“CHANGE JORDAN’S NAME TO PALESTINE”

Geert Wilders created a stir when he suggested to rename the Kingdom of Jordan as Palestine to end the war in the Middle East.

“Jordan is Palestine,” said Wilders, whose PVV (Freedom Party) trebled its position in the Dutch parliament in the recent election. “Changing its name to Palestine will end the conflict in the Middle East and provide the Palestinians with an alternate homeland,” Said Wilders.

Wilders added, “If Jerusalem falls into the hands of the Muslims, Athens and Rome will be next. Thus, Jerusalem is the main front protecting the West. It is not a conflict over territory but rather an ideological battle, between the mentality of the liberated West and the ideology of Islamic barbarism.”

”There has been an independent Palestinian state since 1946, and it is the kingdom of Jordan.” Wilders said. He called on the Dutch government to refer to Jordan as Palestine and move its embassy to Jerusalem.

The Jordan’s embassy in Hague was outraged and said the Dutch ambassador would soon be summoned to explain. Jordan’s minister for media affairs and communications, Nabil Al Sharif, asked for clarifications. He described Wilders’ declaration as “an echo of the voice of the Israeli Right” and “crows’ screams”.

The truth is that there is no point in calling the Dutch ambassador to explain anything. Wilders has stated what all the Palestinians, the Jordanians, the Syrians and the Lebanese already know. All these people are Palestinians. Palestine is the name of the territory. It was part of the Ottoman Empire, in the same way that Siberia is part of Russia and it was just as desolate.

British archaeologist Thomas Shaw, in mid-1700s wrote, “The land in Palestine is lacking in people to till its fertile soil”.

Count Constantine François Volney, 18 century French author and historian wrote, “Palestine is a ruined and desolate land”.

Mark Twain, who visited the Holy Land in 1869 with a group of pilgrims, wrote his observation in The Innocents Abroad as follow:

“There is not a solitary village throughout its whole extent (valley of Jezreel, Galilea); not for thirty miles in either direction… One may ride ten miles hereabouts and not see ten human beings. For the sort of solitude to make one dreary, come to Galilee… Nazareth is forlorn… Jericho lies a mouldering ruin… Bethlehem and Bethany, in their poverty and humiliation… untenanted by any living creature… A desolate country whose soil is rich enough, but is given over wholly to weeds… a silent, mournful expanse… a desolation… We never saw a human being on the whole route… Hardly a tree or shrub anywhere. Even the olive tree and the cactus, those fast friends of a worthless soil had almost deserted the country… Palestine sits in sackcloth and ashes… desolate and unlovely…”.

There has never been a country called Palestine and the Palestinians don’t intend to create one either.

In a March 31, 1977 interview with the Amsterdam-based newspaper “Dagblad de Verdieping Trouw”, March 31, 1977,  PLO executive committee member Zahir Muhsein said: “The Palestinian people does not exist. The creation of a Palestinian state is only a means for continuing our struggle against the state of Israel for our Arab unity. In reality today there is no difference between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese. Only for political and tactical reasons do we speak today about the existence of a Palestinian people, since Arab national interests demand that we posit the existence of a distinct ‘Palestinian people’ to oppose Zionism. For tactical reasons, Jordan, which is a sovereign state with defined borders, cannot raise claims to Haifa and Jaffa, while as a Palestinian, I can undoubtedly demand Haifa, Jaffa, Beer-Sheva and Jerusalem. However, the moment we reclaim our right to all of Palestine, we will not wait even a minute to unite Palestine and Jordan.”

During a meeting with leaders of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in 1976, Syrian President Hafiz al-Asad referred to Palestine as a region of Syria, as Southern Syria. He then went on to tell the Palestinians: “You do not represent Palestine as much as we do. Do not forget one thing: there is no Palestinian people, no Palestinian entity, there is only Syria! You are an integral part of the Syrian people and Palestine is an integral part of Syria. Therefore it is we, the Syrian authorities, who are the real representatives of the Palestinian people.”

In 1956, the representative of Saudi Arabia at the United Nations said -”It is common knowledge that Palestine is nothing but Southern Syria”.

The report of the British Royal Commission, 1913 says, “The Ottoman Turks, who ruled this area from the year 1516 to 1917, regarded it as part of Southern Syria. The land later referred to as “Palestine” was divided into three separate districts.  The area was underpopulated and remained economically stagnant until the arrival of the first Zionist pioneers in the 1880’s, who came to rebuild the Jewish land.  The country had remained “The Holy Land” in the religious and historic consciousness of mankind, which associated it with the Bible and the history of the Jewish People. Jewish development of the country also attracted large numbers of other immigrants – both Jewish and Arab.”

Wilder’s proposal is not only logical it is also historically accurate. Palestinians in Israel must go to their own countries and leave the Jewish land to Israelis.

Walid Shoebat, a Palestinian himself, writes: “As I lived in Palestine, everyone I knew could trace their heritage back to the original country their great grandparents came from. Everyone knew their origin was not from the Canaanites, but ironically, this is the kind of stuff our education in the Middle East included. The fact is that today’s Palestinians are immigrants from the surrounding nations! I grew up well knowing the history and origins of today’s Palestinians as being from Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Christians from Greece, muslim Sherkas from Russia, muslims from Bosnia, and the Jordanians next door. My grandfather, who was a dignitary in Bethlehem, almost lost his life by Abdul Qader Al-Husseni (the leader of the Palestinian revolution) after being accused of selling land to Jews. He used to tell us that his village Beit Sahur (The Shepherds Fields) in Bethlehem County was empty before his father settled in the area with six other families. The town has now grown to 30,000 inhabitants”.

So, when and why the Arabs started migrating to Israel?   Joan Peters in her book “From Time Immemorial” answers this question.  She writes that the return of the Jews in 1800’s and early 1900’s created jobs and Arabs from impoverished areas were drawn into the Holy Land for work.  She adds that in 1948 so many Arabs were new to the area and could not qualify for the UN requirement for refugee status (people forced to leave “permanent” or “habitual” homes) that they added a clause permitting refugee status for Arabs who had been there as little as two years. In other words the Palestinians came to Israel to work for the Jews and now claim the ownership of the land.

In the year A. D. 450 a flood in Yemen forced many to flee. Two tribes came north and were accepted by the Jews of Yathrib as refugees.  They worked for the Jews and prospered. They formed alliances with the Jews and intermarried with them. But when they converted to Islam they banished some of the Jews and massacred others, took their properties and changed the name of the town to Madinatul Nabi (Prophet’s town).

There seems to be a pattern. Today Muslim immigrants in Europe are already claiming ownership of their host countries. They established their own laws and have established no-go-zones for the native people. Even the police will be attacked if they go to certain neighborhoods.

Wilder’s proposal must be supported. It is the only viable solution to peace in the Middle East. Let us not forget that the war in the Middle East is not about land. It is about Jihad. It is a step towards world domination.

Yasser Arafat (an Egyptian himself) said, “Peace for us means the destruction of Israel”.

Fouad Ajami, in Dream Palaces of the Arabs quotes Hussein Massawi, former leader of Hezbollah who said, “We are not fighting you because we want something from you. We are fighting you because we want to destroy you.”

In May 15 1948, Azzam Pasha, Sec. Gen. of Arab league said: “This will be a war of extermination”.

In April 11, 1967, Nasser, the Egyptian dictator, explaining the build-up of armed forces said, “Our aim is the full restoration of rights of the Palestinian people,” in other words “the destruction of the State of Israel”.

In May 20 of the same year, Hafez el Assad’s, Syrian Minister of Defense said, “The time has come to enter into a battle of annihilation.”

Two months later, Yassir Arafat & Khalad Hassan re Israel’s post-war peace initiative stated. “Horrific! If the Arab states made peace with Israel, the Palestinian cause would be lost forever” [quoted in Alan Hart, Arafat – Terrorist or Peacemaker]

And a year later, Palestinian National Charter wowed: “The liberation of Palestine will destroy the Zionist and imperialist presence.”

So really, there are two ways to end the conflict in the Middle East – the Islamic way, i.e. the destruction of Israel or the rational way, i.e. resettling the Palestinians in their own homelands: Jordan and Syria.

Resettlement of Palestinian immigrants to the Jewish land in their own homelands may not be cheap, but in the long run it is going to be a lot less expensive than feeding a perpetual war.

Defending Israel is not just morally right, as Wilder rightly says, Israel is our first line of defense. Muslims see the destruction of Israel as the first sign of the “Hour” [of Resurrection] when they will have to wage jihad on all mankind.

Dr. Ahmed Yousuf Abu Halabiyah, member of the Palestinian Sharia Rulings Council, and Rector of Advanced Studies, the Islamic University, expressed this commonly held Islamic belief on PA TV. On July 28, 2000 he said. The Hour [of Resurrection] will not take place until you will fight the Jews and kill them.”

On September 10, 2004, Sheikh Ibrahim Mudayris, head of Association for Memorizing the Quran, PA Ministry of Endowments & Religious Affairs, using the same PA TV, reiterated the same belief and said: “The Hour will not take place until the Muslims fight the Jews, and the Muslims kill them. The Muslims will kill the Jews, rejoice!”

Muslims see the destruction of Israel as the sign of the “Hour” and the first step towards world domination. The sacrifice of Israel will not end the war; it will be its beginning.