WHY STILL CARE ABOUT ISRAEL?

Endnotes

Chapter 1: Why Still Care about Israel?

a. I believe the Bible is inerrant in its original manuscripts.

b. See Leviticus 26:14 and Deuteronomy 6:12 (land liable for people’s deeds); Leviticus 25:4–5 (land privileged by the people); Leviticus 26:33 and Deuteronomy 24:4, 28–29 (land punished for people’s deeds); Deuteronomy 30:9 (land blessed); and Psalms 122:1–2, 6; 147:2 (Israel’s destiny is that of the land).

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Chapter 2: God’s Inseparable Love

a. God is greater than, and not equal to, love. His attributes are many; He is holy, faithful, just, merciful, true, powerful and infinitely more. Yet it seems love is uniquely ascribed to His essential character.

b. Keenah is not translated “love,” but it refers to God’s jealousy.

c. It is commonly said the main difference between God’s grace and mercy is that His grace gives us what we do not deserve, while His mercy does not give us what we do deserve. I combine the concepts in the phrase “mercy and grace.”

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Chapter 3: The Sanctity of Covenant

a. Based on these two passages, especially noting the present tense “is” of Romans 9:4–5, the Roman Catholic Church formally renounced its historical supersessionism and anti-Semitism in 1965 in Nostra Aetate. Edward Flannery, The Anguish of the Jews: Twenty-three Centuries of Antisemitism, rev. ed. (New York: Paulist Press, 2004), vii, x.

b. To be sure, Abraham’s obedience to God was an important factor in establishing the covenant, before it was cut. But God put him to sleep during the cutting of the covenant, emphasizing he could do nothing to affect its unconditional nature and promised fulfillment.

c. For further study on traditional evangelical hermeneutics, see Roy Zuck, ed., Rightly Divided: Readings in Biblical Hermeneutics (Grand Rapids: Kregel, 2007) and Gordon D. Fee and Douglas Stuart, How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth: A Guide to Understanding the Bible (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1982). Employing the Hebraic approach are Robert Alter, The Five Books of Moses: A Translation with Commentary (New York: W. W. Norton and Co., 2008) and Joseph Shulam, Hidden Treasures (Jerusalem: Netivyah Bible Instruction Ministry, 2008).

d. One of the many Hebraic-based approaches can be seen in D. Thomas Lancaster, Restoration: Returning the Torah to the Disciples of Jesus (Littleton, Colo.: First Fruits of Zion, 2005), 54. For a more complete study encompassing other approaches, see Richard N. Longenecker, Biblical Exegesis in the Apostolic Period (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1975). I use the short term Hebraic-based or Hebraic because there is no universal agreement at this time on the appropriate name for the hermeneutical approach described in this chapter. Most Messianic Jewish leaders and scholars advocate this broad approach, although details vary among them. I use the word Hebraic rather than Jewish to emphasize the importance of biblical Hebrew, rather than any and all Jewish traditions that may not be biblical. My use of the term does not reflect any particular position on the so-called Hebraic roots movement.

e. The word Pardes (“garden” or “orchard”) is an acronym derived from the first initials of its four general categories: p’shat, remez, derash and sod. The vowels are inserted to make the name pronounceable. Pardes is also a word play, referring to the Scriptures as God’s holy garden or orchard. See John J. Parsons, “Seventy Faces of Torah: A Brief Overview of Exegesis,” Hebrew for Christians, http://www.hebrew4christians.com/Articles/Seventy_Faces/seventy_faces.html; Shulam, Hidden Treasures, 20–23.

f. See Hal Lindsey, The Road to Holocaust (New York: Bantam, 1990), 58–59. As another example of unbridled allegory, Augustine had this to say about the book of Genesis: The four rivers flowing from the Garden of Eden are four cardinal virtues; Adam and Eve’s fig leaves represent hypocrisy; and Noah’s drunken stupor depicts Messiah’s crucifixion. Roy B. Zuck, Basic Bible Interpretation: A Practical Guide to Discovering Biblical Truth (Wheaton, Ill.: Victor Books, 1991), 39–40.

g. These include Pentecostal and charismatic groups, fundamental evangelical streams and some churches in traditional denominations. Use of Hebraic hermeneutics is clearly not limited to dispensationalists or premillenialists, as some mistakenly say. While not every Hebraic-based approach embraced by believers is necessarily correct or biblically balanced, consider that some “growing pains” may be inevitable in the process of restoring important truths to the Church.

h. This gave rise to Gnostic and related heretical philosophies that strongly impacted the early Church.

i. Examples include Hebrews 11:10, 16 (heavenly country and city) and 12:22 (heavenly Jerusalem), written to Jewish believers who interpreted these verses according to Jewish hermeneutical principles. See also John 8:37, where Jesus tells the Jews they are Abraham’s descendants and then, in the same conversation, says they are not Abraham’s children.

j. Sometimes, references to land in the book of Hebrews are misunderstood apart from a Hebraic hermeneutical approach. As the name suggests, Hebrews was written to Hebrew Christians, who would have held a view of the land similar to Paul’s. As noted in Barry Horner, Future Israel: Why Christian Anti-Judaism Must be Challenged (Nashville: B & H Academic Books, 2007), Kindle edition, chapter 9, the original readers of the letter to Hebrews would have understood 11:10,16 to refer to a “city” or “country” that was not a strictly spiritual entity, but a material reality perfected by the Kingdom of heaven having come to earth. The hope expressed in these passages is an eschatological, earthly expectation. It is not heaven that is looked to, but the Kingdom of God, a heavenly kingdom in the physical earth realm, as expressed in Acts 1:6–7 and 3:19–21. Similarly, in the context of 12:22 (heavenly Jerusalem), the writer of Hebrews does aim to dispute the validity of the land promise but simply to illustrates to Jewish believers a larger point being made about God’s approachability through Messiah. See also Michael L. Brown, 60 Questions Christians Ask about Jewish People Think About Jewish  Belief and Practices  (Minneapolis, MN: Chosen Books, 2011), 233–238.

k. Some Jews were still living in other nations, never having returned to the land after the exile. The fact they did not return, however, does not diminish the importance of the land promise to the collective Jewish nation.

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Chapter 4: Israel’s Prophetic Destiny

a. When the infant Jesus is consecrated to the Father in the Temple, His dedication does not occur because He is the Messiah but to comply with biblical law pertaining to firstborn sons (see Luke 2:22–24; Exodus 13:1, 12–13).

b. A full study on the relevance and application of the law to believers is beyond the scope of this book. For more on my perspective, see Sandra Teplinsky, Israel’s Anointing (Grand Rapids: Chosen, 2008), 75–110.

c. See Revelation 2:26–27; 11:9, 18; 13:7; 14:8; 15:4; 16:19; 19:15; 20:3, 8; 21:24, 26; 22:2.

d. In 1975, the United Nations passed a resolution declaring that Zionism was a form of racism. Under American pressure, it was repealed several years later. On the importance of nationhood, as opposed to universalism (and globalism) in the 21st century, see Daniel Gordis, The Promise of Israel (Hoboken, N.J.: John Wiley & Sons, 2012).

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Chapter 5: The Contention of Election

a. The Hebrew literally reads, “He shall dwell in the face of all his kinsmen.” While some interpret this in a geographic sense only, “in the face of” also connotes contention. Nahum M. Sarna, Genesis, vol. 1 of The JPS Torah Commentary (Philadelphia: The Jewish Publication Society, 1989), 121.

b. Some mistake Galatians 6:16, referring to the “Israel of God,” as descriptive of the Christian Church. When the verse is interpreted according to a Hebraic-based hermeneutic, it is readily understood as referring to Jewish believers in Yeshua, the “Israel” intentionally aligned with and serving God.

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Chapter 6: The Salvation of Israel

a. Jews for Judaism,“Jews at Risk,” December 2010, http://jewsforjudaism.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=496:jews-at-risk&catid=27:missionary-groups—tactics-and-responses&Itemid=504, estimates 300,000 to 500,000. Patrick Johnstone and Jason Mandryk, Operation World: 21st Century Edition (Pasadena: U.S. Center for World Mission; and Bulstrode, Gerrards Cross, England: WEC International Research Office, 2001), 362, set the number of congregational-affiliated Jewish believers at 332,000 based on surveys completed in 2000. Messianic Jewish organizations generally double any official number to account for Jewish believers who do notaffiliate withMessianic congregations for various reasons, including membership in mainstream churches.

b. For a firsthand account of Jewish revival, see generally Sandra Teplinsky, Out of the Darkness: The Untold Story of Jewish Revival (Phoenix: HOIM Publishing, 1998).

c. For an alternative Messianic view, see David Stern, Jewish New Testament Commentary (Clarksville, Md.: Jewish New Testament Publications, Inc., 1992), 418–23.

d. From an eschatological (end times) perspective, the number of Gentiles saved will probably relate in some manner to the “fullness of the Gentiles.”

e. An excellent source book at an academic level is Michael L. Brown, Answering Jewish Objections to Jesus, 5 vols. (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2000–9). On a lay level, see Michael L. Brown, The Real Kosher Jesus (Lake Mary, Fla.: Frontline, 2012).

f. Bear in mind that not all Pharisees rejected Jesus; many followed Him.

 g. Occasionally, Christian evangelical organizations in Israel that support Messianic believers have also been harassed and violently attacked.

h.As of this writing, the most serious counter-missionary crime occurred in 2008, with the attempted murder of an Israeli Messianic teenager in his own home. The young man miraculously survived a bombing attack, followed by fifteen surgeries. The assailant was eventually tried and convicted of attempted murder because of compelling, external factors that overrode the institutional bias against Messianic Jewish victims of crime. However, an appeal is pending that threatens to overturn the verdict. See Tzippe Barrow, “Déjà vu for Messianic Bombing Victims,” CBN News, Inside Israel, March 9, 2012, http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/insideisrael/2012/March/Deja-vu-for-Messianic-Bombing-Victims/; Tim McGirk, “Israel’s Messianic Jews Under Attack,” Time, June 5, 2008, http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1812430,00.html; Shira Sorko-Ram, “Persecution Against Israeli Believers Turns Lethal,” Maoz Israel Report, June 2008, http://www.maozisrael.org/site/News2?abbr=maoz&page=NewsArticle&id=6795&news-iv-ctrl; “Increased Persecution,” Operation World, February 13, 2011, http://www.operationworld.org/isra; Mitch Ginsburg and Adiv Sterman, “Jewish Terrorist Convicted of Double Murder,” Times of Israel, January 16, 2013, http://www.timesofisrael.com/jewish-terrorist-convicted-of-murdering-palestinians.

i. This phenomenon is referenced in Yoaz Hendel, “Jesus Lives on in Jerusalem,” YnetNews.com, August 19, 2010, http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3939336,00.html; Sheila Dorit, “I’m Already Written in the Book of Life,” Haaretz, October 7, 2011, http://www.haaretz.co.il/magazine/1.1517470. See also Calvin L. Smith, “Faith and Politics in the Holy Land Today,” in Calvin L. Smith, ed., The Jews, Modern Israel and the New Supercessionism (Lampeter, UK: King’s Divinity Press, 2009), 129–34.

Anti-Messianic policies can affect various institutional processes and intimidate government authorities, causing serious harm to some Israelis who follow Yeshua—and to some who do not. In 2012, for example, counter-missionaries mistakenly accused a seventy-year-old Orthodox Jewish woman in Jerusalem of being a Messianic evangelist. They broke into her home, beat her up and left her handcuffed, broken-boned and bleeding on the floor of her apartment. Yaron Doron, “Modesty Patrol Lynched Me,” YnetNews.com, February 29, 2012, http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4196645,00.html.

j. Disproportionate power rests with ultra-Orthodox Haredim for reasons that are historically and politically complex. See Smith, “Faith and Politics,” 129–34. In 2013, ultra-Orthodox political parties were surprisingly excluded from the Israeli government. This may bring about a loosening of some of the religious strongholds that have traditionally resisted Messianic Jews.

k. See for example “Facts You May Not Know,” Maoz Ministries, http://www.istandwithisrael.com.

l. “Central Fund of Israel Funding of Anti-Missionary Group: Jewish-Israel,” Yad L’Achim Watch, September 13, 2012, http://yadlachimwatch.wordpress.com/2012/09/13/central-fund-of-israel-funding-of-antimissionary-group-jewish-israel/.

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Chapter 7: Rejected Roots and Broken Branches

a. Building specifically on Luther’s theology, Hitler declared, “When I defend myself against the Jew, I am fighting for the work of Lord” (emphases mine). Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf (Munich: Zentralverlag der NSDAP, 1927), 65, as cited in Haim Harari, A View from the Eye of the Storm (New York: Regan Books, 2005), 164.

b. In his book Jesus of Nazareth (Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2011), Pope Benedict XVI personally exonerates the Jews of responsibility for Jesus’ death. He stresses that Messiah voluntarily laid down His life for the sins of all humanity.

c. Gabe Kahn, “Thailand Manhunt for Iranian ‘Bomb Expert,” Israel National News Online, February 17, 2012, http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/152875#.T_owF5GvjbU; Gabe Kahn, “Warrant Issued for 3 Iranians in Delhi Blast Case” Israel National News, March 15, 2012, http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/153787#.T_ovxpGvjbU; Tracy Connor, “Israel Blames Iran for Twin Bombs in India and Republic of Georgia,” New York Daily News, February 13, 2012, http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/israel-blames-iran-twin-bombs-india-republic-georgia-diplomat-wife-injured-picking-kids-school-article-1.1021893; Reuters, “Terror Attack in Bulgaria Bears Hallmarks of Hezbollah,” Haaretz, July 20, 2012, http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/pentagon-terror-attack-in-bulgaria-bears-hallmarks-of-hezbollah-1.452536.

d. I use the term “anti-Israel” to describe a wide range of positions unfavorable to Israel. An anti-Israel position reflects a bias or prejudice, which may be mild or extreme, against the Jewish state, compared with other states.

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Chapter 8: The Islamic Middle East and Anti-Semitism

a. Many scholars have concluded that Muhammad was either seriously ill or demonized or both. Joel Richardson, The Islamic Antichrist (Los Angeles: WND Books, 2009), 99–100, referencing “Muhammad and the Religion of Islam,” http://answering-islam.org/Gilchrist/Vol1/3b.html. See also, “Muhammad and the Demons,” http://www.answering-islam.org/silas/demons/htm.

b. See for example Bernard Lewis, Islam and the West (New York: Oxford University Press, 1993), 6.

c. For an explanation of the Sunni, Shi’ite and other Muslim sects (all of which include fundamentalists), see Bobby Ghosh, “Behind the Sunni-Shi’ite Divide,” Time, March 5, 2007, http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1592849,00.html; Lesley Hazelton, After the Prophet: The Epic Battle of the Shi’a-Sunni Split in Islam (New York: Random House, 2009).

d. Bernard Lewis, Islam and the West (New York: Oxford University Press, 1993), 4–6.

e. Abu’1 A’la Maududi, Islam: An Historical Perspective (London, 1980), quoted in Bat Ye’or, Islam and Dhimmitude: Where Civilizations Collide (Associated University Presses, 2002), 309, as quoted in Phillips, World Turned, 164–66.

f. In a down-to-earth example of taqiya, Islamic authorities have ordered the excavation and destruction of truckloads of soil from beneath the Temple Mount in efforts to destroy archaeological evidence of the Jews’ historical presence there. Amir Shoan, “Is Israel Losing Temple Mount War?” February 25, 2012, http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4194585,00.html; “Waqf Continues to Destroy Temple Mount Antiquities,” Israel National News, February 12, 2013, http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/Flash.aspx/261936#.USf6RvKQAro. An Islamist goal is to remove evidence of any Jewish connection to the Temple Mount. By 2012, an overwhelming majority of Palestinians did not believe there had ever been any Jewish historical tie to the Temple Mount, to Jerusalem or even to the Holy Land. Shaul Bartal, “The Battle Over Silwan,” Middle East Forum: Summer 2012, http://www.meforum.org/3281/silwan; Ryan Jones, “Poll: Palestinians Reject 2-State Solution,” February 12, 2012, http://www.israeltoday.co.il/tabid/178/nid/23114/language/en-US/Default.aspx; “Poll: Palestinians Reject 2-State Solution,” The Jewish Reporter, February 12, 2012, http://thejewishreporter.com/?p=3528.

g. Christine Brim, “Muslim Brotherhood Deception: They Say Different Things in English and Arabic,” Breitbart.com, January 30, 2011, http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Peace/2011/01/30/Muslim-Brotherhood-Deception--They-Say-Different-Things-in-English-and-Arabic; Richardson, Islamic Antichrist, 151–162. See generally Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik, Deception: Betraying the Peace Process (Jerusalem: Palestinian Media Watch, 2012); Khaled Abu Toameh, “Palestinian Watch, Israel’s Partners for Peace: What They Say in English vs. What They Say in Arabic,” Gatestone Institute, International Policy Council, September 13, 2010, http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/1539/palestinians-english-vs-arabic; see also http://www.muslimfact.com/bm/terror-in-the-name-of-islam/islam-permits-lying-to-deceive-unbelievers-and-bri.shtml.

h. Arab Spring has fueled not only anti-Semitism but militant anti-Christian persecution against churches throughout the Arab Middle East. Ralph Peters, “A Christian Catasrophe,” New York Post, April 1, 2013, http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/christian_catastrophe_lX4yqB48KfKyKuUgQPreDM.

i. Alan Dershowitz, “Iran Declares War against the Jewish People,” The Algemeiner, June 27, 2012, http://www.algemeiner.com/2012/06/27/iran-declares-war-against-the-jewish-people/.

j. Maayana Miskin, “No Fear of Holocaust,” Israel National News, April 3, 2013, http://www.israelnationalnews.com/wap/Item.aspx?type=0&item=166724.

k. A “shadow war” has been operating between Israel and Iran for many years. Iran has sponsored or abetted acts of terror against Israelis and Jews in other nations through Hamas, Hezbollah and other militant groups. The Israelis have deployed technological weaponry such as computer viruses, and have utilized targeted assassinations. As of September 2013, Israel has not launched a militarily preemptive strike against Iran, though such a strike could presumably be justified as defensive under principles of customary international law.

l. Dudi Cohen and Roi Kais, “Khameni: Time for a New World Order,” YnetNews.com, September 1, 2012, http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4274850,00.html; Thomas Erdbrink, “At Summit Meeting, Iran Has a Message for the World,” New York Times, August 27, 2012, http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/27/world/middleeast/iran-uses-nonaligned-meeting-to-push-its-message.html?_r=1.

m. Israel had previously secured the Sinai from Egypt in the Six Day War of 1967.

n. Elad Benari, “Muslim Brotherhood’s Supreme Leader Calls for Jihad on Israel,” Israel National News, July 9, 2012, http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/157636#.UIHF564rysU.

o. Dr. Liad Porat, “The Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and its True Intentions,” The Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies, December 10, 2012, http://www.biu.ac.il/SOC/besa/docs/perspectives192.pdf; Zvi Mazel, “Analysis: Morsi’s Velvet Revolution,” Jerusalem Post, August 4, 2012, http://www.jpost.com/MiddleEast/Article.aspx?id=281138.

p. See Mazel, “Morsi’s Velvet Revolution.” Bearing on this likelihood is the Muslim Brotherhood’s historically anti-Semitic ideology. Sarah Schlessinger, “A History of Hatred: The Muslim Brotherhood and Anti-Semitism,” Hudson Institute, December 19, 2011.

q. See for example Amir Taheri, Holy Terror: The Inside Story of Islamic Terror (London: Sphere Books, Ltd., 1987), 14. Illustrating the religious-secular overlap, the Arab Psychiatrists Association says murderis good for mental health:

“The psychological structure [of a suicide terrorist] is that of an individual who loves life. . . . When the martyr dies a martyr’s death, he attains the height of bliss. . . . As a professional psychiatrist, I say that the height of bliss comes with the end of the countdown . . . and then you press the button to blow yourself up.” Dr. Adel Sadeq, Chairman of the Arab Head of Department of Psychiatry at Ein Shams University in Cairo, “Chairman of the Arab Psychiatrists Association Offers Diagnosis,” Middle East Media Research Institite Special Dispatch No. 373, April 30, 2002, http://www.memri.org/bin/articles.cgi?Page=archives&Area=sd&ID=SP37302.

r. See generally http://www.memritv.org.

s. Mitchell G. Bard, “Arab/Muslim Attitudes Toward Israel,” Myths and Facts Online, Jewish Virtual Library, accessed April 30, 2013, http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/myths3/MFattitudes.html; Middle East Media Research Institute, “Arab AntiSemitism Documentation,” Special Reports, No. 9, September 13, 2002, No. 93, May 1, 2002, No. 98, June 7, 2000, No. 241, July 13, 2001, No. 375, May 3, 2002, No. 421, September 19, 2002, http://www.memri.org/bin/articles.cgi?Page=subject
&Area=antisemitism&ID; Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center at the Center for Special Studies, “Information Bulletins,” September 2002, October 2002, January 2003, http://www.intelligence.org.il/eng/; David A. Harris, “Saudi Schools Keep Sowing Seeds of Hate,” Forward, March 7, 2003; John Hagee, Attack on America (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2001), 27–28; David K. Shipler, Arab and Jew: Wounded Spirits in a Promised Land (New York: Time Books, 1986), 255–59; Joan Peters, From Time Immemorial: The Origins of the Arab-Jewish Conflict Over Palestine (New York: Harper & Row, 1984),73, 78–79.

t. “Egyptian Jurists to Sue ‘The Jews’ for Compensation for ‘Trillions’ of Tons of Gold Allegedly Stolen During Exodus From Egypt,” MEMRI Special Dispatch No. 556, August 22, 2003, citing Al-Ahram Al-Arabi (Egypt), August 9, 2003, www.memri.org.

u. Yigal Schleifer, “Turkey: Mossad Angry Birds in Turkish Airspace?,” Eurasianet.org, http://www.eurasianet.org/node/65420; Jackson Diehl, “Israel’s Spying Vulture and Killer Shark,” Washington Post, May 1, 2011, http://voices.washingtonpost.com/postpartisan/2011/01/israels_spying_vulture—and_ki.html.

v. Maayana Miskin, “Can’t Find PA Incitement? Here It Is,” Israel National News, February 5, 2013, http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/164933#.URM0qvKQAro; Anav Silverman, “Palestinian Authority Still Teaching Kids to Hate Israel,” September 4, 2012, Jewish Press, http://www.jewishpress.com/news/eye-on-palestine/palestinian-authority-still-teaching-kids-to-hate-israel/2012/09/04/0/; Itamar Marcus, “From Nationalist Battle to Religious Conflict: New 12th Grade Palestinian Schoolbooks Present a World without Israel,” Palestinian Media Watch Report, February 2007, http://www.palwatch.org/STORAGE/special%20reports/SchoolBooks_English_Final_for_web.pdf; Joseph Farah, “Gaza’s Preschool of Hate,” WorldNetDaily, June 26, 2002, http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=28085; Andrea Levin, “Palestinian Textbooks Teach Anti-Israel Hate,” Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America, June 1, 1999, http://www.camera.org/index.asp?x_context=2&x_outlet=33&x_article=94; Yitschak Ben-Gad, The Roadmap to Nowhere: A Layman’s Guide to the Middle East Conflict (Noble, Okla.: Balfour Books, 2004), 181–83; John Perazzo, “Palestinian Schools: Breeding Grounds for Hate,” FreeRepublic.com, April 10, 2002, http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/663607/posts.

w. “Gaza Kindergartners Want to Blow Up Zionists,” YnetNews.com, December 6, 2012, http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4241588,00.html

x. Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik, “Fatah Summer Camp Named after Female Terrorist Mughrabi, Who Led Killing of 37 in Bus Hijacking,” Palestinian Media Watch, July, 17, 2012, http://www.palwatch.org/main.aspx?fi=157&doc_id=7156; “Children as Combatants: Promoting Violence for Children,” Palestinian Media Watch, December 9, 2012, http://www.palwatch.org/main.aspx?fi=844; “Children as Combatants: Motivating Children to Seek Shahada,” Palestinian Media Watch, November 23, 2012, http://www.palwatch.org/main.aspx?fi=846; Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik, “Children and Youth: Jerusalem and ‘Every Inch’ of Land Will Be Freed ‘By the Blood of the Youth’—Girl Recites Poem on PA TV,” Palestinian Media Watch, October 4, 2012, http://palwatch.org/main.aspx?fi=157&doc_id=7530 ; Jordana Horn, “Wiesenthal Center: UNESCO Funds Palestinian Children’s Magazine Glorifying Hitler,” Jerusalem Post, December 22, 2011; Anav Silverman, “Terror Attacks on Israel and UNRWA’s Educational System,” July 26, 2011, http://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2011/07/26/Poll-Arabs-reject-two-state-solution/UPI-61891311710436/.

y. “Mickey Mouse Promotes Jihad,” World Net Daily, May 2007, http://www.wnd.com/2007/05/41487/; “Palestinian Kids Raised for War,” World Net Daily, November 2000, http://www.wnd.com/2000/11/4326/; “Jihad: The Children’s Club,” Youtube, December 11, 2006, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAHHjfUxERY; “Promoting Violence and Terror: Hamas TV Teaches Kids to Kill Jews,” Palestinian Media Watch, September 22, 2009, http://palwatch.org/main.aspx?fi=472&fld_id=473&doc_id=1340.

z. See generally Marcus and Zilberdik, Deception: Betraying the Peace Process.

aa. “US Slams Naming of Square for Terrorist,” Jerusalem Post, March 20, 2011; Itamar Marcus, From Terrorists to Role Models: The PA’s Institutionalization and Iincitement of Violence, Palestinian Media Watch, May 2010, http://palwatch.org/STORAGE/special%20reports/PA%20honors%20terrorists%20Final%20Eng.pdf.

bb. “New PA Law Said to Grant All Convicted Terrorists Monthly Salary,” Jerusalem Post, May 20, 2011; Herb Kleinon, “Congress Is Told That by Funding PA, US Is Paying Salaries of Jailed Terrorists,” Jerusalem Post, July 27, 2011.

cc. Jordana Horn, “New Book Highlights PA Media Campaign Denying Israel’s Right to Exist,” Jerusalem Post, December 7, 2011.

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Chapter 9: Discerning Truth about Israel Today

a. Two years later, Joan Peters’ bestselling and superbly researched book, From Time Immemorial, 394, 398–99, 401, reported that most men in Palestinian camps were gainfully employed in Israel, living in rent-free residences in settings far superior to their pre-Israel habitat. Though some of the material in Peters’ book has been contested, historians have recently affirmed much of her research.

b. Report by Israeli Ministry of Defense, Office of the Coordinator of Government Operations in Judea, Samaria and Gaza District, Judea, Samaria and the Gaza District – 1967-1989: Twenty Years of Civil Administration  (Jerusalem: Carta, 1987); see Efraim Karsh, “What Occupation?,” Commentary 114:1 (July–August 2002), 46–51. Improvements for Palestinians included better medical care, increased life expectancy and lowered infant mortality, the establishment of Arab universities and schools, creation of a free press, new and better-paying jobs and more.

c. See photo essay of wealthy Palestinian neighborhoods at “Graphic Images,” Israel National News, December 17, 2012,

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/163242#.UM8qlHfJJj4.

d. Blues by the Beach, produced by Jack Baxter and Fran Strauss-Baxter, is an award-winning documentary on the horror of a live terror attack, filmed as it actually occurred in Tel Aviv in 2003, http://www.bluesbythebeachfilm.com.

e. Yehuda Kraut, “Palestinian Spokesmen, Jenin Lies and Media Indifference,” Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America Media Report 12, no. 1 (Winter 2003): 34, citing Qatari television channel Al Jazeera interview with Palestinian guerilla fighter from Jenin; Egyptian government newspaper Al-Ahram Weekly quoting “Omar,” an Islamic Jihad bomb maker in Jenin.

f. Most severely impacted has been the border city of Sderot, where a generation of Israeli children has grown up in severe trauma, often running several times daily into makeshift bomb shelters.

g. See “Gaza Facts,” Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, http://www.mfa.gov.il/GazaFacts.

h. Israeli Defense Forces, http://www.idf.il/1283-16241-EN/Dover.aspx, together with statistics from Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/HumanitarianAid/Palestinians/New_government_policy_brings_more_goods_to_Gaza_June_2010.htm.

i. Ryan Jones, “Red Cross: No Humanitarian Crisis in Gaza,” Israel Today, April 22, 2011, http://www.israeltoday.co.il/NewsItem/tabid/178/nid/22757/Default.aspx. See also Yossi Aloni, “Hamas: Gaza Is Not under Occupation,” Israel Today, October 2, 2012, http://www.israeltoday.co.il/NewsItem/tabid/178/nid/23413/Default.aspx, a top leader of Hamas, Mahmoud Al-Zahar, stated that “Gaza has been freed from [Israeli] occupation, and is not under siege.”

j. An Egyptian journalist visiting Gaza less than two months after the flotilla incident wrote that “the sight of merchandise and luxuries filling Gaza amazed me” and, for those in power, “a sense of absolute prosperity prevails.” He reported that around twenty percent of Gazans possessed nearly all the wealth in the territory, and nearly all of them were affiliated closely with Hamas. Ashraf Abu al-Houl, “In Actual Terms, Gaza Is Not under Seige,” Al-Ahram, July 18, 2010, translated by MEMRI, http://www.memri.org/report/en/0/0/0/0/0/0/4482.htm.

A report by the Washington Institute for Near East Policy confirmed these observations in formal detail. See Ehud Yaari and Eyal Ofer, “Gaza’s Economy: How Hamas Stays in Power,” Washington Institute, June 6, 2011, http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/view/gazas-economy-how-hamas-stays-in-power.

k. The 2011 UN Palmer Report concluded that Israel’s maritime blockade was in accord with international law as a security measure against ongoing terror. It also found: the Mavi Marmara acted illegally in breaching a lawful blockade and in attempting to aid Hamas, a terror organization; Mavi Marmara passengers, associated with terror organizations, evidenced criminal intent by the possession and unprovoked use of lethal weapons; and Israeli naval troops acted in self-defense, fighting only after they were attacked and their lives threatened. By applying an outmoded definition of excessive force that ignores an impending threat, Israeli naval troops were found to have used excessive force. The more appropriate definition of excessive force does not depend only on actual force used but on the real and imminent threat of force against a defender.

l. Stephen Lendman, “Israel’s Genocidal War on Palestine,” November 30, 2012, http://www.thepeoplesvoice.org/TPV3/Voices.php/2012/11/30/israel-s-genocidal-war-on-palestine; “Palestinian Genocide,” https://sites.google.com/site/palestiniangenocide/; Amy Goodman and Denis Moynihan, “In Gaza: It’s the Occupation, Stupid,” Democracy Now, November 21, 2012, http://www.democracynow.org/blog/2012/11/21/in_gaza_its_the_occupation_stupid; The Electronic Intifada, http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ben-white; Adam Levick, “Anti-Israelism and Anti-Semitism in Progressive U.S. Blogs/News Websites: Influential and Poorly Monitored,” http://www.think-israel.org/levick.antisemiticamericanblogs.html; Kenneth L. Marcus, “New Evidence of Anti-Semitism, Anti-Israelism, and Holocaust Denial,” http://www.jewishresearch.org/quad/0110_marcus.html; End The Occupation: US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation, http://www.endtheoccupation.org/; Engage: The Anti-Racist Campaign against Anti-Semitism (blog), http://engageonline.wordpress.com/; Yakov Lappin, “Facebook Removes Third Intifada Web Page,” Jerusalem Post, March 30, 2011; “Extremists Begin to Utilize Twitter to Broadcast Message,” Anti-Defamation League, http://www.adl.org/main_Extremism/Extremists-Utilize-Twitter.htm; “ADL Says Facebook ‘Third Intifada’ Page Abuses Technology to Promote Terrorist Violence,” Anti-Defamation League, http://www.adl.org/PresRele/Internet_75/6007_75.htm.

m. Bard, “Arab/Muslim Attitudes”; Middle East Media Research Institute, “Arab AntiSemitism Documentation” (see chapter 8, note k); Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center at the Center for Special Studies: “Information Bulletins,” September 2002, October 2002, January 2003, http://www.intelligence.org.il/eng/; David A. Harris, “Saudi Schools Keep Sowing Seeds of Hate”; John Hagee, Attack on America, 27–28; Shipler, Arab and Jew, 255–59; Peters, From Time Immemorial, 73, 78–79.

n. Chaim Potok, Wanderings: Chaim Potok’s History of the Jews (New York: Fawcett, 1990), 405–6, 426, 429–30; Peters, From Time Immemorial, 36–37; R. Po-chia Hsia, The Myth of Ritual Murder: Jews and Magic in Reformation Germany (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1988); Haim Hillel Ben-Sasson and Yehuda Slutsky, “Blood Libel,” in Encyclopedia Judaica, vol. 4 (Jerusalem: Keter, 1974), cols. 1120–31, with the literature referenced there, as cited in Brown, Our Hands, note 5, 195.

o. Herman Bernstein, The Truth about the Protocols of Zion: A Complete Exposure (New York: Ktav Publishing House, 1935), 36ff.; John Shelton Curtiss, An Appraisal of the Protocols of Zion (New York: Columbia University Press, 1942); Mark Vishniak, “Antisemitism in Tsarist Russia: A Study in Government Fostered Antisemitism,” in Koppel S. Pinson, ed., Essays on Antisemitism (New York: Council on Jewish Relations, 1946), 121–44, as cited in Salo W. Baron, The Russian Jew Under Tsars and Soviets (New York: Macmillan, 1976), 61, 311, 359n13. The Protocols is posted on various Arab websites and represented as a factual account, as seen at http://www.radioislam.net/ islam/english/toread/pr-zion.htm.

p. “Egyptian Diplomat at the UN Human Rights Commission Defends ‘Historical Truth’ of ‘Protocols,’” March 25, 2003, Simon Wiesenthal Press Information, http://www.wiesenthal.com/site/apps/s/content.asp?c=lsKWLbPJLnF&b=4442915&ct=5853267 .

q. Flannery, Anguish,109–11; Potok, Wanderings, 424–26.

r. Peter Eyre, “Palestine—An Israeli Dumping Ground for Radioactive/Toxic Waste,” Palestine Telegraph, June 8, 2010, http://www.paltelegraph.com/columnists/peter-eyre/6338-palestine-an-israeli-dumping-ground-for-radioactivetoxic-waste; “PA TV Teaches Children That Israel Tries to Pollute Palestinian Water,” Palestinian Media Watch, February 23, 2013, http://www.palwatch.org/main.aspx?fi=339; Yochanan Visser, “One Drop at a Time,” International Jerusalem Post, February 8–14, 2013.

s. Israeli cyberspace has morphed into a fourth battlefield. Governmental institutions stave off more than a million cyber terror attacks per day, including major assaults by unified, anti-Israel hacking organizations.

t. See for example “Israeli Drone Films Palestinians Faking Funeral in Jenin,” IsraelInsider.com, May 5, 2002, http://israelinsider.com/channels/diplomacy/articles/dip_0204.htm; “Pallywood,” SecondDraft.com, http://www.seconddraft.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=522:pallywood-qaccording-to-palestinian-sourcesq&catid=58:according-to-palestinians-sources&Itemid=159; David Zangen, “Seven Lies About Jenin,” Ma'ariv, November 8, 2002, http://www.israelforum.com/board/showthread.php?4446-Seven-Lies-About-Jenin.

u. “The Big Lies: The Gaza Siege,” Honest Reporting, http://honestreporting.com/big-lies/.

v. http://vimeo.com/29280708; http://honestreporting.com/exposed-photographer-reveals-market-not-truth-behind-conflict-images/. The 2011 expose confirms that of Professor Richard Landes of Boston University. Landes produced a 2005 documentary entitled "Pallywood," combining the words "Palestine" and "Hollywood" to disclose how Palestinians stage and script "attacks" by Israeli soldiers.

w. “Big Lies,” Honest Reporting, http://honestreporting.com/big-lies/; FakeWarClaims.com, http://fakewarclaims.com/category/middle-east/; “Pallywood,” SecondDraft.org.

x. “Top Tweet on Gaza Proven False,” Honest Reporting, March 12, 2012, http://honestreporting.com/top-tweet-on-gaza-proven-false/.

y. “Update: BBC and CNN React to Pallywood Video Footage,” Honest Reporting, November 18, 2012, http://honestreporting.com/update-bbc-and-cnn-react-to-pallywood-video-footage/.

z. FakeClaim.com, http://fakewarclaims.com/category/middle-east/; “Pallywood,” SecondDraft.org.

aa. Palestinian tactics at the UN violate the 1995 Oslo Accords II, Article 31, Paragraph 7. See also David Davenport, “Palestinian Statehood: Politics Trumps International Law Again,” Forbes, December 4, 2012, http://www.forbes.com/sites/daviddavenport/2012/12/04/palestinian-statehood-politics-trumps-international-law-again/; “Press Release,” ZOA, December 5, 2012, http://www.zoa.org/sitedocuments/pressrelease_view.asp?pressreleaseID=2258.

bb. Mordechai Twersky, “Cotler Warns of New Strain in De-legitimization of Israel,” Jerusalem Post, May 19, 2011, http://www.jpost.com/VideoArticles/Video/Article.aspx?id=221262.

cc. David Horowitz, “How the Palestinians Will Use the GA to Advance Statehood,” Jerusalem Post, March 25, 2011, quoting Gabriela Shalev, former Israeli ambassador to the UN. Shalev notes that if the Security Council’s permanent members cannot reach unanimity, UNGA Resolution 377 may enable a state to be formed anyway. Resolution 377 was activated in the past to circumvent the Soviet Union’s refusal to authorize Security Council protection to South Korea.

dd. The International Criminal Court is located in The Hague, Netherlands. It is authorized to hold nations responsible for committing crimes against humanity. As such, the international community may have power to impinge on the sovereignty of a nation found guilty of certain crimes against humanity.

ee. The Palestinians’ automatic majority at the UN explains its 2012 success, for example, in convincing UNESCO (a UN agency) to declare the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem an endangered Palestinian World Heritage site. The PA claimed the “Israeli occupation” prevented them from repairing a leaky roof by blocking access to the church. Ahead of the vote, however, a team of UNESCO’s own experts visited the church and determined it was neither endangered nor eligible for World Heritage status. The Catholic, Greek, Orthodox and Armenian Orthodox clerics who oversee the church compound sent a letter to UNESCO before the ruling, stating their agreement with the experts’ findings and requesting denial of the claim. David Parsons, “The Fiasco at UNESCO,” Jerusalem Post, July 8, 2012, http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Op-EdContributors/Article.aspx?id=276711. Encouraged by this victory, the PA went on to seek an international injunction against Israel from “endangering” the “Palestinian heritage” of Jerusalem’s Western Wall. But the Western Wall represents the remains of the Jewish Temple compound. It has no Palestinian heritage at all.

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Chapter 10: Israeli Statehood and the Arab/Palestinian Plight

a. See anecdotally Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre, O Jerusalem (London: Grafton, 1982), 32.

b. The Palestinians, a Semitic people, are not related to the Philistines, who were Japhethites.

c. Many nomadic Arabs rented or squatted on lands owned by wealthy, absentee landlords. Peters, From Time Immemorial, 392.

d. Moshe Maor, “The History of Zionism,” Jewish Virtual Library, 2012, http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/isdf/text/maor.html.

e. Modern Zionism was officially launched in 1896 with the publication of Theodore Herzl’s booklet The Jewish State. It gained great impetus from rapidly escalating European anti-Semitism.

f. The realignment of the Middle East was based in large part on European interests in oil. But Europeans also offered Arabs and Jews living in the region fresh opportunities for development and economic growth.

g. The San Remo Resolution was partially based on a British edict known as the Balfour Declaration. The Balfour Declaration of 1917 stated the royal British government favored the establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine. For further information, see Jewish Virtual Library, “The Balfour Declaration,” http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/History/baltoc.html.

h. Britain ostensibly violated Article 5 of the Mandate approved by the League of Nations. See Howard Grief, “The Rights of the Jewish People Over the Land of Israel Under International Law,” Think-Israel, December 25, 2010, http://www.think-israel.org/grief.sanremospeech.html.

i. British High Commissioners appointed to Palestine, as well as local newspapers, documented ongoing acts of cruel violence perpetrated against the Jews well before the declaration of their sovereign state. See for example Palestine Post, May 13, 1936, reporting widespread acts of Arab terror against Jews all over Palestine during a typical 24-hour period, including bus bombings, railway terror and destruction, pumping plant vandalism, arson, personal assault and battery, firearm shootings, nails strewn in highways by Arab women, and more.

j. Newspaper articles, radio announcements, meetings with Arab leaders—even leaflets airdropped over Arab villages—urged them to stay and live in peace. See London Economist, October 2, 1948, as cited in Marie Syrkin, “The Palestinian Refugees,” in Irving Howe and Carl Gershman, Israel, the Arabs and the Middle East (New York: Bantam Books, 1972), 163; Terence Prittie, Israel: Miracle in the Desert (Baltimore: Penguin Books, 1971), 119–20; General John Glubb Pasha, London Daily Mail, August 12, 1948.

k. Margaret Brearley, “National Socialism, Israel, and Jewish/Arab Palestinian History,” in Leonard Grob and John Roth, ed., Anguished Hope: Holocaust Survivors Confront the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2008), 106.

l. Based on the most current research, this is a high estimate, intentionally giving benefit of the doubt to Palestinians claiming higher numbers. According to the final British census of Palestine in 1945, a total of only 570,800 Arabs lived within the boundaries that became Israel in 1948.  Peters, From Time Immemorial, 16. Formerly leftist Israeli historian Benny Morris writes, “It is impossible to arrive at a definite, persuasive estimate. My predilection would be to opt for the loose contemporary British formula, that of between 600,000–760,000 refugees; but, if pressed, 700,000 is probably a fair estimate.” Benny Morris, The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004), 603–04. Since the publication of Morris’ book, more recent studies indicate a much lower number is probably more accurate, due to documented widespread overcounting. Efraim Karsh, Palestine Betrayed (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2010), 264–72, see also 8–15.

m. Mitchell G. Bard, Myths and Facts: A Guide to the Arab-Israeli Conflict, rev. ed. (Chevy Chase, Md.: American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise, 2012), http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/myths3/MythsEnglish2012.pdf, 126; Peters, From Time Immemorial, 12–13, citing Habib Issa, ed., Al-Hoda Arabic daily, June 8, 1951; see generally Dan Kurzman, Genesis 1948: The First Arab-Israeli War (Jerusalem: Sefer ve Sefer Publishing, 1970); see Economist (London), May 15, 1948, and October 2, 1948; Karsh, Palestine Betrayed, 140–42, 181–84.

n. False rumors of impending slaughter by the Jews ran rampant across Palestine. Some were sparked by Arab leaders seeking to influence world opinion against the Zionists. Planted rumors contributed significantly to the Palestinian exodus. Syrkin, “The Palestinian Refugees,” 159–67.

o. Other Arab admissions include the following: “It must not be forgotten that the Arab Higher Committee encouraged the refugees’ flight from their homes in Jaffa, Haifa and Jerusalem, and that certain leaders . . . make political capital out of their miserable situation.”—Near East Arabic Radio Broadcasting Station, April 3, 1949; “The Arab States encouraged the Palestine Arabs to leave their homes temporarily in order to be out of the way of the Arab invasion armies.”—Filastin, February 19, 1949; “The Secretary-General of the Arab League, Azzam Pasha, assured the Arab peoples . . . it would be a simple matter to throw Jews into the Mediterranean. . . . Brotherly advice was given to the Arabs of Palestine to leave their land, homes and property . . . lest the guns of the invading Arab armies mow them down.”—Habib Issa, Al Hoda, June 8, 1951; “The tragedy of the Palestinians was that most of their leaders had paralyzed them with false and unsubstantiated promises that they were not alone; that 80 million Arabs and 400 million Muslims would instantly and miraculously come to their rescue.”—King Abdullah of Jordan. Former prime minister of Syria in 1948–49, Haled al Azm recounted: “Since 1948 we have been demanding the return of the refugees to their homes. But we ourselves are the ones who encouraged them to leave. Only a few months separated our call to them to leave and our appeal to the United Nations to resolve on their return.” Haled al Azm, The Memoirs of Haled al Azm, part 1 (Beirut, 1973), 386–87, as cited in Mitchell G. Bard, “The Refugees,” Myths and Facts Online, Jewish Virtual Library, http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/myths3/MFrefugees.html#6.

p. Abbas’ doctoral dissertation was an attempt to disprove the Nazi Holocaust.

q. Benny Morris, The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited (Cambridge, Mass.: Cambridge University Press, 2004), 588–600.  For a more recent conservative view, see references cited in Mitchell G. Bard, Myths and Facts: A Guide to the Arab-Israeli Conflict, rev. ed. (Chevy Chase, Md.: American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise, 2012), http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/myths3/MythsEnglish2012.pdf, 130–141; see generally Tom Segev, One Palestine, Complete: Jews and Arabs Under the British Mandate, trans. Haim Watzman (New York: Holt Paperbacks, 2000); Karsh, Palestine Betrayed, 5; Karsh, Palestine Betrayed, 122.

r. While Israel has compensated Palestinian victims of its admitted wrongdoing, Palestinians have never been willing to compensate Israeli victims of Palestinian terror.

s. According to local custom, Palestinian peasants often served as semi-feudal tenants for wealthy absentee Arab landlords. Many of the landlords legally sold their properties to Jews (at hefty prices) without informing their tenants. Walter Lowdermilk, Palestine: Land of Promise (London: Victor Gollancz Ltd., 1944), 107–113; Peters, From Time Immemorial, 161–171.

t. In addition to Jewish refugees, around the world throughout the twentieth century, many millions of war refugees relocated to other countries and resumed normal lives. Daniel Pipes, “The Refugee Curse,” Daniel Pipes Middle East Forum, August 19, 2003, http://www.danielpipes.org/1206/unrwa-the-refugee-curse.

u. Complete disclosure about the refugee crisis may never be had. On both sides, human memories have faded into diametrically opposite positions. Some government documents, relevant to critical issues, could stay classified for decades to come. Meanwhile, the historical data supports the narrative presented in this chapter. See generally Peters, From Time Immemorial; Karsh, Palestine Betrayed; Benjamin Netanyahu, A Durable Peace (New York: Warner Books, 2000);Segev, One Palestine, Complete. Contrary narratives by historical revisionists such as Noam Chomsky have been refuted and discredited.

v. See for example Peters, Immemorial, 395.

w. See for example Shipler, Arab and Jew, 52–60.

x. The pan-Arab plan, had they won the war, was to divide up Israel for themselves, leaving nothing for a sovereign Palestinian state. Palestinians were not regarded by other Arabs as a people group needing their own country. British Mandate authorities, expecting the Jews to lose the war, had predicted Syria, Jordan and Egypt would simply stake out their separate portions of Israel. Efraim Karsh, “What Occupation?” Commentary, July–August, 2002, as reprinted in http://www.aish.com/jw/me/48898917.html.

           Many Palestinians fled to Lebanon, Jordan, Syria and other Middle East nations. But in 1959 the Arab League decided that no Arab state would grant them citizenship, despite a common culture, history, religion and language. Palestinians living in refugee camps outside Israel’s disputed territories are treated as second, if not third class, human beings.

y. A 1957 Arab summit in Syria reached a conclusion about the refugees that has never been revoked and remains in force today: “Any discussion aimed at a solution of the Palestinian problem which will not be based on ensuring the refugees’ right to annihilate Israel will be regarded as a desecration to the Arab people and an act of treason.” Beirut al Massa, July 15, 1957.

z. As of 2013, cumulative Arab financial support toward the refugee problem amounted to a small fraction of UNRWA’s budget. Instead, the US, EU and Israel covered much of the bill. In 2010, despite a severe recession, America donated over $228 million to UNRWA’s annual budget of over $1 billion. By 2012, Americans had funneled the equivalent of 4.4 billion tax dollars to UNRWA. Bard, Myths and Facts, referencing UN General Assembly, Executive Committee of the High Commissioner’s Programme, September 17, 2009, http://www.unhcr.org/4abc7cc19.html; Donna Cassata, “Defining a Palestinian Refugee,” Associated Press, May 31, 2012, http://bigstory.ap.org/content/defining-palestinian-refugees-us-complication.

           According to a speech given at the University of Helsinki, Finland, in 2013 by Israeli attorney Calev Myers, the PA presently receives over 1 billion dollars per year from Western nations, with Mahmoud Abbas’ estimated personal net worth at $1.3 billion. His predecessor Yasser Arafat, Myers stated, was worth 1.7 billion dollars at his death. While Abbas reportedly receives a salary of over $1 million per month, much of the rest of the money Palestinians receive is used to payroll PA leaders, “stockpile weapons, build the biggest police force per capita of any nation in the world, support education which diametrically opposes Western principles and values, and supports racism anti-Semitism and hatred.” (Speech by Calev Myers of the Jerusalem Institute of Justice, “Palestinians Deserve Justice,” Maoz Ministries Monthly Report, September 2013, http://www.maozisrael.org/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=9990). See also Jerusalem Institute of Justice, "Hidden Injustices: A Review of PA and Hamas Human Rights Violations in the West Bank and Gaza," JIJ Report, November 2012, http://jij.org.il/phrw/assets/report.pdf and Jerusalem Institute of Justice, "Forever Refugees? A Human Rights Based Approach to the Perpetuated Palestinian Refugee Crisis," JIJ Report, March 2013, http://jij.org.il/phrw/assets/forever_refugees_april_2013.pdf; Itamar Eichner, "PA Bid: Israel Threatens to Topple Abbas," Ynetnews.com, November 14, 2012, http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4305124,00.html.

aa. In 2013, intent to annihilate Israel could be evidenced on most official Palestinian websites, blogs or other Internet pages—in Arabic but not other languages—in maps of a Palestine that encompassed all of Israel (http://www.nad-plo.org/); http://www.palestinecabinet.gov.ps/default.aspx?Lang=ar;, http://www.palestine-pmc.com/; http://www.fateh.ps/; http://www.hamasinfo.net/ar/#&slider1=1; Efraim Shore, “15 Things I Don’t Understand About the Mideast Peace Process,” September 14, 2003, http://www.aish.com/jw/me/48901137.html. See also Elhanan Miller, “Monument with ‘Palestine’ Replacing Israel Was Hidden from Obama,” Times of Israel, March 25, 2013, http://www.timesofisrael.com/monument-with-palestine-replacing-israe-hidden-from-obama/; “Ongoing Statements by Hamas Officials in Praise of Jihad to Liberate Palestine from the River to the Sea,” MEMRI, March 20, 2013, http://www.memri.org/report/en/0/0/0/0/0/0/7091.htm.

bb. Empirical studies on global ethnic-religious conflict indicate that a return to pre-1967 borders would likely lead to greater fighting and casualties. Uri Resnick, “The Empirical Case for Defensible Borders,” Jerusalem Post, September 6, 2011.

cc. When the PLO renounced its use of terror against innocent Israeli civilians, Israel agreed to negotiate with it—and the PLO with Israel. The Palestinians were no longer dependent on another Arab state to negotiate on their behalf.

dd. The Intifada had been preplanned—while the negotiations were still in process in the US. It claimed the lives of many hundreds of innocent Israeli civilians, maiming and permanently disabling several hundreds more.

ee. Former Palestinian militant Mosab Hassan Yousef writes that “Arafat had been handed the keys to peace in the Middle East along with real nationhood for the Palestinian people—and he had thrown them away.” Mosab Hassan Yousef, Son of Hamas (Carol Stream, Ill.: Saltwater Publishers, 2011), 127.

ff. In connection with the Oslo Accords, PA negotiator Yasser Arafat declared: “Peace for us means the destruction of Israel. We are preparing for an all-out war, a war which will last for generations. . . . We shall not rest until the day when we return to our home, and until we destroy Israel.” Yasser Arafat, as quoted in El Mundo, Caracas, Venezuela, February 11, 1980, cited in Leonard J. Davis, Near East Reports’ Myths and Facts (Washington, D.C.: Near East Research, 1985), 201–02.

Libyan President Qaddafi succinctly stated the pan-Arab position: “The battle with Israel must be such that, after it, Israel will not exist.” (“The ‘Palestinians,’” Studies in the Word of God, http://www.studiesintheword.org/palestinians.htm.)

gg. HonestReporting.com, “Hudna with Hamas,” June 23, 2003, http://honestreporting.com/hudna-with-hamas/; Jewish Virtual Library, “Hamas/Islamic Jihad Declare ‘Cease-Fire,’” June 29, 2003, http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Peace/ceasefire062903.html.

hh. Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, “Behind the Headlines: Palestinian Preconditions for Peace Talks,” September 27, 2010,  http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/About+the+Ministry/Behind+the+Headlines/BTH_Palestinian_Preconditions_27-Sep-2010; “Abbas Urges Israel to Prolong Settlement Moratorium,” France 24 News, September 29, 2010, http://www.france24.com/en/20100928-abbas-urges-israel-prolong-settlement-moratorium-palestinians-conflict-peace-talks. Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, who negotiated with Yasser Arafat in 2000 at Camp David, concluded: “What they want is a Palestinian state in all of [Israel]. . . . They are products of a culture in which to tell a lie . . . creates no dissonance. They don’t suffer from the problem of telling lies that exists in Judeo-Christian culture. Truth is seen as an irrelevant category. There is only that which serves your purpose and that which doesn’t. They see themselves as emissaries of a national movement for which everything is permissible.” As quoted in Benny Morris, “Camp David and After: An Exchange (Interview with Ehud Barak),” New York Review of Books 49, no. 10, June 13, 2002, http://www.nybooks.com/articles/15501.

ii. The idea of preconditions to peace talks was initiated by US President Obama and included (1) Israel’s halting of settlement construction in the West Bank; (2) Israel’s returning to pre-1967 (aka 1949) borders; and (3) Israel’s division of Jerusalem into a capital city for both a Jewish and Palestinian state. Obama did not set preconditions for the Palestinians.

jj. Dan Calic, “Abbas Is No Moderate,” YnetNews.com, February 16, 2012, http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4190662,00.html; Associated Press, “Report: Abbas Reiterates Refusal to Recognize Israel as ‘Jewish State,’” Haaretz, December 1, 2007, http://www.haaretz.com/news/report-abbas-reiterates-refusal-to-recognize-israel-as-jewish-state-1.234351.

kk. Palestinian leader Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas announced that Palestinians may work for the “interim objective of liberating Gaza, the West Bank, or Jerusalem,” but this “interim objective” and “reconciliation” will not change Hamas’ long-term goal of eliminating all of Israel. Ismail Haniyeh, “Goal Is Destruction of Israel in Stages,” December 27, 2011, http://www.palwatch.org/main.aspx?fi=157&doc_id=6024#.TvxgAszxDgg.email. Hamas reaffirmed its long-term goal to the international press in late 2012. “No Compromise with Israel on Anything, Ever,” November 12, 2012, http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/161971#.UKKVsq4rysU.

ll. There is no precedent in international law for conferring a right of return on a people group with circumstances comparable to those of the Palestinians. See for example Ruth Gavison, Yaffa Zilbershats, and Nimra Foren-Amitai, “Return of Palestinian Refugees to the State of Israel,” position paper for the Metzilah Center, Jerusalem, July 2011, http://israelkompetenzkollektion.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/metzilah-paper-on-refugees-eng.pdf.

mm. For many years, Palestinians have branded Israeli settlements “illegal,” much as they have branded Israel itself the “illegal Zionist entity.” But West Bank Jewish communities are not illegal under customary international law---and are certainly no more “illegal” than the unauthorized communities Palestinians have themselves built in the West Bank.

           According to the highly acclaimed Lawfare Project Press Release of July 19, 2013, various international bodies "consistently ignore authoritative sources, including the 1958 official commentary by the International Committee of the Red Cross, as well as the published opinions of prominent jurists, which explain that Article 49 of the Geneva Convention addresses military situations irrelevant to Israeli settlements in Judea and Samaria [the West Bank]." The Press Release notes the legality of such settlements stems from the historic, indigenous and lawful rights of the Jewish people to live in the area, as granted in valid and binding international agreements, including the 1922 San Remo Resolution unanimously adopted by the League of Nations, in Judea and Samaria (including Jerusalem). This was subsequently affirmed in the League of Nations Mandate Instrument and Article 80 of the UN Charter.

           On the legality of Israeli settlements, see also Mitchell G. Bard, “The Settlements,” Myths and Facts Online, Jewish Virtual Library, accessed April 30, 2013, http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/myths3/MFsettlements.html; “Understanding the Settlements,” The David Project, http://www.davidproject.org/wp-content/uploads/Settlements-Primer-and-Discussion-Guide-Final-Version.pdf; Eugene W. Rostow, “Resolved: Are the Settlements Legal?” The New Republic, October 21, 2001, http://www.tzemachdovid.org/Facts/islegal1.shtml; “The Debate About Israeli Settlements,” CAMERA, June 13, 2007, http://www.camera.org/index.asp?x_context=7&x_issue=10&x_article=1331. See also note oo, below.

nn. For a summary on the status of Israeli settlements under international law, see David M. Phillips, “The Illegal-Settlements Myth,” Commentary, December 2009, http://www.commentarymagazine.com/article/the-illegal-settlements-myth/#. See also references in previous note.

oo. Alan Baker, “Israel’s Rights Regarding Territories and the Settlements in the Eyes of the International Community,” in Alan Baker, ed., Israel’s Rights as a Nation-State in International Diplomacy (Jerusalem: Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs and World Jewish Congress, 2011), 65–74. As explained by attorney Howard Grief, under Article 2 (7) of the UN Charter, the UN has no authority to intervene in matters which are essentially within the domestic jurisdiction of any state. Judea and Samaria are ancient territories historically belonging to the Jewish people ever since the conquest of Canaan. In the modern period, these territories never belonged to any Arab state under international law; rather, they were officially included in the Jewish National Home. Grief contended that Judea and Samaria were illegally designated by the UN General Assembly in 1947 for inclusion in a proposed Arab state. But that state never came into existence. Rather, these territories were illegally occupied by Jordan for nineteen years until restored to Israel in the 1967 Six Day War. At that time, instead of incorporating these historical regions of the Jewish National Home into the state of Israel as the Israeli government had the right to do, Israel generously applied the laws of war instead, particularly Hague Regulations Articles 42–43, as well as the Fourth Geneva Convention, on the advice of its military advocate-general. According to Grief, this gave the world—including many in Israel itself—the impression that Judea, Samaria and Gaza were occupied territories belonging to a foreign sovereign. Had the Israeli government acted otherwise, there would have been no question that the liberated Jewish lands were subject to Israel’s domestic jurisdiction, and outside the authority of the UN.

           Those who argue settlements are illegal usually claim they violate provisions of the Fourth Geneva Convention or Hague Regulations.  For such an argument to be sustained, the provisions of both Geneva and Hague must be taken extremely out of context, then contorted almost beyond recognition to apply to circumstances for which they were clearly never intended. Top legal scholars opine that to use these provisions against Israeli settlements is “an irony bordering on the absurd.” Quote attributed to Julius Stone in Phillips, “Illegal-Settlements Myths,” Commentary. Under customary international law, the territories would be classified as “disputed,” but not illegal.

           The following analysis is derived from Eli E. Hertz, Israpundit Blog, Feb 4 2013, http://www.israpundit.com/archives/52693;

           Critics and enemies of the Jewish state, including members of the UN and bodies such as the International Court of Justice (ICJ) have come to use the Fourth Geneva Convention as a weapon against Israel, even though authoritative analysts, scholars and drafters of the document confirm it was never intended to apply to a situation like the West Bank or Gaza. It is claimed that Israel violates Article 49 (and occasionally, Article 2) of the Geneva Convention.

           The term “occupied territory” as used in the Fourth Geneva Convention originated to describe the Nazi’s genocidal conquest and occupation of Europe. Arabs claim that Israel violates the last paragraph of Article 49, which states an “Occupying power” may not “deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies.”

           In the Nazi occupation, Jews were forcibly displaced and sent to death camps, while Nazis required foreign civilians to involuntarily relocate to conquered lands in order to “occupy them”. Though it is has become common to describe the West Bank and Gaza as “occupied territories,” there is no legal basis for using this term in connection with the Arab-Israeli conflict.

           Renowned Professor Julius Stone rejected use of the term “occupied territory” to describe so-called Palestinian lands for the following reasons:

           (1) Article 49 relates to the invasion of sovereign states and is inapplicable because the West Bank did not and does not belong to any other state.

           (2) As with any law, the intent of Article 49 (Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War) that is, preventing “genocidal objectives,” must be taken into account. Those conditions do not exist in Israel’s case, which has never aimed at Palestinian genocide.

           (3) Settlement of Jews in the West Bank is voluntary and has never been forced upon Israeli civilians by the government. Nor does it displace those who qualify as local inhabitants. Stone pointed out that not only has the Palestinian population not lessened since Israel’s lawful administration, but there has been “a dramatic improvement in the economic situation of the [local Palestinian] inhabitants since 1967.”

           Regarding Article 2 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, this passage applies solely to conflicts that “arise between two or more high Contracting Parties,” which was never the case between Israel and Jordan (or any other Arab state) in the West Bank. Back in 1968, international legal expert Sir Professor Elihu Lauterpacht wrote: “Jordan’s occupation of the Old City, and indeed of the whole of the area west of the Jordan river, entirely lacked legal justification; and being defective in this way could not form any basis for Jordan validly to fill the sovereignty vacuum in the Old City [and whole of the area west of the Jordan River].”

           Professor Eugene Rostow, past Dean of Yale Law School, U.S. Under-Secretary of State for Political Affairs, and a key draftee of UN Resolution 242, concluded that the Fourth Geneva Convention is not applicable to Israel’s legal position:

           “The opposition to Jewish settlements in the West Bank also relied on a legal argument – that such settlements violated the Fourth Geneva Convention forbidding the occupying power from transferring its own citizens into the occupied territories. How that Convention could apply to Jews who already had a legal right, protected by Article 80 of the United Nations Charter, to live in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip, was never explained.”

pp. Some Palestinians have said they privately owned certain lands on which settlements were built, but could not produce legal or judicially recognizable title to the land.

qq. Adiv Sterman, “Two-Thirds of Israelis Support Peace with Palestinians,” Times of Israel, December 31, 2012, http://www.timesofisrael.com/two-thirds-of-israelis-support-peace-with-palestinians-that-ensures-security-polls-find/. During the Second Intifada, polls reported that 80 percent of Palestinians, as well as their leaders, viewed their conflict with Israel as a battle over the existence of the Jewish state. Rabbi Shalom Schwartz, “To Live as Jews,” December 30, 2002, http://www.aish.com/jewishissues/israeldiary/To_Live_As_Jews.asp. Poll of June 2003 by Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, a Washington, DC, independent polling center.

           A full seventy percent of Palestinians approved of terrorists killing Jewish women and children. http://pewresearch.org/pubs/1997/international-poll-arab-spring-us-obama-image-muslim-public; Jerusalem Media & Communication Centre, Public Opinion Poll No. 48, April 2003, http://www.jmcc.org/documentsandmaps.aspx?id=451; Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, June 2003 poll. See also Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research, Public Opinion Poll No. 44, http://www.pcpsr.org/survey/polls/2012/p44efull.html.)

           Right before Israel built its security wall, 51 percent of PA residents insisted a future Palestinian state occupy allof Israel proper. Daniel Pipes, “What to Do About Palestinian Aspirations,” Jerusalem Post, February 19, 2003, 7.

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Chapter 11: Israeli Injustice?

a. See for example Jewish Virtual Library, “Israel’s Security Fence,” Fact Sheet #24, updated July 8, 2010, http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/talking/24_fence.html.

b. Hamas’ deployment and use of war weaponry in these locations violates the Geneva Convention and other international agreements.

c. Hassan Shalan, “Arab MK’s Observed Moment of Silence for Gaza Martyrs,” YnetNews.com, November 17, 2012, http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4307259,00.html; Palestinian Media Watch, “Parents Celebrate Children’s Death,” n.d., http://palwatch.org/main.aspx?fi=479; Palestinian Media Watch, “Success of Shahada Promotion,” n.d., http://www.palwatch.org/main.aspx?fi=415.

d. In the 2012 Gaza war, 60 percent of Palestinians killed were ultimately identified as known terrorist militants. Several more casualties were caused by Palestinian rockets that backfired into civilian populations. Only a small percentage was killed by Israeli fire. Israeli Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center Report, December 16, 2012, http://www.terrorism-info.org.il/Data/articles/Art_20444/H_253_12_928839649.pdf, referenced in “60 Percent of Palestinian Casualties in Recent Gaza Fighting Were Terrorists,” Daily Alert, December 25, 2012, http://www.dailyalert.org/rss/tagpage.php?id=39226; “Gazan Rockets Hit Palestinian Civilians,” Jerusalem Post, November 17, 2012, http://www.jpost.com/Headlines/Article.aspx?id=292280. See also Simon Plosker, “UN Exonerated Israel in Gaza Child’s Death—Media Ignores,” Honest Reporting, March 10, 2013, http://www.honestreporting.com/gaza-child-death-israel-exonerated-by-un-media-ignores/; Ivan Kenneally, “In Defense of Disproportion,” International Jerusalem Post, 22, December 14–20, 2012.

e. Simon Wiesenthal Center, “UN NGO Document Is a Call for Dismantling Israel,” Wiesenthal Press Information, September 1, 2001, http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Support_Israel/message/2791; Michael J. Jordan, “Jewish Delegates to U.N. Forum Decry Anti-Semitism,” JTA, September 3, 2001, http://www.jta.org/news/article/2001/09/03/8133/Jewishdelegatesto.

f. See Norman Franklin, “Arguing the BDS Campaign,” interview given at Imperial College, London, February 9, 2012, http://www.vimeo.com/36854424. Palestinian journalist Ray Hanania writes, “The Israeli reality for Palestinians is far less oppressive than anything black South Africans experienced.” Ray Hanania, “Celebrating Freedom Together,” http://www.creators.com/opinion/ray-hanania/celebrating-freedom-together.html.

g. No universally accepted definition of apartheid exists. The International Criminal Court (ICC), with about two dozen member states, uses a definition which the US, China, Russia, India and other nations reject and find much too broad because it can apply to most military conflicts. Evidence suggests the ICC adopted its definition specifically in hopes of applying it to Israel. The ICC defines apartheid as inhumane acts similar to crimes against humanity, committed in the context of an institutionalized regime of systematic oppression and domination by one racial group or groups with the intention of maintaining that regime. But even this broad definition does not accurately depict Israeli treatment of Arabs, Palestinians or any other non-Jewish minority.

h. See http://apartheidweek.org/.

i. Campus Israeli Apartheid Week programs are often sponsored by local chapters of the Muslim Students Association or Students for Justice in Palestine, organizations linked to the Muslim Brotherhood and funded by Middle East Islamists. “Muslim Students Association: The Mother Ship of Muslim Brotherhood Front Groups,” March 22, 2011, Jihad Watch, http://www.jihadwatch.org/2011/03/muslim-students-association-the-mother-ship-of-all-the-muslim-brotherhood-front-groups.html; “Muslim Student Group a Gateway to Jihad?” CBN, August 29, 2011, http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/us/2011/march/muslim-student-group-a-gateway-to-jihad/; “PBS Targets Dangerous Muslim Brotherhood,” World Net Daily, November 16, 2006, http://www.wnd.com/2006/11/38876/; Ryan Mauro, "Muslim Brotherhood Inside American Colleges," The Clarion Project, May 16, 2013, http://www.clarionproject.org/analysis/mb-front-succeeds-partnering-us-universities/?utm_source=RadicalIslam.org&utm_campaign=bedcb0c1df-issue_915_16_2013&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_01be8b04e3-bedcb0c1df-2899293#fm.

j. Dershowitz recounts a disturbing incident he witnessed while addressing students at the respected University of California. He asked the pro-Israel group in the audience how many of them would accept a Palestinian state living in peace alongside Israel. Everyone raised his or her hand. He next asked how many students were pro-Palestinian. A similar number raised their hands. But when he asked how many pro-Palestinian students would accept Israel as a Jewish state living in peace alongside Palestine, not one hand went up. Dershowitz views this response as a microcosm of world opinion. Alan Dershowitz, The Case Against Israel’s Enemies: Exposing Jimmy Carter and Others Who Stand in the Way of Peace. (Hoboken, N.J.: John Wiley and Sons, 2008), 15–17. In other incidents, distinguished pro-Israel speakers have been shouted down on campuses and prevented from speaking.

k. A national law of return grants a right to ethnic members of a historically recognized and sovereign nation-state to return to their national homeland and obtain citizenship there.

l. Alan Dershowitz, The Case for Israel (Hoboken, N.J.: John Wiley and Sons, 2003), 156.

m. NGO Monitor, “NGO Apartheid State Campaign,” March 22, 2010, http://www.ngo-monitor.org/article/ngo_apartheid_state_campaign_deliberately_immoral_or_intellectually_lazy_.

n. Another such ideology is globalism. Taken to its logical end, globalism teaches that nationalism causes war; war is evil; therefore, nationalism is evil. But this is a false syllogism. It is the perversion of nationalism (for example, imperialism) that leads to war. Globalism advocates that strong nations should be weakened solely on account of their strength. Weaker nations—evil or not—should be strengthened. At this writing, Israel is viewed as stronger than the Palestinian people; therefore, she is regarded by many globalists as the necessary perpetuator of the conflict.

o. See for example Lawrence Rifkin, “An Officer, but No Gentleman,” International Jerusalem Post, May 4–10, 2012.

p. See Israel Defense Forces, “Reality Check: The Truth Behind Crossings in Judea and Samaria,” IDF Blog, May 6, 2013, www.idfblog.com/2013/05/06/reality-check-the-truth-behind-crossings-in-judea-and-samaria/.

           Checkpoints and crossings have been closed or streamlined in many locations in recent years but congestion and difficulties still exist. Large numbers of Palestinians prefer working in Israel everyday rather than inside the PA. Palestinians claim jobs are scarce in the West Bank and pay is low; Israelis counter that any job scarcity results from gross mismanagement of the enormous funds received by the PA.

q. Ilan Evyatar, “The Watchman,” Jerusalem Post Magazine, February 25, 2011, 14–17.

r. Tovah Lazaroff, “Clinton: UNHRC Bias against Israel Undermines Its Work,” Jerusalem Post, March 1, 2011. As far back as 2003, the UN Human Rights Commission passed a resolution affirming Palestinian-armed struggle as a legitimate means of resistance. The resolution was carefully crafted so as to implicitly condone terror—if the target happens to be Israel. UN Commission on Human Rights Resolution 2003/6, entitled “Question of the Violation of Human Rights in the Occupied Arab Territories”; see also Melissa Radler, “Rights and Wrongs,” International Jerusalem Post, June 27, 2003.

s. Raphael Ahren, “UN Panel for First Time, Backs Boycott of Settlement Products,” Times of Israel, January 31, 2013, http://www.timesofisrael.com/un-mission-encourages-boycott-of-west-bank-products/. The BDS recommendation refers to West Bank companies.

t. In late 2012, Human Rights Watch issued a groundbreaking report that condemned the use of Palestinian terror against Israel. “Gaza: Palestinian Rockets Unlawfully Targeted Israeli Civilians,” December 24, 2012, http://www.hrw.org/news/2012/12/24/gaza-palestinian-rockets-unlawfully-targeted-israeli-civilians.

u. According to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the cornerstone document of the international human rights movement, “Everyone has the right to life, liberty and the security of person.” In addition, “Everyone has the right to a nationality.” Universal Declaration of Human Rights, http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/.

v. Many Israelis feel the world is pressuring them to relinquish land for a hollow promise of peace, much like it pressured Czechoslovakia in World War II to give up land for a similar promise by Hitler. When the land was turned over to him, Hitler was emboldened—not appeased.

w. David Shamah, “Israel Fights off 1,000 Cyberattack Hits a Minute,” Times of Israel, September 6, 2012, http://www.timesofisrael.com/israel-fights-off-1000-cyber-attack-hits-a-minute/.

x. To disagree with the underlying tenets, or theoretical basis, of Zionism is intrinsically anti-Jewish; to oppose certain policy expressions of Zionism is not necessarily anti-Jewish. To much of the world the word Zionism connotes intrinsic evil, oppression, racism and abuse. Accordingly, most Arab nations do not refer to the Jewish state as “Israel” but as the “Zionist entity” or “Zionist regime.”

y. The US Department of State defines anti-Semitism at http://www.state.gov/j/drl/rls/fs/2010/122352.htm, providing these contemporary examples:

•    Calling for, aiding, or justifying the killing or harming of Jews (often in the name of a radical ideology or an extremist view of religion).

•    Making mendacious, dehumanizing, demonizing or stereotypical allegations about Jews as such or the power of Jews as a collective—especially but not exclusively the myth about a world Jewish conspiracy or of Jews controlling the media, economy, government or other societal institutions.

•    Accusing Jews as a people of being responsible for real or imagined wrongdoing committed by a single Jewish person or group, the state of Israel or even for acts committed by non-Jews.

•    Accusing the Jews as a people, or Israel as a state, of inventing or exaggerating the Holocaust.

•    Accusing Jewish citizens of being more loyal to Israel, or to the alleged priorities of Jews worldwide, than to the interest of their own nations.

Examples of the ways in which anti-Semitism manifests itself with regard to the state of Israel, taking into account the overall context, could include these acts:

Demonizing Israel:

•    Using the symbols and images associated with classic anti-Semitism to characterize Israel or Israelis

•    Drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis

•    Blaming Israel for all inter-religious or political tensions

Double Standard Applied to Israel:

•    Applying double standards by requiring of it a behavior not expected or demanded of any other democratic nation

•    Multilateral organizations focusing on Israel only for peace or human rights investigations

Delegitimizing Israel:

•    Denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination, and denying Israel the right to exist

The European Union also has a quasi-official definition of anti-Semitism, which includes the rejection or delegitimization of Israel. http://fra.europa.eu/sites/default/files/fra_uploads/2215-FRA-2012-Antisemitism-update-2011_EN.pdf.

z. Dershowitz, Case Against Israel’s Enemies, 100–104. The most influential of these, according to Dershowitz, was probably former Hebrew University Professor Israel Shahak, who felt that as a Jew, an Israeli and a Holocaust survivor, his views should be given great credence. He penned diatribes against the Jewish nation, castigating it for an array of evils, blaming it for the Holocaust and more. He accused the Jews of worshiping Satan, charging that Judaism believes all non-Jews are satanic creatures.

aa. See for example Phillips, World Turned; Martin Sherman, “Comprehending the Incomprehensible—Part I,” Jerusalem Post, January13, 2012. In 2013, left-wing Israelis produced two internationally acclaimed movies revealing partial-truths which some perceived as strongly anti-Israel. See David Suissa, “Gatekeepers or Gate Crashers?” The Jewish Journal, January 30, 2013, http://www.standwithus.com/app/ineews/view_n.asp?ID=2569.

bb. Wistrich, Lethal Obession, 516-22, 531-41; Martin Sherman, “By Thy Own Hand,” Jerusalem Post, January 25, 2011; Daniel Gordis, “Peter Beinart’s Mis-Identity Crisis,” International Jerusalem Post (April 27–May 3, 2012), criticizing Peter Beinart, The Crisis of Zionism (New York: Times Books, 2012). According to some, Jeremy Ben-Ami, A New Voice for Israel: Fighting for the Survival of the Jewish Nation (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011), exemplifies a subtler form of Jewish anti-Semitism. The term “self-hating Jew” is sometimes used to describe Jewish people obsessed with defaming Israel and Judaism. It is purportedly based on a psychological condition in which one is said to project upon others all those traits he or she dislikes about himself or herself.

cc. According to Benny Morris: “The Palestinian political elite—both of the Fatah persuasion, which controls the PA, and Hamas, the Islamist party that has ruled the Gaza Strip since 2007—has no intention of ever accepting Israel’s legitimacy or a two-state [solution]. . . . Hamas has always been clear . . . that no Arab leader has the right to concede even one inch of Palestine’s sacred land to the Jews. Fatah has played a more cagey game, but its historical record is no less clear to those willing to look at the facts.” Benny Morris, “Talks Will Go Nowhere,” The Daily Beast, April 10, 2012, http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/04/10/talks-will-go-nowhere.html.

dd. A poignant, personal story of a former anti-Israeli, pro-Palestinian advocate who now strongly supports the Jewish state is that of secular Irish filmmaker Nicky Larkin. Deborah Danan, “The Irish Zionist,” Jerusalem Post, February 7, 2013, http://www.jpost.com/Magazine/Features/Article.aspx?id=302461.

ee. Only an extremist fringe of Israelis are not willing to compromise to achieve genuine peace. Sadly, extremists are not infrequently misrepresented as the mainstream, even by some evangelical Christian groups.

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Chapter 12: Countering Christian Zionism: Christian Palestinianism

a. See for example “Breaking the Palestinian Silence,” Anglican Friends of Israel, October 18, 2012, http://archbishop-cranmer.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/breaking-palestinian-silence.html; Calvin. L. Smith, “Faith and Politics in the Holy Land Today,” in Calvin L. Smith, ed., The Jews, Modern Israel and the New Supersessionism (Lampeter, UK: King’s Divinity Press, 2009), 123–26; “Media Ignores Attack on Bethlehem Church,” Snapshots, January 11, 2011, http://blog.camera.org/archives/2011/01/media_ignore_attacks_on_bethle.html; Brian Schrauger, “Bethlehem’s Christmas War on Jesus,” Hope for Today, December 2012, http://www.davidhocking.org/blog/?p=3513.

b. As cited in “Trouble in the Holy Land: Arab Christian Clergymen Call Jews ‘Satanic,’” World Net Daily, May 1, 2002, http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=27454.

c. Harold O. J. Brown, “What Is Liberation Theology? A Hermeneutical Battlefield,” in Robert Nash, ed., Liberation Theology (Milford, Mich.: Mott Media, 1984), 9–10.

d. See for example Rana Elfar, “Dealing with the Scriptural Past,” in Lisa Loden, Peter Walker, and Michael Wood, ed., The Bible and the Land: An Encounter (Jerusalem: Musalaha, 2000), 95–98; Naim Stifan Ateek and Rosemary Radford Ruether, Justice and Only Justice: A Palestinian Theology of Liberation (Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis Books, 1990); “PA Conference Denounces Christian Zionists,” Israel National News, July 4, 2003, quoting the Palestinian daily al-Hayat al-Jadida, July 2, 2003, http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/46085.

e. The phrase “Christian Palestinianism” is attributed to Paul R. Wilkinson, For Zion’s Sake: Christian Zionism and the Role of John Nelson Darby (Milton Keynes, UK: Paternoster, 2001).

f. Naim Ateek, “The Earth Is the Lord’s,” in Munayer and Loden, Land Cries, 175–76. Divergent theologies based on varying hermeneutical grids contribute to Palestinian fulfillment theology. Based on hermeneutics that wrongly spiritualize the straightforward meaning of scriptural text, Galatians 3:16 is among those verses viewed as foundational to Palestinian fulfillment theology: "Now to Abraham and his Seed were the promises made. He does not say, 'And to seeds,' as of many, but as of one, 'And to your Seed,' who is Christ." Some interpret this verse to mean that all God's promises, including the land promise, made to Abraham are now completely fulfilled in Messiah and therefore completely available to every believer of Messiah in a manner that disinherits the original seed, the Jewish people, from those promises. But that is not what Paul is communicating in his letter to the Galatian church. In context, Paul is actually explaining the opposite: why the promises still pertain to Israel (see Galatians 3:17-18). He begins with verse 16, referring to the promises of Genesis 12:1-3 and 15:7-8, the Abrahamic covenant. The Hebrew word for "seed" used in Genesis 12:1-3 (and elsewhere, including Genesis 22:18) is zerah, which is a collective singular that can at times alternatively be used as a plural. (Examples of collective singular nouns in English are the words "deer" and "fish.") Unlike Hebrew, in Greek the singular and plural words for "seed" differ slightly. Paul intentionally uses those different Greek words to refer to different things. What he is actually saying in Galatians 3:16 is that Jesus, from the physical seed of Abraham, is the singular One (zerah) who fulfills the promise to Abraham and Abraham's collective progeny (zerah) that all nations would be blessed through his collective or group seed, meaning his collective descendants, Israel, referenced by the singular collective zerah. From the collective seed of Israel is One who enables the fulfillment to all nations of the promise made to Abraham. Future blessing to the nations by Israel is not ruled out; to the contrary, Paul teaches that Israel's future salvation will bless the nations greatly. So Paul is not disinheriting the Jewish people from their covenant promises. He repeatedly affirms their inheritance in Romans 9-11. Even Jews who do not follow Yeshua inherit the covenant by grace. Paul is, however, including believers from the nations as inheritors of the promises. In so doing, he merely points out how the divinely inspired use of zerah in the Hebrew Scriptures indicates a Singular One would serve to fulfill the promises of salvation intended for many. See Walter C. Kasier, Jr., The Messiah in the Old Testament (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1995), 48-49.

g. Preterism regards these prophetic fulfillments as having occurred either by AD 70, with Rome’s destruction of Jerusalem, or with the fall of Rome in the fifth century. These past events are seen by others as partial fulfillments of  prophecies that will occur in the future.

h. A Western evangelical scholar who has supported and influenced Christian Palestinianism teaches this about the book of Joshua: “Is it conceivable that a God of love could actually have ordered the Israelites to engage in what we today would call ‘ethnic cleansing’? . . . One way of resolving the problem is to see these stories simply as a Jewish interpretation of their history. . . . They wrote their history in such a way as to justify their ideas about their special status and their superiority over other people.” Colin Chapman, Whose Promised Land? The Continuing Crisis Over Israel and Palestine (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2002), 120.

i. Thomas Ice, “Christian Palestinianism,” The Berean Call, quoting Bat Ye’or, August 6, 2009, http://www.thebereancall.org/content/christian-palestinians; Yohanna Katanacho, “Jerusalem Is the City of God,” in Munayer and Loden, Land Cries, 195n56. An evangelical Christian Palestinian book reflecting a high degree of sympathy for and identification with Islam is Mitri Raheb, I Am a Palestinian Christian (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1995).

j. Concerning the spread of this phenomenon to the West, see Stefanie Shartel, “Chrislam Rising,” Charisma News, November 22, 2011, http://www.charismanews.com/world/32349-chrislam-rising.

k. See for example Bat Ye’or, “Christian Anti-Zionism and Dhimmitude,” http://www.dhimmitude.org/d_today_christian_antizionism.html; Yossi Shain, “Mideast Christians Persecuted,” YnetNews.com, January 3, 2013, http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4327950,00.html.

l. Rachel Hirshfield, “Gaza Christians Protest Forced Conversions,” Israel National News, July 17, 2012. http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/157935#.UO-UxWeL5XY; Deann Alford, “Christian Bookstore Manager Martyred in Gaza City,” Christianity Today, October 8, 2007, http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2007/octoberweb-only/141-12.0.html?start=2; Julie Stahl, “Gaza Christians Face Hamas Threats,” CBN News, January 1, 2010, http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/insideisrael/2009/December/Rights-Group-Hamas-Desecrated-Christian-Graves-/; “West Bank and Gaza,” Persecution.org, http://www.persecution.org/category/countries/middle-east/west-bank-and-gaza/.

m. Protected foreigners (gerim) were required to worship as Jews, observing the Sabbath and Day of Atonement (see Exodus 20:10; 23:12; Leviticus 16:29; Deuteronomy 5:14), and follow many of the biblical laws.

n. See generally, for example, Paul Alexander, ed., Christ at the Checkpoint: Theology in the Service of Justice and Peace (Eugene, Ore.: Pickwick Publications, 2012).

o. In Christ at the Checkpoint, Alexander urges Palestinian believers to compile emotional, personal stories of oppression, rather than facts or the Scriptures, in order to dissuade charismatics and Pentecostals from standing with Israel. He implies these groups are not intellectually inclined and easily influenced by emotionalism. See also "Palestinian Christians React," https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYWCpOHiNjk; and "Palestinian Christian Challenges," https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PdM90ZLzi98&t=274s, in which Palestinian Christians refer to Israel as their enemy and to the Bible as a weapon of oppression when it is used by Christians to support Israel's covenant restoration to her land. Note that blame is placed entirely on Israel, not on Islamic terror or the Palestinian agenda to annihilate Israel.

p. Leading Western theologians for Christ at the Checkpoint have included Vicar Dr. Steven R. Sizer, Dr. Colin Chapman, and Dr. Gary M. Burge. Western activists and clergy have included Lynn Hybels, Tony Campolo, Porter Speakman Jr., and Ben White. Ben White has stated, “I do not consider myself an anti-Semite, yet I can also understand why some are” because of Israel’s “ideology of racial supremacy and its subsequent crimes committed against the Palestinians” and “the widespread bias and subservience to the Israeli cause in the Western media.” Melanie Phillips, The World Turned Upside Down: The Global Battle Over God, Truth and Power (New York: Encounter Books, 2012), 376, quoting Ben White, “Is It Possible to Understand the Rise in Antisemitism?” Counterpunch, June 18, 2002. Jonathan Hoffman, “Lies, Damn Lies and the Apartheid Analogy,” Z Word, July 8, 2009, http://www.propagandistmag.com/2009/07/08/lies-damn-lies-and-apartheid-analogy, as referenced in Phillips, states that, “White’s book, Israeli Apartheid: A Beginner’s Guide, published in 2009, includes numerous distortions, omissions, errors and fabricated quotations in an attempt to portray Israel as an apartheid state.” See also "Christian Support for Palestinian Cause Ascendant," Israel Today, www.israeltoday.co.il/NewsItem/tabid/178/nid/24214/Default.aspx#; "The Pro-Palestinian campaign to Woo US Evangelicals", Israel National News, www.israelnationalnews.com/Articles/Article.aspx/14023#.Um93_ZRZ5ra.

q. A critique of the 2012 conference can be read at David Parsons, “Behind the 2012 ‘Christ at the Checkpoint’ Conference in Bethlehem,” International Christian Embassy Jerusalem, http://us.icej.org/news/press-statements/behind-christ-checkpoint-conference.

r. Abraham Cooper and Yitzchok Adlerstein, “Palestinians to Evangelicals: Zionism Is a Sin,” Jerusalem Post, November 15, 2011; see National Association of Evangelicals, http://www.nae.net/church-and-faith-partners/world-evangelical-alliance.

s. Most Messianic believers who attended Christ at the Checkpoint in 2012 said that while they felt the messages delivered were quite anti-Israel, they were warmly welcomed at the event. Some said they experienced meaningful dialogue with Christian Palestinian leaders. In Christ at the Checkpoint 2014, Messianic Jewish scholar Daniel Juster was invited to debate fulfillment theologian and pro-Palestinian spokesman Gary Burge. Meaningful discussion of several key issues took place. Prayerfully, dialogue of this nature will continue and understanding between Christian Palestinians and Messianic Jews will grow.

t. The International Christian Embassy of Jerusalem defines “Biblical Zionism” as the “truth of God’s Word that bequeaths to the Jewish people the land of Israel as an everlasting possession for the purpose of world redemption.” Malcom Hedding, Biblical Zionism Study Series: Discovering God’s Plan for Israel, the Church and the Nations (Murfreesboro, Tenn.: International Christian Embassy of Jerusalem, 2011), 101.

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Chapter 13: A Future and a Hope

a. It bears repeating that God is the ultimate owner of Israel’s land, as well as that of every nation.

b. See Deuteronomy 28:36–37, 63–64; Leviticus 26: 27, 33; 2 Kings 17:5–7, 22–23, 25:21; Jeremiah 25:8–11; Ezekiel 39:23.

c. See Leviticus 26:40–45; Jeremiah 31:27–28; Zechariah 2:6–7, 8:7; Daniel 4:17; Psalm 106:45–46; see also Numbers 23:8, 19–20; Jeremiah 32:42; Amos 9:9–15.

d. See for example Zechariah 14:3–12; Isaiah 2:1–4, 11:1–10; 33:20–24; 35:1–10; 51:3–6; 52:8–15; 54:11–14; 60:1–22; 62:1–7; 65:19–25; Psalm 2:6–9; Romans 11:26–27.

e. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., an ordained Christian minister and African-American civil rights leader, was assassinated in 1968. He is a Nobel Peace Prize laureate.

f. Some Bible scholars believe that references to the “mountains of Israel” or “ancient heights” pertain to Israel as a whole, rather than to any specific territory.

g. See Daniel 7:21–25; 8:9, 23–25; 9:26–27; 11:21–24, 30–33, 41, 45; 12:7; Jeremiah 30:4–7; Zechariah 13:8–9; 14:2; Revelation 12:13–17.

h. See Revelation 6:1–17; 8:2–9:21; 11:18–19; 16:1–21; 18:1–24; Isaiah 2:10–22; 24:1–23; 34:1–4. The fact the whole earth undergoes great tribulation mitigates the belief, held by some, that the day of the Lord and time of Jacob’s trouble already fully took place in the Nazi Holocaust.

i. See Isaiah 2:10–22; Matthew 24:22; Revelation 13:7–17; 14:8–12; 16:6, 13–14; 17:6; 18:1–19; Daniel 7:21–25; 8:23–25; 11:33–35, 41–44; 12:1.

j. See Zechariah 13:8–9; 14:2; Isaiah 11:11–16; Revelation 7:9–17; 11:3–6; 14:1–6; Matthew 24:14; Joel 2:28–32; Haggai 2:6–7; Romans 11:26.

k. See Jeremiah 30:8–9, 16–20, 31:7–15; Isaiah 27:12–13; 49: 5–26; 60:1–22; Matthew 25:31–40.

l. See Isaiah 65:22; Revelation 21:1–4.