Palestine

Palestine is the Land of Canaan and now the home of the Jews. Normally it means the narrow strip of land west of the Jordan, "from Dan to Beersheba." Palestine's position and physical features are remarkable and in the place it occupies in the history of the world it is without a rival. It is divided from north to south into two nearly equal portions by the Jordan Valley, which is the deepest depression that exists anywhere on the face of the earth. The mountains divides Palestine into a series of valleys and tablelands, leaving two great plains, called the region about Jordan, and the plain of Esdraelon, or Jezreel.

Palestine is not a well-watered country. On the east and south it is bounded by deserts, on the west by the Mediterranean, which the Hebrews called the 'great sea,' and on the north by rugged mountains. Some were so unproductive as to be called deserts; others were the most fertile spots in western Asia. The region west of the Jordan is divided into two parts by the valley of Esdraelon which, from north of Carmel, proceeds diagonally toward the SE. The territory to the north is Galilee.

From the Biblical point of view, Palestine and particularly Jerusalem, is the center of the world from which all other places are north, south, east or west. Josephus thought it to be "moist enough for agriculture, and very beautiful. A land flowing with milk and honey". Palestine was then known as the Land of Canaan. The population of the Holy Land in the first century was estimated at about three million and about 200,000 in Jerusalem.

Palestine as a homeland for anyone is a myth. The term was first used for Israel, Judea and Samaria in 70 A.D., when the Romans destroyed Jerusalem and the Temple, declaring the land of Israel as no more and that the Holy Land would be known as Palestine. The stretch of coast south of Jaffa was, properly speaking, Philistia, the country of the Perishtim (Philistines). The name was derived from the Philistines, a Goliathian people conquered by the Jews several centuries earlier. This name was later extended to all of Palestine as a way to add insult to injury to the Jews. The Romans also tried to change the name of Jerusalem to Aelia Capitolina, but it didn't last long.

Palestine has never been an autonomous entity and strictly speaking, there is no such thing as a Palestinian people. There is no language known as Palestinian, nor is there a distinct Palestinian culture. There has never been a land known as Palestine governed by Palestinians. The Palestinian people are descended from Arabs, who came there and indistinguishable from Jordanians, Syrians, Lebanese, Iraqis, etc. 99.9 percent of Middle East lands is controlled by Islam. Israel represents one-tenth of 1 percent of the landmass. From the beginning, the land was given to God by the Jews through Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and their descendants. It was ruled alternately by Rome, by Islamic and Christian crusaders, by the Ottoman Empire and, briefly, by the British after World War I. The British agreed to restore at least part of the land to the Jewish people, fulfilling the long awaited prophecy that God would bring the Jews back to their homeland.

Only half of Palestine population were Jewish in the first century. There were a mixture of pagan Greeks, Romans, Syrians, Egyptians, Arabs, Persians and Babylonians. The Jews themselves were split into many rival, and sometimes hostile sects. The Romans had divided Palestine into 5 provinces: from north to south were Galilee, Samaria, Judea and Idumea; to the east of Judea, across the Jordan was Perea. Most Jews lived in rural sections of Galilee, Perea and Judea or Jerusalem. Thus the character of the country from north to south may be represented by four parallel bands-the sea board, the Hill country, the Jordan Valley, and the Trans-Jordanic range.

The May 22, 2001 Crisis Update published by Christian Friends of Israel, quotes U.S. Senator George Mitchell as saying: "Every American administration for the past 25 years has opposed the actions and policies of the government of Israel with respect to settlements." If this is true, then the United States is in the position of opposing the God ordained mandate of Israel to occupy the land that He has given to Abraham and His descendants through Isaac and Jacob. It doesn't ring true since the Christian hatred of their enemies negates the blessing, no wonder there is judgment coming upon America - they will bring Armageddon in the name of peace. Whether that is true or not, the basic fact of Christianity hating palestinians simply for the enmity toward the Jewish people is certainly hypocritical. They are deserving the same rights given by God to all peoples in that all families of the earth will be blessed through the progeny of Abraham.
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