 13 May 2005 @ 09:59, by Judih Haggai
David L. Cohen, my partner's uncle, passed away a little less than 2 years ago, after just having completed years of research concerning the land of Israel and those who claim possession.
After presenting it to an active discussion group in Camden, Maine, he was editing his work as I showed up for a visit. He agreed to allow me to upload it to the Net. I was adamant that so much work should be available to a wider audience.
This is a long article, but his research is valuable, specially in the light of recent discussions on *!* Sparticle's log and questions raised about ancestral claims to the land of Israel.
Please read it in its entirety, take it slowly if you must.
And, thanks in advance for your attention.
Discussion on Anti-Judaism, Anti-Semitism, Anti-Zionism, Anti-Israelism by David L. Cohen, 2003
I have set before myself the task of trying to understand the age-old hatred of the Jews, and their connection to the land of Israel-Palestine.
To establish basics, we must start with the tribes as they came out of the desert in about 1200 B.C.E. and entered Canaan. I do not start with Abraham. Although he is acknowledged as the first monotheist, we know only little of his life in Canaan, his sojourn in Egypt and return to Canaan. We accept that he not only conceived of the one universal God, but was the founder of the Jewish Peoplehood. His visit to Egypt and return to Canaan are recounted in legend, one to which three religions, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, subscribe, with current populations of, respectively, thirteen million Jews, two billion Christians, and one billion, three hundred million Moslems. The Jews, in history, speak to their tragedy of numbers.
We will refer to the Hebrew Bible, not to the Old Testament as Christians have addressed it. In a conversation with a Christian minister he agreed it is appropriate.
The question of Palestine-Israel has its roots in antiquity. They both rise out of Canaan, which itself was formed by the biblical Canaan, son of Ham, who was the son of Noah. Out of Ham rose the Hamito-Semitic peoples of Africa-Asia and four languages, Arabic, Coptic, Hebrew and Syriac. Hebrew was Canaanite, a language Israelites made their own as they adapted to life in Canaan. In Nelson Glueck’s Rivers of the Desert (1953) he, an archeologist, alluded to the story of mankind in Palestine reaching back “to early prehistoric periods, when man first walked the face of the earth”. Glueck refers to Jericho as existing in the neolithic period, that is, 9000-8000 B.C.E. Bernard Braudel, the French historian, in his Memory of the Mediterranean stated: “The Philistines, in about 1350 B.C.E., gained control of the southeastern coast of Canaan and named it Philistia, and the rest of the land Palestine.” In the ninth century, a Canaanite group settled in the north and called themselves Phoenicians.
We are here to trace the hatred for the Jewish People from its earliest beginnings to the present. We will begin with anti-Israelism in ancient times, when the desert tribes entered Canaan, and fought their way in a number of wars that resulted in ten tribes in the north and two in the south of Canaan, and called it Israel. In the 700’s B.C.E. the ten tribes were defeated and scattered into the Diaspora. The remaining tribes lived in south Judea, in periodic conflicts for survival. In 597 B.C.E., Judea was defeated and their elders and families were exiled to Babylonia, where, remarkably, they were permitted to set up their own communities, including institutions of higher learning and synagogues. This is not to suggest that they lived an ideal existence. There was constant war. They, nonetheless, were able to produce the Babylonian Talmud in the years 200 C.E. to 600 C.E. This venerated community survived until ousted by Iraq after the establishment of the Jewish State in 1948. Many Jews from all Arab states, settled in Israel, and worldwide.
The remaining population of Israelites continued in what became known as Judea until they were defeated by the Romans in 67-70 C.E. They lost statehood and the Temple. Many were taken captive to Rome, but many stayed, enough so that Bar Kochba could organize a revolt against Rome that lasted from 132-5 C.E., another disaster. Nonetheless, some Jews remained and during 200-500 C.E. produced the Palestinian Talmud. It is of interest that when the Romans defeated the Israelites in 70 C.E., they renamed the land ‘Palestine’, in order to terminate Israel.
The transition from ancient statehood to that of a world people happened only because of the existence of the rabbinate and the synagogue. In this connection, I would comment on the word Pharisee, which in the dictionary (Random House Unabridged) is a “sanctimonious, self-righteous or hypocritical person.” This is a Christian demonization of Jews. This has widespread usage. There is a second definition in the same dictionary: “A member of a Jewish sect that flourished during the 1st century B.C.E., who practiced the oral laws and traditions, and believed in the after life and the coming of the Messiah.” From them came the Rabbinate and the transition to the Diaspora. Without them it is unlikely Judaism would have survived. Did the Jews continue in Palestine? Yes. Evidence? The Crusades, beginning in 1096, killed Jews in Europe on the way to, as well as in, Palestine. A total of nine Crusades, in the 11th to 13th centuries was a catastrophe for European and Palestinian Jewry. Through the years to the present, the pattern continued whether it was the inquisitions in Spain, Portugal and Mexico, or the pogroms in Eastern Europe and Russia. The culmination was the Holocaust in Germany with the loss of six million.
Our question today is why?
If, as a people, we were the founders of the concept of the universal God, why have we become a pariah people? The answer is simply that the world has, in history, seen us as the killers of Christ. The consequence is less population growth and diminished numbers. When you slaughter 6,000,000 Jews in the Holocaust, how many offspring are lost to future generations? If you slaughter Jews for 2,000 years, it is remarkable that we are here today.
In order to understand, we have to deal with the story of Jesus Christ. Had there not been a crucifixion, we would have been spared our history of death and destruction. In the Crucifixion story it is asserted that Pontius Pilate conducted the trial in the open, among a crowd of ranting Jews demanding Jesus’ crucifixion. This was presumed to have taken place the evening of the first Passover seder when the Sanhedrin convened for this purpose. Unthinkable! On the face of it, this is absurd. What court would hold a trial out of doors, and who was there to record that they were all Jews, or any at all? Crucifixion was a Roman practice, not acceptable to Judaism; nor is the Christian version consonant with Halachic Law. Christians claim that the Sanhedrin judged Jesus in one day and then insisted on immediate Roman prosecution the following day. This is inconsistent with Jewish law as found in the Talmud. The Halachah states: (Steinsaltz Talmud XV, Part I, pg. 185), “If all the judges in a capital case rule in favor of conviction, the defendant is acquitted, for the defendant can only be convicted if there is a minority opinion in favor of acquittal.” Jewish law insisted that the defendant receive an appropriate defense. Additionally “the law held that a capital crime required a two-day trial, one for charging and a second for sentencing.” The claim is that the Sanhedrin trial was only one day; it thereby was illegal and not applicable. Obviously, the Jewish responsibility for the Crucifixion has no foundation in terms of legal procedure.
How is it then that the Crucifixion became the anvil that caused the defamation of Jews for over two thousand years? One need only read the Gospels of the New Testament. For Jews the Gospels are devastating. These were by disciples of Jesus, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, written many years after his death, and incorporated into the New Testament. I read the Gospels in a state of shock. I will quote briefly:
“Therefore when thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets.” (Holy Bible, Authorized King James Version, Matthew 6.2)
“From that time forth began Jesus to shew unto his disciples, how that he must go unto Jerusalem and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed, and be raised again the third day.” (Matthew 16.21)
In the Gospels I found countless negative references to the Jews, negativism that became deadly.
At this point I will quote from William Nichol’s book titled Christian Antisemitism, A History of Hate. Nichols is a Professor Emeritus of Religious Studies, University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. His is the finest book I have ever read on the subject of antisemitism. I quote him,
"… many Jewish writers have said quite simply that the Nazis chose the Jews to hate because two thousand years of Christian teaching had accustomed the world to do so … the myth of the Jews as the Christ-killers has powered anti-Judaism and anti-Semitism through the centuries. It is present in the New Testament, and it has not evaporated under the impact of modern critical history."
Nichols further states:
“Jesus was a faithful and observant Jew, who lived by the Torah and taught nothing against his own people and their faith. He did not claim to be the Messiah … the Jews did not conspire to kill him and were not responsible for his death.”
I would be remiss if I failed to state that the Gospels, with their defamations, nonetheless, have redeeming aspects. In superseding the Hebrew Bible they did incorporate positive concepts of ethics, morals, family life and law. Unfortunately, humans have a greater propensity for remembering evil than good. The Jewish People have thereby been victims for over two thousand years.
In tracing the history of Christian hatred beyond the Gospels, I quote another Christian, John Flannery, whose 1965 book, Anguish of the Jews, told of the 4th century when John Chrysostom preached:
“Why are Jews so degenerate? Because of their odious assassination of Christ … there is no expiation possible. Vengeance is without end; Jews will always remain without temple or nation – this is the work of God … always to be under the yoke of servitude without end … it is the duty of Christians to hate Jews …”
This is John Chrysostom, who was later granted sainthood.
We continue in the 4th century to Constantine, he who accepted Christianity and made it one with the state. James Carrol, who left the priesthood to become a writer, in his book Constantine’s Sword, which appeared in 2001, extensively critiques his church, including Christian-Jewish contention of over 2,000 years. In late 300’s C.E. Constantine, already inclined to Christianity, gained control of Rome and, in time, established religion as part of the governance of the state. It is said that he had seen a flaming cross in the sky inscribed with the words “In this sign thou shalt conquer.” And conquer he did. He established an empire. Paganism continued but he strengthened Christianity. Church and State was established. A Jewish community had been recognized in Rome enjoying citizenship. Constantine instituted legislation, withdrawing rights, instituting the defamation of the Jews, the Christ-killers. He was heralded as the equal of the Epostles. Quoting Nichols, by the 6th century under Justinean, “Jews were no longer first class citizens, but seen as a threat to Christians”. This was the forerunner of victimization of the Jews by ecclesiastical pressure, the beginning of anti-Jewish legislation.
The historical detail of anti-Judaism is so vast that I thought it best to provide you with some excerpts from a list of Canon Law compiled by Raul Hilberg in his The Destruction of the European Jews. Hilberg compares the whole variety of Canonical Law from the year 306 C.E. to the time of Hitler’s war, listing the rulings against Jews with those of the Hitler regime. There are 22 such listings. I will quote a number of them:
CANONICAL LAW
Jews not allowed to hold public office, Synod of Clermont, 535.
Burning of the Talmud and other books, 12th Synod of Toledo, 681.
Jews not permitted to be plaintiffs, or witnesses against Christians in the courts, 3d Lateran Council, 1179, Canon 26.
Construction of new synagogues prohibited, Council of Oxford, 1222.
Adoption by a Christian of the Jewish religion or return by a baptized Jew to the Jewish religion defined as heresy, Synod of Mainz, 1310.
NAZI MEASURE
Law for the Re-establishment of the Professional Civil Service, April 7, 1933 (RGB1 I, 175).
Book burnings in Nazi Germany.
Proposal by the Party Chancellery that Jews not be permitted to institute civil suits, September 9, 1942 (Bormann to Justice Ministry, September 9, 1942, NG-151).
Destruction of Synagogues in entire Reich, November 10, 1938 (Heydrich to Göring, November 11, 1938, PS-3058).
Adoption by a Christian of the Jewish religion places him in jeopardy of being treated as a Jew. Decision by Oberlandesgericht Königsberg, 4th Zivilsenat, June 24, 1942 (Die Judenfrage [Vertrauliche Beilage], November 1, 1942, pp. 82-83).
It speaks for itself.
In the course of one of our sessions I stated that racial hatred of the Jews, called antisemitism, started in 1879 when Wilhelm Marr, a German newspaper writer, used the term ‘antisemite’. This had to do with linguistics, the study of language. He claimed superiority of the Germanic language over Hebrew, a semitic language. Of course, there are many semitic peoples and languages, so singling out the term antisemitism for Jews only was an error in scholarship. There is an irony here, because the very sophisticated groups made so gross a mistake. Antisemitism as an epithet has clung to Jews with devastating effects. It has become a racial epithet. One of our group objected and stated that racial hatred of the Jews preceded 1879. I have searched for an answer, and determined that, in fact, the first racial attack took place during the Spanish Inquisition, beginning in 1492, which spread to Portugal and Mexico. It developed in Spain where those who wished to hold public office had to submit a certificate of purity of blood to demonstrate that they were free of bad blood, that is, Jewish blood, which even baptism couldn’t remove. This was the ultimate irony because under Arab control beginning in 711 C.E., Jews, although second class citizens in Spain, experienced a golden age. They were active in government, the professions, philosophy and culture. Jews had been in Spain since the Roman expulsion of Jews from Israel in the 1st century. Although the Jews were not full citizens under Islamic law, they flourished until the coming of Christianity and Ferdinand and Isabella, who expelled them. The Inquisition lasted until the close of the 18th century. This was the beginning of race as a factor of hatred of the Jews.
Like the word Pharisee the word antisemitism flourished. It has been a powerful source of hate that engulfed Jewry in our times, culminating in Hitler and the holocaust of 6,000,000. Holocaust is another word uprooted from its original meaning, a burnt offering, a religious act to appease the gods, a misnomer of gross proportions.
And this brings me to Jules Isaac, my personal hero of the 20th century. Jules Isaac was in the top echelon of the French educational system. He was a Jew, but not actively practicing his religion. He was, however, an historian. When impacted by the Shoah he undertook a history of Christian-Jewish relations. On a day he was not home, the Nazi police appeared and arrested his wife, daughter, son-in-law, and other extended family, never to return. One son escaped to England. His wife wrote to him urging him to “complete your work. It was needed by humanity.” He was hidden by priests and ministers and thus enabled to complete his volume, Jesus and the Jews, published in 1947. It was to have significant impact on Christian-Jewish relations. Jules Isaac dissipated Christian myths.
Christianity held that the dispersion of the Jews from Israel in 70 C.E. was in punishment for Jesus' crucifixion for which the Jews were held responsible. Isaac established that there were earlier dispersions: 1) Ahab, King of Israel, in the 9th century B.C.E. emigrated to Damascus to land set aside for him and his people. 2) In 721 B.C.E., Assyria defeated Israel and dispersed the ten tribes. 3) In 600-586 B.C.E., Nebuchadnezzar exiled Jews to Babylonia where they lived successfully for many centuries. 4) 200 years prior to Jesus, Jews lived in Alexandria, Egypt, where they were highly valued members of society.
It is true that in 70 C.E. Jewish slaves were dispersed through the Holy Roman Empire, but in time, they worked and earned their freedom, and it is said became 10% of the Empire. Moreover, when the Disciples arrived in Rome, they found a synagogue that preceded them. By this time the Jewish diaspora extended to Italy, Gaul, Rhine Valley, and Spain. Inasmuch as so many Jews were in the diaspora during Jesus' time and knew nothing of him, it cannot be said all of Israel was responsible for the deicide. Moreover, there is no record that Jesus presented himself to the Jews of Israel as the Messiah. There are no Jewish sources to confirm that Jews actively opposed him. The truth is that it was a time when there were many peripatetic "preachers" who inflamed Israel. Messianism was abroad.
What of the Sanhedrin (Judean Court)? It had power of court arraignment and interrogation, not decision-making. They functioned at Roman behest. Moreover, crucifixion was practiced by Greeks and Romans. Jewish capital punishment was by stoning, burning, decapitation or strangulation. Pontius Pilate had Jesus arrested as he entered Jerusalem as "Son of David" and "King of Jerusalem". This was insurrection in Roman eyes.
The final proof that the Jews were not permanently exiled to wander forever without welcome anywhere, was that the history of Jewry continued in Palestine past 70 C.E. There were enough Jews so that in 132-135 C.E. there was a second Judean war, the Bar Kochba revolt. In ensuing years, there was a Patriarchy established as the religious leader of Judaism and recognized by Rome. In the 4th century they had the power to rebel against Constantine. In the 6th century there was a rebellion against Justinian. In the 7th century, there was an alliance with the Persians against the Byzantines. And there were still Jews in Palestine during the Crusades and beyond. The point Isaac makes is that Christianity arose from a living Judaism in Israel.
Isaac formed an organization Amitie Judeo-Chretienne to promote his ideas. In 1947 at a meeting at Seelisberg, Switzerland, ten points were developed from his original eighteen. In 1956, Isaac issued Genese de L'antisemitisme. He pointed to the virulent and persistent antisemitism the Church fostered over 1800 years. Pope John XXIII, whose theme was "truth cannot be imposed except by the force of the truth itself”, in 1958, eliminated the word perfidis in the Prayer for the Jews, and in 1959 two prejudicial sentences, one in The Act of Consecration to the Sacred Heart, and the other in The Ritual in the Baptism of Fire". Encouraged, Isaac appealed for "final condemnation of the age-old teaching of contempt for the Jews". A private audience was granted Isaac in 1960 with Pope John XXIII, who sympathetically responded by setting up The Secretariat for Promoting Christian Unity, headed by Cardinal Augustin Bea, who in Vatican II presented it as point four on the Schema on Ecumenism. This was finally achieved by inclusion as part of The Secretariat for the Promotion of Christian Unity in October 1963. In 1965 the Church issued its encyclical Nostra Aetate deploring “hatred, persecution and display of anti-semitism directed against the Jews and from any source.”
Before Jules Isaac died he wrote one more book, a short one, which updated and summarized his views, The Teaching of Contempt, the Christian Roots of Antisemitism.
To update to the present, I will discuss two more Popes, Pope Pius XII, who headed the Holy See from 1939-58, and Pope John Paul II, who did so from 1978 to the present. Pope Pius XII had been Papal Nuncio in Germany during the Hitler years. There is no doubt that his greatest fear was the threat of communism and the Soviet Union. As a matter of its position of power in the world, Catholicism had designed the system of concordats dating back to 1122. Nuncio Pacelli signed such a concordat in 1933 with Hitler, and I quote from Hitler’s Pope, The Secret History of Pius XII, by John Cornwell:
“… the principle condition imposed by Hitler in 1933 was nothing less than the voluntary withdrawal of German Catholics from social and political action, including the voluntary disbanding of the Catholic Center Party, the sole surviving viable democratic party in Germany. This abdication for political Catholicism was to be implemented by Pacelli himself ...”
This, in fact, accounted for the quiessence of most German Catholics through the war. And in return Pacelli had guarantees that the Roman Papacy would be free of attack. There is irony here. In 1958, upon Pope Pius XII’s death, Golda Meir, Foreign Minister of Israel, wrote to the Papal Office:
“When fearful martyrdom came to our people in the decade of Nazi terror, the voice of the Pope was raised for the victims. The life of our times was enriched by a voice speaking out on great moral truths above the tumult of daily conflict. We mourn a great servant of truth.”
This commendation had been based on the belief that Nuncio Pacelli had saved Jewish lives. Currently, the Church has wanted to canonize him as a saint. There is a debate as to his true role during the holocaust and as to his planned sainthood. And this opposition consists of both Jews and Christians. The only way to resolve this is to open the Vatican’s files to public examination. This has been a Jewish demand because of strong convictions of both Jews and many Christians that he, in fact, did not attempt to save Jews during the holocaust as was claimed, and was actually silent. John Cornwell ends his treatise,
“It has been the urgent thesis of Constantine’s Sword, ‘that when the Papacy waxes strong at the expense of the people of God, the Catholic Church declines in moral and spiritual influence to the detriment of all.’”
I would like to pursue an understanding of the current Pope John Paul II. There are many volumes about this Pope, but for our purposes, I prefer Darcy O’Brien’s The Hidden Pope. This is a very touching story of a young group of friends, Karol “Lolek” Wojtyla, Jurek “Jerzy” Kluger, a Jew, and others, who grew up together in a small town of Wadowice, Poland. They enjoyed acting in drama, sports and other youthful activities. They were tight friends. With the coming of Hitler’s war, closing in on Poland, Jerzy and his father, a lawyer, ran for their lives. Through various vicissitudes the father ended up in England via Tel Aviv. Jerzy survived service in the Polish Army and a Russian slave camp, and made his way to Italy where he became a successful importer of American farm equipment. While in service he had met and married Renée, a Catholic who was to be his life-mate. After the war they ended up in Italy where they built a new life. One day, he and his partner, another survivor, Kurt Rosenberg, read an announcement about a Polish Archbishop who had given an important speech at the Vatican Council. He was from Krakow. His name was Karol Wojtyla. This was Lolek, Jurek Kluger’s friend of 30 years ago. The relationship was re-established, and thereafter the Pope was to use his friend, Jurek, as his informal ambassador to the Jewish world. The Pope would allow no formality, only friendship. On his becoming Pope, he invited Jurek and his family as his first guests at the Vatican. This became sensational world news, and established Jurek as liaison to the Jewish world. The Pope initiated attempts to bring Catholics and Jews into a closer acceptance of the Pope’s view,
“The Church has much to learn from the World, just as the World should learn from it, of people’s free will through rational inquiry”. He advocated “Catholic affirmation of the validity of Judaism …” He also came to “the conclusion that the Church had an important degree of responsibility for creating the antisemitic climate that led to slaughter … he hoped Christians and Jews could begin a new millennium in peace, harmony and mutual respect.”
He appointed a commission to look into Church errors in past centuries. He learned from the work of Jules Isaac who wrote of the “distortion over centuries that led to the Shoah”. Pope John Paul II supported Nostra Aetate, which was produced at the 1962-5 Ecumenical Council. It was binding on subsequent Popes, priests and laity.
“Thus, accusing the Jewish people as a whole of the death of Christ has become dogmatically impermissible for Catholics …”
This was an attempt to purge Christianity of its ancient anti-Judaism. It is his view that “Jews and Christians, as children of Abraham, are called to be a blessing for the World … Catholics must embrace the Hebrew Bible as equally valid as the New Testament …” … The Pope also affirms the validity of the nationality of the land, Israel.
What did he do? He eliminated the active converting of Jews and affirmed the permanence of their Covenant! (O’Brien)
However, in 1984, the Carmelite–Auschwitz incident began to unravel. The Pope himself had suggested the idea of a Christian memorial at Auschwitz. In 1984, the Carmelite nuns responded by moving into an old theater facility at the edge of the Auschwitz camp. In time, there was a storm of protest that was to irritate Jewish-Catholic relations over many years. The Papacy made response as follows:
After some negotiation the Pope arranged to attend a service at the 2,000 seat synagogue in Rome, located not far from the Vatican. Giacomo Saban, a Jewish professor, spoke for the Jewish community, reviewing the good and bad years of this 2,000 year old community. He expressed appreciation for the Pope’s first time presence in a synagogue. He recounted the good times and the bad times of the Jewish presence in Rome. He did refer to oppression of the Jews under some Popes, but also expressed appreciation of Pope Alexander VI who welcomed Jews during the Spanish Inquisition. He referred, too, to the oppression of Jews under other Popes, the burning of the Talmud, and ghetto-izing the Jews. He also expressed appreciation for the numbers of Italian citizens, priests and nuns who sheltered Jews during the Shoah. There was a call to recognize Israel.
The Pope replied: his principle theme was that
“Judaism and Christianity were not separate faiths, whatever their important differences, but were continuous from Abraham” and … “you are dearly beloved brothers and, in a certain way it could be said you are our elder brothers.”
This event made world history, but it did not resolve the Auschwitz problem. There was to be an ugly struggle until, after an especially rancorous verbal challenge with the Polish Catholics, with input from the Catholic world, Pope John Paul II had to step in once more. He arranged to build a Carmelite facility nearby, in 1994. This has resolved the Auschwitz problem, although there is a residue of anger on both sides. Jews are looking forward to the day when the files concerning Pope Pius XII will be opened to resolve the question of his activity during his service as Nuncio in Germany and later as Pope.
The Auschwitz issue, no doubt, delayed Pope John Paul II’s intentions viv-a-vis recognition of the State of Israel. On Dec. 29, 1993, “the bilateral commission reached an agreement for full diplomatic ties, which were formally established on June 15, 1994.” (Darcy O’Brien) There was an underlying expectation that it would be followed by the Oslo Accords, which unfortunately did not conclude favorably. When Arafat walked out of the Camp David Israeli-Palestinian negotiations with President Clinton, he set the stage for the 2½ year intifada which has been so tragic for both Israelis and Palestinians.
However, Pope John Paul II would not be deterred. He planned a trip to Israel.
On the last Sunday in March, 2000, Pope John Paul II visited the Western Wall and left a written prayer in a cleft of the wall:
“God of our fathers, you chose Abraham and his descendants to bring your name to the nations. We are deeply saddened by the behavior of those who in the course of history have caused these children of yours to suffer. And asking your forgiveness, we wish to commit ourselves to genuine brotherhood with the people of the covenant.”
Nonetheless, the basic question of who is entitled to the land called Palestine needs to be settled. Who is entitled to set up government on a land that in known history has a record of such complexity? For this we have to consider the Arab historical connection to the land. The rise of Muhammad in 600 C.E. and the creed of Islam is central. The Moslem presence in Palestine is evidenced by the construction of the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem in 691 C.E., which became holy to Moslems as the place from which Muhammad ascended to heaven. In 750 C.E. the Arabs built the El Aqsa Mosque nearby. These are holy to Moslems, but offensive, especially, to religious Jews, who claim the Dome of the Rock was built on the holy ground of their ancient temple. The divide is deep.
Relevant to the present conflict, Princeton University Professor Emeritus Bernard Lewis, in his recent book, The Crisis of Islam, states: “Because holy war is an obligation of the faith, it is elaborately regulated in Koranic law. Fighters in a Holy War (Jihad) are enjoined not to kill women, children and the aged unless they attack first.” Contrary to their expectations, Palestinian suicide bombers do not qualify for heaven.
In the 9th century, Palestine was conquered by the Fatimids, named after the daughter of Muhammad. The Crusaders reached Palestine in 1077 C.E., made claim on Jerusalem, only to be beaten by Saladin (1137-1199), the principal Islamic warrior. Then came the Marmalukes, slaves who, in time succeeded to rule from 1250 C.E. to 1517 C.E., controlling Syria, Palestine and parts of Arabia. In the 16th century, the Ottoman Turks took over, only to suffer defeat by Napoleon in 1798, during his victory over Egypt. In 1831, Muhammad Ali, the Egyptian Viceroy, subject to the Ottoman Sultan, occupied Palestine. He opened Palestine to western influence and eventually to the budding Zionist movement, which had its beginning in Palestine colonization in 1882 when the first aliyah (going up to the land) of Russian Jews took place. It was a fore-runner of the Theodor Herzl program, formulated at the World Zionist Congress, beginning in 1897. What these pioneers found was a malaria-ridden land, lacking trees, with a small Arab population and fewer Jews. One of the initiatives was to set up the Jewish National Fund for purchase of land, plant forests, and building of infrastructure, which to this day it maintains. Thus, both Jews and Arabs have historic claims.
In the last 106 years, including the Hitler Shoah, the State of Israel has come into being in violence and Zionist determination. There are currently 5,000,000-plus Israeli Jews and 1,000,000-plus Israeli Arab citizens in borders set by the 1967 war. There are also 2,000,000-3,000,000 Arabs on the West Bank and Gaza, which raises the question of who, in fact, is entitled to the land called Israel-Palestine? The answer? An examination of history may enlighten us. For example, on our own continent you will find that countries have been founded essentially by courageous invaders, seeking new lives at the expense of native populations, who were, as in the case of the American Indians, decimated. It happened in Canada as well as South America. In regard to the Middle East, Trans Jordan, now Jordan, was founded in 1921. The Saudi family succeeded in founding Saudi Arabia in 1932. So it is an ongoing process.
Population growth may emerge as a vital factor. In 1950, world population was 2½ billion. Currently it is on the way to 7 billion. At the same time we are busily degrading nature. Are we despoiling nature for the future growing populations? And Israeli-Palestine, what impact will population change have on their mutual security? In view of the higher population growth among Arabs than Jews, what can we expect in the future?
It is clear that there are rights on both sides. For Jews there is no alternative. They have been abused for 2,000 years. The Dreyfus case in France in 1894 inspired Theodor Herzl to organize world Jewry in establishing a Jewish State in Palestine. Hitler’s Shoah with 6,000,000 dead compelled a flight to Palestine, especially since, in two world conferences, the Evian Conference in 1938, and the Bermuda Conference in 1943, both led by the United States, no country would receive Jews. Israel has reestablished its right to its ancient land by repopulating and redeeming it. The Palestinians rejected the 1947 United Nations Partition Plan which could have prevented 50-plus years of enmity and violence. Currently, a real opportunity exists for founding an independent State in the West Bank and Gaza. Both sides have demonstrated an ability at negotiation, hopefully this time to a mutual agreement.
So, what is the outlook? There is a seeming drop in anti-Judaism, but an increase in anti-Semitism, anti-Zionism and anti-Israelism, reflecting the world’s response to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, a resolution of which, hopefully will defuse it. That is not to say that hatred of Jews will evaporate. Not at all. I call attention to the recent showing in movie houses in Egypt of a 45-week series, based on The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion, a forgery of a Jewish conspiracy to subvert national governments and rule the world. Egypt has a peace treaty with Israel, but, while Israelis visit Egypt, Egyptians are not permitted to visit Israel. Egypt is an ally of the United States and receives an annual subsidy of 2 billion dollars, but persists in its antisemitic propaganda. Note too, that in the United States Mel Gibson is planning the issuance of his movie The Passion, which may in effect nullify sixty years of progress in Christian-Jewish relations.
It is only fifty-eight years since World War II ended, fifty-five years since the founding of the State of Israel, and eighty-five years since the promise of the Balfour Declaration. The Jewish State is acknowledged for its achievements in self-defense, every aspect of culture, science and a democratic way of life, including its universities.
Why then the persistent hatred? I am convinced it is imbedded, first in the Gospels, and secondly, in history. It is not rational nor civilized, and yet persists.
What can be done? It falls upon Christian scholars to undertake a revision of the gospels so that it becomes a truly effective document of love thy neighbor. And the Israeli-Palestinian conflict must be resolved so that Israel and Palestine may co-exist in peace, free of Arafat’s plan to destroy Israel in stages, of which a peace treaty is stage one.
David L. Cohen
Camden, Maine, U.S.A.
2003
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