Late antiquity fact check
Posted by kit on 2026-October-11 00:12:31, SundayIn reply to the good side of zionism posted by beracine on 2026-October-10 22:02:33, Saturday
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Up until the 700's AD, the land of the Levant WAS CHRISTIAN and was controlled by the Byzantine (Roman) empire. It was basically greek. Well, it was sort-of Christian, depending on who you ask and who you consider to be 'Christian.' The Levant was a bit of a religious battle-ground long before the advent of Islam, with good Byzantine Chalecdonians violently at odds with Monophysites. The Monophysites, who were regarded as heretics by the Byzantines, were a substantial minority. They refused to defend the Empire against the Arab invaders, and may even have welcomed the relief from active persecution that Muslim rule afforded. The Muslim Arabs were a sort of 'honest broker' in Byzantine religious squabbles, as they did not care about Christological controversies and treated all Christians equally. The area was also only sort-of Greek. Palestine was as linguistically mixed as it was religiously: Greek was the language of imperial administration, but most people spoke Aramaic or other Semitic languages (including Arabic). after Mohammed's passing, these lands were taken by the muslims. So, greater israel is a step in the right direction --back to byzantine times, which were in any case more friendly to us. There are plenty of Christians in Israel 'proper' and in Palestine (including Gaza), but they are almost all Palestinians. It is Palestinians, not the Israeli settlers, who resemble the pre-modern inabitants of the Levant: religiously, culturally, economically. Whoever the heir of the Byzantines may be, I doubt it is the secular gym-rats and beach-bunnies of Tel Aviv. Also, if you seriously think that Byzantine Christians were more favourable to "us" than Muslims, I fear you know very little about either, or you are using the word "us" in a completely unexpected way. |
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