The Unmentionables

Arab Lies

For many, many years I have attempted to explain this issue to people who insist the Jews "drove" the Palestinians from "their" land.

First point--there is no such place as "ancient" Palestine, as in pre-Christian-era Palestine. All you good Christians who own Bibles with a map section that shows "Palestine during Jesus' Time" should be demanding publishers correct this error and stop furthering Palestinian propaganda.

That name is a bastardization of the name of an ancient tribe who lived in the area during the Old Testament era--the Philistines. It was reputedly created by the Roman Emperor Hadrian (A.D. 117-138) who ruled in the Second Century after Christ.  Hadrian had to spend the first part of his reign crushing Jewish uprisings in various parts of his empire. Then, "…[l]ate in his reign, after deciding to resettle the site of Jerusalem as the city of Aelia Capitolina and build a temple to Jupiter on the site of the Jewish temple, another uprising occurred, more bitter still than its recent predecessor."

Hadrian loathed the Jews with such passion he vowed to wipe the name and memory of Israel from the face of the earth, ultimately decreeing the land known as "Israel" would become "Palestine." Ironically, the ancient Philistines occupied an area roughly equivalent to the modern-era's Gaza strip, so the next time some lefty liberal demands the Palestinians be given back their homeland, tell them they already have it.

Second point--don't expect the "Palestinians" to stop lying about their ersatz history. They have to lie to save face. Besides, lying to infidels is perfectly acceptable in the Qu'ran. (So are any number of other nasty things. The only proscriptions against lying, cheating, murdering, etc. is when such acts are perpetrated against other Muslims .)

The so-called Palestinians have too much invested in the lie to fess up now, as David Gutmann points out in his article.

"To back up its demands for full repatriation to Israel of Arab refugees and their descendants, the Palestinian leadership has—for over fifty years—busily spun the story of their "Naqba," their catastrophic flight from Palestine during 1947-48, in all the media available to them. This version of events—replete with Jewish brutality and Arab victimization—is a lie whose time has come, one now almost universally believed by Gentile and Jew alike."

[…]

"I was a witness to the Naqba times, and am compelled to challenge such Israel-bashing by the Palestinians and their Jewish allies. As a trainee with the Palmach and then with the regular Israeli forces during the Independence War, I had neither military skills nor fluency in Hebrew, and was probably more trouble to my units than I was worth. My real usefulness to Israel may only become evident 53 years later. Because of that youthful service, I can now—when the Palestinian myth is being legislated into hardened truth, even for Jews—bear an elder's witness against the Naqba lie."

Palestinians. Practicing professional victimization for over 50 years.