The third of a three-part series: America at 250
One of humanity’s most astonishing cycles is coming full circle in our days, as new evidence of what is behind Europe’s obsessive opposition to the Jewish state emerges.
Europeans invaded Judea in the fourth century BCE—first the Greeks and then the Romans. The Jews rebelled, yearning to reestablish their state. This led Rome to take countermeasures, killing and expelling the Jewish population and changing the names of Jerusalem and Judea.
Jerusalem was renamed Aelia Capitolina after the Roman emperor Hadrian’s ruling family, sending a clear message for generations to come that what was once Jerusalem had been successfully “Europeanized.”
But why was Judea renamed Palestina (“Palestine”)? Historians claim that it was because the Philistines were the arch-rivals of the Jews, fighting numerous wars with them as described in the Bible.
There are two problems with this theory: One is that the Philistines had been extinct for more than 700 years by that time. The other is that if one follows the historians’ logic that the naming was intended to “stick it to the Jews,” why not choose “Canaan”?
The biblical Canaanites were a more direct enemy of the Jews, competing in a zero-sum-game for rule of all Judea, a rivalry that dates back to the ancestral fathers of the two nations. So, if historians are right about the Romans’ desire to rename Judea for the Jews’ arch-rivals, the Romans should have renamed Judea “Canaan.”
The Palestinians as descendants of Canaanites?
This is supported by contemporary events: In the twentieth century, soon after Europeans cultivated the Arab national movement in Palestine, some Arabs suggested that this movement should be associated with the Canaanites. In other words, it should not aim for a State of Palestine, but for a State of Canaan.
More recently, Mahmoud Abbas, the leader of the Palestinian Authority, said explicitly: “We are the descendants of the Canaanites who have lived here for 5,000 years, and we did not leave the land.”
Unfortunately for Abbas, his claim has been undermined by Europe: first by the Romans, who some 2,000 years ago chose the name of the Philistines over that of the Canaanites. Then by the British, who naturally (though offensively) gave the local Arabs the name “Palestinians.” Finally, by the European Union and its proxies, who in recent decades have invested billions of euros into cultivating a Palestinian identity; so much so that it would be unfeasible at this point to rebrand the movement’s public relations slogans to “Queers for Canaan,” “Free Canaan” or “Justice for Canaan.”
Today’s self-proclaimed “Canaanites” were coerced by Europe into uniting under the fabricated name of their rivals: the Philistines. This provides contemporary support for the argument that it was illogical for the Romans to rename Judea as “Palestine” in the first place. That is, it does so unless one disconnects from conventional wisdom and realizes that it made perfect sense for a different reason: the Philistines were Europeans.
A ‘reconquista’ of occupied European land?
The Bible strongly implies that the Philistines came from Europe; specifically, the Greek islands. Modern archaeology supports this and so do most historians. This leads to a possible theory: Just as the name Aelia Capitolina was not only chosen to “stick it to the Jews,” but also to claim European sovereignty, so has the term “Palestine.” Through this European name, Rome asserted that “Judea” was, always had been, and always would be sacred European land.
According to this narrative, the biblical Jews—from King David through the Maccabees—were merely thousand-year occupiers of European land, just as the Muslims of the Middle Ages were occupiers of European land in Iberia for 700 years.
The Greek and Roman invasions of Judea were therefore not “occupation” but merely a reconquista. It was returning Philistine land to its “rightful heirs” (Europeans), just as the Spaniards’ invasion of al-Andalus in the 15th century was a reconquista that returned Iberia to its “rightful heirs” (Europeans).
The 3,000-year-old conflict
Since 2012, I have been analyzing the European-Israeli conflict in my books, articles, via the Judaism 3.0 think tank and via my website, Europe and Jerusalem. I have pointed out that it is the world’s oldest feud, dating to the Greek invasion of Judea some 2,300 years ago, and that it now manifests in the European-American chasm.
However, perhaps current events suggest that it’s more accurate to describe the feud as a 3,000-year-old conflict that originated with the first European invasion of Judea by the Philistines.
Indeed, contemporary European behavior of the 2020s allows us to gain insight into this: per the apparent European narrative, Goliath, a Philistine, was a victim of Jewish “settler violence” when he was murdered by the settler David. A thousand years later, the Romans finally delivered “justice for Palestine” by expelling the “settler-colonialist” Jews and renaming the land. Two thousand years after that, Europe continues to stake its claim to “its land” through multiple initiatives.
First, procedurally, because for decades, Europe was open about its objective to, once again, take Jerusalem away from the Jews and Bethlehem from its Arab residents to create a “Corpus Separatum,” a laundered term for a European colony.
Ideologically, through Europe’s relentless efforts to negate the idea of the Jewish state, and thus the idea of Judaism, as described in my 2024 book The Assault on Judaism.
Religiously, through European Christianity, which, unlike American Christianity, was dependent on the negation of Judaism. This came to an end in the 20th century, when Europe abandoned Christianity, but has been reintroduced by European proxies in the United States.
Geopolitically, through Europe’s opposition to the emerging U.S.-Israel-Arab alliance and game-changing peace-through-strength frameworks, described in my new book, From Survival to Peace.
An unprecedented opportunity for historic peace
These realities underline the fact that the current Middle East conflict is not merely about Israeli-Arab issues or temporary threats. To truly understand its origins, we must confront the “elephant in the room”: the 3,000-year-old European-Israeli conflict.
We now have a unique opportunity to do precisely that, as in many respects, we are back to the origins of the conflict: Philistines (Europeans) are now represented by the European Union. Jews (Israelis) are now represented by the State of Israel. The Palestinian Authority now claims to represent the Canaanites.
The time might be ripe for a Truth and Reconciliation Commission under the Board of Peace that would help Europe fully disengage from the Middle East; stop robbing the world of the light emanating from Zion; and redirect its resources to countering the imminent threat to global stability now coming from Europe itself.
Read the first part of this series here and the second part here.
