Letter
Choctaws and Samaritans
Re Paul Heywood-Smith’s article: US House of Representatives speaker Mike Johnson has just visited Northwest Palestine and declared that it should be called Judea and Samaria.
If we follow the current state of Israel’s logic based on ancient history, then Samaria belongs to the Samaritans, not to the Jewish state of Israel. Judaism stems from when Eli in the 11th century BC led a split in the people of the man Israel aka Jacob, leaving the Samaritans in Samaria. The Samaritans were not deported to Babylon by the Assyrians, unlike the Jewish people.
What would be Johnson’s reaction if a Palestinian turned up in his home state of Louisiana and declared henceforth it would be known as the land of the Choctaws, Coushatta, Chitimacha and Tunica-Biloxi, and its government handed to them? Bear in mind that that the French only seized it in 1682, so the European claim is far more recent than the current Jewish state of Israel’s claim to Samaria, and Judea, backed by Johnson.
The US claim to Louisiana dates from its purchase in 1803. Further, would Johnson back a claim by the Nacotchtank tribe to rename Washington DC, and take over its government?
— Geoff Taylor from Perth