a State in Jordan.
As Jordan’s previous King said “Jordan is Palestine”, Jordan must be part of the solution.
Non-Muslims are not allowed to vote in Saudi Arabia (and many other Islamic States), non-Jews who want to destroy the Jewish State should not be allowed to vote in Israel. Arabs can stay in the Jewish State as guest but should not be allowed to vote, if they want to vote they can go to Jordan. The Palestinians already have a State in Jordan.
Part 4 – Israeli Arabs, PA Arabs and Hamas are all part of the same Islamic Ummah; all reject the “Two State Solution” and share the same goal to destroy the Jewish State, they only differ in their tactics
Israeli Arabs, PA Arabs and Hamas reject the “Two State Solution” and share the goal to destroy the Jewish State, they only differ in their tactics.
1. Hamas
Hamas rejects the “2 State Solution” and wants Israel’s destruction. The Palestinian Media Watch translated an interview by one of Hamas founders Mahmoud al-Zahar to the Palestinian newspaper Al-Ayyam in which he said “transfer what it has [in Gaza] or just a small part of it to the West Bank, we would be able to settle the battle of the final promise [to destroy Israel] with a speed that no one can imagine…[Some] have said Hamas wants to create an Islamic emirate in Gaza. We won’t do that, but we will build an Islamic state in Palestine, all of Palestine…”
On June 20, 2010 Y-net news reported “…An official from the Palestinian organization, Mahmoud al-Zahar on Sunday urged the Palestinian Authority to instruct its staff to stop pursuing terror organizations and allow them to fire rockets at Israel from the West Bank. In an interview to Palestinian paper al-Quds, al-Zahar said the Gaza Strip has been liberated, “and the PA’s security apparatus should free our hands. In order to liberate Jerusalem and the West Bank, rockets must be fired from the West Bank. Why should this fire come only from the Strip?”
The Tower reported “…Al-Zahar responded by reinforcing Hamas’ commitment to the complete liberation of Palestine. “If we liberate Palestine though the resistance until the 1967 borders, we will go directly to liberate the rest of Palestine and the territories of 1948, and there will be no negotiations,” he said.
“If Hamas liberated 99.9% of the land of Palestine, it will not give up on the rest,” al-Zahar continued. He added, “We cannot religiously, morally or nationally give up on one inch of the land of Palestine.”
Al Zahar also said “Anyone who thinks that we will recognize the existence of the [Zionist] entity or the 1967 borders is deluded… Palestine stretches from the Egyptian border in the south to Lebanon in the north, and from Jordan in the east to the Mediterranean sea in the west, and we will never recognize anything less than this.”
2. Abbas’ Palestinian Authority
Abbas rejects the 2 State Solution”. On July 2013 Jonathan Tobin reported in Commentary Magazine that “While in Cairo yesterday to meet with Egypt’s new leaders, Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas let drop a few remarks about the peace negotiations with Israel that began in Washington last night. As the Times of Israel reports, Abbas left no doubt about what his vision of peace entails:
“In a final resolution, we would not see the presence of a single Israeli — civilian or soldier — on our lands,” Abbas said following a meeting with interim Egyptian President Adly Mansour in Cairo.
…The Abbas statement provides some important context for the key Israeli demand that the Palestinians refuse to accept: PA acknowledgement of the legitimacy of Israel as a Jewish state. If Palestinians think there is something racist about Israel being accepted as the sole Jewish state in the world, why is it OK for them to envision an independent state of their own where Jewish communities would have to be destroyed and their inhabitants be evicted?
…The Palestinian position remains that specific acceptance on their part of Israel as a Jewish state would undermine the rights of the Arab minority inside the pre-1967 lines and force them to make a judgment about the country’s internal arrangements. But the whole point of the conflict since its beginnings a century ago has always been the Arab rejection of the return of the Jews to their ancient homeland. If Palestinians are determined to create an independent state where there are no Jews, why then are they so afraid of agreeing that their neighbors will be a Jewish state?
The reason for this is no mystery.
More than any compromise on borders, accepting Israel as a Jewish state would be an open acknowledgement that the conflict is finished. It would mean the descendants of the Palestinian refugees of 1948 would have to be resettled elsewhere and all terrorism and efforts to erase Israel inside its contracted borders would cease.
The demand for recognition of a Jewish state is often represented as something new created by Prime Minister Netanyahu in order to make peace more difficult to achieve. But it should be remembered that the original United Nations partition resolution of 1947 spoke of the country being specifically divided between a Jewish state and an Arab one, not Israel and “Palestine.” The effort to deny the right of the Jewish people to a sovereign state in their own land is an act of prejudice since no other group in the world is treated in this manner.
…What Abbas is asking for is for Israel to be a bi-national state of Jews and Arabs while Palestine would be a solely Arab nation…”
Abbas rejects the two state solution. Lt. Col. (ret) Jonathan Halevi explained in the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs that Abbas supports a phased plan for Israel’s destruction “…Beneath the moderate guise that Abbas tries to project is a Palestinian leader who unreservedly supports terror and demands to implement what the Palestinians call the “right of return.”
…What the Palestinians mean by “right of return” according to Resolution 194 and the Arab Peace Initiative is simple enough and was ratified as an official law by the Palestinian parliament with Abbas’s approval.
According to the 2008 Law of the Right of Return of the Palestinian Refugees:
“The right of return of the Palestinian refugees to their homes and property, while receiving compensation for their suffering, is an inalienable and enshrined right that cannot be compromised, replaced, reconsidered, interpreted otherwise, or subjected to a referendum.
The right of return is natural, personal, collective, civil, political, passed on from father to son; it is not nullified by the passage of time or by the signing of any agreement and it cannot be abolished or waived in any way.
The Palestinian refugees shall not be resettled or displaced as an alternative to the right of return.
Anyone who violates the provisions of this Act shall be guilty of the crime of treason and will be subject to all criminal and civil penalties prescribed for this crime.
Anything that contradicts this law is considered null and void, and any legislation or agreement that will derogate from the right of return or contradict the provisions of this Act shall be deemed null and void.”
In other words, even after an Israeli withdrawal to 1967 borders and the establishment of a fully sovereign Palestinian state, the conflict will remain unchanged and Palestine will demand the “return” to Israel of the millions of refugees and their descendants. The Palestinian demand for “return” entails the transfer of millions of Jews from their homes and the end of the state of Israel…”
3. Israeli Arabs
On May 11, 2021 Aryeh Savir wrote in TPZ “Muslim mobs attacked Jewish targets in the city of Lod on Monday night, in an apparent show of solidarity with Hamas in the Gaza Strip, leaving behind scenes reminiscent of Nazi Germany in the 1930s.
As part of the attacks, the rioters pillaged synagogues, ransacked the houses of prayer and desecrated the Torah scrolls. In addition, they attacked Jewish schools in the city.
Israeli Arabs praise terrorist attacks against Jews. On March 25,2020 Arutz 7 reported “Joint List MK Sami Abu Shehadeh sent a video expressing his “appreciation” for the “heroic efforts” of the mothers of Palestinian Arab terrorists.
The video, first exposed by Makor Rishonreporter Assaf Gibor, was recorded in honor of Mother’s Day that was celebrated in the Arab world this past Saturday.”
During the war against Hamas the blog israellycool.com posted a video showing Israeli Arabs in Yaffo (Tel Aviv) celebrating rocket fire from Gaza… “People always argue with me that Yaffo is a place where Arabs and Jews get along and all is fine and dandy…most of the Arabs there support Hamas and as you can see they celebrate the rockets being fired from Gaza, while taking advantage of the protective measures we have in place for all citizens!…” (see the video) http://www.israellycool.com/2014/07/09/arabs-in-yaffo-tel-aviv-celebrate-hamas-rocket-fire-on-israel/
On March 23, 2020 Nadav Shragai wrote in Israel Hayom “Middle East scholar Professor Raphael Israeli, 84, one of the preeminent researchers on the Arabs of Israel, recently returned to Israel from a research trip abroad and went straight into coronavirus quarantine. But he is much more bothered by the political debate over how Arab Israelis will be represented politically. In contrast to widely publicized claims, Israeli sees a “clear trend of disconnect, not any desire to integrate into Israeli society” among Arabs.
He has been following the Arabs of Israel for nearly 60 years and knows them well. Over the years, the professor emeritus of Islamic, Middle East, and Chinese studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the University of Haifa has published dozens of books and studies on the Arab Israeli population. He has also represented the government on various committees and even taken part in countless discussions with them.
But now he is squarely against the possibility of any Zionist party depending – actively or passively – on the Joint Arab List in order to form a government. He sees what is occurring in Arab Israeli politics as “a serious decline,” and finds it difficult to understand why others can’t see what he sees: “Not increasing closeness at all, but rather Arab Israelis pulling away from Israeli-ness.”
“Let’s put our cards on the table: They say that Arab Israelis, who are 20% of the population, want to integrate, but they vote for a confederation of parties that define Israel as a state that commits theft and robbery. Arab MKs, including a few who are currently in the Knesset, supported the “Vision Document” for the Arabs of Israel back in 2006-7, and have never gone back on their support. People have forgotten, but these documents, whose representatives justify the right of return for Arabs even now, reject the idea of Arab Israeli identity and cling to the idea of the Palestinian people and the Arab nation.
“For them, Zionism is colonialism. Hanin Zoabi and Ayman Odeh have adopted this agenda, or something similar to it. Many more who identify with the parties that now make up the Joint Arab List embrace that same agenda. There is no process of moderation, only radicalization. The Joint Arab List is [a group of] isolationist parties that emphasize their Palestinian-hood rather than their Israeli-hood.”
On March 24, 2020 Dan Shueftan wrote in Israel Hayom “The vast majority of Arab Israeli voters cast ballots for the Joint Arab List. They are well aware of the fact that their political and public leadership rejects the legitimacy of the Jewish state, and openly expresses their understanding, sympathy and support for Israel’s enemies’ violence and attempts to undermine its foundations, existence and security.
…the Arab “vision documents,” which cast the Zionist enterprise as a colonialist project – not as a people returning to their homeland, over which a historical compromise must be reached. But instead, the Jews are seen as foreign occupiers that wants to enjoy the poisoned fruit of the worst crime in modern history, the sin of colonialism.
…This has led to the Palestinian leadership’s basic demand – which, not coincidentally, appears in the platform of the Joint Arab List: A “just solution” to the issue of Arab refugees and right of return in accordance with UN Resolution 194.
This demand is anchored in the view that the success of “Zionist colonialism” has interfered with justice and the world order, and seeks to restore them by turning back the clock. The way they see it, the heinous crime can be accepted for now – and that’s convenient when the Arabs are benefiting from the achievements of the Jews – but it cannot be legitimized or accepted as a permanent reality…”
There is no difference between Israeli Arabs, PA Arabs and Hamas, they are all part of the same Islamic Ummah; all share the same goal to destroy the Jewish State, they only differ in their tactics.
Israeli Arabs claim that Zionists are colonialists but many Israeli Arabs immigrated from other parts of the Middle East. On March 23, 2012 MEMRI reported “Hamas Minister of the Interior and of National Security Fathi Hammad Slams Egypt over Fuel Shortage in Gaza Strip, and Says: “Half of the Palestinians Are Egyptians and the Other Half Are Saudis” (Please see video in the link below)
Jews have been persecuted and expelled from most Middle East Countries and they managed to find refuge in Israel, a country smaller than New Jersey. Jimena.org reported that since 1948, 850,000 Jews have been expelled from Algeria, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Lybia, Lebanon, Morocco, Syria, Tunisia,Yemen and other Middle East Countries. Israel is the only safe heaven for Jewish refugees in the Middle-East and Jews cannot tolerate to be victims of antisemitic attacks in the Jewish Homeland.
There are 57 Islamic States in the Word (see OIC Members)with a collective population of 1.8 billion, there is only one Jewish State smaller than NJ with a population of 8 million.
The charter for the OIC (Organization for Islamic Cooperation says
“In the name of Allah, the most Compassionate, the most Merciful
We the Member States of the Organisation of Islamic
Cooperation, determined:
…to endeavour to work for revitalizing Islam’s pioneering role in the world while ensuring sustainable development, progress and prosperity for the peoples of Member States;
…to support the struggle of the Palestinian people, who are presently under foreign occupation, and to empower them to attain their inalienable rights, including the right to self-determination, and to establish their sovereign state with Al-Quds Al-Sharif [Jerusalem] as its capital, while safeguarding its historic and Islamic character, and the holy places therein;”
Palestinian Arabs join the 57 Islamic States as an integral part of the “Islamic Ummah” as the charter of the PA reveals in Article 1 “
“Text of the 1968 Charter:
Article 1: Palestine is the homeland of the Arab Palestinian people; it is an indivisible part of the Arab homeland, and the Palestinian people are an integral part of the Arab nation.”
Israeli Arabs, PA Arabs and Hamas are all part of the same Islamic Ummah; all reject the “Two State Solution” and share the same goal to destroy the Jewish State, they only differ in their tactics.
Part 4 – Jerusalem is the spiritual capital of Judaism, Mecca is the spiritual capital of Islam
On July 19, 2022 World Israel News reported “Gil Tamari was the first Israeli journalist to visit Mecca but instead of acclaim, he got massive criticism. Tamari reportedly snuck into Mecca to shoot a documentary, despite the fact that it’s forbidden for a non-Muslim to enter. Addressing Israeli viewers, pro-Israel and pro-normalization Saudi blogger Muhammad Saud, who has visited the Jewish state, published a video on Twitter, saying: “Your reporter entered the holy city of Mecca and photographed without shame. It is like me entering a synagogue and reading the Torah. “Channel 13, this is disgraceful and rude. You should be ashamed to insult the religion of Islam this way.” (Please see video below.)
Muslims not only feel insulted if a Jew enters Mecca, they also feel insultuded if Jews enter Jerusalem’s Temple Mount despite it being Judaism’s holiest site located in Jerusalem, the spirutal capital of Judaism. Jerusalem is the spiritual capital of Judaism while Mecca is the spiritual capital of Islam. Jews were not allowed to pray in the Western Wall during the Jordanian occupation of Jerusalem despite Jerusalem being the spiritual capital of Judaism and Mecca is the spiritual capital of Islam.
The Arabs conquested Jerusalem from the Byzantine Empire (Eastern Roman Empire) in 636 CE. Simon Sebag Montefiore describes, in his book Jerusalem, the Arab Conquest of the Eastern Roman Empire (Chapter 16, page 166) that Arabs built the Al Aqsa Mosque in Temple Mount to make Muslims the legitimate heirs of Jewish sanctity: “In 518, aged thirty-five, Justinian found himself the real ruler of the Eastern empire when his uncle Justin was raised to the throne…”
“Justinian demoted Judaism from a permited religion and banned Passover if it fell before Easter, converted synagogues into churches, forcibly baptized Jews, and commandeered Jewish History: in 537, when Justinian dedicated his breathtaking Church of Hagia Sophia (Holy Wisdom” in Constantinople, he is said to have reflected ‘Solomon, I have surpassed thee.’
“Then he turned to Jerusalem to trump Solomon’s Temple. In 543 Justinian and Theodora started to build a basilica, the Nea Church of St.Mary Mother of God, almost 400 feet long and 187 feet high, with walls 16 feet thick, facing away from the Temple Mount and designed to overpower Solomon’s site…
“The Holy City was ruled by the rituals of Orthodox Christianity… The city was set up to host thousands of pilgrims: the grandees stayed with the patriarch; the poor pilgrims in the dormitories of Justinian’s hospices which had beds for 3,000; and ascetics in caves, often old Jewish tombs, in the surrounding hills…
“…Heraclitus seized power (of the Bizantine Empire) in 610…Constantinople was besieged by the Persians ( then Zoroastrians)…(Heraclitus) outmanoeuvred the Persian forces …then defeated their main army…
“… In 632 Muhammad, aged about sixty-two, died (in Saudi Arabia) and was succeeded by his father in law, Abu Bakr…
“Abu Bakr managed to pacify Arabia. Then he turned to the Bizantine and Persian empires, which Muslims regarded as evanescent, sinful and corrupt. The Commander dispatched contingent of warriors on camels to raid Iraq and Palestine…in Mecca, Abu Bakr died and was succeeded by Omar…
” …Heraclitus dispatched an army to stop the Arabs…After months of skirmishing, the Arabs finally lured the Byzantines to battle amidst the impenetrable gorges of the Yarmuk river between today’s Jordan, Syria and Israeli Golan…and on August 636…
“Khalid cut of their retreat and by the end of the battle, the Christians were so exhausted that the Arabs found them lying down in their cloaks, ripe for the slaughter. Even the emperor’s brother was killed and Heraclitus himself never recovered from this defeat, one of the decisive battles in history, that lost Syria and Palestine. Byzantine rule, weakened by the Persian war, seems to have collapsed like a house of cards…
“The Arabs converged on the city which they called Ilya (Aelia Capitolina, the Roman name (for Jerusalem))… Omar offered Jerusalem a Covenant – dhimma- of Surrender that promised religious tolerance to the Christians in return for payment of jizya tax of submission. Once this was agreed, Omar set out for Jerusalem…
“Omar knew that Muhammad had revered David and Solomon. ‘Take me to the sanctuary of David,’ he ordered Sophronius (Jerusalem’s Christian Patriarch). He and his warriors entered Temple Mount, probably through the Prophet’s Gate in the south, and found it contaminated by ‘a dungheap which the Christians had put there to offend the Jews.
“Omar asked to be shown the Holy of Holies. A Jewish convert, Kaab al Ahbar, known as the Rabbi, replied that if the Commander preserved ‘the wall'(perhaps referring to the last Herodian remains, including the Western Wall), ‘I will reveal to him where are the ruins of the Temple.’
“Kaab showed Omar the foundation stone of the Temple, the rock which the Arabs called the Sakhra.Aided by his troops, Omar began to clear the debris to create somewhere to pray.
“Kaab sugested he place this north of the foundation stone ‘so you will face make two qiblas, that of Moses and that of Muhammad.’
“’You still lean towards the Jews,’ Omar supposedly told Kaab, placing his first prayer house south of the rock, roughly where the al-Aqsa Mosque stands today, so that it clearly faced Mecca.
“Omar had followed Muhammad’s wish to reach past Christianity to restore and co-opt this place of ancient holiness, to make Muslims the legitimate heirs of Jewish sanctity and outflank the Christians.” (Simon Sebag Montefiore “Jerusalem” page 166-184)
Al Aqsa is a symbol of Islamic supremacy over Judaism and Christianity.
Jerusalem is the Spiritual Capital of Judaism, Mecca is the spiritual capital of Islam. Jerusalem is to Judaism as Mecca is to Islam. Jews face Temple Mount in Jerusalem when praying, Muslims face Mecca even when in on around Temple Mount. Jerusalem was never the capital of Palestine or any other Arab State. Jerusalem was the capital of the Jewish Kingdom of Judea. Zionism-Israel.com describes that “[Jerusalem] was the capital city of Judea under the descendants of David and after the return from Babylonian exile. In the Jewish religion, Jerusalem is revered as the site of the ancient Temples built by King Solomon and rebuilt after the Persian exile and greatly renovated by Herod, but destroyed by Trajan about 70 AD. In ancient times, Jews would come to Jerusalem 3 times a year for key holidays. After destroying Jerusalem, Trajan returned to Rome in triumph and constructed a triumphal arch, with the inscription “Judea Capta” and bearing on it the booty he had captured from the Jewish Temple…”
Some Muslims claim the original Al Aqsa mosque was in Saudi Arabia not in Jerusalem. Israel Hayom reported “Al-Aqsa Mosque, the third-holiest site in Islam, is not located on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, Saudi lawyer and journalist Osama Yamani is claiming. In an article in the Saudi news outlet Okaz, Yamani claims that the mosque is actually located in Al Ju’ranah, near Mecca in Saudi Arabia.”
Besides Mecca, Muslims have other holy cities in Medina, Najaf, Karbala.
On May 2016 Elder of Zion wrote “According to Shia Islam, Najaf and Karbala are holier than Jerusalem with some even claiming that Karbala is holier than Mecca and Medina…Sufi Muslims have a completely different list of top holiest sites.
Describing the Al Aqsa Mosque as the third holiest site in Islam is simply wrong. At best, it is the third holiest site in Sunni Islam. (You can also argue about whether Mohammed was describing Jerusalem in his “night journey” story – it is not at all clear that he was.)…”
MECCA
“Mecca is a city in Saudi Arabia…As the birthplace of Muhammad and the site of Muhammad’s first revelation of the Quran (specifically, a cave 3 km (2 mi) from Mecca), Mecca is regarded as the holiest city in the religion of Islam…”
“The Hajj (Arabic: “pilgrimage”) is an annual Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca, and a mandatory religious duty for Muslims that must be carried out at least once in their lifetime by all adult Muslims who are physically and financially capable of undertaking the journey, and can support their family during their absence…there were approximately 2,000,000 pilgrims in 2015…”
MEDINA
Medina is a city in Saudi Arabia. The city contains al-Masjid an-Nabawi (“the Prophet’s Mosque”), which is the burial place of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, and is the second-holiest city in Islam after Mecca.
Medina was Muhammad’s destination after his Hijrah from Mecca, and became the capital of a rapidly increasing Muslim Empire, first under Muhammad’s leadership, and then under the first four Rashidun caliphs, Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman, and Ali. It served as the power base of Islam in its first century where the early Muslim community developed. Medina is home to the three oldest mosques, namely the Quba Mosque, al-Masjid an-Nabawi, and Masjid al-Qiblatayn (“the mosque of the two qiblas”). Muslims believe that the chronologically final surahs of the Quran were revealed to Muhammad in Medina, and are called Medinan surahs in contrast to the earlier Meccan surahs…
Medina’s importance as a religious site derives from the presence of al-Masjid an-Nabawi. The mosque was expanded by the Umayyad Caliph Al-Walid I. Mount Uhud is a mountain north of Medina which was the site of the second battle between Muslim and Meccan forces.
The first mosque built during Muhammad’s time is also located in Medina and is known as the Quba Mosque. It was destroyed by lightning, probably about 850 CE, and the graves were almost forgotten. In 892, the place was cleared up, the graves located and a fine mosque built, which was destroyed by fire in 1257 CE and almost immediately rebuilt. It was restored by Qaitbay, the Egyptian ruler, in 1487.[9]
Masjid al-Qiblatain is another mosque also historically important to Muslims. It is where the command was sent to Muhammad to change the direction of prayer (qibla) from Jerusalem to Mecca according to authentic Hadith…”
“…Though not a part of Hajj, pilgrims may choose to travel to the city of Medina and the Al-Masjid an-Nabawi (Mosque of the Prophet), which contains Muhammad’s tomb.[47] The Quba Mosque and Masjid al-Qiblatayn are also usually visited”
NAJAF
“Najaf is a city in Iraq ….Najaf is considered sacred by both Shi’a and Sunni Muslims. Najaf is renowned as the site of the tomb of Ali ibn Ab? Talib also known as “Imam Ali”, the First Imam of the Shiites, the cousin and son-in-law of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, whom the Shi’a consider to be the righteous caliph. Sunnis consider Ali the fourth Rashidun (rightly guided Caliphs). The city is now a center of pilgrimage from throughout the Shi’a Islamic world. It is estimated that only Mecca and Medina receive more Muslim pilgrims. As the burial site of Shi’a Islam’s second most important figure,[7] the Imam Ali Mosque is considered by Shiites as the third holiest Islamic site”
“…The Secretariat General of the Holy Shrine of Imam Ali in Najaf province assured that the number of the pilgrims who visited the province on Eid al-Fitr reached up to million visitors.
The Director of the Media Department within the Holy Shine’s administration stated to IraqiNews.com “The number of the visitors who headed to the holy shrine of Imam Ali in Najaf during the Eid al-Fitr occasion reached more than a million.”
Meshed_ali_usnavy_(PD)
KARBALA
“Karbala is a city in Iraq….The city, best known as the location of the Battle of Karbala (680), is believed to be the holiest city for Shia Muslims before Mecca, Medina and the noble sanctuary in Jerusalem because tens of millions of Shia Muslims visit the site twice a year, which is more than the total Shia visitors of Mecca, Medina and Jerusalem combined (see list of largest peaceful gatherings in history). Karbala is home to the Imam Hussein Shrine. Karbala is famous as the site of the martyrdom of Hussein ibn Ali (Imam Husain), and commemorations are held by millions of Shias annually to remember it. Karbala is considered sacred by Shias[2] and rivals Mecca as a place of pilgrimage…”
“The Arbaeen Pilgrimage is the largest religious gathering that is held every year.[1][2] It is held at the end of the 40-day mourning period following Ashura, the religious ritual for the commemoration of the Prophet Mohammad’s grandson Hossein ibn Ali’s death in 680.[3][4] Arba’een marks a “pivotal event in history”[5] in which the pilgrims make their journey to Karbala on foot,[6] where Husayn ibn Ali, the third Imam of Shia, and his army were killed and beheaded by the army of Yazid I.[1] Some of the pilgrims make their journey from cities as far as Basra, about 500 km away by road…Over 19 million people from 40 countries of the world participate in this occasion…”
The word Jerusalem comes from the Hebrew “Yirah-Shalem” (Perfect Fear) founded by King David as described in the Bible. The Muslims want to rename Jerusalem with the Arab name Al-Quds the same way they renamed Constantinople to Istambul. The Arabs call it “Al-Quds” because they don’t speak hebrew and need to rename it in Arabic. Many other cities that the Arabs claim also have Hebrew names: Hebron (described in the Bible as the city where the Jewish Patriarcs Abraham, Itzac and Yaakov (but not the Muslim Prophet Muhammad) are buried). The name “Judaism” comes from “Judea”, the name of the Kingdom that was located where today is the West Bank named after “Judah” one of the sons of the Jewish Patriarch Jacob.
The Romans renamed the Jewish Kingdom of Judea with the name “Palestine” after the Bar Kochba revolt. The Jewish Virtual Library describes “In the 2nd century CE, the Romans crushed the revolt of Shimon Bar Kokhba (132 CE), during which Jerusalem and Judea were conquered, and the area of Judea was renamed Palaestina in an attempt to minimize Jewish identification with the land of Israel. According to Lewis Feldman, the appellation was likely chosen because it was common to use the name of the “nearest and most accessible tribe.”
The Jewish Virtual Library explains “…the Philistines were a non-Semitic people who left Crete and arrived in Canaan at the beginning of the 12th century B.C.E. The Philistines inhabited the Mediterranean coast of Canaan during the period of the Book of Judges…”
Until 1948 Jews were a majority of the population in Jerusalem. On December 11, 2017 Amb. Dore Gold wrote in the Jerusalem Center of Public Affairs “By the mid-19th century, the British Consulate in Jerusalem made the following determination, according to this report, which I found in the Public Record Office in Kew, it states that Jews were a majority in Jerusalem, when? already in 1863 – that’s long before Theodor Herzl, before the Britt’s arrived, or Lord Balfour.”
“See the guy on the right, William Seward, he was Secretary of State of the United States during the American civil war, under President Abraham Lincoln.
“When Seward’s term ended, he visited the holy land, he visited Jerusalem. And he wrote a memoir. And in his memoir, it is written, ‘There is a Jewish majority in Jerusalem.'”
http://jcpa.org/video/origins-name-palestine/
See William Seward, Travels Around the World (1873)
Jews were a majority of the population in Jerusalem until they were expelled by the Jordanian Arab Legion in 1948. In 1948 British General Glubb Pasha lead the Jordanian Arab Legion to expel all the Jews from Hevron, East Jerusalem and the ‘West Bank’. Not only they did ethnic cleansing but they destroyed dozens of ancient synagogues and thousands of Ancient Jewish Tombstones in the Sacred Ancient Jewish Cemetery of Mount of Olives to try to erase all evidence of Jewish History.
The Jewish Virtual Library reports “Before the United Nations voted in favor of the Partition Plan on November 29, 1947, the Arab Legion of Jordan attacked Jerusalem.
Their forces blocked Jerusalem’s roads and cut off the city’s access to water.
After bitter fighting, the Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem’s Old City fell to the vastly superior arms and numbers of the Arab Legion. The surviving Jewish inhabitants fled to the “New City,” the four-fifths of the capital that Israel successfully held.
The Old City, including the Jewish Quarter, officially fell to Jordan on May 27, 1948.
Nearly twenty years later, during the 1967 Six-Day War, Israel’s army liberated Jerusalem’s Old City, finding the area completely neglected and virtually destroyed.
… All but one of the thirty five synagogues within the Old City were destroyed; those note completely devastated had been used as hen houses and stables filled with dung-heaps, garbage and carcasses.
The revered Jewish graveyard on the Mount of Olives was in complete disarray with tens of thousands of tombstones broken into pieces to be used as building materials and large areas of the cemetery leveled to provide a short-cut to a new hotel.
Hundreds of Torah scrolls and thousands of holy books had been plundered and burned to ashes…”
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jordan-s-desecration-of-jerualem-1948-1967
Lyn Julius comments about George Bensoussan’ book Juifs en pays arabes: le grand deracinement 1850 – 1975:
“…Bensoussan, threatens to stand the notion of ”Jewish colonialism” on its head: it is the Jews who lived under Muslim rule who were the true victims of colonialism…By the time the Arab conquerors had swept over the Middle East and North Africa, the Jews had been living in the region for 1,000 years…Under Islam, according to the eighth-century Pact of Omar, indigenous Jews and Christians were permitted to practise as long as they acquiesced to the ”dhimmi” condition of inferiority and institutionalised humiliation…”
“… Bensoussan observes that the Islamic order was built on a ”colonial” notion – submission. The Muslim submits to Allah, the Muslim woman submits to her husband, the non-Muslim dhimmi submits to the Muslim. At the very bottom of the pile is the slave… He produces incontrovertible evidence that, 100 years before Israel was established, most Jews in Arab and Muslim lands lived in misery and fear….Jews were regularly mobbed, robbed, their possessions looted, beaten up on the slightest pretext, or false charge brought by a jealous neighbour. Jews were feminised in the Muslim imagination – cowardly, submissive, unable to stand up for themselves.
“…Bensoussan”s great achievement is not just to blow out of the water the myth of Arab-Jewish coexistence predating the creation of Israel, but unfashionably to place the colonial boot on the Arab foot…A sovereign Jewish state in the land of Israel begins to look like the liberation of a colonized, indigenous people from 14 centuries of subjugation…”
Jerusalem’s Temple Mount is not the only non-Muslim holy site occupied by Muslims. As Bensoussan wrote the Jews living under Muslim rule were the true victims of colonialism. But not only Jews were colonized by invading Islamic armies Copts, Orthodox Christians, Hindus and Buddhist were also subjugated. Below is a list of Jewish, Christian, Hindu and Buddhist Holy Sites that have been desecrated by invading Islamic Armies or converted into Mosques to make a statement of the supremacy of Islam over other religions:
1. Temple Mount in Jerusalem.
Holiest site for Judaism. Site of the two Jewish Temples. The Muslims built two mosques there. The Temple Mount is to Judaism as Mecca is to Islam, Jews around the world face Temple Mount when they pray, Muslims face Mecca even when on or around Temple Mount. Despite having their holiest site safe and secure in Mecca Muslims desecrate Jewish archaeology in Temple Mount and built their Mosques there. Today Arabs do not allow Jews to pray in the Temple Mount, during the Jordanian occupation of Jerusalem (1948-1967) Jews were not allowed to pray in the Western Wall either.
2. Cave of the Patriarchs in Hevron.
The Jewish Patriarchs Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are undeniably buried there. The Muslims built a mosque there.
3. There are 2000 Hindu Temples in India that were converted to mosques.
During the reign of Aurangzeb, tens of thousands of temples were desecrated: their facades and interiors were defaced and their divine images looted. In many cases, temples were destroyed entirely; in numerous instances mosques were built on their foundations, sometimes using the same stones. Among the temples Aurangzeb destroyed were two that are most sacred to Hindus, in Varanasi and Mathura. In both cases, he had large mosques built on the sites.
Please see Sita Ram Goel’s book in the link below for a detailed account…
http://voiceofdharma.org/books/htemples2/
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/8185990034/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_hsch_vapi_taft_p1_i1
4. The Babri Mosque in Ayodhya (North India) was built on the site of a Hindu Temple. In 1992 a mob of 150,000 Hindus razed the mosque. Nobel Laureate writer V. S. Naipaul has praised the act for “reclaiming India’s Hindu heritage”.
5. The great temple of Keshava Rai at Mathura was one of the most magnificent hindu temples ever built in India. The Temple was demolished in 1670 and on its site a mosque was built.
6. The Somnath Temple in India: destroyed by Muslim invaders and converted into a mosque. In AD 1025, Mahmud destroyed and looted the temple, killing over 50,000 people who tried to defend it. After independence, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel pledged on November 13, 1947, that the temple would be reconstructed. The mosque was not destroyed but carefully relocated. In 1951 Dr. Rajendra Prasad performed the consecration ceremony. The temple construction was completed on December 1, 1995. The then President of India, Dr. Shankar Dayal Sharma, dedicated it to the nation.”
7. Kashi or Varanasi is the most sacred site in Hinduism and the worship of Lord Shiva as Vishveshvara goes back to ancient times. The temple was demolished several times by Muslim invaders, and was reconstructed again and again by Hindu kings. A mosque was built which still stands.
8. A surge in church-mosque conversion followed the 1974 Turkish Invasion of Cyprus. Many of the Orthodox churches in Northern Cyprus have been converted to mosques.
9. Hundreds of Greek Orthodox churches in Turkey were converted into mosques. Hagia Sophia, the seat of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, was converted into a mosque, and then, in order not to return it to the Christians, into a museum where until today Christians are forbidden to pray. (Erdogan has resumed Muslim prayers at the site)
http://www.asianews.it/news-en/Erdogan’s-game:-Koran-read-in-Hagia-Sofia-for-first-time-since-Ataturk-41115.html
10. The Grand Mosque of Damascus, also known as the Umayyad Mosque, was converted from a church dedicated to John the Baptist in 705
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/1496/mosques-on-sacred-sites-of-defeated-enemies
11. Ezekiel’s tomb in Iraq.
The 2500 year old tomb of the prophet Ezekiel used to be a common pilgrimage site for Iraki Jews. In 1860 the local Arabs tried to take the site from the Jews but the British government intervened and ruled that the site belonged to the Jews. Diarna.org reported … “In 2003, the Torah scrolls belonging to the synagogue along with other books were stolen from the synagogue and have not yet been recovered [6]… In 2010, a Hebrew inscription was erased by Iraqi workers who were renovating the neighboring mosque [8]…”
http://archive.diarna.org/site/detail/public/904/
Ariel Arkham reported in the American Thinker “…The Jerusalem Post and various watchdog groups have reported that the Iraqi Cultural and Antiquities Authority are implementing plans to erect a mosque on top of Ezekiel’s Tomb. Last month, the process began as the ancient Hebrew inscriptions adorning the inside of the Tomb were defaced, perhaps irrevocably, and covered over by plaster.
With the not-so-distant memory of the Taliban’s destruction of Buddhist statuary in Afghanistan still in mind, the impending Islamification of the Jewish shrine of the Tomb might seem like the product of a uniquely modern cultural phenomenon. But in reality, the history of Ezekiel’s Tomb reflects the millennial ebb and flow of Islamic power…”
12. The Tomb of the prophet Jonah in Mosul (Irak).
On July 24, 2017 Sigal Samuel wrote in the Atlantic about the destruction of Jonah’s tomb in Mosul “As we saw the first images of Jonah’s Tomb destroyed in Mosul on July 24, 2014, we felt shocked and deeply uneasy… It was believed to be the final resting place of the biblical prophet Jonah, who got swallowed by a whale and who warned inhabitants of the Assyrian city of Nineveh (now Mosul) that God would destroy them if they did not repent for their sins…it was a constant, potent symbol. Overlooking the city, it reminded all Maslawis of the interconnectedness of Iraq’s diverse religious populations. It was the antithesis of sectarianism. As such, ISIS’s decision to blow it up read as an attempt to erase the shared history of the many religious populations that Mosul housed…Sigal was raised in a family of Iraqi Jews, but has never been able to visit Iraq. Desperate to escape the persecution that followed the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, her grandfather fled Iraq, along with almost the entire Jewish population. Despite never having seen Jonah’s Tomb, she felt it was a constitutive part of her history and personal identity. She grew up hearing the Book of Jonah read in synagogue on Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish calendar. The tomb was a visible reminder that Jews had flourished in Iraq for centuries: Mosul was once home to many synagogues, although they are now reportedly used as garbage dumps…”
13. Destruction of Joseph’s tomb.
In 2000 the Palestinians destroyed Joseph’s tomb. Sidney Brounstein wrote for the Los Angeles Times “Oct. 8: Where is the outrage? Imagine what would have happened if Jewish police stood by and allowed a Jewish mob to destroy a Muslim holy place! Does the destruction of a Jewish holy place by an Arab mob while Palestinian police stand by (after promising to protect it) deserve no more than inclusion in a list of other damage done by rioters? Is this an acceptance of attacks on Jews and things Jewish as a normal part of life?”
“It makes a mockery of any thought of giving Arabs any control of Jewish holy places. The destruction of dozens of such places in the Old City of Jerusalem from 1948 to 1967, along with the exclusion of Jews entirely from their most holy site, the Western Wall, was clearly of a piece with the current destruction.”
http://articles.latimes.com/2000/oct/10/local/me-34308
14. Destruction of Daniel’s tomb.
Prophet Daniel has two possible tombs: one in Iran, one in Irak-both were destroyed.
The Complete Pilgrim reports “Daniel’s service to the Babylonian and Persian rulers was instrumental in keeping the Jews intact as a people. Undoubtedly he used his influence to minimize their hardships, though he also was of genuine use to the foreign sovereigns he served. His efforts also helped to lay the groundwork of friendly relations between the Jews and the Persians that lasted well into the 19th century. Amazingly, his political achievements were dwarfed by his abilities as a prophet, at least from a Biblical perspective. Daniel spent the last years of his life in the city of Susa, where he died and was buried around the time that the Babylonian Captivity came to an end.”
Christian News reported about the destruction of Daniel’s tomb in Irak “Al-Sumaria News also reported on Thursday that local Mosul official Zuhair al-Chalabi told the outlet that ISIS likewise “implanted explosives around Prophet Daniel’s tomb in Mosul and blasted it, leading to its destruction.”
15. Ezra’s tomb in Irak.
The Complete Pilgrim reported “Ezra, on the other hand, was more focused on the restoration of the Jewish religion and heritage, which had grown lax since in captivity. He personally led five thousand Jews back to Judea, after which he read the entire Torah to the populace of Jerusalem in an effort to inspire and reinvigorate them spiritually. Later, he established the precursor to the council of the Sanhedrin which would later become the supreme religious authority of the Jewish people. According to some scholars, it was Ezra who finalized the composition and canon of the books which later became the Hebrew Bible. For all of these accomplishments, he is considered by many to be the father of Judaism as we know it. In later years he spent much time traveling back and forth between Judea and Mesopotamia, inspiring his fellow Jews to return. He died in Mesopotamia sometime in the late 5th century BC. His shrine was one of the most venerated sites in Iraq until the 20th century, when most of the local Jews emigrated to Israel.”
http://thecompletepilgrim.com/tomb-ezra/
On February 15, 2015 Israel Today reported “Arab media last week reported that Islamist forces operating in the south of the country had seized control of an ancient shrine revered as the tomb of the biblical scribe and priest Ezra.
Pan-Arab news website Al-Araby reported that the militants had destroyed large portions of the shrine, which included both a synagogue and a mosque, and now intend to use it as their headquarters in southern Iraq.
According to Al-Araby, the terrorists had cut off all access to the Tomb of Ezra to prevent journalists from reporting on their conquest and destruction of the holy site…”
http://www.israeltoday.co.il/NewsItem/tabid/178/nid/26053/Default.aspx
16. Tomb of Samuel near Jerusalem.
Arabs built a mosque next to the tomb and disrupt Jewish prayers there. Please see video below…
17. Rachel’s Tomb near Jerusalem.
On November 8, 2010 Nadav Shragai wrote in JCPA
“UNESCO has declared that Rachel’s Tomb near Jerusalem is the Bilal ibn Rabah mosque – endorsing a Palestinian claim that first surfaced only in 1996 and which ignores centuries of Muslim tradition.As opposed to the Temple Mount and the Cave of the Patriarchs which also serve as the location of mosques, Rachel’s Tomb never served as a mosque for the Muslims. The Muslim connection to the site derives from its relation to Rachel and has no connection to Bilal ibn Rabah, Mohammed’s first muezzin.Rachel’s Tomb, located some 460 meters south of Jerusalem’s municipal boundary, has been identified for over 1,700 years as the grave of the Jewish matriarch Rachel. Many generations of Jews have visited the place for prayer. The depiction of Rachel’s Tomb has appeared in thousands of Jewish religious books, paintings, photographs, stamps, and works of art.”
http://jcpa.org/article/rachel%E2%80%99s-tomb-a-jewish-holy-place-was-never-a-mosque/
18. The Budhist Naranda University in India.
The Muslim persecution of Budhist started in the 12th century when Muslim invaders destroyed Budhism in India. In 1193 the Budhist Naranda University in India was destroyed by Muslim invaders “N?land? (Hindi/Sanskrit/Pali: ??????) is the name of an ancient center of higher learning inBihar, India. The site of Nalanda is located in the Indian stateof Bihar, about 55 miles south east of Patna, and was a Buddhist center of learning from 427 to 1197 CE. It has been called “one of the first great universities in recorded history…Nalanda University was one of the first universities in the world, founded in the 5th Century BC, and reported to have been visited by the Buddha during his lifetime. At its peak, in the 7th century AD, Nalanda held some 10,000 students and 2000 teachers when it was visited by the Chinese scholar Xuanzang…The library of Nalanda, known as Dharma Gunj (Mountain of Truth) or Dharmagañja(Treasury of Truth), was the most renowned repository of Buddhist knowledge in the world at the time. Its collection was said to comprise hundreds of thousands of volumes, so extensive that it burned for months when set aflame by Muslim invaders…Nalanda was sacked by Turkic Muslim invaders under Bakhtiyar Khalji in 1193, a milestone in the decline of Buddhism in India. The great library of Nalanda University was so vast that it is reported to have burned for three months after the Mughals set fire to it, sacked and destroyed the monasteries, and drove the monks from the site…”
https://nalandauniversity.wordpress.com/about/
On March 12, 2001 the Telegraph reported “THE world’s two largest standing Buddhas – one of them 165ft high – were blown up by the Taliban in Afghanistan at the weekend.
A Buddha of Bamiyan statue stands over 150 feet high above a small town situated at the foot of the Hindu Kush mountains of central Afghanistan, prior to its destruction
After failing to destroy the 1,700-year-old sandstone statues of Buddha with anti-aircraft and tank fire, the Taliban brought a lorryload of dynamite from Kabul. A Western observer said: “They drilled holes into the torsos of the two statues and then placed dynamite charges inside the holes to blow them up.”
The operation to wreck the statues carved into a cliff in the Bamiyan Valley in the Hindu Kush mountains of central Afghanistan was supervised by Mullah Obaidullah, the Taliban defence minister. There has been an international outcry since Mullah Mohammed Omar, the Taliban leader, issued a special edict on Feb 26 ordering the destruction of all non-Islamic statues.”
Part 5 – Israel cannot survive without defensible borders
Brig.-Gen. (res.) Yossi Kuperwasser explained in JCPA that Israel will not have defensible borders without control of Judea and Samaria “ Israel’s security concerns justify its demand for defensible borders, which are the military manifestation of the reference in UN Security Council Resolution 242 to the right of Israel, as any other country, to “secure and recognized boundaries.”
“…As detailed in this comprehensive analysis, from a national security and military point of view, defensible borders are those that allow Israel to effectively defend itself by itself – to deter, thwart, prevent the development, and supply timely early warning against all potential military threats involving all possible dimensions…
“Israel has a very narrow width and a small population compared with that of its current and potential adversaries. It lacks strategic depth and its armed forces have to rely on reservists to be able to perform its mission, especially in time of war.
” Its most densely populated areas are very close to territories populated by people who have been exposed to ongoing hate indoctrination against it.
“The topography along the center of the country includes a mountain ridge that overlooks and dominates the coastal plain in the west and the very deep Jordan Valley in the east.
“The regimes and countries around Israel suffer from inherent instability and some of them are failed states. Some of Israel’s enemies are determined to wipe it off the map.
“Moreover, some of these enemies, especially Iran, have vast resources and are able to acquire advanced weaponry either through arms purchases from leading arms producers or through local production.
“All of these components have to be taken into account while drawing Israel’s defensible borders. It is true, of course, that Israel has impressive military capabilities, but if they are not deployed in the right locations, their effectiveness may be significantly compromised.
“For example, Israel’s military deployment has to enable it to thwart attempts to bring in weapons (including rockets and drones) and trained terrorists or foreign military forces to the Palestinian-controlled areas of the West Bank from across the Jordan River.
“This mission cannot be accomplished without Israel being able to deploy its forces in areas close to the river and on the eastern slopes of the mountain ridge dominating the Jordan River valley for purposes of observation and intelligence gathering that are necessary for permanent early warning and to thwart such attempts before they cause any damage. This will allow Israel to distance its population centers and critical infrastructure from these possible threats. In addition to “boots on the ground,” Israel will require full control over the airspace above the entire territory of the West Bank as well as control of the electromagnetic spectrum to guarantee that it is able to deal effectively with any threat…
“This does not mean that this deployment can hermetically prevent any infiltration of the border, but it should guarantee that any attempt to cross into the territory from the east, even if it is part of multi-front hostile activities, is met by sufficient power in time to prevent any considerable damage to the security of Israel and its population, even if the early warning is not perfect. Moreover, Israeli military presence has a strategically important effect on deterrence and stabilization beyond the eastern border.
“There have been various suggestions and creative ideas raised to establish a border along the 1967 lines with some local changes and to replace Israel’s military presence in some of the critical areas with foreign forces or to rely on electronic detection devices alone. However, this cannot provide Israel with adequate defense. Israeli forces have to be present on the ground to take immediate action against imminent threats. Israel cannot rely on foreign forces, and detection devices can at best give some early warning or signal in real time that the border has been penetrated, but these devices cannot do much about it. The idea that Israeli intelligence collection assets will be deployed in strategically important locations but access to these locations will be through Palestinian-controlled areas, is simply not feasible.
“The same is true when it comes to preventing terror and other military threats from within the territory controlled by the Palestinians. If Israel deploys it As forces more or less along the ’67 lines, it is not going to be able to protect its main cities and infrastructure and collect the information necessary for that purpose. Moreover, it is not going to be able to prevent significant deliveries of arms to the Palestinian-controlled territories or the local production of various weapons inside these territories.
“The argument that Israel’s armed forces are much stronger than the Palestinians and therefore it can afford to move to less defensible borders in the context of a peace agreement – and if this agreement is violated by the Palestinians Israel can recapture the territory – is baseless too. First of all, under such conditions, the Palestinians will be able to accumulate a considerable number of arms and military capabilities before they trigger hostilities, and once they do, recapturing the territory is going to be very costly in terms of casualties, not only to Israeli troops but also to the Israeli civilian population and critical infrastructure. Fighting a hybrid force that has both terror and conventional (and perhaps unconventional) capabilities that is fighting behind human shields is a huge challenge for every modern army. As long as many Palestinians continue to support the plan of fighting Israel in phases over time and regard the complete defeat of Zionism as their ultimate goal, any such moves that enable this are extremely irresponsible. The case of Gaza is an illuminating precedent, as are Afghanistan, Vietnam, Lebanon, Sinai, Somalia, and other arenas.
“To sum up, the only border that may be regarded as defensible for the central region of the State of Israel is the Jordan Valley, with Israel maintaining military control of the eastern slopes of Judea and Samaria mountain ridge and of the main roads leading from west to east to enable free movement of Israel’s armed forces to the border area. This should go along with Israeli control of the airspace and the electromagnetic spectrum. The Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff in 1967, General Earle Wheeler, clarified that to have defensible borders, Israel’s boundary must be along the commanding terrain overlooking the Jordan Valley.”
If a Palestinian State is formed in Judea and Samaria, Jordan will not be able to prevent weapon smuggling. Most of the Jordanian population and political leaders will be sympathetic with the Palestinian government. If the Hashemite King tries to prevent weapon smuggling into the West Bank, the Jordanian population and the Jordanian Parliament will revolt against the King.
Contrary to Egypt, the Jordanian Government does not have the popular or political support to oppose Hamas. The Hashemite Kingdom will not have the political or popular support to prevent weapon smuggling into the West Bank if a Palestinian State is formed there.
If a Palestinian State is created it will be ruled by Hamas. Who would prevent Hamas from smuggling weapons (perhaps even a nuclear dirty bomb) into Judea and Samaria if Israel withdraws?
Hamas repeatedly and openly declared the future Palestinian State will not be “peaceful”. Hamas promised to use any land in Judea and Samaria to attack Israel as they do from Gaza to create a Palestinian State “from the river to the sea”.
Especially now that, because of Obama, Iran is about to obtain nuclear weapons not applying sovereignty in Judea and Samaria will be suicidal for Israel. A Palestinian State will not be demilitarized, Hamas will attack Israel from Judea and Samaria as they do from Gaza making normal life in Israel impossible.
Ezequiel Doiny is author of “Obama’s assault on Jerusalem’s Western Wall” and “Jerusalem is the Spiritual capital of Judaism while Mecca is the Spiritual Capital of Islam”
