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The False Narrative Surrounding Israel, with Patrick Russell · The Slippery Slope

• 0:36
  Hello everybody. My name is Patrick Russell.
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  I'm the Australian director for a ministry called Christian
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  Friends of Israel. Today I'd like to talk to you
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  about a very pertinent subject. It's one that's in the news
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  almost daily, and it is concerning the nation of Israel
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  and a false narrative that is being spread and believed in the
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  world today concerning the nation of Israel, its existence,
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  its legitimacy. And I just want to address this
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  issue from a biblical point of view.
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  And to do that, I want to ask you a question.
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  You may think it's a strange question, but you'll see the
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  point I'm trying to make. And the question is this.
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  If I was to ask you, were there Kangaroos in the Middle East?
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  How would you answer that question?
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  You'd either go and do your research and find out if there's
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  any populations of Kangaroos in the Middle East today, whether
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  there's any fossil record concerning populations of
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  Kangaroos in the Middle East. Some people might automatically
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  just say, look, Kangaroos belong in Australia.
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  Australia is an island nation surrounded by thousands of
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  kilometres of ocean and Kangaroos are only native here
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  and not found anywhere else in the world.
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  Well, The funny thing is, well, not The funny thing, but the
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  true thing is I can actually answer that question from the
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  Bible. You see, as a Bible believing
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  Christian, I believe in the story of Noah's ark.
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  And on Noah's Ark, we're told that God brought all the animals
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  to Noah, two by two, brought them to the ark, brought them
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  onto the ark. The ark was closed, the earth
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  was inundated with a flood and all life, all air breathing life
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  was destroyed during that flood. Now, for many, many days the the
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  ark was floating on the waters until the waters actually
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  subsided and went down. And the Bible tells us that the
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  ark came to rest on a mountain range called Ararat.
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  Now Ararat is in the Middle East today.
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  It's in southern Turkey. So to answer that question, were
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  there Kangaroos in the Middle East?
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  Well, yes, at some stage, if we believe the biblical account of
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  Noah's ark, because the animals, all the animals, including the
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  Kangaroos, were on that ark. And so when the ark came to rest
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  and the door was open and the animals exited the ark, of
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  course the Kangaroos exited the ark.
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  So at least at one stage there were Kangaroos in the Middle
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  East. Now you see how I answered that
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  question. It wasn't, it wasn't, you know,
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  some brilliant deduction. It was just a simple faith
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  understanding of God's Word and, and the story concerning Noah's
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  ark. So having said that, I, I say
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  that to say this, that when we start to understand something as
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  Christians, we need to start with God's word.
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  Because if we don't start with God's word, we could go off on
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  all sorts of tangents. You know, I could, I could just
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  say, look, no, there were no Kangaroos in the Middle East.
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  You know, science tells us that there's only a population in
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  Australia and there's no native habitats for Kangaroos in the
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  Middle East. As I said, Australia is an
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  island nation surrounded by thousands of kilometres of
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  water. No, there were no Kangaroos in
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  the Middle East. Now, that's how I could base my
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  understanding of that question, but I chose to go back to God's
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  Word and a simple understanding of the story of Noah's Ark tells
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  me that at least some, at some stage, there were Kangaroos in
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  the Middle East. So ask that question, and I've
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  just built my understanding based on God's Word.
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  Now, when it comes to Israel, we've got to do the same thing
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  because if we don't, we're going to believe what the world is
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  saying. We're going to believe what the
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  United Nations is saying. We're going to believe what the
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  presidents and prime ministers of nations are saying.
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  We're going to believe what the Arabs are saying.
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  We're going to believe all sorts of false narratives when it
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  comes to the nation of Israel. So to get a clear understanding
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  as Christians of who Israel are, we need to again go back to
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  God's Word. Remember, we're building our
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  understanding based on God's revelation.
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  And when we do that, we find out that Israel is a nation that was
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  formed by God. God called a man by the name of
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  Abraham to leave his his home in ur of the Chaldees, which is our
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  modern southern Iraq, and to go to a land God said that I would
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  show you. And God brought him to the land
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  of Canaan, and which we call Israel today.
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  And the reason we call it Israel is because God said to Abraham,
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  I'm going to give this land to you and your descendants as an
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  everlasting position. Now Abraham had one son called
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  Ishmael, but then he had another son called Isaac.
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  And God says, I'm not going to fulfil this word through
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  Ishmael. I'm going to fulfil it through
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  Isaac. So he made the same promise to
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  Isaac that he made to his father Abraham.
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  And we can find this in Genesis chapter 17, the original promise
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  to Abraham. And then Genesis chapter 26,
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  verses three to five, God makes the promise this time to Isaac.
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  And then he says to Isaac, to you and your descendants, I'm
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  going to give this land as an everlasting possession.
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  Now we know that Isaac and his wife Rebecca had two sons.
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  They were twins. One was called Esau and the
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  other was called Jacob. But God was very specific when
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  he said, no, I'm not going to bless Esau in this respect.
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  I'm going to make the promise to Jacob and Jacob.
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  He changed his name to Israel, and Israel had twelve sons who
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  became the 12 tribes of Israel. So biblically, biblically, God
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  said he's going to give this land to Abraham through Isaac,
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  through Jacob, who was the father of Israel and his twelve
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  sons who became the 12 tribes of Israel.
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  So from Scripture we've established in God's Word that
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  the land that we called Israel today belongs to the Jewish
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  people, not the Arabic people. He didn't give it to Ishmael and
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  his descents. He didn't give it to Esau and
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  his descendants. He gave it to Abraham, Isaac,
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  and Jacob. So we've established biblically
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  that God made this covenant with Abraham and his descendants.
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  And by the way, it was an everlasting covenant.
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  It wasn't based on Israel's faithfulness.
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  God made the promise with himself that he would give this
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  land as an everlasting possession.
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  And that's why God still loves Israel today, not because
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  they're perfect, not because they do everything that God
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  wants them to do, but simply because of the promise that he
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  made to their fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
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  Now, there's a big dispute in the world today, as I said, and
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  the world believes that that land doesn't belong to the
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  Jewish people. It believes, much of the world
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  believes, that it actually belongs to a people called the
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  Palestinians. But who are the Palestinians?
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  Who are they? Were they the native people of
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  the land? Well, no, they weren't.
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  A very telling quote, and I'll read it to you, comes from one
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  of the leaders of the Palestinian Liberation
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  Organisation, and he made this quote back in 1977.
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  His name was Zahir Mussin and he was a PLO executive committee
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  member in 1977 along with Yasser Arafat as they formed the PLO.
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  And this is what he said quoting he said the Palestinian people
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  does not exist. The creation of a Palestinian
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  state is only a means for continuing our struggle against
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  the state of Israel, for our Arab unity.
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  In reality today, there is no difference between Jordanians,
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  Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese.
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  Now, this is one of the leaders of the PLO who who first had
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  this notion and this idea of the Palestinian people, he said they
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  don't even exist. Now that comes straight from his
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  mouth. So they understood that the
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  creation of Palestine was simply a political tool for the Arab
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  nations to get leverage in the United Nations to get land for
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  Arab unity. So, you know, when we hear all
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  these things in the news today about the Palestinian people
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  being kicked out of their land, well, it never was their land.
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  We know from the Scriptures that it was given to Abraham, Isaac
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  and Jacob, the fathers of the Jewish people, as an everlasting
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  possession. So you can either believe the
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  United Nations, you can either believe the Arab people who call
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  themselves Palestinians, who their own leader said doesn't
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  even exist. They're from the neighbouring
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  Arab nations around, or you can believe what God says.
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  And as Christians, I think the choice is very simple.
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  I know what I believe. I know what God has said, and
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  that forms my opinion. So people can argue with me
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  politically, and everybody's got an opinion.
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  So I don't argue politically. I just simply believe what God
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  has said in his Word. And I base everything I
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  understand from God's word. And I think that's a safe
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  position to be in. So when you hear all this banter
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  in the news and all this, you know, free, free Palestine from
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  the river to the sea, you know that that's a false narrative.
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  That is a false political narrative.
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  That land belongs to the Jewish people according to God's word.
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  And that's good enough for me. So I hope this little Bible
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  exegesis, if you like, is has been helpful to help you think.
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  Don't just accept what you hear. Have a look at history.
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  You'll you'll find out that it's always been a Jewish state.
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  You can have a look. In 1917, when the Australian
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  Light Horse liberated their sheba, who did they liberate it
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  from? Did they liberate it from the
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  Palestinians? No, they liberated it from the
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  Ottoman Turkish Empire, who had been there 400 years previous.
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  Now the Turks, they're not Arabs.
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  There was no such thing as a Palestinian state when the
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  Australian soldiers liberated it in 1917, it was run by the
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  Ottoman Turkish Empire and they'd had it from 400 years
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  previous. And you go back in history and
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  you'll find out that the Egyptians had it at the time of
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  Jesus, the Romans were ruling it.
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  There was no such thing as Palestine.
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  The name Palestine is actually a Roman name given by the General
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  Hadrian in the year 135 AD. And it wasn't just that piece of
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  land. It was the whole area of Syria
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  and Lebanon and Israel and parts of Egypt, what we call the
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  Levant today. So it wasn't even a name given
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  to the state that we call Israel.
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  It was a name given to a whole region and he called it Syria,
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  Palestina. So folks, have a look at what
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  history says. Go back and have a look what
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  history says, But more importantly, what does God's
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  word say? And that's what I want to focus
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  on today. What has God said concerning
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  this whole situation, which is a a great problem that the world
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  is facing today. So thank you for listening.
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  God bless you and I'll see you again next time.
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  Thank you.