What was Palestine before Netanyhu’s “62 years”?

What was Palestine before Netanyhu’s “62 years”?
You heard it from the horse's mouth !
Hassan Al-Haifi
Published:25-10-2010
Yemen Times 1210 (http://www.yementimes.com/defaultdet.aspx?SUB_ID=34940)

God only knows how many times sensible historians and observers of the Middle East scene have been telling the world that Israel was a mischievous agenda, which came into being by the most ruthless and scrupulously planned ethnic cleansing campaign of the Twentieth Century. Before the infamous British mandate of Palestine after the First World War, there was hardly a Jewish presence of any significance to speak of.

In fact, even the British, who issued the Balfour Promise for a “national home” for the Jews are ready to tell you that they had not intended to produce the existing outcome of one of the biggest headaches for the world left over from the British Empire. But, distorters of public opinion in the pro Zionist press and media have always tried to project Israel as a long standing entity and project the indigenous population of Palestine (and quite often all Arabs) as nomadic Bedouins, who have not crossed the Middle Ages.

But it is no mystery to anyone who delves deeper into the geography and the history of the region. Surely they will find that Palestine is part of the Levant, meaning Syria, Lebanon and Jordan and Palestine (now the West Bank, Gaza and the bulk of the area taken over by force by the Zionist settlers in the heart of Palestine: Judaea and Galilee and the Negev Desert). The area is known to the Arabs as Al-Sham or Al-Mashraq Al-Arabi (the Arab Orient, which would sometimes encompass the Arabian Peninsula and Mesopotamia, when discussed in relation to the Maghreb Al-Arabi - Arab North Africa).

Up until the British Mandate, there was hardly any Jewish character to the land of Palestine, nor did any one, God being the least one, suggest that there should be one! Not until some European Jewish venture capitalists came up with the Zionist project in the late part of the 19th Century did anyone visualize any Jewish state as an integral part of the Levant. These same venture capitalist went to the last remaining Sultan of the Ottomans Dynasty, which had control of the Levant and most of the Middle East at the time and offered money and to lobby in the Western Alliance (Britain, France, Italy, etc) to not fight the Ottomans before World War I.

Of course, as the Caliph of Islam, the Porte in Istanbul could never entertain such a baseless request. Jews were allowed to visit the Holy Land and many did live under the domain of the Ottomans in several parts of the Arab World, without any obstruction or hindrance, with probably some 2,000 in Palestine, according to some Jewish chroniclers, and the Porte understood that the intentions were beyond a “home for Jews to settle”. The British obliged on the request in return for lobbying the United States to break the stalemate that had characterized the European war theater in WWI. The US did join the Western Alliance in 1917 right after the issuance of the Balfour Declaration.
There may have been a large Jewish community in Palestine in biblical times, but then there were significantly large Jewish communities in the Arab World, such as in Yemen (which before Islam was divided half Christian – half Jewish), but most converted to Islam voluntarily, as did most of the Levantine Christians and Jews. Those few that did not convert were allowed to maintain their religious convictions, without any problems or prejudice, as the existence of so many pockets of Jewish and Christian communities within the Arab World to this epoch is bound to stand as proof of Moslem tolerance. Compare that to what happened in Southern Italy and Sicily and Spain after the Christian takeover of the areas that were under Islamic rule for centuries.

Compare that to the tolerance that was exercised by the Zionist State in Palestine and look at the misery filled faces of the remaining Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza. On the other hand the Hebrews were nomads of Ancient Times, whose patriarch Abraham (who is also the ancestral patriarch of the Arabs) came originally from Mesopotamia and the tribe of Israel settled in more than one locale and hardly had any memorable long presence in the Holy Land to speak of except for the Kingdom of David and his son Solomon (who are incidentally highly revered prophets of Islam as well, peace and blessings of Allah be upon them).

But one need not take this observer’s word for the facts of history. The Prime Minister of Israel had admitted to the whole world that the Israelis have been there for 62 years:

“The best response to scorners was given in this auditorium 62 years ago,” he said. “And since then, look at what a nation, what a state, what an army we have. We will continue to build and to create, and we will know how to protect ourselves as best as we can.” This was in answer to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmedenijad, who suggested that Israel is bound to end, since it illegitimately arose at the expense of Palestine’s indigenous population. Note that Ahmedenijad did not suggest he or Iran was going to eliminate Israel, he said that it is bound to come to an end by the nature of its irregular and cruel “creation and building and protecting themselves, with the most merciless “defense forces” any “state” has established.

The behavior of Israel in the West Bank and Gaza is clear testimony to confirm that Israel’s behavior is neither biblically inspired or humanely acceptable by any genuine moral standards. Ahmedenijad is suggesting that Heavenly justice is bound to avenge the transgression inflicted upon the Palestinians, just so aliens can steal and occupy their land as the Israelis are doing now daily in East Jerusalem and the West Bank, where even cemeteries are being barbarically vandalized by Israeli settlers: (http://www.newkerala.com/news/world/fullnews-68595.html).