Senator Feinstein:
Subject: Vote no on S.1
Even though the Palestinians and the Israelis have both lost the moral high ground in the conflict, please don't act as if Israel still has the high ground through its "birthright" by voting for S.1, the anti-BDS bill.
Israel was an identifiable Jewish nation from the Bronze Age to the 2nd century ce, but that identity was lost with the defeat of the Bar Kokhba revolt in 136 ce and the establishment of Aeolia Capitolina and the renaming of the Iudea province to Syria Palaestina. Eighteen centuries passed before Israel declared its independence in 1948, and in any other case a nation would not be allowed to reclaim its land after a span of eighteen centuries. Would Iran be allowed to reclaim Babylonia in Iraq after thirteen centuries? No other nation would be aided by the US in reclaiming its land after eighteen centuries.
The justification for reclaiming the land is that God covenanted with Moses, Abram, and Isaac that the land would be Israel's forever. Would unwitnessed verbal agreements made in the Bronze Age be honored with any other nation? It also should be considered that the scroll of the law which was found during Temple repairs during the reign of King Josiah in the seventh century bce - which was likely an early version of Deuteronomy and probably the first time that covenant had been written down - had probably been created by the scribes and priests themselves and later "found" and presented to the King and the people as the writings of Moses from six centuries earlier. A forgery. It's very possible that it was Israel who covenanted with Israel that the land would be Israel's forever.
Regarding birthright, it's probably the case that the reclaiming of Jerusalem by the Muslims under Saladin in 1187 marked the beginning of Muslim control over the land. That represents seven centuries of Muslim possession of the land prior to 1948. Eighteen centuries of loss and seven centuries of possession logically would give the Palestinians the birthright to the land.
You know all of this, I know. And I believe you intend to vote no on S.1. I feel it's important for you to know how at least one of your voters, and probably many others, view the Mid-East conflict.
Thanks very much for being a champion for us.
John Garvey
