Posted on 01/18/2002 5:59:49 PM PST by OrthodoxPresbyterian
Are you suggesting Jews cannot be "Christ-like" (which is all the name "Christian" means)?
Were Peter, S(P)aul, Matthew (Levi), John, James, etc. alive today, they might disagree with you, since all the earliest of Christ's apostles were very much "Christ-like" Jews.
Pity that there are so-called "Christians" who don't live up to their example...
The name "Palestine" is the Romanized word "Philistine" so given to the name of the land Judea after 70 a.d. and the last Jewish diaspora. The Romans under Titus were intent on wiping out every last vestige of Jewish heritage and culture in the land, even to the point of naming it after the Jews' long-sworn enemies, the Philistines!
The fact that there are "Philistines" at war with Israel in the land again is a story older than the Bible itself, but comprehensively documented within its pages.
Later...
You seem to be forgetting that Christ WAS a Jew. But, no, I was not meaning that at all. What I am saying is that Jews are not Christians. Period.
I have read that the Muslims cut every tree in the land of Israel during the (some) 13 centuries they ruled there.
dennisw...thanks for the ping.
AN INTERIM REPORT
ON THE
CIVIL ADMINISTRATION
OF
PALESTINE,
during the period
1st JULY, 1920--30th JUNE, 1921.
AN INTERIM REPORT
ON THE
CIVIL ADMINISTRATION
OF
PALESTINE.
I.--THE CONDITION OF PALESTINE AFTER THE WAR.
When General Allenby's army swept over Palestine, in a campaign as brilliant and decisive as any recorded in history, it occupied a country exhausted by war. The population had been depleted; the people of the towns were in severe distress; much cultivated land was left untilled; the stocks of cattle and horses had fallen to a low ebb; the woodlands, always scanty, had almost disappeared; orange groves had been ruined by lack of irrigation; commerce had long been at a standstill. A Military Administration was established to govern the country. For nearly two years it laboured, with great devotion, at its restoration. An administrative system, as efficient as the conditions allowed, was set up. The revenue authorised by the Turkish law was collected, and was spent on the needs of the country. A considerable sum, advanced by the Anglo-Egyptian Bank, was lent by the Government in small amounts to the agriculturists, and enabled them to purchase stock and seed, and partly to restore their cultivation. Philanthropic agencies in other countries came to the relief of the most necessitous. Commerce began to revive. It was encouraged by the new railway connection with Egypt, established during the campaign for purposes of military transport. It was assisted also by the construction, with the same object, of a net-work of good roads. The country showed all the signs of gradually returning life.
http://www.eretzyisroel.org/~jkatz/herbert.html
As to Arabs, I am not sure there were more than some 700,000 even by 1948, and if so then both because of immigration and birth rate, the number in 1881 is probably only some 150-200M if indeed not just 100-120M.
Lets look for better statistics, that one is highly suspect. The 24M Jews looks like just the Zionist yishuv, without the earlier Jewish population. The Arab figure looks like the entire population, incl Christians and Jews and yishuv.
Peters notes that according to the French geographer Vital Cuinet the population of Western Palestine by 1895 had grown to more than 495,000, "of which Muslims numbered roughly 252,000 throughout Western Palestine.
1882: 141,000 "settled" Muslims
1895: 252,000 "settled" Muslims
The above figures for the Muslim population would indicate that their numbers almost doubled in the thirteen years between 1882 and 1895". Peters states that the only variable which could account for the large 1895 figure would be an approx. 82,000 increase by virtue of "Arab" immigration coinciding with the Jewish development (this is assuming a high rate of natural increase) (p. 244 of her book).
the total population when Jewish colonization began (1872-882) was between 300,000 and 400,000 souls, according to the most reliable estimates. Thirty-four thousand were Jews, living largely in their four "holy cities." Less than half the population was "settled" Muslim, 65,000 were Bedouin-nomadic, and roughly 55,000 were Christians. Thus the total of roughly 200,000 Muslims were living in all of Western Palestine in 1882.
What do you think was the population of Egypt at the time? Syria?
In all the "land of Israel" so few Arabs. Why?
How was it that poor Jews with literally nothing could expand old towns and build brand new ones?
Could it be that it was, if anything, like the American West. A desolate place for the taking by those who were willing to work and bleed?
If you are to believe current Arab propaganda about what an important land it is for them, why didn't they flock there in the millions when they had centuries of opportunity, as Jews did when ever they were able.
Now the Pals try to burn down the forests the Jews planted in Israel.
from Fire Causes
The first and most important cause of forest fires in Israel is arson (Table 2). In the 1980s and early 1990s arson comprised about one-third of all forest fires in Israel -- a very large proportion. Some of the sources for this arson were identified as the work of criminals whose sole aim was to collect insurance money. Many cases of arson in the late 1980s, however, were directly related to the Palestinian uprising (Intifada). Palestinians used fire as a means of their resistance movement as early as the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s, but in the 1980s it was adopted as a highly visible action against the Israeli occupation in the West Bank. Arson was found to be easy to execute: all one had to do was cross the old border, which was unguarded and open to all, start a fire in one of the many forests which straddle the mountainous areas near the border, and then disappear. The occurrence of forest fires in areas adjacent to the old "Green Line" border between Israel and the West Bank was very frequent: in the years 1988-1990 between 288 and 388 forest fires were caused by arson and took place in areas near the old pre-1967 border (Kliot and Keidar 1992). In some of the fires which took place in northern Israel, Israeli Arab Palestinians were found to be responsible. These fires were extremely remarkable because 1988 was also rich in precipitation and, as a result, the vegetation concentration was highly combustible. Intifada-induced arson gradually faded out as the uprising started to die out in the early 1990s.
but commenced again in Intifada II Sept 2000.
On the installation of Hussein as Emir the population of Jordan dropped by an estimated 30-50% due to emigration to the West Bank where there was much more economic opportunity and the fear of harsh rule and taxation by the new Hashemite rulers.
The fact that no one "wants" them is NOT justification for the establishement of a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza, which will very obviously be used for attacks on Israel and the murder of Israelis. It would be like allowing Al Qaida to establish a state in northern Mexico.
Or in New Mexico, to fiddle with the analogy a bit.
Ping!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.