There was an Israeli state in the land of Israel 2000 years before the evil prophet of Islam allegedly flying on a "magical horse" from Mecca to Jerusalem.
The “Palestinians” are Arabs who were brought to the region by the Ottoman empire as part of the Muslim occupation in the region. They are definitely not the tribes from Crete who settled down in the 5 cities of Gaza strip after the Exodus of Israel from Egypt. These tribes were called Philistines and they weren’t Arabs at all and today’s “Palestinians” are definitely not their descendants. The Philistines don’t exist as a nation.
Israel isn't just a name of a state. It's first and for all a name of a nation (Am Yisrael). Israel is the name of the father of the nation (Jacob) and Israelis are his descendants. The real meaning of the word 'Israeli' is someone who belongs to the nation of Israel and not only "a citizen of a state called Israel".
Gentiles invented the word ‘Jews’. When the Persians, the Greeks and the Romans occupied the land of Israel they called all the Israelis in the name 'Jews' because at those days the tribe of Judah was the biggest and the dominant tribe which survived the exile of Assyria in which 10 tribes of Israel were exiled. The tribe of Judah lived in the Judean desert thus the gentiles who occupied the land of Israel called the members of this tribe (and also the ones of Benjamin and Levi who joined it) in the name 'Jews'.
When Israelis (Jews) who live abroad go to synagogue they don't read about Jews in the prayer books nor in the Torah but about 'The Nation of Israel', 'The Children of Israel', 'The House of Israel’,'Shema Yisrael' etc. They are Israelis because they belong to the nation of Israel even if they aren't citizens of a state called Israel. Both the words 'Jews' and 'Israelis' refer to nationality, to ethnic identity and not to religion. Jews are members of the tribe of Judah and not "people who believe in Judaism". And the nation isn't called Judah but Israel, and so does the land and in the future the 10 tribes will return to this nation.
That's why Arab citizens of Israel don't define themselves as Israelis but as Arab/"Palestinian" citizens of a state CALLED Israel. They aren't members of the Israeli nation but of the Ishmaelite nation. Ishmael used to shoot arrows at Isaac (father of Israel) while saying: "I'm only playing..." That's why there's no "Israeli-Palestinian conflict" but a WAR that the Ishmaelite/Arabs opened on the Israelis. Also Muhammad murdered Israelis in Saudi Arabia who refused to accept his murderous pagan dream.
Couple of facts about Israel that the haters of Israel don't like:
1. Israel became a state in 1312 B.C., two millennia before Islam.
All of that is well and good, but the Nation of Israel was still sent into exile from the Land of Israel for 2000 years. For those who believe in God’s covenant with Israel this must have been done by the will of God. Going back to the question posed by the article, why?
To SkyDancer’s post #22
Your first bullet points are accurate.
The “Palestinians” are a mix - not only just “Arabs brought by the Ottoman empire” but also Arabs and Arabized Egyptians, Syrians etc. who moved after the Aliyah in the late 1800s made the desert bloom; and also descendants of Arabs who came during the Umayyad and Fatimid caliphates and also descendants of Franks from the Crusader kingdoms, and also descendants of JEWS and Samaritans who intermarried or converted to Islam and/or Christianity (there was a big Christian Palestianian community and genetically they are Israelites)
“They are definitely not the tribes from Crete who settled down in the 5 cities of Gaza strip after the Exodus of Israel from Egypt. These tribes were called Philistines and they weren’t Arabs at all and today’s “Palestinians” are definitely not their descendants.”
—> that’s partially false. The Philistines (Indo-european people) were assimilated by their neighbours by the end of the Assyrian empire. JEWs of today would have some Philistine blood as would “arabs”, syrians, Egyptians and heck even many Europeans and Africans (2700 years of intermarriage does that)
Today’s Palestinians are highly likely to have some Philistine blood - but then so are the Israelis who they oppose.
“The real meaning of the word ‘Israeli’ is someone who belongs to the nation of Israel and not only “a citizen of a state called Israel”.”
—> that is incorrect. As per Israel’s rules - In terms of citizenship, everyone who has an Israeli identity card is Israeli, and under the rules of democracy all are meant to have equal rights
This is not unusual - you have Poland and Poles - I have zero Polish blood or history, but I am a Pole by citizenship not by nation. Ditto for the Irish, Estonians etc.
“Gentiles invented the word ‘Jews’. When the Persians, the Greeks and the Romans occupied the land of Israel they called all the Israelis in the name ‘Jews’ because at those days the tribe of Judah was the biggest and the dominant tribe which survived the exile of Assyria in which 10 tribes of Israel were exiled. “
—> that’s incorrect. The tribe of Judah was the one left (along with the tribes of BEnjamin and Simeon) - and they called themselves the kingdom of Judah right from the split after Solomon.
“in the future the 10 tribes will return to this nation”
—> sigh... no - the tribal identities are more or less gone — EXCEPT AMONG THE SAMARITANS. The descendants of today’s 10 northern tribes are among today’s Iraqis, Iranis, Syrians, Turks, Greeks, and by diffusion over 2700 years will have people who call themselves Indians, Kenyans, Ethiopians, Yemeni, Saudi, heck even French
As to the point about Arab citizens - I know Israeli Arabs and Druze who call themselves Israelis and not Arabs. Yes, they’re in the minority, but they do exist
To SkyDancer’s post #22
your last bullet points - about the Arabs - remember that the “arabs” who conquered from Spain to the borders of India were small in number and initially kept the Ebionite religion as one for just themselves and didn’t accept converts. It was only in the area around Merv that they took converts from the IraniC peoples. This proved to be the undoing of the Umayyads as the Abbasid arose from here and to a large extent created the religion of Islam and created the fictional character called Mohammad in the 700s.
the Quran wasn’t written down until the late 700s and the first Muslim empire - the Umayyads don’t have coins with “Islam”, “Muhammad”, “Quran”, “Muslim” on them - some in fact have the cross on them.
The people we call “Arabs” today are Arabized peoples - true Arabs are only in the Nejd and Hejaz - they did rule over Jerusalem for more than 22 years after 633 BC - Muawiyah was crowned Caliph in Jerusalem in 661 and the Umayyads were based in Damascus