eric

Retired U.S. Homeland Security Investigations, Supervisory Special Agent.

[facts about @destinationXIX]

When people see old photographs of Ottoman-era Palestine - barren hills, neglected villages, malarial swamps, empty stretches of land - they are often told this was proof of a thriving civilization “stolen” by the Jews.

But history tells a different, uncomfortable story.

The land was not simply “naturally barren”. It had been ruined by centuries of war, imperial neglect, taxation, depopulation, and ... deliberate military policy.

After the Crusaders were finally driven out of the coast in 1291, the Muslim Mamluks faced a strategic problem: how do you prevent European armies from returning by sea?

Their answer was simple and brutal:
Destroy the coastal infrastructure.

Ports were razed. Harbors were ruined. Coastal fortifications were dismantled. The defensive line was moved inland. The purpose was not development, trade, agriculture, or prosperity. It was to make the coast unusable to a returning enemy.

That may have made military sense in the 13th century.
But it helped turn one of the most important coastal corridors in the world into a neglected frontier.

Then came four centuries of Ottoman rule. A few towns prospered at moments, and some local leaders built trade networks. But the broader pattern was underdevelopment, heavy taxation, insecurity, poor land administration, and rural poverty. By the 19th century, much of the country was not a flourishing national homeland waiting peacefully to be “stolen”. It was an imperial backwater.

This is the world Mark Twain encountered in 1867 when he described Palestine as “desolate and unlovely”, and that James Finn described as "underpopulated" and "abandoned" in 1864.

Those lines can be mocked today, but Twain and Finn were not describing Tel Aviv, Rishon LeZion, Petah Tikva, Degania, or the modern Jewish agricultural revival. Those did not yet exist.

They were describing the result of centuries of decay under the Muslim rulers who controlled the land before Zionism became a major political force.

The Jews did not arrive in the 1880s and “steal” a thriving Palestinian state.

There was no sovereign Palestinian state.
There was no Palestinian government.
There was no Palestinian army, currency, parliament, border system, or independent national infrastructure.

What existed was a neglected province of collapsing Muslim empires - first Mamluk, then Ottoman - where Jews returned, bought land at premium prices, drained swamps, built towns, revived agriculture, created institutions, and eventually built a state.

The irony is staggering.

The historical narrative that blames Jews for “colonizing” the land often ignores the Muslim empires that actually ruled it, taxed it, neglected it, militarized it, and physically destroyed its infrastructure. The same narrative that is told by Arab Muslims, which it's majority immigrated to the land *after* the Jews made it livable again.

The Jews did not "steal" a thriving land.
The Jews came back to a wounded land - and made it live again.

[eric @RedBlueNScrewed]

@rich_toronto Big difference this time-the IDF, the Mossad, and Uzi’s.

[eric @RedBlueNScrewed]

@ModernTalmud This reminds me of an old saying in NYC-“the Italians build it, the Irish run it, and the Jews own it.” I was never sure if this was an insult or a compliment or both to Jews.

[eric @RedBlueNScrewed]

@SenRonMexico @ConceptualJames Trying to stay optimistic and give him the benefit of the doubt, but “we’ll see what happens.”

[eric @RedBlueNScrewed]

@RubyRidge92 @DefiyantlyFree The pro-Palis chant from “the River to the Sea.” You know what that means right?

[eric @RedBlueNScrewed]

@ConceptualJames In other words, the Iranian regime is like a cancer, for which you can’t even leave one malignant cell behind. It must be thoroughly destroyed or it will surely grow back.

[eric @RedBlueNScrewed]

You never feel more mortal than when you see your own bones on an X-Ray.

[eric @RedBlueNScrewed]

@RedWavePress I think this T-Shirt would be perfect for James Talarico

[Jason Bartlett @Jason2bartlett]

How can America be this awesome???

Someone pinch me I think I’m dreaming!!!

[eric @RedBlueNScrewed]

@YossiBenYakar The Serbians were allies and fought alongside the US in WW2. They famously hid and protected downed US airmen from the Nazis.

[eric @RedBlueNScrewed]

I have a Jewish friend who suffers with a severe case of TDS. Up until this point, no matter how terrible the Dems might be, she voted D regardless. She finally said that she was as fed up with the Dems as she was with the GOP. To me, this friend is like a political bellwether for Liberal Jewish Dem voters. Perhaps Platner was the nail in the coffin.

[eric @RedBlueNScrewed]

He probably got this idea from his parents. I remember kids back in the the 1970’s saying that their dad advised them to never work for a Jew or an Arab (it was a Semite thing I suppose). There was a scene in Monty Python’s “ Meaning of Life” where an old Cockney maid proudly stated that “at least I don’t work for Jews.”

[eric @RedBlueNScrewed]

The baby boomer and Gen Xrs are the only ones left who actually met WW2 vets (on both sides) as well as Holocaust survivors. We spoke directly with our family members who fought the Nazis as well as with death camp survivors who had numbers tattooed on their arms. 80 some odd years after WW2, most WW2 vets and Holocaust survivors are gone, and, unfortunately the younger generations know little or nothing about WW2. They are like blank slates ready to absorb neo-Nazi, Marxist, and Islamist propaganda.

[Cam Higby 🇺🇸 @camhigby]

@DailyCaller https://t.co/qrAXx7gVWE

[Cam Higby 🇺🇸 @camhigby]

Must watch 👇

[Cam Higby 🇺🇸 @camhigby]

I am the only person who has ever debated a survivor of the USS Liberty incident.

The myth of intentional attack was fully obliterated and the lies of people like Phil Tourney were thoroughly illuminated.

[eric @RedBlueNScrewed]

@nicolelampert The kids are being brainwashed from constantly watching Tik Tok. Goebbels could only have dreamed of such a powerful propaganda tool.

[eric @RedBlueNScrewed]

@karol @matthewstoller Not to mention he’s a communist and wants to abolish ICE.