John Kearney writes:
Did you see the news item noting that Netanyahu is giving Obama a copy of Mark Twain's travelogue to the Levant from Innocents Abroad? This
may seem a peripheral news item, but it isn't -- not in terms of the
sad history of propaganda marshaled by Zionists against Palestinians.
In 1984 Joan Peters' From Time Immemorial was published, and Twain's satire, The Innocents Abroad (1869) was thus canonized in the Zionist effort to erase the history of Arabs in Palestine. Peters argued that Palestine was effectively empty until Jewish Zionists came on the scene in the late 19th century, and that Arabs then emigrated from surrounding lands to take advantage of economic opportunities provided by the Zionists. Hence, the Arabs are "arrivistes," have no legitimate claim to be refugees.
Among other "sources," Peters relied on Twain's savaging portrayal of the Holy Land as a filthy, backwards, empty place. Peters makes no effort to contextualize Twain's remarks: namely, that he was skewering nineteenth century America's sacred cows about the glories of Europe and the sacredness of the Holy Land. Twain, it should be noted, also said Greece, Syria and Lebanon are empty. And we now know that in his nonfiction Twain was happy to invent as necessary to fit his tale.
It makes for great entertainment in Twain's book, but it's hardly demographic data. Yet let's suppose that Twain's view of Palestine as "empty" has a grain of truth. Today there are still large, non-agricultural areas in the West Bank and Israel where you can drive and not see a soul (though settlement building of the last decades has reduced such areas.) Twain just hit a few biblical areas, hardly a survey. In Twain's time Palestine was largely a village population coupled with a cluster of cities and towns: Jaffa, Nablus, Jerusalem, Haifa, Acre, Hebron.
Peters' thesis has been extensively discredited: by Yehoshua Porath in the NY Review of Books and, even if I'm generally not a fan of Norman Finkelstein's polemical style, he's at his best in his shredding of Peters' thesis in his essay in Blaming the Victims: Spurious Scholarship and the Palestinian Question. (Needless to say, From Time Immemorial was published by the mainstream Harper & Row and received accolades in the Washington Post Book World, TNR, The National Review, The Atlantic, etc., while Blaming the Victims needed left-wing Verso to get in print.)
There have been additional demographic studies demonstrating the presence of an extensive Arab population in Palestine long prior to the Zionist movement; who has time to go into them now! Even right-wing historians like Benny Morris think Joan Peters and other "people without a land for a land without a people" advocates are shilling tripe. I thought these folks had come around to the idea of, 'Yes, Arabs were here, we kicked them out, and we had a right to do it. Tough shit.' At least that's honest. But when Netanyahu has the audience of Obama, propaganda still reigns.
What's sad (to me) is that Zionism has brought many Jews and non-Jewish Zionists to this level of dishonesty about history. To me it's outrageous that this has occurred and it's outrageous that it's being proffered at the White House -- today. I hope, if Obama opens the book, he's a critical reader.
"What's sad (to me) is that Zionism has brought many Jews and non-Jewish Zionists to this level of dishonesty about history." Israel by Leonard Cohen From "Book of Mercy" Israel, and you who call yourself Israel, the Church that calls itself Israel, and the revolt that calls itself Israel, and every nation chosen to be a nation – none of these lands is yours, all of you are thieves of holiness, all of you at war with Mercy. Who will say it? Will America say, We have stolen it, or France step down? Will Russia confess, or Poland say, We have sinned? All bloated on their scraps of destiny, all swaggering in the immunity of superstition. Ishmael, who was saved in the wilderness, and given shade in the desert, and a deadly treasure under you: has Mercy made you wise? Will Ishmael declare, We are in debt forever? Therefore the lands belong to none of you, the borders do not hold, the Law will never serve the lawless. To every people the land is given on condition. Perceived or not, there is a covenant, beyond the constitution, beyond sovereign guarantee, beyond the nation’s sweetest dreams of itself. The Covenant is broken, the condition is dishonoured, have you not noticed that the world has been taken away? You have no place, you will wander through yourselves from generation to generation without a thread. Therefore you rule over chaos, you hoist your flags with no authority, and the heart that is still alive hates you, and the remnant of Mercy is ashamed to look at you. You decompose behind your flimsy armour, your stench alarms you, your panic strikes at love. The land is not yours, the land has been taken back, your shrines fall through empty air, your tablets are quickly revised, and you bow down in hell beside your hired torturers, and still you count your battalions and crank out your marching songs. Your righteous enemy is listening. He hears your anthem full of blood and vanity, and your children singing to themselves. He has overturned the vehicle of nationhood, he has spilled the precious cargo, and every nation he has taken back. Because you are swollen with your little time. Because you do not wrestle with your angel. Because you dare to live without God. Because your cowardice has led you to believe that the victor does not limp.
The fact that Jews have called the ME home "since time immemorial" <intoned with due gravity> is completely irrelevant to the Zionist Project. Israel was meant to be a safe, secure refuge for Jews in Peril. And they site it among blood thirsty arabs?! condign anti-semites?! Oh, it's not about safety and warm fellow-feeling it's about heritage, sacred stones. Piffle! What does the God-of-all-the-Universe care where we put up His altar? Nevada, gentleman! "With a good plane you can fly into Reno from anywhere."
Which particular gentleman were you thinking of?
Another aspect of the nineteenth century travelogues has contributed some confusion to this discussion. If a traveler visited Palestine during the late summer or early fall, the land would be dry and barren looking after eight months of no rain. He would duly report the barrenness of the land. Another traveler visiting in the spring would report on the crops, the beautiful flowers, the happy flocks of goats, and the land of milk and honey. So now it is possible to argue whichever case you wish, either for the barrenness or fertility of pre-Herzl Palestine, depending on whether you wish to prove that there were no Palestinians there or that they weren't doing anything with the land or that Palestinians were there and had agriculture.
Aipac's hidden persuaders The Israel lobby is aiming to soften up US public opinion for an attack on Iran. Americans should resist its propaganda http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifameric...
*RE: "The Israel lobby is aiming to soften up US public opinion for an attack on Iran. Americans should resist its propaganda" *SEE “Focus Grouping War with Iran” by Laura Rozen, 11/19/07 *EXCERPT: …Jennifer Laszlo Mizrahi, the founder and president of the Israel Project, contacted Mother Jones and said that her group had commissioned the focus group and that it was designed by Public Opinion Strategies, a Republican polling firm. The Israel Project is a nonprofit group that supports Israel and conducts extensive polling on American public attitudes toward Israel and the Middle East. Its board of advisers includes 15 Democratic and Republican members of the House and the Senate, plus actor Ron Silver. Mizrahi says that her group and Freedom’s Watch share a common interest in “thwarting the threat of Islamic extremism” and in “dealing with the threat of Iran.” But Freedom’s Watch “in no way is directing our work, and it’s not funding our work.” She pointed out that the Israel Project is not “involved with Iraq,” a major concern of Freedom’s Watch. But the two outfits, she said, “shared information” produced by this focus group. …[snip] …”Of all the focus groups I’ve ever been to,” Sonnenmark wrote in a subsequent email to a group of fellow volunteers for the 2006 Senate campaign of Jim Webb, “I’ve never seen a moderator who was so persistent in manipulating and leading the participants.” (Webb is lead author of a Senate letter warning President Bush not to attack Iran without congressional approval…) The gist of the event was “anti-Iranian,” says Sonnenmark… ….Sonnenmark left the session wondering if foreign policy hawks would soon be pushing publicly for military action against Iran using language that had been tested on her. But, she says, “It is not going to be so easy this time around.” *ENTIRE ROSEN ARTICLE – http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2007/11/focus...
You there, with your feet on the hob, enjoying your brandy with Cohibas as you discuss the momentous events of the day!
…or sweating over your keyboard, as you like. Twain would understand.
I read Innocents Abroad during my trip to Israel/Palestine last March. Visiting the West Bank resulted in a paradigm-shift for me, and in the midst of my awakening, a line from Twain's book jumped off the page: "I can see easily enough that if I wish to profit by this tour and come to a correct understanding of the matters of interest connected with it, I must studiously and faithfully unlearn a great many things I have somehow absorbed concerning Palestine." (page 486 in the Dover Edition). That's what I'm doing now by reading this blog. I'm unlearning all the garbage I was fed regarding Palestine. Anyway, it's funny how Innocents Abroad came to mean something very different to me.
Bibi should have given him a copy of the Tanach. That is and always will be our deed to the land of Israel. Bottom line – without Israel there would be no Jewish people – it is our source, our home, and our longed for destination. There is already a Palestinian State in Jordan. Read the history of partitions – it is just flat obvious that the "two state solution" has already been implemented but the unelected Hashemite minority despots don't like it. It amazes me that no one ever talks about that. What makes the King of Jordan such a wonderful "benevolent ruler" and expert on peace in the eyes of the West. For heaven's sake he is running a totalitarian police state and we are listening to him for advice on making peace?! He is pushing for ANOTHER state for the Arabs who were living in the Palestine Mandate pre-1948 so that he can take back Judea and Samaria for himself folks. Who is the West going to turn to when Hamas takes over the "West Bank" (G-d forbid)? Walk up and smell the chummus. Don't give in to the pressure my dear Yidden. The land of Israel belongs to you and your children and when we translate what we know in our kishkes to words from Jewish leaders on the world stage, that is when there will be real peace. That is what our Arab cousins are waiting for us to do. Be clear, be honest and DO NOT apologize – it belongs to us. Our cousins are welcome to live with us if they will do so in peace. Yoram Ettinger has shown that there is no demographic problem given increasing birth rates in the Jewish population (Baruch Hashem!) so we can live with them and still maintain a Jewish majority. A well funded, regionally coordinated "hope grant" should be offered to anyone living in Judea and Samaria (Jewish or Arab) who would like to move elsewhere to start an educational program or a better job.
Evelyn, I appreciate your honesty. You want "Judea and Samaria" to fulfill a religious prophesy and you are willing, perhaps even eager, to participate in ethnic cleansing to make it come to pass. Are you insane and ready to commit evil? I think so, yes. But at least you lay it all out on the table, unlike so many others who think exactly the same insane thoughts but dress them up in talk of "security" in order to confound and manipulate the discussion. I wish others talked just the way you do so that Americans could take their tax dollars and run, screaming, in the other direction. Shalom, GTE
This is the most important point I believe is necessary to getting to the truth of the matter, "unlearning all the garbage I was fed regarding Palestine". The American people have been consistently fed the Zionist narrative to get them to accept the creation of Israel and continue supporting it. The Zionists have done their utmost to suppress the native Palestinian narrative, but you cannot keep suppressing the truth while creating falsification after falsification, as eventually these falsifications will end up contradicting each other. The true narrative will never contradict itself. And it will naturally resurface, especially when the Zionists are arrogant enough to keep thinking they can continue along the same path as before which has now become suicidal….
I've met many Palestinians in Jordan, who had to leave the West Bank for one reason or another. One (mayor of Ramallah) had his hands blown off by a letter bomb, and another who had his eyes and face damaged by the same method. That was 20 years ago. That slow, insidious process will go on until they have all been cleansed, not only from Israel proper, but from 'Judea and Samaria'. To homingpigeon – You are quite right; Palestine, without artificial irrigation in the summer months looks like a desert, but so do all the Mediterranean countries round about, from May to September. Visit there in April, though, and you will see a miraculous spring like you've never seen before. The flowers are amazing.
Very good point! Lebanon is very similar to that of Palestine in terrain and if you were to visit Lebanon in the rainless summer you would find much of the lands less green and more barren looking, yet these lands are still very fertile and can produce a wide variety of wonderful fruits and vegetables….In Israel, they over use the water resources to fill up their pools and make their lands look green in the summer, which is not living within the given environment. I have often looked down at Israel from Lebanese lands in the south and compared the differences in how the Jewish people of the Israeli settlements choose to live on their lands, as compared to the Lebanese villages who are made up mostly farmers. Because the Zionists have been overusing their resources, they are now stealing from the occupied Palestinians remaining resources. The Zionists have been over consuming and wasting the precious resources of the lands rather than living within their given environment which is just another form of suicide….
GTE – Please do not change what I said. I am not advocating "ethnic cleansing" – I am saying that the Arabs can live in Israel as a minority. Just as the 700,000 Jews who moved to Israel from the Arab countries in 1948 had been quietly living as minorities in those countries. There are ethnic minorities living in countries around the world who can move to their "majority country" whenever they wish to do so. The Arabs can live as a minority in Israel and move to any of the Arab countries whenever they want if they prefer a majority country. Those who CHOOSE to move should be supported in their decision – financially and logistically. No one should be forced to move – G-d forbid. It is not mistreating people live with them and work with them together in friendship, provide them with health services, schools, etc etc. They are the ones who do not want to live together, who want to take our land and kick all the Jews out, demolish our houses and shoot rockets at us from the ruins. Let's be clear about that. The Jews lived as a minority without a majority state to return to for many years – although many DID return to the land of Israel to join those ancient Jewish communities in Tzfat and elsewhere that were continuously present. Second – Security IS an important practical reason why we must maintain a Jewish state even during the period prior to the redemption (when Moshiach will rebuild the Temple). Third, the money that flows from the US to Israel is not a necessity for Israel's economy. Fourth. the US relationship with Israel is based on the fact that most Americans do believe in G-d and do understand that G-d gave the land of Israel to the Jewish people. America has a large number of religious Christian citizens for whom the Jewish presence in Israel is extremely important. Fifth, many Jews who hold progressive views on domestic US politics are not in favor of giving away our homeland. Go and ask them what they really think.
Norman Finklestein is a joke. Academics and historians have not taken him seriously for years. He was refused entry into Israel last year and is banned for 10 years, that should tell you how objective his viewpoints are. FACT:Finkelstein published his findings in a leftwing political magazine, it failed acceptance by peer reviewed academic journals. Finklestein accused Alan Dershowitz of plagiarizing the book, although a Harvard investigation found this to be untrue. The criticism of Joan Peters' book is mainly from anti-Israel sources. Norman Finklestein and Noam Chomsky, allude to "a number of scholars" or "a number of British scholars and journalists who are interested in the Middle East" as their sources that refute the claims in the book. The problem is they never identify these supposed scholars. In contrast, numerous positive reviews were written on the book which was originally supposed to be a pro-Arab puff piece, but Joan Peters decided to be true to history and published facts she discovered. Facts in Joan Peter's book such as the unnatural population increase are VERY RELEVANT. The Arab population in Israel doubled in size from 1922-1945, mainly due to (illegal) immigration from surrounding areas. A sheer increase in size like this is only possible through immigration. Swamps filled with malaria-ridden mosquitos were drained so that land could be viable. The Jews also built the 1st power plant and the 1st University in the region. The U.N. defines a Palestinian as "ANY Arab living in the area for at least two years prior to 1948". This is a fact that is easily found on the UN website. This means that an Egyptian who moved to Jerusalem in 1945 for work, and left in 1947, is considered a Palestinian. What's sad to me is that amount of dishonesty Palestinian & Arab groups have been able to get away with over the years. The false media stories (poison green balloons in Lebanon in 2007) and overall BS coming from the Palestinian camp over the years, dwarfs the accusations against Israel.
The fact that Norman Finklestein has been discredited time after time (just like Ward Churchill) and his book about the Holocaust thoroughly lampooned, and denied tenure and banned from Israel is enough proof for me about who he is. Dershowitz has described Finkelstein as a "failed academic", and has claimed that Finkelstein intentionally picked a fight so that he could claim that he was the victim of "outside interference" if DePaul University does not award him tenure. Finklestein did not get tenure (thank goodness this goon can't teach lies to our kids) Here's why: Finklestein's "personal and reputation demeaning attacks on Alan Dershowitz, Benny Morris, and the holocaust authors Eli Wiesel and Jerzy Kosinski" were inconsistent with DePaul's "Vincentian" values.
Evelyn, I understand your point perfectly well. God gave the land of Israel to the Jews, the Jews are rightfully taking it back, and if the Palestinians accept Jewish control of the region and behave themselves then you (unlike many settlers) are willing to let them stay. And you're against ethnic cleansing, though I would suggest that it goes hand in hand with your vision for the West Bank. I appreciate you stating this openly. My vision for Israel-Palestine is quite different. For me it's either 1) a Jewish state behind the 1967 lines and a Palestinian state in the West Bank (a Palestinian state that will have Jewish citizens) or 2) a single state in all of Israel, Gaza, and the West Bank that has a minority Jewish population but with Judaism being formally recognized in some meaningful way. There is choice 3: Israel domination of the West Bank under an apartheid system and low-grade ethnic cleansing. I don't believe in choice 3 and, unfortunately, this is what exists today. I saw it for myself in March. Cheers, GTE
Craig, You live in a fantasy land. Dershowitz is a proven plagarist and his prime source in his mountain of mendacity, The Case for Israel, Peters' "From Time Immemorial," is a proven hoax. It is utterly amazing that despite so much documented history compiled by respected historians now so easily available, you still tow the utterly discredited zionist line. The Palestinians are descendants of the Canaanites and have been in the region between the Jordan River and the Med. for about 8000 years. FACE REALITY: ISRAEL IS THE OCCUPIER, PALESTINIANS ARE THE OCCUPIED
Dear GTE – I appreciate your clear statement and the frank discussion. Why is the 1967 border (e.g., the 1949 armistice line) the target you have set for the end of the conflict? You serve up this preferred border without justification – without any supporting philosophy, theology, strategy, history, or geography. Why when I suggest borders based on a theological view of history it is unacceptable but you pick another border and that is just automatically acceptable. The border I suggested clearly has geographical and strategic significance even if you leave aside any other justification. The Arabs have never explained why establishing another Arab state between the 1949 armistice lines and the Jordan river would be acceptable to them as a final border. Perhaps they view it as a temporary way station from which to wear Israel down – obviously they have stated exactly this on more than one occasion. They never indicated that they wanted to form a separate "Palestinian State" in the above described border when Jordan was in charge of Judea and Samaria. The bottom line is that we should discuss the proposed solutions based on principles that can be clearly explained and defended. What if instead of using the word G-d, I used the word "nature" or "Nature" or "Fate" or "Destiny" or some other kind of metaphysical label? Would this alter your perception of the argument? Israel has always been described as the Jewish homeland and all the nations – including the Arabs – know exactly who the Jews are. They know where we have been and where we come from. Changing labels will not alter that reality. Finally – the Arabs have made it very clear that they do not intend to have Jews living in their proposed state. Even if the so-called "settlers" decided to continue to live in Judea and Samaria if the state of Israel decided to depart officially – what would be their best strategy for protecting themselves? Depend on Saeb Erakat and Abbas? Perhaps the Arabs international backers will award the Jews "reservations" on which to administer themselves and send them CIA training staff and weapons from the share they will be providing to Abbas' guys so they can try to keep Haniya and Mashal's guys from shooting them in the back and pushing them off roofs again. Let's be honest about the situation and not utopian.
Evelyn, I agree with you! The Jews should live in America as a minority. It simply is not possible for a people who do not recognise the saving power of Jesus Christ, and accept the Christian Civic Ethic, to be full citizens of this Christian nation. If the Jews in America would voluntarily move to cantonments, wear identifying badges (I'm not having some Jew-boy-spy seduce my good Christian daughter, only to permanently traumatise her as she feels the foreskinless schvantz sliding into her Holy Grail on her wedding night. I mean, can you imagine?) and give up their voting rights and rights of contract, it would go a long way towards demonstrating their sincerity. Don't you agree, prietzkeh?
Oh, and Evelyn, I assume you will be making aliyah soon to personally play your part in this Jewish destiny? Or are you just running your mouth in between tokes at the zio-crack pipe?.
" He was refused entry into Israel last year and is banned for 10 years, that should tell you how objective his viewpoints are." Tells me a lot. Anyone feared and rejected by the Israelis can't be all bad. I'm sure he takes it as I would, as a badge of honor! Who the hell let all these machers, paskudniks and other assorted tough Jews in here?
Dahoud, Craig is "high", "wrecked" or "toasted" on a drug called "ziocaine". It produces, in Zionist supporters alternating waves of grandiosity and aggression and paranoia and persecution-complex. Eventually, he will subside into a raging incoherence, typical of ziocaine addicts when confronted with the fact that no-one (except other addicts) share their warped fantasies. Treatment at a rehab facility like Zionon may be of some value, but in most cases the prognosis is grim, baby, grim.
Why do Americans have so much trouble seeing the similarity between the Zionist conquest of the Palestinians and the white racist Christian settler war against the Native Americans? Do settler conspiracies… uh, societies, ever stop their depredations until they've reached an ocean? Australia? New Zealand? Canada? What about when America finished off its redskins? It was 8 years from the Wounded Knee massacre to America's first colonial war against the Philippines, and its corporate empire has expanded ever since. Well, South Africa and Rhodesia ran out of time and soldiers and collapsed. I guess a settler society must expand until it runs out of redskins or runs out of time. Screw god as a justification. He keeps changing sides.
"Bibi should have given him a copy of the Tanach. That is and always will be our deed to the land of Israel. " A deed that the rest of the world doesn't recognize. In case you hadn't noticed, religious texts are not considered 'legal and binding' documents EXCEPT to those that believe in them… A statement that entails an absurd result is itself absurd. You impose YOUR religious document on a group that doesn't recognize it. Odd, don't you think? "You have to move because G-D gave me your land." There is medication for such though processes. Not to mention, the state of Israel according to pre-Zionist rabbis would only be re-instated by the Moshiach. So, Zionism and YOUR idea of Judaism is a betrayal of older classical Judaism. Supremely ironic, in your absurd zealotry (haha!) to be a Jew, you betray Judaism itself. Then again, evil consumes itself. Shalom– if and only if, justice comes with it, Mohammed
It's so obvious the true nature of the ME conflict that it always escapes me how anybody can still argue about it, and it strikes me ven more how uninformed most Americans are. Evelyn, there was this land, Palestine, with its villages and people. Then some fundamentalist settlers came from Europe and started building colonies, organising an army etc. with the sole aim of disposseing the arabs. That's how Ben Gurion spoke about it. It's the last colonial conflict we Europeans have imposed on innocent lands, where a group of Europeans enslave, kill, exploit and resettle the original population as they seem fit. That's the truth, that's how Ariel Sharon -who should know about it- described it to Chirac,then France's president, on a memorable interview: Chirac had fought the Algerian war, and Sharon told him it was the same situation, only us -the zionists, he said- we do not have a metropoli to return to. The only just solution would be a single nation with democratic intitutions and equal rights for every citizen, regardless of it's race, religion or origin. Just copy and enforce the US constitution. That would do. By the way, even if the UN handling of the end of the British mandate was an enormous mistake, people like Evelyn should read the UN resolution 181: It does not call for two nations, just one nation with two states, a single currency, a single market, no resettlement allowed, and of course it had not a single provision for the ethnic cleansing of the Arabs conducted by the Hagganah, the Stern gang, etc. the razing of the Arab villages, the expulsion of 600.000 palestinians, etc. The state of Israel as we know it wasn't founded on it's mandate. It was created by the Zionists unilaterally and without any respect for the international law, the original population, the resolution or the UN itself. The Zionists even killed the UN mediator for Palestine, Count Bernardotte, and the commander of the UN Blue Helmets. He had asked them to stop the massacres and allow the return of the displaced population. The myth is just that, a myth built to cover a genocide. Israel is nothing more than a copy of South Africa, with its own racial laws and apartheid system, only difference being that not even on its most cruelest days the white South Africans dared to bomb the black villages with Apache helicopters and jet bombers.
I've read the Case for Israel and Why Terrorism Works. There's some irony in how Dersh hypes up the war on terrah and at the same time, praises the Jewish victims of the Nazis for not trying to hurt their oppressors (see p. 8-9 of the latter). It lends credence to the theory that Zionists don't think much of Holocaust victims except as a convenient symbol.
The U.N. defines a Palestinian as "ANY Arab living in the area for at least two years prior to 1948". At least they go by something concrete. I've read Israel's Law of Return about 50 times and I still can't tell what's supposed to be Jewish by it.
I'm generally not a fan of Norman Finkelstein's polemical style The only thing about Finkelstein I don't particularly care for is all the unfunny jokes and Nazi analogies he uses for headlines. Not that it's offensive but over using them kinda belabors the point.
TOM SAWYER ABROAD v. INNOCENTS ABROAD Obama should have given him in return a copy of Mark Twain's TOM SAWYER ABROAD, written during the First Aliyah, and as brilliant a critique of Zionism's presuppositions as one could want: Huck Finn on Zionism From Mark Twain, Tom Sawyer Abroad (1894). http://www.gutenberg.org/files/91/91.txt Well, we went out in the woods on the hill, and Tom told us what it was. It was a crusade. “What’s a crusade?” I says. He looked scornful, the way he’s always done when he was ashamed of a person, and says: “Huck Finn, do you mean to tell me you don’t know what a crusade is?” “No,” says I, “I don’t. And I don’t care to, nuther. I’ve lived till now and done without it, and had my health, too. But as soon as you tell me, I’ll know, and that’s soon enough. I don’t see any use in finding out things and clogging up my head with them when I mayn’t ever have any occasion to use ‘em. There was Lance Williams, he learned how to talk Choctaw here till one come and dug his grave for him. Now, then, what’s a crusade? But I can tell you one thing before you begin; if it’s a patent-right, there’s no money in it. Bill Thompson he—“ “Patent-right!” says he. “I never see such an idiot. Why, a crusade is a kind of war.” I thought he must be losing his mind. But no, he was in real earnest, and went right on, perfectly ca’m. “A crusade is a war to recover the Holy Land from the paynim.” “Which Holy Land?” “Why, the Holy Land—there ain’t but one.” “What do we want of it?” “Why, can’t you understand? It’s in the hands of the paynim, and it’s our duty to take it away from them.” “How did we come to let them git hold of it?” “We didn’t come to let them git hold of it. They always had it.” “Why, Tom, then it must belong to them, don’t it?” “Why of course it does. Who said it didn’t?” I studied over it, but couldn’t seem to git at the right of it, no way. I says: “It’s too many for me, Tom Sawyer. If I had a farm and it was mine, and another person wanted it, would it be right for him to—“ “Oh, shucks! you don’t know enough to come in when it rains, Huck Finn. It ain’t a farm, it’s entirely different. You see, it’s like this. They own the land, just the mere land, and that’s all they DO own; but it was our folks, our Jews and Christians, that made it holy, and so they haven’t any business to be there defiling it. It’s a shame, and we ought not to stand it a minute. We ought to march against them and take it away from them.”
Dahoud, part of the problem in this conflict is the confusion of fact and fantasy. For example, you wrote: "The Palestinians are descendants of the Canaanites and have been in the region between the Jordan River and the Med. for about 8000 years." This is true except for the fact that "Canaanites" do not exist outside the Bible, and the same goes for an ancient Kingdom of Israel – the evidence for this entity is zero, except for those who clutch at straws eg low chronology proponents or the "Encoded Bible" fraternity. A technically accurate term for the indigenous people of that area of city states is West Semitic.