Sid: My guest right here in the studio is John McTernan author of a brand new book that I believe will be one of the most influential books to what God is doing in these last days at this moment. More important than any book I know short of the Bible it’s called “Israel the Blessing or the Curse.” And John has traced within 24 hours every time the United States comes against Israel or the Jewish people there is a horrible devastation and he goes one after another after another. And you can’t call this a coincidence it ties in with Genesis 12:3 God says “I’ll bless those that bless the Jewish people and I will curse those that curse them.” And if there’s any skeptics if they read this book they won’t be skeptics any longer. On yesterdays broadcast there is so much misinformation John McTernan in reference to the Palestinians and the conflict between the Arabs and the Jews. For starters where do we get the name Palestinian?
John: Well Sid we go back to the Roman destruction of Israel in 70 AD and it was a very very bitter war I mean the Jews fought fiercely against the Romans. The Roman’s had such hatred toward the Jews that they literally tore up Jerusalem, they destroyed the Temple Mount didn’t leave one stone upon another which Jesus said would happen. And they plowed up the city, they brought plows in and they plowed it up and they changed the name from Judea at that time to Palestine and they did that as an insult. And they went back to the Philistines who were upon the land 100’s of years before.
Sid: So the word Palestine or Palestinians is really the Philistines.
John: Yes exactly, exactly. And yeah it was a name given by the Romans will say approximately 2000 years ago.
Sid: Okay in 70AD the Jews were disbursed although there’s always been a remnant in Israel. However then what happened?
John: Well Sid from that time we’ll just pick 70AD because there was second uprising in 136 AD but from 70 AD up until the creation of the rebirth of the nation of Israel in May of 1948 there was always a Jewish presence in the land always. And when it says that they were disbursed into the nations probably 95% of the Jews went to the nations but always there was a Jewish presence and especially Jerusalem always. And Israel was never another nation. And that’s what’s amazing Sid is that Israel became like providence in an empire it never became a separate nation by itself. And Jerusalem was never the capital of any other nation but Israel. But an example we’ll take the Ottoman Turks. The Ottoman Turks ruled that area for about 400 years. And the capital of that providence was not even Jerusalem it was Damascus. And Jerusalem was a little backward city that no one was paying any attention to after the crusades were over and all of that until the Jews came back to the land. And then all of a sudden Israel became, Jerusalem became a critical importance.
Sid: You point out in your book that when the Roman’s changed the name to Palestine it wasn’t for the Arabs it was for the whole region. So a Jewish person living in Israel at that time would be a Palestinian as much as a Arab person.
John: Absolutely correct.
Sid: And it was an insult really because they wanted to call them Philistines.
John: Right and prior to 1948 we know that Israel was under the British mandate from the end of World War I to 1942 the UN, or the League of Nations, had put Israel under what is called the British mandate. And when the British issued passports from there it was Philistine, it was Palestine is what is was called. And a Jewish person prior to 1948 would have a Palestine passport they would have been born in Palestine.
Sid: So how did all of these Palestinians get to Palestine?
John: Well Sid if you read anything in history you’ll see back in the 1700’s especially 1800’s Israel was kind of a barren kind of a forsaken land.
Sid: So no one would want it really.
John: Exactly Mark Twain, Samuel Clemons, he traveled there and he said “You travel for like days and not see anyone and just desert and malaria infested swamps.” But as the Jews came back in the late 1800’s the land…when the Jews left it was like cursed and became barren and as soon as they back it became blessed and very productive cities were built. And the man in particular who is responsible for bringing the modern day Palestinians there was a man called Haj Al Husseini who was the mufti of Jerusalem. He was the one that was spiritually the Muslim head of Jerusalem. And he became concerned when he saw Jews starting to come in numbers back to Israel. And he put a call out to the Arab nations for them to come and they did come. They basically came from Iraq and Egypt. And in great numbers the British allowed open immigration any Arab could come in but limited Jewish immigration and to then what was called Palestine. So the modern day of course there are some Palestinians that say that they can trace their ancestry a long time. But the modern day ones including Arafat are Egyptians or Iraqis.
Sid: Is it true that one of the major reasons they came is of course it was the call out but the land was prospering and there were jobs.
John: Right and right Sid as the Jews came back it was great agriculture the cities were being built and there was work. To this day the Palestinians the vast majority of their employment in Israel and that was from the very beginning when God began to restore Israel there was jobs and there was work there. And the Arabs came for that political reason they were called but also because there was work and employment and they could be I guess because the Lord was blessing the land of Israel.
Sid: Okay so they weren’t there originally the vast majority of them, they’re in this land it’s their land now Israel’s independence is declared, what happened next?
John: Sid on the very day Israel declared independence May 14, 1948 six Arab nations declared war on Israel and they attacked Egypt, Iraq, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Jordan they all simultaneously they all attacked Israel. Israel didn’t do anything Israel did not fire one shot, Israel didn’t really have…they just had like a militia to defend themself. And I believe if you read history regarding that war in 1948 it’s a true miracle of God that the nation of Israel existed. And what happened was the Arabs put out a call for the Palestinians, the Arab Palestinians at that time to flee the land. And they literally said “They were going to destroy Israel and drive the Jews into the Mediterranean” that’s what they said. And the Palestinians that the Arabs that responded to this left the land and these armies came in. However they were defeated and because they were defeated Israel did not allow these Arabs to come back into the land because these are the people that wanted Israel destroyed. These are the people that fled the land because they wanted these armies they wanted to avoid the fighting they wanted these armies to destroy Israel and then they would come back in and take the land that the Jews had there.
Sid: Okay so Israel said “Okay we don’t want you back.” So why didn’t the wealthy Arab countries they are so much larger they are so much wealthier than Israel just take them as immigrants into their country?
John: Sid this is one of the truth of history that we have people now since 1948, 53 years that are still in camps from the 1940’s. The reason is the Arab nations want to keep these people as pawns; they can be used as political pressure against Israel. That’s probably a cold hard way of looking at it; Israel absorbed the people that were like Iraq that they fled Egypt Israel absorbed all of them. The Palestinians that left and went to Jordan they’re still in refugee camps to this day the Syrians will not absorb them into their society.
Sid: Why?
John: Because they want to keep them as pawns against Israel; political pawns to put pressure on Israel over the land.
Sid: Okay let’s look at it from a religious view point. There are Muslim holy sites in Israel we know this; that’s why they want the land.
John: Well it’s actually Jerusalem and Sid I never thought I’d be kind of an expert on the Quran but I studies the Quran now because of everything that’s going on. And we say chapter and verse and Muslims say Sura that’s their expression. And they base meaning the Muslims they base their claim on Sura 17 verse 1. And I’m going to paraphrase it that Mohammed went to Jerusalem and from Jerusalem he ascended into heaven on a white horse and he saw Jesus and they only view the Lord as a prophet they don’t view Him as the Son of God. And He saw Jesus as a prophet all the prophets they then they then built this the Dome of the Rock at that spot where he ascended into heaven. Plus they have this one of their important mosques Al Aqsa mosque is also the Temple Mount site. Now the problem with that Sid is in 630 Mohammed, died in 632 AD, at that point Jerusalem was a Christian City. On what we call today the Dome of the Rock and the Temple Mount there was a Catholic Church, the church of St. Mary. Mohammed never went to Jerusalem and Jerusalem was not captured by the Muslim cavalry until 638 AD. There wasn’t a mosque built there until 60 years later. So the whole thing is made up Sid it’s all contrived.
Sid: All contrived.
John: But people don’t know that, people think…
Sid: Now wait a second someone not a Christian, not a Jew or maybe nominal in both camps that’s a reporter this is so basic so elementary if you will why isn’t this in the news? The reporters are you know they should be honest not all but some there should be some honest reporters.
John: Well Sid I think there’s agendas out there; I think a lot of them are perhaps ignorant they don’t care and there’s agendas. I think that there is a huge percentage of the media that are against Israel, they’re not for Israel they’re against Israel. They’ll let that go because it is politically advantageous to have it like that.
Sid: There is only one explanation…
