© 2001 WorldNetDaily.com

WEDNESDAY
APRIL 4
2001

I have just returned from Jerusalem and am reminded afresh of the contradictions that abound in the Middle East. Here are some observations I made while in Jerusalem.

It is always appalling to me that virtually no one understands the simplest facts of the region's history, especially the Western Media.

Historically, no Muslim nation ever entertained the idea of creating a Palestinian state governed by "Palestinians" until Israel took control of the disputed area in June of 1967.

The Ottoman Turkish Empire, which ruled the entire region from AD 1517 until the British liberation in AD 1917, simply regarded Palestine as a part of greater Syria. They parceled the land out to wealthy absentee landlords, most of whom lived in Istanbul. The few indigenous people now called Palestinians were subjected to severe rental and tax charges. Most of the sparse population of Palestine was composed of Jews and Christians until the Jews began to return in significant numbers at the start of the 20th century.

Under the British Mandate, there were no independent people recognized as Palestinians with a right to Palestinian statehood. When the Muslims realized that the Jews could become a dominant factor in Palestine, they began to flood the area with mostly the poor people from the surrounding Muslim nations. I am sorry to say that this was all done with the blessings of the British. The facts and numbers are brilliantly recorded and documented in Joan Peters' book, "From Time Immemorial."

After Israel became a state and won the war that sought to annihilate them, Jordan took over the territory created by a U.N. enforced ceasefire line called West Bank. The Jordanians never entertained the idea of creating a Palestinian state in the Muslim controlled territories of the Gaza Strip, the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Nor did any of the Muslim nations suggest such a thing.

It has only been since Israel conquered East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza Strip that the Muslim nations have supported the cry of the poor Palestinian people for a State. In many ways I feel sorry for many of the Palestinians, especially those who are Christians.

History shows their own Muslim brothers betrayed them. When seven Muslims nations declared war on Israel in 1948, they ordered the Palestinians residents to leave until they pushed Israel into the sea. They were told that they would only be away from their homes for two or three weeks. When they didn't succeed the Palestinians became refugees and instead of being absorbed and helped by their brothers, they were kept in miserable refugee camps as exhibits of "Israeli atrocities."

The Israelis had begged the Palestinians to stay and become part of the nation, but they believed their Muslim brothers -- thus sealing their long misery. But the hatred generated by decades of miserable treatment has not been turned on their Muslim brothers who created their plight. Instead it has been multiplied against the Israelis.

This hatred has been cleverly interwoven by the Muslim leaders with a religious zeal for liberating the "holy places" of Islam now under Israeli control. Once again, when we look historically at the Muslim love for Jerusalem and Palestine, it only flourishes when either Christians or Jews seek to assert their rights to this area.

Both the Christian and Jewish faiths have much more historical and biblical claim to the area than the Muslims. They don't even have one reference to Jerusalem in their holiest book, the Koran. Even their claim to Jerusalem was created long after Mohammad died. Their claim is based on one obscure reference in an interpretation of the Koran. According to this interpretation, Mohammad went to "the farthest Mosque (Al Quds in Arabic) and ascended into heaven." Long after the fact, they interpreted the Al Quds as being Jerusalem's Temple Mount.

Now they are even saying that the holiest place to Orthodox Judaism, the Western Wall of the Temple area, is exclusively theirs because Mohammad tied his horse there.

The present trouble in Israel/Palestine rides on a wave of generations of cultivated hatred for Jews and an exponential increase in religious zeal for liberating Muslim Holy Places created by the Imams of the mosques.

The violence we see in the Middle East is not based on economics or political agendas. It is based on racial hatred and religion -- two of the deadliest motivations of history. For this reason, the Palestinian problem will remain an enigma to the secular economic driven mentality of the Western politicians. They are not even on the same page of history with the Middle East.