This is an excerpt from the Bridges for Peace news letter. View the entire letter at1) THE NUMBERS TELL THE STORY
For the many readers who have requested a brief synopsis of the moral arguments in the Arab-Israeli conflict, here is a list of numerical data:
(List compiled by Dennis Prager, with additional data by Clarence Wagner, Bridges for Peace)
- Number of times Jerusalem is mentioned in the Old Testament: 881
- Number of times Jerusalem is mentioned in the New Testament: 144
- Number of times Jerusalem is mentioned in the Koran: 0
- Number of times Palestine is mentioned in either the Old or the New Testament, or the Koran: 0
- Number of Arab leaders who visited Jerusalem when it was under Arab rule (1948 to 1967): 1, King Abdullah of Jordan, who was shot and killed by a Palestinian as he entered the Al-Aqsa Mosque in 1952
- Number of Arab refugees who fled the land that became Israel: approximately 600,000
- Number of Jewish refugees who fled Arab countries: approximately 600,000
- Number of United Nations agencies that deal ONLY with Palestinian refugees: 1
- Number of UN agencies that deal with ALL OTHER refugees in the world: 1
- Number of sovereign Jewish states that have existed on the land called Palestine: 3
- Number of sovereign Arab or Muslim states that have existed on the land called Palestine: 0
- Number of terrorist attacks by Israelis or Jews since 1967: 1
- Number of terrorist attacks by Arabs or Muslims since 1967: tens of thousands
- Percentage of Jewish leaders who have praised the Jewish terrorist: approximately 1%
- Percentage of Palestinian leaders who have praised Islamic terrorists: approximately 90%
- Number of Jewish countries: 1
- Number of Jewish democracies: 1
- Number of Arab countries: 19
- Number of Arab democracies: 0
- Number of Arab women killed annually by fathers and brothers in "honor killings": thousands
- Number of Jewish women killed annually by fathers and brothers in "honor killings": 0
- Number of Christian or Jewish prayer services allowed in Saudi Arabia: 0
- Number of Muslim prayer services allowed in Israel: unlimited
- Number of Arabs Israel allowed to live in Arab settlements in Israel with full Israeli citizenship rights: 1,250,000
- Number of Jews Palestinian Authority allows to live in Jewish settlements in PA areas: 0%
- Percentage of UN Commission on Human Rights resolutions condemning an Arab country for human rights violations: 0%
- Percentage of UN Commission on Human Rights resolutions condemning Israel for human rights violations: 26%
- Number of UN Security Council resolutions on the Middle East between 1948 and 1991: 175
- Number of these resolutions against Israel: 97
- Number of these resolutions against an Arab state: 4
- Number of Arab Muslim countries that have been members of the UN Security Council: 16
- Number of times Israel has been a member of the UN Security Council: 0 (Israel is the only nation ever forbidden to sit on the Security Council)
- Number of UN General Assembly resolutions condemning Israel: 322
- Number of UN General Assembly resolutions condemning an Arab country: 0
- Percentage of UN votes in which Arab countries voted with the United States in 2002: 16.6%
- Percentage of UN votes in which Israel voted with the U.S. in 2002: 92.6%
- Percentage of Middle East studies professors who defend Zionism and Israel: approximately 1%
- Percentage of Middle East Studies professors who believe in diversity on college campuses: 100%
- Percentage of people who argue that, of all the countries in the world, only the Jewish state has no right to exist and who also believe some other country has no right to exist: 0
- Percentage of people who argue that the Jewish state has no right to exist and who also deny they are anti-Jewish: approximately 100%
- Number of Muslims in the world: more than 1 billion
- Number of Muslim demonstrations against Islamic terror: approximately 2
PRAYER FOCUS
Pray that people will look at the facts of the Arab-Israel issue and recognize that Israel is not only the rightful heirs of its land, but is also a very close friend of the West and democratic values.SCRIPTURE
"'Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free'" (John 8:32).