Israel, Gaza & the West Bank
(March 2024) Since I posted this page in 2023 events have overtaken due to October 7th, so an update is required.
Before I say anything else, two maps for context.
It has been commonly portrayed in the media for a long time that Israel is the big bully boy harrassing tiny Gaza and the West Bank.
But below is the context. Israel is surrounded by Islamic nations, all of whom to one degree or another, following the teachings of Mohammad, want the removal of Jews from the world.
Whenever you read anything about the conflict think of this map!
Israel is a tiny nation entirely surrounded by massive Islamic nations. In terms of population they almost disappear into insignificance.
I highly recommend that you take half an hour to listen to Ben Shapiro give a full history of Israel. Even the first minutes will show you that the Jews were living in Israel 1300 years before Jesus or 1900 years before Mohammad.
If you think that there is a country called “Palestine“, you need to listen. If you think that there is a nation called “Palestinians”, you need to listen. The page on YouTube will give lots of other links on the same subject, some with differing interpretations of history.
Have you ever asked yourself where “impoverished” Gaza get all their rockets?
The truth is of course that Israel is not fighting against a tiny little city state. Gaza not only receives a very large foreign aid budget from the U.S. (except under Trump) but it has the wealth of the Islamic Arab world behind it so that the war on Israel is a PROXY WAR. One can easily argue that this is actually a war with Iran in particular and the more extreme Islamic nations in general.
Israel is forced to spend mega bucks on a very sophisticated “Iron Dome” to defend itself against rocket attacks. They have one of the most powerful Air Forces in the world and an amazing Army based around national service. They are trying to avoid at all costs an occupation of Gaza since that would result in hundreds of civilian deaths and would become an endless guerilla ground war. In short Israel cannot win.
Yes the Gazans live in constant fear of death from the air, much more so than Israelis because of the fire power difference. Yes, taking out complete tower blocks probably has no effect on the continuation of the evacuated terrorists! Yes, most Gazans probably just want to live in peace but are constantly dragged into “war” by their political masters Hamas.
But what is Israel to do when the aggression keeps coming? October 8th onwards answers that. Israel had had enough.
History
The tensions between Jew and Arab go back thousands of years. Most commentators simply do not know their Bibles and can only see as far back as the Balfour Declaration and therefore see Israel as an occupying people.
Such ignorance makes Israel forever look like the aggressor. Add to that the sheer economic, agricultural and scientific success story that Israel is as against impoverished surrounding nations and you have a recipe for disaster in envy and bitterness.
The land originally given to the Hebrews was far bigger than Israel today. Genesis Chapter 15:-
18 On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram and said, “To your descendants I give this land, from the Wadi of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates— 19 the land of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, 20 Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaites, 21 Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites and Jebusites.”
The Qur’an is conflicted when it comes to the Jews and Israel! It actually teaches that God gave the land to the Jews:-
7:137 وَأَوۡرَثۡنَا ٱلۡقَوۡمَ ٱلَّذِينَ كَانُواْ يُسۡتَضۡعَفُونَ مَشَٰرِقَ ٱلۡأَرۡضِ وَمَغَٰرِبَهَا ٱلَّتِي بَٰرَكۡنَا فِيهَاۖ وَتَمَّتۡ كَلِمَتُ رَبِّكَ ٱلۡحُسۡنَىٰ عَلَىٰ بَنِيٓ إِسۡرَٰٓءِيلَ بِمَا صَبَرُواْۖ وَدَمَّرۡنَا مَا كَانَ يَصۡنَعُ فِرۡعَوۡنُ وَقَوۡمُهُۥ وَمَا كَانُواْ يَعۡرِشُونَ ١٣٧
And We caused the people who had been oppressed to inherit the eastern regions of the land and the western ones, which We had blessed. And the good word of your Lord was fulfilled for the Children of Israel because of what they had patiently endured. And We destroyed [all] that Pharaoh and his people were producing and what they had been building.
17:104 وَقُلۡنَا مِنۢ بَعۡدِهِۦ لِبَنِيٓ إِسۡرَٰٓءِيلَ ٱسۡكُنُواْ ٱلۡأَرۡضَ فَإِذَا جَآءَ وَعۡدُ ٱلۡأٓخِرَةِ جِئۡنَا بِكُمۡ لَفِيفٗا ١٠٤
And We said after Pharaoh to the Children of Israel, “Dwell in the land, and when there comes the promise of the Hereafter, We will bring you forth in [one] gathering.”
7:141 وَإِذۡ أَنجَيۡنَٰكُم مِّنۡ ءَالِ فِرۡعَوۡنَ يَسُومُونَكُمۡ سُوٓءَ ٱلۡعَذَابِ يُقَتِّلُونَ أَبۡنَآءَكُمۡ وَيَسۡتَحۡيُونَ نِسَآءَكُمۡۚ وَفِي ذَٰلِكُم بَلَآءٞ مِّن رَّبِّكُمۡ عَظِيمٞ ١٤١
And [recall, O Children of Israel], when We saved you from the people of Pharaoh, [who were] afflicting you with the worst torment – killing your sons and keeping your women alive. And in that was a great trial from your Lord.
Confused?
You need to read from Genesis 15 onwards to see how Abram (Abraham) had two children, one by his wife Sarah and the other by a maidservant, Hagar. Moslems see Abraham as a follower of Islam (i.e. “Submitted to God”) and generally see the Arabs as descended from Hagar. This is debatable since for instance “Palestinian Arabs” are more likely descendants of Philistines. They were another tribe along with the ones we saw above, i.e. Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaites, Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites and Jebusites. Not to mention Amorites and Ammonites.
Abraham settled in the land of Canaan. Subsequently famine drove the Israelites down to Egypt (Joseph) and then out of slavery via Moses. When Joshua led the people of Israel back into the promised land they took it by force from the many tribes who had moved in while they were away. There the Israelites stayed until the time of Jesus, although occupied and ruled by Rome,who by the way gave the land the name “Palestina” (note the land, not the people.
A.D. 70 saw the destruction of the temple and mass persecution by the Romans and thus began the Diaspora. Most Jews fled as refugees to other lands, right across Europe and eventually to America.
From c. 700 A.D. onwards Islam began to take many lands by force. “Christian” Europe fought back for, in effect, over 1000 years. By 1918, having fought against the Moslem Arabs, “Palestine” was a British Protectorate. That opened the way to the decision to re–instate Israel.
Thus almost 2000 years later when the present State of Israel was established the land was occupied by many different peoples, some Jews, but mainly Arab and therefore Moslem.
The depth of generational animosity can therefore be understood and really has no solution, at least not in human terms.
The picture below links to an article by Melanie Phillips (herself a Jew) addressing the current wave of Anti-semitism across Europe, fuelled by the conflict.
“In the Muslim world, although Jew-hatred is rooted in Islamic theology this was given rocket fuel in the early part of the last century by the emergence of Islamism, or politicized Islam, whose foundational thinkers drew upon both communism and Nazism.
In the 1930s, Arab nationalism in Syria and Iraq modeled itself on Italian and German fascism. After the rebirth of Israel in 1948, Egypt and the Arab League recruited former Nazi intelligence officers and SS generals to help destroy the Jewish state.
The most notorious Arab Nazi was the Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin al-Husseini, who became Hitler’s ally and was pledged to eradicate the Jews of the entire Middle East if Hitler won the war. And al-Husseini’s most devoted acolyte today is the current leader of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas.
In World War II, the allies fought an attempt to conquer and destroy Western civilization and exterminate the Jews.”
Mike Pompeo – October 2021 Israel – Iran – The West Bank – U S Embassy – What Trump did right and Biden has got horribly wrong!
Short video 13 facts about Jerusalem
Archaeological proof of the Jewish occupation of the land of Israel ……
and why any Pro-Palestinian is simply ignorant!