Truth & Lies

Many are the lies spread about the Jews and Israel. Frequent are the untruths and many are undoubtedly motivated by an anti-Semitic impulse. I know that I have been astounded by some 'Christians' who bristle with indignation that the Jews are still referred to as a 'chosen people' and claim that the New Testament transfers that honour to us (as I am one as well) and us alone. Again I believe that such a claim harbours at the very least, a soupcon of anti-Semitic 'flavouring'.

The current impasse in Israel is in truth not an intractable issue at all, particularly if, as is claimed, prior possession is the imprimatur of ownership (i.e. pre 1948). Of course those who make these claims are nearly all from the Pro Palestinian camp, but like too many ‘intellectuals’ within the contemporary Left-wing political commissariat, they are ‘bitten on the bum’ by their own woefully inadequate grasp of history. For example; consider the truth claims within the following extract to ‘whet your archaeological whistle’ as it were:

Jerusalem: The Biography By Simon Sebag Montefiore;Orion, 696pp,

To the educated British mind, mention of Jerusalem generally conjures up, at best, impatience with the apparently intractable problem of reconciling two equal and rival claims to the city, Jewish and Arab; at worst, fury at a presumed ‘occupation’ by Israelis who have no right to claim it as their capital at all.

Such people would doubtless be amazed to learn that, some 10 centuries before the birth of Christ and 17 centuries before the birth of Mohammed, the city of Jerusalem was created by King David as the capital of the united kingdom of Israel and Judea. The Jews were in fact the only people for whom the land of Israel was ever actually their national home.

And the Arabs knew it. ‘Who can contest the rights of the Jews to Palestine?’ the then mayor of Jerusalem, Yusuf Khalidi, told the Chief Rabbi of France in 1899: ‘God knows historically it is indeed your country’—even though, he added, the problem was that now there were others living there too.

Unfortunately for those who scream blue murder at any and all Israeli attempts to defend themselves from annihilation, no amount of truth, true or otherwise, will convince them to give up their assault. For what they are driven by is a lot less complex that the situation has been called. It is the same spirit that drove the Nazi's, the Russians and even the religious fanatics who claimed to persecute in the name of the Church, and He will never give it up, He can’t; for it is His very nature.