As mentioned previously, it’s so encouraging when encountering those with a very different opinion BUT who insist anyone else is mistaken in having a higher view. In my experience such friendly opposition is usually based upon one’s political lens, which is not always fully informed and thus rather prejudicial, rather than being disinterestedly open to considering all pertinent information. In such instances this opposition of ‘flak’ comes when I’m working on something important – as yesterday when prepping Neil Mackereth’s post on The Existential Threat to Israel – so I was metaphorically ‘over the target’ and….TRUTH BOMBS AWAY!!
My fellow watchman John Barber welcomes discussion on his Facebook and on Tuesday re-posted this from John Hymus (18 October):

PALAESTINA
A BOOK FROM 1714 BRINGS PROOF THAT PALESTINE WAS NEVER ARAB
The author spoke Hebrew, Arabic and Ancient Greek perfectly and European languages. The book was written in Latin In 1695 it was sent to Israel, at that time known as Palestine. During his travels, he researched about 2,500 places where people who were mentioned in the Bible or Michna lived.
1) First map the Land of Israel.
2) Then he identified each of the places mentioned in the Michna or Talmud with its original source. If the source was Jewish, he listed it in the Holy Scriptures. If the source was Roman or Greek, it indicated the connection in Greek or Latin..
3) conducted a demographic survey and a census of each community.
Your conclusions
1. No settlement in the Land of Israel has a name of Arab origin.
Most colonial names come from Hebrew, Greek, Latin or Roman languages.. In fact, until today except for Ramlah, no Arab settlement has an original Arabic name.. So far, most settlement names are of Hebrew or Greek origin, names sometimes distorted into Arabic name meaningless. There is no Arabic meaning in names like Acco (Acre), Haifa, Jaffa, Naplusa, Gaza or Jenin and the cities called Ramallah, El Halil and El-Kuds (Jerusalem) lack Arabic historical roots or philology. In 1696, the year Relaand returned the country, Ramallah, for example, was called Bet’allah (Hebrew name Beit El) and Hebron was called Hebron (Hevron) and the Arabs called Mearat HaMachpelah El Chalil, his name for the ancestor Abraham.
2. Most of the lands were empty, sorry.
Most of the lands were empty, desolate and few inhabited and concentrated mostly in the cities of Jerusalem, Acco, Tzfat, Jaffa, Tiberius and Gaza. Most of the population were Jews and some were Christians. Few Muslims, mostly Bedouin nomads. Naplusa, known as Shchem, was the exception, as there lived about 120 people, members of the Muslim Natsha family, and about 70 Shomronites.
In the capital of Galilee, Nazareth, lived about 700 Christians and in Jerusalem about 5000 people, mostly Jews and some Christians.
Interesting thing is that Reland mentioned Muslims as Bedouin nomads who came to the area as reinforcement of the building and farming manpower. In other words seasonal workers.
For example, in Gaza there were about 500 people, 55% of Jews and the rest mainly Christians. Jews grew up and worked in their flowering vineyards, olive orchards and wheat fields. Christians worked in the trade and transportation of goods and goods.
Tiberius and Tzfat were mostly Jews and with the exception of mention of fishermen who fished on Lake Kinneret – the Lake of Galilee – a traditional occupation of Tiberius, there is no mention of their occupations. A city like Um el-Phahem was a village where ten families lived, around people, all of them Christians. There was also a small Maroonite church in the village (Shehadah family).
3. No Palestinian heritage or Palestinian nation.
The book completely contradicts any postmodern theory that claims a “Palestinian legacy” or a Palestinian nation. The book confirms the bond, relevance, kinship of the Land of Israel with Jews, and complete lack of belonging to Arabs, who stole the Palestinian Latin name and took it for themselves.
Conclusion. — This extensive study concludes that Israel is at its absolute right to defend, claim and protect what has always been theirs for more than 3,500 years ago. When before Abraham got promise of the promised land to ISRAEL, NOT PALESTINE.
It is the land of a promise that was made to Abran by changing his name to Abraham and is registered in Genesis 17:4,5 (Kadosh Israelite Messianic Bible):
4. ‘As for me, this is my Covenant with you:………
5. Your name will no longer be Avram [exalted father], but your name will be Abraham [father of many], for I have made you father of many nations.
The same promise was repeated to his son Isaac, the same promise was repeated to Jacob the youngest son of Isaac the father of the 12 tribes of Israel.
Older documents NO MENTION OF PALESTINIANS OR ARABS.
Mention the Israeli children descendants of Avram whose name was changed to Abraham.
Note. – Adrian Reland (1676-1718), Dutch orientalist, was born in Ryp, studied in Utrecht and Leiden and was a teacher of oriental languages successively in Harderwijk (1699) and Utrecht (1701). His most important works are Palestine ex monumentis veteribus illustrata (Utrecht, 1714) and Antigüitates sacrae vetum Hebraeorum.
COMMENTARIES
John B’s re-posting of John H’s item has attracted 13 comments, but first we’ll consider Bill Smith’s on my timeline:
“I am reading, for the second time, given the present situation a book by Jay Sekulow called ” Jerusalem. A Biblical and Historical case for the Jewish Capital.” He is an internationally renowned Lawyer. It shows beyond doubt Israel’s right to the land and Jerusalam as exclusively belonging to Israel and the Jewish people.
In his great work, ” One New Man” Reuven Doros also shows the ancient history and more recent conflict since 1917 bringing out the Jewish people’s exclusive right to the land and Jerusalem. Fascinating reading. Blessings.”
RB: Good authors and years after the non-sectarian historico-geopolitical book mentioned, David Noakes told me about an excellent examination of all this by diverse Jewish & Christian authors edited by Fred Wright, ‘Israel: His People, His Land, His Story’.
My conversation with John H on John B’s timeline:
RB: Most interesting source and I expect he made some reference to Caliph Omar’s attack and subjugation of Jerusalem in 655 AD, of whom the resident Patriarch Sophronius is on record as saying, “The abomination of the desolation is in the holy place”!!! [Gibbon, ‘The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire’]
JH: Thanks, Richard. Also a very interesting comment by patriarch Sophronius.
RB: In ‘The Invisible Hand’ Victor Dunstan relates Jerusalem’s liberation from the Ottoman Empire in 1917 to the prophecy timings in Daniel 12 to the exact day and notes the coincidence with Muslim calendar dates and a Turk’s prediction of its fall. [See Bio Info for introduction to Dunstan’s work.]
JH: Do you know whether it is true that a belief was circulating in Islam that a Prophet of God would come to take Jerusalem and that the ottomans shouldn’t resist him? So when Allenby came and entered Jerusalem they didn’t resist because when Allenby was pronounced by the Ottoman’s or Muslims it sounds like ‘Allah Nabi’ which in a Arabic means ‘Prophet of God’.
RB: Yes indeed as that’s what I was referring to but didn’t have time to write. Dunstan gives a terrific account of the whole event. I will check if he cites Turkish or otherwise source…Did quick search on Allenby and this post gives some background:
What did Jesus Foretell About The First World War?
JH: I just found this in my notes. Note the very last few lines.
RB: Dunstan’s ‘The Invisible Hand’ (1984), chapter 8 ‘What Jesus Foretold About the First World War, after 4-page sub-section ‘The Exact Day of Deliverance Foretold’ on page 118:
‘AN OLD TURKISH SAYING
In the days before the First World War the Turks had a saying: “When the waters of the Nile flow into Palestine, then a prophet of the Lord come and drive the Turks out of the land.”
Of course before (the war) everyone knew the waters of the Nile would never flow into Palestine (they don’t flow) today. During the (war) however, British engineers laid a pipeline from the Nile onto Palestine to supply water to the troops. So the waters of the Nile did, quite literally, flow into Palestine. The Arabic form of Allenby…is Allah-en-Nebi, ‘Nebi’ means ‘prophet’ and ‘Allah’ means ‘God.
So when the man called in Arabic ‘Prophet of God’ came to Palestine and caused the waters of the Nile to flow into the land – the Turks WERE driven out! Coincidence?’
In the next part, we’ll consider our conversational opposition’s historical inaccuracy…
Shared to my Facebook page with comment, “Facinating!” And it is, indeed. I look forward to Part 2.
LikeLike
Thank you Bette, and you’ll love part 2!
LikeLike