Amens and Amendments to Rich Nathan's Israel Sermon (by Deanna Murshed)
I commend Pastor Nathan for the courage and commitment to truth required to publicly reconsider what has strangely become status quo in parts of the U.S. evangelical world - an almost "biblical immunity" and unconditional support granted to the modern nation state of Israel. I especially appreciated the way he offered a lens for even the most serious adherents of scriptural authority to theologically unravel Christian Zionism.
As he showed, the way forward depends neither on tossing certain passages aside, nor on citing them individually, but on viewing them in light of the overarching meta-narrative of the Bible and the general direction of God's redeeming history.
Although there is more that I said amen to than questioned in this sermon, I'll offer (humbly) some things he may want to consider as he continues, or expands this dialogue:
1. The role of the U.S. and Great Britain in helping establish the fledgling Zionist state. Many Americans just don't realize where Arab anti-American sentiment stems from because they're unaware of how their own country has operated (and continues to operate) in foreign affairs.
2. That Middle Eastern Christians, or "Arab" Christians, are not monolithic in their opinions on the creation of modern state of Israel. There are a great deal (probably most, actually) who did NOT support the initial establishment of an Israeli nation state, however limited in its borders, and even if they now support its security. This is often confused as anti-Semitism though it has more to do with the above point (about the assistance of Israel by western powers) and that Christian Arabs have lived side-by-side with their Muslim and Jewish brothers and sisters for millennia without national separation. Many may also not view biblical justice as necessitating land ownership via a newly created nation-state.
3. That biblical justice is also linked to the idea of restitution, in the sense that he who commits the crime is the one expected to pay for it. The part in the sermon about biblical justice can also acknowledge that the horrendous mistreatment and annihilation of the Jews was not done by the Arabs of the East but by the Europeans of the West. Again, this doesn't necessarily mean that their homeland does not belong in the East, but there may be a rub (for Arabs) in implying that biblical justice would demand Easterners to pay (in land and lives) for the sins of Westerners. Of course, no ethnic group is ever totally innocent, but the presumptuousness of Western nations in applying solutions is a part of the problem for Arabs of all religious faiths.
4. Finally, under the last heading "What Christians should do" – I would add that one of the main things is for American Christians to get connected with the Palestinian church. One of the most powerful paradigm shifters is the realization for many U.S. Christians that Arab Christians (if they recognize their existence at all) are not a small fringe group who have been persecuted by Muslims. In the case of Palestinian Christians, there are (or were) hundreds of thousands. Christians blindly supporting U.S. foreign policy can take credit for shooting themselves in the virtual foot of Christ. For example, wouldn't it surprise most congregations to know that until recent years, in areas such as Bethlehem, Christians were the majority?
Deanna Murshed is director of integrated marketing for Sojourners
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Comments
As a linguist I've always felt it was ironic to call any Arab 'anti-Semitic', however he felt about Israel or Jews, since Arabic is a Semitic language and Arabs are Semites. And not just Semites, but children of Abraham to boot...
Posted by: Ted Voth Jr | January 15, 2008 4:38 PM
The role of the U.S. and Great Britain in helping establish the fledgling Zionist state
Deanna - we talk about what we as Americans can do to change our perspectives and I grant you the fact that this is legitimate. However, isn't there a flip side to this?
Doesn't the Arab world also need to stop perceiving of Israel as a last vestige of European colonialism or as the beachhead of American Imperialism? How do we encourage the Arab world to do this?
Posted by: splinterlog | January 15, 2008 5:13 PM
"Doesn't the Arab world also need to stop perceiving of Israel as a last vestige of European colonialism or as the beachhead of American Imperialism? How do we encourage the Arab world to do this?"
Uhhh, for starters, maybe by the United States no longer offering ceaseless uncritical support for Israel at the expense of the Palestinian people? Maybe by demanding that Israel live by the international norms that we expect of other nations? Israel could, for example, sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. How about the Israeli government cracking down on the inflammatory tactics of Israeli political parties on hyper-Zionist Far Right?
Posted by: carl copas | January 15, 2008 5:45 PM
I would have to humbly disagree with you in some areas.
Many believe that the Jews are the alien usurpers of Palestine which is as equally ignorant as to say that Arabs have no place in Israel. The Ottoman Empire voluntarily sold land to Zionist Jews against Palestinian wishes (yes, Muslims against Muslims), and eventually Britian occupied Palestine in order to help against the war effort in World War I with the agreement that the Palestine would be returned the Palestinians and Arabs - with the Balfour Declaration taking place due to increasing spiteful attacks of Jews in Europe, the promised land became the twice-promised land and the Arab world has accused the West of treachery ever since.
Even before the state of Israel, anti-Jewish sentiment has been prevalent in the Middle East, especially due to the fact that the Czar Forgery "Protocols of the Elders on Zion" making its way to the Arab lands. During the Holocaust, the mufti of Jerusalem, Haj-Amin al-Husseini, supported the annihilation of the Jews by paying the führer a visit and spread propoganda to the Muslim airwaves stating, "Kill the Jews wherever you find them - this pleases history, family, and religion." Luckily, many Bosnian Muslims resisted the mufti's charms and hid many Jews in their home.
I also have to disagree with the picture perfect harmony you describe between Muslims, Christians, and Jews living the Middle East. The only instances in which Muslims have coexisted alongside with Jews is when the Jews have been a powerless minority in the Muslim world. Now although Muslim treatment has been historically better than the Christian anti-Semitism (despite being classified under dhimmitude, second class citizens), the Orthodox Christians under the Ottoman Empire initiated the blood libel against the Jews which made its way to the Middle Eastern area of Beirut, Damascus, Tripoli, and Allepo, thus making way for anti-Semitic theology to take place and enter. As Nathan has stated, the Jews have always been undermined from France, Russia, Britain, the United States, and yes even the Arab lands.
With the rise of Islamism that has made its way throughout the Muslim world thanks to Saudi Arabia, many Muslims believe that the golden standard is the Saudi interpretation known as Wahhabism, which has spread through many areas of the Arab world implicitly. If the Arabs truly cared about the Palestinians, Kuwait would not have banished 300,000 Palestinians in Gulf War I, Lebanon would allow Palestinians to own land and become professionals, Saudi Arabia would immigrate them.
The peace process between the Palestinians and Israelis should only be between Israel and Palestine only because of the Arab nations have contributed to their plight in greater numbers without ever giving a damn about them - I became acquainted with a Palestinian woman whom I met at an Amnesty International Conference regarding bridging peace in Israel and the Occupied Territories. She testified that her grandfather has been discriminated against in Lebanon. We must atone for our own travesties in the militaristic abuses by Israel to Occupied Territory, and it should be limited to that. Israel has a right for its own security, and the Palestinians deserve to be treated better and have their own homeland.
Posted by: Drew | January 15, 2008 6:37 PM
Well written Drew. There is a lot of blame to spread around. It can'd be reduced like some wish it could be.
Posted by: Eric | January 15, 2008 7:42 PM
The modern state of Israel was also founded upon what we now define as terrorism. The Irgun and the Stern Gang carried out terrorist attacks in support of removing the British Mandate and setting up the state of Israel.
Eventually, the notables of these violent groups took their place in the ranks of the statesmen of modern Israel - notably, Menachin Begin, the Israeli Prime Minister who won the peace prize along with Anwar Sadat of Egypt, after the Camp David Accords brokered by U.S. President Jimmy Carter.
One man's freedom fighter isn't really another's terrorist, even when right and wrong are always misdefined in terms of simplistic and selfserving us versus them.
But the world judges in retrospect mostly by who eventually prevails, not their methods. To the worldly, might makes right, and the members of a nation which prevails in war are never charged with war crimes regardless of what they order. The prevailing power gets to create the mainstream myths of history which serve as blanket justifications for anything at all that occurs and are incorporated into the fanciful tales that schoolchildren become indoctrinated with.
Posted by: Lincoln Brigadier | January 15, 2008 8:04 PM
Deanna, there are more Jewish refugees from Arab countries than Palestinian refugees from Israel.
Jews in North Africa also suffered during the Holocaust. In Iraq, Arabs collaborating with the Nazis massacred Jews in Baghdad and destroyed Jewish Iraqi businessnes. It was the Iraqi equivalent of Kristallnacht. Nazis collaborated with many leaders throughout the Arab world. Arab opposition also caused the British to keep Jews out of the one place that would have accepted Jews during the Holocaut, Israel. This caused the death of thousand of Jews who had no where else to go.
The Arab world has adopted and used Nazi anti-Jewish propaganda and it is still using it. The Arabs didn't create antisemitism, but they have certainlty adopted it.
Some Arab Christians have tried to deJudaize Jesus and have tried to say that he was a Gallilean and that Gallileans were not Jewish, and both statements are false.
Posted by: Susan | January 15, 2008 9:31 PM
"Uhhh, for starters, maybe by the United States no longer offering ceaseless uncritical support for Israel at the expense of the Palestinian people"
The United States support for Isreal had nothing to do with Saddam Hussein using chemical weapons against Iran in the 80's . His invasion of Kuwait . Syria has committed terrorist acts against Lebanon since the early 1970's . Kuwait threw out HUNDREDS of THOUSANDS of Palestinaians . The Taliban destroying Bamiyan Statues , TWO MILLION Black Christians have been killed by terrorists in the Sudan . Church bombing s In pakistan are encourgaged .
Blaming the US for terroists actions leaves much out of the whole picture , when the terrorists are indiscrimante in who and why they kill .
The United States has given money to the Palestinians . I billion actually to help Palenstianians to locate back in their home countries , their home countries would not take them back , or the funds were redirected by the PLO for other reasons . Your guess for what .
And we have tried to broker peace solutions that included a state for Palenstein.
Hamas , Islamic Jihad , and the PLO have not been the best reprentatives of helping this along . This blame the US in the name of how we have behaved in the past without looking also how some of these nations and independent terrorist cults operate is one sided .
The first editorial was well written , and I thought quite one sided . But at least it showed respect for soverign nations . Like it or not , and some obviously do not , Israel is a soverign nation . And they have a right to exist .
The Palenstinian people will never get a chance till they see the organizations such as Hamas as more of a hindurance to their goals then Israel .
The Terrorist Culture teaches that if you are cooperating with your enemy , you are the same as your enemy . The Palenstinian people I believe are under pressure from the terrorist cults also stopping their ability to promote their own goals .
Posted by: Mick | January 15, 2008 10:04 PM
Mick,
At one time or another every culture and nation (including our own) has engaged in terror or excused it when it was in pursuit of its own interests. All that has ever been necessary to justify anything is what is perceived as a great enough provocation. When a nation fears that it might not win without the unthinkable, it will do the unthinkable.
That is one reason nuclear weapons are so dangerous. Any nation, sufficiently fearful of defeat, will unleash the end of the world rather than be defeated, if it has the means. That is why it is unlikely that we or anyone else will give up the power to end all life, and it is probable given our present human psychological paradigm
that either we or others will one day use it, terminating history in not quite the manner Francis Fukiyama had in mind.
The cult of terror is one false religion that all humanity has participated in. Terror is defined as acts of destruction and killing aimed at civilians, in order to demoralise the population and thereby influence governments.
Given what we perceive as provocation enough, we have used it to and excused it when it has been by ourselves or our allies, and we sought to make the end justify the means. So have many others.
In order for it to seem justified, it is first ncessary to classify the enemy - other people as less than human, to demonise them in order to do what we know in our hearts is unacceptable to do to fellow human beings.
Therefore all are without excuse, all have fallen short of the glory of God. All are sinners.
It's not the function of Christians to participate in this madness, regardless of the false logic and commonsense nonsense of the world, but to be peacemakers, to exercise the uncommon logic of the truth.
Posted by: Sojourner Truth | January 16, 2008 1:40 AM
The dilemma is that there is a cycle of violence and hatred created by past grievances. There is a suicide bombing in Israel and innocent people get hurt. People in their angry and pain, strike out using violence against Palestinians. The Palestinians suffer and are hurt, so they continue to resort to violence. Eventually there is this cycle of violence in which each side claims to be a victim and there are grievances piling up.
I think Jesus is telling us to cut the violence out, and to not continue acting out the cycle. Neither Israel or Palestine can kill each other out completely. Rather, the Israelis and Palestinians need to find a way to negotiate a relationship of respect and trust and begin the process of healing.
It means refusing to classify this problem as a good-guy vs bad guy scenario. It means recognizing the deep humanity of both sides. None of us wants to be attacked by a suicide bomber. None of us wants to be pushed around by an army of soldiers. We all want freedom, safety, respect and dignity. In order to do that, God calls us to respect the dignity and respect of others.
Posted by: Justin | January 16, 2008 3:54 AM
I think you made some logical ans Godly conclussions Justin . Maybe we should no more but offer both sides a safe place to talk to each other ?
Why did the fighting in Ireland seem to stop ?
Perhaps the people , even those with grudges just got so sick and tired of the killing and fighting they just stopped it .
Posted by: Mick | January 16, 2008 6:04 AM
Why did the fighting in Ireland seem to stop?
Perhaps the people, even those with grudges just got so sick and tired of the killing and fighting they just stopped it.
It hasn't stopped as such -- it's merely a cease-fire. That conflict has been going on, really, since the 17th century, and the Irish still want the British gone.
Posted by: Rick Nowlin | January 16, 2008 11:47 AM
I know a lot of people who seem to have the impression that the Zionists managed to purchase most of what became Israel before 1948, but this isn't true. They acquired less than 10 percent that way. The UN proposal would have given 55 percent of the land to the Jewish state nonetheless, and even in that portion the Arab minority was nearly 50 percent of the population. The Arabs who rejected this as unfair had a point.
Some of the best people to read on this subject are Israeli historians and journalists, such as Shlomo Ben Ami, Tom Segev, Meron Benvenisti, Avi Shlaim, and even Benny Morris, who is a hard man to figure out, but who is honest about what happened in the 1948 war and the massacres and ethnic cleansing that the Israelis perpetrated, contrary to what most Americans long believed. Morris supports the ethnic cleansing and wishes it had been more thorough, but deplores the rapes and massacres, as though one could conduct a crime against humanity in a more polite manner.
As for terrorism, Sojourner Truth is right--ultimately no group is in a position to point fingers. The Arabs murder Israelis, the Israelis murder Arabs, and American history is full of incidents where Americans were terrorists or supported terrorist groups. And the Israelis have a little-known history of supporting unsavory groups in the Third World, such as the contras, the Guatemalan military and apartheid South Africa. (the same ones the US supported--there was probably some collusion going on.)
Posted by: Donald | January 16, 2008 12:06 PM
As Christians we can employ a more powerful definition of terrorism: the unprovoked use of or threat of force. When considered this way, the best solution is to let sleeping dogs lie and to move forward through voluntary interactions. If the USG, the Israeli government,and others want the Palestinians to move out of certain territories, they should pay them. It the Palestinians want more land, let them buy it.
But present conditions put the Palestinians at a disadvantage. Their infrastructure has been damaged, and they are at too great of a risk for more violence to attract meaningful investment for development. Redistribution of wealth from Israelis to Palestinians is unlikely.
The problem really lies in the existence of political entities. If neither Israel nor Palestine was a centrally organized nation state, then local individuals would have the normal incentives to make voluntary bargains just like people in peaceful countries do. The existence of political entities bearing arms and making unprovoked attacks on one another precludes opportunities for people to get along.
I support the Jews, but not the pagan secular nation state of Israel.
The people are not the government.
Nathanael Snow
Posted by: jurisnaturalist | January 16, 2008 4:12 PM
EVERYTHING BEGINS WITH PRAYER and SABEEL'S WAVE OF PAYER for January 17, 2008 is:
We pray for the people of Gaza during this latest Israeli military incursion. Twenty three Palestinians have been killed in the last two days including the three members of the Yazji family who car was hit by a misdirected missile. We mourn the loss of life and pray that the Israeli government will remember the promises made last week during Bush's visit that everyone here should make every effort to move the peace process forward with negotiations rather than military might.
We pray for those around the world who risk persecution and imprisonment in order to speak truth to power. We offer thanks for the results of Mordechai Vanunu's recent court appearance. Mordechai was not sentenced to jail time for talking to foreign journalists, but was instead ordered to perform community service.
We pray for our upcoming Sabeel programs that will begin our year of commemorating the Nakba of 1948. We lift in prayer the upcoming young adult trip to Haifa and to destroyed villages in the North, and the Sabeel visioning meeting that will take place in Nazareth next week. We hope that these events will help create a framework for a year of memory and remembrance, and pray that this is a year not only of looking towards the past but of moving towards a future of justice, peace, and reconciliation.
We raise les Amis de Sabil in France and their new organizational structure in prayer. We thank God for their commitment to seeking a just peace in Palestine and Israel.
Eileen Fleming,
Reporter and Editor WAWA:
http://www.wearewideawake.org/
Author "Keep Hope Alive" and "Memoirs of a Nice Irish American 'Girl's' Life in Occupied Territory"
Producer "30 Minutes With Vanunu"
Posted by: Eileen Fleming | January 16, 2008 4:43 PM
Our own forbears, European Christians, beginning with Columbus in the 15th century and on, came to the Americas which historians tell us was then settled by millions of natives who by their way of life were living pretty much in harmony with their environment. These Europeans from the beginning paid little or no heed to the natives, often seeing them as nuisances to be exterminated or at the very least to be exploited. All of this was, of course, a grave injustice not at all considered as such even by such "saintly" groups as our own Pilgrims and Puritans.
This skeleton in our closet in no way excuses Israeli treatment of Palestinians or their lands but it does suggest real humility on our part as well as prayers for more mercy and justice to be done in Palestine now than than was shown by the actions of our own ancestors, whoever they were.
George
Posted by: George De Vries, Jr. | January 16, 2008 5:03 PM
George I just knew Columbus was behind this somehow .
Posted by: Mick | January 16, 2008 5:57 PM
Mick,
Don't stop with Columbus. If you're a Christian you can trace all the cycles of wrongdoing and violence right back to Eden and then Cain and Abel.
That ends up showing us the truth - that our propensity to commit crimes of humanity against one another all come from the same inheritance and we're all to blame for the cycles of violence. If we want to end the blame we can become responsible to break that cycle. We need to become the peacemakers Jesus called us to be now that we are free. If we are reconciled to God, then we can love others as ourselves.
Posted by: Sojourner Truth | January 16, 2008 9:42 PM
For a change, we have some mainly reasonable posts. Anyway, while Pastor Nathan (I know some folks who attend his church) made some good points, I feel that he overlooked a significant NT passage, Acts 1: 6-7, in which the disciples ask the Risen Jesus, "Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?" Vs. 7, "And He said to them, 'It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority." Now, I realize that to argue from silence (on what was NOT said) can be dangerous, but I tend to think that if it was never in God's purpose to restore Israel as a nation, Jesus would have said something like, "No, God is finished with Israel as a nation. Now there's a completely different plan." But Jesus said nothing of the kind. He said that it was not for the disciples to be concerned about the restoration of Israel, but He never said that it wouldn't happen at some point. In our day, we have seen it happen! But
Israel has been regathered in unbelief. That,
however, will not last, since Romans 11:26 promises that "all Israel shall be saved" -- and
the foregoing chapters make it clear that Paul is
talking about a physical nation, not a spiritual
one. How and when will all Israel be saved? Those are matters of speculation, but Scripture
guarantees that it will happen.
Posted by: John G. | January 17, 2008 4:23 PM
If Israel is to be saved, is everyone else to be cast away? If the other children of Abraham are to be cast off without hope, there's not much for the rest of us to hope for, who are unrelated to any of Abraham's children - as both Isaac and Ishmael are - and to both of whom the promises are to be kept.
To reiterate again - it is both tragedy and crime when ancient scriptures - any ancient religious writings - are used by modern people to once again try to justify genocide.
Posted by: Sojourner Truth | January 18, 2008 12:49 AM
I posted this reply to John G's comments on Pastor Nathan's sermon thread. I didn't realize John had also posted it here, so I'll post my reply here as well:
John, this is a very thoughtful comment. I think it deserves some kind of answer. I probably don't have all the facts at hand that perhaps I need to give you a really good answer, but I'll try.
At first thought, it's logical to think that Jesus would have and/or should have made some kind of comment regarding the future of Israel at this point in Acts 1. Possibly the reason he didn't is because he had been teaching for the last three years about the true nature of the Kingdom of God and just didn't think it was necessary to say any more. I'm thinking, for example, of things like the words he said to Pilate: "My Kingdom is not of this world. If it were, then I would have my servants fight for it" (my paraphrase). And when on the Mount of Olives Jesus said the Temple in Jerusalem would be destroyed and the disciples in response asked when that would happen (Matthew 24; see also the parallel account in Luke 21), Jesus' response included not only a prediction of the Temple's destruction (which happened in AD 70), but he also talked about the end of the age and his eventual return. The Christian church for many years considered the Temple's destruction as a sign that God was indeed finished with Israel as a nation. Logically, his purposes for Israel were completed when Christ ascended to heaven. The nation had produced the promised Messiah, who had, through his death and resurrection, become the blessing to all nations that God had promised to Abraham.
And also, not all commentators and scholars think that Romans 9-11 refers to a physical nation, so your comment that it is clearly so taught isn't quite accurate. For example, some believe that Paul saying that the "Israel" that would all be saved are those chosen from among the Israelite nation--that is, to use Calvinistic terminology, the elect (or the remnant) from within the nation--not necessarily the nation as a whole. It is possible to see that this happened not long after Paul wrote those words--before the Temple's destruction, in other words. It's also possible to see that this will occur as a final gathering in of Jewish elect before the final end of the age, which is what many Protestant Christians believed in the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries (e.g., Johnathan Edwards). Neither of these interpretations require a reconstituted Jewish nation for their fulfillment.
I don't know if this helps, but I hope it does illustrate that this is a complex issue and that not one single interpretation is possible. Perhaps none of our interpretations will prove in the end to be correct--after all, none of the scribes' interpretations of the OT messianic prophecies were correct, as it turned out.
Peace,
Posted by: Don | January 18, 2008 10:37 AM
I suppose one must GO to Occupied Territory to have the scales fall from their eyes.
I have gone five times since June 2005 and have done all i know to WAKE UP USA Christians to the true facts on the ground by reporting on WAWA and writing two books.
"Every scribe [writer, author] who has been instructed in the Kingdom of heaven is like the head of a household who brings forth from his storeroom both the new and the old."-Matthew 13:52
I have met many a prophet while in Israel Palestine; Vanunu, Jeff Halper, Rev. Ateek to name but a trinity, and have been reporting on their good works on WAWA, in "MEMOIRS OF A NICE IRISH-AMERICAN 'GIRL'S" LIFE IN OCCUPIED TERRITORY" and on secular sites that publish my articles.
BUT, the issue today is that THREE days after killing at least 20 Palestinians in helicopter and tank attacks on the Gaza Strip, and just one week after President George W. Bush met in Israel with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and other top officials, Israel on Friday, Jan. 18 ordered all border crossings into Gaza temporarily closed as it continued its deadly brutal inhumane attacks on more than 1.5 million Palestinians already denied food, clean water, electricity and medical supplies.
If you are an American TAX PAYER you are culpable in these crimes against humanity and silence is complicity!
WRITE and TELEPHONE THOSE WORKING FOR YOU IN WASHINGTON AND DEMAND THAT THIS CARNAGE END!
It is the PEACEMAKERS who are the children of God, NOT those that bomb, torture and occupy others!
President George W. Bush
(202) 456-1414
White House Comment Line: (202) 456-1111
Fax: (202) 456-2461
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice
(202) 647-6575
Any Senator
(202) 224-3121
Any Representative
(202) 225-3121
CONTACT THE EMBASSY OF ISRAEL TO DEMAND THAT IT STOP ESCALATING THE DEADLY CYCLE OF VIOLENCE:
Embassy of Israel
3514 International Dr., NW
Washington, DC 20008
(202) 364-5515
May God have mercy on the blind, deaf and dumb who have no eyes to see, ears to hear or hearts that bleed for the least and the oppressed.
eileen fleming
WAWA
Posted by: Eileen Fleming | January 18, 2008 6:10 PM
Eileen Fleming,
I would like to support any action in the line of your last comment with which I agree entirely.
I'm not US tax payer but feel the WHOLE civilized world, particularly those who believe in the Gospel have more to do than pray. ACTION is necessary and URGENT.
The past victims do not excuse the present victimization of the OTHER.
Posted by: Anna | January 21, 2008 11:38 AM
Eileen,
I think you are right and bless you for your work.
To take ACTION is necessary in order to promote peace.
May be this site can do something to claim more justice on this matter.
Posted by: anna | January 21, 2008 11:48 AM
Drew makes some good points but is factually wrong or missing important nuances in some places.
Britain occupied the Levant, that is the three Sanjaks and Mutasariff of Jerusalem as 'Palestine' had not existed outside of those Biblical scholars who used the Roman designation rather than 'the Levant'. This was as part of WW1 against the Ottoman and German Empires, but it did not at any time 'promise to return this to the Arabs'.
See the McMahon-Faisal correspondence. West of Damascus, including the literol, were not considered 'Arab land' because of the long-standing Christian and Jewish presence (French pressure to form 'Lebanon' to protect the Maronite Christians) and of all the others; Druze, Kurds, Turks, Greeks and so on. It was not 'twice-promised' that is one of the many lies promoted by the Arab League, the OIC and the Western anti-Israel movement which was fully challenged and refuted by Churchill and Lawrence too, at the time.
Britain had made commitments to the Arabs and kept them by forming Iraq (see Gertrude Bell) and the League of Nations Mandate of Palestine (immediately partitioned into a purely Arab 'Transjordan' 3/4 and 'Palestine' 1/4 - which was to be further divided) was created, from the beginning, with a Jewish homeland a key requisite of the LoN of the British adminstration. This was, in part, because they had already issued the Balfour Declaration which had been subsequently dragged through the House of Lords by Churchill where it met much resistance from pro-Arabists.
The Balfour Declaration was achieved because of the GB- 1905, Aliens Act preventing Jewish refugees from Russian pogroms entering GB and that Balfour, no lover of Jews, had brought in with the support of both the Labour movement and the Reactionaries.
The Zionist movement had previously successfully lobbied the Turkish Sultan for his support of a colonisation of the literol and the Jordan valley. See William 'Abdullah' Quillium, the Sultans Vice Consul to Liverpool.
During the initially slow movement of very small numbers of Jews back to their indigneous homeland a large proportion of land sold to them was sold by local Arab Clan chiefs including Haj Amin Al Husseini. He was later made Mufti by the British after Arabs massacred Jews at Hebron, Tel Aviv and several other locations in the Mandate at the hands of the 'Black Hand' terror organisation. He was later the active-Nazi funder and founder of Fatah, and Arafats 'uncle'.
A man directly responsible for the Muslim 'Scimitar' SS Divisions of Kosovo and their elimination of Jews there, before the rest of the Balkans could join in, and the deaths of five thousand Jewish children at 'Terezin' concentration camp. He had attempted a Fascist coupe d'etat in Iraq beforehand and like Ibn Saud supported the Axis as much as he possibly could during WW2.
The blood libel however was initiated by a Christian in England long before the Ottoman Empire existed they did however use it again in the C19th the notorious Damascus incident.
Now can someone explain how the holy-than-thou attitude of Christians displayed here -yet again- marries with the Christians' savage in-fighting including the riot in the Church of the Nativity - yet again - over Christmas last year. The fault of the re-occupation? (Even though this was solely caused by the PLO starting another war in 2000 and included the desecration of the above church by PLO terrorists.)
And how does all this 'loving your enemy' principle of yours seem never to extend to even centrist conservative Christians let alone the Hamas-like barmy hate-preaching tele-evangelists?
Posted by: Godfearer | January 22, 2008 6:53 AM
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