Not Occupied Territories
Judea and Samaria are not occupied territories.  They are really disputed territories.  In 1967 Jordan was illegally occupying them and had been in 1948 without any legal claim.  Therefore, Israel won the War of 1967 and gained them from Jordan, one of the countries attacking Israel. 

The following video explains it all. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQ_ozDPtAgc&feature=player_embedded

Disagreeing with Obama Over Israel and It's Makeup

Nadene Goldfoot        from Jonathan Tobins's article, How Pro-Israel is Obama?  Assessing the United Nations Post-Veto Fallout

The UN just had a vote brought up against Israel by the Palestinians which the USA vetoed, thank goodness.  However, there are many points that Obama and Israel supporters do not see eye to eye on. Hillary made mention on ABC News on Sunday that Jewish presence there, referring to Judea and Samaria and East Jerusalem, was "illigitimate" which is not following protocal at all.  It stinks! 

More than a quarter of a million Israelis live in Judea-Samaria, so called West Bank.  More than 200,000 live in parts of Jerusalem that had been illegally occupied by Jordan before 1967's war.  Obama has fought Israel on building homes in existing Jewish neighborhoods of Jerusalem which to me and others is ridiculous.  He is trying to do away with the fact that Israel already had said it would do away with remote settlements for a peace accord and those that in the Bush administration were already facts to be respected would remain in Israel's hands.  Obama is messing with Israel's capital, Jerusalem, and its 40 year old Jewish neighborhoods. 

I feel there should have been a time limit as well for the Palestinians to come around and make peace with Israel if they really want and need their own state so badly.  Israelis have waited now for 63 years and they haven't done it yet, no matter what has been offered to them.  That's ENOUGH!  I feel that this fact alone gives Israel the right to go ahead with their life and build in Judea-Samaria, their ancient homeland.  Otherwise, it just sits there as a wasteland, waiting.  When you come right down to it, the Palestinians, who came from many other countries in the first place and who were looking for jobs with  the returned Israelis, do have 46 other Muslim countries that they could live in other than what they claim to want now.  Look at Jordan.  It is home to many so called Palestinians. 

For Obama and Clinton to end this with saying that the Jewish state's position on the issue of settlements was illegitimate and that Israel threatened peace and devastate trust shows that the USA has very little respect for Israel.  To me they are putting their head in the sand and refusing to see just who is threatening peace and cannot be trusted.  Many see that the Israel-USA relationship has lessened a great deal since the Bush administration.  Actually, other presidents have never accepted Israel's position on territory, new towns or borders, but then they are not the ones living there or seeing it through the eyes of the Israelis, either.  They are most likely seeing the situation as it affects them personally.  They make decisions without having studied the personalities involved or knowing the psyche of the Middle Easterners. 

Does the American administration think that giving the Palestinians East Jerusalem and all of Judea and Samaria will cause them to sign a peace treaty and....keep it?  Do they think this will bring Hamas around?  They were given Gaza on a silver plate and they only became more violent and haven't stopped yet.  No.  The Palestinians, unfortunately, are not thinking with American heads.  They want more; the extinction of Israel, and no one has counseled them as to why this is a bad idea.  The American administration only seems to be contributing to the Fatah and Hamas belief that they are right to want the death of Israel. 

I think it is most unwise to even think of having a peace treaty as long as Hamas remains Israel's enemy.  When these former PLO groups, Fatah and Hamas can jointly be acceptable peace-loving people and care for the lives of their children to be long and safely lived, then peace can be  obtained.  Fatah is not ready for peace, not as long as they teach in their schools that there is no Israel on the map, or teach hate for Israelis, I know they are not truly into a peaceful accord.  They seem to have taken just one important step in the right direction, and that is to not fire upon Israel.  Of course, they are allowing the Hamas Gazans to do all of that.  Abbas or others in his party have no  authority over Hamas.  When these two Muslim groups can become peaceful with Israel, we will all celebrate.

Resource: http://www.jewishworldreview.com/0211/tobin022111.php3?printer_friendly

Ramallah, West Bank

Rumbling in Judea/Samaria "West Bank"

Nadene Goldfoot

In discussing the creation of a Palestine right next to Israel, one has to wonder if this means only the West Bank or also does this include Gaza as well. Right now the Palestine Authority is mulling over the possibility that they may have to deport 50 Hamas terrorists because of their "lies and fabrications." No doubt these Hamas people are trying to influence the Fatah-following residents. This is the problem. The Palestinians are not a united people intent on peace. It's hard enough to keep the "West Bank" peaceful as it is without instigating terrorists from Gaza weaving their spells over them. There are agents that have infiltrated both sides. These 50 terrorist leaders have been asked to pick a country they would like to be deported to.

In the last 24 hours, Hamas in Gaza had arrested 10 top Fatah officials in Gaza. This might be tit for tat.

http://www.jpost.com/MiddleEast/Article.aspx?id=201055

http://rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=312582&D=2010-12-26&SO=&HC=2

Getting to Know you, Oh Future Palestine

Nadene Goldfoot

Like the song goes, "We're getting to know you, getting to know all about you, but.....

Getting to like you, getting to hope you like me,

Getting to feel free and easy..When I am with you.

You are precisely

My cup of tea,

Getting to know what to say...Because of all the beautiful and new Things I'm learning about you

Day by day".

Oscar Hammerstein

Well, we know a lot more about the leadership and how the people think about us and we're not feeling so free and easy; in fact, we don't feel that way at all. The things we're learnings are not so beautiful, either.

Abbas took over from from Arafat in the Fatah terrorist organization. Fatah has changed their tune outwardly but not inwardly. They're still teaching their children that Israel doesn't exist on their maps, and hatred for Israelis still reigns. They wouldn't mind at all if Israel really were wiped off the earth. In fact, they celebrate riotously when Israelis are killed, even celebrating on the anniversary of terrorists deaths who caused the death of Israelis. Israelis wince and wonder how in heaven they can ever become friendly neighbors with such a people.

They want Palestine to be Juden-free; have no Jews or Israelis in their midst. It bothers Israelis in that the state of Israel has over a million Palestinian citizens living with them, and even being a part of the Knessett. Yes, they can vote. So what is happening is that Abbas is even refusing to talk turkey with Israel (come to the peace table to arrive at some decisions). This makes it impossible to think about a peaceful state. After all, Israel was created 62 years ago and nothing like peace has happened with Fatah who now reside in Samaria and Judea. Israelis are also getting tired of waiting. Judea and Samaria fell into Israel's lap after the 67 War when the Muslims lost. Since 1967 the land has just been sitting there and Israel has all sorts of reasons thrown at it for resisting settlement. The time has rolled around and the reasons are there to do so. Israel has had it with 43 years of patience waiting for a peace accord with some decisons.

So, after waiting for 10 months and not building in Samaria and Judea, land that goes back to Israel's biblical days that is extremely important historically as well as geographically, Israel has decided that they have the right to build and carry on with a normal life. They aren't getting any younger. According to the Oregonian article this morning, they are expanding somewhat into territory that would not be part of Israel in a land swap. I see it that there is no land swapping at present, a decision of the Palestinians, and so they are going ahead and doing it. If Fatah wants Israel to stop settlers from straying farther afield, they'll have to sit down with a cup of tea and some bread with salt and talk. Because as the song goes, as time goes by, we are not liking what we see or even hear, and Palestinians still are not doing anything to change their charges to like Israelis. That's not what lovers or even neighbors do.

The one beacon of light that is happening is that a start up business in Israel has found that a Palestinian is nicer to work with than other outsiders. Their thinking in business is similar and this is turning out fantastically. It makes me joyous to read that business is bringing these two opposing people together. Possibly it will be contagious.

Living across the freeway from each other makes us neighbors, and we both want to feel free and easy being we are together this way. Living like the "Hatfields" and the McCoys" is not anyone's idea of living. Now, Fatah will have to convey this to Hamas over in Gaza, as they are a deal-breaker. From what I have been reading, the opposite is happening. Hamas is wielding a lot of influence over the population of Fatah.

Is Israel expected to have to continue living with the anti-social Gazans who want to kill all Israelis? Are they to be a part of "Palestine?" Abbas can't influence them at all. They were driven out of Gaza into Judea and Samaria. So much is left unanswered and must be discussed in any peace discussion.

Resource: http://www.romantic-lyrics.com/lg2.shtml

Oregonian Newspaper 12/25/2010 page A7 With freeze ifted, Israeli settlement building booms

Information from my blogs: http://jewishfactsfromportland.blogspot.com/, http://israel-nadene.blogspot.com/

My visit to Nearby Samaria-1982

Above is a home in Kfar Saba.

Nadene Goldfoot

October 7, 1982

In 1980, my husband and I moved to Israel and went into a 10 month re-training program in Haifa with 40 other people who were all preparing to be English as Foreign Language Teachers. We were hired to teach in Safed "Tzfat" in the northern Galilee, a stone's throw from the Lebanon border. We were on Succot vacation and were able to take an ACI prepared trip to Samaria. ACI stands for Americans and Canadians in Israel. They were a g-dsend to us in helping out with all our problems of living in Israel. The following is from my book, "Letters From Israel.", pages 220-221.

We picked up two older ladies in Karmiel in our new red Fiat and drove into Haifa, and met the bus we were to take on the Carmel. (This was the same area that just recently suffered a horrible forest fire). We went to the West Bank, or Samaria to be more specific, and it was quite an eye opener for us. Ha, I had to get up at 5:00 am and went to bed at midnight because we had such good late night TV. I woke up sneezing, which was a surprise, and took an allergy pill, so fought sleep all day and night. It was so terrible. Yes, I do get that way once in a while and can't stop sneezing.

Anyway, what happened was that we drove on the highway from Haifa to Tel Aviv along the coast. It is a lovely drive, and turned left at Kvar Saba, went into that little teeny town and out of it, and we found ourselves in Samaria. I was so shocked! It's practically on the other side of the highway.

We stood at a plaque where Sharon and his men had fought not too recently and saw our highway and cars. It was unreal! We drove deeper into Samaria and saw Arabs, sheep, a little Arab town outside Kafar Saba, and in the distance Ramalla, which was a larger Arab city.

I saw lots of land that looked somewhat like Eastern Oregon, and finally came some twenty-five minutes later to a Jewish settlement where we had lunch in their succa. We brought our own sack lunches with us.

This settlement is made up of mainly Israelis and a few Americans who are very dedicated and Zionistic. One of their people is a non-Jew who is a Japanese man recently from Japan who has a paper factory there where he makes paper for computers. He goes to services, and once got all dressed up in his Japanese robes and proceeded to take movies of the Friday night services until he was asked to please stop.

They are building beautiful homes but no apartments there, and are almost ready to move in. The establishment is six years old. You know that house in Ontario on the corner with the red tile roof and wood sides? One house I saw looked like that one. The other houses had the same roof but were made of cement.

The point is this. The shape of Israel decided by the United Nations is really weird. They gave us the seacoast from Haifa to Tel Aviv, and that's it. The land adjacent to us is ancient Samaria and Judea. How dumb! We should have that land.

We continued from this place to the Roman ruins where King Ahab, a Jewish king, also lived and we walked all around. The weather was so warm and pleasant. I got a suntan from it. It was incredible to see all the stonework, columns, and amphitheater. Then we went back to Haifa and drove home. We had left Haifa at 8:15am and got back to Safed at 4:30pm with lots of time to rest and explore at the ruins. No wonder Begin didn't want to give up Samaria and Judea. Remember, it's within stone throwing distance of our highway. You just wouldn't believe how close it is to us. The problem is that they don't just throw stones at us anymore.

Daily Mortar Attacks from Gaza

Nadene Goldfoot

You never see this news in an American newspaper like the Oregonian, but mortar attacks have been going on daily all year from Gaza. Today a home was hit on a kibbutz. It's like living in the firing zone of someone playing Russian Roulette. You never know when or where somebody or something can be hit. It's something that you don't get used to, either. It just tightens up your nerves.

December 2, 2010 3 mortars and 1 Qassam rocket landed, then another rocket hit dairy and injured cows near Ashkelon, Portland's sister city.

December 3, 2020 7 mortar shells hit Israel

December 6, 2010: Qassam rocket landed near Ashkelon, Portland's sister city

December 7, 2010 2 mortars landed in the Eshkol region of southern Israel.

December 8, 2010 1 mortar landed in the Sha'ar Hanegia region of southern Israel.

All this has been going on all year and the US has at the same time been pressuring Israel to freeze building in Judea and Samaria, though they already had done so in the 10 month period before and no peace discussions came about. How can my country pressure Israel about peace, which is what Israel wants, when half the Palestinians are making constant war on Israel? Why doesn't our government pressure Hamas to cut out their shooting at Israel in the first place? How can there possibly be peace talks when Israel is being constantly attacked by a party that had even attacked Fatah? Gaza being occupied by Israel ended in 2005. Israel had to create a blockade in 2007 when Hamas terrorists threw out Fatah and took over Gaza.

The PA have had the chutzpa to demand that Israel stop building before they would even talk about peace making-and then they can only speak for their own Fatah group.

8:28pm 12/8/10 Israel just completed air strikes on Gaza after mortar shell fragments from a fired mortal shell wounded a man on an agriculture site near the border was hit. Israel bombed two training sites. The Israeli was taken to a hospital in Bersheba.

This was the first casualty since March when a worker from Thailand was killed by mortar shelling.

Reference: http://www.jpost.com/NationalNews/Article.aspx?id=198584

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Palestinian_rocket_attacks_on_Israel,_2010

http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/iaf-hits-gaza-targets-after-slew-of-rockets-strike-israel-1.325803

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20101209/wl_nm/us_palestinians_israel_gaza

International Law Concerning Judea and Samaria

                                                                             

by Nadene Goldfoot

Israel has been through countless wars with the Arabs since 1948 and has won. Now the attack is to cry that Judea and Samaria are settled illegally by Jews. These charges are politically motivated and without foundation in international law. I'm sorry to see that even some Jewish lawyers have been sucked into such propaganda and have become instruments in challenging Israel's right to survive.

Therefore, cities and towns in Judea and Samaria cannot be considered illegal. They cannot be a grave violation of the Geneva Convention and do not constitute a "war crime". This is without legal basis.

A Jewish population inhabiting Judea and Samaria goes back over 3,000 years and has never stopped. Newer ones have been established on previous Jewish sites because of the people's deep historic and religious connection with the land. Israeli communities have been established only after an exhaustive investigation process, under the supervision of the supreme Court of Israel. They ensured that no communities are established on private Arab land.

The only administration which prohibited Arabs from selling land to Jews there was the Jordanian occupation administration during its 19 years of rule from 1948 to 1967. Egypt's occupation from their armed invasion of Israel in 1948 and Jordan cannot legally invalidate rights and titles that remain valid to this day. Both had illegally occupied this land, so their claim was automatically invalid. Judea and Samaria were originally intended to be part of the Jewish State when discussions first started in 1919 after the first World War when the Ottoman Empire fell.

International legal scholar Stephen Schwebel said that a country acting in self-defense may seize and occupy territory when necessary to protect itself.. That's what happened in 1967 when Israel was surrounded by 250,000 Arab soldiers, more than 2,000 tanks and 700 aircraft by Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq, Algeria, Kuwait, Sudan and other Muslim countries. They were all aided by Russia, and they were bent on completely destroying Israel. Besides that, they had managed to close the Gulf of Aqaba, a lifeline for Israel.

The war started on June 5th and a cease-fire was invoked on June 10th, which came to be called, The Six Day War. The Israelis almost made it to Cairo but stopped. After that Egypt and Jordan changed in their attitudes of destroying Israel. That's when Israel obtained Judea and Samaria and East Jerusalem. Therefore, the land was not under the sovereignty of any state and came under Israeli control in a war of self-defense, imposed upon Israel.

Agreements between Israel and the Palestinians contain no prohibition whatsoever on building or expanding communities. It is specifically provided that the issue is reserved for permanent status negotiations which are to take place in a concluding state of peace talks. So far, Fatah refuses to come to a peace negotiating table. Israel had even invoked a 10 month freeze on building in Judea and Samaria in order to pacify the Arabs, but to no avail.

Jewish communities are not intending to displace Arab inhabitants. The land has become a patchwork quilt of neighborhoods, just as many American communities have become. South Portland in the early 1900's was a neighborhood mixed with Jews and Italians. They all got along fine because nobody was instigating them not to live in peace. Failing Grade School was a model of success being a smorgasbord of nationalities.

The problem today lies in the fact that the Palestinians want Judea and Samaria all to themselves without any Jews. Not only that, but they want every Palestinian living outside the area to return and live there. This would be a monumental travesty. The 4th largest Jewish city, Ariel, has over 16,000 inhabitants. Israel is not a large area. Almost everyone living there lives in apartment buildings. This is how they are planning to drive Israelis into the sea.

Reference: Myths and Facts by Mitchell G. Bard & Joel Himelfarb

Jewish Virtual Library
http://israel-nadene.blogspot.com/2012/07/justice-edmond-levy-rules-israel-has.html

What Are Our Settlements in Judea-Samaria (West Bank)?

by Nadene Goldfoot

I dislike the use of the term, "settlements." We have villages, towns and cities already established in Judea and Samaria. A settlement, a synonym of village, also is a place or region newly settled. Village does not imply this. It only indicates the size of the community. A village is larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town. I believe "settlement" is being used politically to imply that this community is like putting up tents that can be taken down and moved easily. This is not the case. I abhor the term, "West Bank" Again, this is a political move to wipe out the connection of our Jewish history to the land. This term came from the Jordanians to describe the land west of the Jordan River. Evidently they couldn't bring themselves to use the Hebrew names for it. The same thing happened when the Romans took over Israel after 70AD. They renamed it Palestinia for the same political reasons. So I will continue to call the land by its original name, Judea and Samaria, each having its own historical story to tell.

The city of Ariel happens to have a population of over 16,700 and is the 4th largest city in Judea Samaria. It started in 1978, so is now 32 years old. This is about the same population that Pendleton, Oregon has which is 16,830.

Judea and Samaria happen to be the biblical homeland or heartland of Eretz Israel with Jerusalem, the City of David, at the center of that heart. This land reminds us of who we are and who we were. The history goes way back to our beginnings. Today 300,000 Israelis live in over 100 communities. Also sharing the land are 1.5 million Palestinian Arabs living in their communities.

Judea occupies the land where our ancient land of Judea had been with its capital which was Jerusalem.

Samaria happens to be on the land where Israel had been with its capital of Shomron.

It was under Jordanian occupation for 19 years. Jordan lost this in 1967 when Israel surprised everyone by defending itself under a horrible assault of all the surrounding Arab nations again and won this battle in 6 days. It has been under Israel's sovereignty for the past 43 years now.

"The Jewish right of settlement in the area," Rostow concluded, "is equivalent in every way to the right of the existing [Palestinian] population to live there." Furthermore, as Stephen Schwebel, a judge on the International Court of Justice between 1981 and 2000, explicitly noted, territory acquired in a war of self-defense (waged by Israel in 1967) must be distinguished from territory acquired through "aggressive conquest" (waged by Germany during World War II). Consequently, the provisions of the Mandate for Palestine, allocating all the land west of the Jordan River to the Jewish people for their national home, remained in force until sovereignty was finally determined by a peace treaty between the contending parties—now Israel and the Palestinians. Until then, the disputed West Bank, claimed by two peoples, remained open to Jewish settlement. So far, there is no peace treaty. The Palestinian Abbas is not coming to the table to talk.

"Netanyahu has said of Judea and Samaria, “But we will not freeze the lives of the residents of Judea and Samaria and we will not freeze construction.”Netanyahu imposed the freeze last November as a means of enticing the Palestinians back to the negotiating table. Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas waiting until the very last minute to accept the gesture, and now insists extending the freeze is a precondition to continuing the renewed peace negotiations." Netanyahu is not buying into this. Building is in the plan but will not begin probably for years.

Reference: http://emetnews.org/analysis/are_settlements_illegal.php

http://israelbehindthenews.com/bin/content.cgi?ID=4193&q=1

http://www.weblo.com/property/state/Judea_and_Samaria/447243/
http://web.oregon.com/towns/population_alpha.cfm
http://www.israelinitiative.com/rewr-true/language-en_us/Principle-38/PrinciplesSub.aspx

http://www.jpost.com/MiddleEast/Article.aspx?id=194913

Why We Keep On Building

Here is a picture of Ariel, the 4th largest Jewish city in Judea with over 16,000.
It is 25 miles from Tel Aviv.

by Nadene Goldfoot

A half million Israelis live in Judea-Samaria (West Bank) and East Jerusalem. This had been the heartland of Ancient Israel. It was regained after the War of 1967 when Israel was attacked from all sides. The Arabs had thought that surely they would win being Israel was so outnumbered.


By winning, Israel gained back this land. They started to populate it more. At the time, there was no consideration of Palestinians declaring their own state and wanting this piece of land as they had been offered land way back in the beginning in 1948 and had refused it. They were not desperate like Jews were to have their own state. They did not need their own state. Now that they see that they have not wiped out Israel, they are making out that they need the land for their statehood. In reality they just don't want Israel to be there. This is another form of warfare against Israel.


Israel has given in everytime a chance has come up to trade in land for peace. They even had a moratorium on building in Judea-Samaria for 10 months, giving the Palestinians time to recognize and come to terms with Israel, possibly even leading to changing their charter of wiping out Israel. The Palestinians let the time lapse. Now that they see that Israel is not upset by it and has started to build without extending anymore time, the Arabs are pouting, and have given the United States a month in order to get Israel into a discussion about peace terms. Of course the peace terms I can imagine will be all about what the Palestinians are steering towards, the destruction of Israel, where we ask for recognition.


Israel is not as naive anymore. It's in the state of living and developing. Their best soldiers happen to come from the Judea-Samaria area nowdays. 40% of IDF combat officers are religious zionists. That means that they understand the relevance of Judea and Samaria to Israel. This is why losing this area is traumatic.


Israel is not a state that just happened to be settled by Jews because it was just an empty swampy ugly piece of available arid land. It was the spot that our religion centered on in that we were given the land by G-d and were meant to be there. I don't know of any other place on this planet that has such a history. You have to recognize the meaning of Israel to Jews. Evangelical Christians certainly do. Places such as Europe have become unattached to religion lately and seem to have forgotten this history and why Israel means so much to us. After bouncing around from country to country looking for acceptance for 2,000 years, we realized that we needed to be back in our homeland. We could contribute to the world our creations and ideas better that way. Strangely, our land had laid fallow for the whole time we had been gone. No one really wanted it. It had become a mess, but it was our land.


Israel was very fair in giving Abbas time to come around and do the right thing in recognizing the state that he intends to live next door to. Would you want to move into a house that sits next door to your hated enemy? If he wants that house bad enough he's going to have to get along with the neighbor that's already there somehow. Good parental psychology says that you don't keep making threats to your children and then not abide by the rules that you have set. Netanyahu has done the same thing. Now he has every right to keep on building, and the plan right now is in East Jerusalem. Jerusalem, after all, is Israel's capital. If people don't remember, it was the capital of ancient Israel, also. It's more than special to us.


We've been at odds ever since the days of Abraham. It was a disappointment to us then and still is. When the day comes that the Arabs want to be friends, well, that will be the day. I guess, from the looks of this past 63 year history, it just may take the Messiah to bring it about. Something great has to touch their hearts and bring about a change in attitude.



http://www.israelunitycoalition.org/news/?p=5948 from Wall Street Journal by Yossi Klein Halevi Why Israel Won't Abandon the Settlers
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101016/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_israel_palestinians

Consternation Over Israel's Building in Judea and Samaria

by Nadene Goldfoot

Why has the peace talks been dependent on Israel not building in Judea and Samaria? Abbas has demanded that we continue the 10 freeze in building before he even talks to us backed by Obama's pleading and enticing offers. Building in the area is exactly the item that has to be discussed in any peace talks. It's an item that was tabled long ago. What is going on here? It's like putting the cart before the horse.

The problem is that there was a 1995 agreement between Israel and the PLO where they both agreed that "neither side shall initiate or take any step that will change the status of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip pending the outcome of the permanent status negotiations."

We have yet to have an outcome. This never intended to refer to construction. Evidently peace talks would address this issue. Israel, since 1967, has built homes there and in return gets international criticism. Well, we're used to that. Whatever we do gets international criticism.

The Palestinians have built thousands of buildings in the area without any planning. They have built buildings oftentimes just to have them in the way of two different Jewish neighborhoods. It's a mess.

What is maddening is that during our 10 month building freeze, the Arabs were building like crazy and without any restrictions. The United States, Europe and the Arab states of the Persian gulf bankrolled much of their construction. It was Obama who brought up the idea of a Palestinian state for the first time.

The reason for the 10 month freeze was to stop Israel from having neighborhoods there that would prejudice the results of the peace talks with Abbas. The reason is that the Palestinians have misinterpreted the clause of the 1995 agreement, as far as we're concerned.

The goal of the Palestinians is to make all of Judea and Samaria their Palestinian state, devoid of all Jews. We have about one million Arabs as citizens in Israel and can't see why they can't allow our communities to remain there.

The Palestinians are building the city of Rawabi just to change the status of Judea and Samaria. It lies in the middle of a predominantly Jewish neighborhood just to harm the Jewish communities. It was done on purpose.

One problem area is in eastern Jerusalem; the Jewish Shimon Hatzadik neighborhood. Eastern Jerusalem has Arabs living there. The Jews have bought their property legally. Every Friday there have been wild demonstrations for the Arab minority. Evidently leftist Israelis also are a part of the Arab demonstrators trying to move the Israelis out. When Jerusalem's planning board decided to approve construction of housing units in a Jewish neighborhood, Obama's administration assaulted them just last Spring. So dozens of illegal Arab buildings are still standing in East Jerusalem for fear of international outcry. The building code, a part of Jerusalem's government, cannot be followed. Such things as water, sewer, traffic, schools, etc, have to be forgotten now.

Caroline Glick, in her article, reminds us that we see two sets of rules; one for Arabs and one for Jews. Jews are not being given special rights. Indeed, they are being held back from "inviolable rights" to their own property by their own government. The Israeli government is trying to be so fair with the Arabs and in turn listen to the Obama government and the international community that they in turn are harming their own citizens. This is why Netanyahu can no longer continue the building freeze. Enough already!

I see more of a problem here than Caroline does in adressing the rights of Israeli citzens. I see in her article that Israel is surrounded by hotspots besides the Judea/Samaria issue. On every border we are having problems and are trying to appease our neighbors and keep things cool. It's like trying to keep the genie in the bottle when he has muscle power to push out the cork. You have to keep sitting on it.

I'm looking at the total picture and it's amazing that Israel has kept the lid on so many outbursts, except now our own Israelis are sick and tired of giving more than their fair share. I see a far bigger problem. What happens if Palestine is to be created by the U.N. anyway without any peace talks as they have been pushing for? What will happen to our citizens in Judea and Samaria?

Abbas is not interested in peace or even a state of his own. If he was it would be so easy. Recognize Israel, and sit down and talk. It's not happening. I think he's being dictated to by Hamas. I can't picture there being a peaceful Palestine next door to Israel. I can't picture them being part of Israel other than the ones already here. These are the problems Israel faces while it tries to remain a democracy and deal fairly with its own citizens. They do have an elephant in the room interfering with the democratic process.

http://www.carolineglick.com/ Do Jews Have Civil Rights?

Judea and Samaria Under Attack by NY Times Comumnist

Nadene Goldfoot

A disliked term for ancient Judea and Samaria, taken to erase the memory of who it belonged to, is West Bank, used by most Americans. Nicholas Kristof just wrote a scathing article about the area that needs an intervention of understanding history.

First, he calls Israel's living in much of the area, "occupation," which is inaccurate and distasteful. Israel took control in 1967 in a war of self-defense. Arabs continued to reject peace offers. The future of this area is still under negotiations and Israel has a claim to the territory as valid as that of the Palestinians, maybe better.

This is a territory in dispute, not an occupied territory. Under international law, true occupation happens when land has been taken from a recognized sovereign. The last one to fit that bill was the Ottoman Empire, not these Palestinians. Jordan and Egypt control was never recognized by the international community. There never has been a sovereign state of Palestine anywhere.

His sarcastic comments belie facts of history. Israel bought land, they didn't steal it. Israel was created by the United Nations, so it's real. Nobody gave Israel a rose garden for starters. They had to fight mosquitoes and swamps to make a state. What are the Palestinians doing?

Resource: The two sides of a barbed-wire fence by Nicholas Kristof at nytimes.com

http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/Facts+About+Israel/Israel+in+Maps/Judea+and+Samaria.htm

Comment: Shaul Bloom 7/3/10-He writes that the Bedouin village of Umm-al-Khain is denied building permits and is off the grid…

Ummm… does he realize that this is how most Bedouin’s CHOOSE to live? In most cases, they do NOT own the land on which they place their “ramshackle tents and huts”. They are squatters! (referring to Kristof's first example).

Yitzhar, a Jewish Village in Samaria

by Nadene Goldfoot

What was once called Samaria and Judea is referred to today by outsiders as "The West Bank". In the Samarian Mountains near the town of Nablus and Shechem, just off Rt 60 north of the Tapuach Junction, lies the village or settlement, as outsiders want to call these places, of Yitzhar. It lies on the top of a mountain from where you can see from Ashkelon to Hadera, and started as a historic pioneer Nahal military outpost.

130 orthodox Jewish families live here comprising about 500 people. Yitzhar means "olive oil" and that's a crop they grow. Also, they grow grapes. Their grape-growing achievement was so successful that they won two gold medals and one silver medal in a recent wine competition.

They had followed the rules of Shmita, which means something established in biblical days. It's to allow the fields to be fallow every 7th year. Besides that, they had built a synagogue and a Yeshiva in their village. During the Shmita period they had the opportunity to study there and pray there.

Now the government has announced that they must tear down these two buildings. I feel it is because of the pressure of Obama wanting the Arab's Palestine to be there, and not wanting any Jewish presence at all. The land still is a part of Israel. Somehow the Arabs have been building throughout Samaria and Judea without permission. They just built without the involvement of permits which these Jews had.

It's funny that the Arabs had 2,000 years to build and use the land, but didn't. Now that we are back in force, they want the land because we need it. This is sure an example of coveting. They covet something that belongs to someone else. Only now does it have worth to them. It'll mean that they will be expected to work the land, though, if they take over everything. I wonder if they will.

I notice that usually only the orthodox Jews dare to live in Judea and Samaria. More secular Jews live in Tel Aviv and the more populated areas. The history of Judea and Samaria are very important in our religion, and the orthodox are trying to honor that memory. Besides that, we have a horrible history of being locked up every night in ghettos and living in crowded conditions in shtetles in Eastern Europe. It's nice to be out in the country and see the stars at night and be able to own land and grow things, something denied to us for 2,000 years. It's too bad our own government has to be so compliant of Obama in order to protect its citizens. They feel this is just like Kristolnight-a horrible memory in Germany.

Reference: gerardrobins@sbcglobal.net -

http://www.jewishisrael.org/

Wikipedia

Barak and Communities in Judea and Samaria

by Nadene Goldfoot

The USA has called for a freeze on any building planned for Israel, but Israel's government has its own decisions to make and decided to allow 50 new homes in Judea-Samaria to be built. There are plans for 1,450 houses, but nothing was said about those.

A few hours after this decision, Defense Minister Ehud Barak flew to the USA to talk to George Mitchell, something I'd hate to do. Israel's need is to relocate settlers from Migron to Adam, which lies north of Jerusalem. Adam is where the 1,450 homes are needed.

Obama is pressuring Israel to stop all building so that the "Palestinians" would join in peace talks needed to create a Palestinian state. Here we have Israel, already a state, experiencing a population growth with the need to build some homes for people who were removed from the neighborhood they had just recently built, deeming that other neighbood "illegal". They have to go somewhere.

I might add that most of Israel consists of apartment buildings. Individual homes are a rarity. I lived in a high apartment building in Safed, and was lucky enough to be invited to a couple of exceptional homes for a visit. One was dug out of some earthquake ruins and was beautiful. Another was more like an American home with a backyard belonging to a writer friend of ours. So the opportunity to actually have a home is very special.

There are 500,000 Israelis living in Judea and Samaria and East Jerusalem. There are over 1,000,000 Arabs living in the state of Israel. Arabs do not want any Israelis living in their so called future state. Obama looks like he's accepting this unfairness. Palestinians are insisting that Judea and Samaria Jewish neighborhoods are illegal. In my previous blog, I refute that. Obviously Israel also is refuting it by allowing building to take place. As I note, the Palestinians have not recognized Israel to this date, something a new neighbor should do to be neighborly.

Tensions are mounting now between the two different groups; Palestinians and Israelis. Palestinians are claiming that the Israelis raided the village of Asira al-Qiblya and fired guns at their windows, injuring two of them. In the news, the word "village" was used. Why is it that Palestinians are said to have villages and in many newspapers while the term "settlements" and "West Bank" is used instead of the name of villages or towns and Judea and Samaria. I believe these terms were chosen for their political usage. The Israelis said that the action began with a Palestinian arson attack on Yitzhar. While they were trying to put out the fire they were stoned by Palestinians and that an Israeli was hurt. Troops called in used rubber bullets, not real ones.

In Ramallah, Abbas said that he refuses to negotiate with Israel until they stop building. I say-I would refuse to negotiate with him until he accepts the reality of an Israel and deal with it! Abbas expects Israel to just accept their state being there and not put conditions on it as it is meaningless. I do not understand his logic at all. It's not computing other than the Arabs refuse to accept a Jewish state in their midst. And just how badly do they really need their own state? They don't plan on taking a first baby-step of accepting Israel's existence.

Being that Israel is a democracy, we have a group of Israelis called "Peace Now." They are protesting the construction activity planned for Adam. They're claiming that 2,500 homes are in the future plans and are even under construction already.

Reference: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090629/wl_nm/us_palestinians_israel_settlements_8