The Real History of Israel and Palestine – Pt. 2

This is Part 2 of a two-part series on the Palestinian problem. In Part 1 we began examining the lies (or, if you prefer, the more politically correct disinformation) being told about Israel’s history and its right to the land now called Palestine. God promised Abraham and his descendants (Israel) in Genesis:12:3And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.
See All... to bless those who bless Israel and curse those who curse Israel. While God used foreign invaders as a tool of judgment against Israel (Hos 9 – 12; Isa 8; 2 Kgs 17-25, 2 Chron 32-36, Jer 21, 22, 25, 27-28, 32, 34), He always subsequently destroyed those tools. Will America be a tool of judgment, or will we be blessed because we blessed Israel?

Many justice-minded Christians may not be aware of the historical lies being said about Israel and are thus contributing to anti-Zionism –– what Rabbi Sacks calls “the new anti-Semitism.” Speaking at the 2013 American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) Policy Conference, Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks addressed the cultural path to legitimizing the new anti-Semitism: I tell you that what we grew up with – “Never Again” –– is beginning to sound like “Ever Again.” And at the heart of it is hostility to Israel. . . . In the Middle Ages, Jews were hated because of their religion. In the 19th century and the 20th they were hated because of their race. Today, when it’s no longer done to hate people for their religion or their race, today they are hated because of their state. The reason changes but the hate stays the same. Anti-Zionism is the new anti-Semitism.

There are seven historical facts about Israel and Palestine that everyone needs to know:

1) The Palestinians have had numerous opportunities to create an independent state but have repeatedly rejected them.

2) The bulk of land acquired by Zionists prior to 1929 was purchased legally from large, predominately absentee, landowners like the Levantine Sursock family.

3) The name “Israel” appears in several key, pre-Christian archealogical finds including the 2nd millennium BC (2000 BC to 1001 BC) Merneptah Stele, which speaks of Israel in Canaan.

4) The name “Palestine” doesn’t appear until 5th century BC, when the Greek historian Herodotus first references “Palestine,” which is derived from the word “Philistia,” which is a reference to the Philistines’ past existence on the southern coast of Canaan.

5) In the area known today as Palestine, there has never been a state that was not Jewish and there has never been an Arab, Palestinian, or Muslim state. The Jews are aboriginal to the land of Israel. The Palestinians are aboriginal to Arabia.

6) Despite claims by Yasser Arafat that “Palestine [in 1881–– the beginning of the Zionist invasion according to Arafat] was a verdant area, inhabited mainly by an Arab people,” historical records demonstrate something very different. Below are just a few examples. Emphasis Mine]

The first official public census, taken by the Turks in 1844, revealed a Jewish population of 7,120, as opposed to 5,760 Moslems.

In 1785, the French historian Constantine Francois Volney described the state of Palestine as “ruined” and “desolate.”

In 1857, the British consul in Palestine, James Finn, reported back to England: “The country is in a considerable degree empty of inhabitants, and therefore its greatest need is that of a body of population.”

In 1867, Mark Twain wrote in The Innocents Abroad: “Stirring senses… occur in this valley no more. There is not a solitary village throughout its whole extent – not for thirty miles in either direction.” He goes on to describe Galilee, Judea, and around Jerusalem as deserts devoid of population. And for the country as a whole: “Palestine sits in sackcloth and ashes. Over it broods the spell of a curse that has withered its fields and fettered its energies… Palestine is desolate and unlovely… It is hopeless, dreary, heartbroken land.”

The city of Jerusalem is not mentioned anywhere in the Koran, whereas in the Bible it is mentioned 667 times in the Old Testament and 139 times in the New. The only Islamic reference to Jerusalem is in the Hadith literature –– a record of the words, actions, and approvals of the prophet Muhammed. Muslims have no scriptural right to the city. In fact, the Koran even states that the Holy Land belongs to the Jews.

All we have to do is turn to the Qur’an, Surah 5:20-21: And ˹remember˺ when Moses said to his people, “O my people! Remember Allah’s favours upon you when He raised prophets from among you, made you sovereign, and gave you what He had never given anyone in the world. O  my people! Enter the Holy Land which Allah has destined for you ˹to enter˺. And do not turn back or else you will become losers.”

If Muslims have no scriptural right to Jerusalem, then why do they insist on controlling it? According to Sharam Hadian of Truth In Love Ministry, Jerusalem is only sacred in Islam because they conquered it in A.D. 637. In fact, Islam has absolutely nothing in common with Christianity and Judaism. They believe the exact opposite of the Abrahamic Covenant (Gen:12:1Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee:
See All...–3; 15; 17:9–14; Deut 30: 1-10). They believe Abraham took Ishmael (not Issac) to Mecca (not Mt. Moriah) to sacrifice him as God commanded. But according to the Answering Islam website: the Quran itself states that the prophetic line came through Isaac, not Ishmael: “And we bestowed on him Isaac and Jacob, and we established the prophethood and the scripture among his seed” (29:27). Neither does the Quran say that Allah established a covenant with Ishmael and his descendants.

The Muslim scholar Yusuf Ali adds the word “Abraham” and changes the meaning as follows: “we gave (Abraham) Isaac and Jacob, and ordained among his progeny prophethood and revelation.” By adding in Abraham, Yusuf tries to include Muhammad in the prophetic line, but is in fact only more clearly defining Isaac’s lineage. Abraham’s name is not found in the arabic text of the Quran, which Muslims consider to be perfectly preserved.

In addition to God’s warning in Genesis:12:3And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.
See All... that He will curse those who curse Israel, it is important to understand that Israel has a literal future. The church has not replaced Israel and thus God’s covenants with Israel are still valid. According to Dr. Tommy Ice of the Pre-Trib Research Center “the promises in the first three verses of [Genesis] chapter 12 are on the same level as the foundational statements by the Lord in the first eleven chapters of Genesis.” In addition, God clarified that the unconditional Covenant is between God, Abraham and his descendants and is “everlasting”: And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you.  And I will give to you and to your offspring after you the land of your sojourning, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession, and I will be their God.” (Genesis:17:7-8 [7] And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee. [8] And I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.
See All...).

In “Why God Is a Zionist,” Dr. Thomas Ice makes an interesting point: This clearly means that one’s treatment of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and their descendants is a major foundational principle for an individual or a nation to consider as one of the responsibilities that God has given to all mankind. I have always believed that there was a blessing or curse waiting for how one treats Israel, but my new realization is that within the structure of Genesis it is placed on the same level as the cultural mandate (Gen:1:26-28 [26] And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. [27] So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. [28] And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.
See All...), the establishment of marriage (Gen:2:18-24 [18] And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him. [19] And out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof. [20] And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field; but for Adam there was not found an help meet for him. [21] And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof; [22] And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man. [23] And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man. [24] Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.
See All...), the establishment of civil government after the Flood (Gen:9:1-8 [1] And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth. [2] And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth, and upon every fowl of the air, upon all that moveth upon the earth, and upon all the fishes of the sea; into your hand are they delivered. [3] Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things. [4] But flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat. [5] And surely your blood of your lives will I require; at the hand of every beast will I require it, and at the hand of man; at the hand of every man's brother will I require the life of man. [6] Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man. [7] And you, be ye fruitful, and multiply; bring forth abundantly in the earth, and multiply therein. [8] And God spake unto Noah, and to his sons with him, saying,
See All...), and the division of the nations after the Flood as an instrument for restraining evil (Gen:11:1-9 [1] And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech. [2] And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there. [3] And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for morter. [4] And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth. [5] And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded. [6] And the LORD said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do. [7] Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech. [8] So the LORD scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city. [9] Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the LORD did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the LORD scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth.
See All...).

[TBC: For full article and footnotes, please see:]

https://midwestoutreach.org/2024/10/03/the-real-history-of-israel-and-palestine-pt-2/