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Background
History of the Middle East
Jerusalem
The Israeli historian, Zev Vilney, cites the age of Jerusalem as 5,000 years.
During the Bronze Age, 3000 B.C., Jerusalem saw its first settlements.
Archaeological evidence establishes that the Canaanites were the first people of
the
land we call Palestine. These people, along with the Amorites and Jebusites,
founded the first permanent settlement.
The name, Urusalem, is an Amoritic name. The first rulers of the land were
identified by American archaeologist W.F. Albright as Amoritic. The Amorities
spoke the same language as the Canaanites and were of Semitic stock. The Bible
agrees that the original people were from the land of Canaan.
Thus saith the Lord God unto Jerusalem.Thy birth and thy origin are of the land
of Canaan; thy father was an Amorite,and thy mother a Hittite. (Ezekiel, 16:1)
In the second millennium, the Jebusites inhabited Jerusalem. They built a
fortress, Zion, in Jerusalem. Zion is a Canaanite word that means "hill or
height." This culture flourished for nearly 2,000 years. They are the
decedents of the Palestinian Arabs who settled in the land before the Israelite
invasion. Historian Delacy O'Leary writes: "The majority of the present
Palestinian peasants are descendants of those who proceeded the
Israelites."
The majority of people who are Palestinians, both Christians and Arabs, were
there before the wave of Islamic-Arab conquests of the 7th century. The city saw
the next wave in about 1200 B.C. They were the Israelites. They lived side by
side all throughout the reign of David and then King Solomon until they were
conquered by the Babylonians. The people rebelled and Nebuchadnezzer reconquered
the land and exiled the Jews from the city.
In 538 B.C., the Persians overthrew the Babylonians and Jerusalem became the
capital of the Persian province. The Jews were then allowed to return. These
conquests were followed by the Seleucids, the Hasmoneans, the Maccabeans and
finally the Romans, who expelled the Jews again after the revolt of 135 A.D.
The Jews were not allowed to return until after it was conquered by the
Islamic-Arab armies in 638 A.D. The Muslims established guarantees, which came
to be called the Covenant of Omar. This guaranteed the lives, property and
freedom of worship throughout the non-Muslim population. Under Islamic rule,
coexistence and tolerance were established. This continued until the Crusaders
arrived and slaughtered both the Muslim and Jewish population.
After the Muslim's recaptured the city, the Jews were allowed to return. This
continued through the rule of Islam and then the Ottoman Empire, which came from
what we now call Turkey. The Ottomans were defeated in World War I, and then
were replaced by the English. Great Britain then set forth the Balfour
declaration, which, in essence, divided the land again. So as you can see, and
may very well be surprised at, the Islamic rulers and those who proceeded them
who were of Palestinian decent always practiced tolerance. May those days of
tolerance soon come again.
Sources: Rashid Khalidi, University of Chicago
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Rise of the Taliban
The talk of military action by the United States against the country of
Afghanistan should prompt us to look at history. What can history tell us? What
aid can it be for us? History can tell us that Alexander the Great conquered
half the globe but failed in Afghanistan. In the 19th century, fortune was not
much better for the British Empire when an entire expeditionary force perished.
In the 20th century, more than 15,000 Soviet troops were lost before a tired and
broken Soviet Union withdrew from the mountainous country.
Three years ago, former National Security advisor Zbignew Brzezinski responded
to a question about the U.S. involvement with the creation of the Taliban
government: "Which is more important in world history: The Taliban or the
fall of the Soviet Empire? A few over-excited Islamists or the liberation of
Central Europe and the end of the Cold War?" So there you have it; all
those innocent people were the last victims of the Cold War.
Last week, the horrible consequences of supporting terrorists came back to bite
us. In 1979, Soviet tanks rolled into Kabul. The invasion was opposed by many of
the military leaders of the Soviet Union but Brezhnev felt that the Soviet's
would have few problems. The United States saw this as a chance to drag the
Soviets into their own Vietnam. Even before the invasion, President Carter sent
a secret directive to supply building a Mujahedeen movement with covert aid and
the Reagan and Bush administrations followed the same policy.
All across the Islamic world, people flocked to a holy war against the Soviets.
The Pakistan government was responsible for the training of the rebels and the
CIA inspired jihad and soon requited the aid of rich anti-Communist Saudi's who
sent vast sums of money and men like bin Laden.
When the war was over, the men drifted back to their various countries and were
primarily responsible for the increasing violence in places like Algeria, Egypt
and other parts of the Islamic world. With the Soviets gone, Afghanistan turned
into
a chaotic battleground with druglords and warlords controlling much of the land.
Pakistan, overrun by some 2 million refugees, sought the aid of a militant
student organization called the Taliban. Our role in this is not clear but the
Clinton government did nothing to stop Saudi support of the Taliban. Despite
their
terrorists acts, the Taliban chief supporters came from the fiercely
conservative Saudi's.
All of this should serve as a warning for us. Before we commit U.S. troops, and
this will be necessary if we intend to clean out the terrorists, we must look at
the history of terrorism and see what we can learn from it. First, it is no easy
task. Ask the French. During their war with Algeria, and despite their
destruction of terrorist cells, they were still not able to win. Second, we must
be careful whom we decide to side with. History has told us that this can be a
life threatening decision for our citizens.
~~~~~~
The Balfour Declaration Because of the attacks in New York and Washington, this
site will try to explain some of the politics and history of the Middle East in
the next couple weeks. We also would like to urge all Americans to do whatever
they can to help the families of the New York Fire and Police Departments. They
died trying to save the lives of others and our hearts go out to them.
The mysteries of the "Orient" hold a special
place in European culture. Somewhere to the east of Greece and Turkey lies this
land which represented for the West a kind of vast space with romance, exotic
locals and mystery. By 1918, colonial occupation of the globe was nearly
complete. The nations of Europe controlled all of Africa and many parts of the
Middle East. The land on which Israel and Palestine reside was under the control
of the Ottoman Empire at the time, however, the course of World War I changed
all that.
In 1822, there were fewer than 24,000 Jews that
lived in Palestine. The rest of the population was Arabic with small minorities
of Christians. Palestine became an Arabic and Islamic country by the end of the
7th century. It was known as a land of fertile soil and great beauty. The
Palestinian Arabs were a largely agricultural society who lived in an area of
small villages. But another group had its sights on this land.
Persecuted throughout their history in Europe, Theodore
Herzl and the early Zionists dreamed of a homeland for the Jewish people. But
there were people already there and the Zionists knew something would have to be
done. Right from the beginning, the idea was to move the people who were there
out of their land as Herzl recognized in his diaries: "We shall have to
spirit the penniless population across the border by procuring employment for it
in the transit countries, while denying it any employment in our own country.
Both the process of expropriation and the removal of
the poor must be carried out discreetly and circumspectly." This is a
perfect example of the mentality of colonialism and what we call today ethnic
cleansing. The people who live there do not matter. This was an easy idea for
the British to accept. After all, weren't the British the one of the largest
colonial empires in the world? So when Lord Roths child became the spokesperson
for the Zionist cause and spoke to Lord Balfour; this was something that Balfour
could understand. The Balfour Declaration of 1917 sought to provide a homeland
for the Jewish people without ever consulting the people who already lived
there. It also promised the Arab people independence and sought to strengthen
British rule.
All of these goals, as future Prime Minister Ramsey
Macdonald pointed out, were in contradiction of each other. Who was living in
Palestine at the time? For that we must go to the 1922 census which shows that
there were more Christians in Palestine than Jews let alone Arabs. The Arabic
population constituted about 78% of the people. Jews made up less than 60,000
while Christians accounted for over 70,000. This is who lived in Palestine when
the British government issued the Balfour Declaration. Jews had been persecuted
in Europe for centuries.
In fact, during the Crusades the Jewish
population was forced out of Jerusalem but when the Moslems regained control
they were invited back. This may shock many but Jews played an important role in
Arabic culture during this period. The Balfour Declaration was an attempt to
solve a European problem. To Lord Balfour it seemed logical, to those who lived
there, it was a problem that still remains with us to this day.
Sources: Edward Said, The Question of Palestine. John H. Davis: The Evasive
Peace
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