Jerusalem Quotes

The Nazis and most of the Arabs were allies in WWII. The Jews of Palestine—although they were opposed to many of the British policies regarding Palestine—were active in the Allied cause contributing units to the British Army. Although the Germans were brutal to civilians, murdering millions, they refrained from public pronouncements or exhortations to kill civilians in most cases. The Arabs did not. The Mufti was actually given the rank of General in the Nazi SS and had his own SS unit. In this despicable exhortation he actually uses a concept and wording from the Koran. See {584355}. This quotation is important in that it refutes a common claim by some Palestinians that it was only the Germans who were responsible for the Holocaust and the post war Jewish Refugee problem and that the Palestinians had to bear the price rather than place Israel in Europe. This quotation and the other by the Grand Mufti prove that Palestinians were not only complicit in persecution of Jews but took a leadership and advocacy role.

The advocacy of the Jewish Return to the Holy Land was not first suggested or stated by European Jewish Zionists. Brightman was not only the first Christian to urge the return of the Jews, but the secon person of any faith to suggest it. He was only preceded by a Jewish refugee from the Spanish Inquisition--Joseph Nasi in 1561.

King Richard was the leader of all the Christian forces in the Holy Land for the Crusade. See related quote for King Richard's initial peace proposal message.

See {582893} for Saladin's Reply. King Richard was the leader of all the Christian forces in the Holy Land for the Crusade. There was a belief, that a wooden cross in the possession of the Muslim force was the true cross of the Crucifixion of Jesus Christ

He fought in the Crusades with Saladin and was living in Jerusalem under Christian occupation. The cultural dissonance regarding the Christian verses Muslim treatment of women was even noted a thousand years ago. At the time women were fare from equal or emancipated, but even this degree of allowing women conversational rights was considered quite radical by the quote.

Describing the conquest and destruction of Jerusalem and the Second Temple in 70 AD.

Omar’s army had conquered the city and he had promulgated a treaty granting other religions the control and sanctity of their holy places. When he was invited to pray in the Church of the Resurrection, a common Islamic practice when they conquered infidel religious institutions, he explained his reasoning to a Christian leader.

In addition to the Muslim world during the Crusades losing control of the Holy City for the first time in 400 years, the Christians stabled their horses on the Al Axa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock, two of Islam’s holiest places. In addition, the Crusaders, after taking the city, slaughtered most of the inhabitants—Muslims, Jews and even fellow Christians who were Eastern Orthodox—more than 30,000 in just a day or so. It was a reign of terror on a scale that even today, it is shocking to most. So where as to us the Crusades were an interesting of aberrant part of history, to many Muslims of the Middle East the thought or discussion of the Crusades is traumatic even today.

In the Middle East conflict over Palestine, both Jews and Arabs claim that they were among the early citizens of an organized society. But some Arabs see the Jews as outsiders who were given Palestinian land to compensate for the Holocaust. This quotation is cited to illustrate that both Jews and Arabs were established in Palestine from earliest times and were recognized as such by historians writing around the time of Christ.

This quotation illustrates one of the more bizarre aspects of the Arab-Israeli conflict. Namely that many of the Arab leaders appear to be in complete denial of what is totally verified historical fact about the Jewish presence and at times rule of much of the Middle East. There were two Jewish Temples built in Jerusalem. The first was the Temple of Solomon of Biblical Fame. Even of one dismisses the Bible as a historical source, the Babylonian records describe the Temple’s destruction in 586 BC. The Jewish Temple was rebuilt by Herod and the governmental records document its construction and other records describe its use and dedication by the Maccabees. The Roman Records completely document the destruction of the 2nd Temple in 70 AD. Arafat, although ridiculed throughout the civilized world, ordered Palestinian Historians to never mention or write about the Jewish Temples. No one knows whether he just did this as a political ploy, or was trying to pander to radical Arabs, or actually believed his statements and was in denial about reality. Outside of some Arabs, no one else believed it.