Calling a Spade a Spade
(On The Middle or Near East)                                                                                                                               

Questions and Answers are cited below as "Q" and "A"

1. Q: To what am I referring as a "spade"?

A: I'm calling a spade, - a truthful statement of facts.

2. Q: To what area of history am I referring to, as the factual "spades"?

A: To what is generally called the "Middle" or "Near East."

3. Q: Why choose that "spade" for revelation of the truth?

A: Because a very basic source of war or possibility of peace, lies in stating the truthful facts about the Middle East.

4. Q: What is the so-called "Middle East"?

A: The Bible identifies those facts with a description of "Eretz Yisrael."

5. Q: What do those Hebrew words mean in English?

A: The "Land of Israel."

6. Q: Who named it such?

A: Approximately 3500 years of history.

7. Q: Besides the Bible, are there facts that can be checked by surfing the Internet and otherwise?

A: Yes.

8. Q: What would you get from that surfing, plus the Bible?

A: That the word Palestine "originated from the Greek word pronounced Palaistina, which is derived from the Hebrew word pronounced pel-eh-sheth, meaning land of the Philistines (one of the most famous of whom was Goliath)."

"The definition of Palestine was first expanded when the conquering Romans used the name Syria Palaestina during the second century before Christ. They used it to designate the southern portion of the province of Syria, which then took in Judea, including Jerusalem." http://www.keyway.ca/htm2000/20000528.htm

Other facts are found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eretz_Israel where it states:

"Genesis 15:18-21 describes what is referred to in Jewish tradition as Gevulot Ha-aretz ("Borders of the Land") regarded as the full extent of the land promised to Abraham."

. . .

"The English expression "Promised Land" can denote either the land promised to Abraham in Genesis or the land of Canaan, although the latter meaning is more common."

9. Q: How did that happen?

A: Eretz Yisrael ("The Land of Israel") was governed by the Romans. But, the Jews revolted three times against its Roman governors.

"The first Jewish-Roman War (66-73 CE) sometimes called the Great Jewish Revolt, was the first of three major rebellions by the Jews of Judaea Province against the Roman Empire (the second was the Kitos War in 115-117, the third was Bar Kokhba's revolt (132-135). It began in 66, sparked by religious violence between the Jews and the Hellenisits; it ended when legions under Titus besieged and destroyed Jerusalem, looted and burned Herod's Temple (70) and Jewish strongholds (notably Masada in 73), and enslaved or massacred a large part of the Jewish population. The defeat of the Jewish revolts against the Roman Empire notably contributed to the numbers and geography of the Jewish Diaspora, as many Jews were scattered after losing their state or were sold into slavery throughout the empire." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Jewish_Revolt

10. Q: As of the time of the Roman triumph over Israel during the first Jewish Revolt, approximately what was its population?

A: As of the put down by Rome of the first Hebrew revolt, the latter numbered over one million people.

"The Great Jewish Revolt in 66-73 resulted in the destruction of the Jewish temple in Jerusalem (70) and the sacking of the entire city by the Roman army led by Titus Flavius and the estimated death toll of 600,000 to 1,300,000 Jews." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of-Palestine.

"It is estimated that as many as one million Jews died in the Great Revolt against Rome. . . . The Great Revolt of 66-70, followed some sixty years later by the Bar Kokhba revolt, were the greatest calamities in Jewish history prior to the Holocaust. In addition to the more than one million Jews killed, these failed rebellions led to a total loss of Jewish political authority in Israel until 1948." http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Judaism/revolt.html

11. Q: What happened to that population?

A: It was scattered among the various countries of the Middle East and Mediterranean.

12. Q: Do we know the approximate Jewish population at the time of Israel's Declaration of Statehood in 1948.

A: Yes.

In 1948 the world's Jewish population was estimated to be 15,753,638. http://christianparty.net/jews1948.htm.

Present day Jewish population is estimated to be around 13.2 million. " Worldwide Jewish population growth is close to zero percent. From 2000 to 2001 it rose 0.3% compared to worldwide population growth of 1.4%." http://www.simpletoremember.com/vitals/world-jewish-population.htm .

13. Q: Why did Israel revolt against Rome?

A: Israel revolted against Rome, because the latter was regarded as a pagan authority, -lacking any entitlement to govern a "people of the Book."

14. Q: What happened?

A: After driving the Israelis into exile from their homeland, -Rome purported to re-name the former homeland Philistia (Land of the Philistines) eventually known by the present name of "Palestine." http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Judaism/revolt.html

15. Q: What happened then?

A: The Israelis suffered 2,000 years of exile from their homeland.

16. Q: Why did they suffer?

A: Besides losing their homeland "Eretz Yisrael" which the Bible called "Eden," their land was overrun by Christians and Muhammadans.

17. Q: What happened to the homeland itself?

A: The Israelis never forgot their ancient homeland.

18. Q: But, what happened to it?

A: The answer is in the well-known travel reports, including those of the famous American Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens). Those who reported on the area generally called it the "Holy Land," as did Mark Twain who published a book in 1869 on the subject- "Innocents Abroad."

19. Q: What was the general report on the "Holy Land" by travelers to that area?

A: Mark Twain described it as essentially a wasteland, run over by history. British Queen Victoria's advisor, Benjamin Disraeli, described the "Holy Land" as a place where wolves howled in the streets of Jerusalem.

20. Q: Did any of these travelers refer to a group called "Palestinians"?

A: No.

21. Q: Why not?

A: Because Palestine was a Roman name, regarded by its visitors as a Holy Land of Jews and Christians.

22. Q: Did any of these travelers refer to Eretz Yisrael (Land of Israel) as a Muslim land?

A: No.

23. Q: The Muslim Holy Book is, "The Koran." It refers to Mecca in Arabia as its Holy Land, from which it had driven out the Arabian Jews at Medina for refusal to accept The Koran as the last word of God to man.

24. Q: Is there any mention of Israel or Jerusalem in the Koran?

A: None.

25. Q: When did the Jews return to their homeland?

A: With the aid of both Israeli (Jewish) and Christian Zionists, the Hebrews returned and took control of their homeland from approximately the last quarter of the 19th Century, and completed a reborn state by about the first quarter of the 20th Century.

26. Q: Were there any so-called "Palestinians" in the renewed homeland of the Jews?

A: Almost the entirety of the people who now call themselves "Palestinians" were Arabs who covenanted themselves about 1985 to be the sole lawful occupants and governors of Palestine, and to drive out the returned Jews from their homeland.

27. Q: Where do those Arabs come from?

A: Mostly from other Arab lands.

28. Q: Why did the Arabs come to the Jewish homeland?

A: It was a new and better source of jobs, including agriculture as well as manufacturing, plus culture.

29. Q: Did the incoming Arabs show their appreciation for the Jewish hospitality?

A: To the contrary. Consistent with their brigand origins elsewhere, the incoming Muslims very soon turned to seizure of their hosts' possessions accompanied by murder or attempted murder of their hosts commencing about 1926.

In the meantime, the British government, had been vested by the League of Nations, with mandatory authority to protect Israel as the returned Jewish Homeland, and continued with that mandate until the cessation of mandatory authority in the beginning of 1947.¹ Following this, the Israelites issued their world Declaration of Independence on May 14, 1948 signaling their return to their homeland with Jewish lawful governing thereof. That Declaration was recognized by many of the world's leading nations, including the United States, Great Britain, etc.

30. Q: What is the conclusion to be drawn from the foregoing?

A: That the declared intention of the now-named "Palestinians," to be the sole lawful possessors of Palestine (including Israel) and stating their intention to destroy Israel as the basis for its own existence, - is a totally false statement of rights.

     ¹In the beginning of 1947, the British government decided to transfer the Palestine question to the United Nations (UN) -a young international organization. The UN sent a commission of inquiry to Palestine, which reached the conclusion that the British mandatory authority had nothing more to offer and that Palestine should be handed over to its inhabitants. The UN proposal spoke of the establishment of two states-Jewish and Arab - and of an international zone in Jerusalem and the surrounding area. http://www.jewishagency.org/JewishAgency/English/Jewish+Education

* * *

cc: George W. Bush, President
George H.W. Bush, Former President
Richard Cheney, Vice President
John Kerry, Senator
Condoleezza Rice, Secretary of State
Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of Defense
Colonel Oliver North
Michael Chertoff, Secretary of Homeland Security
Alberto Gonzales, U.S. Attorney General
Tony Blair, Prime Minister of Great Britain
Jack Straw, British Foreign Secretary
Newt Gingrich, Former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives
Ehud Olmert, Prime Minister of Israel
His Excellency Daniel Ayalon Ambassador of Israel
Benjamin Netanyahu, Economy Minister for the Israeli Government
Israel's "Women In Green"
National Unity Coalition for Israel
Arianna Huffington, Syndicated Columnist
Yohanan Ramati, Chairman, Jerusalem Institute for Western Defense
Gerardo Joffe, FLAME (Facts & Logic About the Middle East)
Mortimer Zuckerman, Editor in Chief - US News and World Report
Time Magazine
Washington Post - Attn: Bob Woodward
International Jerusalem Post
The Weekly Standard - Bill Kristol, Editor
The Wall Street Journal - Editorial and Op-Ed Department
The New York Times, Op-Ed Department
Los Angeles Times, Op-Ed Department
Dr. and Mrs. Jordan Phillips, Medical Books for China International
MoveOn PAC/www.MoveonPac.Org.
Richard Miniter, Author: Losing Bin Laden: How Bill Clinton's Failures Unleashed Global Terror

FACT Checking: Jewish population at time of 3 revolts and at 1948.

"In Rome at the commencement of the reign of Caesar Augustus, there were over 8,000 Jews: this is the number that escorted the envoys who came to demand the deposition of Archelaus. Finally, if the sums confiscated by the propraetor Flaccus in the year 62 represented actually the tax of a didrachma per head for a single year, the inference may be safely drawn that in Asia Minor the Jewish population numbered 45,000 males, or a total of at least 180,000 persons." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish_diaspora.html