Forgotten Facts

ARAB-ISRAEL CONFLICT - FORGOTTEN FACTS!

by Steven Shamrak

[Provided by the Freeman Center for Strategic Studies]

The term "Palestinian" is itself a masterful twisting of history. To portray themselves as indigenous, Arab settlers adopted the name of an ancient Mediterranean tribe, the Philistines ("Invaders" in Hebrew), who had died out over 2,500 years ago. There is no connection between this tribe and modern day Arabs. The Romans, in order to conceal their shame and anger with rebellious regions, changed the references to Judea and Samaria by naming them 'Palestine'. Most Arabs had settled in Palestine after Jews started developing agriculture and industries approximately 100 years ago.

1. Israel became a nation in 1312 B.C.E., almost two thousand years before the rise of Islam.

2. Since 1272 B.C.E. the Jews have had a dominion over the land for
at least 1,000 years as well as a continuous presence in the land for the
past 3,300 years.

3. The only Arab dominion since the conquest in 635 C.E. lasted no
more than 22 years.

4. King David made the city of Jerusalem his capital, Mohammed had never been to Jerusalem.

5. For 3,000 years, Jerusalem has been known to be the Jewish capital. Jerusalem has never been the capital of any Arab or Muslim entity. When the Jordanians occupied Jerusalem, they never sought to make it their capital and Arab leaders did not specifically come to visit there.

6. Jerusalem is mentioned over 700 times in the Tanach (Jewish Holy Scriptures). Jerusalem is never mentioned in the Koran.

7. Jews pray facing Jerusalem wherever in the world they may be. Muslims pray facing Mecca (often with their backs toward Jerusalem).

8. In 1854, according to a report in the New York Tribune, Jews constituted two-thirds of the population of the holy city. (The source: A journalist on assignment to the Middle East that year for the Tribune. His name was Karl Marx. Yes, that Karl Marx.)

9. In 1867, Mark Twain took a tour of Palestine and described that land: "A desolate country whose soil is rich enough but is given over wholly to weeds. It is a silent and mournful expanse. We never saw a human."

10. In 1882 census figures of the Ottoman Empire, it was recorded that in the entire land of Israel, there were only 141,000 Muslims, both Arab and non-Arab.

11. A travel guide to Palestine and Syria, published in 1906 by Karl Baedeker, estimated that the total population of Jerusalem was 60,000, of whom 7,000 were Muslims, 13,000 were Christians, and 40,000 were Jews.

12. After Zionist Jews came, drained the swamps, and made the deserts blossom Arabs followed them. They came for jobs, for prosperity, and for freedom. Arabs arrived in large numbers.

13. In 1922, during the illegal separation of Transjordan, Jews were forbidden to settle on 77% of the disputed territory, while Arab settlements went unrestricted by British.

14. Prior to the Second World War, Mojli Amin, a member of the Arab Defense Committee for Palestine, proposed the following idea "All the Arabs of Palestine will leave and be settled amongst the neighboring Arab countries. In exchange for this, all the Jews living in Arab countries will leave and come and live in Palestine.

15. Did you know that Saudi Arabia was not established until 1913? Lebanon was not established until 1920. Iraq did not exist as a nation until 1932 and Syria until 1941. The borders of Jordan were established in 1946 and those of Kuwait in 1961. Any of the aforementioned nations that say that Israel is only a recent arrival would have to deny their own right of existence. They did not exist as fully-fledged countries, but were all under the control of the Turks. Over 80% of the original British Mandate land was given to the Arabs without any form of population transfer.

16. In 1947, the Jewish state settled on 18% of the original British Mandate land. This was accepted gratefully. The Arabs rejected it with a vengeance and seven Arab states immediately declared war against Israel.

17. In 1948, the Arabs were encouraged to leave Israel by Arab leaders promising to purge the land of Jews. Most of them left in fear of being killed by their own Arab brothers as traitors.

18. Jewish citizens of Arab countries had been forced to flee from Arab brutality, persecution, and pogroms.

19. The number of Arabs who left Israel in 1948 was 470,000 (this figure was later inflated after UN offered them free help). The number of Jewish refugees from Arab lands is estimated to be the same.

20. From 1948 to 1967 Arabs made no attempt to create a Palestinian state. Under Jordanian rule, Jewish holy sites were desecrated. Jews and Christians were denied access to places of worship. Under Israeli rule, all Muslim and Christian sites have been preserved and made accessible to people of all faiths.

21. Arabs began identifying themselves as part of a Palestinian people only in 1967, after Israel captured Judea, Samaria, and Gaza.

22. Out of the 100,000,000 refugees since World War II, Arab-Palestinians are the only refugee group in the world that have never been absorbed or integrated into their own peoples' lands. Jewish refugees from all over were completely absorbed into the land of Israel.

23. Arab refugees intentionally were not absorbed or integrated by the rich Arab oil states that control 99.9 percent of the Middle East land mass. They are kept as virtual prisoners by the Arab power brokers with misplaced hatred for Jews and Western democracy.

24. There is only one Jewish state. There are 57 Muslim countries, including 22 Arab ones.

25. The PLO's Charter still calls for the destruction of the State of Israel.

26. Pan-Arabism or the idea of an Arab Caliphate declares that all land that supposedly to belonged to Arabs, must be returned to Arabs.

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"For Zion's sake will I not hold my peace and for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest." Isaiah 62.1

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