Original inhabitants of the land once known as Palestine (Part II)

[Stefan]

Long before any Israelities set foot on any land near the Sea of Galilee, it was the Caananites who had inhabited the property that is called Israel and Palestine. In fact, Melchizedek, who was both a high priest and King of the city of Salem, likely ruled over the forerunner to modern-day Jerusalem. (Hebrews 5:10)

 

When the Israelites departed Egypt around 1513 B.C. under the direction of Moses, there were no Jews living in the Holy Land. So it was not from time immemorial. They did not even enter their Promised Land for another 40 years, having sinned at the foot of Mount Sinai. Only then, under the guidance of their commanding general Joshua, did Jews first enter the land.

 

After the God of the Bible delivered the Cannanites and the Philistines into their hands, the Israelites held sway for a time over what is now called the Holy Land. Jerusalem became the kingdom’s religious center when David brought the Ark of the Covenant to the city and Solomon built the first Temple. When the kingdom of Israel divided in 922 B.C., Jerusalem remained the capital of the southern kingdom of Judah.

 

But since the Jews were not good worshipers of God, He allowed them to become vassals to other powers. And since the Israelite rulers didn’t even know how to be good vassals, their people suffered greatly.

 

The Assyrians besieged Jerusalem in the late eighth century B.C., but the city did not fall. This was thanks to one of God’s angels slaughtering 185,000 of King Sennacherib’s men. (2 Kings 18:13-19:37; Isaiah 36; 37.) However, In 587 B.C. the Babylonians, under King Nebuchednezzar conquered Jerusalem, destroyed its temple and exiled many of its citizens for 70 years. (2 Kings 25:1-17). Among the exiles were the prophet Daniel and three brave Hebrew men, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego.

 

The exiles were freed by Cyrus the Persian, whom with Artaerxes the Mede, had conquered Babylon. (Ezra 1:1-3). The exiles returned after 538 B.C. began the work of rebuilding the Temple, the city, and its walls.

 

Again, the Israelites lived in the area, but they did not control their own fate. The Romans ruled all of Judea and Samaria. Now, 37 years after Jewish High Priests convinced Roman authorities to kill Jesus the Christ, the Jews revolted. The Romans besieged Jerusalem in 66 A.D., but unexpectedly withdrew. They returned in full force and fury four years later.

 

After Roman General Titus destroyed the second temple in 70 A.D., the Jews were dispersed from the Holy Land. In time, the Turks and other Muslims took control of the Holy Land and there were few Jews in the area. Because it would have been death for them to expose themselves.

 

In 313 A.D., the Roman emperor Constantine the First legalized Christianity. Palestine, as the Holy Land was then called, became a focus of Christian pilgrimage. Most of the population became Hellenized and Christianized. In 324 A.D., Constantine of Byzantium marched on Jerusalem and captured the city. He rebuilt the city walls and commissioned the Church of the Holy Sepulchure, and opened the city for Christian pilgrimage.

 

The Byzantines, who ruled Jerusalem at this time were very harsh. They not only barred Jews from entering Jerusalem, but also persecuted Christians who did not follow the same sect as them. On the other hand, Muslims had the reputation for mercy and compassion in victory. So when the Muslims marched into Palestine in 638 CE, the people of Jerusalem gave up the city only after a brief siege.

 

Pope Urban ushered in the Crusades in 1095 A.D. and the Holy Land fell after a month of siege. The Crusaders entered it in 1099 and massacred its residents, sparing neither infants nor elderly and the number killed went over 70,000. But the Christians lost the next seven Crusades.

 

In 1187, Saladin captured all the Holy Land from the Crusaders and took the Sanctuaries as his own possession. The conquest of Palestine by the Muslims led to the Ottomans rule of the land from 1517 until 1917.

 

I doubt very much there was anywhere near a large Jewish presence in the region during this time for anyone to claim Jews ran the place.

 

When Turkey was defeated in World War I, the French took over the area now known as Lebanon and Syria. The British then assumed control of Palestine and Iraq. In 1926, the borders were redrawn and Lebanon was separated from Syria. Britain installed the Emir Faisal, who had been deposed by the French in Syria, as ruler of the new kingdom of Iraq.

The reason for this post was to castigate the dummies who thought invading Iraq in 2003 would usher in an era of peace. It was written during that conflict. I agree that Saddam Hussein was a dictator.  But did he need to go?

 

Not necessarily. Like Joseph Broz Tito, who ruled Yugoslavia, Saddam was a leader whose personage and fear kept ethnic and religious rivalries in check.  And as with Tito’s death, Saddam’s overthrow tossed the covering off the pot of ethnic and religious hatred that had simmered beneath the surface in his nation for decades.

 

Now, without a strong central government, and let’s admit it, the new Iraqi interim government installed by the U,S. was anything but strong.
 

But its authority is limited, even in Baghdad. And without a strong central government, you had Shi’ites slowly taking their revenge against the Sunnis. You have the Kurds ignoring both the Sunnis and the Shi’ites and carving out their own rump state.

 

The partition of Iraq had begun. Kurdistan has been formed, despite George W. Bush’s promise that it would this would not happen.  Think that Kurdistan has a democratically elected government or did the guy with the most armed men take charge?  Do you think he took a couple of pretty young girls, boys or donkeys for his pleasure?  Do you think they wanted to give up his power?

 

People who continue exhorting that Saddam was a dictator conveniently forget that for years, this brutish, violent, intemperate man was a pal of the United States.

 

Indeed, Saddam was such a favorite of the Reagan administration, that the Gipper quickly forgave him when one of Iraq’s Mirage fighter bombers mistakenly attacked the frigate USS Stark in May 1987, killing 37 U.S. sailors.

 

It was an error, Baghdad said.  And Washington bought it, sending more intelligence, equipment and chemicals to Iraq for use during the Iraq-Iran War, which lasted eight bloody years.

 

Saddam might have been thug. But at the time, he was OUR thug.

 

I really like hearing from people who supported the invasion of Iraq that Saddam was a dictator — as if that is reason enough to launch a war that has killed more than a million.

 

Of the 191 nations in the United Nations, only about 40%, or 85 countries, are democratic societies that enjoy political rights and civil liberties.  The rest are either controlled by dictators or by a one-party government.

 

Just how many of the Pro-War crowd, who use this canard that Saddam was a dictator, want to sign their son or daughter to risk their lives toppling these latter despotic regimes?  I bet that few of them would do so.

 

In 48 of world’s nations, dictators wield an iron hand and 35% of the world’s population is subjugated by those totalitarian governments.

 

Now consider that 59 other countries are controlled by one-party governments in which institutions like the judiciary and the press are not free from government influence or control.  There is one country with a population of 23 million, which has a free government. But it's a pariah nation and not allowed entry into the United Nations.

 

It’s called Taiwan, remember them?  The Free China?

 

Taiwan was tossed out of the U.N. to make room for Red China, the country with the one-party government ruled by a group of petty oligarchs.

 

The U.S., Britain and the other members of Bush’s “Coalition of the Willing” went along with this act of treachery.  How many of these Pro-War people do you think want to launch a war to depose the Communist Party of the People’s Republic of China? 

 

I mean, after all, the same conditions exist in China that existed in Iraq.  China tortures people.  It employs Slave Labor.  It is occupying a sovereign nation (Tibet) in defiance of the U.N. and world opinion.  And it continually threatens Taiwan, which has a democratically elected government.

 

I do not see any of the Pro-War crowd, the ordinary Americans who supported this invasion of Iraq, or any of the Neo-Con leaders in Washington, people like Wolfowitz, Cheney, Lieberman, Rumsfeld and Perle, denouncing China’s one-party rule.

 

Know why?  China has nukes and an army whose equipment ain’t 12 years old like that of Saddam's Iraq.  Its people aren’t fearful or starving as they were in Iraq.

 

Neo-Cons like their wars nice and easy.  Besides, how much oil does China have?

 

To those who still want to complain that Saddam was a dictator, here is my final argument:

 

Countries with dictatorial leaders who are on the side of the United States can do no wrong.

 

Take, for example, Ethiopia’s ruling People Revolutionary Democratic Front, Uzbekistan leader Islam Karimov or Pakistan’s Pervez Musharraf, an army general who toppled an elected government.  Did you I hear anyone calling for an invasion of these nations?

 

Didn’t think so.

 

 

 

 

[Pioneer1]

Melchizedek

Zedek or Zadoc was one of the Canaanite Deities.

Melch-i-zedek means "My King Is Zedek".

 

As you said, the Canaanites (Kena-ani) were the original inhabitants of the land.
They built many of the cities like Hebron and Jerico that still stand today.

 

Now the question you should ask yourself is WHO are the Philistines and where did they come from?
 

[Stefan]

Remember the big dude, a young David was supposed to have killed with a rock from his slingshot? He was a Philistine.

They were an ancient people who lived on the south coast of Canaan. Apparently, they came from the Aegean (possibly Crete) during the latter period of the Bronze Age (12th Century). Deut. 2:23 and Jeremiah 47:4

I don't know about you, but I am stunned by this revelation. It means the Philistines were illegal immigrants. Smite them, O Lord.

[Pioneer1]

9 minutes ago, Stefan said:

Remember the big dude, a young David was supposed to have killed with a rock from his slingshot? He was a Philistine.

They were an ancient people who lived on the south coast of Canaan. Apparently, they came from the Aegean (possibly Crete) during the latter period of the Bronze Age (12th Century). Deut. 2:23 and Jeremiah 47:4

I don't know about you, but I am stunned by this revelation. It means the Philistines were illegal immigrants. Smite them, O Lord.

I wasn't stunned by it because I've known about it for YEARS.

The Philistines (ancestors of most of the modern Palestinians who call THEMSELVES "Philistines") originally came from the islands of the Aegan Sea and were known by the ancient Egyptians as the "Sea People".

There were two branches of them.

One branch after leaving those islands went to the coast of Canaan and started settling in with the Canaanites.
The other branch left those islands and went to the coast of North Africa and started settling in with the Moors.
They were known as the Amazigh.

[Troy]

@Stefan That was an impressive summary. Did you write the entire thing?

 

 

[Stefan]

@Troy:

Thank you. Yes. I wrote that.

A lot of it I knew from ancient history, from Bible Study and World History classes. I also had to do a lot of research when I was a Writing Professor. Students ask a lot more questions when they realize they have a teacher who will actually sit up half the night to help them get an A+ plus on a history exam.

But you know what? To the Victors go the Spoils and that includes the first or second spot in line to write their version of what took place. So, some years from now,. there may be a different view  of some events.

It's too bad we can't come back in the future and read the tales Israeli supporters will claim gave them an incredibly vibrant Mediterranean seafood industry or laid the groundwork for state-of-the-art transport links from Gaza into Europe. 

I rewrote the Marine Hymn in protest of the Iraq War.

Boy, I had the warmongers pissed off for weeks.  (And I'm still proud of it).
 

[ProfD]

14 hours ago, Stefan said:

I rewrote the Marine Hymn in protest of the Iraq War.

Boy, I had the warmongers pissed off for weeks.  (And I'm still proud of it).

That was very well done.

[Stefan]

Thank you.