Oh Jericho! Israel's Jordan Valley Importance to Annexation Now

Nadene Goldfoot
                                                       

Looking at the Jordan Valley, an agricultural area of Israel

    

The Jordan Valley is the name of the Jordan rift from its sources near Dan to the southern end of the Dead Sea.  It is also called in Hebew, Kikkar ha-Yarden.  In a more restricted sense, the name is applied to a  plain of the River Jordan, south of the Sea of Galilee to Naharayim, bounded on the West by the Lower Galilean hills.  

Its area is about 20 square miles and its climate is tropical.  The Jordan Valley is the cultivated area and is irrigated. A tourist, a grower from an American nursery,  visited "Jordan Valley during his trip and saw how they grow Bananas, Lemons, Pink Grapefruit, Avocados and Mangoes. All of these crops are watered by using drip tape to conserve water due to the scarcity of water in that area."   He toured some farms and saw how they grow Cauliflower, Winter Wheat, Onions, Carrots, Olives, Broccoli, and of course Strawberries.  It is a rural district with local self-government.  

The Rutenberg power station called Tel Or, now in disuse, is at Naharayim in the Jordan Valley.  
                                                        

Many Israelis are for this area being annexed by Israel. It's the country-side,
the farming land, the eastern Oregon area of potatoes and onions for 
Portland.  

The 1995 Oslo II Accords divided the West Bank (Judea and Samaria) into areas A, B and C. 
                                               

Roughly 90% of the Jordan Valley, constituting approximately 30% of Judea-Samaria, is in Area C and under Israel’s control. The city of Jericho and its surrounding villages are part of Area A, which is controlled by the Palestinian Authority; Israeli citizens are not allowed to enter or build in this area..

Jericho is 825 feet below sea level and goes back 5,000 years to the Neolithic Period.  This city was destroyed by Joshua, the Jewish leader in the Exodus.  (Josh.6).  It was then revived during the reign of King Ahab of Israel in 870 BCE. The city was destroyed by the Romans in 68 CE.  Balsam groves are found in Jericho.  

It's surrounded by orange groves and banana plantations.  
Jericho had 3,000 population in 1946, a place where Arab refugees in 1948 came to and numbered 61,000 in 1961.  Most of the refugees fled over the Jordan River before Israel troops arrived during the Six- Day War.  Some 8,500 lived in Jericho and another 2,000 lived in its vicinity at the time of the 1967 census.  

It looks like Israel will lose Jericho to the Palestinians or maybe even Jordan. 
                                               

Yigal Allon (1918-1980), Labor Minister after the 6 Day War, Deputy Prime Minister in 1968,  wanted to annex the Jordan Valley feeling it was vital for security as a buffer zone.
He wanted a strip about 10-15 km wide along the Jordan Valley.  An Allon Road was paved and the first Jewish communities were built along the Road 90 and the Allon Road. 

Resource:
https://www.israelhayom.com/2020/05/22/poll-israelis-favor-sovereignty-in-jordan-valley-judea-and-samaria/
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jewish-settlements-in-the-jordan-valley
The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
https://www.lassencanyonnursery.com/agriculture-in-israel-and-jordan-valley/

Why Salaam Fayyad of PA, Prime Minister and Economist, Calls It Quits, Maybe?

Nadene Goldfoot
The Palestinian Prime Minister, Salaam Fayyad, a moderate according to the West, has resigned.  Most likely he wasn't being listened to by the more powerful henchmen of Hamas, who maintain their actions of terrorism and strong -arming Gaza.   Jonathan Tobin, writing in commentary, feels this is a "pivotal moment in the history of the conflict".  That's because Fayyad has been the Western hope for a technocratic Palestinian state.  We're left with a weaker Abbas now, who has also threatened to resign and Hamas.  The idea of a 2 state solution isn't looking so good for many reasons.

The Oslo Accords of September 13, 1993 never promised a Palestinian state.  Agreements have never been reached.  Everyone saw the Judea-Samaria and Gaza as one unit or one state-to-be.  However, the heads of these two places never could come to any agreements that lasted more than a few weeks.  One issue for Netanyahu and Rabin has been not to be set back to the 67 borders.  A month before Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated, he had said, " "Israel will not return to the lines of 4 June 1967″ and then stated that "the security border for defending the State of Israel will be in the Jordan Valley, in the widest sense of that concept."

Dr. Fayyad was born in Deir al-Ghusun in the northern part of Judea-Samaria.  He has a PhD in economics from the U. of Texas in Austin.  He taught economics at Yarmouk U. in Jordan before joining the International Monetary Fund in 1987 where he was a rep for the PA from 1996 to 2001.  Then he was the regional manager of the Arab Bank in Judea-Samaria and Gaza until he became Yasser Arafat's finance minister.  I wonder if he knows how much money Arafat kept for himself?

He resigned as finance minister to run as founder and leader of the new Third War party in 2006.  Again on March 17, 2007, he became finance minister with the Fatah-Hamas coalition government.  By June 14, 2007, Hamas took over the Gaza Strip and he was appointed Prime Minister of the new "Independent" government which was supported by Fatah, Israel and the West.  He won his seat along with Hanan Ashrawi.    When he was offered the position of Prime Minister, he had a few conditions that he wanted.  One was that Hamas would recognize Israel, which they wouldn't do.  One of his comments which must been seen as an antidote to Hamas terrorism was,  "its the responsibility of men of religion to...present religion as a way of tolerance,...not as a cover for bloodshed.  "  Yet it has to be religion that is the cause of the Arabs not accepting Israel, causing much bloodshed on both sides.  

Fayyad was credited for the US Congress' deposit of $200 million to the PA in 2009.  Even with all that money, Fatah hasn't been able to pay their utility bills to Israel.  They have been suffering economically.  In October 2011 the USA withdrew funding to UNESCO after the Palestinian Authority (PA) was accepted into the United Nations as a full member.  The USA's contribution to this organization is 22% of their needs. The PAof Judea-Samaria  ran up a debt of  $165 million dollars to Israel's electric corporation.  Israel collects money for the Palestinians, so finally froze their money and used it to pay off their bill.

"For 30 years, Israel permitted thousands of Palestinians to enter the country each day to work in construction, agriculture and other blue-collar jobs. Until the mid-1990s, up to 150,000 people—about a fifth of the Palestinian labor force—entered Israel each day. After Palestinians unleashed a wave of suicide bombings, the idea of separation from the Palestinians took root in Israel. Israel found itself starved for labor, and gradually replaced most of the Palestinians with migrants from Thailand, Romania and elsewhere."  What they did was to bite the hand that employed them.

Gaza has bombed southern Israel with missiles, mortars and rockets since 2001.  This is not the way to induce friendships.  In Judea-Samaria and Gaza, not many are working at anything except how to destroy Israel.  Their unemployment is above 50%.  No wonder Fayyad quit.  They are depending on handouts which they are getting from Iran, Qatar and others as well as the UN.  However, a country cannot be run this way.  Fayyad knows this and is disembarking from  a sinking ship.

Resource: http://www.blog.standforisrael.org/articles/fayyads-exit-signals-oslos-bankruptcy
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salam_Fayyad
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/oct/31/unesco-backs-palestinian-membership
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2012-08/16/c_131787926.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_the_Palestinian_territories

Hebron: One of 4 Sacred Jewish Cities; Part of "West Bank"

Nadene Goldfoot
Abraham bought a plot of land from the Hittites that is about 18 miles south of Jerusalem.  Land the plot was part of was called Kiriath-Arba then, but shortly was named Hebron, which became a city of Judah.  This piece of land was the Cave of Machpelah  that he needed in which to  bury Sarah.  Today a mosque stands on the site.  Abraham turned out to be the father of all the peoples, mainly Jews and Muslims.  Abraham had entered Hebron after arriving in Canaan after leaving Ur, his family home.

Moses didn't enter the land of Canaan, but Joshua took over for him.  Joshua assigned Hebron to Caleb, and it was deemed a Levitical city for the tribe of Levites, who had been given the job of being teachers and traveling around to all the tribes teaching  without owning any land of their own.  It was also one of the 6 cities of refuge.

King David ruled there for 7 1/2 years before making Jerusalem his capital.  A Jewish community lived there throughout the Byzantine Period under Arab rule.  The modern city stands just east of the historical location.  Jews listed Hebron, Jerusalem, Tiberias and Safed as the 4 sacred Jewish towns.  Jews continued to live in Hebron.  In 1890 there were 1,500 and they had a yeshivot and religious school.  The great Lithuanian yeshivah of Slobadka was transferred there in 1925.

1929 was the year Arabs massacred many of the 700 Jews remaining there. It was also the year of the economic crash in the USA.  The survivors left.  Two years later 39 Jewish families returned.  Again the Arabs rioted in 1936 causing Jews to leave again.  Simultaneously  anti-Semitism was occurring in Germany with WWII starting in September of 1939.  The population in 1967 after the 6 Day War of Israel was 38,310.  Jews returned to Hebron and established the Kiryat Arba quarter east of the city.  In 1988 the population was 3,700.  Today there are 130,000 Arabs living in Hebron along with 530 Jews and 3 Christians.  6,000 Jews live right next to it in Kiryat Arba.

" According to the Oslo accords, the IDF has sole responsibility for the security of the Jewish community of Hebron."  "Under the Hebron Agreement, the city was divided into two areas: H-1, under full Palestinian Authority, and H-2, under full Israeli control. At the outset of the second intifada in 2000, the IDF resumed operations in the H-1 area. In 2003, the IDF began constructing two permanent fortified posts in Arab neighborhoods which overlook Jewish homes in the center of Hebron."

 IDF just had to detain a Palestinian and it made news in the paper.  That was the tip of the iceberg.  A Hamas cell was found to be plotting a center in Hebron as well as kidnapping of Israeli citizens.

Resource:  The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
 http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=561763&utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/History/hebron.html