Where Does The Word Palestine From?

The name Palestine is derived from the biblical name Peleshet designating the coastal plain in which the Philistines (Peleshtim) settled in the course of their 12th century (BC) expansion. The Philistines were an Aegean people who were driven out of Greece and the Aegean islands around 1300 BC.

The first time the area which is today named Israel was given the name Palestine was in 135 AD after the Roman conquest of Judea. This was immediately after the Romans crushed the revolt led by Simon Bar Kochba in 135 AD. The Romans renamed the land Syria-Palesitina in an attempt to cancel the Jewish claim to the land. They proceeded to destroy Jerusalem and rename it Aelia Capitolina. But we can still find as late as the 4th century, the Christian author, Epiphanius referring to "Palestine, that is, Judea." Previous to 123 AD (a turning point in Jewish history), there is about 2000 years of Jewish presence and history in the area today termed Israel. Here is a brief history, leaving out thousands of names and places. Pick up any history book that covers this period and this region:

2000-1225 BC - The period of Abraham
1120-1180 BC - Moses, the exodus from Egypt, the crossing of the Red Sea
1180-1100 BC - The assault on Jericho
1080-1030 BC - Samson, Samuel, Shaul
1030-1013 BC - David, battle of Gilboa
1013-1006 BC - David proclaimed king at Hebron, David captures Jerusalem
1006-980 BC - The wars of David (Arameans, Moab, Edom)
980-933 BC - The death of David, Solomon, the 1st Temple
933-875 BC - War between Israel and Judah, Omri founds the 3rd dynasty of Israel
987-851 BC - The era of Samaria
854-746 BC - Ahab, the Assyrian advance, the end of the Omri dynasty
746-720 BC - Amos at Bet-el, Shallum, Menachem, Pekahiah - kings of Israel, Ahaz king of Judea, deportation of Israelite
population to Assyria
720-692 BC - The fall of Samaria, the capture of Ashdod
692-609 BC - Beginning of decline of Assyrian power, the fall of Ninveh, death of Josiah.
608-586 BC - The end of the kingdom of Judea, the destruction of Jerusalem, the flight to Egypt by Jews
586-538 BC - Babylonian exile
538-432 BC - The restoration of the 1st Temple, Nehemiah builds the walls.
424-187 BC - Greek rule
187-142 BC - Hellenism, rededication of the Temple, Judah the Maccabbee.
142-37 BC - Simon, Syrian invasion repulsed, Samaritan temple razed, rise of the Pharisees, Sadducees, Pompey, Caesar,
Herod named by Romans to be king of Jews
37-4 BC - Herod the Great
4BC-67 AD - Jesus, Pontius Pilate, Agrippa confirmed by Claudius, Josephus in the Galilee
68-135 AD - Titus, destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple, the capture of Masada, Hadrian, the Jewish uprising led
by Bar Kochba, the renaming of Judea to Syria-Palestina by Rome

Only in 632 AD did the Moslem Arabs invade Syria-Palestina and by 640 AD the area was part of the Moslem empire. This reign lasted 450 years, with first the Omayyads, then the Abbasid dynasty and finally by the Fatimids.

10 Noam Chomsky Lies About the Arab-Israeli Peace Process

Paul Bogdanor has compiled a handy list of Noam Chomsky's top 200 lies on topics ranging from Israeli-Arab wars and Communism to Latin America and himself.

I compiled 40 of them that apeaking on the Israeli Arab conflict.

If he tells the truth will he survive?

What is the future for his blind followers?

1) The Lie: “the policies of Hamas are more forthcoming and more conducive to a peaceful settlement than those of the United States or Israel… There is a long-standing international
consensus that goes back over thirty years that there should be a two-state political settlement
on the international border… Hamas is willing to accept that as a long-term truce.”

The Truth: Hamas remains committed to Israel’s destruction: “Before Israel dies, it must be humiliated and degraded... Allah willing, we will make them lose their eyesight, we will make
them lose their brains” (Hamas leader Khaled Mashal); “Oh Allah, vanquish the Jews and
their supporters… count their numbers and kill them all, down to the very last one” (Hamas
parliamentary speaker Ahmad Bahr).

2) The Lie: “[Hezbollah’s] Nasrallah has a reasoned argument and persuasive argument that they [arms] should be in the hands of Hezbollah as a deterrent to potential aggression...”

The Truth: Hezbollah’s goal is not to deter aggression but to wage war “until the elimination of Israel and until the death of the last Jew on earth.” Nasrallah has pledged to “finish off the entire cancerous Zionist project.” He has stated: “If they [Jews] all gather in Israel, it will save us the trouble of going after them worldwide.”

3) The Lie: “There has been one elected leader in the Middle East, one, who was elected in a reasonably fair, supervised election... namely Yassir Arafat. So how do the great ‘democrats’ like Wolfowitz and Rumsfeld treat him? Lock him up in a compound so that he can be battered by US-provided arms to their local client under military occupation.”

The Truth: Israel and Turkey both had freely elected leaders. The Palestinian elections were rigged, and Arafat’s PLO colleagues compared him to Idi Amin and Saddam Hussein. Arafat was trapped in his compound after he sabotaged the peace process and started a campaign of violence.

4) The Lie: “Clinton-Barak advanced a few steps towards a Bantustan-style settlement… three cantons [in the West Bank], under Israeli control, virtually separated from one another and from the fourth enclave, a small area of East Jerusalem… In the fifth canton, Gaza, the outcome was left unclear except that the population were also to remain virtually imprisoned. It is understandable that maps are not to be found in the US mainstream, or any of the details of the proposals.”

The Truth: The PLO leadership boasted that “Barak agreed to a withdrawal from 95% of the occupied Palestinian lands” and pledged that “our eyes will continue to aspire to the strategic goal, namely, to Palestine from the river to the sea.”

5) The Lie: “These facts are automatically cut out of history, along with others unacceptable to US power, including repeated PLO initiatives through the 1980s calling for negotiations with Israel leading to mutual recognition.”

The Truth: At the end of the 1980s, PLO deputy leader Salah Khalaf (Abu Iyad) declared: “There was no PLO recognition of Israel.” PLO leader Yasser Arafat issued a joint statement with Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi avowing that “the so-called ‘State of Israel’ was one of the consequences of World War II and should disappear, like the Berlin Wall.

6) The Lie: “[By 1982] The PLO was getting extremely annoying [to Israel] with its insistence on [a] negotiated settlement of the conflict.”

The Truth: The PLO stated: “Peace for us means the destruction of Israel… We shall not rest until the day when we return to our home and until we destroy Israel.” The PLO announced: “We wish at any price to liquidate the state of Israel.” The PLO declared: “We shall never allow Israel to live in peace… We shall never recognize Israel...

7) The Lie:“In January 1976, the US was compelled to veto a UN Security Council Resolution calling for a settlement in terms of the international consensus, which now included a Palestinian state alongside Israel… [Israel alleged] that the PLO not only backed this peace plan but in fact ‘prepared’ it; the PLO then condemned ‘the tyranny of the veto’ (in the words of the PLO representative) by which the US blocked this important effort to bring about a peaceful two-state settlement.”

The Truth: The draft UN resolution endorsed the PLO’s “Right of Return” for millions of Palestinian Arabs, which entails the dissolution of Israel. The PLO publicly declared that “this Zionist ghetto of Israel must be destroyed” and stressed that “we will not recognize Israel.”

8) The Lie: “In February 1971, [Sadat] offered Israel a full peace treaty on the pre-June 1967 borders, with security guarantees, recognized borders and so on… Sadat’s offer was in line with the international consensus of the period…”

The Truth: Egypt explained its policy as follows: “There are only two specific Arab goals at present: elimination of the consequences of the 1967 aggression through Israel’s withdrawal from all the lands it occupied that year, and elimination of the consequences of the 1948 aggression through the eradication of Israel.”

9) The Lie: “Keeping to the diplomatic record… both sides, of course, rejected [UN Security Council Resolution] 242.”

The Truth: Israel, Jordan, Lebanon and Egypt accepted the resolution – while disagreeing over interpretation – and began discussions with the UN Special Representative appointed to implement it.

10) The Lie: “Much is made in US propaganda about Israel’s eagerness to make peace after the 1967 war… in August 1967, Yigal Allon had advanced his ‘Allon plan,’ which became official policy a year later… No other Israeli initiatives are known… The terms ‘territorial compromise’ and ‘land for peace’ are used to refer to one or another version of the Allon plan, always rejecting entirely the Palestinian right to self-determination.”

The Truth: In July 1967, Prime Minister Levi Eshkol publicly confirmed Israel’s readiness to establish a Palestinian state. Similar ideas were voiced by Yigal Allon, Yitzhak Rabin and Moshe Dayan.252 In January 1976, Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin considered another plan for a Palestinian state. This was supported by Golda Meir, Yigal Allon and Ariel Sharon.

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10 Noam Chomsky Lies About the War on Terrorism

Paul Bogdanor has compiled a handy list of Noam Chomsky's top 200 lies on topics ranging from Israeli-Arab wars and Communism to Latin America and himself.

I compiled 40 of them that apeaking on the Israeli Arab conflict.

If he tells the truth will he survive?

What is the future for his blind followers?

1) The Lie: It is acceptable to report the collateral damage by bombing error, the inadvertent and inevitable cost of war, but not the conscious and deliberate destruction of Afghans who will die in silence, invisibly not by design, but because it doesn't matter, a deeper level of moral depravity. People do not die of starvation instantly. They can survive on roots and grass, and if malnourished children die of disease, who will seek to determine what factors lie in the background?

The Truth: America had been the largest supplier of food to Afghanistan for a decade and provided two-thirds of food aid after 9/11, saving the country from famine. The UN Global Ambassador on Hunger wrote that there was ion starvation this winter in Afghanistan, thanks to a humanitarian assistance budget wisely provided by the Bush administration. The head of the World Food Program in Kabul said that it was clear that a possible famine had been averted.

2) The Lie: Western civilization is anticipating the slaughter of, well do the arithmetic, 3-4 million people or something like that [in Afghanistan]. Looks like what's happening is some sort of silent genocide we are in the midst of apparently trying to murder 3 or 4 million people.

The Truth: Far from killing millions, the American occupation of Afghanistan saved lives. UNICEF figures indicate that the deaths of 112,000 children and 7,500 pregnant women will be prevented every year as a result.

3) The Lie: The [Afghanistan] war aim announced on October 12, five days after the bombing began, was that the Taliban leadership should hand over to the United States people who [sic] the US suspected of participating in terrorist actions.

The Truth: The war aim, announced by President Bush on the first day of bombing, was to disrupt the use of Afghanistan as a terrorist base of operations, and to attack the military capability of the Taliban regime.

4) The Lie: Many who know the conditions well are also dubious about bin Laden's capacity to plan that incredibly sophisticated operation from a cave somewhere in Afghanistan. It's entirely possible that bin Laden telling the truth when he says that he didn't know about the operation.

The Truth: Shortly after 9/11, bin Laden said that he had known of the plan and had used his engineering skills to calculate how much damage the planes would inflict on the World Trade Center. The 9/11 planners, Khaled Sheikh Mohammed and Ramzi Binalshibh, said that they executed the death flights with the approval of bin Laden.

5) The Lie: They [i.e., the terrorists] are carrying out enormous atrocities in response to the real atrocities for which were responsible and which continue to this day. It may matter little to us here, and virtually no one in the West cares. But that doesn't imply that it doesn't matter to the victims.

The Truth: They commit enormous atrocities because they are totalitarian fanatics.194 Islamic extremists have committed mass murder in Muslim countries such as Algeria, Iran, Iraq and Sudan, and in non-Western countries such as India and the Philippines.

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Paul Bogdanor has compiled a handy list of Noam Chomsky's top 200 lies on topics ranging from Israeli-Arab wars and Communism to Latin America and himself.

I compiled 40 of them that apeaking on the Israeli Arab conflict.

If he tells the truth will he survive?

What is the future for his blind followers?

1) The Lie: The [9/11] terrorist attacks were major atrocities. In scale they may not reach the level of many others, for example, Clintonís bombing of the Sudan with no credible pretext, destroying half its pharmaceutical supplies and killing unknown numbers of people (no one knows, because the US blocked an inquiry at the UN and no one cares to pursue it).

The Truth: After al-Qaeda destroyed American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, killing hundreds, America bombed an alleged chemical weapons factory in Sudan. The bombing was conducted at night so that civilians would not be hurt.
182 One security guard died. Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Oxfam and Doctors Without Borders were all free to investigate and none alleged that the bombing caused mass deaths surpassing 9/11.

2) The Lie: [In Bosnia] there was one famous incident which has completely reshaped the Western opinion and that was the photograph of the thin man behind the barb-wire [at the Trnopolje camp] the place was ugly, but it was a refugee camp, I mean, people could leave if they wanted.

The Truth: Trnopolje was a concentration camp where victims were imprisoned during the process of ethnic cleansing and subjected to systematic starvation and rape, as well as random violence and murder.

3) The Lie: ì[UNITA] had also announced a new campaign of urban terror,í Associated Press reported [in April 1984], noting a bombing in Luanda in which 30 people were killed and more than 70 injured when a jeep loaded with dynamite exploded in the city.

The Truth: UNITA claimed responsibility for bombing an army building in Huambo, not Luanda, adding ìthat the attack marked the beginning of UNITAís urban guerrilla campaign [emphasis added]. AP reported UNITA's claim to have bombed an army building and cited an official communist report from Luanda ìthat about 30 people were killed and more than 70 injured when a jeep loaded with dynamite exploded in the town [of Huambo].

4) The Lie: ìOnly a few months before he spoke [in June 1984], [George] Shultzís UNITA friends in Angola were boasting of having shot down civilian airliners with 266 people killed.

The Truth: UNITA claimed to have shot down government planes carrying hundreds of military personnel. The authorities said that first plane made an emergency landing because of technical problems, with no-one killed.

5) The Lie: [In November 1983,] UNITA in Angola took credit for shooting down an Angolan civilian airline with over a hundred people killed from South Africa and the United States support them so that whenever they shoot down a civilian airliner, thatís fine.

The Truth: UNITA claimed to have shot down a plane carrying government soldiers. The authorities said that it was a passenger airliner that crashed because of technical faults.

6) The Lie: the heroine of the popular struggle that overthrew the vicious Somoza regime in Nicaragua, Dora Maria Tellez, was denied a visa to teach at the Harvard Divinity School, as a terrorist. Her crime was to have helped overthrow a US-backed tyrant and mass murderer. Orwell would not have known whether to laugh or weep.

The Truth: In 1978, Dora Maria Tellez led a Sandinista attack on Nicaraguaís parliament building. The terrorists captured 1,500 civilian hostages, including children, and threatened to murder them unless their demands were met. The demands included a prisoner release and a $10 million ransom.

7) The Lie: What were the worst terrorist acts in the Middle East in the peak year, 1985?
The second candidate would be the Israeli bombing of TunisÖ Tunis was attacked with smart bombs. People were torn to pieces, and so on, and the attack killed about seventy-five people, Tunisians and Palestinians. They were civilians This was, again, international terrorism.

The Truth: Israel bombed the PLO's headquarters in a suburb of Tunis. A report stated that the raid ìheavily damaged or destroyed buildings used by Force 17, the PLOís elite security wing while leaving others in the complex untouched.

8) The Lie: We might tarry a moment over the Israeli attack on the island off Tripoli north of Beirut [in 1984], in which Lebanese fishermen and boy scouts at a camp were killed One might ask why the murder of Lebanese boy scouts is a lesser atrocity [than the death of Israeli children at Maíalot].

The Truth: Israel bombed an ammunition dump on the island, known as a training facility for
a jihadist faction allied to the PLO. Sources in the jihadist faction reported that there were 150
terrorists on the island and that 25 of them were hit.

9) The Lie: None [of the attacks on Israel] is remembered with more horror than the atrocity at Maíalot in 1974, where 22 members of a paramilitary youth group were killed in an exchange of fire.

The Truth: The PLO attack commenced with the murder of a father, a pregnant mother and their four-year-old child, with their five-year-old daughter shot in the stomach. The terrorists took over 100 schoolchildren hostage and threatened to massacre them unless their demands were met. They murdered 22 teenagers, and wounded 56, during an Israeli rescue attempt.

10) The Lie: we might consider one of the early exploits of our most favored client state [Israel], the massacre on Oct. 28, 1948 at Doueimah [sic] leaving 580 civilians killed according to the accounting by its Mukhtar 100 to 350, according to Israeli sources, 1,000 according to testimonies preserved in US State Department records.

The Truth: Arab officials investigated these stories at the time, concluding that 27 had been murdered and that the information on the slaughter in Duwayma was exaggerated. The IDF also investigated and requested a field trial for the guilty officer.163 The crime was committed in revenge for Arab terrorist attacks that killed 2,000 Jewish civilians during the war.

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Top 200 Noam Chomsky's Lies

10 Noam Chomsky Lies About the Arab-Israeli Wars

Paul Bogdanor has compiled a handy list of Noam Chomsky's top 200 lies on topics ranging from Israeli-Arab wars and Communism to Latin America and himself.

I compiled 40 of them that apeaking on the Israeli Arab conflict.

If he tells the truth will he survive?

What is the future for his blind followers?

1) The Lie: The only issue now is suicide bombers. And when did the suicide bombings begin?
Last year [2001], on a major scale. One year of Palestinian crimes against Israel after thirty four years of quiet.
Israel had been nearly immune. I mean, there were terrorist attacks on Israel but not from within the occupied territories.

The Truth: Suicide bombings in Israel began in 1994, less than a year after the Oslo Accords that created the Palestinian Authority. Hundreds of Israelis died in suicide bombings and other terrorist attacks from the West Bank and Gaza before the collapse of the peace process in late 2000.

2) The Lie: as soon as the current fighting began last September 30 [2000], Israel immediately, the next day, began using US helicopters to attack civilian targets. In the next couple of days they killed several dozen people in apartment complexes and elsewhere. The fighting was all in the occupied territories, and there was no Palestinian fire. The Palestinians were using stones.

The Truth: Palestinian forces were using gunfire. Reports spoke of Palestinians sniping from rooftops and inside abandoned buildings; referred to gunmen shooting at the Israelis, causing the army to send helicopter gunships to provide cover fire for rescuers; and stated that Israeli troops and Palestinian gunmen shot at each other.

3) The Lie: [In 1982] the US-backed Israeli attack on Lebanon brought the superpowers close to nuclear confrontation as Israel attacked the forces of a Soviet ally, Syria, which had not attempted to impede the Israeli onslaught.

The Truth: The superpowers did not come close to nuclear confrontation; the Soviets did not threaten war in support of Syria and barely reacted to the first Syrian-Israeli clashes.

4) The Lie: [Israel was] holding the city [of Beirut] hostage in an effort to compel the PLO to withdraw completely, as it did, to save the city from total destruction.

The Truth: Far from trying to save the population, the PLO was threatening its annihilation. Yasser Arafat warned that ìif the Israelis attempted to break into West Beirut, the PLO would simultaneously blow up 300 ammunition dumps and bring holocaust down on the city.

5) The Lie: Whether the PLO will be able to maintain the image of heroism with which it left Beirut [in 1982] is another question as Israel and its partisans desperately hope, the PLO, under conditions of dispersal and disarray, may return to random terrorism and abandon its dangerous posture of political accommodation.

The Truth: Before the 1982 war, the PLO sponsored terrorists all over the world, including neo-Nazis; made preparations to bombard Israeli cities; and committed extensive atrocities in Lebanon.242 During the war, PLO heroism included using child soldiers and placing military targets next to schools, hospitals, churches and apartment buildings.

6) The Lie: ìThe 1973 war was a clear case of an Arab attack, but on territory occupied by Israel, after diplomatic attempts at [a] settlement had been rebuffed. Hence it is hardly an undisputed historical factí that in this case the war had to do with ëthe existence of the Jewish state.

The Truth: Syria pledged to ìregain our positions in our occupied land and continue then until we liberate the whole land.239 Egypt announced: The issue is not just the liberation of the Arab territories occupied since June 5, 1967Ö [for] if the Arabs are able to liberate their territories occupied since June 5, 1967 by force, what can prevent them in the next stage from
liberating Palestine itself by force?

7) The Lie: ìIt is not even controversial that in 1967 Israel attacked Egypt. Jordan and Syria entered the conflict much as England and France went to war when Germany attacked their ally Poland in 1939 [i.e., to defend an ally].

The Truth: Israel was defending itself against forcible blockade by Egypt. Nasser had stated: We knew that by closing the Gulf of Aqaba it might mean war with Israel the objective [of war] will be to destroy Israel. Egypt had warned Israel that either it will die by strangulation in the wake of the Arab military and economic blockade, or it will die by shooting from the Arab forces surrounding it in the south, north and east. Syria and the other Arab regimes also declared that their goal was to destroy Israel.

8) The Lie: [An Israeli expert] observes that ëthe Arabsí objective of destroying the state of Israel drives them to [seek] genocide. This is a possible, but not an absolutely necessary, interpretation of such proposals.

The Truth: In 1948, the Arab League announced a war of extermination and a momentous massacre. In 1967, Syria wanted to explode Zionist existence. Iraq planned to get rid of the Zionist cancer in Palestine. The PLO vowed that ìno-one will remain alive. The 1968 PLO covenant pledged to destroy the Zionist and imperialist presence in Palestine. In 1979, the PLO warned that there will be only Arabs in this part of the world and promised to shed rivers of blood when destroying Israel.

9) The Lie: It might be noted that the boundaries of Zionist aspirations in Ben-Gurionís vision were quite broad, including southern Lebanon, southern Syria, today's Jordan, all of cis-Jordan, and the Sinai.

The Truth: The archives show that Ben-Gurion rejected expansionism: When we agreed to the Partition Plan, we accepted it in all honesty. We did this not because the plan was good or just, but because a small area received through peaceful means was preferable to us than a large area won by fighting.

The Lie: Israel and Jordan were acting in accord with a secret agreement to partition Palestine in 1947-8, both of them regarding the Palestinian leadership as a primary enemy.

The Truth: The Zionists told Jordanís King Abdallah that ìwe could not promise to help his incursion into the country, since we would be obliged to observe the UN Resolution for the establishment of two states in Palestine (Golda Meir). Israelís leaders took the unanimous view that an Arab Palestine is here to stay (Moshe Sharett) and that ìwe will not be able to agree lightly to the annexation of parts of Palestine to Transjordan (David Ben-Gurion).

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Middle East Conflict's FAQ's

Q:How can peace be achieved?
A:Israel has always been willing to compromise and all Israeli governments have been willing to make major sacrifices for the sake of peace. However, peacemaking requires concessions as well as confidence-building measures on both sides. Just as Israel is willing to address the rights and interests of the Palestinians, Israel has legitimate rights and interests that need to be addressed. Peace can only be achieved through negotiations to bridge gaps and resolve all outstanding issues.

Israel believes that it can make peace with a moderate Palestinian leadership that rejects terrorism. When in the past, Israel met Arab leaders, like President Sadat of Egypt and King Hussein of Jordan, who spoke the language of peace and were willing to take concrete steps for coexistence, Israel reached agreements with them and peace was achieved. Israel is willing to stand in peace with all the moderate states of the region.

Q:What is Israel's position on a Palestinian state?
A:Time after time, Israel has stated its desire to see two states - the State of Israel and a Palestinian state - living side by side in peace and security. Israel believes that a true resolution of the conflict will see two national states, a Palestinian state for the Palestinian people and a Jewish state for the Jewish people. Israel has no desire to rule over the Palestinians, and believes that a truly democratic Palestinian state fully at peace with Israel will promote the long-term security and well-being of Israel as a Jewish state.

Israel has no qualms regarding the establishment of a Palestinian state, per se. The only issue is what kind of Palestinian state should be established. Will it be a democratic state of law and order, which eschews terrorism, violence and incitement and therefore be a state with which Israel can live in peace? Or will it be an anarchic state that is continuing on the path of violence and terrorism, which will not only endanger Israel but the stability of the region as a whole?

Israel cannot abide the establishment of a terrorist state along its borders. Efforts towards establishing a Palestinian state must take Israel's rights and vital interests into account, especially on matters of security, so that there can be peace and stability in the region.


Israel’s goal of being a democratic Jewish state, living in harmony with its neighbors, led it to embrace the vision of two states for two peoples as resolved by the United Nations' partition plan in 1947. Israel realized that the peoples of the Middle East are neighbors whose futures are inevitably linked. No peace will last that fails to take this into account.

Q;How has the Hamas takeover of Gaza affected the chances for a Palestinian State?
A:Israel left Gaza in the summer of 2005 in order to create an opportunity for peace. It removed its armed forces, dismantled civilian settlements, yet left greenhouses for the Palestinian farmers in the hope this could be the beginning of a peaceful Palestinian state. But, instead of a flourishing peace, Israel received a hostile territory on its border: Israeli towns adjacent to Gaza are the targets of almost daily Kassam rocket attacks, terror attacks are frequently attempted and the terrorist infrastructure is growing at an alarming pace.

Despite this ongoing Hamas terrorism, Israel will maintain an ongoing dialogue with Palestinian moderates, in order to send the message to the Palestinians that if the moderates are the representatives of their national aspirations, they can achieve a state of their own.

Israel's guiding principle is that of differentiating between the moderates and the extremists, between those who are willing and ready to advance the peace process and those whose ideology is based on extremism and religious fanaticism and who treat even their own people with the utmost brutality. Israel hopes that the former will prevail, yet ultimately, the choice must be made by the Palestinians themselves.

While Hamas terrorists continue to target Israelis, they have also brought tragedy to Palestinians. As events in Gaza have shown, while the terrorists may claim to be advancing Palestinian rights, they have succeeded only in undermining them.

Q:What should be the role of the Arab world?
A:Israel desires peace with all Arab countries. It does, however, differentiate between the moderate Arab states, which have the potential for peaceful relations with Israel and the extremist states, which have no interest in peace.

The moderate Arab states have the potential to make an important and positive contribution to the peace process as well as change the face of the region for the better.

Still, the policy of confrontation with Israel has to be replaced by a policy of dialogue. As progress is being made in the negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians, the need for this change is ever more apparent.

While there are no illusions that the Arab states will agree with Israel on the specific issues in dispute, they should agree that resolving those issues will involve compromises from both sides. Israel cannot be expected to accept ultimatums or "take-it-or-leave-it" propositions. Israel will not abide by ultimatums which state that peace can be achieved only if Israel were to accede to all Arab demands and conditions; Israel's rights and interests cannot be totally ignored, nor can the need for compromise to resolve outstanding issues be neglected.

On the other hand, the extremist states of the Middle East must stop supporting terrorist activities. They must cease incitement and antisemitic propaganda against Israel which do nothing but generate further hatred and provide a fertile ground for terrorism.

Q:Does Israel have partners for making peace in the Arab world?
A:The Middle East is the scene of a struggle between extremists and more moderate elements. The continuous rise of extremist factions is having both a negative and a positive impact on the peace process.

On the one hand, the extremists (who often represent religion-based viewpoints), are a major source of destabilization in the Middle East as a whole, and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in particular. Iran, which supports terrorist organizations, is not only a threat to Israel, but to world peace. Groups such as Hamas, Hizbullah and Islamic Jihad continue on the path of violence and reject all efforts towards resolving the conflict.

On the other hand, this rising extremist menace has caused more moderate Middle Eastern states to recognize the common threat the extremists, and especially Iran, pose. This has led to the creation of partnerships that would have been inconceivable only a few years ago and to the rejuvenation of the political process between Israel and much of the rest of the Middle East.

Israel is ready and able to work towards peace with the other moderate elements in the Middle East, in the hope that together we can keep the extremists in check and the political process on track.

Q:What is the status of Jerusalem?
A:Jerusalem is a holy city for the three monotheistic faiths: Judaism, Christianity and Islam. It is the religious status of Jerusalem which endows such great significance to this city and all that happens within it. Israel recognizes and guarantees the rights of all worshippers and protects their holy shrines in the city, as indeed it does in the country as a whole. At the same time that Jerusalem has a special status due to its religious import; Jerusalem is also the capital of the State of Israel.

Jerusalem is the "heart and soul" of the Jewish people's spiritual identity and national yearnings. On every occasion that the Jews have been an independent people in the Land of Israel, Jerusalem has been their capital. Jerusalem served as the Jewish people's historic capital since King David made it so in 1004 B.C.E. Jerusalem remained the capital until its destruction at the hands of the Romans in 70 CE and the subsequent loss of Jewish independence.

Jewish independence was renewed in 1948, with the establishment of the State of Israel. Shortly thereafter, the Knesset (Israel's parliament) determined that Jerusalem would be the capital of the State of Israel. Following this decision, government institutions were located in Jerusalem, including the President's Residence, the Government ministries, the Knesset and the Supreme Court. In 1980, the Knesset legislated the "Basic Law: Jerusalem, Capital of Israel", which enshrined its decision in law.

Most states have not respected Israel's sovereign right to determine its own capital city, and have refused to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. The reasons for this are essentially political, and are contrary to principles of international law. Israel should enjoy the same basic right as any other country in determining the choice of its capital.

Throughout the centuries, no other nation, other than the Jewish people, made Jerusalem its capital. While important to other faiths, Judaism is the only religion which places Jerusalem at the center of its belief.

Q:What are Israel's primary goals?
A:Israel's top priority is its continued existence as a state that is both a national home for the Jewish people and a democratic state for all its citizens, Arab and Jew alike. Israelis want to live in a secure country that exists in peace with its neighbors.

In order to supports Israel's identity as a Jewish and a democratic state, Israel realizes that it must promote a political process that will lead to two nation-states, one for Israelis, the other for Palestinians.

The State of Israel sees itself as a national home for Israeli citizens who live here and to Jews living elsewhere. Upon its establishment, Israel provided a full and comprehensive solution to the problem of Jewish refugees who were force to leave Arab countries and Europe.

Similarly, the future Palestinian state must provide a full and comprehensive solution for the Palestinians, including those who currently reside in the territories and those who left and have been kept deliberately as refugees to be exploited as bargaining chips during negotiations.

Israel's future as a democratic and a Jewish state is best secured by a peaceful resolution to the conflict. When that much hoped for resolution is finally reached, peace will bring benefits not only to Israel, but to all its neighbors.

The Middle East Conflict

A Short History of Israeli and Palestinian at the Middle East Conflict
After World War II, the United Nations gave land to the Jewish people of the world so they could live together in peace. This land, Israel, includes holy places for the Jewish religion and its surrounded by Muslim countries. "Palestinian" Muslims (and Jews) lived on the land at the time that the United Nations gave it to the Jewish people.

Portions of the land given to the Jewish people, or taken over by them when they won wars against Arab states, are also holy for Muslims. Certain portions of Jerusalem controlled by Israel, called "East Jerusalem," are very important to Muslims. For religious reasons, Palestinian Muslims believe that they must gain control of East Jerusalem as part of any lasting peace settlement.

Further, Palestinians view themselves as living in an occupied nation, where invaders (Israelis) have placed them under military rule. To fight back, Palestinians have built a terrorist network to attack innocent Israeli civilians. Israelis feel they must continue to control Palestinians with military force to protect themselves against more terrorist attacks.

Palestinian Demands
Palestinians want Israel to comply with international law and retreat to the borders that existed in 1967.

Palestinians express this demand as four key conditions for peace, including:
1. A separate Palestinian state (with the same borders as were in 1967),
2. Palestinian control of East Jerusaleum,
3. Ending Israeli occupation of Palestinian terroritory, and
4. Freedom of Palestinian refugees to return to their homeland.

Israeli Demands
Israelis want the Palestinians to stop the terrorist attacks.

Israelis have four key conditions for peace, including:
1. Palestinian borders that ensure continuing Israeli security from Palestinian attacks, not the 1967 borders,
2. Israeli control of all of Jerusalem,
3. Enough Israeli control within Palestinian territories to allow Israel to destroy terrorist networks, and
4. Prevention of Palestinian refugees from returning to their homelands

But The Fact Is:
The Arabs invented a special national entity in the 1960s (rather than a geographic delineation) called the Palestinians, specifically for political gain. They brand Israelis as invaders and claim the geographic area called Palestine belongs exclusively to the Arabs.

The word Palestine is not even Arabic. It is a word coined by the Romans around 135 CE from the name of a seagoing Aegean people who settled on the coast of Canaan in antiquity the Philistines. The name was chosen to replace Judea, as a sign that Jewish sovereignty had been eradicated following the Jewish Revolts against Rome.

The Palestinians want their own country. There's just one thing about that: There are no Palestinians. It's a made up word. Israel was called Palestine for two thousand years. Like Wiccan,Palestinian sounds ancient but is really a modern invention.

"Peace for us means the destruction of Israel.
We are preparing for an all-out war, a war which will last for generations".
~Yasser Arafat~