Israel is the historic home of the Jewish people and they are returning to their homeland
How this exaggeration came to be used and accepted defies logic. Zionists shape their views from personal attitudes and have a way of stating them as if they speak for all Jews, With much chagrin, I heard, at a recent conference, a well-known Zionist, well known because of his opposition to Israel's oppressive tactics and for now favoring a one-state, say that, "We can say the Jews have a real historic connection to the land of Israel"; "Jews have been talking about Zion and Jerusalem for a thousand years" (Are there any recordings of Jews expressing themselves 1000 years ago? Did the entire Jewish community make the statement or just one Jewish person?); and, "We cannot deny that Jews are a people who have deep roots in this land." A well-known Palestinian activist followed this dubious rhetoric with, "You are right, we cannot doubt the historical connection of the Jewish people to the land, but Zionism was still a settler colonial project."
As my mother used to say to me, "Danny, you can plotz."
Ancient Israel was home to ancient Jews. The area that is now Israel was not the ancient home of modern Jews. When ethnicities speak of an ancient home, they speak, such as from the voices of Native Americans, of caring for the land or for the hunting grounds, of attachment to a soil that nourished them, and with intimate knowledge of ancestors. They may look back at a recognized civilization that gave the world new advances in technology, culture, warfare, administration, or other disciplines, and left identifiable physical traces that excite humankind. Modern Jews have no attachment to a soil, no memories of an advanced civilization, no honest attachment to an ancient land, and no intimate knowledge of ancestors.
From my own and others' experiences " within one generation, any attachment to a foreign land is lost. No matter where someone grows, and no matter the conditions in that country, the infant grows into an adult that becomes attached to the soil, air, climate, food, and warts of that country. One generation is all that is needed to lose attachment, and the Zionists talk about a supposed heritage that has been interrupted by 100 generations.
Egyptians, no matter where they live, may identify with their ancient ancestors. These ancestors remain alive in verified history, books, documents, images, drawings, artifacts, monuments, and constructions. Same goes for Italians descended from Romans, Greeks descended from Greeks, Iranians descended from Iranians, Chinese descended from Chinese. All these ethnicities can trace their lives back to validated civilizations, and to recognized ancestors, in verisimilitude as if they existed today. There is no ancient civilization or ancient relative with whom Jews can identify that existed in the Holy land. Israel has multitudes of Canaanite, Crusader, Roman and Arab ruins; sparse reminders of ancient Hebrew expressions. There are some still quasi-historical and mythical characters " David, Solomon " and misidentified structures " Tower of David, which is an Arab minaret, Tomb of Absalom, which is a Greek edifice. False history and myth do not determine reality; misidentification undermines it.
Historical evidence shows that, after the ancient Hebrews, due to conquest and subjugation, faded from history, many of the later Jews were not attached to the land and did not consider it a national home " just the opposite " a large number of the later Jews preferred to remain in the land of exile, Mesopotamia. Jews moved throughout the Roman Empire, populating Alexandria, Rome, Cyrenaica, Salonika, Cyprus, and other places. From the time of the Maccabean revolt of the mid-2nd century B.C. to the Bar Kokhba revolt of the 2nd century A.D., some of whose centuries included the reign of the Hasmoneans, a sizable Jewish exodus to Mesopotamia and Persia and throughout the Roman Empire occurred. Freed from pastoral life, dry conditions, and restricted economies, new communities of Mesopotamian Jews, knowledgeable and worldly, appeared in the Fertile Crescent. That region, which housed the great Jewish academies of Surah, Pumbadita, and Nehardea, best expressed the legacy and heritage of modern Judaism.
Recognized Tel Aviv University archaeologists, Israel Finkelstein and Neil Asher Silberman, documented their explorations in The Bible Unearthed: Archaeology's New Vision of Ancient Israel and the Origin of Its Sacred Texts, Simon & Schuster, 2002, and provided a definitive rebuttal to Biblical history. Their archaeological diggings demonstrated that "the Israelites were Canaanites who developed into a distinct culture. Recent surveys of long-term settlement patterns in the Israelite heartlands show no sign of violent invasion or even peaceful infiltration, but rather a sudden demographic transformation about 1200 BCE in which villages appear."
A constant drumming of public relations and historical misconceptions have made it seem as if the more than two thousand years of lack of control and sizable physical presence by Jews in the Levant did not occur. Today is portrayed as only a short interval from the 2700-year-old reign of ancient King Hezekiah. Centuries of Christian and Crusader rule and more than one thousand years of Muslim rule and their tremendous constructions and creations in Jerusalem are downplayed. The Christian and Muslim everything become nothing, and a minor Hebrew something becomes everything. Myth replaces reality. Ethereal spirituality replaces physical presence.
Combating this pillar of Zionist transgression follows President Reagan's advice while at the Berlin wall, "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down these walls."
Undivided Jerusalem is the Heart and Eternal Capital of Israel
Verified history, which may include but is not biblical history, does not portray Israel as a capital city that administered extensive areas, collected taxes, supplied military, and provided services for long periods. Speculation awards it to some monarchs after 900 BCE, maybe the Hashomeans, to Jewish governors under foreign control, and administration by a Sandehrin during the beginning of the Common Era.
Hebrews maintained control of Jerusalem and outlying areas for only brief periods. In 701 B.C.E., Assyrian Ruler Sennacherib conquered Israel, deported its citizens, and besieged Jerusalem. In 586 B.C.E., Babylonians destroyed Jerusalem. In 332 B.C.E., Greek Leader Alexander the Great conquered Judea and Jerusalem, and placed the area under rule of the Seleucids, military officers in Alexander's army, until the Maccabees, a group of Jewish rebel warriors, regained control of Judea, in 141 B.C.E. In 63 B.C.E., Roman General Pompey captured Jerusalem and created anarchy. In 37 B.C.E the Roman Senate appointed Herod the Great as King of the Jews, and he administered the area until four C.E. In 70 C.E., a Roman army destroyed Jerusalem.
After 135 C.E., Hadrian changed the city name to Aelia Capitolina and forbade Jewish and Christian presence. No more interrupted capital (if it ever was one) and infinitesimal Jewish presence for almost 1900 years. The adjective of an eternal capital is an eternal fabrication.
The Holy Basin contains well-marked Christian and Muslim institutions and holy places that have had historical placement for more than a millennium - Church of the Holy Sepulcher, Al Asqua Mosque, Dome of the Rock and its Mosque of Omar. Some remains of Jewish dwellings, burial grounds and ritual baths can be found, but few, if any, major Jewish monuments, buildings or institutions from the Biblical era exist within the "Old City" of today's Jerusalem. The oft-cited Western Wall is the supporting wall for Herod's platform and is not directly related to the Second Temple. According to historian Karen Armstrong, in her book Jerusalem, Ballantine Books, April 29, 1997, Jews did not pray at the Western Wall until the Mamelukes in the 15th century allowed them to move their congregations from a dangerous Mount of Olives and pray daily at the Wall. At that time, she estimates that there may have been no more than 70 Jewish families in Jerusalem. Have seventy Jewish families determined the "holiest site" of the Jews? No remains of the Temple have been located.
Tel Aviv University archaeologists Israel Finkelstein's and Neil Asher Silberman's discoveries "suggest that Jerusalem was sparsely populated and only a village during the times of David and of Solomon. During the time of Solomon, the northern kingdom of Israel had an insignificant existence, too poor to be able to pay for a vast army, and with too little bureaucracy to be able to administer a kingdom, certainly not an empire." It was not until the eighth century B.C., 200 years after David, that Jerusalem began to grow.
Myths have been portrayed as reality, and for reasons other than spiritual and cultural attachment. Israel has a hidden agenda.
Israel is a physically small and relatively new country with an eager population and big ambitions. It needs more prestige and wants to be viewed as a power broker on the world stage. To gain those perspectives Israel needs a capital city that commands respect, contains ancient traditions, and is recognized as one of the world's most important and leading cities. Almost all of the world's principal nations, from Egypt to Germany to Great Britain, have capitals that are great cities of the world. To assure its objectives, Israel wants an oversized Jerusalem that contains the Holy City. That's not all.
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