Where the "Palestine" Moniker Came From

 Nadene Goldfoot                                         

The biggest lie told in the world is about Palestine;  what it is and its history.  This is being told by anti-Semites throughout the world.

Here's the truth about Palestine:  

Palestine was not the name of a country.

It's on maps but leads people to think it was a country.  It was a name the Romans created to replace Israel's name--the country they had taken. Both Arabs and Jews living there were called Palestinians until May 14, 1948-Israel's re-birth.

There was no actual country of Palestine.  

   Jacob (Israel), father of 12 sons who became 12 tribes, received the name, ISRAEL, after wrestling or struggling with a heavenly emissary (angel?) and overcame him,  given this name. Perhaps its meaning is "one who overcame."   Actually, Israel today has overcome all odds of existence, even after being accepted  by the LEAGUE OF NATIONS and the UNITED NATIONS after World War I.  Anti-Semitism has arisen since then and continues among the nations of the earth.  Israel came about by following all the legal needs of the time-losing promised land to Jordan before they even received it, and yet still has to prove every day their worth;  shameful.  No other country in the world has gone through what they have had to overcome. To read of such nonsense happening in our college campuses, a place of higher education, makes me sick.  Our students should be learning how to make decisions out of facts, not hearsay-gossip.  They who are against Israel's right to exist  are coming out no smarter than sheep at this rate.     

Countries had to have leaders such as kings or queens or presidents.  Palestine was the new name for old land-Israel, land already  1,070 years old of being Israel- land of Jacob's 12 tribes when the Romans named Israel "Palestine."  It was a slap in the face name, a cruel name-giving the name of their long-time enemy, the Philistines, the name for their land.  

                           

                                         Israel's History

Israel had been created by Joshua arriving with 600,000 Israelites from Egypt in a 40 year trek to get there, arriving about 1271 BCE-Jewish calendar time; using leaders of the tribes such as Deborah as Judges,  and was officially Israel with a king with King Saul in about 1000 BCE. King David then ruled from 1010-970 CE, and his son, Solomon from 961-920 BCE.  Solomon took on the task of the actual building of the Temple, spoken of by Moses.  To do this he overworked his people, and taxed them as well.  This caused the Civil War between the North and the South.  

Jerusalem was in the tribe of Judah's land, became the united capital of Israel-(new name of Jacob, father of the 12 tribes of Israel). Jerusalem is also called the City of David. David had found Jebusites living here and dealt leniently with them in 1010 BCE.  

Solomon's death brought on a Civil War. His son, Rehoboam ruled 933-912 BCE but the kingdom went through a Civil War with the North and their new king, Jeroboam- Solomon's former superintendent of forced labor,  where the North (new name of Samaria for their new capitol) ceded from the South (Judah).   Then in 721 BCE the Assyrians attacked, took away the best of the population of 27,290 Israelites  and left their unwanted slaves.  

Babylonians attacked Judah  in 597 BCE, then again in 586 BCE taking Judeans to Babylon.  The next Babylonian,  king Cyrus,  allowed them to return to Jerusalem in 538 BCE but some had remained. 

    Roman Occupation-Aggressive Take-Over

 The Romans had occupied Jerusalem in 63 BCE  and then their leader, General Pompey the Great (106-48 BCE),  burned it down in 70 CE, including its Temple.

Judaea  had been a Roman ally since the second century BCE and became a Roman province in 6 CE.

Eventually Josephus (Jewish general who went over to the Roman side to save his life),  and his men sheltered within the walled city of Jotapata, surrounded by Romans. Just before dawn on the 47th day of the siege, Roman soldiers scaled the city's walls and poured into the city. They killed around 40,000 Jews.

  (For some time Rome had been expanding its authority in Asia, and in 63 BCE the Roman triumvir Pompey the Great captured Jerusalem)..   Pompey was involved in the fight over the throne of Judea (southern Israel).  It was Hyrcanus II and Aristobulus who were fighting over it.  Pompey favored  Hyrcanus so captured Jerusalem and the Temple from Aristobulus supporters.  Judea was made a tributary and stripped of the territories acquired by the Hasmonean Jews.  Aristobulus and his family were taken to Rome to grace Pompey's triumph.  Pompey ended Jewish independence enjoyed since Simon the Maccabee of the Hasmonean era.of which we're about to remember with the holiday of Chanukah.  

Palestine's  the name given to Israel by the Romans after 132-135 CE (AD) out of anger at the Jewish General Bar Kokhba-meaning son of the star;  real name was Bar/Ben (son of) Kosiba Simeon.  He was the nephew of Rabbi Eleazar of Modiin and of Davidic descent.                          

A revolt had begun against the Emperor Hadrian (P.Aelius Hadrianus) Roman Emperor (117-138)  in 132 which he led.  Hadrians initial eastern policy was the removal and execution of the savage Roman governor of Judea, Lucius Quietus, who was a Roman Berber general and 11th legate of Judaea in (117–120). He was the principal commander against the Jewish rebellion known as the Kitos War (Kitos is a later corruption of Quietus). As both a general and a highly acclaimed commander, he was notably one of the most accomplished Berber statesmen in ancient Roman history. After the death of the emperor Trajan, Quietus was murdered or executed, possibly on the orders of Trajan's successor Hadrian.

Who were the Berbers who were in the Roman army?  The two largest populations of Berbers are found in Algeria and Morocco, where large portions of the population are descended from Berbers but only some of them identify as Amazigh. Roughly one-fourth of the population in Algeria is estimated to be Berber, while Berbers are estimated to make up more than three-fifths of the population in Morocco. In the Sahara of southern Algeria and of Libya, Mali, and Niger, the Berber Tuareg number more than two million.  Romans used people they had fought against such as the Germanic tribes.  

Rabbi Akiva (greatest scholar of his time, had thousands of students)  claimed Aluf (General) Bar Kokhba was the awaited Messiah, but other rabbis didn't agree. Causes of revolt were many:  1)rebuilding Jerusalem as a Roman colony;  2) prohibition of circumcision;  3) repression of Judaism carried on since 70 CE... 

It is written about him that he had great personal strength, was autocratic, irascible that were mentioned in letters found near the Dead Sea in letters from Bar Kokhba.  

    Romans fighting Bar Kokhba in 133 CE in Jerusalem

Bar Kokhba's soldiers had captured Jerusalem back in 132 and held it for 3 whole years!  It was in 133 that the Romans counterattacked with an army of 35,000 under Hadrian and the commander Julius Severus.  

  After 3 years of fighting and winning the hardest fight they had in a long time, the Romans had renamed the land after Israel's worst past enemy, the Philistines. 

Jews taken as slaves from Jerusalem forced to carry the loot from the Temple to Rome as shown on Arch of Titus 

What had led up to this fight was that Rome had occupied Jerusalem and then had burned the city and its Temple in the year 70 after looting and taking everything of value.  They even documented the occasion by having the Arch of  Titus picture the great event that pleased the Romans in Rome; seeing all the loot brought back.  

The Bar Kokhba revolt resulted in the extensive depopulation of Judean communities, more so than during the First Jewish–Roman War of 70 CE. According to Cassius Dio, 580,000 Jews perished in the war and many more died of hunger and disease, 50 fortresses and 985 villages were destroyed. In addition, many Judean war captives were sold into slavery. Some modern historians assert that Dio's numbers were somewhat exaggerated, but other researchers support Dio's claim of massive depopulation. The Jewish communities of Judea were devastated to an extent which some scholars describe as a genocide.

 However, the Jewish population remained strong in Galilee, Golan, Bet Shean Valley, and the eastern, southern, and western edges of Judea. Roman casualties were also considered heavy – XXII Deiotariana was disbanded, perhaps after serious losses in this conflict. In a possibly punitive act, the province of Judaea was renamed Syria Palaestina-thus, Palestine.

The Bar Kokhba revolt greatly influenced the course of Jewish history and the philosophy of the Jewish religion. Despite easing the persecution of Jews following Hadrian's death in 138 CE, the Romans barred Jews from Jerusalem, except for attendance in Tisha B'Av. 

Jewish messianism was abstracted and spiritualized, and rabbinical political thought became deeply cautious and conservative. The Talmud, for instance, refers to Bar Kokhba as "Ben-Kusiba", a derogatory term meaning "son of deception", used to indicate that he was a false Messiah. It was also among the key events to differentiate Christianity as a religion distinct from Judaism. Although Jewish Christians regarded Jesus as the Messiah and did not support Bar Kokhba, they were barred from Jerusalem along with the other Jews.  

This brings to mind the Nazis, who said that if you had one 

grandparent who was Jewish, even if you were a Christian, you were 

marked a  Jew and were killed. 

Resource:

https://www.jns.org/opinion/genocidal-antisemitism-is-conquering-american-campuses/

The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia

https://www.britannica.com/topic/Berber

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bar_Kokhba_revolt

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lusius_Quietus

https://www.pbs.org/empires/romans/empire/josephus.html#:~:text=Judaea%2C%20now%20part%20of%20modern,Roman%20province%20in%206%20AD.

https://www.britannica.com/place/Jerusalem/Roman-rule

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bar_Kokhba_revolt#:~:text=In%20132%2C%20the%20revolt%20led,in%20Aelia%20Capitolina%20(Jerusalem).

Who Was To Be King of Judea During the Roman Occupation? How Roman Rulers Decided

Nadene Goldfoot
                                                                     

Gaius Julius Caesar-1st Century BCE
b: 12 Iuly 100 BCE-d: 15 March 44 BCE. Known by his nomen and cognomen Julius Caesar, was a populist Roman dictator, politician, military general, and historian who played a critical role in the events that led to the demise of the Roman Republic and the rise of the Roman Empire. He also wrote Latin prose. Who hasn't heard of the love affair of Caesar and Cleopatra of Egypt?  

"Julius Caesar was known as a great friend to the Jews, and they were among the first to mourn his assassination.  "He may have had an ultimate reason for treating them so well.  Hasmoneans/Maccabees – had a fearsome reputation. The Romans referred to the Jews as “porcupines.” Just as a porcupine is an animal that even great predators avoid, so too the Jews. Even if you ate it you would be sorry. The Jews had the reputation as difficult to fight in a war and impossible to govern. Moreover, the Romans viewed the Jews as “atheists” or “non-believers.” Anyone who was religious, in their world view, had a god that you could see. They could not comprehend an invisible God with a Temple that had no visible idol to worship.

How Julius Caesar showed his respect for Jews was that "Julius Caesar made a pillar of brass for the Jews at Alexandria, and declared publicly that they (Jews) were citizens of Alexandria, Egypt." 
                        
                                                                                

                     He made the following award: 
                In those days the king would 
                     also be the high priest.  
  Whereas Hyrcanus, the son of Alexander Yanni, the Jew, a high priest of the Jews, hath demonstrated his fidelity and diligence about our affairs, was the  favorite Jew of Caesar.  Who was he?

Hyrcanus was the eldest son of Alexander Jannaeus, King and High Priest, and Alexandra Salome. After the death of Alexander in 76 BC, his widow succeeded to the rule of Judea and installed her elder son Hyrcanus as High Priest. Alexander had numerous conflicts with the Pharisees. So Hyrcanus was believed to be supported by the Pharisees, especially later in his tenure.

". [Hyrcanus II was the son of Alexander Yannai, the Hasmonean King who ruled from 103-76 B.C.E.]

Hyrcanus was a weak figure who on his own could neither administer the affairs of Judea nor collect its taxes. For this reason, it became possible for the Idumaean Antipater, whose father had been forcibly converted to Judaism in the time of John Hyrcanus, to insinuate himself into the halls of power. [John Hyrcanus ruled the Hasmonean state from 134 B.C.E. through his death in 104 B.C.E. During his reign, the state vastly expanded, through conquest, to include Samaria, Transjordan and Idumea (northern Negev). When John Hyrcanus conquered Idumea, he converted the Idumeans to Judaism.]"

                                            

Caesar continues his writing:  This both now and in former times, both in peace and in war, as many of our generals have borne witness, and Hyrcanus came to our assistance in the last Alexandrian war, with fifteen hundred soldiers; 

When he was sent by me to Mithridates, showed himself superior in valor to all the rest of that army; - for these reasons I will that Hyrcanus, the son of Alexander, and his children, 

Be ethnarchs of the Jews, and have the high priesthood of the Jews for ever, according to the customs of their forefathers, and that he and his sons be our confederates; and that besides this, everyone of them be reckoned among our particular friends. 

1. I also ordain that he and his children retain whatsoever privileges belong to the office of high priest, or whatsoever favors have been hitherto granted them; and 
2.  He was not going to force Jews to find the soldiers winter quarters or take any money from them.  
3. He was saying that Hyrcanus and his children were to rule over the nation of Jews.  This was a decree.  They were to receive profits of that position. 
4. Hyrcanus's job was to defend those injured.  
5.  Rome also accepted the Jewish law of allowing the land to rest on the 7th year and did not expect taxes (tribute)to be paid for that year. 
                                              

Ambassadors were to be sent to Hyrcanus who should be in Jerusalem,
 Judaea.  

That may discourse with him about a league of friendship and mutual assistance; and that a table of brass, containing the premises, be openly proposed in the capitol, and at Sidon, and Tyre, and Askelon, and in the temple, engraven in Roman and Greek letters: that this decree may also be communicated to the quaestors and praetors of the several cities, and to the friends of the Jews;

 That the ambassadors may have presents made them; and that these decrees be sent every where." 

4. "Caius Caesar, imperator, dictator, consul, hath granted, That out of regard to the honor, and virtue, and kindness of the man, and for the advantage of the senate, and of the people of Rome, Hyrcanus, the son of Alexander, both he and his children, be high priests and priests of Jerusalem, and of the Jewish nation, by the same right, and according to the same laws, by which their progenitors have held the priesthood." 

5. "Caius Caesar, consul the fifth time, hath decreed, That the Jews shall possess Jerusalem, and may encompass that city with walls; and that Hyrcanus, the son of Alexander, the high priest and ethnarch of the Jews, retain it in the manner he himself pleases; and that the Jews be allowed to deduct out of their tribute, every second year the land is let [in the Sabbatic period], a corus of that tribute; and that the tribute they pay be not let to farm, nor that they pay always the same tribute." 

6. "Caius Caesar, imperator the second time, hath ordained, That all the country of the Jews, excepting Joppa, do pay a tribute yearly for the city Jerusalem, excepting the seventh, which they call the sabbatical year, because thereon they neither receive the fruits of their trees, nor do they sow their land; and that they pay their tribute in Sidon on the second year [of that sabbatical period], the fourth part of what was sown: and besides this, they are to pay the same tithes to Hyrcanus and his sons which they paid to their forefathers. 

And that no one, neither president, nor lieutenant, nor ambassador, raise auxiliaries within the bounds of Judea; nor may soldiers exact money of them for winter quarters, or under any other pretense; but that they be free from all sorts of injuries; and that whatsoever they shall hereafter have, and are in possession of, or have bought, they shall retain them all. 

It is also our pleasure that the city Joppa, which the Jews had originally, when they made a league of friendship with the Romans, shall belong to them, as it. formerly did; and that Hyrcanus, the son of Alexander, and his sons, have as tribute of that city from those that occupy the land for the country, and for what they export every year to Sidon, twenty thousand six hundred and seventy-five modii every year, the seventh year, which they call the Sabbatic year, excepted, whereon they neither plough, nor receive the product of their trees. 

It is also the pleasure of the senate, that as to the villages which are in the great plain, which Hyrcanus and his forefathers formerly possessed, Hyrcanus and the Jews have them with the same privileges with which they formerly had them also; and that the same original ordinances remain still in force which concern the Jews with regard to their high priests; and that they enjoy the same benefits which they have had formerly by the concession of the people, and of the senate; and let them enjoy the like privileges in Lydda. 

It is the pleasure also of the senate that Hyrcanus the ethnarch, and the Jews, retain those places, countries, and villages which belonged to the kings of Syria and Phoenicia, the confederates of the Romans, and which they had bestowed on them as their free gifts. 

                       Now for following Roman Culture

It is also granted to Hyrcanus, and to his sons, and to the ambassadors by them sent to us, that in the fights between single gladiators, and in those with beasts, they shall sit among the senators to see those shows; and that when they desire an audience, they shall be introduced into the senate by the dictator, or by the general of the horse; and when they have introduced them, their answers shall be returned them in ten days at the furthest, after the decree of the senate is made about their affairs." 


                   Here's where the Jews of this day were not
                   following the Golden Rule: Don't do to others 
                   what you don't want done to you. (Hillel-1st century BCE)
                   Rabbi, President of Sanhedrin, noted for humility and leniency; 
                came up with 7 rules of Bible interpretation

 8. "Julius Caius, praetor [consul] of Rome, to the magistrates, senate, and people of the Parians, sendeth greeting. The Jews of Delos, and some other Jews that sojourn there, in the presence of your ambassadors, signified to us, that, by a decree of yours, you forbid them to make use of the customs of their forefathers, and their way of sacred worship. Now it does not please me that such decrees should be made against our friends and confederates, whereby they are forbidden to live according to their own customs, or to bring in contributions for common suppers and holy festivals, while they are not forbidden so to do even at Rome itself; for even Caius Caesar, our imperator and consul, in that decree wherein he forbade the Bacchanal rioters to meet in the city, did yet permit these Jews, and these only, both to bring in their contributions, and to make their common suppers.   

Accordingly, when I forbid other Bacchanal rioters, I permit these Jews to gather themselves together, according to the customs and laws of their forefathers, and to persist therein. It will be therefore good for you, that if you have made any decree against these our friends and confederates, to abrogate the same, by reason of their virtue and kind disposition towards us."

Hyrcanus II died in 31 BCE.  He had succeeded his mother, Salome Alexandra in 67 BCE but was driven from the throne and high priesthood by his brother, Aristobulus.  

The first Hyrcanus was John, the son and successor of Simon, the Hasmonean who ruled from 135 to 104 BCE.  He was the governor of Gezer, but after the murder of his father and 2 brothers by his brother -in -law Ptolemy, and then escaped to Jerusalem where he seized power before Ptolemy could gain control.  It's quite sad to me to see the intermarriage of a descendant of Judah the Maccabee, hero of our Chanukah history marrying Ptolemy for any reason, and this would be for political power.  Ptolemy was the name of the 1st Macedonian king of Egypt, starting the Ptolemaic dynasty.  All the kings then bore his name.  A number of Jews, including the high priest Hezekiah, went with him to Egypt in about 311 BCE after a 2nd invasion.  He later retook Jerusalem and deported a large number of Jews to Egypt.  He finally subjected Palestine in c 301 BCE.  

A Ptolemy, Soter II Lathyrus in 116 to 181 BCE had attacked Alexander Yannai but was driven off by his mother, Cleopatra in 104 -103 BCE  

Judea owed to the Ptolemies an administrative system which was little altered by the Seleucids and Hasmoneans and survived until Roman times.  
                                               

It was Pompey, a Roman general (106-48 BCE)  who arrived in Jerusalem in 63BCE as the arbiter in the dispute between Hyrcanus II and Aristobulus for the throne of Judea. He favored Hyrcanus II according to Caesar's edict.   The Jewish forces lead by Hyrcanus promptly withdrew. The forces of his opponent, Aristobulus, fought against Pompey and Hyrcanus. After two months, the Romans broke through and massacred some 12,000 of the Jews defending the Temple.

According to Josephus, Pompey stepped into the Holy of Holies, the innermost sanctum of the Temple. However, he did not take any booty or interrupt the services of the Temple. The next day he withdrew his army from the Temple Mount and returned it to the authority of the Jews.

On January 10, 49 BCE, Julius Caesar crossed the Rubicon, signaling the start of civil war between his forces and those of the Roman who defiled the Holy of Holies.

Until that time, Hyrcanus had been an official ally of Pompey. However, he shrewdly switched sides and declared his allegiance to Caesar. He then committed over 3,000 Jewish soldiers to an expeditionary force that invaded Egypt and helped raise the siege of Alexandria.

The outcome of all this was that Pompey terminated Jewish independence enjoyed since Simon the Maccabee.  
                                                    

Marc Antony (January 14, 83 BCE-August 1, 30 BCE became leader after Caesar was assassinated in 44 BCE, but gave power to a man whose rule was as antithetical to Jewish principles and ideals as imaginable. 

That man was Herod (73 BCE-4BCE) son of Antipater the Idumean by his Nabatean wife, Cypros, a murderous, tyrant whose ways would eventually lead to the destruction of the Jewish commonwealth and the beginning of the long exile that Jews still found themselves in until April 14, 1948, date of Israel's revival in the world of nations. What he did that was good was to rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem and on a magnificent scale and created 2 new cities-Sebaste and Caesarea.  Outsiders heard he was the generous patron and protector of the Jews.  He had married the Hasmonean Mariamne, granddaughter of the high priest, Hyrcanus.  

It was 10 years after Herod's death that Rome had direct administration of Judaea as by 40 BCE, Judaea had become a Province of the Roman Empire.  

Kings of the Empire of Israel ended with Zedekiah (597-586 BCE) who was the son of King Josiah.  His real name had been Mattaniah but adopted this name when appointed king by the conqueror, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylonia to succeed the exiled King Jehoiachin.  



Resource:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Jews_in_Italy
http://www.netours.com/content/view/14/29/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julius_Caesar
https://www.jewishhistory.org/julius-caesar-and-the-jews/
https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/palestine-under-roman-rule/