Ariel, Israel Renamed on “My Yahoo!” Weather Service

By now many are probably familiar with the controversy in June 2006 surrounding Google Earth and the replacement geography, or blatant historical revisionism, associated with the application. Israeli cities were renamed and linked back to a “Palestine Remembered” site, thereby erroneously rendering Israel a colonial oppressor and occupier. Israel’s historical landmarks and villages were re-named in a blatantly politically motivated Palestinian narrative which erases the Jewish and Israeli heritage from the region. Unfortunately, Google Earth allowed various organizations and individuals to create overlays and present mistruths without any apparent oversight.

My brother, whose medical rotations mean he’s been in many cities in recent months, uses the “My Yahoo!” page, owned by Yahoo, to keep track of news and weather across the United States and Israel. Last night he called me to tell me that Ariel, Israel, which is an Israeli town near Jordan’s west border, had been renamed on the service. Rather than seeing the weather for Ariel, he saw “Jenin, Palestinian Occupied Territories” listed in its stead. He was obviously befuddled, as he has been using the application for many months. It is unclear why the change was made, but it is clear that those who deny the right of Israel to exist consistently refer to all of Israel—not just Ariel, Israel—as occupied territories.

I have relatives in Ariel and have been there on several occasions. It’s a multi-ethnic, bustling city and quite lovely. A quaint city, if you will, built upon rocky and barren hills that had never been built on or inhabited. There is, of course, an arbitrary cease-fire line which refers to many Israeli cities in parts of Judea and Samaria as “settlements,” a term that attempts to diminish their legitimacy. Nonetheless, these are arbitrary lines which have no founding in history and no authority when one considers the wars initiated by Arab governments and repeated violence from all major Palestinian factions. The Israelis living in Ariel reside in their historic homeland that happens to be outside that line—in a city, moreover, that they built that had no “Palestinian” history of prosperity or civilization. Jordan lost that land following the Arab League’s initiated Six Day War.

It’s this sort of blatant political revisionism of renaming Israeli cities that we are up against. Not only was there never any “Palestinian” city in the area of Ariel, but there was never even a Palestinian country. It was during the uprising of Bar Kochba around 70 A.D. that the Romans, when quelling it, killed hundreds of thousands of Jews, destroyed the Temple, banished the Jews from the entire area, renamed the area Palestinium and erected one of their own temples on the site of the Temple Mount. There were never any indigenous “Palestinian” people. Modern day “Palestinians” are often descendants of Arabs of the region, some of whom converted from Judaism to Islam under Ottoman rule for either political, social or personal reasons. The Ottomans held dominion over a part of the world in which people were basically squatters in a particularly inhospitable and arid region. Jerusalem and Hebron were two places with more settled populations, including significant Jewish and Christian populations.

When it comes to historic revisionism, the so-called myth of tolerance and acceptance of Middle Eastern Jewry is a perfect example of history re-written to suit the agenda of Arab Nationalists and/or Islamic Totalitarian organizations. We rarely hear of the atrocities committed against Middle Eastern Jewry and only hear about the poor Palestinian refugees. Indeed the Palestinian refugees are a poor people, a scapegoat for oppressive Islamic governments who despise Israel and who will not allow these Arabs to become immersed and absorbed in Islamic countries.

My family is also indigenous to the Middle East. They are from communities that lived in dusty tents for years following their exodus from their native lands to a modern Israeli state. They helped to build a country that was poor and barely habitable. They were victims with a plight that has been unrecognized for decades despite the fact that these refugees outnumbered the Arab refugees. Perhaps most important to note is that both the Jewish and Arab refugees suffered as a result of the nefarious Arab League initiated wars. Rather than engaging in despicable and senseless violence like the Arab refugees, Middle Eastern Jews persevered and built their new lives and a bustling civilization in a hostile and dry region.

It may surprise some of my readers to know that philosophically I support the notion of one state in which all people living in the so-called “disputed territories” are all declared citizens of Israel and given full rights irrespective of their religious background. That includes the Arabs in the region who are perpetual refugees. But there is idealism and there is realism. The never-ending violence, predominately inspired from a homicidal and hateful Palestinian leadership, is the reason that such an idealistic view of peace is terribly unrealistic. Any society which sends children and Palestinian mothers to blow up Israelis in buses or shopping malls is a society that rejects the notion of freedom, thereby demonstrating that they care more for their perverted ideals than living in dignity. It is this type of fanatical hatred, driven by Islamists and Arab Nationalists, which continues to propagate more animosity and makes attaining peace impossible. It is the reason that security fences and checkpoints are necessary in an Israeli society that must protect its civilian population.

Posted in: Ariel,Historical Revisionism,Israel,Palestinians,Propaganda,Yahoo