The Palestine Myth

My library includes a book showing Israel from the air. Much of it looks indistinguishable from the Moon’s surface, causing me to wonder “why would anyone fight over such a worthless piece of land?” Of course, the Israelites have done wonders with the land, converting much of it into a verdant paradise. Israeli land near the water is quite fertile, but much of the rest is not. As one visitor to the land said in 1881, “In vain does the weary eye seek for anything green.” This is why the area today called Palestine was sparsely populated for most of history, and often the people living there had little interest in hygiene or cleanliness. Eventually, some Jews moved back into “this fixer upper place and made it into a garden.”

It now seems that the Palestine people want the land only because the Jews do. Jews began migrating there in the 1880s because it is this area of the world, now called modern Israel, where Jews have occupied for over two millennia. It is for this reason, that they have the most valid claim to the land. Another reason was because under the Ottoman Turks’ rule—they ruled Palestine from l516 to 1918 until the British took over—land ownership did not exist. Why bother? Nobody wanted this God-forsaken land and the Turks were happy if anyone moved in.

The name ‘Palestine’ actually was given to the area by the Romans. They renamed the province where the Jews lived for eons called Judea. The name they gave the area was ‘Syria Palestina,’ in an attempt to punish the rebellious Jews. Nor do Palestinians exist as an ethnic group. Most are ethnic Egyptians, Syrians, Lebanese, Jordanians, or other Arab nationalities.  Even most of the Jews living there are at least partly ethnic German, Russian, or ethnic Arab. The 20 percent of the Israeli population that identify as Arabs are, with few exceptions, proud, patriotic Israelites enjoying the full rights of Israeli citizenship.

The United Nations voted in favor of Israeli statehood in 1947. Thus, the land ownership was, by international law, settled. The many thousands of “Free Palestine” protestors are, consequently, openly advocating breaking the law.

To make peace, Israel gave up much of their land for the promise of peace. This included the Sinai Peninsula  (61,000 km2 or 23,500 miles2) and large areas east of Jordan and Gaza. Peace for land has not worked. The anti-Semitic enemies of Israel, like the Nazi’s, want all of the Jews out of the Middle East, and will not stop until every last Jew is dead, or living in America. Already, more Jews live in America than in Israel.

Any history book covers what I outlined above, yet Harvard, Yale, Columbia University, University of Pennsylvania students, and hundreds of thousands of Americans have come together in pro-Palestinian rallies and vigils carrying signs that read “We Demand Free Palestine. From the River to the Sea. Stop Funding Genocide.” Another chant calls for a cease-fire in Gaza, translated as “let the terrorists continue their assault against Israel and you cannot defend yourself from their assaults.”

I have become increasingly disappointed with academia, and this only supports my feelings. As a report by Sharon Dierberger put it, “Students would never be allowed to say Whites should kill all the Blacks on campus, but apparently, it’s totally OK to say kill all the Jews.” The issue is not only the anti-Semitic problem, but it also illustrates profound ignorance of basic history of the protesting Ivy league students, students claimed to be the cream of the crop. And reports of Jewish students “fearing for their safety” includes not only college students, but also high school and elementary students. Have we not learned the lesson of Nazi Germany? Evidently not.

The worldwide gross domestic product (GDP) if Israel in 2022 was at about 12,703 U.S. dollars per capita. The GDP in Israel, on the other hand, reached 54,931 U.S. dollars per capita, or 525 billion in U.S. dollars for the entire country. Israel, therefore, currently has one of the largest economies of all 206 world economies. Therefore, instead of spending multi billions of dollars on bombs, rockets, and hundreds of miles of underground tunnels, and killing Israelites fighting a losing war, they need to work with Israel and share the wealth. Israel is in dire need of low-cost labor, and Gaza is right next door. Gaza could easily become one of the wealthiest nations in the world in terms of per capita income if they worked with, and not against, Israel. As the former prime minister of Israel, Golda Meir, said, “We can forgive the Arabs for killing our children. We cannot forgive them for forcing us to kill their children. We will have peace with the Arabs only when they love their children more than they hate us.” And, I could add, we will have peace with the Arabs only “when becoming prosperous is more important than hating their neighbor.”