The Forgotten Factor, a monthly article contribution by friends of Hilmar von Campe

On June 3 of this year, the American president addressed the Muslim world from Cairo. There were several dubious pronouncements made, but I only want to refer to one where he said, "Israel has been depriving the Palestinians of their homeland for 60 years."

Since Obama doesn't seem to know the history of the area he talks about nor visited Israel, the following, based on a section of my book "Defeating the Totalitarian Lie," is meant to clarify the background of the dispute. If he were to act as a Christian, he would not make promises disposing of the God-given land of another nation, Israel, and not have the impertinence to order that government what it should do.

Israel became a state in 1312 B.C, two millennia before Islam existed. Arab refugees from Israel began calling themselves "Palestinians" in 1967, two decades after the creation of the modern state of Israel. Upon conquering the land in 1272 B.C., Jews ruled it for 1,000 years and maintained a continuous presence there for 3,300 years. The only Arab rule following conquest in 633 B.C. lasted 22 years. For over 3,300 years, Jerusalem was the Jewish capital and was never the capital of any Arab or Muslim entity. Even under the rule of Jordan, the existing Palestinian Arab state created by Britain, (East) Jerusalem was not made the capital and no Arab leader came to visit it. Jerusalem is mentioned 700 times in the Bible, but not once is it mentioned in the Quran. King David founded Jerusalem; Muhammad never set foot in it. In 1948, Arab leaders urged their people to leave, promising to cleanse the land of Jewish presence. Sixty-eight percent of them fled without ever setting eyes on an Israeli soldier.

Virtually the entire Jewish population in Muslim countries had to flee as the result of violence and pogroms. They were robbed of all their belongings and probably billions of dollars. These are the facts:

	1948	2007
Egypt	75,000	100
Iraq	135,000	100
Lebanon	5,000	100
Libya	38,000	0
Morocco	265,000	5,700
Syria	30,000	100
Tunisia	105,000	1,500
Yemen	55,000	200

There are 840,000 Jewish refugees. According to the Unity Coalition for Israel, they had to leave their assets behind, currently worth more than $300 billion. Heskel M. Haddad, president of the World Organization of Jews from Arab countries, said that his organization has legal property deeds from Jewish refugees of a total area of 100,000 square kilometers, 3.5 times larger than the state of Israel. Irvin Cotler, an international human rights lawyer, Canadian parliamentarian and former Canadian justice minister stated that U.N. documents reveal "a pattern of state-sanctioned oppression of refugees of Arab countries – including Nuremberg-like laws." Was that discussed in Annapolis?

Seven hundred twenty-five thousand Palestinian Arabs living within the borders of Israel fled or were expelled in 1948. Today nearly 1 million Arabs live as citizens within the borders of the state Israel. It is rather strange to hear that today there are 4 million Arab refugees. Where do they come from? And why didn't affluent Arab leaders drenched in oil money look after their own Arab people for 60 years? Because they have a Nazi-like lack of concern for their fellow men and enslave their women. They use those who live in the camps to pressure Israel – this is the dirty purpose of those camps.

There have been five wars against Israel by Arab nations all started by the Arabs. During the Jordanian occupation, countless Jewish holy sites were vandalized. The U.N. was silent when the Jordanians destroyed 58 synagogues in the old city of Jerusalem. It continued its silence while Jordan systematically desecrated the ancient Jewish cemetery on the Mount of Olives, and remained silent when Jordan enforced apartheid laws preventing Jews from accessing the Temple Mount and the Western Wall. Out of 175 United Nations Security Council resolutions up to 1990, 97 were against Israel; out of 690 General Assembly Resolutions, 429 were against Israel.

Former Prime Minister Olmert, as well as President Peres, misjudging the motives of their enemies, seem to think that delivering more and more Israeli land to the Arabs will lead to peace. The land for peace initiative will lead to putting the Jewish state in extreme danger.

The conference in Annapolis in November 2007 was a waste of money. No wonder Arab leaders urge a strong U.S. role in Israel/Palestinian peace talks. Hearing then-President Bush talk about "occupied territories," it is easy to see that he has accepted their diabolical reasoning.

I thought Bush was a Christian president. Who is he to undo God's promises to the Jewish people?

A survey conducted by the Midgam Institutes reveals that 73 percent of the Israeli population refuses any concession on Jerusalem that is not approved by a referendum. In addition, 70 percent of respondents believe that Jerusalem cannot be the capital of both countries at once, according to Guysen International News. Another poll undertaken shortly before Olmert's departure to Annapolis sponsored by the Israel Policy Center for Promoting Parliamentary Democracy and Jewish values in Israeli Public life oppose handing strategic territory to the Arab Palestinians.

Our Founding Fathers were crystal clear that a free society can only exist with responsible and moral people. That is true for any society. The Israeli government has to deal with liars and terrorists. According to Guysen International News, the mufti of Jerusalem, Ikrema Sabri, stated recently during an interview by the Jerusalem Post, "There has never been a temple on the Mosque Esplanada." He thinks we should not talk about the "Temple Mount" but instead about the "Al Aqsa" mosque. I am pretty sure that most if not all Arabs at the Annapolis Conference not only believe the same and therefore are committed to a lie, but are determined to liquidate the basis of Western Civilization in their midst, the thousands of years old Israeli heartland. Western leaders, including George W, Bush and Barack Hussein Obama, state that they are Christians, but in their political dealings deny our roots and capitulate to the aggressive Islamic lies.

And what about the brilliant Israeli proposition of Benno Elon, chairman of the National Union Party and a member of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee? He describes the Israeli borders set by God in his booklet "Israel, Arabs, and the Middle East" when He gave it as a gift to Abraham and his descendents. Nowhere in the Bible is there any indication that God canceled His promises.

"The God-given borders of the land belonging to Abraham's descendants through Isaak are from 'the River' of Egypt (the Nile, or smaller wadi in Eastern Sinai) to 'The River' (the biblical name for the Euphrates). ..." These two border descriptions have never been fully occupied by the Jewish nation, but they stretch from Eastern Egypt past Damascus all the way into western Iraq.