|
  MYTHS
OF
THE MIDDLE EAST
by: Joseph Farah
I've
been quiet since Israel erupted in fighting spurred by disputes over the
Temple Mount. Until now, I haven't even bothered to say, "I
told you so." But I can't resist any longer. I feel
compelled to remind you of the column I wrote just a couple of weeks
before the latest uprising. Yeah, folks, I predicted it.
That's O.K. hold your applause. After all, I wish I had been
wrong. Many people have been killed since the current fighting in
and around Jerusalem began. And what for?
If
you believe
what you read in most news sources, Palestinians want a homeland
and Muslims want control over sites they consider holy.
Simple, right?
Well,
as an Arab American journalist who has spent some time in the Middle East
dodging more than my share of rocks and mortar shells, I've got to tell
you that these are just phony excuses for the rioting, trouble-making and
land-grabbing.
Isn't
it interesting that prior to the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, there was no
serious movement for a Palestinian homeland? "Well, Farah,"
you might say, "that was before the Israelis seized the West Bank
and Old Jerusalem.
That's
true, In the Six-Day War, Israel captured Judea, Samaria and East
Jerusalem. But they didn't capture these territories from Yasser
Arafat. They captured them from Jordan's King Hussein. I
can't help but wonder why all these Palestinians suddenly discovered
their national identity after Israel won the war.
The
truth is that Palestine is no more real than Never- Never Land. The
first time the name was used was in 70 A.D. when the Romans committed
genocide against the Jews, smashed the Temple and declared the land of
Israel would be no more. From then on, the Romans promised it would
be known as Palestine. The name was derived from the Philistines, a
Goliathian people conquered by the Jews centuries earlier. It was a
way for the Romans to add insult to injury. They also tried to
change the name of Jerusalem to Aelia Capitolina, but that had even
less staying power.
Palestine
has never existed - before or since - as an autonomous entity. It
was ruled alternately by Rome, by Islamic and Christian crusaders, by the
Ottoman Empire and, briefly, by the British after World War I. The
British agreed to restore at least part of the land to the Jewish people
as their homeland.
There
is no language known as Palestinian. There is no distinct
Palestinian culture. There has never been a land known as Palestine
governed by Palestinians. Palestinians are Arabs, indistinguishable
from Jordanians (another recent invention), Syrians, Lebanese, Iraqis,
etc. Keep in mind that the Arabs control 99.9% of the Middle East
lands. Israel represents one-tenth of one percent of the landmass.
But
that's too much for the Arabs. They want it all. And that is
ultimately what the fighting in Israel is about today. Greed.
Pride. Envy. Covetousness. No matter how many land concessions the
Israelis make, it will never be enough.
What
about Islam's holy sites? There are none in Jerusalem.
Shocked? You should be. I don't expect you will ever hear the
brutal truth from anyone else in the international media. It's just
not politically correct.
I
know what you're going to say: "Farah, the Al Aqsa Mosque and the
Dume of the Rock in Jerusalem represent Islam's third most holy sites.
Not true. In fact, The Koran says nothing about Jerusalem. It
mentions Mecca hundreds of times. It mentions Medina countless
times. It never mentions Jerusalem. With good reason.
There is no historical evidence to suggest Mohammed ever visited
Jerusalem.
So
how did Jerusalem become the third holiest site of Islam? Muslims
today cite a vague passage in the Koran, the 17th Sura, entitled
"The Night Journey." It relates that in a dream or a vision,
Mohammed was carried by night, "from the sacred temple to the temple
that is most remote, whose procinct we have blessed, that we might show
him our signs. _" In the seventh century, some Muslims
identified the two temples mentioned in this verse as being in
Mecca and Jerusalem. And that's as close as Islam's connection with
Jerusalem gets ~ myth , fantasy, wishful thinking. Meanwhile, Jews
can trace their roots in Jerusalem back to the days of Abraham.
One
round of violence in Israel erupted when Likud Party leader Ariel Sharon
tried to visit the Temple built by Solomon. It is the holiest
site for Jews. Sharon and his entourage were met with stones and
threats. I know what it's like. I've been there. Can
you imagine what it is like for Jews to be threatened, stoned and
physically kept out of the holiest site in Judaism?
So
what's the solution to the Middle East mayhem? Well, frankly, I
don't think there is one, it needs to begin with truth. Pretending
will only lead to more chaos. Treating a 5,000 year old birthright
backed by overwhelming historical and archaeological evidence equally
with illegitimate claims, wishes and wants give diplomacy and
peacekeeping a bad name.
My
recent commentaries on the Middle East have touched off a virtual
international firestorm on the Internet.
Since
writing "Myths of the Middle East" ... I have been
inundated with email from all over the world - at least 5,000 letters
from Israel alone. The article has been translated into a dozen
languages. It has been the subject of network television debates.
It has been read on Israeli national radio. And, while most of the
reaction has been passionately favorable, there have been threats on my
life and the lives of my family members. There have been vicious,
obscene, vulgar and profane denunciations.
The
reaction illustrates just how far apart the Arabs and Israelis are in the
so-called "peace-process." There has clearly been no
progress since 1947.
In
fact, there is simple evidence that some Arab leaders are right now
attempting to revise history in new ways that strongly suggest there is
nothing Israel can ever do to appease the violence in their hearts.
In
an interview, which Italian newspaper La Republica, March 24, 2001, Skeik
Ikrama Sabri, the Palestine Authority's top Muslim figure in Jerusalem,
decreed that the Western Wall, the last remnant of the Jewish Temple, has
no religious significance to the Jews.
"Let
it be clear: the Wailing Wall is not a holy place of the Jews, it
is an integral part of the mosque (grounds). We call it al-Buraq,
the name of the horse with which Mohammed ascended to heaven from
Jerusalem," he said. In fact, the Temple Mount area and
the Western Wall are, according to Jewish scholars, the only true holy
sites of Judaism.
Yasser
Arafat himself has made similar statements recently, claiming the city of
Jerusalem has no real significance to Jews. On Al-Jezira
television, June 28, 1998, he said, "Let me tell you something.
The issue of Jerusalem is not just a Palestianian issue. It is a
Palestinian, Arab, Islamic and Christian issue." Asked by the
interviewer if one could also say it is a Jewish issue, he replied,
"No. Allow me to be precise ~ they consider Hebron to be
holier than Jerusalem." Afarat is among those Arab leaders
making the incredible suggestion that there was never a Jewish Temple on
the site. "Until now, all the excavations that have been
carried out have failed to prove the location of the Temple, " he
claims. "It is 30 years since they captured the city and they
have not succeeded in giving even one proof as the location of the
Temple." Do you really think there can be compromise with
people this delusional?
This
was no casual remark by Arafat. In an earlier speech broadcast on
Voice of the Palestine, Oct 10, 1996, he said, "Let us begin from
the holy Buraq wall. It is called the holy Buraq wall, not
the Wailing Wall. We do not say this. After the holy Buraq
revolution in 1929 ... the Shaw International Committee said this is a
holy wall for Muslims. This wall ends at the Via Dolorosa.
These are our Christian and Muslim holy places."
Now,
perhaps you understand why even today the Muslim police known as the Waqf
attempt to deny Jews and other non-Muslims access to these sites.
Now, perhaps you understand why, during times when Jerusalem has been
occupied by Muslims, Christian churches and Jewish synagogues were
destroyed or desecrated.
This
alone should demonstrate conclusively to any non-biased observer that the
troubles in the Middle East today will not be solved by the creation of a
"Palestinian state." It's time to point out to those who
do not yet know that the leader of this movement ~ Afafat ~ is not a
"Palestinian" at all. Indeed, he was born in Egypt.
But
his family does have some history in the area ~ though he's not likely to
acknowledge it on ABC's Nightline or CNN. You see, it was Arafat's
uncle who served as the grand mufri of Jerusalem in the 1910's and
1930's. It was his uncle who concluded, for the first time, that
Mohammed had ascended into heaven from the site known as Dome of the Rock
on the Temple Mount. And it was his uncle who, in an unholy
alliance with Adolf Hitler, condemned the Jews and their designs on their
eternal capital city.
The
truth is that Jerusalem has a unique importance to Jews. It has
always been a place described and revered in Jewish law. For
centuries since the Diaspora, Jews around the world have prayed toward
Jerusalem, mourned the destruction of their Temple and hopefully repeated
the phrase, "Next year in Jerusalem."
Again,
I say, until all the parties to war and peace in the Middle East
acknowledge basic history, and archaeology, there is little point in
pretending that peripheral land concessions can bring peace.
-
Reprinted with permission
JESUS &
THE JEWS
Pastor Max Solbrekken,
D.D.
Rabbi
‘Shaul of Tarsus’, a fanatical Pharisee, crusading to
exterminate the ‘Maaminim’, met Jesus of Nazareth - in a bright light
- on the Damascus Road and was converted.
ST.
PAUL MOST EFFECTIVE
Among
the evangelists, he was the most effective in converting the heathen.
Gentile believers became known as Christians and their houses of worship,
churches (hebrew fem. of synagogue).
At
the Jerusalem Council-A.D. 50, the ‘Maaminim’ accepted gentile
believers into fellowship - without embracing Jewish customs and
disciples - except refraining from idolatry.
The
‘Maaminim’ grew so large that in A.D. 90, Gamaliel II called the ‘Yavneh
Council’ of rabbis to stem the growth of the new Jewish movement.
It was decreed that a disparaging verse against the ‘Maaminim’ be
included in the ‘Amidah’ (central prayer in synagogue
service).
PERSECUTION
INCREASED ON THE JEWISH
The
persecution increased when Rabbi Akiba declared ‘Shimon bar Kochba’ -
who led an insurrection against the Romans from A.D. 132 to 135 - the
Messiah. The ‘Maaminim’ remonstrated saying, “There is no
Mashiach - except Yeshua”.
Shimon
bar Kochba’s “messiahship” was later repudiated by Jewish leaders,
but the breach with the ‘Maaminim’ remained. Whatever happened to the
Jewish believers? Why did the ‘Maaminim’ - who continued until the
fifth century - disappear?
THE
HISTORICAL RECORD EXPOSES ONE OF CHRISTIANITY’S MOST SHAMEFUL CHAPTERS.
THE UNRIGHTEOUS TREATMENT OF JESUS’ FIRST FOLLOWERS AND GOD’S CHOSEN
PEOPLE. WHAT PERSECUTING JEWS FAILED TO DO - DESTROY THE ‘MAAMINIM’ -
PROUD, BIASED AND SPITEFUL GENTILE CHRISTIANS SUCCEEDED BY THEIR HATE AND
REJECTION!
Jewish
preachers had converted many pagans to Christ. But after the first
century, gentile Christians - who had become dominant - began to
persecute their Jewish brethren!
CHURCH
FATHERS DEMANDED JEWISH BELIEVERS RENOUNCE THEIR JEWISH PRACTICES
Church
fathers and clergy demanded that Jewish believers renounce their Jewish
observances and practices. They forgot that the ‘Maaminim’ in
A.D. 50 embraced them - on the basis of their belief in Jesus - without
changing cultures.
Now
they demanded that the Jews change their customs - as the basis for
salvation. (Romans 11)
Regarding
the ‘Maaminim’, Irenaeus wrote: “They circumcise their sons,
observe their holidays and customs of the Law and lead a life as Jews and
love Jerusalem as if it were the House of God”.
ANTI-SEMITISM
BEGINS IN A.D. 325 BY NICEAN COUNCIL
The
A.D. 325 Nicean Council, with 318 bishops present - no Jews - changed the
Resurrection Day from the 14th day of Nisan to a perpetual Sunday. Hence
the gap between Passover (Pesach) and Easter. Note the anti-Semitism: “We
ought not, therefore, to have anything in common with the Jews...our
worship follows a...more convenient course...we desire dearest brethren,
to separate ourselves from the detestable company of the Jews...How,
then, could we follow these Jews, who are almost certainly blinded”.
Eusebius,
Vita. Const. Further humiliations were decreed against the Jews at the
Laodicean Synod (A.D. 343-381): “It is not lawful to receive unleavened
bread from the Jews, nor to be partakers of their impiety” (Cannon
XXXVIII).
A.D.
538 - JEWS MAY NOT APPEAR IN COMPANY OF CHRISTIANS
The
Third Synod of Orleans (A.D. 538) ordered: “From the Thursday before
Easter for four days, Jews may not appear in the company of Christians”
(Cannon XXX).
QUINISEXT
COUNCIL A.D. 692 - No priestly order or layman may eat unleavened
bread of Jews
The
Quinisext Council (A.D. 692) stated: “Let no one in the priestly order
nor any layman eat the unleavened bread of the Jews, nor have any
familiar intercourse with them, nor summon them in illness, nor receive
medicines from them, nor bathe with them; but if anyone shall take in
hand to do so, if he is a cleric, let him be deposed, but if a layman,
let him be cut off” (Cannon II).
DOCTRINE
INVENTED SAYS CHRISTIANS ARE TUE ISRAEL
Justin
(died ca. A.D. 165), invented the doctrine that Christians are the true
Israel and that the Church must reject its Jewish past, His ‘Dialogue
with Tryphon’ was riddled with falseness against the Jews.
JEWS
CALLED CAINS, MURDERERS & NOT CHOSEN PEOPLE OF GOD
Tertullian
(A.D. 150-225) stated that the Jews were the Cains, the murderers, and
“were rejected as the Chosen People of God”. - ‘Adversus Judaeos’.
Origen
(A.D. 184-253) declared the Jews dangerous enemies of Christians, and
stirred up the pagans against them.
Jerome
(A.D. 342-420) wrote that the Law was God’s deliberate trick to destroy
the Jews.
And
Bishop Epiphanius (died ca. A.D. 403), declared Jewish believers -
heretics - because they observed Jewish holy days. St. Chrysostom (A.D.
345-407) called the synagogue “a brothel, home of vice, refuge of
the devil, citadel of Satan”. He stated “God hates the Jews
and has always done so”.
How
these false statements about the Jews contradict the Holy Scriptures that
remind us of God’s great love for Israel and His Chosen People, the
Jews!
OFFICIALS
DEMAND CONFISCATE & BURN ALL JEWISH BOOKS
In
A.D. 1236, Pope Gregory commanded all church officials in France,
England, Spain and Portugal to confiscate Jewish books on the
first Saturday of Lent. Subsequent to the decree of A.D. 1242, thousands
of volumes - filling 24 wagons - were publicly burned in Paris.
In
A.D. 1259, a synod of the archdiocese in Mainz ordered Jews to wear
yellow badges. In A.D. 1434, Jewish men in Augsburg had to sew yellow
buttons to their clothes. Across Europe, Jews were forced to wear a long
undergarment, an overcoat with a yellow patch, bells and tall pointed
yellow hats with a large button on them.
MARTIN
LUTHER - TERRIBLE TREATMENT OF THE JEWS
Martin
Luther - the great reformer - was no better than the popes, in his
treatment of the Jews!
In
A.D. 1543, Martin Luther wrote in ‘On the Jews and Their Lies’:
“What shall we do with this rejected, damned Jewish people? I will give
my true counsel. First that their synagogues and schools should be set on
fire.. Second, that also their houses be demolished and destroyed.
Third that their prayer books and Talmuds be confiscated... Fourth,
that, under penalty of death, their rabbis be forbidden to teach...that
their freedom to travel be restricted...and all their money and valuable
in gold and silver be taken”.
HITLER
AND THE HOLOCAUST
HITLER’S
HOLOCAUST WAS A CULMINATION OF 1800 YEARS OF ANTI-SEMITISM BY EARLY
CHURCH BISHOPS, MEDIEVAL POPES AND PROTESTANT REFORMERS!
May
God forgive the Church for all the hatred, bias and erroneous teaching
that has fueled the perverse anti-Semitic prejudices for so long.
The
Council of the Evangelical Church met in Stuttgart, Germany - October,
1945. Lutheran clergymen went on record as saying: “We are bound to
our (German) people not only in a community of suffering but also in a
solidarity of guilt. With heavy pain we say: Through us, unending
misfortune was brought to many”.
And
the German Bishops’ Conference - June 11, 1961 - ordered that a special
prayer for forgiveness concerning the murdered Jews, should be offered in
all Catholic churches in Germany for “the immeasurable guilt which
cannot be blotted out by human penance”.
POPE
JOHN XXII PRAYS PRAYER OF FORGIVENESS FOR TREATMENT OF JEWS
Pope
John XXIII prayed the following prayer of repentance, shortly before his
death June 3, 1961: “We now recognize that many, many centuries of
blindness have covered our eyes so that we no longer see the beauty of
Your Chosen People and in their face no longer recognize the features of
our first-born brother.
“We
realize that the sign of Cain is marked on our forehead. For centuries,
Abel was lying in blood and tears because we forgot Your love. Forgive us
the damnation we pronounced unjustly upon the name of the Jews.
“Forgive
us for having crucified You a second time in their flesh. For we knew not
what we were doing.”
It
is most unfortunate, that after all the sufferings the Jews have
experienced - much of it at the hands of the Roman Church - that it took
the Vatican so long to finally recognize Israel as a nation.
No
doubt the very recent “turn around” resulted in the Pope’s
proposed journey to Jerusalem!
POPE
JOHN PAUL II - BEING THE CONSUMMATE POLITICIAN THAT HE IS - REALIZED THE
NEED TO DO SO IN ORDER TO BE INVITED TO ISRAEL BEFORE HIS DEATH. IN ANY
EVENT, THE VATICAN WAS FORCED TO FINALLY CHANGE THEIR BIGOTED AND
PREJUDICED ATTITUDE TOWARD ISRAEL!
With
the rebirth of the Jewish State however, there is also a re-emergence of
the ‘Maaminim’, in Israel.
And
since hundreds of thousands of Jews have returned to Israel during this
past decade (some of them born again, spirit-filled Christians from South
America & Eastern Europe) the Evangelical Christian Church is growing
rapidly in Israel. Praise God!
Dr.
H.H. Goldberg, spirit-filled rabbi of a Los Angeles Maaminim congregation
says, “A true Jew is committed to God, to the land of Israel and to
the Jewish people. And many Jews today believe in Jesus as their Mashiach”.
- Powerful AUDIO Bible
sermons/messages by: Pastor Max Solbrekken
- click on message to listen -
|
home
index
BIBLE PROPHECY - ISRAEL -
THE JEWISH PEOPLE 
