Answers to Quora Questions by Yair Davidiy (6 February, 21 Shevet, 5778)
What are your views on the Israeli-Palestine issue?
The Map above DOES NOT represent any present claims of the State of Israel. It does however show what the Bible (according to some opinions) indicates may be in the future and what is desirable. A Greater State of Israel could well change the world geo-political reality in a positive manner.
1. The Jewish and Palestinian conflict is a fight to the death.
The Palestinians are proxies for other forces including many of the Muslim Nations, Iran, Japan, Germany, and a host of others. In fact ALL anti-Semite enemies of the Jews back the Palestinians. The enemies of the Jews wish to exterminate all the Jews, especially those in Israel. The Palestinians through the Hamas Charter in Gaza and other agencies say as much quite openly.
2. Who Was First? It is claimed the Palestinians were there before the Jews were!
This is not so. The Palestinians were not first and neither is it relevant. Here is why:
The Israelites were in the Land of Israel from ca. 1500 BCE to ca. 500 CE. The Jews were exiled against their will. They kept on attempting to settle in the Land for centuries with varying degrees of success. Eventually they succeeded.
Meanwhile subjects of the Pagan and Christian Roman and Byzantian Empires settled in the area. After that the Muslims emerged from Arabia, and other places and conquered the Land. At first many of the Christians remained. Christians were an important minority in the area up until not long ago. In our own time the Muslim Arabs have driven most of the Christians away. These Christians were mostly Catholics, and Maronites (a type of Catholic), and Orthodox Greeks and others. They have successfully resettled elsewhere apart from a few who remain. They were according to all opinions in the region before the Muslims came. No-one champions their cause because Jews are not involved. If it were not for an excuse to attack the Jews neither would many today concern themselves with the Palestinians.
3. It is claimed that: The Jews of today are not the Jews who left. They have accepted others into their fold. How can they then claim the Land as theirs by Ancestry?
Answer:
The Jewish People are built around a core element descended from the original Hebrews. The Jews belong to the Jewish Religion that the Jewish People is represented by. Membership of the Jewish People is determined by the Jewish Religion. This applies everywhere. Anyone who is accepted into the Jewish Religion becomes a member of the Jewish People. This entails all the rights and obligations. The rights include a portion in the Land of Israel.
Ezekiel (NASB) 47:
21 So you shall divide this land among yourselves according to the tribes of Israel. 22 You shall divide it by lot for an inheritance among yourselves and among the aliens who stay in your midst, who bring forth sons in your midst. And they shall be to you as the native-born among the sons of Israel; they shall be allotted an inheritance with you among the tribes of Israel. 23 And in the tribe with which the alien stays, there you shall give him his inheritance, declares the LORD God.
The Jews are the People of the Bible. The Bible defines the Jews as Judah and Israel. That is enough. The Jews never stopped believing in the Bible. They never gave up their claim to the Land.
4. The Palestinians were forced to leave.
In practical terms the Jews had been deprived of property and lands by Europeans and Muslims. They had dwelt in Muslim lands since before those areas became Muslim and before many of the Muslim ancestors even came there. Property and possessions illegally expropriated by Muslims from the Jews before the Jews came to Israel was worth more than the Palestinians lost. The number of Jewish refugees from Muslim lands exceeded the number of Palestinians who fled or otherwise left. The Palestinians may in some cases have been forced to leave but this is beside the point. The Arabs and Palestinians had threatened and intended to destroy the Jews. They still do. We are not saying that those whom remain, or are now in Judah and Samaria, should be harmed BUT other locations should be found for them. If necessary they should be assisted very generously to re-settle in some other place.
Numbers (KJV) 33:
55 But if ye will not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you; then it shall come to pass, that those which ye let remain of them shall be pricks in your eyes, and thorns in your sides, and shall vex you in the land wherein ye dwell.
56 Moreover it shall come to pass, that I shall do unto you, as I thought to do unto them.
5. Israel Needs to Survive. Israel is like any other nation. It needs water, air, natural resources, space for housing and development, and demographic expansion. Israel cannot be expected to compromise on matters affecting its very existence. This applies especially at present when there is nothing to gain from it but too much to risk losing. Every compromise Israel has made until now has harmed the Jewish People and the State of Israel. No-one seriously wants to give Australia back to the Aborigines, New Zealand to the Maoris, North America to the Amerindians. Why not? Because among other reasons no-one would benefit from it but much harm would be done. The same applies in the case of Israel. A strong, prosperous, populous enlarged State of Israel would be to the benefit of all humanity. Elements who are against Israel or try to weaken Israel are foes of civilization and of humanity in general.