If we go back far enough, we discover near Middle East was settled by descendants of Canaan, thus region was referred to as "The Land of Canaan." Abraham was not of line of Canaan. How was it then, that Abraham was given Everlasting Covenant of Land?

Who was Abraham? Was he an Arab, or was he a Jew? Actually, neither! Abraham arose from ethnic background of Chaldeans, arising out of ancient Sumer, descendants of Shem.

The Arab nations arose through lines of: Abraham's nephew Lot, Abraham's son Ishmael, and through Esau twin brother of Jacob. The Jews descended from Abraham, through line of his promised son, Isaac, who fathered Jacob. In other words, both Jews and Arabs are able to trace their ethnic roots through Abraham back to Shemite Chaldeans, descendants of Shem.

Abraham, who brought along his nephew Lot, entered Land of Canaan, in obedience to L_RD who brought them out of Ur of Chaldees, to Land of Promise. However, Abraham did not claim this Covenant Land during his own lifetime. Both Lot and Abraham sojourned as foreigners among Canaanites. The same was true for Isaac and Ishmael, neither of whom lay direct claim to Canaan during their lifetimes. In fact, neither did Esau or Jacob lay claim Land in its entirety. All sojourned as strangers in The Land. It was not until forty years following Exodus from Egypt, that under leadership of Joshua, Covenant Land was initially conquered and settled by descendants of Jacob. Up to that juncture, Canaanite tribes occupied Canaan, and L_RD told them to drive out all inhabitants of Land. The Philistines were not direct descendants of either Abraham or Lot, nor of Ishmael or Esau, but were from tribes surrounding Mediterranean. They were therefore not Shemite. In fact, Philistines were from Caphtor, an Island in Mediterranean, so were more closely related to Phoenicians and Minoans, and had connections with those who settled Tyre and Zidon - Lebanon link. The Philistines occupied much of Gaza region of Land, and at time of conquering of Land by Children of Israel, were never completely driven out, even under King David, although he managed to encorporate Gaza as part of region called Judah. This failure to drive Philistines totally out of Land was in violation of Word of L_RD to Israel. Therefore, L_RD had to deal with Philistines Himself. Jeremiah 47:4. "Because of day that cometh to spoil all Philistines, and to cut off from Tyrus and Zidon every helper that remaineth: for LORD will spoil Philistines, remnant of country of Caphtor." This Scripture is a prophecy, and therefore will yet again come to fruition in dealing with Palestinians.

But, are Palestinians, Philistines? No! But, they are considered like Philistines in that they are using Gaza as their terrorist stronghold, and they use gorilla-type terrorist tactics. However, Palestinians have definite Arab ethnic roots, and themselves claim to be Arabs, making them Shemite in ethnic origin. Arafat claimed to be a Philistine (his tactics,) but he also claimed Arab ethnicity, but was born in Egypt.

However, there is an Arab-Canaanite connection through Esau, which Palestinians now are claiming gives them Land-rights, because Canaanites did inhabit Land before Abraham, Isaac, or Jacob arrived. Genesis 26: 24-25 states: " And Esau was forty years old when he took to wife Judith daughter of Beeri Hittite, and Bashemath daughter of Elon Hittite: Which were a grief of mind unto Isaac and to Rebekah."

So, it is true that Abrahamic ethnic background of Esau's descendants was blurred through Esau's marriage to two Canaanite wives. But, does this intermarriage qualify his descendants to take over Jacob's blessing bestowed upon him by Isaac, which was passing down of official inheritance of Divine Abrahamic Covenant? Does fact that Esau's children can claim ancestoral connection through Esau's wives who first occupied Canaan, give any qualification for them to inherit Land?

Keep in mind, Esau intermarried with Hittite wives before Isaac bequeathed Abrahamic heritage blessing. This was a great grief to his parents. That is why, with Rebekah's help, Jacob tricked Isaac into blessing him, rather than Esau. However, Esau, in eyes of L_RD, had already disqualified himself by marrying outside of Abrahamic Covenant line. So even though deceptive trickery was involved, G_d honoured blessing bestowed upon Jacob, who up to that juncture was not yet married, and Isaac and Rebekah saw to it that Jacob chose wives from within appropriate Shemitic Abrahamic line, thus preserving right of his descendants to inherit Abrahamic Covenant.

Such marriage restrictions remained stringent down through generations. The Jews were exhorted by L_RD, through Mosaic Law, not to intermarry with nations occupying Canaan, or with nations surrounding them. They were to wipe-out Canaanites in Land; not to intermingle with, or to marry them! Intermarriage with any Canaanite, or other people-group, even if of an Abrahamic line not of line of Promise, would obviously disqualify their descendants from participating in blessings of Abrahamic Covenant. Any time there were Jews who intermarried, L_RD commanded them to put away their foreign wives and their children, from among them. Only descendants of Abraham, through Isaac and Jacob, were to qualify.

I really don’t know why it matters. My opinions are just that, only my opinions, and mean no more and no less than anyone else's. In past I’ve studiously avoided writing about politics and world events because there are already tons of people out there who write about such subjects, and, to tell y’all truth, I wonder why some of them even bother putting in effort. Columns about politics and world events end up being nothing more than columnist’s take on such things, but I guess people are interested in knowing just what those “takes“ are. Maybe they spur discussion, or something. Given that, I’m going to take one shot at giving y’all my honest slant on some of big news items going on out in world today. And hey, if y’all don’t like it, don‘t worry about it, cause it‘ll be a long time before I do this again. With all that having being said, here’s a short synopsis of what I see goin’ on out in world these days:

1. North Korea - Run by a megalomaniac who looks like a human version of a parrot dressed in green army fatigues. He constantly puffs his chest out and threatens nuclear troubles for all world around him, when reality is that he can’t even feed his own people. He only has nuclear chip to bargain for much needed hand-outs with, so he’ll drag out negotiations regarding them for as long as possible, even though he needs said hand-outs to keep his regime afloat. Doesn’t matter in least to him as he’ll still be eating through it all. This guy and person in charge of running “Oil-for-Food” program over at United Nations must’ve both attended same management school, that’s about only thing I can figure.