Are these towns Arabic? Is Shiloh an Arab word or Hebrew? Much of the names in this article sounds Arabic to me. But anyway, both Hebrew and Arabic are really close! Numbers, names, pronouns, etc..... Interesting!

Hebrew and Arabic both belong to the group of languages called "semitic" languages but they are not very close, and unless you speak both languages you will not be able to communicate. The rule of thumb in this part of the world is: The Hebrew names are the original names wheres the Arabic names are Arabized name of the Hebrew names. The name of the ancient Hebrew town Hevron (today in the "West Bank") comes from the Hebrew word chaver which means friend. The Arabs who occupied the town couldn't be bothered to rename the town so they call it "Al-khalil" which in Arabic means friend. Very original indeed.

languages. But the original Hebrew words are pretty close to Arabic. Moreover, Hebrew adopted the Canaanite language which is itself Arabian in origin.

Ever the creative types, the Arabs when they invaded the land of Israel after the Romans left, called Neopolis, Nablus.

For example, the name of Jerusalem in Arabic is Bayt al-Maqdis. This is also the same in Hebrew as Bait Ha-Mekadesh.... The word Chaver means also friend in Arabic. Although not very much used by todays Arabs. But it is there. For example, the word Ahbar appears in Quran, which means Rabbis.. The word Jaffa means beautiful in both Arabic and Hebrew. Yafa! Haifa, means in Arabic the edgy or the one on the side. This actually is a very old Canaanite word. Jerusalem, is Urshaleem in both Hebrew, and ancient Arabic. If you read the ancient Arabic literature, you find the usage of the word Urshalim meaning Jerusalem. Urshalim is a canaanite word too that has a meaning in both Arabic and Hebrew. So defintely Hebrew and Arabic are pretty close. Finally, Hebrew is related to what is known as the Northern Arabian languages like the Canaanite language. The word Nablus comes from NeaPolis, or the new city in Roman. The word Palestine comes from Philistine, and is therefore spelled Filistin in Arabic, Turkish, and Farsi. Today's Hebrew is not very pure. It has borrowed many non semitic words from German, Polish, Latin, and other languages including Arabic itself. This is an interesting subject indeed!

1) Hebrew is not less "pure" than other languages in the world and the key word is evolvement. 2) The extinct Cananite culture and language was NOT Arab and the Cananite language together with Hebrew belogs to the West semitic languages whereas Arabic belongs to South-East semitic languages. 3) The Hebrew civilization is one of very few indigenous and native civilizations that has survied the Arab colonializm of the Middle East.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revival_of_Hebrew_language

The earliest known events in Arabian history are migrations from the peninsula into neighbouring areas [1]. About 3500 BC, semitic-speaking peoples of Arabian origin migrated into the valley of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in Mesopotamia, supplanted the Sumerians, and became the Assyro-Babylonians (see Babylonia and Assyria). Some archeologists argue that another group of Semites left Arabia about 2500 bc during the Early Bronze Age and settled along the Levant, mixing in with the local populations there some of these migrants became the Amorites and Canaanites of later times. Some archeologists argue that the migration instead came from the northern Levant. Other archeologists argue that there was no migration, and that the outside influences found in the indigenous Levantine population resulted from trade. Bernard Lewis mentions in his book The Arabs in History: "According to this, Arabia was originally a land of great fertility and the first home of the Semitic peoples. Through the millennia it has been undergoing a process of steady desiccation, a drying up of wealth and waterways and a spread of the desert at the expense of the cultivable land. The declining productivity of the peninsula, together with the increase in the number of the inhabitants, led to a series of crises of overpopulation and consequently to a recurring cycle of invasions of the neighbouring countries by the Semitic peoples of the peninsula. It was these crises that carried the Assyrians, Aramaeans, Canaanites (including the Phoenicians and Hebrews), and finally the Arabs themselves into the Fertile Crescent."[2]

Languages are interesting, but this article is about nature:-). As Yigal Tzur's headline reads 'Eretz Binyamin: Leave politics behind' - leave strife behind, relax.

Nablus = Sh'khem Tulkarem = Beerat Soreqa Ramallah/Al Bira = Beerotayim Tubas = Tevez Jenin = En Gannim Kadum = Kedumim Qalqilya = Kaballah Beit Jala = Gilo Samoa = Eshtamoa Dura = Adorayim Yata = Utah Imwas = Amos Sa Nur = Shamir Sebastiya = Shomron Abu Dis = Beit Phaig El Ezaria = Betani El Jib = Givon Taibe = Ofra Qumran = Ir Hamelach/Kfar Chassidim