Israel was conquered by the Romans and was under Rome even during the time of Jesus. Since the Jews were unwilling to bow down to Romans gods as they bow down only to "Jehovah" God, the Romans wanted to kill all the Jews. And under the Roman general Hadrian, the Romans destroyed the Temple at Jerusalem and other entire Israeli cities and drove out the Jews and renamed Judah and Samaria as Palestine just to spite the Jews whose greatest enemies were the Philistines. Only a few Jews remained and they mingled with the Arabs, Syrian, Jordanians. But there were always one Jewish leader or the other trying to set up an Israeli state for more that 2000 years. Only in 1948 their struggle became a reality and a small piece of land was declared as Israel.
The so called farmlands mentioned in your article were not farmlands at all. They were barren desert lands that were purchased over several years by the Jews since they wanted to return to their homeland someday and were willing to pay and buy lands that once belonged to them. The so called "Palestinians" sold the land because they saw no value in the desert land.
RE:Some Mistakes in Facts
by Sudhir Bisht on Aug 24, 2006 01:30 PM Permalink
My dear Santunu, Thanks for your response to my article. I must confess that I don't have the experience of living in Israel like you have but in writing this piece I have interacted with at least a hundred jews and more than 250 Lebanese residents. The article is not supposed to a doctoral thesis but is aime to be what the title suggest it is - It is a layman's guide to the conflicts. I wanted to draw the layman's attention to the fact that Middle East conflicts have many hues and its not about Israel VS the rest of Middle East only.
I would like to thank you for your frank view and acerbic comments which I accept in all humility, as the readers' right to criticize is as acceptable to me as is my own desire for the bouquets!
RE:Some Mistakes in Facts
by Mozzy on Aug 25, 2006 07:49 AM Permalink
Dear Sudhir Bhist,
You say that you talked to about hundred Jews and about two hundred and fifty lebanese residents and you say that you haven't been to Israel. So, where did this "interaction" take place? Dont tell me that you logged onto some irc server, entered a #israel or #lebanon channel and did your "interacting".
And saying the article was a layman's guide and not a doctoral thesis is a feeble excuse for a badly written and RESEARCHED article. Buck up Rediff! I am disappointed in you.
