Post by alon on Dec 29, 2016 16:06:12 GMT -8
This week I am not going to “critique” a commentator, because I have chosen something I completely agree with as the topic. The author is Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein of the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews. The commentary is historical, and is titled “Who Are Palestinians?” His comments are severely edited for brevity, but I am certain the meaning is still preserved.
The term “Palestine” came from Israel’s Roman conquerers; some say a corruption of the name “Philistia,”denigrating the Jews y naming them after their greatest enemy. Prior to the last few decades, Arabs never called themselves Palestinians.
This term has been used for so long to identify a group of Arabs, it may surprise some to learn that Jews are the original Palistinians. The term was given to the Jews many centuries before it was inaccurately taken by Arabs who refused to stay in Israel after her statehood in 1948. Israel at that time urged these people to return and help build the new state of Israel. They chose instead to believe the empty promises of Israel’s Arab neighbors that they would quickly annihilate the Jews and give them land.
Note that up until the Jews bought land in Palestine and made the desert bloom and the swamps bear fruit, this land had lain desolate and ruined. These Arab refugees were counting on getting not just their land, but that which the Jews had sweated blood to heal, restore and make prosper. They coveted what their neighbors had, and were willing to see murder done in their stead to get it.
When this didn’t happen, these Arabs mainly from Syria with no claim to a separate identity were turned away by Arab states such as Jordan and Syria.
A resolution adopted by the Muslim-Christian Association choosing for the Paris peace talks following WWI evidentially refutes the baseless claims of today’s “Palestinians”: “We consider Palestine as part of Arab Syria, as it has never been separated from it at any time. We are connected with it by national, religious linguistic, geographical, economic and natural bonds. There is no country [Palestine]! ‘Palestine’ is a term the Zionists invented!”
In their rabid hatred of the Jews, they couldn’t even get their history right. But this does prove that even they knew there were no “Palestinian Arabs.” There simply was no Arab Palestinian history before they created it after Israel’s birth in 1948, and after the Six Day War in 1967 when Israel regained control of Jerusalem. The truth is irrefutable: the so-called Palestinians of today are the same as other Arabs. They have no claims on he land or on self-government within the state of Israel. As I understand the "Palestinian-Israeli conflict, Rabbi Eckstein is entirely correct and, in fact somewhat less confrontational in his tone than I would have been writing a similar piece. But then, I am a died in the wool Shamaimite/ex Hell-fire and Brimstone Southern Baptist and just not as nice a guy as the Rabbi. So it is probably best we stick with what he said.
The main thing is we need to understand the issues and what is going on in Israel so that when these things come up we can be a beacon of truth in a time when Israel needs friends.
Genesis 12:1-3 (NASB) Now the Lord said to Abram, "Go forth from your country, And from your relatives And from your father’s house, To the land which I will show you; And I will make you a great nation, And I will bless you, And make your name great;
And so you shall be a blessing; And I will bless those who bless you, And the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.”
God chose to bless the world through Abraham. It is through him and Israel the Messiah comes. It was through the Jews God revealed Himself to us; and through them we were given His
. God chose them as His people, and He never revokes a calling.Romans 11:29 (NASB) for the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.
They are called to be His people, and we are called to bless them. And we are Meshiachim- when God calls, we answer and obey.
Dan C
