Separating Fact From Fiction

The view on Israel's historical identity:

According to the biblical image of Israel’s history, the time before the Israelite state can be divided into two periods: the conquest and division of the land (Joshua) and Israel’s self-preservation against various enemies in the now-occupied land (Judges). The description of both eras is, to be sure, largely fictitious, since the traditions recorded in these books emerged only during the period of the monarchy. However, the basic kernel of the Song of Deborah (Judges 5) is an authentic text from this period, and in it we discover that, in the eleventh century, ten tribes settled in the region and resisted Canaanite power claims. According to archaeological findings, although some Canaanite cities continued to exist in the eleventh century, the land was largely populated by new people in small nearby towns in which the material culture of the Canaanites was taken over. By carefully separating fact from fiction, Fritz offers an insightful and enlightening depiction of this seminal period of Israel’s history.

The Emergence of Israel in the Twelfth and Eleventh Centuries B.C.E. by Volkmar Fritz

Of course, that "ficticious" refers to the textual authenticity, not to the actual events.

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Is This A Response to the UNESCO Arab Onslaught?

I pointed out previously (here and here) that UNESCO will become a battleground, and actually already has become one, for the Arab attempt of "identity theft".

Perhaps this event is an indication that it's all a make-believe game, Co-sponsored by UCLA's Center for Study of Religion and Program for the Study of Religion:-

Making Biblical Prophets Islamic

A lecture by Andrew Rippin, University of Victoria

Thursday, November 17, 2011
3:00 PM - 5:00 PM
10383 Bunche Hall
UCLA

The presentation will discuss the ways in which the accounts of the past prophets as told in the Qur’an were supplemented and developed in later Islamic literature. The Book of Sermons and Admonitions by Abū ʿUbayd (d. 844) provides a glimpse of the beginnings of this process and we can see its final resolution in the independent literary genre known as qiṣaṣ al-anbiyāʾ, “the stories of the prophets”

Andrew Rippin is Professor of History and former (2000-10) Dean of the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Victoria. He received his PhD from McGill University in 1981 with a dissertation on the Quranic “occasions of revelation” material. His research into the formative period of Islamic civilization in the Arab world, as well as the history of the Qur’an and its interpretation, has resulted in numerous publications, a selection of which are collected in his book The Qur’an and its Interpretative Tradition, published in 2001. He is also the author of the Muslims, Their Religious Beliefs and Practices,
first published in two volumes in 1990 and 1993 and now combined into a single volume in its 4th edition published in 2011.

Just as a religious history was made up, so too an historical narrative relating to "Palestine" and its important locations, all connected to the Jews, the original indigenous national group of the land.

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How Can He Belong to the Jewish State?

But Israeli Arabs, including the most successfully integrated ones, say a new identity must be found for the country’s long-term survival.

“I am not a Jew,” protested Eman Kassem-Sliman, an Arab radio journalist with impeccable Hebrew, whose children attend a predominantly Jewish school in Jerusalem. “How can I belong to a Jewish state? If they define this as a Jewish state, they deny that I am here.”

Well, for one, there are other options other than "belonging". Like joining a Pal. terror group and trying to destory Israel but since that's been tried for over 80 years now, you'd think someone like Eman would come up with a better idea.

And a better idea would be to make a choice: "Palestinian nationalism" is to be acquired and realized in Jordan. That's the closest. The other option is that once peace is achieved, there's always cultural and educational autonomy, like the Begin idea, but unlike his suggestion, first comes a period of peace, economic intergation, paying full taxes, volunteering for National Service, et al.

The new identity is just another way of watering down the Jewish character of the state. Sorry, that's just not on. Arabs have almost two dozen states in the Middle East to fulfill their nationalism and must define their states as Islamic. So, Israel can't be one Jewish state?

No one years ago had problems with the idea of a "Jewish homeland", meaning one for the Jews where Jews enjoy the primacy in all fiedls and endeavors. Herzl wrote about it, Balfour declared it, the League of Nations reconzied it, the United Nations established it. But the Arabs who wandered into Judea and Samaria and conquered it and then invited friends and relatives over can't seem to acknowledge it.