Myths Of The Middle East - II

(Cross posted from Grandma's Army)

The Koran mentions Mecca and Medina countless times. It never mentions Jerusalem, which is not surprising, since there is no historical evidence to suggest Mohammad ever visited Jerusalem. Muslims today cite a passage in the Koran from which they claim that the two temples vaguely mentioned there are in Mecca and Jerusalem.

Never mind the facts, such as that when Jordan controlled East Jerusalem, until 1967 no Arab ever thought to make it significant or endow it with any special importance, or move an Arab capital there. All they did was systematically destroy every synagogue and memorial there, using tombstones for latrines and to pave roads.

The Arab Muslims contend there never was a Jewish Temple, only the al-Aqsa mosque. Or that the land of Israel was ever the Jewish homeland. Yet, when illegally excavating an area for another mosque on the site they disposed of tons of earth containing artefacts proving, beyond doubt,  the existence of the Temple.

 Archaeology has proved that Jews have lived in Jerusalem since 3000 B.C. As recently as this year, a well preserved piece of clay with the Hebrew inscription “governor of the city” from the First Temple era (2,700 years ago), was discovered by the Israel Antiquities Authority, during excavations in the Western Plaza in Jerusalem.

To quote Joseph Farah (Christian Arab/American author, journalist and editor-in-chief of the website WorldNetDaily (WND): 

“Palestine has never existed – before or since – as an autonomous entity. It was ruled alternately by Rome, by Islamic and Christian crusaders, by the Ottoman Empire and, briefly, the the British after World War I. The British agreed to restore at least part of the land to the Jewish people as their homeland.

There is no language known as Palestinian. There is no distinct Palestinian culture. There has never been a land known as Palestine governed by Palestinians. Palestinians are Arabs, indistinguishable from Jordanians (another recent invention), Syrians, Lebanese, Iraqis, etc. It should be recalled that the Arabs control 99.9 percent of the Middle East lands. Israel represents one-tenth of 1 percent of the landmass.

So what’s the solution to the Middle East mayhem? Well…  it needs to begin with truth. Treating a 5,000 year-old birthright, backed by overwhelming historical and archaeological evidence equally with illegitimate claims wishes and wants, gives diplomacy and peacekeeping a bad name.