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http://www.jpost.com/DiplomacyAndPolitics/Article.aspx?id=220781
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Just finished a fascinating book called 'the bible came from arabia' by an academic called Kamal Salibi. His basic premise is that the reasoning behind Israel's geographic position (the abramanic covenant where God promised the land inhabited by the Jews at that time as their home forever) is wrong. His argument for this is that all the landmarks and places mentione din the Old Testament do not correspond in any way with places in the Israel/Palestine area. Now this is not to say that they did not inhabit the current area at the time of Christ (of which there is really no dispute) but that they did not live there when the big chap/chappess upstairs promised them the lands in pepetuity. A lot of this is to do with misinterpretations of the old testament (the oldest existing copy dates from 9th century ad) which had been transalted from language to language over the centuries. No archaelogical evidence exists at all that links current Israeli territories with anyhwere mentioned in Old Testament. He goes on to pretty much prove that the land talked about in Old Testament actually lies within what is now known as Saudi Arabia!!! There is lots of coincidence between modern place names in Arabia and Old Testament place names and there is also very persuasive geographical and geological matching between the two. His book was published in 1985 and to add fuel to the debate, the Saudi government bulldozed several villages in the Asir area shortly afterward, and to this day have refused permission to any archaelogical group wanting to explore the area. With all the existing conflict in the Middle East since Israel started the nakba, could you imagine what would happen if incontrevertible proof was found that Israel should not only be somewhere else in the region but should also encompass Mecca within its boundaries!! There have been attempts on salibi's life (mossad or saudi's - take your pick) but the evidence is very persuasive that the siting of Israel was a bit of a cock up!!