Part 3: Refutation of Accusations Against the Jews and Israel

The True Roots of Anti-Semitism
Are Spiritual, Not Sociological or Geographical
By Norman Manzon

Part 3
A Refutation of Accusations Against
the Jews and Israel

When criticisms or hurtful actions arise because of a bias against Jews or Israel, they are anti-Semitic. (The nature of anti-Semitism is discussed at length in Part 1: The Divine Aspect.) But whether or not anti-Semitism is a factor in any given case, many accusations against Jews and Israel are simply not true, and need to be refuted. This study, then, is an apologetic against a few key accusations against Jews. Scripture and evidence of a nature more common to human argumentation will be provided as appropriate.

On what basis does a Bible study series engage in apologetics that are not lifted from Scripture? In the context of Israel, the answer is that God requires us to bless Israel (Genesis 12:3) - not just by introducing them to Messiah, but by blessing them in the daily affairs of life. Note how Messiah will bless the sheep Gentiles who, at the risk of their lives, will offer succor to the persecuted Jews of the Great Tribulation (Matthew 25:31-40). Note also how Paul, on two occasions, declared his Roman citizenship to force his persecutors to walk in civic truth (In Acts 16:37-39; 22:5).

Only a few bare comments can be offered in this brief study. It is hoped that the reader will do his own research, which may include some of the sources recommended below as well as resources offered on our Messianic Resources page.

No individual is blameless; but in matters in which it is adjudged that some Jews do engage in offensive practices, it is hoped that the one who so judges will realize that that fact is no justification for wholesale exile, confinement in ghettos, mass slaughter, or the like, but of reasonable and fair treatment of the individuals so adjudged. The same applies for the country of Israel.

I will first address accusations against Jews in general, and then accusations against the country of Israel.

I. Accusations Against Jews in General

A. "They Think They're the Chosen People"

Well, the Bible says they are.

In Deuteronomy 7:6, Moses said, For you are a holy people to the LORD your God; the LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for His own possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.

In Isaiah 41:8-9, God said, 8. But you, Israel . . . . are My servant, I have chosen you and not rejected you.

Also Deuteronomy 14:2; 1 Chronicles 16:13; Psalm 33:12; 105:6,43; 106:5; 135:4; Isaiah 43:10,20; 44:1-2,21; 45:4; 65:9,15; Jeremiah 30:10; 46:27,28; Amos 3:2 and 1 Peter 2:9-10.

God chose Israel primarily to bring the Scriptures and Messiah into the world. The chosenness of Israel may be studied in detail in The Chosenness of Israel.

It is a fact that some Jews are prideful of their Jewishness and of their nation's chosenness, whether they understand what that means or not. Such pride is found in perhaps all people groups. Shouldn't prideful Jews be dealt with fairly and reasonably as individuals, just as one should deal with prideful individuals of any nationality, including one's own?

B. "The Jews Are Christ-Killers"

This accusation lays the responsibility for the death of Christ on the doorstep of the Jews, and has been responsible for the shedding of rivers of Jewish blood - primarily by those who call themselves Christians!

An early documented accusation that Jews were responsible for the death of Jesus came in a sermon in 167 AD. . . . The author does not attribute particular blame to Pontius Pilate, but only mentions that Pilate washed his hands of guilt.(1)

The Jews bore the brunt of the accusation, and Pilate, who ordered the execution, was attributed no "particular blame."

The accusation is still alive and well in circles great and small. The Holy Thursday liturgy of the Eastern Orthodox and Byzantine Catholic Churches speaks of "the murderers of God, the lawless nation of the Jews," and includes the prayer, "But give them, Lord, their reward, because they devised vain things against Thee."(2)

This writer recalls an online cartoon of a year or two ago of baby Jesus about to be run over by an Israeli tank.

On the basis of this accusation, people and nations have taken the punishment of the Jews into their own hands. A balanced refutation of this accusation is a delicate issue, and the following points are proffered with Jews and Gentiles of every persuasion in mind. I therefore respectfully ask that all readers hear me out. First the facts, then proper responses to the facts.

1. The Facts
a. The accusation that the Jews are the Christ-killers has often been couched in terms of "deicide." That term is misleading as it sounds as if the Jews killed what Christians would call the divinity of the second Person of the Godhead. Scripture never states or implies that any portion of divinity was or can be killed. Jesus in His human aspect was killed, not His divine aspect. It was His body that was nailed to the cross - not His Spirit. It is impossible for the divinity of the second Person to be killed. The Trinity was always intact, and always will be!

b. Jews who do not believe that Jesus is the Messiah will understandably deny the charge of deicide (invalid as it is, anyway) or of killing the Messiah because they do not believe that Jesus is divine or the Messiah. This is not a matter to be debated here, but appreciated.

2. Determining the Key Fact: Who Was Guilty of the Death of Jesus?
First we'll examine Jewish culpability, then we'll look beyond the Jews.

a. Examining Jewish Culpability
1) The Jewish leaders did deliver Yeshua to be crucified.

From the Babylonian Talmud:

On the eve of the Passover Yeshu(3) was hanged. For forty days before the execution took place, a herald went forth and cried, "He is going forth to be stoned because he has practised sorcery and enticed Israel to apostacy. Any one who can say anything in his favour, let him come forward and plead on his behalf." But since nothing was brought forward in his favour he was hanged on the eve of the Passover!(4)

~ Sanhedrin 43a ~

The Talmud agrees with the New Testament in that both record that the Jews initiated Yeshua's execution:

1. Now when morning came, all the chief priests and the elders of the people conferred together against Jesus to put Him to death; 2 and they bound Him, and led Him away and delivered Him to Pilate the governor. . . . 20. But the chief priests and the elders persuaded the crowds to ask for Barabbas and to put Jesus to death.

~ Matthew 27:1-2, 20 ~

2) Not all Jews delivered Jesus to be crucified. Those who did not call for His execution included His great number of disciples (Luke 6:17), the great number of people who looked on Him favorably without having committed themselves to Him (Luke 2:52) (at least not openly by that time, such as Joseph of Arimathea [John 19:38] and Nicodemus [John 7:50-52]), and the great number of women, and perhaps men, who were not in Jerusalem at that time. Matthew does report that crowds of adult males were persuaded by the chief priests and elders to request Barabbas and put Jesus to death (Matthew 27:20 with Deuteronomy 16:16-17); yet, all things considered, it is impossible to know what percentage of adult Jews, or even just male Jews, actually called for His execution. Perhaps a significant percentage, even a majority, did not.

3) Matthew 27:25 records that a mob of Israelites cried out, His blood shall be on us and on our children! The fact that this has been recorded has been the rallying cry of many an anti-Semitic mob. Yet, it is a mere recording of fact, and constitutes absolutely no biblical ground for humanly initiated punitive action, as will be shown.

4) God does judge and bless nations on a national basis. He judged the northern Kingdom of Israel in 722 B.C. by the hand of Assyria for idolatry (2 Kings 15:29; 17:3-12; 18:11-12; 1 Chronicles 5:26; Isaiah 10:5-6), and the southern Kingdom of Judah in 586 B.C. by the hand of Babylon for idolatry and not giving the land its required Sabbath year rests (Leviticus 26:34-35,43; 2 Kings 25; II Chronicles 36:20-21; Jeremiah 25:11; 29:10). It should not seem unusual, then, that if Yeshua was the Messiah, and Israel's spiritual leaders and judicial authorities delivered Him to be crucified, that they should be judged nationally by God for that, as well. Even so, as has been mentioned, that constitutes no biblical ground for humanly initiated punitive action, as will be shown.

b. Examining the Culpability of All Mankind
First we'll consider Rome, then the Jews again.

22. Pilate said to them, "Then what shall I do with Jesus who is called Christ?" They all said, "Crucify Him!" 23. And he said, "Why, what evil has He done?" But they kept shouting all the more, saying, "Crucify Him!" 24. When Pilate saw that he was accomplishing nothing, but rather that a riot was starting, he took water and washed his hands in front of the crowd, saying, "I am innocent of this Man's blood; see to that yourselves."

~ Matthew 27:22-23 ~

Pilate condemned a man to death in order to prevent a riot, a man who, in his judgment, was innocent: Why, what evil has He done? Also, Luke 23:4: Then Pilate said to the chief priests and the crowds, "I find no guilt in this man;" and John 19:4: Behold, I am bringing Him out to you so that you may know that I find no guilt in Him; and 19:6: I find no guilt in Him.

Pilate was guilty, and he was an arm of Rome. Therefore, Rome was guilty.

According to the Talmud quote, Jewish officials initiated the charges against Jesus and carried them forward until he was "hanged." The Talmud assumes Jewish responsibility - but were the Jewish leaders and, by extension, the Jewish nation, guilty of any conscious miscarriage of justice?

Caiaphas, who was high priest and the chief priests and the Pharisees agreed that it was expedient that Yeshua die because all men will believe in Him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation (John 11:46-50. Also 18:14-15). In other words, they agreed to scapegoat Him. They arrested Him, judged Him in their courts, and finally delivered Him to Pilate (Mark 15:1). They were guilty.(5)

Thus far, we've seen that both Israel and Rome were guilty, which is also stated plainly in the prayer of Peter, John and their companions:

27. For truly in this city there were gathered together against Your holy servant Jesus, whom You anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, 28. to do whatever Your hand and Your purpose predestined to occur.

~ Acts 4:27-28 ~

Let us not miss the point that God was involved, too, though by no means can He be held "guilty"! So, if we're not going to persecute God, then the least we can do is persecute Romans as well as Jews, right? As Word of Messiah Ministries' Sam Nadler says, "Why not anti-Italianism?" Well, let's see what Scripture says in the broader view.

John 1:29: Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!

Romans 3:9b: we have already charged that both Jews and Greeks are all under sin.

Galatians 3:22: But the Scripture has shut up everyone under sin, so that the promise by faith in Messiah Yeshua might be given to those who believe.

We all are responsible and guilty of the death of Messiah because we all put Him on that cross by our sinfulness and our sins. It is as if we, ourselves, hammered in the nails. So - who shall accuse and persecute whom? Shall we persecute ourselves and shed our own blood? No, as a matter of fact, blood has already been shed on our behalf whether we be Jew or Gentile, and need be shed no more. He said, "It is finished!" And He bowed His head and gave up His spirit (John 19:30). To punitively shed any more blood for the death of Messiah, be it Jewish or Gentile, is to declare that God's punitive justice was not fulfilled at the cross - which would mean that none of us can be forgiven!

3. Proper Responses to the Facts
a. Facts need to be acknowledged, not denied.

b. Since we are all guilty of the death of Jesus, the proper response is not to point fingers, but to deal with our own sinfulness before God, which the sinfulness of those Jews and Gentiles who were guilty in the immediate situation reflect. Jesus said, First take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye (Matthew 7:5).

c. When focusing on Jewish culpability, Christians need to understand two things:
1) It is God's business alone to initiate judgment on Israel - and He alone knows when and how is best. He brought the Assyrians and Babylonians upon Israel, and the Assyrians and Babylonians had no idea that they were instruments in God's hands. It was in reference to Israel that God declared through Moses, Vengeance is Mine, and retribution (Deuteronomy 32:35). This is not to be missed: Paul quoted that same passage in application to general Christian behavior: Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, "VENGEANCE IS MINE, I WILL REPAY," says the Lord (Romans 12:19).

2) Those who would take the punishment of Israel into their own hands do so at their own peril. The preincarnate Son of God declared, For thus says the LORD of hosts, "After glory He has sent Me against the nations which plunder you [Israel], for he who touches you, touches the apple [pupil] of His eye" (Zechariah 2:8).

C. "The Jews Are Conspiring to Rule the World"

We'll look at this accusation from financial and political perspectives.

1. The Financial Perspective
A common accusation is that the Jews control the world's finances. A Forbes Magazine article of March 11, 2011, entitled "The World's Billionaires," lists the world's billionaires.(6) There is not one distinctly Jewish name in the top fifteen. According to the Jewish Virtual Library, the world's richest Jew is Sheldon Adelson, only sixteenth on the Forbes list.(7) As you continue through the first hundred, the names that are distinctly Jewish are slim, indeed.

Jews control Wall Street? No. It is accurate to say that there are many Jews in key positions on Wall Street. But where's the conspiracy? There are many Jews in New York City. Guess what? There are many Japanese in the Tokyo Stock Exchange, and Chinese in the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Where's the conspiracy there? If there's no proof of conspiracy, individuals should be judged on an individual basis irregardless of their nationality, and on an even-handed basis. But why start with the Jews or any other nationality? Why not start with the Forbes list? They're the big boys - but even here one must be careful. There is nothing intrinsically wrong with being a "big boy"! Many "big boys," Jewish and Gentile, have risen to levels of success by honest, hard work! Careful how you judge!

2. The Political Perspective
a. The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion
Probably the most pernicious attempt to accuse the Jews of plotting to rule the world was the writing of a spurious document entitled The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion.

In an article entitled "The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion: Plagiarism at its Best," Prof. Jose Delacruz of The University of California at Santa Barbara, declares,

The protocols are a document that purports to represent the ideas of a secret society of Jewish elders and was published by Sergyei Nilus in Russia in 1905. These ideas are the blueprint for conquering the world. . . . Adolf Hitler was influenced by the protocols and therefore helps explain why Hitler believed that Jews were planning to conquer the world.(8)

Prof. Delacruz demonstrates that the Protocols are a forgery of portions of an imagined conversation between Montesquieu and Napoleon III - who were neither contemporary nor Jewish! Prof. Delacruz concludes, as did the original researchers, that which has been commonly accepted since the forgery was revealed publicly in 1921:

In sum, the Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion are a false documentation that has no credibility and its sole purpose is to spread anti-Semitism throughout the world.

Nonetheless, untroubled by facts, the Protocols is still employed as a handy tool by anti-Semites.

The [10th-grade history] schoolbook, published in 2004, by the Palestinian Ministry of Education, teaches that among the foundations of Zionism, agreed upon at the First Zionist Congress in 1897, “there is a group of confidential resolutions adopted by the Congress and known by the name ‘The Protocols of the Elders of Zion’ the goal of which was world domination.”9

b. Muslim Irony
The very Muslims who accuse the Jews of plotting to take over the world adhere to the Qur'an, which exhorts world domination by Muslims - even by the sword - which method Muhammed employed until his death, and has been the chief means by which Muslims have gained, and are continuing to gain, control over vast areas of the Earth!

Fight those who . . . [do not] acknowledge the religion of Truth . . . until they pay the tribute and have been humbled. (Sura 9:29)

Whether unarmed or well-equipped, march on and fight for the cause of Allah, with your wealth and your persons. (Sura 9:41)

To be fair to the Palestinian Authority, a web search for the Protocols shows that not only they, but other endarkened people like them, claim that the document is genuine. But for those who care about the truth, be they Palestinian or otherwise, let them consider the evidence summarized in Prof. Delacruz' article.

3. Summing Up
There is simply no evidence that Jews are conspiring to rule the world. If they are, they're doing a very poor job of it. The only Jewish head of state at this time that I am aware of is the prime minister of tiny Israel - so why pick on the Jews? People of Spanish descent not only control Spain, but almost every country from Mexico to the southern tip of South America - and no one's accusing the Spanish of plotting to rule the world - nor should they without proof.

Are Jews trying to influence the politics of the countries in which they reside where they have that liberty? Yes, just as countless other groups are trying to do, whether they be of a particular ethnicity or political persuasion or banking network or corporate conglomerate or labor union or other entity. For better and for worse, lobbying is an established practice. It makes no sense to single out a lobby for particular scrutiny and opprobrium simply because they represent Jewish interests, such as the safety of Israel, as is done by some.

II. Accusations Against the Country of Israel

"When approached by a student who attacked Zionism, Dr. [Martin Luther] King responded: 'When people criticize Zionists, they mean Jews. You're talking anti-Semitism.'"(10)

Zionism is the belief that Jews ought to have their own homeland; also that movement which initiated and promotes the return to the Land and seeks the Land's well being. Of course, no political movement is flawless, nor is any nation; but Dr. King apparently sensed the spirit that motivated that student.

Consider these claims, and the refutations, and judge for yourself.

A. "The Jews Have No Historical Connection With the Land"

There are two major prongs to this claim:
1. They never resided in the land until recently, and
2. They are Europeans.

1. "They Never Resided in the Land Until Recently"
This ludicrous claim is heard regularly from Arab sources, but not exclusively.

Refutations from:
a. The Qur'an

Pharoah sought to scare them [the Israelites] out of the land [of Israel]: but We [Allah] drowned him [Pharoah] together with all who were with him. Then We [Allah] said to the Israelites: "Dwell in this land [the Land of Israel]. When the promise of the hereafter [End of Days] comes to be fulfilled, We [Allah] shall assemble you [the Israelites] all together [in the Land of Israel].

~ Qur'an, "Night Journey," chapter 17:100-104 ~

The bracketed clarifications are present in the passage on the web page.[11] An accompanying quote by Sheikh Professor Abdul Hadi Palazzi reads as follows: "God wanted to give Avraham a double blessing, through Ishmael and through Isaac, and ordered that Ishmael's descendants should live in the desert of Arabia and Isaac's in Canaan."

b. Archaeology
1) King Nebuchadnezzar's Chronicle

Year 7 In the month of Kislimu (Hebrew Kislev) The King of Akkad [Nebuchadnezzar] assembled his army to march to and besiege the city of Judah [Jerusalem] and on the second day of Addaru (Hebrew Addar) captured the city and seized its king [Jehoiachin]. He appointed in it a new king of his liking [Zedekiah/Mattaniah] and took heavy booty from it, and brought it to Babylon.(12)

King Nebuchadnezzar's Chronicle proves that Judah, whose capitol was Jerusalem, was a kingdom in the land as far back as 589 B.C. ("He captured the city" in 587, but his siege began thirty months earlier.[13])

2) Solomon's City Wall
1 Kings 3:1: reads, Then Solomon . . . finished building his own house and the house of the LORD and the wall around Jerusalem.

In 2009-2010, Israeli archaeologist Dr. Eilat Mazar made a very significant discovery that most of the media was deafeningly silent about. According to Dr. Mazar,

A comparison of this latest finding with city walls and gates from the period of the First Temple, as well as pottery found at the site, enable us to postulate with a great degree of assurance that the wall is that which was built by King Solomon in Jerusalem in the latter part of the 10th century BCE.

The writer of the article states,

The section of the city wall revealed, 70 meters long and six meters high, is located in the area known as the Ophel, between the City of David and the southern wall of the Temple Mount.

Uncovered in the city wall complex are: an inner gatehouse for access into the royal quarter of the city, a royal structure adjacent to the gatehouse, and a corner tower that overlooks a substantial section of the adjacent Kidron valley.(14)

The discovery of this massive wall and complex demonstrates that the Jews had a very stable and strong presence in Jerusalem three hundred years prior to Nebuchadnezzar's siege, in total agreement with 1 Kings 3:1.

3) The Arch of Titus
A traveler in Rome today may view the Arch of Titus, which commemorates the conquest of Jerusalem by Titus in 70 A.D. The south panel of the arch depicts the spoiling of the Temple in Jerusalem, the central feature of which is the carrying off of the Temple's Menorah, or Golden Lampstand.

c. The Bible

Hugh historical portions of both testaments take place in the land now called Israel, and the key players are Israelites.

1) The Old Testament:
Joshua 20:7: So they set apart Kedesh in Galilee in the hill country of Naphtali and Shechem in the hill country of Ephraim, and Kiriath-arba (that is, Hebron) in the hill country of Judah.

Galilee is in the far north of modern Israel, and the hill countries of Ephraim and Judah are now basically the West Bank.

2) The New Testament

9. according to the custom of the priestly office, he [Joseph] was chosen by lot to enter the temple of the Lord and burn incense. 10. And the whole multitude of the people were in prayer outside at the hour of the incense offering.

~ Luke 1:9-10 ~

Two thousand years ago, the Levitical priesthood was intact and functioning, and multitudes of Jews worshipped in the Temple in Jerusalem.

2. "They Are Europeans"
This claim is itself two-pronged:
1. The Israelis are recent immigrants from Europe, and
2. They are not bloodline Jews.

a. "The Israelis Are Recent Immigrants from Europe"
Consider this comment by a Middle Eastern political and religious history analyst:

More than half of the people in Israel today are not "foreigners" to the Middle East, they are Jews or offspring of Jews who lived in Arab countries and have fled from Arab brutality; Israel's present population consists mainly of refugees and their descendants from two oppressions, European-Nazi and Arab. As the Arab writer Sabri Jiryis has acknowledged, either by official edict or by the Arab's own harsh mistreatment of the Jews among them, the Arab world has expelled or has caused Jews to flee to Israel. Were the facts popularly recognized, the Arab propaganda claim of a "European" Israel would long ago have been refuted. The Arabs through persecution and anti-Semitism have long helped to make the Jewish state predominantly an "Oriental" Israel of Jews from Arab lands.(15)

b. "They Are Not Bloodline Jews"
Consider the results of these genetic studies:

Study 1:

Until now, it had been widely assumed by geneticists that the Ashkenazi communities of Northern and Central Europe were founded by men who came from the Middle East, perhaps as traders, and by the women from each local population whom they took as wives and converted to Judaism. But the new study, published online this week in The American Journal of Human Genetics, suggests that the men and their wives migrated to Europe together.(16)

"The men and their wives migrated to Europe together" - from the Middle East.

Study 2:

The main ethnic element of Ashkenazim (German and Eastern European Jews), Sephardim (Spanish and Portuguese Jews), Mizrakhim (Middle Eastern Jews), Juhurim (Mountain Jews of the Caucasus), Italqim (Italian Jews), and most other modern Jewish populations of the world is Israelite.(17)

The ancestors of most Jews in Israel today never left the Middle East, and "the main ethnic element" of those who migrated from Europe "and most other modern Jewish populations of the world is Israelite."

To sum up, the genetic connection of modern Jews in Israel to the ancient Israelites is very strong.

B. "The Jews Took the Land from the Arabs"

This claim is based on the migrations of Jews to the Land since the last two decades of the nineteenth century. We will examine this claim from the divine, demographic and political perspectives.

1. The Divine Perspective
Numerous scriptures show that God gave the land now called Israel to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob (Israel) and their descendants.

In Genesis 17:8, God said to Abram, I will give to you and to your descendants after you, the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God. This was four thousand years ago.

As God was preparing to deliver Israel from Egyptian bondage, He declared, I will bring you to the land which I swore to give to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and I will give it to you for a possession; I am the LORD (Exodus 6:8). This was 3,400 years ago.

Ezekiel 39:28 and many other passages show that the Land will still be their own land, even in the future Millennial kingdom, and Genesis 17:8 says that the land is an everlasting possession - which includes right now.

A few other passages to the same effect are: Genesis 12:1; 15:18; Leviticus 25:38; Numbers 34:1-15; Deuteronomy 1:8; 29:10 - 30:10; Ezekiel 36-37.

Jews literally have a God-given right to live and govern in the land of Israel in peace.

2. The Demographic Perspective

It is very important to note that the Jews who moved into Palestine en masse from 1881 through the Israeli declaration of Statehood in 1948, were not squatters in any Arab country. Palestine was controlled by the Ottoman Turks from 1517 through 1917, and then the British from 1917 through 1948. In addition,

The Palestine to which the European Jews of the First Aliyah(18) immigrated was vastly unpopulated, and the land onto which the Jews moved was, in fact, bought primarily from absentee landlords and real estate speculators. . . .

Mark Twain, who visited Palestine in 1867, offered this description:

. . . in the valley [Jezreel] . . . . There is not a solitary village throughout its whole extent - not for thirty miles in either direction. There are two or three small clusters of Bedouin tents. . . . Come to Galilee . . . that melancholy ruin of Capernaum: this stupid village of Tiberias. . . . We never saw a human being on the whole route.

Nazareth is forlorn. . . . Jericho the accursed lies in a moldering ruin today. . . . [and similarly about Bethlehem and Bethany]. Bethsaida and Chorzin have vanished from the earth [and are] inhabited only by birds of prey and skulking foxes.(19)

Other such reports are reported in Professor Dershowitz's book, The Case for Israel, the source of the quote, and in From Time Immemorial(20) by Joan Peters.

Consider this assessment by Malcolm MacDonald, British Secretary of State, in 1938:

The Arabs cannot say that the Jews are driving them out of their country. If not a single Jew had come to Palestine after 1918, I believe that the Arab population of [Western] Palestine today . . . would still have been around the . . . figure at which it had been stable under Turkish rule.(21)

And by Winston Churchill in 1939:

So far from being persecuted, the Arabs have crowded into the country and multiplied till their population has increased even more than all world Jewry could lift up the Jewish population.(22)

What was the reason for the Arab influx? Jewish development of the land.

Dawood Barakat, editor of the Egyptian paper Al-Ahram, wrote:

It is absolutely necessary that an entente be made between the Zionists and Arabs, because the war of words can only do evil. The Zionists are necessary for the country: The money which they will bring, their knowledge and intelligence, and the industriousness which characterizes them will contribute without doubt to the regeneration of the country.(23)

Mr. Barakat's assessment was made in 1914, and is still applicable today:

In fact, an estimated 40,000 Jordanians who entered Israel on tourist visas in 2000 have stayed on after their visas expired to take advantage of the higher-paying employment opportunities afforded them in Israel.(24)

Don't miss that. 40,000 Jordanians immigrated to Israel in just one recent year to avail themselves of economic activity provided by Israel. That's from just one Arab country in just one year!

3. The Political Perspective

On November 29, 1947, the United Nations overwhelmingly voted to partition Palestine between Jews and Arabs (33 to 13, with 10 abstentions). In other words, the world, by representative vote, recognized the validity and legitimacy of Israel's existence. On May 14, 1948, Israel declared its independence on the land allotted to them by the U.N.(25)

C. "The Israelis Caused the Palestinian Refugee Problem"

One day after Israel declared its independence, they were attacked by Egypt, Syria, Transjordan, Lebanon and Iraq in an attempt to crush it and annihilate its Jewish inhabitants. "Very few [Arabs] were kicked out or driven out by the Zionists,"(26) and many fled of their own accord in anticipation of, and during, the invasion; but the overwhelming majority were enticed to leave by the leaders of the invading Arab nations, and forced to leave by their armies, to keep them from being caught in the crossfire.

In his 1972 memoirs, the former prime minister of Syria, Khalid al-Azm, placed the entire blame for the refugee problem on the Arabs:

Since 1948 it is we who demanded the return of the refugees . . . while it is we who made them leave. . . . We have rendered them dispossessed. . . . We have accustomed them to begging. . . . We have participated in lowering their social and moral level. . . . Then we exploited them in crimes of murder, arson, and throwing bombs upon . . . men, women and children - all this in the service of political purposes.

Even Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen), the [present] prime minister of the Palestinian Authority, has accused the Arab armies of having abandoned the Palestinians after they "forced them to emigrate and to leave their homeland and threw them into prisons similar to the ghettos in which the Jews used to live."(27)

"To this day [2012], Jordan was the only Arab country to welcome the Palestinians and grant them citizenship (to this day Jordan is the only Arab country where Palestinians as a group can become citizens)."(28) Contrast this to the fate of the "800,000 - 1,000,000 Jews [who] left, fled or were expelled from their homes in Arab countries" between 1948 and 1970.(29) All such Jews who desired to come to Israel were thoroughly absorbed, while not even vast Saudi Arabia or other oil-rich Arab countries have opened their doors to their brethren to this day.

Sir Alexander Galloway, UNRWA official from 1951-1952, said this in August, 1958:

The Arab States do not want to solve the refugee problem. They want to keep it as an open sore, as an affront to the United Nations and as a weapon against Israel. Arab leaders don't give a damn whether the refugees live or die.(30)

As of this writing, it is still true.

D. "The Jews Are Occupiers of the West Bank"

Proof has already been presented that the Jews have a well established connection with the Land, that the great influx of Arabs followed on the heels of Jewish development and, for those who believe the Bible, that God gave the Jews the Land. All this is germane to the accusation that the Jews are illegal occupiers of the West Bank. The focus of the accusation, however, has to do with Jewish occupation of the West Bank since 1967.

What's the story?

“From 1948 until 1967, the West Bank was part of Jordan, and Gaza was part of Egypt,” Prosor stated. “The Arab world did not lift a finger to create a Palestinian state. And it sought Israel's annihilation when not a single settlement stood anywhere in the West Bank or Gaza.”(31)

In 1967, Egypt, Syria and Jordan attacked Israel in a third attempt in Israel's nineteen year history to annihilate her. In the course of this Six Day War, which Israel won, Israel drove the Jordanians back across the Jordan River and occupied the West Bank. Subsequent to the war, the United Nations Security Council issued Resolution 242, which called for "Withdrawal of Israeli armed forces from territories occupied . . . and respect for the right of every state in the area to live in peace within secure and recognized boundaries."

The Israelis have proven their willingness to withdraw from the West Bank on several occasions - but the Palestinian Authority has been adamant in its refusal to grant Israel "the right . . . to live in peace within secure and recognized boundaries." They do not recognize her existence as legitimate. Their maps do not show a country called Israel, but include all of Israel's territory in what their maps call Palestine; and they relentlessly seek to annihilate Israel so on-the-ground reality will conform to their maps.

Should the Israelis make a one-sided withdrawal under such circumstances? To do so would be to withdraw to what has been called "Auschwitz borders": It would be just eleven miles across the entire width of the country from the West Bank to Tel Aviv, and twenty-five to Gaza - which the Israelis withdrew from in 2005 only to be blessed by over ten thousand rockets launched at their towns and cities from Gaza since then, right up to the present.

Let the reader stand up for truth and fairness!

* If you were blessed by this study, please consider linking to it. Thank you. *

Endnotes

1. "Jewish Deicide." Wikipedia. n.d. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish_deicide.
2. Ibid.
3. Yeshu. A pejorative shortening of Yeshua, Jesus' Hebrew name. The Y-SH-U of the Hebrew relates to yimach shemo. "The Hebrew phrase yimakh shemo ימח שמו 'May his name be obliterated' is a curse placed after the name of particular enemies of the Jewish people. A variant is yimakh shemo ve zikhro ימח שמו וזכרו 'Obliterate his name and his memory.' Yimakh shemo is one of the strongest curses in the Hebrew language." "Yimakh shemo." Wikipedia. n.d. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yimach_shemo.
4. "Babylonian Talmud: Tractate Sanhedrin, Folio 43a." Halakhah. n.d. http://halakhah.com/sanhedrin/sanhedrin_43.html.
5. For a list of twenty-two Mosaic and rabbinic laws that the Jewish leaders broke in their trials of Yeshua, see the section entitled, "Laws of the Sanhedrin Regarding Trials" in Dr. Arnold G. Fruchtenbaum's Life of Messiah Outline: The Life of Messiah from a Jewish Perspective. Available at Ariel Ministries.
6. "The World's Billionaires." Forbes. 9 March 2011. http://www.forbes.com/wealth/billionaires
7. "The World's Richest Jew." Jewish Virtual Library. 2011. http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/US-Israel/richest.html.
8. De La Cruz, Jose. "The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion: Plagiarism at its Best." Nov. 2003. http://www.history.ucsb.edu/faculty/marcuse/classes/33d/projects/protzion/DelaCruzProtocolsMain.htm.
9. Marcus, Itamar and Crook, Barbara. "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion." Palestinian Media Watch. n.d. http://palwatch.org/STORAGE/OpEd/Protocols_of_the_Elders.pdf.
10. "Martin Luther King on Anti-Zionism." Jewish Virtual Library. 2011. http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Quote/king.html. Source: Seymour Martin Lipset, “The Socialism of Fools—The Left, the Jews and Israel,” Encounter, (December 1969), p. 24.
11. Palazzi, Shaykh Prof. Abdul Hadi. "What the Qur'an Really Says." Templemount. n.d. http://www.templemount.org/quranland.html.
12. "Nebuchadnezzar's Chronicle." Jewish History. n.d. http://www.cojs.org/jh.php?id=Babylonian&content=content/nebuchadnezzar# with http://www.cojs.org/content/nebuchadnezzar_trans.html.
13. "Siege of Jerusalem (587 BC.)" Wikipedia. n.d. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Jerusalem_(587_BC).
14. "Archaeologist Discovers Jerusalem City Wall from Tenth Century B.C.E." Science Daily. 22 Feb. 2010. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/02/100222094757.htm.
15. Katz, Joseph E. "The Koran & institutionalized Anti-Semitism." EretzYisroel.org. n.d. http://www.eretzyisroel.org/~jkatz/koran.html. Jews from Arab lands.
16. Wade, Nicholas. "New Light on Origins of Ashkenazi in Europe." The New York Times. 14 Jan. 2006. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/14/science/14gene.html.
17. "Jewish Genetics: Abstracts and Summaries." Khazaria InfoCenter. n.d. http://www.khazaria.com/genetics/abstracts.html.
18. Aliyah. Migration to Israel. Literally, going up. The First Aliyah was from 1881-1903.
19. Alan Dershowitz, Prof., The Case for Israel (Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2003), 23-24.
20. Joan Peters. From Time Immemorial: The Origins of the Arab-Jewish Conflict over Palestine (Chicago: JKAP Publications, 1984), 157-161, etc.
21. Ibid., p. 234. Turkish rule ended in 1917.
22. Ibid., p. 230.
23. Mandel, Neville. "Attempts at an Arab-Zionist Entente: 1913-1914," Middle Eastern Studies, April 1965, p. 243). Quoted from http://www.jewishfederations.org/page.aspx?id=41895.
24. Gottheil, Fred. M. "The Smoking Gun: Arab Immigration into Palestine, 1922-1931." Middle East Quarterly. Winter 2003, pp. 53-64. http://www.meforum.org/522/the-smoking-gun-arab-immigration-into-palestine.
25. "Israeli Declaration of Independence." Wikipedia. n.d. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israeli_Declaration_of_Independence.
26. Baehr, Richard. "Chris Wallace Says Israel 'Kicked Out' Palestinians." American Thinker. 24 May 2011. http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/05/chris_wallace_says_israel_kick.html.
27. Dershowitz, op. cit., p.84.
28. “The Palestinian Refugees.” Jewish Virtual Library. 2012. http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/History/refugees.html.
29. "Jewish exodus from Arab and Muslim countries." Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish_exodus_from_Arab_and_Muslim_countries.
30. Ibid., with Romirowsky, Asaf. "A Tale of Two Galloways." Romirowsky. Sept. 2010. http://www.romirowsky.com/7948/a-tale-of-two-galloways.
31. Gedalyahu, Zvi Ben. "Israel's UN Ambassador Separates Lies from the Truth." Arutz Sheva Israel National News. 25 Oct. 2011. http://trailer.web-view.net/Show/0XBDDF3792386F36E1350F4B50DDB55AFF211C1C39B9126A2DB056B0C882B44C4E.htm.

The True Roots of Anti-Semitism Are Spiritual, Not Sociological or GeographicalBy Norman ManzonPart 3 A Refutation of Accusations Against the Jews and Israel