Who rightfully belongs in Canaan-land?

I posted this on a message board a month or so ago and was told that it has been promulgated by others on other sites ever since. So I decided, why not post it here as an official text originating from yours truly? Here are my thoughts concerning the rightful possessors of the land of Canaan:

The question over who are the rightful owners of the land is pretty funny. Land ownership has historically been dictated by who can take and retain it…”rightful possessors” is only a recent innovation brought on by racial guilt that didn’t exist over a hundred years ago. The only reason Israel doesn’t possess all the land from the Nile to the Euphrates and from the southern tip of Sinai to Turkey (the land promised them by God in Genesis and the land they could have easily had by this time) is because they actually do want peace with their neighbors and do want to do right by them.

Nobody clamors for the return of formerly indigenous peoples anywhere. The most poignant of which being the Jewish refugees from Muslim lands who ran to Israel in the opening months of its modern state after living in those lands for hundreds of years, even predating the advent of Islam…surrounding nations who are no more willing to absorb the Palestinian people they told to leave or face extermination. Quotes could be given as to why, and the reason is always to retain the ongoing, simmering hatred of that state.

But to argue who really has the “right” to the land, let’s go back to the thing about God promising the land to Abraham (Bible story time!). The descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are the only ones who qualify for this most ancient claim, which was attained through the systematic conquering and driving out of the Canaanites, Philistines, and other assorted inhabitants. These were NOT Semitic people…they were not from Arabia, either. It was not indiscriminate murder, either; they only fought those in what they were told was their promised land. They didn’t conduct worldwide religious war (unlike certain faiths)…they fought those who resisted militarily, wiped out some of them, and drove out the remainder. In fact, it was the incomplete manner in which they did it which kept the ancient Israelites from living in peace…for example, they had to deal with Philistines and the like many years after they were established in the land. So the supposition that they’re horrible invaders who don’t deserve the land on that account is to say that anyone in the United States who isn’t a native American have no right to live here.

The ancient kingdom of Israel was the only united and sovereign nation-state that ever existed in the Palestine area. Even during the Babylonian captivity, who lived in the area? Jews. What about after the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans and dissolution of the Jewish state, who lived there? Jews. In fact, it was predominantly Jews who lived there until the Muslim expansion under the “rightly guided Caliphs” in the late seventh century. Then who predominantly lived there? Jews, with increasing numbers of nomadic Arabians.

What about Ishmael? The only records available say he never even lived there himself, and his descendants intermarried with other people (Midianites, Edomites, and later Hittites…history has little if any reference to Ishmaelites) in the surrounding region who eventually integrated with the Arabian nomads who we know today. There is no clear line of descent, and therefore no claim to the land…the preserved lineage is that of the Jews, as they are the only one to retain their distinctive identity to this day. And, besides, to what do they make their claim? The Bible? But they say the Jews corrupted it. So where’s their ancient record from the period? There is none.

So here we’re faced with the modern problem. The land was ruled by the failing British Empire, and as part of a UN resolution and an overwhelming worldwide sense of shame over the Holocaust (for the first time in history), they were to partition the land in such a way as to allow a place for the Jews to call their own. It amounted to less than 20% of the whole partition, the remainder of which went to the local Arab population. Why so small? To not antagonize the local Islamic population and to throw a bone to the worldwide Jewish people by providing both an official homeland for those Jews living there and for those who’d want to relocate there. Four hundred thousand Jews were there at the onset when the Arab nations around it decided to obliterate it. The oncoming armies ordered Arabs in the land to leave so they could annihilate the Jews, and when they failed, the Jews expanded their borders to defend themselves better. Don’t war winners usually annex land? Is that unexpected?

Meanwhile, the Arabs from the partition were being put in concentration camps in Trans-Jordan and portrayed as the offended parties, subsequently vowing to destroy Israel and declare what they believe is rightfully theirs. If the region had acted like fellow members of the 20th century and chosen to live at peace, these people would have been living in their own state for sixty years already and the Mideast Cold War that’s existed since the late forties would not have happened. It’s not like Israel forced them out; in fact, there are Arabs living in Israel today as citizens…some of them even having seats in the Knesset, the Israeli parliament.

Besides, the terrorist-type Islamists should be glad the Jews are all being collected in one space, as the end time can’t happen until they’re all dead, anyway. Putting them in one place at their back door should be seen as a convenience.

Of course, I don’t worry about it too much, as Joel 3:2 and Zechariah 12:2-3 predicted all this years ago, and I don’t hold the final resolution in question.