An Israeli Arab named Ahmad Tibi probably wishes he had studied Jewish scriptures more closely.
In a recent session of the Knesset, MK Tibi compared King David’s righteous behavior to that of modern Jews in order to find the latter wanting. From a Palestinian perspective, however, the anecdote he used was a bad choice — it was an accidental acknowledgement that Jews had purchased the property now known as the Temple Mount lawfully, paying generous compensation to the previous owner.
The following video shows Ahmad Tibi’s OOPS! moment. Many thanks to D@rLin|{ for the translation, and to Vlad Tepes for the subtitling:
Below is the Facebook post (also translated by D@rLin|{) by a member of the Knesset named Yinon Magal, who posted it to accompany the original Hebrew video:
MK Ahmad Tibi came to curse but ended up blessing us.
Yesterday, in honor of the upcoming “Tanakh Day” he gave a speech in the Knesset, trying to compare today’s Jews and the Jews from the Bible.
Out of all Tanakh stories, Tibi chose the one about King David’s purchase of Arvana’s goren (threshing floor).
The story was supposed to show how the mighty King David refused to rob a non-Jew of his property (in contrast to what the modern Jews routinely do to Palestinians, according to Mr. Tibi).
The King insisted on paying the Jebusite owner full price for the place, which Tibi said was somewhere in Galilee, Israel’s north.
Well, maybe the honorable MK is not aware of this, but the place, purchased by King David for a just and full price, is none other than the Temple Mount.
Here is the quote from Chronicles:
“Then Solomon began to build the house of the Lord in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, where the Lord had appeared to David his father, at the place that David had appointed, on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.”
Video transcript:
| 00:01 | I want to remind you, for starters, | |
| 00:05 | of the story about King David, | |
| 00:09 | when God told him that in order to stop a plague, | |
| 00:14 | he had to build an altar in a certain place. | |
| 00:20 | David went there, it was in Galilee, | |
| 00:24 | and discovered that the place belonged to Arvana the Jebusite, | |
| 00:31 | one of the minorities. | |
| 00:36 | By God’s decree, he had to seize the land, which belonged to the Jebusite, | |
| 00:43 | in order to stop the plague. | |
| 00:46 | The Jebusite fell to the ground as soon as he saw the king enter his yard, | |
| 00:54 | and David bowed back. | |
| 00:58 | The king asked how much Jebusite wanted for his land, | |
| 01:02 | and Arvana said: “Take it for free!” | |
| 01:06 | He was one of the minorities, you see, and David was the king. | |
| 01:10 | The Jebusite was afraid; he was shaking in fear. | |
| 01:12 | He said: “Take it , no charge!” | |
| 01:14 | David insisted that he would pay more than the land was worth. | |
| 01:20 | Jebusite wanted to give it to the king free of charge. | |
| 01:23 | In those days, it was a very humane thing to do! | |
| 01:30 | God said to the King: “Seize the land!” | |
| 01:34 | The king said: “Man has rights. | |
| 01:39 | I will make a lawful purchase.” | |
| 01:44 | Modern Jews are not the Jews of old. | |
| 01:48 | The reference is only to those on this side. | |
| 01:50 | Maybe a little to this side, too, after yesterday. | |
| 01:55 | I wish that all those claiming to be part of King David’s legacy, | |
| 02:05 | but stealing Palestinians’ land, would learn this story. |
It won’t make one tiny dent in the full time occupation of Palestinians, from cradle to grave, which is their obsessive hatred of Israel. Not even the Catholics of Northern Ireland nor the Africans under Apartheid, nor the descendants of slavery in the USA could hold a candle to them. Perhaps the Hutu and the Tutsi tribal genocides are comparable in intensity of hatred (though as yet not similarly expressed, but not for want of trying.)
Like all bi-polar conflicts, this hatred will never die! Many poor African-Americans still ‘feel’ they are slaves. And the angry Africans in South Africa have embarked on a genocide of Boer farmers which is appallingly unreported by the mainstream media. Hopefully the Irish have got over their ‘troubles’ for now, anyway.
Almost half the Palestinians live in the surrounding countries of Jordan, Syria and Lebanon, but wouldn’t you know, those fellow Muslim countries treat the Palestinians like pariahs! So much for brotherly love under Islam!
The Palestinians maintain in the UN that the Israelis are invaders despite the fact that it was the UN which gave Jews the authority to settle there in the first place. If the Palestinians are so scrupulous about history, why don’t they give up Islam which was forced down their throats at the point of a sword?
‘Throughout 1947, the United Nations Special Commission on Palestine examined the Palestinian question and recommended the partition of Palestine into a Jewish and an Arab state. On November 29, 1947 the United Nations adopted Resolution 181 (also known as the Partition Resolution) that would divide Great Britain’s former Palestinian mandate into Jewish and Arab states in May 1948 when the British mandate was scheduled to end. Under the resolution, the area of religious significance surrounding Jerusalem would remain a corpus separatum under international control administered by the United Nations.’ (U S Department of State: Office of the Historian)
Added to their self-inflicted wound of murderous hostility which must be excessively draining on the brain, they have shot themselves in the foot by provoking Israel into harsher and harsher measures of self-defense, so now they are incarcerated, which stymies their economic growth.
What they ought to do is stop playing the victim, make sure their kids get a good Western education in maths and science, (not reciting the Koran), stop the rampant corruption of their leaders, and put all their energy into technological innovation to grow their economy. But they won’t. They’d rather beggar and humiliate themselves to ‘show’ the West what Nazis the Jews are, because they know the West would like nothing more than to revive their anti-semitism under the feint of moral obligation and at the same time, exorcise their guilt for the Holocaust and centuries of pogroms!
Where are the Jews supposed to go, anyway? Everybody hates them. Muslims in Europe are attacking Jews right left and center! What is so disgusting is that the Jews never posed a threat to Europe. In fact their contribution to Western culture is outstanding. One cannot say the same for Islam. It poses a self-proclaimed existential threat to the West and it’s contributions to Western culture are in the severely minus category.
” Not even the Catholics of Northern Ireland nor the Africans under Apartheid, nor the descendants of slavery in the USA could hold a candle to them.”
There is no natural comparison of the ‘Catholics of Northern Ireland’ and the ‘Palestinians’. The ‘Catholics of Northern Ireland’ were the legitimate inhabitants of the region of the island of Ireland historically known as Cúige Uladh’ (Ulster) and today politically identifying as ‘Northern Ireland’.
‘Cúige Uladh’ (Cúige = one-fifth (literally, referring to ancient land divisions implying there were five divisions at a critical point in history, but modernly representing the term ‘Province’ of which Ireland has four (Cúige Uladh (Ulster), Cúige Connachta (Connaught), Cúige Mumhan (Munster) Cúige Laighean (Leinster). The fifth, Meath (An Mi) is incorporated into Leinster. ‘Only in Ireland’, as is said.
https://goo.gl/mOR1vr
Ulster was ‘planted’ mainly by Scottish Presbyterians during the reign of English King James 1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plantation_of_Ulster giving rise to the centuries long economic deprivation of those ‘Catholics of Northern Ireland’. The ‘unrest’ is far more economically rooted than religiously rooted. It is complicated. Historically Ulster comprised 9 counties (The county being another land/geographical division of English creation (quite rational in my opinion, for population management and representation purposes)) – Donegal (Dun na nGall) Monaghan ( ), Cavan (An Cabhain), Derry (An Doire), Fermanagh (Fir Meanach), Tyrone (Tir Eoin ((Land of Owen)), Antrim (An Antroim), Down (An Dún) and Armagh (Ard Mhacha).
It would take me a lifetime to explain all the nuances and contradictions of my native land but suffice it to say that your flip comparison of those ‘Catholics of Northern Ireland’ to the ‘Palis’ is ignorant at best, if not downright dishonest. It is a convenient comparison used by those (typically progressives) without the integrity to do the hard work of research. I acknowledge that there is a growing perception movement to create this comparison for political expediency (even amongst the Irish themselves; a story for another time).
The movement that will be required in the coming decades to deal with the inevitable unrest innate to ‘multiculturalism’ in Europe and particularly in the UK, could do worse than look to the historical resistance of the Irish to English subjugation, for some lessons. It is likely to be American and Israeli submarines off-loading the weapons of resistance in the future, rather than the Spanish/French/German vessels of the past.
Thank you, Musthava Ram Ram. I saw that go by and let it be…takes energy to deal with unjust comparisons and I just don’t have it.
Maybe I’ll just post some rendition or other of “Galway Bay”…that sums up the sentiments of the Irish Celts nicely.
Thank YOU for the noble work you and your amazing husband do. Your respective and combined intellectual and grinding efforts are simply astounding and your stamina in pursuit of truth has taught me humility I didn’t know existed.
I am at your service Ma’am.
I’ve traveled through the great state of Virginia on surfing trips to the ‘Beach’ and will consider it an honour if it at some future point I might drop by and say G’Day.
My heartfelt gratitude for the amazing work you do.
I wish they would read the Tanakh and get their stories straight. The Story cited here is at the end of 2Samuel chapter 24. The Chapter begins with David conducting a census of the people which the prophets had warned him not to do. David did anyway and a plague was sent that lasted three days and killed 70,000 people. Gad the prophet told David to erect an altar on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite. According to 2Samuel 24:22 Araunah offered to give the site to David. David refused saying, “No, I will buy it for a price, nor will I offer burnt offerings to the Lord that have cost me nothing.” So David paid 50 shekels of silver (cash) for the land and the oxen. The Lord heeded the prayers of David and the plague was stopped.
Gee, the Palestinians of old offered to give their land to the Jews, but the Jews wouldn’t take it but insisted upon paying for it. When Abraham wanted the Cave of Machpelah (The Cave of the Patriarchs) in what is now Hebron, the Sons of Heth offered Abraham the entire field. After refusing the gift of the cave and the field twice they settled on the full price which was 400 shekels according to the weight of the merchants. There was a title deed to the cave and the field that was witnessed by all in attendance. Anyone who tells you that Hebron was stolen from the Sons of Heth who are the ancestors of the Jordanians, they are lying to you. Jews seem to routinely overpay for that which they consider to be valuable.
Acuara, there were no Palestinians of old. There were no Palestinians at all until their alleged status was fabricated by the Soviet Politburo in the mid 1960’s and formally announced by Gamel Abdul Nasser in 1967.
I didn’t know that. You learn something new every day. I know that the Sons of Heth were the original Canaanites, which is all the Philistinians could ever hope to be. Talk about a family feud, this mess goes back to Jacob and Esau.
No, sadly it goes back to Abraham, Jacob and Esau’s grandfather.
Abraham and Sarah were “advanced in years,” so to speak, and had been unable to have children. Sarah said that Abraham should have a child by Sarah’s “handmaiden,” Hagar, so that Abraham would have *some* posterity.
Hagar gave birth to Ishmael. While Ishmael was still quite young, Hagar evidently taunted Sarah for her inability to conceive a child. Although a child finally did come for Sarah and Abraham (son Isaac), Sarah had a “it’s her or me” moment with her husband over Hagar’s smart remarks and behavior, and Abraham dismissed Hagar from his dwellings/tents.
The way I learned it, Arabs consider Ishmael and, through him, Abraham, to be their ultimate father, and of course Jews consider Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to be The Patriarchs.
The intended sacrifice (halted at the last second) of Isaac by Abraham was a test of Abraham’s obedience to God. Muslims believe that the intended sacrifice was of Ishmael and not Isaac, and perhaps a thousand miles south of Machpelech (sorry re. spelling). During the Muslim Hajj, the pilgrims re-enact Hagar’s search for water in the desert after being dismissed by Abraham (yes, she found water) and visit other sites associated with Ishmael. (They do a LOT of walking during those five or six days.)
So…it goes back to Abraham.
Let us celebrate this victory for Israel, it is the only right thing to do. Before I wondered why us gentiles are so ready to support our Israeli friends while they seem to do absolutely nothing in return. The former Chief Rabbi of Israel has the answer. According to his reading of the Jewish scriptures the goyim only exist to serve the jews. When Rabbi Ovadiah Yosef died in 2013 the small Israeli nation mourned and nearly a million Israelis showed up to his funeral. Prime Minister Bibi called him one of the greatest Jewish legal authorities of our generation.
Let us serve the Israelis the best we can.
Well; apparently King David did not feel that the owner of the threshing
floor “only existed to serve the Jews” as you seem to think Jews feel.
As for serving the Israelis the best we can; how about just doing unto
others – all others – as YOU would have them do unto YOU?
Yes, the foundation of Ethics. You no like what people do to you, you don’t do it to them. Why does everyone think that they are different and know better, when they are no better than anyone else? (alliterative intended)
Oz,
You don’t need to read the Jewish scriptures as interpreted by Ovadiah Josef, Chief Rabbi of Israel (I always thought there was no Chief Rabbi because of all the levels and schisms of Judaism: Orthodox, Ultra-Orthodox, Sephardic rite, Ashkenazi rite, etc) to know that the goyim exist to serve the Jews. It’s etched in stone around the top edge (forget the architectural term, opposite of plinth and pediment) of the Knesset. Along with: “From the Nile to the Euphrates” – Israel’s territorial expansion plans; proper Passover matzoh is to have the blood of Christian children mixed into the dough; as well as many statements emphasizing the Jewish plan for world domination.
I am having a hard time trying to discern whether you comment is cynical or not.If you are being serious, I’d love to see the pictures of the writings you are talking about, although I highly doubt you will be able to find anything authentic – it is a known libel.
You missed some good ones though; here, check it out:
http://www.palwatch.org/main.aspx?fi=780
Don’t be shy, help yourself !
I love the one about the flag
Don’t worry, he’s being sarcastic — just kind of deadpan about it.
So. Ahmed Tibi gave credence to the record of David’s purchase of the Temple Mount?
As Homer Simpson often says, “DOH!” as he smacks himself on the forehead.
I do so love a spectacular own goal!