It’s one of the great fallacies of our time: “Israel stole Palestinian land.” It’s not Palestinian land. It never was and never will be.
The Land of Israel was given to the Jewish people by the Creator – as stated in the Bible – and will remain their homeland in perpetuity. Despite numerous invasions of Judea and Samaria, forced conversions, exiles, oppression, centuries of Diaspora, and cowardly acquiescence by a cadre of fifth-column Jews, we have not only survived but taken what became a desert wasteland and turned it into a powerful little democracy.
To Israel’s many detractors, the mantra remains the same: “We respect Judaism but oppose Zionism.” Attempting to mask their anti-Semitism as anti-Zionism, Israel’s enemies spread vile myths so often that much of it sticks. To cite just a few examples:
Myth: Israel discriminates against its Arab citizens.
The facts show otherwise. Israel is one of the most open societies in the world. Out of a population of 8.9 million, 1.9 million are Muslim, 161,000 are Christian, and 143,000 are Druze. All have equal voting rights. Indeed, Israel is one of very few places where Arab women can to vote, and Arabs currently hold 15 seats in the Knesset.
Myth: The Palestinian Authority protects Jewish holy sites.
If only that were true. Just in the years 1996-2000:
- Palestinian rioters destroyed a synagogue at Joseph’s Tomb in Shechem.
- Rachel’s Tomb near Bethlehem was repeatedly attacked.
- Joseph’s Tomb was torched.
- The ancient synagogue in Jericho was destroyed by arson, and a second historic synagogue was damaged.
All this under nominal Israeli control of these sites. One can only imagine what their fate would be if left to Palestinian stewardship.
And now for the greatest myth of them all – the foundation on which every pro-Palestinian lie is based: The Jews are building settlements on Palestine.
This fabrication makes great copy for the media, but it lacks any basis in historical fact. There was never a Palestine, plain and simple. If there were, when was it founded and by whom? What were its borders? What was the name of its capital? What was the name of its currency?
These questions were posed by a Japanese writer, Yashiko Sagamori, and only the most revisionist adherent of the Palestinian narrative could even attempt to answer them. Pose these same questions regarding Israel, however, and each can be easily answered.
At no time in history has there ever been a country called Palestine. During the Ottoman Empire, which lasted from 1299-1922, the land dubbed “Palestine” by the Romans was controlled by the Turks; there was never an outcry for a Palestinian state then. During the illegal annexation of Judea and Samaria by Jordan after the 1949 armistice, there was never talk of “occupied territory” or a Palestinian state. Why did the dynamic suddenly change after Israel’s glorious victory in the Six-Day War?
Search through the annals of history. Israel is the only nation that has ever been victorious in war and then expected to sue for peace and cede land that was historically hers to begin with.
Which European nation cajoling Israel to acquiesce to Palestinian demands ever returned land it won in military conflict?
Russia? Has it returned Crimea? For that matter, why is there no outcry for Russia to return the Kuril Islands to the Japanese?
How about England? The British never miss an opportunity to castigate the Jewish State but hypocritically fail to look at it own sordid imperialist history. The Falkland Islands, Gibraltar, Northern Ireland… If not for hundreds of years of British military strength, wouldn’t Northern Ireland be part of the Irish Republic today?
Throughout history, “might has made right” except when it involves the Jewish nation, one of the only in the world with a truly legitimate claim to its land.
Despite being driven out twice from their G-d-given ancestral land, Jews have always maintained a connection to the Land of Israel. This apparently means nothing, though, to European countries, many of which collaborated with the Nazis in shipping Jews to concentration camps during the Holocaust. These same nations, such as France, Austria, and Belgium – along with 125 others – voted at the UN to undermine the U.S.’s recognition of Jerusalem as the Israel’s capital:
“We affirm that any decisions and actions which purport to have altered, the character, status or demographic composition of the Holy City of Jerusalem have no legal effect, are null and void.”
Only nine other nations stood with the U.S. In sum, truth doesn’t seem to be of much import to most of the world when Israel is involved.