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Apr. 29, 2005 It’s a mere casuistry to say that the conflict in Palestine-Israel is not a conflict between Palestinians and Israelis, but rather one between Arabs and Jews, as if assigning new nouns changes the whole situation. Of course, the conflict is between Arabs and Jews. By trying to deny local Arabs the name of “Palestinians”, which, in itself, is not terribly important in the first place, Jews are trying to make the Arab claims to Palestine vanish. But Muslim Arabs, by whatever name you call them, have lived in Palestine since the days of Mohammad. Palestine was ruled by the Caliphates till 1250, by Mamluks from 1250 to 1516 and by Ottomans from 1516 to 1918, and Caliphates, Mamluks and Ottomans were all Muslims. Jews say that Palestinians never formed a nation, never had a legislative body, never has a postal system, etc. Jews are trying to create the illusion that Arabs were not really there at all. This would be like having Americans say that since American Indians never had anything resembling a modern nation, with a legislature and courts and a postal system, that they did not really exist legally and had no right to any lands. It is as much as to say that the Pilgrims were always in the US, and the American Indians showed up only later to see what benefit they could get from their presence. There is supposed to have been a miniscule Jewish population in the Levant since Roman days, a few stragglers from the Diaspora that came as a consequence of the Jewish-Roman Wars. But it was only around 1880 that the Russian pogroms, which were largely punitive measures undertaken by the Tsars in reprisal for Jewish sharp practises, gave Russian Jews the idea to migrate to Palestine, under the romantic notion of a “return to Zion”. So from 1880 till 1918, the Jewish population in Palestine began to grow, from perhaps less than 5% of the total population to about 10%. Sandbaugh quotes masada2000.org, a Jewish authority, as if this were an unbiased view of history in the region. There are many Palestinian websites that tell the history entirely differently. Obviously, if you ask Chinese Communists to report on Chinese Communism, you will get a very rosy picture of its progress. And if you ask masada2000.org, you will get the overweening Jewish view of their occupation and theft of Palestine. So instead of quoting a Palestinian source, let me quote the Crane-King Commission Report, issued in 1918 pursuant to a delegation ordered by President Woodrow Wilson to Palestine to take the pulse of the local population as regards a massive Jewish influx (my capitalizations): “3. Wishes of the People.-THE MOSLEMS CONSTITUTE ABOUT FOUR-FIFTHS OF THE ACTUAL POPULATION OF PALESTINE, ACCORDING TO A RECENT BRITISH CENSUS. Except for certain official groups they were practically unanimous for the independence of United Syria, and were responsive to the current political influences. The organizations met at Jaffa took the position that Syria is capable of self-government without a mandatory power, but if one should be insisted upon by the Peace Conference, they preferred the United States...... .....THE CHRISTIANS OF PALESTINE, WHO ALTOGETHER CONSTITUTE LESS THAN TEN PER CENT OF THE POPULATION, SHOWED MORE DIFFERENCE OF OPINION. Some groups in the north, as the Latin Catholics of Tiberias and Haifa and most of the Christians of Nazareth, were with the Moslems for independence and the reference to Damascus. Maronites and Greek Catholics, and usually the Latin Catholics, were for a French mandate. The Greek Orthodox everywhere, according to an agreed program, were for a British mandate, as were several scattering groups. None asked directly for the United States, though the opinion was expressed that if there were assurance that we would come if asked, most Christians would favor this solution. The Christians were in general strongly in favor of a mandatory power, which should exercise a real control. THE JEWS, WHO CONSTITUTE A LITTLE MORE THAN TEN PER CENT OF THE POPULATION, WERE ALL FOR ZIONISM, under a British mandate. THE MOSLEM AND CHRISTIAN POPULATION WAS PRACTICALLY UNANIMOUS AGAINST ZIONISM, USUALLY EXPRESSING THEMSELVES WITH GREAT EMPHASIS. This question was closely connected with that of the unity of all Syria under one Government.” So if the Crane-King Commission Report is to be believed, in 1918 Palestine was 80% Muslim, 10% Christian and 10% Jewish. The Muslims were, of course, chiefly Arabs. It doesn’t make any difference what name you wish to apply to them, they were there, in Palestine already, long before the Jewish population explosion. To pretend that Palestinians popped into existence in the 1940’s or 1960’s is ridiculous. Arabs have been there for 14 centuries. As for Sandbaugh’s ludicrous justification of the Jewish theft of Palestine as the fulfilment of a divine promise made to Abraham, let me just remark that the oldest known copies of the book of Genesis are the ones included among the Dead Sea Scrolls, which archeologists date to around 200 BC. Therefore, the written affidavit of this “divine promise” is just a crumbling scroll found in a cave by Bedouin children in 1947. There is no reason to believe there was an Abraham at all. Nor is there any reason to believe that there was a man called Jesus Christ. I’ve written several articles on the likelihood that Jesus didn’t exist at all, but my mind can always be changed. Just have Sandbaugh tell an obedient mountain to cast itself into the sea, and I will climb aboard his Heaven-bound bandwagon. He needs to go tell that religious stuff to Sunday School children, not me. No, there was no Abraham, there is noi God, and there was no promise. Jews rushed in and swindled the Arabs out of Palestine, with the blessings of the US. ------------ About the author Thomas Keyes: I have written two books: A SOJOURN IN ASIA (non-fiction) and A TALE OF UNG (fiction), neither published so far. I have studied languages for years and traveled extensively on five continents. Email: udikeyes@yahoo.com Comment on this article here! ------------ All articles are EXCLUSIVE to Useless-Knowledge.com and are not allowed to be posted on other websites. ARTICLE THIEVES WILL BE PROSECUTED! |
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