Israel-Palestine Split
For almost 1,500 years Jews and Muslim Arabs were allies. That began to change in the late 1800s. To appreciate how and why, it is first necessary to understand Insh’Allah.
The phrase in Arabic means “If God so wills.” Unfortunately, among the remaining satrapies of the Caliphate, it degenerated into absolute fatalism. Things must already be the way God wants, and nobody can change them. Thus, when the Zionist movement approached small landowners in what is now Israel, they gladly sold the worthless land to the Jews. The land wouldn’t bear crops, so that must be what God wants. Insh’allah.
The Jews only partly agreed. If God so wills, and if I irrigate, and if I fertilize, and if I weed – in other words, if I do the necessary things to grow crops. Soon the land bore crops. The previous owners felt stupid. Nobody likes feeling stupid, so the satraps – middle management – told them the Jews had cheated them. The prior owners were soon out for blood.
During World War I, the Axis and the Allies took turns trying to recruit various groups in the Middle East, resulting in total confusion. Jews continued being persecuted in Europe, and the New World (except for Colombia) refused to take them in. They were on their own. Every Jew in Europe and many in Africa got to land controlled by the Jews if they could. The population swelled. When they moved outward to accommodate the increased population, they eventually reached Jerusalem. The city was split between the two groups.
After WW II, the French and British awarded what is now Israel to the Jews and the rest of the area to the Arab Muslims. The armies of Egypt, Jordan, Syria and God knows who else attacked simultaneously. The Jews surrendered the Old City so that the Arabs wouldn’t destroy the temples. They destroyed them anyway.
Over the next 50 years the Arab Muslims repeatedly attacked. Various Arab Muslim groups, such as the Intifada and the PLO were organized to get rid of the Jews. During that period, they killed approximately 500 other Arab Muslims for every Jew killed. The Arab Muslims in the West Bank eventually became so obstreperous that Jordan repudiated its claim to the West bank. Since the territory now belonged to nobody, Israel took charge.
This is not intended as a defense of Israel. I don’t know enough about what is going on there by the government. It is intended as a defense of the Jews. Ilhan Omar is somewhat correct. We need to be able to differentiate between the State of Israel and Jews.
Funny thing. I got close relatives who were Palestinian Jews (after they were Ukrainian Jews) and then became Israeli Jews when the British Mandate ended.
I spent some time living first as an openly-declared Jew and then as an officially-professed Muslim in a Muslim country, and it's just a brutal cousins war. The holy books of Islam include the holy books of the Jews, and the Muslims just hate that. The Jews just hate that the Muslims took the very worst of the original teachings and ran with them and put 'em on speed.
And here I am, both traditions now indelibly in my bones and an apostate to two faiths. Though the Jews have told me I can't ever really leave, so there!
The history of Israel, going back to the Balfour Declaration of 1917, is complicated and convoluted. Whether the West Bank is considered "occupied territory" or whether the Arab Muslims are seen as stupid people led by corrupt terrorists doesn't matter. According to International law, the nation of Israel has a right to exist. One doesn't have to approve of all their policies to accept this fact. You made a valid point in your comment to my essay this morning: we must be able to understand that attacking the nation of Israel is not the same as attacking all Jews. But maybe it is. In Ilhan Omar's mind, I believe there is no difference. Certainly, to the mullah's of Iran there is no distinction. The Jews must be destroyed. That's all there is to it.
Last year, David Wilkerson wrote an essay that I found just now. In it he said (and I quote):
Here is the cry of the apostle John in the Bible’s final book: “He who testifies to these things says, ‘Surely I am coming quickly.’ Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus!” (Revelation 22:20, NKJV)
I am biased, but I think we all should say this prayer. I am not anxious to see the third Horseman bring famine to the world and we know what will come after that.