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In Islam, there are generally three accepted conditions that must exist for the proper declaration of combative jihad:
- There are aggressive designs against Islam;
- There are concerted efforts to eject Muslims from their legally-acquired property; and
- Military campaigns are being launched to eradicate them (Muslims)
Of these, the most often advanced justification for Islamic jihad in the Middle East since 1945 has been the creation of the nation of Israel by the United Nations after WWII, and the (real or imagined) dispossesment of the resident Muslims from their ancestral lands and property.
Setting aside for a moment the fact that the Arab (and Palestinian) rulers of the day were closely allied with the German Nazi war machine, and were thus on the losing side of the second world war, and the fact that the Arab nations also rejected the original partitioning arrangement that would have allowed for both nations to co-exist peacefully together, instead waging and subsequently losing several military campaigns against the newly-formed Israeli nation-state - the argument most often advanced is that the Jewish Israeli's were late-coming interlopers to the area, where instead the native dispossessed "Palestinians" had lived since time immemorial. A response to this claim is the archeological evidence, clearly showing the presence of Jewish communities in the area, long before the arrival of Islam and the Arab armies from the south. In fact, it can be convincingly argued that it was actually the Jewish populations who were dispossessed, often fleeing the area, being forced to leave, or by being sold into slavery. Those who remained, while generally tolerated as "dhimmies" (subjugated non-believers), for their skills, education, and expertise, and even occasionally allowed to rise to levels of some importance, were periodically subjected to intense persecution and even localized extermination by their Arabic and Islamic rulers (who took control of the area some time after the Roman era), up until the defeat of the Islamic Ottoman Empire by the European Allies in 1922 during World War I.
So who came first? And who, if it matters, is actually the "occupier" of ancestral lands? Is it the Jewish Israeli's? Or the Palestinian Arabs? This brief history, compiled by MidEastWeb for CoExistence, offers some interesting insights: A Brief History Of The Israel - Palestinian Conflict The land variously called Israel and Palestine is a small, (10,000 square miles at present) land at the eastern end of the Mediterranean Sea. During its long history, its area, population and ownership have varied greatly.
The region has been settled continuously for tens of thousands of years. Fossil remains have been found of Homo Erectus, Neanderthal and transitional types between Neanderthal and modern man. Amorites, Canaanites, and other Semitic peoples related to the Phoenicians of Tyre entered the area about 2000 B.C. The area became known as the Land of Canaan.
The archeological record indicates that the Jewish people evolved out of native Cana'anite peoples and invading tribes. Some time between about 1800 and 1500 B.C., it is thought that a Semitic people called Hebrews (hapiru) left Mesopotamia and settled in Canaan. Canaan was settled by different tribes including Semitic peoples, Hittites, and later Philistines, peoples of the sea who are thought to have arrived from Mycenae, or to be part of the ancient Greek peoples that also settled Mycenae.
The Romans named the area Palaestina, which became "Palestine" in English. During the seventh century (A.D. 600's), Muslim Arab armies moved north from Arabia to conquer most of the Middle East, including Palestine. Jerusalem was conquered about 638 by the Caliph Umar (Omar) who gave his protection to its inhabitants. Various Muslim powers controlled the region until the early 1900's. >> Read more ALSO: Zionism and the Creation of Israel - Definition and a Brief History Big Lies: Demolishing the Myths of the Propaganda War Against Israel (PDF)
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