GreecePwns wrote:Only the religious fanatics would be calling for the seizing of Palestinian land, and the Kenya Israel would have likely been permanent.
First of all please excuse the deletion of most of the quote. But I really just wanted to focus on this one part of the comment in detail. A people can move or be moved to another location but who they are is tied with the land. The Israelite people are the perfect example of this as History has shown.
After the reign of King Solomon the Kingdom of Israel was divided into two Kingdoms. Ten of the twelve and northern most tribes broke away from the rule of Jeroboam the son of Solomon and became known as the Northern Kingdom of Israel. With ten of the twelve tribes removed, only Judah and Benjamin continued under David’s dynasty. They were then known as the Southern Kingdom of Judah.
For like two centuries these to separate nations or Kingdoms coexisted side by side, at times at war with each other and other times banded against common foes but each kingdom having it's own king ruling over them. In the case of the Northern Kingdom of Israel they went through 19 kings and 7 dynasties before the Assyrian Empire conquered the Kingdom of Israel. This initial captivity, called the Galilean Captivity, occurred about the years 734-732 B.C.
So why the history lesson? Because most people naturally assume that all Israelites' are Jews and they are not. The fact is that the Kingdom of Israel lost their identity due to displacement of location. The Assyrians' took the peoples from the Northern Kingdom of Israel and relocated them all to what came to be known in history as the Caucus region northeast of modern day Turkey. A land between the Seas. Today it is known as Georgia.
It is a little know fact that these people, The ten tribes of Israel Never returned to their homes in the Northern Kingdom of Israel. They became in fact, the "Lost Ten Tribes of Israel." The entire northern kingdom was removed from the land that God had provided for them for nearly 700 years. In their place, the Assyrians moved various peoples from the region of Babylon who became known as Samaritans, after the former capital of Israel. The first century Jewish/Roman historian Josephus even noted that...
"And when these Jews had understood what piety the king had towards God, and what kindness he had for Esdras, they were all greatly pleased, Nay, many of them took their effects with them, and came to Babylon, as very desirous of going down to Jerusalem, but then the entire body of the people of Israel remained in that country; wherefore there are but two tribes in Asia and Europe subject to the Romans, while the ten tribes are beyond Euphrates till now, and are an Immense multitude, and not to be estimated by numbers."
-Antiquities of the Jews - Book XI (Ch. 5)
The two tribes that Josephus is referring to are the tribes of Judah and Benjamin. These two tribes, the southern kingdom of Judah (the Jews), were also conquered by the Babylonian Empire about a hundred Years after the northern kingdom of Israel was conquered by the Assyrian Empire. Babylon rose to become an even greater empire than Assyria and conquer more than Assyria had. Only difference is that the Jewish people returned to their homes during the Medo/Persian or just plain Persian Empire which conquered all that Babylon had and more. The Israelites never returned to their homes and were still beyond the Euphrates River. So far away to the north that they eventually would lose all identity of who they were. So while all Jews are Israelites, not all of Israel are Jews. It's like saying that wile all Californians are Americans, not all Americans are Californians.
So getting back to the original question; While a people can move to another location or be forcibly moved to another location, who they are is tied to the Land. For example the German People of today are the descendants of those very Assyrians who conquered Israel. And modern day Iran today are the very same Persians who conquered the Jews. But right away you could not tell from just looking at them. Take away their vast realm (territories) and the empires that they possessed, and their identity becomes something else completely. Who we are is tied to where we live.
So while Kenya may be a suitable, hospitable and lovely place to raise Children and settle down roots??? It's not Israel. And will never be! To settle for another location, no matter how sweet it may be is to sell out their own birthright and identity and forget who they are and what God has promised them and just turn their backs on The God of Abraham, Issac and Jacob, who was later named, Israel.
I would also like to point out that the dispersed Jews all around the world preserved their identity by observing God's laws which separated them as a people. Everywhere they went they kept the Sabbath day holy and remembered God's promise to them that they would eventually be brought back to their own land. How God brings that about is His business. But any atrocities that God's chosen nation commits in the process, will also be dealt with Justly by the very same God who expects more from His chosen People. To whom more is given, more is expected from.
But summing this up, I believe that it Was right to repopulate the region known as Israel with Jews? Anything else would be the same as if Hitler had conquered the world and his final solution executed to it's illogical end. It is prophecy in the making, being fulfilled right before our very eyes.
All other atrocities aside of course.