contraviews: 2023

Thursday, November 16, 2023

315 About Origines

The name Palestine was first coined after WWI when Sykes Picot carved up the centures old but now defeated Ottoman Empire into five French and British colonies (Syria, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and the English Mandate of Palestine). Before that time that part of the Middle East was usually refered to as 'The Levant' The name Palestine is most likely derived from the name Philistine. The Philistines were the ancient seafarers/traders from Greece who over time had settled along the east meditarranian coasts. Ethnically and genetically both Jews and Arabs belong to the same semitic races. There is no doubt about that but we must make here an important distinction. The new immigrants who after WWII began to populate en mass the Britsh Mandate are genetically mostly of European descent, being mostly Polish, Russian and the Baltic States. They are the so called 'Ashkenazims', people who converted to Judaism many centuries ago. They should not be comfused with the Jews from antiquity who are the true semites. Netanyahu's ancestors for instance came from Belarus and Lithuania. Before 1910 the family name was 'Mileikovski. Many Israelis have European names and most still have close affinities with Russia, even today. There is a concensus amongst most contemporary seculaer historians aggreeing Jews and and present day Palestinians are both Canaanites, the name also mentioned in the Bible. Approximately 1300 BC(? the nomadic, still pagan Canaanistes began changing their nomadic lifestyle and gradually began to settle in the more fertile parts along the Mediterranian coasts to pratice agriculture and stock breeding. This was the time that the Cannaans also began to embrace monotheism i.e. the worshipping of one single God. This was of course an evolutionary process taking place over several centuries. This is thought to be the birth of Judaism. The Canaanites who embraced the 'One God" religion began to call themselves The Israelites'. It was a religious movement! The name 'Israel' was found on the Memeptah Stele in 1210 BC. This artifact is being displayed in the Cairo Museum. With the birth of Muhamed in 650 AD Canaanites converted en mass to Islam, but also accepted and tolerated the already existant Jewish and Christian minor monotheistic, all Abrahamic religions. In the ensuing centuaries Islam rapidly and peacefully spread into North Africa and into southeren Russia along the old Silk trading roads (now being revived by China). Jews freely prolytisized their Jewish religion along the those parts of the world where Islam was expanding and made many converts among those populations in the process. The King of Kazan converted to Judaism around 750 AD. The upshot is that Jews, Christians and Islamites over the many centuries had always lived in peace and harmony together and still do so in countries like Iran, Syria, Jordan. It was not until the 19th century that (converted) Jews began to be persecuted in Europe, especially in parts of Russia, Germany and France (Dreyfus Affair). According to the Bible there were 12 Jewish tribes. The European Zionist tribe that rules Israel to day is sometimes refered to as the "Thirteenth tribe". (Also the title of a book written by Jewish historian Arthur Koestler)