The Negation of Israel and Zionism

After having read the recent E-mail article by Carlos (1) I found it necessary to mention two items of concern for those who believe in Israel, Zionism and the right of the Jewish people to a land of our own.

But ah! what once has been shall be no more!
    The groaning earth in travail and in pain
Brings forth its races, but does not restore,
    And the dead nations never rise again. (2)

There exists a hideous new trend in the on going propaganda war of misinformation by the “haters of Israel”-Hebrew-“ Sonea Yisrael”. I have given these abject haters of Israel in the 'Talkback" dialogues the Hebrew term to describe them for what they are pure and simple. I have encountered these “Haters” countless times on the Haaretz.com Israeli newspaper in English web site.

These "Talk-backers", who come from all over the globe, utilize almost every possible ‘Talkback’ article to spew out such extreme hatred and baseless lies to demonize Israel  that naive readers who do not have the factual historic background will begin to believe their lies and misrepresentations of truth and historical fact.

Take for example former president Jimmy Carter's label ‘Apartheid’ that he applied to the Israeli society, government and its successful security policies. This ‘branding’ of Israel with the term of Apartheid, a mark of Cain to the Liberals and the ‘Leftists’, has sweep through the ‘Haters of Israel” camp like a wild fire.

 “Anathema maranatha! ! was the cry
    That rang from town to town, from street to street;
At every gate the accursed Mordecai
    Was mocked and jeered, and spurned ”(2)

They use the offensive term every chance they get to demean Israel in front of others as well as irk those who support Israel. They enjoy waving it as a ‘red flag’ to taunt and intimidate.

The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs has failed miserably so far to counter Carter’s and the ‘Hate Camp’s” usage of the term ‘Apartheid’. There is a crucial need to fully explain the abject necessity of the road blocks and the security wall which are essential and have proven to be highly successful in curbing homicidal suicide bombers. This new cry of “Apartheid” has become the newest rallying cry and ‘racial’ slur against the right of all Israeli’s to provide for their self defense. This ‘labeling’ is derogatory and it is meant to stir hatred and animosity among the naïve readers.

In addition to what the article says of the Palestinian Authority and their backers going all out to negate the basis of the right of the Jewish people for a Jewish State. They are proceeding with a 'full court press’ to undermine the basis for Zionism which they term as a "cancer" in the heart of the Middle East.

Not only do they now deny the Jewish people our existence as an entity they are working full time in their propaganda war to debase the existence of the "right" of the Jewish people to the land.

A sterling example of which is the story of a deserted nearby "Palestinian" village known as Suhmata, located three kilometers to the east of my home, here in Ma’alot. I came upon their 'story' by chance when I went into Google Earth with my youngest son. It seems that in their web site, which is linked to Google Earth, is part of the "Palestine Remembered" network.

These refugee "minorities of the mandated areas", (as the Arab inhabitants are called in Article 2 of the Mandate for Palestine) are exerting their ‘right’ to the “Land of Canaan” that “predates” the Jewish claim to the ‘Land of Israel’ in their site they state that,“Suhmata, … was a Canaanite village”. Therefore as ‘true descendants of the Canaanite people their ‘right’ to the land predates the Jewish claim to the “Land of Israel”. The hidden connotation behind their wording is that the Jews=Ancient Israelites are and have always been conquers and invaders and usurpers of the ‘Canaanite=Palestinian People’.(5)

Furthermore they continue to erase any vestige of Jewish linkage to the site by denying the origin of the name Suhmata, “…its name originates from Syriac and means light and sunrise.”

What the authors of the above text neglect to mention is that the village of “Suhmata” was originally a Israelite settlement by the members of the tribe of Asher from before the sixth century BCE. A series of excavations was carried out in the upper mound beginning in 1922 by members of the Royal Society of Archaeologists. In their excavation they uncovered coins, pottery shards and a mosaic located in a synagogue which was removed to the Royal Museum in London.

In their site, Suhmata, they claim, “Its known history starts from the Persian attack of 612-627BCE  and that . This attack destroyed the village and its location was changed from the northern to the southern mound.” Their own statement gives the Hebrew name for the site,  שומםor Desolation as it was a Israelite village destroyed by the Babylonian invasion as proven in the dig.

With regards to Suhmata- "Foundations and ruins, some drafted stone, one rock-cut tomb filled with rubbish; probably a Crusading Village This village divided into two distinct quarters occupies two hills near each other, between which is a great birket, partly cut in the rock and partly built. on of these hills is crowned by the remains of a fortress flanked by towers and built with simple rubble; it contained several subterranean magazines, a mosque and various chambers. The foundation is attributed to Dhaher sl Amer It is now three parts demolished and on the place where it stood grow vines and tobacco."- Guerin 1870 page 192 The Survey for Western Palestine

In addition to which the prologue of Josephus’s book Antiquities of the Jews - Book V states:

“How Joshua, the commander of the Hebrews, made war with the Canaanites, and overcame them, and destroyed them,(!) and divided their land by lot to the tribes of Israel.” Furthermore Josephus relates “So Joshua took both Eleazar and the senate, and with them the heads of the tribes, and distributed the land to the nine tribes, and to the half-tribe of Manasseh, appointing the dimensions to be according to the largeness of each tribe.” “The tribe of Asher had that part which was called the Valley, for such it was, and all that part which lay over-against Sidon. The city Acre belonged to their share, which is also named Actipus.”  

This division and destruction of the Canaanites occurs during the time of Joshua Ben Nun approximately 1254BCE-1204BCE. So if the Bible and Josephus tells us that all of the “Canaanites were destroyed” then exactly pray tell just who are these “Palestinians”?

I also wondered just how these “Falestinians” explain away the injunction that the Lord placed on Jacob and Essau to take Canaanite wives and instead Esau marries two wives, both Hittite women, that is, locals, in violation of Abraham's (and God's) injunction not to take wives from among the Canaanite population. In the Book of Genesis Chapter 26:

34 And when Esau was forty years old, he took to wife Judith the daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Basemath the daughter of Elon the Hittite.

It should be noted that Josephus Flavius speaks of Titus leading a Cohort of Asyrian cavalry in 66CE that swept up towards Giscala (Gush HaLav), headquarters of Yohanan ben Levi one of the chief commanders of the revolt against Rome,“Vespasian sent against them Titus, with a thousand horsemen” (3)(4) “Placidus, who was come with two cohorts of footmen, and one troop of horsemen, and was sent thither by Cestius Gallus to burn those villages of Galilee that were near Ptolemais.”

Furthermore, Josephus relates how they destroyed Jewish settlements on the way prior to the assault on Jotapata-Yodfat HaGalil in today’s Gush Segev region. Josephus knew the story well since he was the commander known as Joseph ben Matthias.

Josephus further mentions that the Galil was full of Jewish life prior to the revolt against Rome in 66 CE: "…now there are two hundred and forty cities and villages in Galilee”. Book One 46.

This newest ploy by the Palestinian apologists is a major undertaking being pressed by Palestinian Academics, many of whom are descendants of the refugees who fled the “Nakbah” or “tragedy of expulsion”. These same Arab academic apologists are trying their best to equate their story to that of the Holocaust. Their total effort can also be reflected in the article Forsaking Israel by Anne Bayefsky,  

In her article she relates the story of how the;”…United Nations outdid themselves again at the annual U.N. Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People.”

In conclusion we who back Israel and the right and need of the Jewish people to a land and home of our own must speak out now and demand our equal rights loudly and clearly.

In the years before the Balfour Declaration, a member of the House of Lords asked Chaim Weizmann, "Why do you Jews insist on Palestine when there are so many undeveloped countries you could settle in more conveniently?"
Weizmann said: "That is like my asking you why you drove twenty miles to visit your mother last Sunday when there are so many old ladies living on your street."

(1) http://www.peacewithrealism.org/headline/ominous.htm

(2) The Jewish Cemetery at Newport Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882)

(3) Josephus Flavius The War Of The Jews, Book IV, Chapter 2

(4) Two major Roman historians of the era, Tacitus and Suetonius, who wrote in the generation after Josephus.

(5) “The boundaries of ancient Canaan must be delineated, for in modern times the term Canaan has been used imprecisely. Inasmuch as Canaanites lived within well-defined regional territories or city-states with political and economic ties that drew them variously toward Syria, Mesopotamia or Egypt, geographical; and cultural boundaries can be established. Overall, the territory of Canaan has been described as “the Levant’s southern part, comprising Lebanon and southern Syria” (A. Mazar 1990 a:3) or “Western Palestine (the area west of the Jordan River), whose northern boundary fluctuated between southern and central Lebanon” (Picard 1998:40) More specifically, “Canaan’s boundaries began in the south at Wadi-al-Alrish and reached north to the Lebanon and the Anti-Lebanon Mountain ranges. The Western border was, of course, the Mediterranean, and the eastern was Transjordan (mostly the Bashan) and the Jordan River and Dead Sea further south” (Hacket 1997a:409)