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

Mixed Messages About Iran's Nuclear Goals

Nadene Goldfoot

David Bedein, my old friend from my Safed, Israel days, who was a community organizer and now is an important journalist based in Jerusalem, has reported that on Sunday, September 21st, the head of Israel's Military Intelligence turned in the first official report to the Israeli cabinet about Iran. They had come to the conclusion that all diplomatic efforts to curb their development of nuclear weapons had failed. Iran was well on the way to producing its first nuclear weapon.

JTA, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, didn't report this despite the fact that it is most important. Instead, they featured an article by the head of "Americans for Peace Now". It was titled, "Engaging in diplomacy with Iran is a sensible, responsible policy." This gives people the idea that diplomatic negotiations with Iran is possible.

"Peace Now" is funded by six European governments, including Germany, which has been very generous towards Israel. Germany's stand is that diplomatic and trade relations with Iran must continue.

Timing is of the essence. This article came out in time for the Jewish New Year deadlines of Jewish newspapers in North America. Equal time is not being given about the actual report to Israel's cabinet. People deserve to know what's going on, and they're not receiving all the information.

Reference: Israel Resource News Agency: media@actcom.co.il Ethical Indiscrection and Non Reportage of Lethal Threat to Israel

http://tinyurl.com/4c6np9 Iran has enough material to make a nuclear weapon; Philadelphia Bulletin 09/22/2008. (Didn't come up: see the address below.)

http://www.thebulletin.us/site/index.cfm?newsid=20131721&BRD=2737&PAG=461&dept_id=576361&rfi=8