In 135 AD, Judaea was renamed "Palestina," by the Roman Emperor Hadrian, following the suppression of the Jewish uprising, in order to eradicate Jewish nationhood and to uproot the inherent Jewish attachment to the Land of Israel. Similarly, Jerusalem was renamed "Aelia Capitolina," in honor of Aelius Hadrian and the Roman Capitol, in an attempt to obliterate Jewish association with the spiritual and physical core of Judaism. Since 1949, and increasingly since 1967, the term "Palestine" has been employed, by Israel's enemies, in order to delegitimize the existence of the Jewish State. Arab migrant workers were imported by the Ottoman Empire and by the British Mandate (which defeated the Ottomans in 1917) for infrastructure projects: The port of Haifa, the Haifa-Qantara, Haifa-Edrei, Haifa-Nablus and Jerusalem-Jaffa railroads, military installations, roads, quarries, reclamation of wetlands, etc. Illegal Arab laborers were also attracted by the relative economic boom, stimulated by Jewish immigration.
Contrary to conventional wisdom, the geographic term "Palestine" was predominantly associated - from biblical times until the 1948 establishment of Israel- with the Jewish people, Jewish history and Jewish geography. It was the crux of Jewish national aspirations, the Jewish Homeland.
In 135 AD, Judaea was renamed "Palestina," by the Roman Emperor Hadrian, following the suppression of the Jewish uprising, in order to eradicate Jewish nationhood and to uproot the inherent Jewish attachment to the Land of Israel. Similarly, Jerusalem was renamed "Aelia Capitolina," in honor of Aelius Hadrian and the Roman Capitol, in an attempt to obliterate Jewish association with the spiritual and physical core of Judaism.
Since 1949, and increasingly since 1967, the term "Palestine" has been employed, by Israel's enemies, in order to delegitimize the existence of the Jewish State. In April 1950, Judea and Samaria were renamed "the West Bank", by the Jordanian occupation, in order to assert Jordanian rule, and expunge Jewish connection to the cradle of Jewish history. Until 1950, all official Ottoman, British and prior records referred to "Judea and Samaria" and not to the "West Bank."
"Palestine" is a derivative of the Hebrew term "Plishtim" (invaders), the Biblical name of the Philistines, non-Semites from the Greek islands and from Phoenicia, who migrated in the 12th century BCE to Pleshet, along the Mediterranean. The term "Palestine" was established, in the 5th century BC, by the Greek historian, Herodotus, and adopted in 135 AD, by the Roman Empire, in an attempt to erase "Judaea" from human memory.
According to Prof. Bernard Lewis, the icon of Mid-East historians (International History Review, January, 1980), "the earliest attempts at a territorial definition of the country later known as Palestine are in the Bible." In its attempts to devastate Jewish national aspirations, the Roman Empire attached Palestine to the province of Syria. In 400 AD, Palestine was split into Palestina Prima - with its capital in Caesarea - and Palestina Secunda - with its capital in Bethshean, further diminishing the stature of Jerusalem.
Prof. Lewis notes that the 7th century Arab conquest of Palestine perpetuated the neglect of Jerusalem, while elevating the status of Lydda, Ramla and Tiberias. "In the early medieval Arabic usage, Filastin [Palestine] and Urdunn [Jordan] were sub-districts forming part of the greater geographical entity known as Syria.... Under Roman, Byzantine and Islamic rule, Palestine was politically submerged. It reappeared only under the Crusaders.... the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem....
"Under the successors of Saladin, and still more under the Mamluks, the country was redistributed in new territorial units ... with its capital in Damascus.... After the Ottoman conquest in 1516-17, the country was divided into Ottoman administrative districts... subject to the authority of the Governor-General of Damascus....
"[The term Palestine] was no longer used by Muslims, for whom it had never meant more than an administrative sub-district and it had been forgotten even in that limited sense....
"With the British conquest in 1917-18, Palestine became the official name of a definite territory for the first time since the early Middle Ages.... Palestine at this moment included both banks of the Jordan.... On November 29, 1947, the General Assembly of the UN adopted a [non-binding] resolution approving the partition of mandatory Palestine into three components: a Jewish state, an Arab state and an international zone.... [The Arab] rejected the partition resolution and went to war to prevent its implementation.... The Palestine entity, formally established and defined by Britain, was formally abolished in 1948 with the termination of the Mandate."
The Land of Israel (Palestine) has played a critical role in Jewish history, religion, nationalism, culture, language and personal and communal relationships, compared with the marginal role played by Palestine in Arab and Muslim history. Hence, the moral high ground for mandating the establishment of a Jewish State by the 1917 Balfour Declaration (on both sides of the Jordan River) and the 1922 League of Nations' British Mandate for Palestine (from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean). Article 80 of the UN Charter upholds the "Mandate for Palestine," which has not been overruled until today.
The fact that most Arab towns and villages in Judea and Samaria have retained their original Biblical Jewish names, highlights Jewish roots in the Land of Israel (Palestine). For example, Bethlehem, Hebron, A-Dura is Biblical Adora'yim, A-Ram is Haramah, Anata is Anatot, Batir is Beitar, Beit-Hur is Beit Horon, Beitin is Bethel, Mukhmas is Mikhmash, Seilun is Shilo, Tequa' is Teqoah, etc.
These sites are not occupied by the Jewish State. They are the epitome of the Jewish moral high ground and Statehood in the Land of Israel, Palestine.
Contrary to political correctness, Palestinian Arabs have not been in the area west of the Jordan River from time immemorial; no Palestinian state ever existed, no Palestinian People was ever robbed of its land and there is no basis for the Palestinian "claim of return."
Most Palestinian Arabs are descendants of the 1845-1947 Muslim migrants from the Sudan, Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, as well as from Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Yemen, Libya, Morocco, Bosnia, the Caucasus, Turkmenistan, Kurdistan, India, Afghanistan and Balochistan.
Arab migrant workers were imported by the Ottoman Empire and by the British Mandate (which defeated the Ottomans in 1917) for infrastructure projects: The port of Haifa, the Haifa-Qantara, Haifa-Edrei, Haifa-Nablus and Jerusalem-Jaffa railroads, military installations, roads, quarries, reclamation of wetlands, etc. Illegal Arab laborers were also attracted by the relative economic boom, stimulated by Jewish immigration.
According to a 1937 report by the British Peel Commission (Palestine Betrayed, Prof. Efraim Karsh, Yale University Press, 2010, p. 12), "The increase in the Arab population is most marked in urban areas, affected by Jewish development. A comparison of the census returns in 1922 and 1931 shows that, six years ago, the increase percent in Haifa was 86, in Jaffa 62, in Jerusalem 37, while in purely Arab towns such as Nablus and Hebron it was only 7, and at Gaza there was a decrease of 2 percent."
As a result of the substantial 1880-1947Arab immigration - and despite Arab emigration caused by domestic chaos and intra-Arab violence - the Arab population of Jaffa, Haifa and Ramla grew 17, 12 and 5 times.
The (1831-1840) conquest, by Egypt's Mohammed Ali, was solidified by a flow of Egyptian migrants settling empty spaces between Gaza and Tul-Karem up to the Hula Valley. They followed in the footsteps of thousands of Egyptian draft dodgers, who fled Egypt before 1831 and settled in Acre. The British traveler, H.B. Tristram, identified, in his 1865 The Land of Israel: a journal of travels in Palestine (p. 495), Egyptian migrants in the Beit-Shean Valley, Acre, Hadera, Netanya and Jaffa.
The British Palestine Exploration Fund documented that Egyptian neighborhoods proliferated in the Jaffa area: Saknet el-Mussariya, Abu Kebir, Abu Derwish, Sumeil, Sheikh Muwanis, Salame', Fejja, etc. In 1917, the Arabs of Jaffa represented at least 25 nationalities, including Persians, Afghanis, Hindus and Balochis. Hundreds of Egyptian families settled in Ara' Arara', Kafer Qassem, Taiyiba and Qalansawa.
Many of the Arabs who fled in 1948, reunited with their families in Egypt and other neighboring countries.
"30,000-36,000 Syrian migrants (Huranis) entered Palestine during the last few months alone" reported "La Syrie" daily on August 12, 1934. Az-ed-Din el-Qassam, the role-model of Hamas terrorism, which terrorized Jews in British Mandate Palestine, was Syrian, as were Said el-A'az, a leader of the 1936-38 anti-Jewish pogroms and Kaukji, the commander-in-chief of the Arab mercenaries terrorizing Jews in the 1930s and 1940s.
Libyan migrants settled in Gedera, south of Tel Aviv. Algerian refugees (Mugrabis) escaped the French conquest of 1830 and settled in Safed (alongside Syrians and Jordanian Bedouins), Tiberias and other parts of the Galilee. Circassian refugees, fleeing Russian oppression ( 1878 ) and Moslems from Bosnia, Turkmenistan, and Yemen ( 1908 ) diversified the Arab demography west of the Jordan River.
Mark Twain wrote in Innocents Abroad (American Publishing Company, 1969): "Of all the lands there are for dismal scenery, Palestine must be the prince.... Palestine is desolate and unlovely." Analyzing Mark Twain's book, John Haynes Holmes, the pacifist Unitarian priest, the co-founder of the American Civil Liberties Union and the author of Palestine Today and Tomorrow - a Gentile's Survey of Zionism (McMillan, 1929) wrote: "This is the country to which the Jews have come to rebuild their ancient homeland.... On all the surface of this earth there is no home for the Jew save in the mountains and the well-springs of his ancient kingdom.... Everywhere else the Jews is in exile.... But, Palestine is his.... Scratch Palestine anywhere and you'll find Israel.... There is not a spot which is not stamped with the footprint of some ancient [Jewish] tribesman.... Not a road, a spring, a mountain, a village, which does not awaken the name of some great [Jewish] king, or echo with the voice of some great [Jewish] prophet.... [The Jew] has a higher, nobler motive in Palestine than the economic.... This mission is to restore Zion; and Zion is Palestine."
The Arab attempt to gain the moral high ground and to delegitimize the Jewish State - by employing the immoral reinvention of history and recreation of identity - was exposed by Arieh Avneri's The Claim of Dispossession (Herzl Press, 1982) and Joan Peters' From Time Immemorial (Harper & Row, 1986), which provide the aforementioned - and much more - data.
According to a June, 2012 study by the Washington-based Population Reference Bureau (PRB), 72% of 15-49 year old Palestinian married women prefer to avoid pregnancy, as are 78% in Morocco, 71% in Jordan, 69% in Egypt and Libya, 68% in Syria, 63% in Iraq and 61% in Yemen. The PRB study states that "a growing number of women are using contraception, as family planning services have expanded in the Arab region." The unprecedented fertility decline in the Muslim world was documented in June, 2012 by Dr. Nicholas Eberstadt, a leading demographer at the American Enterprise Institute, and Apoorva Shah of the Hoover Institute.
US global leadership. Thou shall embrace US global leadership, underscoring US freedom of unilateral action, rather than subordinating US policy to multilateral considerations. The US - not the UN or any international order - is the dominant quarterback of international relations. US global leadership is critical for its economic, homeland security and military concerns. It bolsters posture of deterrence, providing a tailwind for allies, thus constraining clear and present threats posed by rogue/terrorist Islamic regimes. On the other hand, US withdrawal is interpreted as weakness, emboldening adversaries, weakening allies, fueling clear and present dangers and facilitating the recurrence of 9/11
In 1830, New York University Prof. George Bush, the great-granduncle of G.H.W. Bush, considered one of the most profound American scholars of the mid-19th century, published "The Life of Mohammed". He was not concerned about political correctness, was low on delusion and top heavy on realism. His 1830 reference to the Islamic threat was consistent with the 2012 state of intra-Muslim atrocities, hate-education, tyranny, anti-US stormy Arab winter, intolerance of criticism, global Islamic terrorism in general and suicide bombing in particular.
The murder of nearly 3,000 persons on 9/11 was planned while President Clinton extended his hand to the Muslim World, in general, and to the Palestinians, in particular. The October 12, 2000 murder of seventeen USS Cole sailors occurred when Clinton brokered unprecedented Israeli concessions to the Palestinian. The August 27, 1998 murder of 257 persons at the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania took place while Clinton brutally pressured Prime Minister Netanyahu. The 1995/6 murder of 19 US soldiers in Riyadh and Khobar Towers was carried out while Clinton courted Arafat. The December 21, 1988 murder of 270 PanAm-103 passengers took place a few months following the groundbreaking recognition of the PLO by Reagan. The April/October 1983 murder of 300 Marines at the US Embassy and the Marines headquarters in Beirut occurred while Reagan interfered with Israel's hot pursuit of the PLO, blasting Israel for its war on PLO terrorism.
Definition: King's Calendar Chronological Research
The Premise: Between the 5th and 3rd centuries BCE (but continuing down to at least 104 BCE), Sectarian redactors transcribed the legitimate 'solar year' chronological records of Israel and Judah, into an artificial form, with listed years as each comprised of 12 months of 4 weeks of 7 days, or 336 days per year, thus creating a 13th artificial year where 12 solar years existed.
When the Synchronous Chronological Data provided in the Books of Kings and Chronicles for the Divided Kingdom Period are measured in years of 336 days, the synchronisms actually align. [Refer to Appendix 5. to see how it synchronises the Divided Kingdom Period]
About the KingsCalendar Publisher
R.P.BenDedek is the owner and Editor of KingsCalendar.com which was originally set up to publicize his research results into the Chronology of Ancient Israel. Those results were published under the title: 'The King's Calendar: The Secret of Qumran'.
Whilst there have been many attempts to solve the chronological riddle of the Bible's synchronisms of reigns of the kings of Israel and Judah and their synchronism with other Ancient Near Eastern Nations, no other research is based on a simple mathematical formula which could, if it is incorrect, be disproved easily. To date, no one has been able to dismiss the mathematical results of this research.
Free to air Academic articles set forth Apologetics for and results of his discovery of an "artificial chronological scheme" running through the Bible, Josephus, the Damascus Documents of the Dead Sea Scrolls, and Seder Olam Rabbah.
During the current economic downturn, this book has been drastically reduced in price but will eventually rise as the economy improves.
Check the Chapter Precis Page to see details of each chapter and to gain access to the Four Free to Air Chapters
R.P. BenDedek writes social commentaries and photographic 'Stories from China' both at KingsCalendar, and as a contributing columnist at Magic City Morning Star News in Maine USA.
(He has been teaching Conversational English in China since 2003 and currently (2013) is teaching in Suzhou City Jiangsu Province.)
