Why don't the Palestinians just leave the Promised Land and go and live in the surrounding Arab nations?

Old man Abraham has much to answer for!  He gave up ever getting a son by his lawfully wedded wife, Sarai and took her servant, Hagar for a son to be born.  This was Ishmael, that became the father of the Arab family of humanity.  Later, Isaac was born to Sarai, after all and Isaac had a son called Jacob, whose name was changed to Israel.  Thus we had the people of Israel, becoming the Jewish family of humanity.

Yahweh promised to Abraham not only the Promised Land but also that his descendants would be a blessing to all the other nations of the earth.  The first promise has been fulfilled more than once (1948 most recently) and the second promise, in my opinion, has yet to be kept.  The land promised by God to Israel in Joshua 1 v 4 has never been fulfilled, however.

I believe I am right in saying that the Palestinians were originally called the Philistines who lived in Gaza.  Their Goliath was defeated by the Israeli shepherd boy, David who later became the second king of Israel in the millennia leading up to the birth of Christ.  Hence, Gaza became part of the Promised Land that, according to biblical teaching, was always intended by Yahweh to be for the Jews, only.  They have had it and lost it, in the past.

Dennis Neville, who lives in Halesowen and who knows more about these things than I do, wrote to me:

"Before 1948 there was no state of Israel so I think you are better to talk in terms of Jews and Arabs. The Arabs were in the majority during this period and there is a historian (very controversial) who claims that they are descended from the people who lived in Palestine at the time of Jesus and have a closer link to them than European Jews."

For me (not Dennis), that is not controversial but a very reasonable thing to say because it seems likely that up until 1948, Arabs have occupied the land now called Israel in greater numbers than the Jews.  Was there not a dispersal of the Jews from the Promised Land after the destruction of the Temple in AD 70?  (I must check on this)  Then, in the 13th, 18th, 19th and 20th centuries in Europe, there were periods of persecution of the Jews that, in this century in France and the UK, we now call anti-semitism.

It appears that most of my conservative evangelical Christian friends feel that the plight of the Palestinians is not a justice issue at all.  They feel that the Arabs and Jews have been at each other's throats since time immemorial and you just have to leave them to it!  In fact, it seems from what I can gather, that for many centuries, Arabs and Jews lived together in peaceful co-existence.  Arabs and Christians less so.  If anything, the Arabs who are, traditionally, a nomadic people were in the majority in the land now called Israel.  In the last 1400 years of Arab Islam and Christianity, there have been periodic bouts of violence between Muslims and Christians.  The most obvious were the Crusades, initiated by the Christians to get Jerusalem from Islam.  Has that city has been fought over for centuries by all the three great Abrahamic faiths and by the Romans?  I would like to know.  Interestingly, it seems, up until the Christian persecution of Jews in Europe, Judaism was much less expansionist and aggressive than the other two faiths.  With the formation of Israel, the Jews have learnt violence to follow the poor example of Christianity (from 300 AD) and, to a lesser extent (especially, when compared the Christian West's wars of the 20th century) of Islam.

For reasons of fairness, Jerusalem I think, needs to be divided between all three of Abraham's descendants.  The problem is, the Jews want the lot, with the support of the Bible believing Christians.  Hence, east Jerusalem is now being lost by the Palestinians as the Jews take it over, as well as the West Bank with the constant encroachment of Jewish settlements.

It seems that Dennis is saying that because Jews have settled, over the centuries all over the world but mostly in Europe and, latterly America, that the land now called Israel was actually populated by mainly Arabs or Muslims - until the 1914-18 war when, in small numbers to begin with, Jews started to move to Palestine to join the Jews there.  (Source: book 'God's Servant, Israel' by Torrance and Taylor)  The USA has a very powerful Jewish/Christian lobby that strongly influences White House policy towards Israel.  Since about 1945, American Presidents have had to tread very carefully over anything to do with policy that affects both Jews and Christians.  For example, Presidents must be church going, theists and always end their speeches with 'God bless America'.  An atheist or agnostic President has been unheard of in recent decades, I believe I am right in saying.  Since 1945, America has been mostly godly and capitalist.  Their great enemy, USSR and now Russia, godless and Communist.  A clash here of ideology and theology!

In 2005, Gaza was given away by Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, in a gesture of, I suppose, goodwill or even magnanimity.  The problem was, he did it without getting a long term peace and security agreement with the Palestinians who lived in Gaza and in the West Bank (Judea and Samaria).  For many centuries, the Palestinians lived in Palestine (now Israel).  Israel's was a unilateral gesture that was not appreciated, one little bit by the Palestinians.  Perhaps, Sharon did it to make it easier for him to put the fast expanding Israeli population into more settlements in Judea and Samaria.  The problem is, the West Bank was gained by an act of aggression (Israel's victorious 1967 Six Day War) and aggressors are not meant to profit from their aggression, under international law.