Not All Horses are Arabian

Submitted by M. Tovey (United States), Feb 23, 2010 at 19:41

We read from our fellow reader the following 'opinion:'

"As for anybody, including (A)rabs, claiming territory based on contracts, the bible, ethnicity or whatever, I do not consider this legitimate."

Much to the dismay of many as to the continued cause for antipathies and enmities and other reasons for the conflict we see in the Middle East, that statement must be generally viewed as misleading. Even as a westerner does not see the need for promoting a reminder of why Germany desired 'lebensraum,' there were arguments in history books found here in America that said a greater Germany had some historical basis and that became one reason for the start of World War 2.

In the same vein, a Biblical basis is at the root of the cause for the Middle East's identity crisis, that of the sons of Israel versus the sons of Ishmael, is at the very core of the hostilities there. It is why the Waqf is in a frenzied state of actively removing as much historical artifacts of Hebrew origin from the Temple Mount, to 'cleanse' the Jewish identity in order to lay siege to the claims of the location's Hebrew beginnings. Yet, try as they might, the Biblical basis keeps coming back.

One cannot deny the truth of Israel's claim, a Biblical claim, any more than trying to deny that Babylon is in Iraq. But there is the alter form of the argument: which language is the germinal language from which 'Palestine' is derived.

After all, how does one pronounce 'Palestine' in Arabic. Will someone who has Arabic as a native tongue provide the etymology for that?

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