GNITN - Special Edition

Israel At War – Day 87

Whose Land Is It - Part Two

Catching Up To Today

In our last lesson we detailed when Israel began to exist as a nation going all the way back to the Exodus and also starting from a Biblical setting which went back 400 or so years before the Exodus account. Now we’ll look at the history of Palestine and see how it actually was given to Jews and Jewish people used that name for themselves before they became a modern nation in 1948. We start by heavily quoting an article from curtislandry.com:

The ancient biblical concept of The Promised Land is the basis for the establishment of Israel as a modern-day nation. According to biblical accounts (see Part 1), the current Jewish nation of Israel only occupies a small portion of the original covenant promised boundaries of Eretz Yisrael (the Land of Israel).

Over the intervening two thousand years of exile, with only a small Jewish presence in the land, there always remained a glimmer of hope for the redemption and return of the Jewish people to their national home. This is a dream central to Jewish life and culture to this day.

The article goes on to state that not just Bible scholars support a Jewish homeland:

While the Bible clearly states that Eretz Yisrael belongs to the Jews, there are many recent secular, gentile sources that also convey Jewish ownership of The Promised Land:

In November 2, 1917, the Balfour Declaration became the foundational document written in favor of the establishment of the Jewish homeland, and was subsequently put into effect by the Mandate for Palestine in 1922. When the Ottoman Empire finally collapsed after WWI, Britain was assigned a portion of the former empire referred to as “Palestine” (today this is Jordan and Israel—including Gaza and the West Bank) under the Sykes-Picot Agreement in 1916.

Palestine Mandate Approved

While it is called The Mandate For Palestine don’t be fooled into this being a reference to a Palestinian state. Palestine was an area and always had been. Jews and Arabs both lived there. This was always meant to give the Jews their own nation as we read in the same article:

The Mandate for Palestine was approved on July 24, 1922, which put the Balfour Declaration into effect. This mandate, authorized by the League of Nations, specifically referred to “the historical connection of the Jewish people with Palestine: and to the validity of reconstituting their national home in that country…”

The November 29, 1947 United Nations General Assembly Resolution 181, called for the establishment of a Jewish State by the Jewish

people in Eretz Yisrael. This resolution called for the partition of British-ruled Palestine into a Jewish and an Arab state.

The May 14, 1948 Israeli Declaration of Independence—the declaration of an independent Jewish—Eretz Yisrael!

Just as Isaiah 66:8 prophesied:

“Who has ever seen anything as strange as this? Who ever heard of such a thing? Has a nation ever been born in a single day? Has a country ever come forth in a mere moment? But by the time Jerusalem’s birth pains begin, her children will be born.” (NLT)

So When Did Palestine As A Nation Begin?

For this we need to go back in history to Roman days. While some say we need to go back to Greek times which is true, the name was adopted by the Romans. In an article from CBN.com by Arlene Bridges Samuels we read this:

Calling Israel “Palestine” is commonplace today. However, the history of that name goes back millennia. First coined by the ancient Greeks for the five-city area in the Philistine confederacy and then adopted by Roman emperor Hadrian, Palestine was more recently copied by former Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) Chairman Yasser Arafat in the last century. Arafat’s use of Palestine and Palestinians has expanded into a propaganda machine that is successfully echoed worldwide, as part of an effort to eradicate all Jews.

Samuels then made the Roman connection clearer:

But first let’s consider one of its earlier and notable uses. The Roman emperor Hadrian reigned for 21 years between 117-138 A.D. From 132–136 A.D., a Jewish messianic figure, Bar Kokhba, led a revolt against Hadrian that resulted in the deaths of more than half a million Jews in their desperate bid for independence from their pagan conquerors. But their valiant attempt was in vain against the overwhelming power of Roman legions.

Hadrian’s genocidal ambition intensified when he then decided to strip the Jews of their biblical name. He sought to change their identity and sever them from their ancestry by renaming the land Syria Palestina after the Philistines in the Bible—enemies of Israel, although not Arabs. Hadrian then made it worse. He renamed Jerusalem—the already 1,000-year-old Jewish capital—Aelia Capitolina and turned it into a pagan city.

Palestine Is Mentioned In The Bible – Briefly

Samuels did bring some Biblical context to this:

While Bible translations and methods differ, the name Israel is said to appear in its pages over 2,500 times. In Genesis 32:28, we read an example of God’s official nomenclature when Jacob wrestled with God: “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with humans and have overcome.” The title Palestina or Philistines is only briefly mentioned eight or so times in the Old Testament and nowhere in the New Testament.

The article them brings up to modern times where a different connection to the area is brought up:

The League of Nations, the precursor to the United Nations, identified Great Britain as a kind of “manager” of Israel after World War I. The Ottoman Empire’s defeat had led to the Sykes-Picot Agreement, where two men—Sykes (a Brit) and Picot (a Frenchman)—were commissioned to carve up the Middle East for Great Britain and France. They kept the name Palestine, although in a 1938 report to the League of Nations, the British made this important distinction: “The name ‘Palestine’ is not a country but a geographic region.”

Not a country? That’s a big distinction, one Palestinians of today would like you to ignore.

Jews Kept Coming To The Area

And they adopted the Palestinian designation as their own as continue to read from the CBN article:

In pre-state Israel, when Jewish people began making Aliyah in high numbers, they adopted the name. In 1932, their newspaper was called The Palestine Post. Their first symphony orchestra (1936) was called the Palestine Orchestra. Then, in 1948, the orchestra changed its name to the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, and The Palestine Post also later became The Jerusalem Post in 1950.

So the name Palestine actually referred to Jews and the world knew that:

The world embraced the name Palestine until May 14, 1948, when Israel’s founder and first Prime Minister, David Ben-Gurion, made the historic announcement of modern statehood at a Tel Aviv art gallery (now Independence Hall). He sent a message of reunification and correction between ancient and modern Israel when he announced the name of the world’s re-established Jewish state: Israel.

Other names had been considered prior to May 14, 1948—names such as Judea and Zion. Ben-Gurion took a vote among his cabinet-in-waiting. After much debate, and with time running out, they voted favorably for the ancient name. Some thought that Ben-Gurion was especially drawn to the name since the Bible is filled with the name Israel. Although Ben-Gurion was an excellent student of the Bible, he was secular in his views. Nevertheless, in naming the modern Jewish country Israel, he recaptured the correct name, rescuing it from Hadrian’s identity theft 2,000 years earlier. My view is that God moved in the minds and hearts of Ben-Gurion and his cabinet.

Some point to the name of the area as Palestine and want you to believe Palestinians only lived there or that it was their land. They are not reading history or don’t know it and perhaps are only parroting what some people tell them. Regardless, now you know the true facts.

Historical Thievery

Samuels then clears up the alleged claims of restoring a Palestinian homeland by giving us this information:

Yet just two decades later, another identity thief was on the move. The power of Egyptian-born Yasser Arafat began expanding into a 35-year reign of terror that was masked by smiles and lies, although they were obvious to those who saw through his clever smokescreen. Arafat grew up under the tutelage of his great-uncle Haj Amin al-Husayni, a Nazi collaborator who became Grand Mufti in Jerusalem. Arafat learned his lessons well.

Arafat knew exactly what he was doing and an agency that seeks to correct his lies helps us to understand him more:

The Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis (CAMERA) has created an informative timeline about Arafat’s terrorism. One of Israel’s newspapers, Yediot Ahronot, carried his revealing statement made at a rally near Bethlehem on October 23, 1996: “We know only one word: jihad, jihad, jihad.” Jihad is a struggle or fight against the enemies of Islam.

Arafat then made his move:

On February 4, 1969, Arafat took over the PLO. A master of propaganda, he took the name Palestine and turned it into a new group of people—Palestinians—and a new country: Palestine. They were and are Arabs, still living in an Arab dictatorship alongside one and a half million Israeli Arabs who live free in a democracy.

No Peace In The Middle East

So many have tried to make peace with Arabs in the area, and no one can seem to make it happen. The truth of using the name Palestine comes from Arabs themselves:

Truth about the PLO’s terrorist intent has leaked out over the years from Arab leaders in that organization. Arab countries that have signed on to the Abraham Accords have grown impatient with the Palestinians. But even before then, in 1977 PLO spokesman Zahir Muhsein made a statement that should be heeded to this day. In an interview with the Dutch newspaper Trouw he declared, “The Palestinian people does not exist. The creation of a Palestinian state is only a means for continuing our struggle against the state of Israel for our Arab unity. … Today there is no difference between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians, and Lebanese. Only for political and tactical reasons do we speak today about the existence of a Palestinian people.”

Samuels then brings us up to date with these comments:

Yes, the Palestinians are Arabs. Nothing has changed since Zahir Muhsein’s 1977 statement except that Gazan Arabs are now ruled by Hamas terrorists and much of the Palestinian population under Abbas still suffers from a corrupt leadership that funnels hate for Jews and Israel through their media day and night.

In conclusion, while Roman Emperor Hadrian, former PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, and all Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) activists shout the name Palestine, it is not a country.

The Truth Should Set Them Free

People who still keep saying things that aren’t true such as a two state solution miss the fact that this would be creating for the first time a nation called Palestine for a people who never were Palestinians until Arafat came up with the designation in 1969. Yet, video after video on social media sites say Palestine existed long before Israel and say that Israel only existed for 75 years. When faced with the facts, it doesn’t matter. They either yell and scream, use profanity, and berate the messengers or just walk away fuming. However, if you didn’t know before, you have the history now. A war is being fought because of these lies and the PR war also rages in every nook and cranny of the mainstream media. Such misinformation will not simply go away overnight and not even is Hamas and all terrorists in the region are decimated and destroyed. Just like Pharaoh in the Bible, they will harden their hearts before changing. It is sad, but we can pray specifically against the waves and waves of false statements and also pray for the misnamed Arabs to end the charade and agree to live in nations that support Hamas, Hezbollah. As positive as it sounds, after having been taught for decades to hate Israel, losing a war will not change their hearts and minds. Only God can do that, and that is good thing to pray for as well.