It’s interesting to me, the more I study and the more I ask the more questions I end up having.
For instance, Judea and Samaria or “occupied territories”? Since I truly believe words matter I decided to do a little investigating.
So what all is in Judea and Samaria that might sound familiar if only vaguely? Well, first you might want to know that while the place remain the same, the names get changed.
A quick but by no means comprehensive list:
Palestine as a term for Israel. This was given by the Emperor Hadrian in around 135 A.D. after he put down the second Jewish rebellion under Bar Kochba. He most likely chose it because it was close to the ancient enemies of Israel, the Philistines who no longer existed at this time. As a by the by, the original Philistines were not Arabic, they were Europeans, from the Adriatic sea next to Greece. There is no “p” in the Arabic language. Why would you call yourself something for which there is no letter?
Shechem, now called Nablus by Arabs, is where Avraham and Sarah first entered the land of Canaan. When Jacob returned to Isaac and Rebecca from his uncle’s house, he settled his family there. Joseph is buried in Shechem. His tomb has been burned and ransacked by the pieceful palestinians. Historically, Avraham traveled through Shechem on his way to Canaan and here offered his first sacrifice to G-d. After the conquest of Canaan, Joshua assembled the Israelites here and encouraged them to follow the Mosaic laws. During the period of the Judges, Abimelech was crowned king here.
Biblical Shechem was destroyed by the Assyrians in the 8th century BCE.
Lots of Jewish history there for a town called Nabulus by the Arabs.
Nazareth? Arab town now, and thanks to Arab MK s Jews don’t feel so welcome there, but the Mayor of Nazareth doesn’t appreciate their influence.
So now let’s take a look at Judea and Samaria, or as called by the left and the “falestinians” (no “P” remember) the “West Bank” or “occupied territories”. You can find a more complete list of towns with familiar names here if you’re interested.
What’s there? Ariel University, for one thing. A lovely university! It has beautiful grounds and very clever students. To get there you will need to go through a checkpoint, and coming out? Oh yes, the same.
Because some of the Arab inhabitants have a nasty hobby of trying to kill Jews. I guess stamp collecting isn’t big in Arab villages there. The grounds are lovely, the Professors I met were very nice. Our hostess, a Professor is a wonderful person. I very much enjoyed visiting with her. The grounds were spectacular and she gives credit to the amazing gardener and his staff. The university is attended by Arabs and Jews. If you speak fluent Hebrew and want to teach engineering, you should take a look as well. But the leftist press would have you believe that Israel is oppressing the pieceful falestinians. No, they own land as well.
The difference is, you don’t see Jews normally carrying out stabbing attacks, on the falestinians. And the cases where Jewish youth were blamed for fires? The fires turned out to have been set by Arabs, knowing the world’s media would be more than happy to play the home version of the game “blame Israel.” If you want an idea of the attacks that take place weekly in Judea and Samaria you can find it (for this week) at http://www.terrorism-info.org.il/en/article/21009 That so many of these attacks were planned and carried out by very young teenagers is terrifying. The women and children barry says we have no need to be afraid of a perfectly capable and willing to kill.
So the world and the UN tell us that the violence is the result of the pieceful falestinians frustration with the lack of “piece talks” and a “two state” solution. They don’t want a “two state” solution. They want a “one state” solution and that “one state” doesn’t involve a little thing called “Israel”. The Boycott, Divest and Sanction movement, BDS, or as I call it BS? Interesting origins.
As to being “occupied”, according to this article, when there are more Israeli troops present, not only does it decrease attacks, it protects civilian women from being stabbed in the doorway of their homes in front of their children. The reasons for this success might surprise you, it may not work for the reasons you think. Israel does take their “purity of arms” code very seriously. It’s an interview with six current IDF Colonels. The sad irony of this is that the world then condemns Israel for having more troops there and urges them to remove them. Even though it will cost more lives, falestinians as well as Jewish. So it’s not really about being safe or saving lives, is it?
Here’s the thing people don’t understand, when they use terms like “occupied territories” or “West Bank” it lends credence to the anti-Antisemitism. How so? Because the pieceful falestinians claim Jews don’t belong there. But it’s not really about “where” the Jews are, it’s the fact there are Jews. An example of this was the recent rape of a 20 year old mentally disabled Jewish girl by 3 Arabs, 2 of them from Shomron. They also spit and urinated on her while shouting anti-Antisemitism threats to her and her family if she told. How so sure it was these pieceful falestinians? One of them filmed it. But this occurred in Tel Aviv. One of the rapists said she didn’t belong in his land. While Jerusalem is the capitol of Israel, the direction challenged US government claims Tel Aviv is. So even in the poorest scenario, Jews don’t belong in the Jewish capitol on the one Jewish state?
Words matter, they can give credence to Anti-Semitic hatred. The Arabs that hate Israel, and by all means, not all of them do, are certainly aware of this. We need to be as well and not play unwittingly into their very bloody hands.
The fact that there are major CHURCH denominations that have jumped on the BDS/BS bandwagon is unbelievable to me. Perhaps they need to go back and see where some of the major events took place in the book they share with the Jews. And then they should remember after Saturday? Comes Sunday. Useful idiots.
As to why live there, just enjoy the views.
