"Some Arabs consider themselves the descendants of Abraham, the forefather of the Jewish nation. Ironically, if not for Muhammad's thorough study of the Bible, the Arabs would not have known of the existence of Abraham. Muhammad studied the Bible in order to be better equipped in his attempts to persuade the Jews to follow his newly invented religion. When the Jews refused, he wrote the Koran - the Muslim bible, and filled it with his own imaginary accounts of Biblical events. He even took the liberty to change the God-given day of rest, Saturday - the Sabbath. Since Sunday was already taken by the Christians, he picked Friday as the next-best Muslim day of rest." http://www.think-israel.org/mandelbaum.html

The ancestors of the Arabs, Abraham's son Ishmael and Esav (Esau), Isaac's son, and their descendants mainly married Hamites, like Egyptians and Canaanites. Consequently the Arabs are Hamites. As against this, Isaac and Jacob married women from the bloodline of Abraham and Sarai who were Shemites. Abram's bloodline is outlined in Genesis 22:20-29. Nothing is said of Sarai's lineage, but Abraham made it clear that his request to her to "Say you are my sister" (Genesis 22:23 and 20:2), wasn't a lie, since she actually was his half-sister - Abram said to king Abimelech:
22 Besides, she really is my sister, the daughter of my father though not of my mother; and she became my wife.

Whereas children are 50% related to each of unrelated parents and 100% to each other, the 50% Abraham and Sarah's child Yitzchak (Isaac) received from each of their parents, was mixed with genes of both of them. While it will take a mathematician to work out this equation, the mathematics when it comes to Ishmael is easier since his parents were unrelated, his mother being a Hamite from Egypt (Genesis 25:22 ...son (Ishmael), whom Sarah's maidservant, Hagar the Egyptian, bore to Abraham. What is important to note, though, is that the percentage Shemite genes in Ishmael's children was halfed by 50% from the 50% he'd received from Abraham. This 50% was again halfed in the next generation and it kept on being halfed down the line - since we can assume that his offspring didn't marry into Isaac's family, except perhaps for a very few exceptions. By the fifth generation his descendants only had 3.2% Shemite genes and it dropped to less than 1% by the tenth generation.

Pres. Bashar Assad of Syria's saying, "we are also Shemites", is therefore technically wrong, although there are exceptions, like with him himself in that it is said that his grandmother was Jewish.  His territory and northern Iraq was the area where the Jews originated, causing a sector of the population to be closer to Shemites than the Arabs from, say Edom. They will be, for instance, descendants of Aram, the Chaldeans, etc. That area and part of southern Turkey, was also occupied by a nation whose land Israel was to receive, namely the Hittites, and King David did actually manage to conquer them and occupy their territory, causing Jews to dwell there and increase the percentage Shemite genes in the population. Most of Israel and a proportion of Judah never returned from their exile to Babylon, to "west" of the Jordan river, also increasing the Shemite content of the gene pool in the area east of the Jordan.

Who knows in the end who from among the Arab population might have Jewish blood? A very carnal Arab operating in the Jaffo Gate area of Jerusalem among tourists, once told me that he thought about 25% of the Arabs (in Israel?) have Jewish blood. I was surprised that he of all Arabs, would make such a statement, but it also added credibility to the suspicion I had nurtured that a large number of Arabs were originally Jews who lost their Jewishness due to becoming Muslims (voluntarily or involuntarily).

At the time I had asked the Arab about the amount of Jewish blood in his people, I also asked a young Armenian whose father owned a restaurant near Jaffo Gate whether he wasn't perhaps Jewish. His answer, "chas vachalila" (Hebrew, God forbid) that I am! This is also the attitude of millions of people among the nations - until things get so bad in their own countries that they even forge documents to try to obtain citizenship in Israel. Many, including thousands of Arabs, just "arrive" in Israel and work illegally, some for many years. In a way it is probably the fulfillment of prophecies about foreigners helping to rebuild the land and serve the Jews, viz.
Isaiah 24:2 Nations will take them and bring them to their own place. And the house of Israel will possess the nations as menservants and maidservants in the LORD'S land. They will make captives of their captors and rule over their oppressors
Isaiah 60:20 "Foreigners will rebuild your walls, and their kings will serve you. Though in anger I struck you, in favor I will show you compassion Isaiah 62:5 Aliens will shepherd your flocks; foreigners will work your fields and vineyards.

Although some Arabs have Jewish genes, the general Arab population are Hamites and they exhibit the phenomenon that they will need to serve their brothers due to Noah's curse on his son, their forefather, Ham, when he found out that he had dishonored him:
Genesis 9:24 25 When Noah awoke from his wine and found out what his youngest son had done to him. He said, "Cursed be Canaan! The lowest of slaves will he be to his brothers. 26 He also said, "Blessed be the LORD, the God of Shem! May Canaan be the slave of Shem. 27 May God extend the territory of Japheth; may Japheth live in the tents of Shem, and may Canaan be his slave.*~*

The Arabs, being Hamites, are inherently bound by the implication of this curse, that manifests in a seeming inability to create employment for themselves and they will mostly, for that reason, always be "Third World" people. In our discussion about the role of crude oil in the Middle East, we made the statement (1997): It is often asked why the Arabs in the Middle East have all the oil while Israel, the land promised to be overflowing with milk and honey, seems to have very little? The question also needs to be asked: has Israel's neighbor's oil been all that much of a blessing to them on a longer term? In other words, WHAT ELSE DO THEY HAVE in terms of intellectual property and industries, apart from those set up by other countries - mostly to manufacture weapons of mass destruction that don't contribute to GDP. In other words, what other than oil contributes to the gross domestic product of Israel and oil producing countries in the Middle East? It is incredibly ironic that industrialized countries in the west have benefited more from the Arab's oil than what they have benefited from it themselves.

*~* It is interesting to note that this verse implies that the descendants of the three brothers will always be linked along the lines God knitted them together by means of Noah's blessings on them. The statement in Genesis 9:27, "May God extend the territory of Japheth; may Japheth live in the tents of Shem", is difficult to understand. All the Jews (Shemites) in the world will eventually return to Israel, the Promised Land - by their own choice and forced by the world. Can it, however, be taken literally that Japheth will live in the tents of Shem? During the 1990s large numbers of non-Jews (Japheth) immigrated illegally from the former Soviet Union and thousands of others from other countries such as Rumania, South America, etc., also turned up in Israel (legally and illegally) to find work. This causes a large contingent of Japheth's descendants to be present in Israel. In the last days Israel will probably also accommodate a large number of non-Jewish Zionists refugees who will be persecuted for their support of Jews and Israel - See Prophetic Wakeup Call! But these non-Jews living in Israel cannot possibly be all of Japheth. All we can think "Japheth living in the tents of Shem" could mean, is that it will be a manifestation in practice of the promise to Abraham: "In you the nations of the world will be blessed". And the wonder of it all will be that the nations will even be blessed more abundantly from blessing Israel according to the promise to Abraham, "I will bless those who bless you".
This, of course, applies to Ham as well, as long as he doesn't rebel against his role as servant of his brothers. It might even have lead to them not being able to rule themselves, of which we have numerous examples in the Arab world and in Africa. It is ironic that today's African Americans are much better off than the offspring of their brothers who hadn't been taken to America as slaves. Another consequence of this phenomenon is the absence of functioning democracies in Hamite nations.

Spiritual Application: Slave vs free (Hagar vs Sarai)
Gal 4:29 And so we who are born of the Holy Spirit are persecuted now by those who want us to keep the Jewish laws, just as Isaac, the child of promise, was persecuted by Ishmael, the slave-wife's son.
30 But the Scriptures say that God told Abraham to send away the slave-wife and her son, for the slave-wife's son could not inherit Abraham's home and lands along with the free woman's son. 31 Dear brothers, we are not slave children, obligated to the Jewish laws, but children of the free woman, acceptable to God because of our faith. TLB

The present conflict in Israel with the Arabs will probably be resolved in a major battle in which the number of Arabs will be dramatically reduced. Others will again pour in from Arab states (those left) to find employment, but under a new set of rules in which they will not be a threat to Israel. See "They bite the hand that feeds them"

Evn Perach asserted the the following about the present situation in Israel in a letter to Ha'aretz (20 Dec. 2000), titled, "Why are the Arabs in Israel?" :

Dear Editor
Regarding "First, Some soul-searching" in Ha'aretz, of May 5, 2000: When it comes to the "plight" of the poor Arabs in Israel, one needs to ask, "Why are they in Israel in the first place?" With Israel, I refer to the un-partitioned land of Canaan promised to Abraham, Yitzchak and Jaacov, the land shown to Moses from Mt Nebo. Arabs are present in this land because:

1. A few probably lived in the land as foreigners among the Jews in the times of the Romans, of whom some might have remained with the Jews who weren't scattered to the nations.

2. A few more might have moved in during the time before the Jews started returning in larger numbers in the late 1800s. (It must be noted that the land of Israel becomes a wasteland when the Jews are not living in it. Mark Twain for instance, said after his journey from Jerusalem to the Galilee in the late 1860s, "I saw but one human and one tree". This can also be seen from Ezekiel 36:33-34. The Lord God of Israel says:
   I will bring you home again to Israel, and rebuild the ruins. Acreage will be cultivated again that through the years of exile lay empty as barren wilderness; all who passed by were shocked (like Twain) to see the extent of ruin in your land. Living Bible - see also (not quoted in the letter):
   Jeremiah 44:22 When the LORD could no longer endure your wicked actions and the detestable things you did, your land became an object of cursing and a desolate waste without inhabitants, as it is today. NIV and
   Ezekiel 38:8 After many days you will be called to arms. In future years you will invade a land that has recovered from war, whose people were gathered from many nations to the mountains of Israel, which had long been desolate*1*. They had been brought out from the nations, and now all of them live in safety.
   Zechariah 7:14 I scattered them as with a whirlwind among the distant nations, where they lived as strangers. Their land became so desolate that no one even traveled through it. The land that had been so pleasant became a desert.” Holy Bible, New Living Translation, (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.) 1996.

3. They could find employment*2* like about 200,000 other foreigners from Rumania, Africa, the Philippines, Thailand, South America, Jordan, etc.

My question is: If the Arabs have the right to Israeli land they say they have, why didn't they develop anything on it before the Jews started returning? It is now so easy to blame the Jews for insufficient development in areas they occupy and to try to get things by wailing at the UN, heads of nations and leftist Israeli humanists and self-centered, defeatist, military men turned politician like Rabin, Barak, Sharon, Ben Eliezer, etc.].
Evn Perach

Tel Aviv

(Return to "Beliefs, wasteland)

*1* This desolation can even today be seen in areas of Israel Arabs are occupying. This phenomenon led to the line separating the so-called "Territories" from the rest of Israel, being called the "Greenline" since there's very little "greenery" beyond that line - except for the hills where Jewish "settlements" have been established -- fulfilling the prophecy,
Ezekiel 36:2 "Son of man, prophesy to the mountains of Israel and say, 'O mountains of Israel, hear the word of the LORD. 2 This is what the Sovereign LORD says: The enemy said of you, "Aha! The ancient heights have become our possession." ... 7 Therefore this is what the Sovereign LORD says: I swear with uplifted hand that the nations around you will also suffer scorn. 8 "'But you, O mountains of Israel, will produce branches and fruit for my people Israel, for they will soon come home. 9 I am concerned for you and will look on you with favor; you will be plowed and sown. 10 And I will multiply the number of people upon you, even the whole house of Israel. The towns will be inhabited and the ruins rebuilt. 11 I will increase the number of men and animals upon you, and they will be fruitful and become numerous. I will settle people on you as in the past and will make you prosper more than before. Then you will know that I am the LORD

*2*There wasn't room in the letter to point out that majority of Arabs, now living in Israel and the so-called "refugees", only turned up in Israel (of our day) after the Jews had begun returning to the land in the late 1800s - mainly from eastern Europe - and started creating employment opportunities.