1. WHO OCCUPIES WHOSE LAND? (09.12.02)

The problematic label "Palestinian" was first applied to the Jewish Diaspora who began returning from a lengthy exile back to their ancient inheritance in the late 19th Century. The general vicinity had been re-coined as "Palestine" to honor a long-gone Goliath and his mates at the whim of a less than Jew-loving Emperor Hadrian who had run the Jews out of town some 1700 years earlier.

The returnees began to drain the deadly malarial swamps in the Galilee and otherwise restore the inhospitable and-at that point-nearly uninhabited land all the way down to the Negev. Though the Jews didn't look too much like giant Philistines, the Ottoman Turks called them "Palestinians" anyway, and the name also stuck with the British all the way until after World War I.

But then in 1948 the Jews were ultimately given back a sliver of their original homeland for their very own. Unfortunately 20 of her 22 Arab neighbors to this day have never recognized Israel's existence, and in a united attack on Israel in 1967 by Syria, Egypt and Jordan, (the Six Day War) King Hussein of Jordan lost the bit of disputed land he had his eye on (not to mention his hands) west of the Jordan River. Taking his cue from land-labeling Hadrian, the good king had cleverly renamed it "West Bank" since the British had given the "East Bank" (that is Jordan) to Hussein's father in 1923, and the only prize better than one side of the Jordan River is both sides! We won't mention that the Brits had promised the whole of the area for a Jewish homeland in 1922 in the Balfour Declaration, because that only agitates some people! But our crucial point is that when King Hussein lost the lot by attacking Israel in 1967, only then did someone get a bright idea to call the Arabs living in those parts "Palestinians". Incredible! Check the history books for yourself.

Too few of us remember dubious deeds of those days. But the virulent propaganda since that time against so-called "Jewish settlers" (the major "obstacle to peace" we are told) has generated a major flood of one-liner media indictments. Occupation, indeed! But it is hardly the Jews who are occupying someone else's turf. Again, a bit of homework is in order.

And just where are these despicable settlements that are allegedly on "Palestinian" land? They are by and large on uncultivated rocky hilltops that were once crown land under the Turks, then under the British Mandate until 1947, and then grabbed unilaterally by Jordan for 19 years after Israel's Independence. But when the Arabs are making no noises, the whole world looks the other way.

Thus those so-called "settlements" are hardly "Palestinian" lands in anyone's atlas. And how could they ever be regarded as an "obstacle to peace" since terrorist-cum-statesman Arafat initially set out to "liberate Palestine" in 1964, a full 3 years before these Jewish communities even dug out the first rock on those isolated ridges! By the way, I have personally viewed a number of these sites.

Or where, we might ask, did the horrific refugee camps come from? And they are unquestionably horrific, teeming and miserable. When Israel was given independence in May 1948 she extended an olive branch to her Arab neighbors with an offer for them to remain that they together might work the land. About 11% stayed and did just that. Today these hold full citizenship in Israel and are known as Israeli-Arabs, holding some 10 seats in the 120 seat Knesset of Israel.

But for 89%, it was another story. The Islamic Mufti charged the faithful to immediately flee their homes for battle. Rejecting the UN partition of November 29, 1947, they opted instead to drive the Jews into the sea. And after the "inevitable victory", those Arabs who had fled to safer refuges-like Gaza-would then return to their own homes, to share the spoils of what the Jews would leave behind in a panic exodus. Those who obeyed their Islamic Mufti never had a home to go back to. In their vitriolic hope of Jewish genocide, they blew the lot.

The Jews invitation to build the land together did have a rider. Stay and build, but if you go, don't ever come back. Those who stayed have a home and citizenship. Those who followed the blind edict of Islam, now languish in the refugee camps-cum-terrorist nests, with no road back.

Under the influence of the Arab bloc in the UN, it is an abhorrence to remove these camps in any way, shape, or form. So after 5 decades, they remain as a showpiece of anti-Jewish propaganda. More fiction fodder for the media one-liners without ever bothering to check up on the facts!

How? I suggest getting a copy of the once popular best seller, O' Jerusalem by Collins & LaPierre, Simon & Shuster, 1972. It is a fascinating, moving and even-handed account of the crucial period of Israel's survival and independence, intensely researched in interviews with hundreds of Jews and Arabs alike. And for the scholar, there is the brilliant research and records of Joan Peters "From Time Immemorial", Harper & Row, 1984. Peters work is more technical and lays out a damning revelation of the actual facts. She has scrupulously probed, documented and revealed the Arab in-migration records of the British Mandate, exposing the so-called "occupation" as a monstrous fabrication-the straight-faced assertions of 5000 years of "Palestinian" tenure notwithstanding!

The problem is hardly land. It is an inordinate prejudicial hatred of anything Jewish in general and the re-established state of Israel on top of that. Check your history.

What would it do to our globe if the reporters, the columnists and the newscasters would do a little more homework and be a bit more even-handed? A bit less presumptuous? A bit more truthful? How would it impact the morality of our society if the photo-journalists shot honest footage of the terrorist tactics and the murderous terrorist training camps of sub-teen Palestinian kids? How would it contribute to the fabric of our own honesty to quit blaming Jews for the wretched demise of the Palestinian refugee camps when it was, in fact, others with calculated diabolical cunning that set them in concrete? Wouldn't it be the decent thing to report in English what the Islamic Imams are preaching over the Arabic media? And why not translate the shocking anti-Jewish hate materials in pan-Arabic Primary School textbooks, which feed these kids jihad from childhood? Ironically, all of this venom is being translated, but far too many of our world prefer not to hear the whole story. Any ideas why? Could fear be a factor? Or is the price of honesty too high these days?

For some reason, the Jew has always been the preferred target for millennia, including the Pharaohs of Egypt, Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, Haman of Persia, the Caesars of Rome, the Church of the Dark Ages, Adolph Hitler and the Russian Tsars of more recent times. Should it come as a surprise that most of the Islamic nations today-"Palestinian" or otherwise-have seized the anti-Semite baton and run with truth turned on its head. And unfortunately, many who make their living from one-line slogans will continue to give a hand in glazing our eyes with the myth of an "occupation".

Most certainly, victimization should be the lot of no one-Jew, Arab, Aborigine, Asian, black, white or purple. Yet sadly across space and time no one sub-culture has been entirely immune. Nevertheless, as we course through history, the winner of world scapegoat for all time does seem to be the Jew-a victim consistently charged for the crimes committed against him!

The author is a former nuclear scientist turned linguist, Bible translator, literacy and community development advisor in Papua New Guinea, and is currently the director of South Pacific Island Ministries, Inc. in Queensland, Australia. He has spent considerable periods of time researching and writing in the Middle East and has published several books, his most recent, "Showdown of the Gods", whose stark warnings of global unraveling ironically went to press with Genesis Communications, Mobile, AL on exactly September 11, 2001. It is readily available on <Amazon.com> and in most Christian bookstores through Spring Arbor or Anchor distributors.