The root question for all the turmoil in the Middle East is this:
Does Israel have the right to exist in Palestine!
The answer is YES THEY DO, for the following reasons.
ONE – Israel is the only country whose ‘right to exist’ is questioned. Hamas and fundamentalist
Muslims claim land that was conquered by Islam must always remain Islamic. “The Islamic
Resistance Movement believes that the land of Palestine is an Islamic Waqf consecrated for future Moslem generations until Judgement Day.”(1)
But Israel is the ancestral homeland of the Jewish people and have lived in Palestine for thousands of years – long before the establishment of Islam. There is nothing wrong with Israel or any other country existing on land that Muslims conquered in the past. Muslims were not the original occupants of Palestine – they were just the latest conquerers of this land. Historically, Islam spread totally by violence. Wars of conquest have been fought for thousands of years.
Israel and Muslim countries have periodically signed documents acknowledging Israel’s right to exist – and then attempted to exterminate Israel. Israel’s existence is dependent on one thing – military power. If Israel was Muslim, there would be NO wars of extermination against Israel.
Muslims conquered Palestine between 635 – 641 AD. Jews refused to become Muslims and maintained their unique culture. For instance, in 1947, 150,000 Jews lived in modern day Iraq. These Jews had lived in Iraq since the Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar deported the Jews from Jerusalem to Mesopotamia around 586 BC. (2)
After the Arabs lost the 1948 War to Israel, Jews in Muslim countries came under severe persecution and were forced to leave every Muslim country. For instance, between 1950-1952, after living in Iraq for about 2,600 years, nearly the entire Jewish population left – most going to Israel.(3)
Muslims conquered Spain between 711 and 781. The Spanish never accepted Islam. In 801 Charlemagne captured Barcelona. By the end of the 13th century, the Christian Reconquest of Spain and Portugal was essentially completed.
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TW0 – Israel vacated Gaza in 2005 and turned governing over to Gazans, hoping this would bring peace between Israel and Gaza. All Israeli settlements in Gaza were demolished. In 2006, Gazans voted Hamas into power whose charter calls for the extermination of Israel.(1) In 2007, through violence, Hamas seized control of all the Gaza Strip. Millions in aid went to weapons and the people were impoverished. There have been no elections in Gaza since 2006.
Self rule for the West Bank is NO LONGER a possibility. The West Bank is the land between Israel and Jordon and it would become another terrorist state. The goal of Muslims is to exterminate Israel, NOT to live peacefully side by side. The experiment in self rule in Gaza is a total failure.
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THREE – ISRAEL IS NOT COMMITTING GENOCIDE / ETHNIC CLEANSING IN PALESTINE.
Genocide is a deliberate policy to systematically exterminate a group / race of people – like what the Nazis did to Jews in WW2. Hamas puts civilians in harms way because they WANT civilians to get killed for propaganda sake. There is ZERO proof that Israel is targetting civilians. Hamas fighters wear civilian clothing. Hamas hides in hospitals, apartment buildings and mosques.(4) Hamas booby-traps buildings so Israel blows them up instead of wasting lives searching them.(5) Hamas greatly exaggerates civilian deaths. On Apr, 9, 2024, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said there is no evidence that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.(6) The Hamas attack on Oct. 7, 2023 was largely an attack on civilians. Children were not spared.(7) When Muslims stop attacking Israel, there will be peace.
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FOUR – The Muslim Quran says the Holy Land belongs to the Jews and Moslems must obey the Quran.(7)
Sura 5: 20-21. “And lo, Moses said unto his people: Remember the blessings which God bestowed upon you when he raised up prophets among you, and made you your own masters, and granted unto you [favors] such as He had not granted to anyone else in the world. O my people! Enter the Holy Land which God has promised you; but do not turn back [on your faith], for then you will be lost!”
Surah 17:103-104 – “And then [pharaoh] resolved to wipe them off [the face of] the earth – whereupon We caused him and all who were with him to drown [in the sea]. And after that We said unto the children of Israel: Dwell now securely on earth but [remember that] when the promise of the Last Day shall come to pass, We will bring you forth as [parts of] a motley crowd!”
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FIVE – Muslims have engaged in the same dehumanization methods used by the Nazis. Muslim clerics have spent decades preaching hatred against ‘the Jews.’ The following sermon was preached by Palestinian Authority TV on April 12, 2002. (condensed)
“We are convinced of the [future] victory of Allah; we believe that one of these days, we will enter Jerusalem as conquerors, enter Jaffa as conquerors, enter Haifa as conquerors, enter Ramle and Lod as conquerors, the [villages of] Hirbiya and Dir Jerjis and all of Palestine as conquerors, as Allah has decree… They will enter Al-Aqsa Mosque as they have entered it the first time…”’
“Anyone who does not attain martyrdom in these days should wake in the middle of the night and say: ‘My God, why have you deprived me of martyrdom for your sake? For the martyr lives next to Allah’… “
“A reliable Hadith [tradition] says: The Jews will fight you, but you will be set to rule over them. ’What could be more beautiful than this tradition? The Jews will fight you’- that is, the Jews have begun to fight us. ‘You will be set to rule over them’- Who will set the Muslim to rule over the Jew? Allah… Until the Jew hides behind the rock and the tree.”
“But the rock and tree will say: ‘Oh Muslim, oh servant of Allah, a Jew hides behind me, come and kill him.’Except for the Gharqad tree, which is the tree of the Jews.” “We believe in this Hadith. We are convinced also that this Hadith heralds the spread of Islam and its rule over all the land…”
“Oh beloved, look to the East of the earth, find Japan and the ocean; look to the West of the earth, find [some] country and the ocean. Be assured that these will be owned by the Muslim nation, as the Hadith says… ‘from the ocean to the ocean…”
“Oh Allah, show the Jews a black day…”
“Oh Allah, annihilate the Jews and their supporters.
“Oh Allah, raise the flag of Jihad across the land…”
“Oh Allah, forgive our sins…” (8)(9)
This sermon was translated by The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) which is an independent, non-profit organization that translates and analyzes the media of the Middle East. https://www.memri.org
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SIX – Muslim / Arab refugees and their descendents do NOT have a Right of Return to Israel.
On 11 Dec. 1948, the United Nations passed Resolution 194, which said Palestinian “refugees wishing to return to their homes and live at peace with their neighbours should be permitted to do so at the earliest practicable date, and that compensation should be paid for the property of those choosing not to return and for loss of or damage to property which, under principles of international law or equity, should be made good by the Governments or authorities responsible.” (10)
Resolution 194 says the returnees must “live at peace with their neighbors.” Since Palestinians
obviously have no intentions of living in peace with their Jewish neighbor, Resolution 194 is null and void. Palestinians have forfeited their right of return.
Carrying this “Right of Return” to its conclusion, it should apply to the Jews after the Moslem conquest of the Middle East which is the Jews ancestral homeland.
Resolution 194 did not create a new international law. In fact, no resolution of the General Assembly can determine laws or establish rights. It is a recommendation. World War Two resulted in millions of refugees across Europe – but only Israel was singled out.(11)
Resolution 194 passed by a vote of 35 (including the United States, the UK, Canada, and European states) in favor, 15 (Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, and Yemen, together with the USSR and its satellite states) against, and eight abstaining. Although the Arab States initially opposed Resolution 194, their claims are now based on Resolution 194.
It should be noted that Jews never received any compensation for their financial losses after fleeing Muslim countries after 1948. Over 800,000 Jews were expelled from Muslim countries they had lived in for centuries and were forced to leave everything behind. Moreover, the value of Jewish property confiscated by Arab governments is estimated to be at least 50 percent higher than the total value of assets lost by the Palestinian refugees. (2)
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SEVEN – A brief history of the Middle East. The goal of Arab/Muslim countries since the late 1800s has been to remove / exterminate Jews in Palestine. The Arabs supported the Nazis in World War Two. From the late 1800s on, Jews would come under increasing attacks by their muslim neighbors. This is why the Jewish people wanted their own country – to be able to protect themselves. (12)(13) In 1880, there were about 24,000 Jews and over half a million Muslims in Palestine.
After the breakup of the Ottoman Empire following World War One, Britain took control of most of the Middle East, including the area that constitutes modern Israel. On November 2, 1917, the Balfour Declaration by Great Britain promised to support the establishment of a national home for the Jewish people in Palestine. The declaration also stated “that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country.”(14)
In 1936, the Arabs rebelled against the British and against their Jewish neighbors. The British formed a task force – the Peel Commission – to study the cause of the rebellion. On 7 July 1937, the commission concluded that Jews and Arabs wanted to govern the same land but couldn’t coexist side by side. The answer, the Peel Commission concluded, would be to create two independent states – one for the Jews and one for the Arabs – a two-state solution.(15)
Arab leadership opposed the partition plan and called for an independent state of Palestine, “with protection of all legitimate Jewish and other minority rights and safeguarding of reasonable British interests”. (16) Jewish leaders were very skeptical of these ‘protections’ due to the frequent massacres of Jews living in Muslim countries.
The Peel commission recommended that the Arab/Jewish population be exchanged along the model of the Greek-Turkish transfer of 1923. The minority Greek Christian population in Turkey went to Greece while the minority Turkey Moslem population in Greece went to Turkey.
The suggested split was heavily in favor of the Arabs. The British offered Arabs 75% of the disputed territory; the Jews, 17%. The remainder was neutral territory controlled by the British. Ultimately, Arabs and the British opposed it while Jews were divided. Many Jews opposed the plan due to the small amount of land. Arabs demanded cessation of all Jewish immigration and land purchases from Arabs.
In 1947, the British asked the U.N. to find a new solution to the continuing violence. Like the Peel Commission, the U.N. decided that the best way to resolve the conflict was to divide the land. With the slaughter of 6 million Jews in Europe during WW2 fresh on peoples minds, on Nov 7, 1947, the U.N. voted to create two states.
The Jews accepted the UN offer. The Arabs rejected it and launched an all-out war on Israel. Jordan, Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon and Syria all joined in the Arab goal of driving the Jews into the sea. But Israel won the war, and got on with the business of building a new nation. The West Bank and east Jerusalem was controlled by Jordon.
In June 1967, the Arabs, led by Egypt and joined by Syria and Jordan, readied their militaries to over run Israel. Due to a preemptive strike, the Israeli military crushed their enemies in what became known as the Six Day War. Israel took control of the West Bank and the Gaza strip. Israelis grew to like the fact that their expanded borders placed their cities beyond the range of Arab artillery fire.
In Aug. 1967, the Arab governments met in Sudan to determine their response to Israel’s battlefield victories. Israel felt confident that the victory would pave the way for a peace agreement with its Arab neighbors. These hopes were shattered. The Arabs vowed continuous warfare against Israel with the now infamous “three No’s:” No peace with Israel. No recognition of Israel. No negotiations with Israel. Again, a two-state solution was dismissed by the Arabs. (17)
In 2000, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak met at Camp David with Bill Clinton and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat to conclude a new two-state plan. Barak offered Arafat a Palestinian state in all of Gaza, ceding up to 94.5 percent of the West Bank, permitting the return of some 100,000 refugees to Israel and perhaps up to 500,000 refugees to the West Bank, along with the uprooting of 40,000 Jewish settlers.(18)
Arafat turned down the deal of a lifetime. Instead, the Palestinians launched a bloody wave of suicide bombings that killed one thousand Israelis. This is why Israel built their wall.
In 2005, Israel withdrew from Gaza and gave the Palestinians total control of Gaza. But Hamas took over and turned Gaza into a terrorist state instead of building a functioning society.
In 2008, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert went even further than Ehud Barak had, expanding the peace offer to include additional land. He also endorsed a tunnel route to link Gaza and the West Bank.
Olmert was also prepared to divide Jerusalem into Israeli and Palestinian controlled neighborhoods, and to relinquish Israeli sovereignty at the Temple Mount and the entire Old City. This area would be overseen by a five-member, non-sovereign international trusteeship, comprising Israel, the Palestinian Authority, Jordan, the US and Saudi Arabia. Like his predecessor, the new Palestinian leader, Mahmoud Abbas, turned down his deal of a lifetime. (19)
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Sources:
1. https://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/hamas.asp Articles 11 and 15.
2. https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jewish-refugees-from-arab-countries
3. https://jewishjournal.com/wires/341834/the-end-of-exile-iraqi-jew-recalls-escape-from-baghdad-70-years-ago/
4. https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/article-836040
5. https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/article-836025
6. https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/us-has-no-evidence-unfolding-genocide-gaza-pentagon-2024-04-09/
7. https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/38-children-were-killed-20-orphaned-on-oct-7-the-state-did-not-pass-the-test-of-protecting-them/
8. The Quran, translated and explained by Muhammad Asad. Pub 2005 by Oriental Press, Dubai.
9. Sheikh Ibrahim Madhi is a Palestinian Authority employee.
10. Palestine Television (Palestinian Authority), April 12, 2002.
11. https://www.unrwa.org/content/resolution-194
12. https://jcpa.org/article/does-a-palestinian-right-of-return-exist-in-international-law/
13. https://www.academia.edu/29310572/The_Forgotten_Oppression_of_Jews_under_Islam_and_in_the_Land_of_Israel
14. https://www.historynewsnetwork.org/article/remembering-the-jewish-massacres-in-mandate-palest
15. https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/text-of-the-balfour-declaration
16. https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/the-peel-commission
17. Chances for Peace: Missed Opportunities in the Arab-Israeli Conflict. By Elie Podeh p30
18. https://www.jpost.com/Features/In-Thespotlight/This-Week-In-History-The-Arab-Leagues-three-nos
19. https://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/arafat-leader-who-did-not-lead
20. https://www.timesofisrael.com/hand-drawn-map-shows-what-olmert-offered-for-peace/
Jan 2025
