Suggested Answers to the Short Quiz – Palestine/Israel From Roman Times to The Present and The Israeli “Way Forward”

[johnkarls]

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Question 1

Did the Israelites occupy The Holy Land at various times B.C. – including after their sojourns in Egypt and Babylon?

Answer 1

Yes.

Question 2

Did the Israelites experience serious Anti-Semitism from the Roman Empire?

Answer 2

Yes.

Question 3

Was the Roman Empire Anti-Semitism due to the fact that, despite Roman tolerance of all other religions, the Roman authorities recognized that Judaism believed that Commands from God are more important than those of temporal authorities?

Answer 3

Yes.

Question 4

Indeed, didn’t the Messianic prophecies of the Jewish Bible (aka Christian Old Testament) include a prophecy that the Messiah would “occupy the Throne of David” which was commonly understood to mean a temporal kingdom that would oppose and supplant, at least in Jewish areas, the Roman Empire?

Answer 4

Yes.

Question 5

Accordingly, should there be any surprise that although The Holy Land was not formally absorbed into the Roman Empire until 63 B.C., the “Great Jewish Revolt” against the Roman Empire occurred already 66-73 A.D. followed by two more Jewish Revolts in short order?

Answer 5

IMHO, there shouldn’t be any surprise.

Question 6

Is it any surprise that The Second Jewish Revolt was brutally put down by the Romans 130-135 A.D. with not only 580,000 Jews killed in battle, but 90% of the remaining Jewish population dying from the illness and famine that followed?

Answer 6

IMHO, there shouldn’t be any surprise.

Question 7

Or that following The Second Jewish Revolt, under a decree from Roman Emperor Hadrian Jews were forbidden to live within 10 miles of Jerusalem and, upon pain of death, were only permitted to visit it once a year on the Ninth of Av? As a result of which, virtually no Jews were left in any of modern-day Israel but were scattered to the winds?

Answer 7

IMHO, there shouldn’t be any surprise.

Question 8

Ironically, did the Hadrian decrees last until the Prophet Muhammad (570 – 632 A.D.) founded Islam and, in 638 A.D., Muslims militarily conquered Palestine and welcomed Jews back to Palestine?

Answer 8

Yes, it does seem ironic that Jews were welcomed back to Palestine by Muslims almost immediately after the founding of Islam.

Question 9

Did the Muslim Empire (aka Arab Empire) stretch across North Africa to Spain and Southern France, and up through the Balkans eventually reaching as far as Vienna, and eastward into modern-day India and Indonesia?

Answer 9

Yes, the Arab Empire which lasted only 4 centuries, stretched across North Africa to Spain and Southern France, and eastward into modern-day India and Indonesia.

HOWEVER, the push up through the Balkans which was halted in 1683 at the Battle of Vienna occurred long after the Arab Empire was conquered by the Ottoman Turks (please see the immediately-following Q&A-10 and Q&A-11).

Question 10

Did the Arab Empire last only four centuries when it was conquered first by the Seljuk Turks who swept into the Middle East from Central Asia in the mid-1000’s and promptly “went native” in terms of language, dress, customs, inter-marriage, etc., in what is now modern-day Iran? Which BTW accounts for why the Farsi language is different than Arabic?

Answer 10

Yes and Yes.

Question 11

And was the Seljuk Turk Empire stretching from the Atlantic across Northern Africa through the Middle East to India, itself conquered by the Ottoman Turks who swept in from Central Asia in 1299, though they did not capture from The Eastern Roman Empire (aka the Byzantine Empire and aka The Greek Empire) until 1493 its capital Constantinople (modern-day Istanbul) which the Turks made their capital until it was moved to Ankara in 1923?

Answer 11

Yes.

Question 12

BTW, did both the Seljuk and Ottoman Turks come from Russian Turkestan (which fragmented into all of the “Stans” except Afghanistan and Pakistan) and Chinese Turkestan (later called Sinkiang and nowadays the home of the Uyghurs which is what the Chinese call their Turkish minority)?

Answer 12

Yes.

Question 13

Did the Ottoman Turks continue to rule their empire stretching from the Atlantic to India until World War I, when they fought on the side of the Holy Roman Empire and Germany?

Answer 13

Yes and Yes.

They continued to rule their empire.

HOWEVER, by World War I, it no longer stretched from the Atlantic to India.

Indeed, the Ottoman Turkish Empire losing Egypt was a sad tale -- starting with the Suez Canal being built in 1869 by France and Egypt, with the Ottoman Turkish Empire being forced by financial hard times to sell its 50% stake to the British in 1875. To protect their investment in the face of local unrest, France and Britain sent warships to Ottoman-ruled Egypt in 1882 and, when that show of force failed to quell the disturbance, Britain invaded and captured Egypt from the Ottomans and made it a British colony.

On the eve of World War I, the Ottoman Empire only comprised modern-day Turkey, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, and the Arabian Peninsula (Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Oban and Yemen).

*****
BTW, American historians went to great lengths to prevent the American public from knowing that it was fighting the Holy Roman Empire (the assassination of whose heir apparent led to World War I) by finding excuses to call it the Austro-Hungarian Empire or the Habsburg Empire.

Question 14

BTW, how many high school history courses still mention Lawrence of Arabia, the famous British Army Officer who led the Arabs in their Middle East War against the Ottoman Turks during World War I? And how many people remember the 1962 Lawrence of Arabia movie starring Peter O’Toole which won 7 Oscars including Best Picture?

Answer 14

What do you think??? Let’s discuss!!!

Question 15

Did the Ottoman Turks continue the Muslim tradition (NB: both the Seljuk and Ottoman Turks were Muslim) begun in 738 A.D. of welcoming Jews to Palestine? And permitting anyone of any religion/ethnicity to purchase individual plots of land freely?

Answer 15

Yes and Yes.

Question 16

After hiving off modern-day Turkey which, ethnically, was virtually all Ottoman Turk (though Turkey promptly “ethnically cleansed” their Armenian and Greek minorities with the Armenian survivors fleeing to Soviet Armenia and the Constantinople Greeks having to flee to Soviet Georgia because Greece closed its borders to them), was the remainder of the Ottoman Turkish Empire AFTER SIX CENTURIES OF RULE divided by the World War I victors under the guise of the League of Nations into FIVE NEW COLONIES (delicately called “protectorates” by their new colonial masters) with the NEWLY-MINTED COLONIAL BORDERS creating modern-day Lebanon and Syria which became French colonies (aka “protectorates”) and the NEWLY-MINTED COLONIAL BORDERS creating modern-day Iraq, Jordan and Palestine which became British colonies (aka “protectorates”)?

Answer 16

Yes.

Question 17

Did the Brits permit VIRTUALLY NO JEWISH IMMIGRATION 1917-1943 and ABSOLUTELY NO JEWISH IMMIGRATION 1944-1948?

Answer 17

Yes.

Question 18

Was the 1960 Hollywood movie “Exodus” starring Paul Newman a hoax???

Answer 18

Please read on Q&A-19 through Q&A-24.

Question 19

On July 11, 1947, did the Exodus sail from Sète, France loaded with 4,515 European Jewish Holocaust Survivors and was it intercepted by the British Royal Navy (A) in violation of international law because it occurred on the high seas, and (B) with loss of life including some Americans among the crew?

Answer 19

Yes.

Question 20

Was the Exodus then escorted to Cyprus where the 4,515 European Jewish Holocaust Survivors were imprisoned briefly?

Answer 20

Yes.

Question 21

Does movie falsely show the 4,515 European Jewish Holocaust Survivors (which the movie says numbered only 611), making a daring escape from the British prison back to the Exodus, and engaging in a hunger strike that forced the Brits to permit the Exodus and its human cargo to sail to Haifa?

Answer 21

Yes.

Question 22

Was there no escape or hunger strike in Cyprus? Did the Brits sail Exodus to Haifa, where the Brits re-loaded the 4,515 European Jewish Holocaust Survivors onto three more sea-worthy vessels? Did the Brits then send the 4,515 human cargo back to France?

Answer 22

Yes – Yes – Yes.

Question 23

Was it at Port-de-Bouc near Marseilles on August 2, 1947 that the 4,515 European Jewish Holocaust Survivors refused to disembark and engaged in their 24-hour hunger strike?

Answer 23

Yes.

Question 24

In response, did the French refuse to force them to disembark, so the Brits sailed them to Hamburg located in the British occupation zone of Germany, from which the Brits transported the 4,515 European Jewish Holocaust Survivors to be imprisoned in the Pöppendorf Concentration Camp at Lübeck, Germany which was also in the British occupation zone?

Answer 24

Yes.

Question 25

Was the United Nations Special Committee on Palestine (UNSCOP) formed 5/15/1947 to oversee the termination of the British Palestine Colony (aka Protectorate)?

Answer 25

Yes.

Question 26

Did UNSCOP carefully examine who owned what???

Answer 26

Yes.

Question 27

Did UNSCOP report that there were only 1,077,000 Muslims out of a total population of 1,846,000 – or 58.3%?

Answer 27

Yes.

Question 28

Did the UNSCOP Report result in U.N. Resolution 181 ending the British Mandate on 5/14/1948 and partitioning Palestine into what the Resolution called a “Jewish State” and a “Palestinian State” based on who owned what even though the Jewish State and Palestinian State resembled a “checker board” of land ownership?

Answer 28

Yes.

Question 29

Did Israel accept U.N. Resolution 181 and declare its independence on 5/14/1948?

Answer 29

Yes.

Question 30

Was Israel immediately invaded by Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Iraq and Lebanon?

Answer 30

Yes.

Question 31

DID U.N. RESOLUTION 181 COMPRISE THE FIRST “TWO-STATE SOLUTION”???

Answer 31

Yes.

Question 32

Following the first Arab-Israel War (5/15/2948 – 3/10/1949), was Gaza part of Egypt 1949-1967, though Egypt did NOT grant Gazans Egyptian citizenship?

Answer 32

Yes.

Question 33

In contrast, was the West Bank part of Jordan 1949-1967 with West Bank inhabitants granted Jordanian citizenship?

Answer 33

Yes.

Question 34

Did the 1973 Yom Kippur War feature Egyptians troops crossing the Suez Canal and hunkering down under their Surface-to-Air Missiles (SAMs) WHILE SYRIAN TANKS WERE ROLLING THROUGH ISRAEL BECAUSE THE ISRAELIS WERE RATIONING THEIR AMMUNITION VIS-À-VIS WHICH HENRY KISSINGER HAD BEEN REFUSING TO RE-SUPPLY ISRAEL FOR 12 MONTHS?

Answer 34

Yes.

Question 35

Did Prime Minister Golda Meir convene her cabinet (A) to affirm their long-standing policy that if Israel ever reached the point of fewer than 24 hours to go to complete annihilation, Israel would (before “turning out the lights”) fire its 7 nuclear missiles at Russia’s 7 largest cities, and (B) to agree that the “24 hours to go” point had been reached?

Answer 35

Yes.

Question 36

Did the Cabinet decide, before firing the 7 nuclear missiles, to fire off a telex to Henry Kissinger informing him what would be “going down” within a matter of minutes?

Answer 36

Yes.

Question 37

Did Kissinger immediately reply – commence firing “as if there is no tomorrow,” the re-supply planes will take off at dawn?

Answer 37

Yes.

Question 38

Did the Israelis do so, did the front lines with Syria stabilize, and did Israel avoid becoming the answer TO A TRIVIA QUESTION – WHAT WAS ISRAEL?

Answer 38

Yes.

Question 39

In 2000, did President Clinton succeed in negotiating a “two-state solution” with Israel and Yasser Arafat (Chairman of the Palestinian Liberation Organization and President of the Palestinian National Authority which, at that time, “governed” (subject to Israeli occupation) both Gaza and the West Bank)?

Answer 39

Yes.

Question 40

However, did Yasser Arafat renege on the agreement because, in his Arabic speeches to his Palestinian followers, he had always promised undying enmity toward Israel and promised to never rest until Israel “was thrown into the sea” and, when he returned to Palestine, he found that he hadn’t prepared his followers sufficiently to accept his Peace Plan and that he would be deposed?

Answer 40

Yes.

Question 41

Nevertheless, did Israel in 2005 unilaterally provide a “Semi” Two-State Solution, by voluntarily withdrawing unilaterally from Gaza -- including the forced repatriation of all Jewish settlers back to Israel?

Answer 41

Yes.

Question 42

Was Hamas elected to power in Gaza in 2006 – the last election held in Gaza?

Answer 42

Yes.

Question 43

Has Israel been attacked with bombs and missiles, on and off, ever since?

Answer 43

Yes.

Question 44

Is it true that both the PLO (following Yasser Arafat’s reneging on the 2000 two-state agreement - please see Q-39 & Q-40) and Hamas per its foundational documents, refuse to recognize Israel’s “right to exist” and follow Arafat’s promise never to rest until Israel “is thrown into the sea”?

Answer 44

Unfortunately.

Question 45

Is it true that Israel (per War Cabinet Member Ron Dermer and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu) proposes to destroy Hamas and proceed to occupy Gaza for years thereafter, similarly to the way the U.S. occupied Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan for many years to transform German/Japanese society so that today, Germany and Japan have for nearly 8 decades, been two of America’s most loyal allies?

Answer 45

Yes.

Question 46

Do you think that if the Dermer/Netanyahu plan is not implemented, the world will soon see a nuclear holocaust between Israel and Iran?

Answer 46

What do you think??? Let’s discuss!!!

Question 47

BTW, do you think Iran already has nuclear weapons, courtesy of Obama’s Iran Nuclear Deal (aka JCPOA) which guaranteed Iran nuclear weapons by 2030 while (A) failing to provide “anytime, anywhere” inspections, and (B) failing to ban Iran’s development of short-range and inter-continental ballistic missiles?

Answer 47

What do you think??? Let’s discuss!!!

In formulating your position, you may want to consider –

(1) PBS’ Nova Science Series aired a documentary on 3/9/1975 about the results of an experiment initiated by the documentary’s producer who had been curious about how easy it would be for “any reasonably-bright student” to design and construct a nuclear weapon. So he had asked a friend on the M.I.T. faculty to put him in touch with a student. And the student was NOT even a physics major!!! [He was a chemistry major!!!] In just 5 weeks, the student had designed a nuclear weapon from public-source information which experts opined would be fully functional. The 3/9/1975 PBS Nova Program created such an uproar that very few viewers focused on the fact that the student had only designed a nuclear weapon, but had NOT constructed it. This was probably due to the fact that the construction (vs. the design) is child’s play. For example, a British Royal Commission reported in September 1976 in the wake of the 3/9/1975 Nova Program -- “The equipment required [to actually construct the nuclear weapon] would not be significantly more elaborate than that already used by criminal groups in the illicit manufacture of heroin.” [The British Royal Commission was concerned at that time that nuclear weapons could be so easily designed and constructed by the Irish Republican Army.]

(2) Iranian nuclear scientists have been reported by the NY Times of attending past North Korean atomic bomb tests.

(3) Many years (if not decades) passed before the international community admitted India had nuclear weapons (please see. Q&A-48).

(4) Since Obama’s Iran Nuclear Deal (aka JCPOA) guarantees Iran nuclear weapons by 2030 (please see Q&A-47), Iran does have a slight incentive to wait until 2030 before admitting it has nuclear weapons because France, Germany and the U.K. remained in the JCPOA even though the U.S. under President Trump pulled out.

(5) Etc., etc.

Question 48

In this regard, how many years (if not decades) did it take for the international community to admit that India had nuclear weapons which had purposely been made possible by U.S. President and Naval Academy Nuclear-Engineering Graduate Jimmy Carter’s supplying India with “heavy water” which previous U.S. Presidents had prevented?

Answer 48

My vivid memory of Jimmy Carter making the “heavy water” announcement while smiling broadly and nodding at Indian Government officials is coupled with the memory that many years (if not decades) were required for the international community to admit that India had nuclear weapons.

As your “one-armed wallpaper hanger,” it would be greatly appreciated if someone else could “chase this rabbit.”

Question 49

And BTW for anyone who likes to consider Biblical prophecies, does the Jewish Bible (aka Christian Old Testament) prophesy that Israel will be destroyed by Iran et al.?

Answer 49

Yes.