Freaky Good Man

Ladies and Gentleman please forgive me for going on this political rant. But, I hope that you read this and pass it on. I am writing this in hopes to help educate those that may not be completely aware of what is going on and also to help create debate, if I am wrong on my understanding please respond. Always respond with your general thoughts as well.

Almost everyday in America if not on the local news on the national news we hear about the Palestinians and the Israelis fighting. We recently have seen how Jews were removed from their homes in the Gaza strip. I had a discussion with my mother about the situation, and she shared with me that she really didn’t know what that whole mess was all about. In my mind, I feel that a lot of people are like that. I know I never really understood the hoopla myself. Here is my interpretation of what has lead up to where we are, so bare with me, it is very interesting stuff.

The land known as Palestine and Israel has had many rulers over the years. The land was a great trading junction so people from all over came to the land. It has incredible historic value for Jews, Christians and Muslims. Probably one of the most unique places in the world with its cross of religious history.

The full glory of this current conflict got started in the late 1800’s, in the 1890’s to be exact. There was a Jew by the name of Theodor Herzl who lived in France that felt that Jews were being persecuted unfairly throughout the world. He felt that the best solution was to create a homeland for the Jews. He wrote a book in 1896 called the Jewish State. Which was his vision of what should take place for the Jewish people. Now Jews were dispersed all over the world at this time. Being a Jew is being part of a religious believe. However, some people feel that Jews are a “Nationality”. Which to me is like saying that being a Christian is a Nationality.

Jew’s or the “Children of Israel” are descendants of Jacob from the Old Testament in the Bible (Abraham, Isaac and Jacob). So some Jews link their claim to the land of Palestine from historical Biblical writings. Stating that the land was given to them by God.

Initially the thought of a Jewish State didn’t pull much weight with other Jews, but eventually caught on. It helped develop, not create, but develop what is known as the Zionist movement, which was a movement to further the cause of the Jews. Jews started holding Zionist conferences to help further their direction and use their political and financial power to find and create a Jewish state.

The Jews began soliciting several different countries to have their Federation. Now keep in mind, they did not just choose Palestine, they looked into other places like Uganda as possible locations.

During this same period World War I is going on. At the end of the war, several key things happen. The Ottoman Empire was in control of Palestine, Iraq, Syria, Jordan and all of the areas located in that region. When the war ended, all of the land was divided to the victors of the war. Britain and France signed the Sykes-Picot Agreement, which divided the Arab region into zones of influence. Lebanon and Syria were assigned to France, Jordan and Iraq to Britain and Palestine was to be internationalized. This was in 1916. The reason Palestine was internationalized was because of its location between major points of the world map. Palestine basically separates Africa (Egypt) from Asia Minor (Syria, Iraq and Jordan).

Now at this time, since Palestine was not given to any one country the Jews began to really lobby for that land. However, keep in mind that just because this land was “internationalized” it does not mean that there were not people indigenous to the area. There were still natives of the land; they just did not have a political voice. The Jews were able to convince the British government to give them the land. The British created what is called the Balfour Declaration. The Balfour Declaration was an official statement issued on behalf of the British government in 1917, announcing its support in principle of a proposed home for the Jewish people in Palestine.

At this point, the British pushed the Declaration through the then League of Nations, which is like our modern United Nations. They had to get it approved by them so that they could have the Jewish State recognized by other countries so that it would be legitimate. At the time, Britain ran the League of Nations like the US runs the UN today. The League of Nations approved the Declaration in a mandate in 1922. Now lets be clear, Israel as a country has not been formed. Just a Jewish state was created. Now the indigenous people of Palestine (the Palestinians) protested the Britains taking their land. They held their first National Conference in oppose of the Balfour Declaration in 1919.

It is important to note that Arabs in the area also supported the Palestinians and objected to Britain giving the land to the Jews. That was true then and it is still true today. That is why you here terrorist taking up the mantle for the Palestinians in other political statements. People in that entire region dislike Israel with a passion and it stems from this issue.

At this point Jews from all over the world began to move to Palestine. Now in 1929 is when the first real bad blood occurred. There was a riot in 1929 over a dispute over a wall that was claimed to be Muslim by the Palestinians and Jew by the Jews. Now many believe that the riots were much deeper than that and also caused by Britains insistence on giving Palestinian land to the Jews to create a state on their homeland without there blessings.

But, the huge influx of Jews came when the Nazi’s started to persecute the Jews in the 1930’s, better known as the Holocaust. At this point 10’s of thousands of Jews started leaving Germany and moved to Palestine. The mistreatment of the Jews during the Holocaust brought sympathy to them from people from across the world and helped push the further existence of a Jewish homeland.

Britain struggled trying to come to a compromise between the Jews and the Palestinians (sounds familiar?) for years. So in 1947 Britain turned over the situation to the United Nations. The UN had been established only two years prior in 1945. This is where the US comes into play. The US began to use its influence in the process through the UN and ultimately was able to get the members of the UN to back a partition of Palestine, which would have created a separate Jewish and a Palestinian State.

However, the Palestinians objected to the partition as it was there land and they felt that it should not be divided under any circumstances. The Jews agreed to the partition and became a recognized Country May 14, 1948. They were immediately attack by Arab countries coming to the defense of their Arab brothers the Palestinians. On May 15 the armies of Egypt, Transjordan (now Jordan), Syria, Lebanon, and Iraq joined Palestinian and other Arab guerrillas who had been fighting Jewish forces since November 1947. The war now became an international conflict, the first Arab-Israeli War.

Israel won the war and eventually took 50% more of the land than what was mentioned in the UN partition. So the new Jewish State now controlled 75% percent of the land that was formerly Palestine.

Over the years, the conflict heats up and then peace is discussed. None of Israel’s neighbors want them there and feel as if they have wrongfully taken land from the Palestinians. A lot of Arab and Islamic terrorist want to see the destruction of Israel.

America is heavily involved in the conflict for two main reasons. American Jews hold a lot of political and financial influence over the American government. So the American government has come to the aid of the Israelis in the form of selling them arms as well as help training their military. The second factor really adds a deep twist to the whole thing. America is a majority Christian country. American Christians have as much if not more power as American Jews. Conservative American Christians want the American government to support the Jews so that the Jews can fulfill their prophecy of being in their homeland. The crazy twist is that, in the Bible it states that this has to happen and that war as to happen for Jesus to come back to reign over the earth.

Now I know some of you are like FGM is tripping. There is no Christian conspiracy. I hate to tell you, yes there is. The good ole Rev. Jerry Faldwell is one of the most outspoken advocates of helping the Jews for their ultimate demise.

The whole things is pretty complicated. The other piece is that, Muslim Arabs which make up most of the people that live in that area, hold America accountable for the Jews presence on the Palestinian land. If you ever listen to the infamous Osama bin Laden. He mentions two major things for his hate of America. America having military presence on Muslim soil and America not doing enough to help equality for the Palestinians.

My take is that the Jews should not be there in the form of a Jewish state. If Jews as individual families move to that region and choose to live there and develop communities, that is only fair. You should be able to live where you want to live. But to come and take the land from people that have been there without there consent is stealing and there is no way to justify it. It is no different than America taking the land from Native Americans and pushing them out.

As far as that being the Jews rightful God given property doesn’t hold water. In the history of the world, wars are fought. People are put into slavery or are wiped out completely. That is the way the world works. The victory goes to the mighty. The Jews came in through the backdoor to take this land from the Palestinians. It’s just not right.

The last point I will make is that, its very unfair that not only did the Jews take their land, but they have prevented the Palestinians from creating their own state / country. The main reason is that, if the Palestinians are allowed to create their own state, they will have the ability to create an army and be in control of their economic future. As of right now, they have very limited control of their own destiny. Palestinians have been villainized in the American media as terrorist. If they are unable to bear arms and create an army to go against the Jews, what are they to do? If someone were illegally on your land, wouldn’t you do whatever you could to remove them? For the Palestinians, their biggest weapon is suicide bombings. Why? Because, they have no tanks, helicopters, planes or other major military armament that could stand up against the Israeli army that has been trained and supplied by the world’s only super power, the United States of America.

I hope this sheds some light on this conflict for some of you. If someone sees error in what I have written, please feel free to openly debate the facts. Obvious, this is a very complicated issue, and every last detail could not be addressed, but this is the meat and potatoes of it.

Links:
Time line of the Land of Palestine Interesting time line, has a more Palestinian slant. also has a map of current day Palestine / Israel.
History of Israel Interesting Link with a lot of resource, however more slanted toward the Jewish view.
A Christian Believe in wanting the Jews to Have the land Deals with some Christian’s view of why the Jews should be supported, for selfish Christian reasons.