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

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This section traditionally contains our promotional short quiz(es) and its/their suggested answers.

As well as any comments (vs. Reference Materials which go in a separate section so labelled).

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Accordingly, there is posted here the scope of our Dec 13 Zoom meeting, as explained in our Nov 18 weekly e-mail, which inter alia said –

The Samson Option book description on its dust jacket ends with –

“The message of The Samson Option is stark: The next Middle East war might very well be nuclear.”

Of course the title’s reference to Samson, a Biblical character who destroyed his enemies while committing suicide, analogizes to both –

(1) the 1973 Israeli policy when faced with imminent annihilation, of firing its nukes before “turning out the lights,” and

(2) what Israel may soon feel forced to do vis-à-vis Iran.

Accordingly, our Dec 13 meeting will focus on the entire imbroglio – including the U.N.’s original 1948 “Two State Solution” based on the U.N.’s careful year-long assessment of who owned what land (Palestine’s population, per the U.N. assessment, was only 58.3% Muslim) - which Israel accepted and was immediately invaded by Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Iraq and Lebanon.

Our Nov 18 weekly e-mail says that of course, Seymour Hersh’s 1991 prophecy did not occur in “the next Middle East War” which got underway before his book was even published – America’s 1991 invasion of Iraq FROM THE ISLAMIC HOLY GROUND OF SAUDI ARABIA which, as we have studied many times, radicalized Osama bin Laden and resulted, inter alia, in his issuing FIVE FATWĀS --

(1) In August 1996, he issued a fatwā entitled “Declaration of War Against the Americans Occupying the Land of the Two Holy Places.”

(2) In February 1998, he issued a fatwā entitled “Jihad Against Jews and Crusaders.”

(3) In December 1998, he issued a fatwā entitled “The Nuclear Bomb of Islam.”

(4) In 2002, nine months after 9/11, he issued a fatwā requiring all of his followers to nuke 4 million Americans -- a fatwā about which the Founding Dean of Harvard U’s Kennedy School of Government, Graham Allison, wrote a famous book entitled “Nuclear Terrorism” about how to deal with the fatwā. [NB: His prescription for all of the world’s nuclear powers to “lock down” every iota of fissile material and to prevent any non-nuclear powers, such as Iran, from enriching fissile material, was widely criticized as impractical and, in any event, has not been implemented.]

(5) By 2005, Osama had issued a revised fatwā requiring all of his followers to nuke 10 million Americans -- as was painfully clear from Tim Russert’s 5/29/2005 Meet the Press interview about how to deal with the fatwā with former U.S. Senator Sam Nunn (D-GA and Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman 1987-1995), U.S. Senator Richard Lugar (R-IN and then-current Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman) and Messrs. Thomas Kean and Lee Hamilton (Chair and Co-Chair of The 9/11 Commission) -- during which they essentially recommended following Dean Graham Allison’s prescription which, as previously noted, was NOT done.
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johnkarls
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Short Quiz – Palestine/Israel From Roman Times to The Present and The Israeli “Way Forward”

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

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

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?

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?

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?

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?

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?

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?

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?

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?

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?

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)?

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?

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?

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?

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”)?

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

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

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?

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

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?

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?

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?

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?

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)?

26. Did UNSCOP carefully examine who owned what???

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

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?

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

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

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

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?

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

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?

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?

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?

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

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?

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)?

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?

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?

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

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

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”?

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?

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?

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?

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?

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.?

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