I come from a Palestinian family; but I say that with much hesitation.  More on that in a few minutes.  My father as a kid, along with his family, was amongst the many Palestinians who got kicked out of current-day Israel back in the 1967.  What do I mean by kicked out?  In short, their lands, houses, most of their non-carriable possessions were seized and then claimed.  Many, including my family, still carry papers that show their right to the land they left behind.

Having said that, and although I'm a first generation Arab, I must say I have more objectivity than most who live in the Arabic World, I feel.  For one, all the blame in the Arabic World is aimed at Israel ... and then at the US.  Having lived in the Middle East I can say I see why.  After all, a simple search online will show how much we (the US) give to Israel.  If I'm not mistaken, we give more to Israel than we do the rest of the World combined!  We gave to Israel, the size of Rhode Island, more than the per-capita of Spain.  I don't want to bore you with the details.  Just know that we give them a lot.  As a taxpayer, and yes I know that's a different topic, that ticks me off.  It truly angers me that my money goes to any one country rather than help the homeless, hungry, disadvantaged, our health-care, etc. here in the US.  As a descendant of a family that went through this injustice and human rights violation, it truly angers me.

Moving on ...

The Arab World, unfortunately, lives amongst corrupt bodies of leadership.  Most, if not all, do not follow any Islamic principles, or even basic fairness and human rights.  Yet they represent themselves in a different light.  It's my understanding that at one point in the 1940's Palestinians were told that the establishment of Israel wasn't going to be tolerated, and it's best that they got out the mess is cleaned.  Whether that's true or not is yet to be known.  But I do plan on finding out within a few months.

Now let's take a step back and talk about the good old United Kingdom.  Britain occupied most of that troubled region and promised "Palestine" to the Arabs, and then turned around and promised Israel a couple of years later to the Jews.  Technically, neither existed.  It's why I hesitate to say that I come from a "Palestinian" family.   I can tell you that the term, as a reference, did exist.  In Arabic it's Falasteen.  Also seen as Filisteen among other variations.   Heck, Jordan didn't exist in the manner it did either.  But that's a different story for a different day.  Prior to the 1920's, back when all that region was under one Muslim umbrella, history (taught here in the US) shows that all three major religions (Islam, Christianity and Judaism) co-lived in peace.  No problems.

Combine all of the above:  the fall of a Muslim rule over the region, the occupation by the British, the false promise, WWII, the division of the region by the British (This here is Jordan.  You can rule over this "Iraq."  And you can take this to be Kuwait), the corruption of the placed leaders tainted with greed, power and position, another possible broken promise or two (or more) by said Arab leaders (to vacate or risk harm), all with a dash of a superpower like us here in the US supporting a tyranny and an occupation in the full meaning of the word, and by UN/Geneva definitions, and you have the conflict we all now know as the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

Do I think that "Palestinians" should have their lands back?  Most definitely.  But that includes the Muslim, Christian and Jewish "Palestinians."

I was taught when I was a kid that one of the characteristics of a country is its ability to maintain its own sovereignty.  Or something like that.  A quick glance in recent history and seeing how Iraq was able to takeover Kuwait overnight may indicate that Kuwait was really put there.  At best, it may not deserve to be its own country.  We here in the US celebrate our independence 'cause we earned it from the British.  We fought them for it.  The same British drew lines on a map and divided a region that was once united under Islamic rule.  At the rate of growth that Islam experiences today, never mind back then when it was under one umbrella, I could so see why the British would do that.  But that's a different topic as well.

Similarly, however, Israel without the support of the US would seize to exist.  If I'm not mistaken, there are no more than 6 to 7 million Israelis living in Israel today.  The Palestinians in camps and in Jordan alone could overtake that in little time.  Aaah ... but the borders are guarded; and a bit heavier on the non-Israeli side mind you.  So we now have people in limbo in what we today know as the camps, and we also have a conflict that has lasted almost two-thirds of a century.  What a cluster @#$%.

The conflict my dear readers should never have been about Palestinians and Israelis.  The conflict, if the word "Palestinian" can even be claimed and/or used, would at minimum be with the neighboring Arab countries.

I didn't want to "talk" about it today, but why stop now, right?

Let's take Jordan, for example.  It's my understanding that more than half of the country, before the whole Iraq occupation/war that started with George W. Bush, were Palestinians.  Granted, they're branded and treated as second-class citizens, but they do have one heck of an economic power within the country, wouldn't you think?  I'm pretty sure that if that half left and went "back to their homeland" Jordan would be crippled.  Given the fact that it's right next door may even mean that should all the Palestinians decide to take back what's theirs, they may come back and take what they've built in the meantime.  In essence, the new Palestine would be today's current-day (and so called) Israel AND Jordan.  Wouldn't you be nervous if you were ruling Jordan ... as a King?  Never mind the detail that the Kingdom was actually put there by the British.

Now, let's talk about Egypt.  The silent one in all of this mess.
The Egyptian public view this as a religious issue more so than a political one; and I agree, it is.  But I'll elaborate on that in a minute.  Egypt is the second highest recipient of US aid after Israel!  That aid started some time in the 1970's.  Hmmm, let's see, what happened back then?  Oh yeah, the 1973 war.  Egypt and Syria joined forced to rid the region of Israel.  On accounts of a couple of individuals who were in this war, with whom I've spoken to personally, they had Tel-Aviv surrounded and got the order to pull back.  I wonder what superpower would have made that call?


I often wonder why many of the Palestinian Arabs, which by the way are both Christian and Arabic, waive a Palestinian flag.  I feel like I'm missing something.  Was there ever an independent Palestine?  Not to my knowledge.  So the flag is really about what would have been, right?  I sure hope I get some feedback on this.

This is an Islamic issue if it was about the peoples' lands that were obfuscated, but I'm not sure that they didn't leave it willingly because of a false promise.  After all, there are Israeli-Arabs in Israel who have lived there long before Israel's so called independence in 1948; and they're still there.

But that's not what makes it an Islamic issue.  It's about the Aqsa Mosque and its significance within Islam.  That whole area, not just the Mosque, is a Holy Land for us just as much as it is for Christianity and Judaism alike.  So why should the Muslims have right to that alone?  No one said that it should.  All three, however, did have free access to the area under Islamic rule like no other.  All three flourished and lived in peace for centuries until the Crusaders came and killed all three.  Yes, the Crusaders killed Christians too.  But that's definitely not the topic or focus of this post.  Regardless of what rule the Holy Land resides under, all three should have full access to their respective areas.  The Muslims, as of right now, definitely do not.  And here's the part that kills me:  The Christians have limited access as well.   Unfortunately, we do not hear about the Christian atrocities and suffering within Israel.  Because should that get out, Israel would seize to exist overnight, I feel.  It could easily cause a World uprising regardless of denomination.

Now please allow me to drift into religion for the sake of circling back to a more complete topic.

In order, there was Abraham, and then some time later (skipping a few Prophets and Messengers) there was David, then his son Solomon, some time later followed by Moses.  Until then, the message was about the oneness of God.  To not worship any other deities but The One God.  Jesus came and preached nothing different:  The oneness of God.  The trinity, by all accounts, wasn't introduced until more than 300 years later.  These messages, in essence, were a compliment and a supplement to what has passed.  A reminder of what was delivered in the prior messages.  Perhaps with more details, restrictions and/or new rules that apply now, which didn't before.  That has been the nature of all the messages before and lead to Jesus (peace be upon him).

In Islam, we believe that the final chapter to it all is what we all now know as Islam.  To Muslims, Islam existed with Adam.  The word itself is a derivative of "submission" and "peace;" and it has been the command of The One God all along  —To worship Him alone.  And yes, Muslims believe in Jesus, Moses, Abraham, Noah and all the Prophets & Messengers (peace be upon them all).  Actually, you cannot be a Muslim without believing in them, in their Revelations (the Torah, the Bible, etc.), the angels among a few other things.  This is a vast topic, and I dare not address it right now.  Not within this particular post.  Not tonight.  Not yet.

My point, dear readers, is that as Muslims we feel that we are an extension of Christianity and Judaism.  In many references both verbal and literal, we refer to each other as cousins.  Now here's where it all starts to go wrong:

Jews don't believe in the miracle birth of Jesus.  Not only that, him and his mother Mary (peace be upon them both) are called with names.   Historically, the Jews  —labeled for all pre-Jesus (peace be upon him) monotheistic followers— have killed and/or betrayed their Prophets & Messengers.  In Islam, we are warned about such hypocrisy.   Unfortunately, many Christians feel closer to their insulting cousin because of the end of days, and how all the children of Israel must be in what we today know as Israel, before the return of Jesus, the Messiah, etc.  This is where it all gets hairy.  In short, it's a relationship of convenience.  Israel needs the financial support of Christians, and the Christians need all the Jews in Israel to fulfill a prophecy.

Since most would agree that the Bible has been changed by man, what if ... just if ... someone modified the prophecy.  In Islam we believe that one of the reasons a Prophet/Messenger comes after the last one is because of the changes and corruptions man would introduce in an otherwise divine message.  In other words, Jesus would not have been sent unless the Torah (aka the Old Testament) has been changed among other things.

Now if ... just if ... that was true, it could mean that Christianity and Islam would be the closer "cousins," would it not?  I wonder what the implications of that would be?  Especially on Israel and its existence.

In Islam, by the way, we do believe that Jesus will return close to the end of days, but in a very different manner than that of most mainstream Christianity.  Don't get too hung up on the details.  Just know that Muslims not only believe in Jesus and the other Prophets/Messengers (peace be upon them all), but we also believe in his return as well.

The focus of most of my posts is always to eliminate ignorance and open your eyes to other possibilities.  Now what if I was right?  What if many come across this information on their own?  What if that was amongst the main reasons that Islam is the fastest growing religion in the World?  Look, there are many idiots in every religion.  Don't let our idiots shy you away from reading about Islam.  No one is asking you to convert, for God's sake.  After all, even if you did, that's a thing between you and Him.  At minimum, reading about other religions should enhance your understanding, tolerance, intelligence and will likely make you even stronger in your faith.

Just keep this in mind:  Born Muslims take a lot for granted, unfortunately.  And to make things worse, they do what they do because that's the way their parents and ancestors did it, not because that's what they believe they should do.  Converts to Islam are the strongest, actually.  They are armed with knowledge and have crossed the cultural bind and limitations of ignorance.  By the way, Muslims refer to converts as reverts because we believe that all humans are born with the innate instinct that God is One.  In Islam, all newborns are free of sin.  All pre-puberty deaths are pretty much in Heaven.  They are pure, still.

To bring this back to topic, it is no wonder that the conflict that we know as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict exists.  It is fueled with ignorance, emotions, greed & power, politics and even fear.  All a recipe that guarantee it to last until a prophecy does and must come true.  In the meantime, I ask that you pray for those in the middle of it.  For all of them, but especially for the disadvantaged amongst them.  And I shall do the same, and for all of you to shun ignorance by reading, asking and not giving in to stereotypes and politic- or lobby- driven media.

Don't just sit there.  Be a champion of change.  Start with yourself.  With your ideas and your mentality.  Surrender it to no one but to Him Alone.

I leave you with this reading about "The Bubble" within Israeli life.