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August 17, 2005

Media Confused About History of Gaza Strip

Reporters should know the basics about a region — especially one which is the center of media attention — before they "inform" the public about that region. But some reporters just don't seem to know the elementary facts.

Referring to the Palestinians, Fox News' Mike Tobin said this morning:

You have to remember that this is land they lost in the 1967 war.

Last Friday, Michael Matza stated in the Philadelphia Inquirer:

One good indicator of whether Israel's withdrawal from the Gaza Strip can be a catalyst for peace is whether Palestinian workers can make the land they reclaim bloom with prosperity.

The Palestinians, however, did not "lose" this land in 1967, and so they aren't "reclaiming" it now. While this region was slated to go from British to Palestinian rule as part of a 1947 United Nations compromise, Palestinians rejected that compromise. Egypt invaded the area during the 1948 war, and occupied the Strip almost continuously from then until 1967, when Israel captured the area from Egypt.

Before Israel, Egypt and the British, the area was ruled (starting with the most recent) by the Ottoman Empire (2nd round), Egyptians, the Ottoman Empire, the Mamelukes, the Byzantines, the Romans (and under them the Jewish King Herod), the Hasmonean Jews, the Greeks, the Persians, the Babylonians, the Assyrians, the Philistines (sometimes under the control of the Jewish kingdoms of Solomon and David), and the Canaanites.

Posted by GI at August 17, 2005 10:25 AM

Comments

The average American is simply unaware of the most fundamental facts regarding Israel and its legitimacy. This is what Palestinian Arab/Islamic apologists depend on as a basis for their polemical campaign in the West against Israel's right to exist.

It certainly keeps those of us who care about Israel and the truth busy, I suppose.

Posted by: patrickafir at August 17, 2005 02:26 PM

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