Nadene Goldfoot
Los Angeles County, California has a population of 9,818,605 as of the 2010 census. Israel now has a population of 7,797,400, including all of Jerusalem. Therefore, Los Angeles County is bigger by 2,021,205 people, which is about the population of Houston, Texas. Of that number, 5,874,300 in Israel are Jewish with 20.5% of the population being Arabs with 1,600,100 people.
70CE saw the fall of Jerusalem to the Romans. In 132CE the Jews had a leader, Bar Kochba, who revolted, and when he lost the fight against the Romans, many of his people fled or had been forcibly taken away into slavery. At this time the population numbered 3 million according to Dio Cassius' writings. In 1785 Constantine Francois Volney described the ruined and desolate country. Alexander Keith wrote 60 years later that the land had not fully reached its last degree of desolation and depopulation.
This land of Palestine was not a country. It was merely a name for part of the Ottoman Empire that was originally called Judea, Israel, and Samaria given in 135 by the Roman Emporer Hadrian as Palaestina to de-Judeaize the land. They had even changed the name of Jerusalem to Aelia Capitolina. "To claim that Palestinians are the original people of Eretz Yisrael (the Land of Israel) is not only against secular history but also against Islamic history! "
Jews living in the land were poor and remained mostly in Jerusalem. Joining them were about 500 Jews from Lithuania under the Vilna Gaon in 1808 and again with Menachem Mendel of Shklov, Lithuania in 1809. They settled in Safed, Tiberias and Jerusalem and formed the basis of the Ashkenazi Jewish communities.
In 1835 Alphonse de Lamartine wrote of not seeing any living object outside the gates of Jerusalem and that it was all like a tomb. Mark Twain in 1867 wrote a travel-guide calling it a desolate country with the ground full of weeds, desolation and never seeing a human being on the whole route. He hardly saw a tree or shrub anywhere, even olive and cactus were but few in number. "Palestine sits in sackcloth and ashes." "Palestine is desolate and unlovely"... Evidently the Jews from Lithuania, divided in three different areas were not noticed.
In 1847 a Jewish visitor made a pilgrimage to Palestine and reported the sorry situation and that his fellow Jews seemed conditioned to their plight because they had no protection and were at the mercy of policemen and the pashas who treated them as they wished. They paid many taxes every now and then. They had property but it was not at their disposal and they couldn't complain about any injury for fear of the Arabs' revenge. Their lives were at stake and subject to daily danger of death. March 1949 did record a complaint from a Jew of being assaulted and stabbed by a soldier while his house was searched and his females beaten. This all was able to happen because the land was in the hands of the Ottoman Empire.
Then, the 1st Aliyah of Jews from Russia came later in 1881-1882 and continued in successive aliyote till 1903, which meant the arrival of between 25,000 to 35,000 more Jews. These are the ones who attracted Arabs looking for jobs.
2,000 years of wandering in other lands after losing theirs resulted in being subjected to pogroms in Russia and being kept on the Pale of Settlement of Russia while not being allowed into other parts of it and anti-semitism in them all. Jews living in Arab countries were considered as dhminnis, or 2-3rd class citizens. Finally in 1948 Israel was declared a state through the U.N. In 1948 there were 806,000 residents in Israel. Fighting occured before and after the announcement.
All this time of 63 years hence Israel has been attacked by the Arabs. Israel is always having to fight a defensive war to protect what little land they have. All this time the Arabs have been offered land for peace to create a Palestine but the offer has been snubbed.
With Netanyahu again at the helm in the Knesset, Jews show that they are onto the motives and actions of their cousins, the Arabs. Not only is there an Arab Spring, but perhaps there is also a Jewish Spring as well in that the Arabs have hardened the hearts of Israel who understand their motives quite well, finally. The Arabs are also not finding favor in the eyes of the Israelis by their actions. This business of desiring peace, which Israel favors, is not reciprocated by their neighbors. We have to wait. It just may take the Messiach to bring it about. There is no purpose in negotiating if the prize does not deliver a proper peace.
Resource: http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Society_&_Culture/newpop.html
http://www.levitt.com/essays/palestine.html
http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0763098.html
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090627213016AAGA9bW
From Time Immemorial-the Origins of the Arab-Jewish Conflict Over Palestine by Joan Peters
Los Angeles County, California has a population of 9,818,605 as of the 2010 census. Israel now has a population of 7,797,400, including all of Jerusalem. Therefore, Los Angeles County is bigger by 2,021,205 people, which is about the population of Houston, Texas. Of that number, 5,874,300 in Israel are Jewish with 20.5% of the population being Arabs with 1,600,100 people.
70CE saw the fall of Jerusalem to the Romans. In 132CE the Jews had a leader, Bar Kochba, who revolted, and when he lost the fight against the Romans, many of his people fled or had been forcibly taken away into slavery. At this time the population numbered 3 million according to Dio Cassius' writings. In 1785 Constantine Francois Volney described the ruined and desolate country. Alexander Keith wrote 60 years later that the land had not fully reached its last degree of desolation and depopulation.
This land of Palestine was not a country. It was merely a name for part of the Ottoman Empire that was originally called Judea, Israel, and Samaria given in 135 by the Roman Emporer Hadrian as Palaestina to de-Judeaize the land. They had even changed the name of Jerusalem to Aelia Capitolina. "To claim that Palestinians are the original people of Eretz Yisrael (the Land of Israel) is not only against secular history but also against Islamic history! "
Jews living in the land were poor and remained mostly in Jerusalem. Joining them were about 500 Jews from Lithuania under the Vilna Gaon in 1808 and again with Menachem Mendel of Shklov, Lithuania in 1809. They settled in Safed, Tiberias and Jerusalem and formed the basis of the Ashkenazi Jewish communities.
In 1835 Alphonse de Lamartine wrote of not seeing any living object outside the gates of Jerusalem and that it was all like a tomb. Mark Twain in 1867 wrote a travel-guide calling it a desolate country with the ground full of weeds, desolation and never seeing a human being on the whole route. He hardly saw a tree or shrub anywhere, even olive and cactus were but few in number. "Palestine sits in sackcloth and ashes." "Palestine is desolate and unlovely"... Evidently the Jews from Lithuania, divided in three different areas were not noticed.
In 1847 a Jewish visitor made a pilgrimage to Palestine and reported the sorry situation and that his fellow Jews seemed conditioned to their plight because they had no protection and were at the mercy of policemen and the pashas who treated them as they wished. They paid many taxes every now and then. They had property but it was not at their disposal and they couldn't complain about any injury for fear of the Arabs' revenge. Their lives were at stake and subject to daily danger of death. March 1949 did record a complaint from a Jew of being assaulted and stabbed by a soldier while his house was searched and his females beaten. This all was able to happen because the land was in the hands of the Ottoman Empire.
Then, the 1st Aliyah of Jews from Russia came later in 1881-1882 and continued in successive aliyote till 1903, which meant the arrival of between 25,000 to 35,000 more Jews. These are the ones who attracted Arabs looking for jobs.
2,000 years of wandering in other lands after losing theirs resulted in being subjected to pogroms in Russia and being kept on the Pale of Settlement of Russia while not being allowed into other parts of it and anti-semitism in them all. Jews living in Arab countries were considered as dhminnis, or 2-3rd class citizens. Finally in 1948 Israel was declared a state through the U.N. In 1948 there were 806,000 residents in Israel. Fighting occured before and after the announcement.
All this time of 63 years hence Israel has been attacked by the Arabs. Israel is always having to fight a defensive war to protect what little land they have. All this time the Arabs have been offered land for peace to create a Palestine but the offer has been snubbed.
With Netanyahu again at the helm in the Knesset, Jews show that they are onto the motives and actions of their cousins, the Arabs. Not only is there an Arab Spring, but perhaps there is also a Jewish Spring as well in that the Arabs have hardened the hearts of Israel who understand their motives quite well, finally. The Arabs are also not finding favor in the eyes of the Israelis by their actions. This business of desiring peace, which Israel favors, is not reciprocated by their neighbors. We have to wait. It just may take the Messiach to bring it about. There is no purpose in negotiating if the prize does not deliver a proper peace.
Resource: http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Society_&_Culture/newpop.html
http://www.levitt.com/essays/palestine.html
http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0763098.html
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090627213016AAGA9bW
From Time Immemorial-the Origins of the Arab-Jewish Conflict Over Palestine by Joan Peters
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