For those still confused about the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, one need only go as far as a church hymnal to solve that problem.

If you read all the famous Christmas carols, some written hundreds of years ago, you will notice that they all refer to Bethlehem, ISRAEL, as being the place of Christ’s birth. And the calendar on everyone’s desk is concrete proof of that birth, and the fact that it was 2000 years ago.

You never hear a carol say, “Born is the King of Palestine.” There was no Palestine . . .and guess what . .. there were no Muslims. They didn’t come on the scene until over 600 years after the birth of Christ and ironically, their founder’s big event took place on a Jewish holy site.

It would be as though I went to India, visited a Hindu holy site, had a vision, was transfigured, blinded by the light, or whatever, and then demand to have that holy site renamed and redefined by MY experience. That would be a little egocentric and I would expect that devout Hindus would have serious problems with it, regardless of how meaningful and spiritual the experience was to me.

So, as the conflict continues between Israel and the Palestinians we need to be reminded of a few facts . . . .Palestinian was a derogatory name given by the Romans to the Jews living in Israel because they knew an insult to a Jew would be to call him a Philistine . . . but it was translated or became Palestinian.

Four thousand years ago, Abraham was told by God to leave Ur of the Chaldees, and move to what is now Israel. His son, Isaac, was told to change his son Jacob’s name to “Israel.” And today you will find that many of the areas in Israel were named after his sons, thousands of years ago. So, those who believe that Israel is not a legitimate country, should read more books on history, and listen closely to Christmas Carols this season.