Palestine: the BIG Lie

"The Big Lie" of today--a nonsensical fabrication spawned in the Middle East, has rapidly evolved into an Arab propaganda locomotive powered by the steam engines of anti-Semitic vitriol. The lie--this falsehood of our time--purports that the "Palestinians", a mythical people whose ancestral beginnings simply cannot be defined nor traced, were ejected from their own land--to which they refer as "Palestine", and thus were "victimized" by the creation of the state of Israel, in May, 1948.
After failing miserably in their attempts to militarily eradicate the Jewish state, the Arab countries surrounding Israel subsequently and collectively unleashed their propaganda juggernaut into the international marketplace of ideas, where it has been globally fruitful. Seen as "refugees" unable to "return" to a land they claim as their own, the "Palestinians" have an international community--to include the United Nations, the mass media, top universities and seminaries and, of course, Jimmy Carter, in their corner.
With foreign governments--including that of the United States, and a global media sympathetic to the "Palestinian cause", Israel continues to become increasingly pressured to relent and concede--relinquishing more of her land to a conglomeration of Arabs sworn to her demise.
Perspective
"The Big Lie" of today represents a propaganda machine that, once again, has swayed public opinion in favor of all that is anti-Semitic. Once again, the Jews have witnessed an international community caustically aligning itself against them, effectively pushing the Jewish people not into the mass graves of genocide, but to the brink of demographic suicide.
Arabs who would call themselves, "Palestinians". Following the model of their Nazi predecessors, the Arabs have effectively unleashed a campaign of misinformation that has been heard and seen with a high degree of frequency. In so doing, they have not only shaped public opinion, but have also been extremely effective in garnering support sympathetic to an ideology that portrays them as "refugees" who have been somehow victimized and displaced by the creation of the Jewish state. In their refusal to recognize Israel's right to exist, they claim the region as their own--delving further into the nonsensical by referring to it as "Palestine". Behold, the lie--the inveracity in your midst.
And so, for the purposes of this writing, let us assume, if but for a moment, that we have the capability of "time travel" and have elected to transverse the millennia. The period in time is approximately 2,000 B.C.; the location is the land of Canaan. What would we see?
A Trip Through Time
We observe the presence of Canaanites who, as we advance to 1700 B.C., have been conquered by the first "Israelites"--Abraham and the Hebrews. Where are the Arabs? We observe, centuries later--nearly 1300 years before Yeshua walked the earth, in the region near "Shechem", a population of Hebrews--having been freed from Egyptian bondage by the Hand of God through Moses, crossing the Jordan River and entering "the Promised Land" in a region we know as Samaria. The Hebrews would live in conflict with the Canaanites for years to come. Nonetheless, there exists no historical record of this time period supporting the existence of an Arab people. Yet, according to today's "Palestinians", they roamed this land freely during this time.
In the centuries that followed, Israel would flourish as a nation--forged by the tenacity of Saul, the faith and courage of David, and the wisdom and brilliance of Solomon. However, for Israel, intense suffering and persecution would lie ahead in the coming seasons as she would become downtrodden by the Gentiles--enemies who would go on to destroy her eternal capital--Jerusalem, and its inhabitants, as well as the First and Second Temples. However, the same God whose Wrath punished Israel for her disobedience, would also be the One who would vindicate her in deliverance--time and time again.
Where Are They Now?
Over the span of millennia, the enemies of Israel would inevitably and undeniably come to know the exorbitant price of spilling Jewish blood. Among these were the Canaanites, the Amalekites and the Philistines. Moreover, the prophet Jeremiah prophesied that God will shelter His people, Israel, and destroy her enemies. (Jer. 30:11) Israel lived on and thrived, yet where is the empire of the Assyrians, today? Israel lived on and flourished, yet what became of the Babylonian empire? Israel lived on and blossomed, but did the Roman empire manage to keep pace? Israel is as strong as ever, but can the empire that was the Third Reich say the same?
Perspective

The Jewish people would come to know bondage and death--from Babylon to Birkenau, on a level unseen by any other group of people, and they would experience much suffering. However, as is the nature of a God who never parts from His Promises, they would be restored to and flourish in their land each time. This was a truth foretold. Unlike the "Palestinian" myth that has been repeatedly and caustically advanced into the global "marketplace of ideas", it need not be said a thousand times to become defined as "truth".

In fact, it needn't be said at all.

Of all the ministers of misinformation who made their way onto the world's stage in the post-Nazi era, none other was quite as cunning, conniving and, sadly enough, effective as Yasser Arafat--the Arab's version of Joseph Goebbels. This was a man who, time and time again, would walk through the front door disguised as a "peacemaker" only to slip out the back, with his Nobel Peace Prize in tow, as a reputed mass murderer who slaughtered innocent people, including women and children. As chairman of the Palestinian Liberation Organization, Arafat successfully fooled the world with a forked tongue, and although true Justice found Arafat after his death, his penchant for deception and treachery lived on through his successors. As such, the "big lie" remains in the open--alive and well as it continues its relentless pursuit of global deception.
"From Time Immemorial"
The "Palestinians" pervasively and continually assert themselves as the rightful owners of the land of "Palestine". The "Palestinians" claim to be a "displaced" people--cast from an ancestral homeland that has been theirs "From Time Immemorial" (a phrase coined by author Joan Peters). On the wings of such deception, the "Palestinian" demand for an independent state with Jerusalem as its capital continues to soar and, in the eyes of the international community, sprout merit.

Even so, history tells an entirely different tale.
FALSEHOOD: The "Palestinians" are direct descendants of the ancient Philistines, and thus can subsequently trace their presence in the region to said time period.

HISTORICAL FACT: The ancient Philistines were not an Arab people, but were entirely Greek. These were "invaders" (as per the translation of "Philistine") from the Aegean who settled into the region we now know as Gaza. These people, who would later develop a slight case of extinction, remained at war with the Israelites--the region's inhabitants of the time.

FALSEHOOD: The "Palestinians" were displaced and uprooted from their land by the creation of the state of Israel in 1948.

HISTORICAL FACT: In the time period prior to Israel's rebirth, this region was a complete wasteland consisting of barren deserts and swamps. Numerous eyewitness accounts during this time period tell of a land in which there were very few people. Perhaps the most famous account came from none other than Mark Twain who, at the end of the 19th century, wrote of what he saw--or did not see, in this land--one in which a supposed Arab presence was plentiful:

"One may ride ten miles hereabouts and not see ten human beings...Nazareth is forlorn . . . Jericho the accursed lies a moldering ruin today...There was hardly a tree or a shrub anywhere." (Twain, 1867)

The time period surrounding the rebirth of Israel ushered in two historical changes. First, the Jewish people facilitated an agricultural overhaul of the land that gave birth to lush vegetation and abundant crops. Subsequently, this was followed by a mass influx of Arabs into Israel who saw an opportunity. History will show that on May 14, 1948--the day Israel became an independent, sovereign nation--the surrounding Arab countries of Jordan, Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Egypt and Saudi Arabia launched an invasion of the Jewish state. This was an invasion that would become a costly one at the hands of defeat, and it was Israel, outnumbered at an unprecedented ratio, who would emerge as the victor.

More Propaganda
FALSEHOOD: "Israel" does not exist, and "Palestine" is the only accurate name for this land.

HISTORICAL FACT: The term "Palestine" found its origin with the ancient Philistines. In a complete attempt to "cleanse" Judea of all that was Jewish, it was the Roman Emperor Hadrian who changed the biblical prideland's name from Judea to that which personified Israel's nastiest enemy of the time--the Philistines. As such, the region bore a new title, "Palaestina" which, quite literally, means, "Land of the Philistines". NOTE: Players involved: The Romans, the Jews, and the Philistines--the sea invaders from Greece. Players neither Involved nor heard from during said time period: The Arabs.

FALSEHOOD: The "Palestinian" Arabs are the rightful owners of the land, for they inhabited the region before the Jews.

HISTORICAL FACT: Recorded history clearly shows the Arabs as a people who did not emerge in this region until midway through the 7th century. Yet, they boast incessantly of ties to the land that date back thousands of years. Perhaps the fairy tale most easily debunked, this nonsensical assertion stems from the elusive and mythical "Palestinian" Arab connection with the ancient Philistines (read: Greeks), which would essentially date their lineage to said time period. While recorded history remains incapable of doing the "Palestinians" any favors, it entirely and unequivocally supports a Jewish presence in this region--dating back some 2,000 years before the time of Christ. To those who would submit that the Holy Scriptures do not qualify as an authentic source of "recorded history", and subsequently do not represent legitimate evidence supporting such an early Jewish presence, consider the 19th-century discoveries of ancient Egyptian records clearly showing Israel as a well-established nation some 1,400 years before the time of Yeshua.

Although this author sides entirely with Biblical record, both sources effectively neutralize any "Palestinian" claims that propagate a lack of a Jewish presence during this time. In all of recorded history, and through all the destruction and catastrophe that has come upon the Jewish people, they have always maintained a presence, albeit to a varying degree, in the land that is Israel.

To assert that the Arab people never had control of the land would be as false as the assertions claiming they inhabited it "from time immemorial". Recorded history will show this region in the hands of the Arabs during the centuries leading up to the Crusades, when control of Jerusalem became a "volley" between Christian and Muslim alliances, as well as the brief season leading up to the establishment of the Ottoman empire. Nonetheless, despite these times in which different nations established their dominion over the Holy Land, it never knew a time in which it was devoid of a Jewish presence. The Jewish people can claim an ancestral presence in this region that dates back some 3,300 years, and they would be historically accurate in doing so. The "Palestinians" can accurately lay claim to an Arab presence in the land of Israel dating back no earlier than the 7th century.

To erroneously purport that they--the "Palestinians", inhabited this region before the Jewish people would be an inveracity of not only a historical nature, but of a mathematical one, as well.

FALSEHOOD: Israel evicted the "Palestinian" Arabs from the land in 1948 and is subsequently to blame for the ongoing "Palestinian refugee" problem.

HISTORICAL FACT: Said Arabs were not evicted from the region by Israel. They fled. They were told by the surrounding countries--their own people--that an invasion was looming and that they should leave to avoid suffering casualties at the hands of said conflict. Indisputable evidence from political officials and historians--Arab and Israeli alike--support this fact. Fearing for their lives, nearly one million Jews were forced to flee the surrounding, hostile Arab countries. Historical record shows these people were efficiently and immediately absorbed, by Israel, with very little problem. However, can the same be said for the nearly 700,000 "Palestinian" Arabs who fled Israel--at the behest of their own countries? What became of them upon arrival in their own homelands? History shows that, when their military initiatives failed, the surrounding Arab countries gave birth to a crisis that exists this very day. Specifically, they refused to absorb their own Arabs--these "refugees" who heeded their recommendation to flee a region soon to be engaged in war-- a war that, with every logistical certainty, should have been completed in short order. In so doing, they returned their Arabs to the land of Israel where they, to this day, live as "refugees" who blame Israel as the cause of their strife and insist they should be allowed to return to their purported "homeland". Such are the dynamics surrounding the elusive and unprocurable "Palestinian Right of Return".

Perspective

The Arabs are the only people in recorded history to willfully and emphatically pass on their "refugee" status from generation to generation. Make no mistake; this is a wound that was self-inflicted, and where their soldiers failed, their lies have prevailed. Truth be told, there has never, in all of history, been a nation called "Palestine".