These oppressive conditions led to open revolts and
guerilla warfare to rid the land of its mighty pagan conqueror - wars which
would eventually lead the Roman Emperor, Hadrian, to rename the land itself from
Judaea
to Syria Palaestina in 135 C.E. in an attempt to stamp out any remaining hopes
for Jewish independence and national existence. Judaea was thus renamed after
the Jews' historic enemies, the Philistines, a non-Semitic sea people from the
eastern Mediterranean or
Aegean
region, to drive home the point.
For a modern analogy, imagine
Lithuania
as it was engulfed by the
Soviet Union
in the latter's heyday of power. Or a Hungarian freedom fighter or Greek
partisan taking on the Soviets or the Nazis. Think of the sympathy and
admiration normally given to such situations... Now think about the treatment
the Jews have received over the ages for longing for this same freedom and
dignity. Whatever Jesus did or did not mean in his alleged statement,
"render unto Caesar...," this passage and others in the New Testament
have been used to belittle this same desire for freedom and independence among
the Jews.
Judaea Capta (not "Palaestina"
Capta) coins were issued, and the towering Arch of Titus was erected after the
first major revolt in 70 C.E. and shows, among other things, the Romans carrying
away the giant Menorah and other objects from the Jewish Temple that at least
many if not most Arabs and other Muslims claim never existed. It stands in
Rome
to this very day to commemorate
Rome
's victory over the Jews and Jewish Jerusalem.
When Muhammad, the Prophet of
Islam, fled
Mecca
to
Medina
in 622 C.E. (the Hijrah), the inhabitants welcomed him. Medina had been
developed centuries earlier as a thriving date palm oasis by Jews fleeing the
Roman assault (the banu-Qurayzah and banu-al-Nadir tribes, etc.), and its mixed
population of Jews and pagan Arabs had thus become conditioned for a native
prophet speaking the word of G-d.
Muhammad learned much from the
Jews. While the actual timing of his decision on the direction of prayer may
never be known, during his long sojourn with the Jews of Medina, his followers
were instructed to pray towards
Jerusalem
. Early prominent Arab historians such as Jalaluddin came right out and stated
that this was done primarily as an attempt to win support among the influential
Jewish tribes (the "People of the Book") for Muhammad's
religio-politcal claims.
It is from the
Temple
Mount
in
Jerusalem
that Muslims believe Muhammad ascended to Heaven on his winged horse. A mosque,
the Dome of the Rock, would later be erected on this Jewish holy site after the
Arab imperial conquest of the land in the 7th century C.E.
There is no doubt among objective
scholars that Jews had an enormous impact on both Muhammad and the religion that
he founded. The holy sites for Muslims in
Jerusalem
(i.e. the mosques erected on the
Temple
Mount
of the Jews) are now deemed "holy" precisely because of the critical
years Muhammad spent after the Hijrah with the Jews.
The
Temple
Mount
had no prior meaning to pagan Arabs. While there was some early Christian
influence as well, intense scholarship has shown that the Holy Law (Halakha) and
Holy Scriptures of the Jews had a tremendous influence on the Koran, Islamic
Holy Law (Shari'a), etc. Muhammad's "
Jerusalem
connection" was most likely not established until after his extended stay
with his Jewish hosts. This was no mere coincidence...Muslim religious beliefs
regarding Muhammad's conversations with the Angel Gabriel, etc. notwithstanding.
When the Jews refused to recognize
Muhammad as the "Seal of the Prophets," he turned on them with a
vengeance. Before long, with the exception of
Yemen
, there were virtually no Jews left on the
Arabian Peninsula
. And the direction of prayer was changed away from
Jerusalem
and towards the Kaaba in
Mecca
instead...
To say that
Jerusalem
has the same meaning for Muslims as it has for Jews is to simply tell a lie.
In modern times, Jews constituted
the majority of
Jerusalem
's population from 1840 onwards. When Jordanian Arabs - whose nation itself was
formed from 80% of the original mandate for
Palestine
issued to
Britain
on April 25, 1920 - seized East Jerusalem after their invasion of reborn
Israel
in 1948, they destroyed dozens of synagogues and thousands of Jewish graves,
using tombstones to pave roads, build latrines, etc.
When the Jews were denied access
to their holy sites for almost two decades, the whole world remained silent.
After
Israel
was forced to fight a defensive war in 1967 due to its being blockaded by
Egypt
's Nasser at the Straits of Tiran (a casus belli) and other hostile acts,
Jerusalem
became reunited. Access to all peoples and faiths subsequently became
unhindered. It was at this moment that much of the world chose to rediscover
Jerusalem
...demanding its redivision, internationalization, etc. Now there's justice for
you! Sickening...but, unfortunately, not really shocking or unexpected in the
Jewish experience.
For centuries, Jews were forcibly
converted and/or expelled, massacred, humiliated, demonized, inquisitioned,
ghettoized, declared the "deicide people," and such--to one extent or
another--in both the Muslim East (where they were also known as kilab yahud...Jew
dogs) as well as the Christian West. They are determined that their rights in
the sole capital of the sole, microscopic, reborn state that they possess will
not be sacrificed on behalf of any 22nd state created for Arabs--especially
since the latter show, in poll after poll, that regardless of how much more Jews
will bare their necks for peace, Arabs will not accept the legitimacy of a
viable Jewish Israel anyway.
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