Gaza City
This was re-posted by a friend of mine on FaceBook. It is a concise history or Israel and her people written by Dan Pelletier (Senior Pastor, Hamilton Square Baptist Church, San Francisco, CA):
“The land of Israel has been populated by the Jewish people since 2000 BC. Here's the timeline, in case you didn't realize that it is their homeland, as designated by Yahweh.
1900 BC: Abraham chosen by God as the Father of the Jewish Nation.
1900 BC: Isaac, Abraham's son, rules over Israel.
1850 BC: Jacob, son of Issac, rules over Israel.
1400 BC: Moses leads the people out of Egypt and back to Israel.
1010 BC: King David unites the 12 tribes into one nation.
970 BC: King Solomon, son of David, builds the first temple structure in Jerusalem
930 BC: Israel is divided into two kingdoms, the Kingdom of Israel and the Kingdom of Judah.
800s BC: The rise of the prophets, God's messengers.
722 BC: Kingdom of Israel is conquered by Assyrians.
605 BC: Kingdom Judah is conquered by the Babylonians.
586 BC: Solomon's Temple is destroyed by the Babylonians.
539 BC: Persians conquer the Babylonians and take control of Israel.
538 BC: The Jews return to Israel from exile.
520 BC: The Temple is rebuilt.
450 BC: Reforms made by Ezra and Nehemiah.
433 BC: Malachi is the end of the prophetic age.
432 BC: The last group of Jews return from exile.
333 BC: The Greeks conquer the Persian empire.
323 BC: The Egyptian and Syrian empire take over Israel.
167 BC: Hasmonean's recapture Israel, and the Jews are ruled independently.
70 BC: Romans conquer Israel.
20 BC: King Herod builds the "third" temple
6 BC: Jesus Christ is born in Bethlehem
70 AD: Romans destroy the temple
After that, the people were captives to the Romans, Byzantines, Arabs, and Crusaders. Through all of these events, the Jewish people continued to live in Israel. There were more or less of them, depending on the centuries, but there was never a time when the Jews didn't live in the land. They stayed, they built their communities, they raised their families, practiced their faith and they suffered at the hands of many outside rulers, but they always kept their faith. It is what sustains them, even now.”
And here is a brief description of how Palestine, a territory, that has rejected statehood since its establishment in 1947 was created. The difference is stunning.
I want to spend today just briefly discussing one of those things that makes a “state”, Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The GDP of a nation is the measure of the market value of all the final goods and services produced in a specific time period by a nation (state). GDP is most often used by the government of a single country to measure its economic health.
In 2022 Palestine’s GDP, the net value of all its goods and services was $19.11B US. By contrast the Israeli GDP was $522.03B US. Without a doubt, Israel is a productive nation while Palestine is not. In fact, the Palestinian GDP ranks 130th among all nations. With a few exceptions only small island nations have smaller GDPs than Palestine. Furthermore, Palestine has an unemployment rate of greater than 25% and their per capita GDP is about $5,700 annually. That works out to $15.62US/person/day. By any measure the Palestinians are living in deep poverty.
Palestine does have income from its trade but very little. In 2023 Palestine exported products worth $141M US most of which is produce and dairy. This paltry $141M us is an amount hardly capable of sustaining or creating a vibrant nation with more than 2 million people in it. To make matters worse, Palestine imports $699M US each year, causing an annual trade deficit in excess of $550M US. For the record, Palestine’s primary market, the nation that purchases more than 80% of their goods and services is Israel. The Palestinians have made themselves reliant on their enemy.
The other thing that Palestine exports is terror, death, and destruction. Terrorism is not cheap. It cost a great deal of money to fund organizations and weapons. Somebody if funneling money, weapons, and material aid to Palestine’s terrorist organization and ruling party, Hamas. More importantly, this economic picture of Palestine shows that it is being governed by a group that has no concern for the health, economic well being, and safety of its people.
So how does Palestine support itself? Good question. In 2023 Palestine received $3.23B US in direct foreign investment. Somebody is propping up Palestine and my best guess is that some of it comes from an antisemitic United Nations and some of it comes from its terror sponsors and weapons suppliers, particularly Iran. Palestine is a beggar territory that has rejected statehood offered by the United Nations in 1947 and agreed to be the exporters of terrorism on behalf of their malevolent backers.
Why has Palestine rejected recognition as state by the UN? Because they insist that Israel be eliminated first.
This journey into Palestinian economics is only one part of the story of Hamas’ disregard for its own people. While Israel is offering the non-combatant Palestinians free passage to safety Hamas is blocking it. Hama relies on human shields.
Then there is this. There is no nation, none, that has offered those Palestinians who wish to be out of harms way a safe harbor. Not one single nation.
Do not be deceived by those who will tell you that Israel is blame and that the Palestinians are simply fighting for their freedom from the occupier — Israel. The Palestinians are already free and they have been for their entire history but they have chosen war over peace; genocide over tolerance; Allah over God.
Union, Kentucky
17 October 2023