A deceptive map of the Arab-Israeli conflict
The following is a deceptive map depicting Palestinian lands lost to Israel: http://images.alarabiya.net/israel-palestine_map_19225_2469.jpg This map is deceptive because it begins with a false premise, that is all the land initially belonged to the Palestinians. This is false. First of all, the land previously belonged to the Ottoman Turks. Secondly, there is not a distinct ethnic people with a distinct language known as the Palestinians. Palestine was originally known as the land of Judea by the Romans. After a series of Jewish revolts against Rome, Roman Emperor Hadrian renamed the land "Palestine" ( Philistia ) around 135 AD, after the Jews ancestral enemies the Philistines, and the name stuck. The idea was to disconnect the land from the Jews. The Roman coin below commemorates the Roman victory with the words "Judea Capta" meaning "[the land of Judea] is captured." Fast forward several centuries later and the region is now under the...