Nahum Goldman

Submitted by Moshe (Israel), Jun 22, 2011 at 16:53

Nahum Goldman was a fine man but on many occasions, just like in your quotation, he displayed his lack of understanding and knowledge of the background of our conflict with the Arabs.

First of all, in spite of our almost 1800 years long exile, Jews never lost their contact with their Land, and there was always a sizable Jewish presence in the Land of Israel. On the other hand the Arabs never had a "country" on this land. They invaded it 1400 years ago, and turned it into a miserable and unlivable desert. About 300 years later they lost it to the Crusaders, and afterwards it was overrun by the Ottoman Empire along with the whole Middle East. The Land of Israel remained a desolated and miserable district of the Ottoman Empire till the Zionist revival in the 19^th century. The total population in this area, including Arabs, Christians, and Jews, never significantly exceeded 100,000 people. The massive Arab influx to this land was stimulated by the job opportunities created by the more affluent Jewish influx, and later by the British Mandate.

Thus the Arabs have no credible claims on this land, as almost all of them immigrated here for jobs at about the same time the Jews returned to their Homeland. The Arabs refused to accept peacefully the Jewish presence here because:

1. This is a dictate of their religion. They consider their holy duty to take over all the nonbelievers lands, whenever it's possible, and any land which ever was under Islamic rule is considered by them "wakf" which means holy Islamic dominion.

2. They used to believe (today perhaps somewhat less) that chasing away the Jews will be an easy job, "a piece of cake" if you wish.

3. Today they are basing their hopes, and investing their efforts in delegitimizing the Jewish State based on their knowledge of the deep rooted anti-Semitism of large parts of the Christian world, and on the oil-thirst of the other parts.

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