Want Mideast Peace? Start With TruthBy Joseph FarahAccording to conventional wisdom, the root of the Mideast conflict comes down to this: Palestinians want a homeland and Muslims want control over sites they consider holy. Simple, right? Wrong. Forget the conventional wisdom. If you want Mideast peace, you have to begin on a foundation of truth, not myth. Isn't it interesting that prior to the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, there was no serious movement for a Palestinian homeland? "Well," 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 percent of the Middle East lands. Israel represents one-tenth of 1 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 this brutal truth from anyone else in the international media. It's just not politically correct. I know what you're going to say: "The Al Aqsa Mosque and the Dome 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 seventeenth 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 precinct 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, Isaac and Jacob. So what's the solution to the Middle East mayhem? Well, frankly, I don't think there is a man-made solution to the violence. But, if there is one, it needs to begin with truth. Pretending will only lead to more chaos. Treating a 4,000-year-old birthright backed by overwhelming historical and archaeological evidence equally with illegitimate claims, wishes and wants gives diplomacy and peacekeeping a bad name. That's an excerpt of what I wrote back in October 2000 -- an article the publisher of the Jerusalm Post said "turned the country upside-down." It was read by millions. I was threatened with death. I was asked to speak all over the world. The article was translated into at least 15 languages. I was offered book contracts to expand the thesis. Instead, I chose to expand it in WorldNetDaily's offline magazine, Whistleblower -- the current issue. In addition to my expansive cover story, this special issue also includes:
This issue is even more powerful than WND's November 2001 issue, 'JIHAD: The radical Islamic threat to America,' which was praised by top opinion leaders as the best journalistic look at Islamic terrorism. If this new offering were a movie instead of a magazine, we might have called it, "JIHAD II: The Holy Land." SPECIAL OFFER: For a limited time, and while supplies last, WND will send new subscribers, FREE, a copy of the celebrated book "Battleground: Fact and Fantasy in Palestine" (a $19.99 value) – considered one of the best-written, informative and accurate histories of the Arab-Israeli conflict. Subscribe to Whistleblower now, starting with June's explosive Mideast edition, and receive 11 more power-packed monthly issues – as well as your own FREE copy of the comprehensive, 323-page, myth-destroying book, "Battleground." Prefer to buy the single issue? You can order it for only $7.50. P.S.: When the "Myths of the Mideast" column first appeared, it was emailed around the world dozens of times. This special issue of Whistleblower, too, has that kind of power -- the power to change the terms of the debate. So, email this notice far and wide -- right after you order your subscription. This Article Is From Worldnetdaily
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