Judea-Samaria's History Held in Jeopardy Today

Nadene Goldfoot     
                                                        1205-1050 BCE
                                               from the Book of Joshua                     

Judah had a population of 76,500
     Dan had 64,400
                             Issachar had 64,309 (Mt Tabor to Jordan)
                         Zebulun had 60,500 (Valley of Jezreel)
   Asher had 53,400
Manasseh had 52,700
Benjamin had 45,600
Naphtali had 45,400
Reuben had 43,730
    Gad had 40,500
                 Ephraim had 32,500 (hill country)
Simeon had 22,200

At the end of the Exodus with Moses in 1271 BCE, Joshua helped the 600,000+ population of 12 tribes to settle in the land they had walked and rode  for 40 years to settle in;  Canaan.  This was land they had left during a terrible famine for Egypt.   They were given explicit directions and instructions from G-d about this according to our Torah of who would settle where.  
                                                         

The tribe of Judah, the largest and the one we Jews are from, was given the southern portion of land.  Each tribe had their name for their section.  All 12 tribes together created Israel.  Hebron is in Judah, 18 miles south of Jerusalem.
Abraham had bought the land holding the Cave of Machpelah so he could have a place to bury his wife/niece, Sarah.  Today a mosque stands on the site and the Arabs have taken over the city. 
It looks like Jerusalem was actually in Benjamin which was the northern tip of Judah.   
                                                           

When King Solomon died in 920 BCE, a Civil War ensued between the North and the South, and the Temple, which was in Judah, was the most important to the people of Judah.  We were soon to see that the tribe of Judah was the final tribe left after Assyrians  had their way with Israel.  Israel lasted for 351 years before leaving Judah.  

Then the Babylonians took Judeans away forcefully to Babylonia where they lived in 597 BCE and again in 586 BCE, large numbers were deported.  This was 323 years later from the death of Solomon.  Judeans had lived in their own land of Judah for 685 years.  This is as if Americans from 1776 could continue on their land until the year 2461.  

 Luckily, most returned when King Darius allowed them with the admonishment of telling them to rebuild their temple, and they did!  Not all returned, however after this interlude of time.  There's always those who couldn't or wouldn't return and settled into the ways of Babylonians gladly.  
They had only been gone either 48 to 59 years, about 2 generations from the kidnapping.  

Romans came along and occupied Judah in 63 BCE  , then they burned Jerusalem and the Temple down in 70 CE, killing and taking people as slaves for markets to be slaughtered in their circuses with lions, or fodder for the army, etc.  The Romans took the land and gold from the Temple and changed the name to Judea.  Jews had lived in Judah up till this for the past 1,341 years. Jews almost got it back permanently but it lasted only for 4 years when General Bar Kokhba fought for Jerusalem's return in 132-135, with Romans winning.  They then renamed it as Palaestina after the worst enemy Israel and Judah had had, the Philistines.  Romans had been rebuilding Jerusalem as a Roman Colony and they had prohibited the act of circumcision on Jews.  This was 62 years after the burning of Jerusalem.  

Judea.  The Roman Stamp.  Again, not all Jews were dragged away or even escaped.  Some remained in hiding in their land that was full of hiding places.  They stayed until this very day.  True children of Judah.  Oh, but the geneticists would love to test them!  

We must remember that Abram-Abraham, born in the 2nd millennium BCE or about 1948 BCE,  had entered Canaan from the East around the Euphrates River area.  He had come with his father, Terah,  in a group of people.  His birthplace had been the city of Ur of the Chaldees and when they came they put up their tents in a land already populated by Canaanites and Philistines.  Ur is actually an ancient Babylonian city.  The city was highly civilized in Abram's time and showed archaeologists evidence of an extensive flood at an earlier date.  So these people were really roughing it in their trek to come across the land of Canaan and put up tents.  One wonders what forced them out of Ur?  Abram visited Egypt and then returned to live in Hebron.  Abraham's Y haplogroup (male line) is J1) since Moses and his brother Aaron through Aaron carry this Cohen haplogroup.  It's also shared with many Arabs, proving our history of being cousins.    

Jews who came again in a needed time of return to Eretz came from Eastern Europe and Russia via the Sea and they built Tel Aviv in 1909. Tel Aviv, the Hill of Spring, was the title of the Hebrew translation of Herzl's novel, Altneuland.  They were able to live in places according to the rules of the Ottoman Empire in the 1880s and onward.  That's why they didn't get to settle back into Judea and Samaria easily.  

Judea and Samaria.  What is Samaria?  Where is Samaria?  

Samaria was the capital of the northern kingdom of Israel after Solomon's death when they had lost the use of Jerusalem as their capital.  It was founded in about 880 BCE by the then king Omri on a hill bought from Shemer as told in detail in Kings 16:24.  The site was 7 miles NW of Shechem (today's Nablus) and was on an isolated elevation dominating a wide countryside.  The city was on 25 acres.   It fell in  721 BCE to Sargon II of Assyria who resettled it with Cutheans who intermingled with the remnants of the former Israelite population.  "The Cuthites were a people living in Samaria around 500 BCE, and were to blame for the postponing of the 2nd temple, in the reign of Cyrus the Great. They did this after the Jewish people returned from Babylonian exile, and first agreed to help them, but after the Jews refused, they lied to king Cyrus who postponed the building process."

The name, Samaria, also includes  the entire northern region of the central highlands of Palestine.  
                                                           

We come to the end of World War I when the Allies promise Jews a Jewish Homeland out of the area known as Palestine/first known as Palestinian Syria.  Palestine was only a piece of land, not a country belonging to anyone except at that moment, the Ottoman Empire who also just owned it for collecting taxes.  It was part of their empire, named by the Romans in their anger. Their intention was to minimize the Jewish association with the area.   The Allies won over the Axis which included the Ottoman Empire and gave a 30 year mandate to Britain to keep order.  Within a short time, this was sliced apart with a huge chunk given away by Britain to a prince of Saudi Arabia who created Trans-Jordan, that became Jordan.  Britain happens to be the Muslim country's greatest trader.  Whether it's that or oil, Britain was not about to be their enemy.  They had fought against the German invaders of gaining the Middle East even though the Ottoman Empire was on Germany's side.

Jordan's land given them by Britain was annexed by them in 1950. This annexation was considered illegal and was recognized only by Britain, Iraq and Pakistan.

Israel was in  a war started by its Muslim neighbors in 1967 which Israel won, so they occupied Judea and Samaria, called the West Bank as it was on the West side of the Jordan River, a border-line.  Jordan called it the "West Bank" in order to minimize the Jewish memories of ownership.  
                                                          

Israel's piece is the pale yellow color which includes parts
of Jerusalem.  How terrible to cut a city in parts east and west.
Today it is a whole city as it should be.  Arabs were not  moved.
Notice that Israel got the Negev Desert.  Boy!  

"The Oslo Accords, signed between the Palestine Liberation Organization and Israel, created administrative districts with varying levels of Palestinian autonomy within each area. Area C, in which Israel maintained complete civil and security control, accounts for over 60% of the territory of the West Bank.

Abbas of the PA has said that their Palestine will have absolutely no Jews in it.  Judea and Samaria has Jews now living there.  They will be kicked out.  There are 3 areas making up the land according to the Oslo agreements;  A, B, and C.  This would all be discounted.  As a state, they would be receiving weapons.  Gaza does, but illegally so.  So the world is expecting Israel to be attacked not only from Gaza but right next door-even from Jerusalem's east, to be attacked.  

                                                         

Jerusalem, center of 3 religions; Judaism, Christianity and Islam
with Jordan given rights on Temple Mount
Who suffers?  Jewish worshippers who aren't allowed near Muslim sites-
not even allowed to be seen moving lips.
Perhaps they can during Coronavirus days wearing masks? 

The West Bank, including East Jerusalem, has a land area of 5,640 km² plus a water area of 220 km², consisting of the northwest quarter of the Dead Sea.  As of July 2017 it has an estimated population of 2,747,943 Palestinians, and approximately 391,000 Israeli settlers, and approximately another 201,200 Israeli settlers in East Jerusalem. The international community considers Israeli settlements in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, illegal under international law, though Israel disputes this."  Professor Kontorovich defends Israel's interpretation as he is an inter-
national law expert.  

" The International Court of Justice advisory ruling (2004) concluded that events that came after the 1967 occupation of the West Bank by Israel, including the Jerusalem Law, Israel's peace treaty with Jordan and the Oslo Accords, did not change the status of the West Bank (including East Jerusalem) as occupied territory with Israel as the occupying power."  Logic makes this impossible, but one finds such courts always siding 

against the Jewish State.  

UPdate-5/21/20 From Kontorovich: " Today, the prevalent approach is that even though the land did not belong to Jordan, it was “Jordanian enough,” and therefore the laws of occupation and the Geneva Convention apply to it. "

"This is nonsense, because even if we assumed this was correct, the Geneva Convention no longer applies when there is a peace treaty, and there has been a peace treaty with Jordan since 1994. It has to be either one or the other: Either it belonged to Israel all the time and Israel liberated its own territory in 1967, and you can’t occupy your own territory. Alternatively, it was “Jordanian enough” in 1967 for the laws of occupation to apply. In that case, the peace treaty with Jordan nullified the Geneva Convention. The Oslo Accords even took it a step further and granted local self-government." 

Right now Israel has on their table, laying there since the end of the 1967 War 

which they won, the annexation of Judea-Samaria.  Jordan is in an uproar.  Iran

is threatening destruction of Israel.  The decision may come soon.  

What is happening?

"On 16 September 2019, in an interview with Israeli Army Radio, Netanyahu said "I intend to extend sovereignty on all the settlements and the (settlement) blocs," including "sites that have security importance or are important to Israel’s heritage," including the settlements in Hebron.

The application of Israeli law in the West Bank settlements has been described by commentators as "creeping annexation."

Update 5/20/20: To annex or not, that is the $64 question with so many American Jews against it.  Wouldn't it be fair to say that only Netanyahu's government has the obligation to decide such a decision?  We can put forth our opinion, but in the end, it is their right to decide.  I remember that Truman wanted to recognize Israel and all his men advised against it, but he did it anyway.  It was the best decision for the Jews of Palestine, even the ones living in the United States, and not bad at all for the USA.  Israel's big brother has benefited.  This annexation of Judea and Samaria is looked upon by the Israeli government as them being 53 years in arrears for the act.  It should have been done at the end of 1967's War.  They've given the Arabs every chance to be peaceful people, but it hasn't happened.  It hasn't yet.  

Update: 5/20/20:  "During the 1967 Six-Day War, Israel captured East Jerusalem, a part of the West Bank, from Jordan. It has remained occupied until the present day. On June 27, 1967, Israel unilaterally extended its law and jurisdiction to East Jerusalem and some of the surrounding area, incorporating about 70 square kilometers of territory into the Jerusalem Municipality. Although at the time Israel informed the United Nations that its measures constituted administrative and municipal integration rather than annexation, later rulings by the Israeli Supreme Court indicated that East Jerusalem had become part of Israel. In 1980, Israel passed the Jerusalem Law as part of its Basic Law, which declared Jerusalem the "complete and united" capital of Israel. In other words, Israel purported to annex East Jerusalem. The annexation was declared null and void by UNSC Resolutions 252, 267, 271, 298, 465, 476 and 478.

Israel and the territories Israel occupied in the Six-Day War.

Jewish neighborhoods have since been built in East Jerusalem, and Israeli Jews have since also settled in Arab neighborhoods there, though some Jews may have returned from their 1948 expulsion after the Battle for Jerusalem. Only Costa Rica recognized Israel's annexation of East Jerusalem, and those countries who maintained embassies in Israel did not move them to Jerusalem. The United States Congress has passed the Jerusalem Embassy Act, which recognizes Jerusalem as the united capital of Israel and requires the relocation of the U.S. embassy there, but the bill has been waived by presidents Clinton, Bush, and Obama on national security grounds. President Trump has begun the controversial process of moving the United States embassy to Jerusalem, but has not recognized the annexation of East Jerusalem."

"Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas ends security agreement with Israel and US"                           

Rockets shot from Gaza

    I haven't seen any security from Gaza at all which is in cahoots with Abbas.  Gaza is the PA's strongarm.  They have constantly been shooting mortars, missiles and rockets at Israel.  

"Declaration follows the creation of a new Israeli government which is officially contemplating annexation of some areas of the West Bank."  

Israel is made up of over 20% of Arabs who have equal rights with Jewish Israeli citizens.  

Gaza is ruled over by Arabs for their Arabs.  They swore to not have peace at the Khartoum Conference after 1967's loss in the war.  Israel had first cleared all their own Jewish citizens out of Gaza in order to give them more room, which was very hard on their citizens for sure!  They had to leave businesses that the Gazans destroyed.  
                                             

Being nice only got Israel snipers and bombers, people fighting with fire in kites, Tunneling to kidnap Jews better, every sort of hateful act.  And the world continues to harp on having a Palestinian State on Judah's remains, a sliver of land that the Jews finally held in their hands of the pie they were promised.  80% of their land had first gone to Jordan!  They were left with 20% now being harped up as sliced to make Palestine-leaving what?  10% of the original piece?  

Resource: 
https://jcpa.org/why-israeli-rule-in-the-west-bank-is-legal-under-international-law/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Bank
The New Standard jewish Encyclopedia
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/20/palestinian-leader-mahmoud-abbas-ends-security-agreement-with-israel-and-us
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proposed_Israeli_annexation_of_the_West_Bank
https://israel-nadene.blogspot.com/2015/05/the-true-legal-facts-on-green-line-near.html
Tanakh, Stone Edition
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annexation
Update: 5/21/20: https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?tab=wm#inbox/FMfcgxwHNVzMTxVwhKzcJSWkwWkXzbrR-Victor Sharpe Essay

Are Jewish Towns and Cities Eating Away Palestinian Lands?

Nadene Goldfoot
What are the Palestinian lands that are being settled by Jews?  The Palestinian leadership had been offered their own state back in 1947 when Israel was offered theirs.  In fact, Israel was promised their own homeland way before that which was including the “West Bank” (Judea and Samaria) which had originally been the Jewish Homeland, but the Palestinians rejected their offer, and kept rejecting it in years thereafter.  The English had cut off 80% of what was to become Israel and it was instead offered to the Arabs.

The Jews did not come into the West Bank again until the 1967 Six Day War when Israel was attacked by Jordan, Egypt and Syria,  and surprising everyone, won the battle.  That meant that Israel had the opportunity to take back East Jerusalem and unite it with the rest of the city under one mayor.  They did not move anyone out in doing so.

No Palestinians were moved out of Judea and Samaria.  Jews did move there.  It so happens that many families had been living there before 1948, like in Hebron,  and were attacked, killed and forced to flee for their lives, so now Jews have moved back again.  If Palestine is ever created, they plan to have no Jews living there at all.

Israel does patrol Judea and Samaria to keep people safe, as the Palestinians are known to attack Jewish communities.

The Arabs refused to take their land   every time it was offered, therefore there is no Palestinian land as yet, or may never come about at this rate.  They refuse to sit down and discuss terms with Israel.  For 64 years the land has remained "Occupied Territory" of Judea and Samaria.    There is no reason why Jews cannot build homes there except that the world community refuses to accept this fact..  

For the sake of peace with the Arabs,Israel left the Sinai in 1979 and disbanded 18 settlements.  Israel left Gaza in 2005 and disbanded 21 settlements.  Israel left the area in Judea and Samaria in 2005 disbanding 4 settlements we deemed illegal.  Israel  turned over the area to the Palestinian Authority to govern all civil situations but maintains the right of security enforcement  there.

The position of successive Israeli governments is that all authorized settlements are entirely legal and consistent with international law.In practice, Israel does not accept that the Fourth Geneva Convention applies de jure, but has stated that on humanitarian issues it will govern itself de facto by its provisions, without specifying which these are. The scholar and jurist Eugene Rostow has disputed the illegality of authorized settlements.

Under Israeli law, West Bank (Judea Samaria) settlements must meet specific criteria to be legal. In 2009, there were approximately 100 small communities that did not meet these criteria and are referred to as illegal outposts.

According to the Oslo accords of the 4th Geneva convention, both Israel and the Palestinian Arabs were barred from changing their status quo but both have built.  International law is listened to, but is not THE law of the land.

While 164 nations call the West Bank- Occupied Palestinian Territory, “the government of Israel holds that only territories captured in war from “an established and recognized sovereign” should be considered occupied territories.”  In my opinion, this would act as a deterrent for further attacks on a country.  They cannot just attack and get away with it without  paying the price.  This is what these 164 nations are trying to allow:  no penalty for attacking Israel in the 1967 War.

Resource: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Bank
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israeli_settlement

HOW HAMAS HURTS ITS OWN PEOPLE; Israel's Administered Areas After 1967:

Nadene Goldfoot

In 1967, Israel was attacked by massed Arab armies on its borders in what is known as the Six-Day War. The outcome was that Israel won and gained four territories that had been under the British Mandate of Palestine.

1. Judaea and Samaria, called "The West Bank" by outsiders had been under British mandate until 1948. From 1948 to 1967 it was ruled by Jordan, who annexed it in 1950. So Israel gained a part of the original land of King David and Solomon by the Arab's wanting to drive Israel into oblivion, only the tables were turned. Now Abbas has his Palestinians living there along with Israeli towns and villages. This is where they want to create their state of Palestine. By 1972 640,600 Arabs lived in this area of 2,270 sq. mi.

2. The Gaza Strip had also been under the British mandate until 1948. Between 1948 and 1967 it was administered by the Egyptian Military Government. It was not annexed to Egypt. This is where the Hamas terrorists have taken over. Hamas refuses to recognize Israel and is still intent on driving her into the sea. They had shelled Israel for eight years (8), driving Israel into finally a defensive action called Operation Cast Lead. They still continue to shell missiles into the area. By 1972 388,600 Arabs lived in this area of 140 sq. miles.

The Basic policy of Israel was that of hoping for a peace settlement. Until it did, they had these objectives:

1. Maintain conditions of security for Israelis and Arabs alike.

2. Enable people to live normal lives without losing contact with Arabs in other countries.

3. Make possible rapid economic development.

4. Encourage co-existence and cooperation between Arabs and Israelis, as an example for relations to come between the two people.

By 1972 things were tranquil and thriving. Local affairs were administered by the local population. Open bridges on the Jordan River allowed movement in either direction between the areas and the Arab States. Arabs and Israelis up to 1967 had lived separately and were starting to live in co-existence.

According to international law, the Israel Defence forces appointed military governors for each area. The commander is the top person, responsible for military and civilian branches. Local affairs were administered by the Arab population through existing bodies as municipalities and police. Israel officials working totaled 500 compared with 12,500 local personnel in these two areas.

There were 23 municipalities and 31 rural councils in Judea and Samaria and 3 municipalities and 7 rural councils in Gaza and N. Sinai. Municipal elections were held in Judaea and Samaria in 1972 in accordance with Jordanian law. 75 % of the people voted and as a result, half the mayors were replaced by new ones.

Up to 1967 the economy of these areas had been stagnating and unemployment was rampant. In September 1967 about 11% of the labor force in Judaea and Samaria were unemployed. By September 1972 less than 2% of the force of 134,000 were jobless.

In Gaza and N. Sinai 19% of men were jobless after the war; in 1972 98% of the labor force of 64,000 were working.

Then Hamas won in their elections. They probably coerced many to vote for them. Terrorism then ruled. From 1990 on, they shot missiles into Israel, and Israel held off from large attacks in return. By 2009 they had to stop these attacks. I wonder if these Arabs in Gaza are so terribly happy now that Hamas is in power. Is life so much better?

With every defensive step Israel takes, there are those who attack them for doing so. What do people think is going to happen if the Arabs attack Israel? Israel has done so much to bring peace into the area, but are rebuked for it. Rational thinking isn't a part of its deterrent's minds. I feel it's all anti-Semitism.

As Israel was trying to bring Arabs and Jews together in work and living conditions, Arabs were teaching in their own schools a hatred for Jews. Leaders of Muslim countries cannot tolerate a Jewish presence in their midst. Only Egypt and Jordan have been beginning to see benefits in having Israel as a neighbor. We've had Jews visit Egypt, which is good tourism. Both countries have lived without fear of war.

Yet I see in my own city, Americans that are not even Muslim, sympathize so much with the Palestinians that they condemn Israel's very existence. Even some Jews have bent so far over with self hatred that they have added their condemnations, joining the mob rule of intelligence. The newspaper prints letters and editorials condemning Israel's every move, but never says a thing about what is happening to Israel. Those of us wanting to defend the outrageous comments never get published.

I lived in Israel from 1980-1985, and experienced the Lebanon War of 1982. At least then we didn't worry about walking bombs. Bombs were found in things, like cartons and loaves of bread and such. I know what it was like to carry ID and have your bags searched at every entrance. I know what it's like to have bars on your living room windows and being in bomb shelters with your students.

What would have happened if Hamas had not been voted into power? There would be peaceful co-existence. Right now Gazans continue to live in hatred with the goal of wiping out Israel. Iran is the biggest spokesman of hatred in threatening through their terrorists to wipe out Israel. Israel has had to arm every citizen with gas masks at this latest threat that is coming from Lebanon.

In the meantime, Egypt was wilting with losing face from 1967's war, and Anwar Sadat in 1972 publicly stated that Egypt was committed to going to war with Israel, and that they were prepared to "sacrifice one million Egyptian soldiers." It happened and was called the Yom Kippur War happening during our most sacred period of fasting and asking for repentance in October of 73. And so it goes. Egypt lost land in that attack, also.

Resource: Facts About Israel 1973 division of information, ministry for foreign affairs, Jerusalem.

Writer Victor Sharpe is concerned about this subject and more and wrote the following:

http://www.thejerusalemconnection.us/news-archive/category/victor-sharpe

wikipedia

Golan Heights-Wine-Rockets From Lebanon

by Nadene Goldfoot

Lebanon has been shooting rockets into the Golan from Lebanon. The Golan Heights landed in Israel's hands since the Six-Day War of 1967. It is in the northeast corner of Israel, a sub-region of the Galilee.

There grow the vineyards about 4,000 feet above sea level from the Sea of Galilee towards Mount Hermon, where Israelis can ski.

Grapes, called the fruit of the vine, were listed as one of the seven blessed species of fruit in the land of Israel. Jews have been making wine in Israel since biblical times. In Roman times, wine from Israel was exported to Rome. By the 7th Century ACE, the Islamic Arabs wiped out the wine industy by pulling out the vines to close down the wineries as they did not drink wine. The Christian Crusaders that came from 1100 to 1300ACE revived winemaking, but Arabs returned, Jews were scattered and winemaking stopped.

A rabbi in Jerusalem in 1848 started a winery but it was short lived. By 1870 a Jewish agricultural college studied about wines and growing grapes. Finally in the late 1800's Baron Edmond James de Rothschild founded the modern Israeli wine industry.

There are six regions where the grapes are grown. Considering that Israel is about the size of New Jersey, you can see that everything is very close.

1. The Northern Galilee
2. Judean Hills around Jerusalem
3. Shimshon-between Judean Hills and Coast
4. Negev desert
5. Sharon plain just south of Haifa
6. Golan Heights.

Israel has been busy producing kosher wines that are mostly sweet that are exported to Jewish communities. However, the wine industry is growing. In the late 1960's the Carmel Winery, #5, made a dry table wine. By 1990, wineries like the Golan Heights Winery were winning awards at international wine competitions. By 2000 there were 70 wineries in Israel and by 2005 there were 140.

Now less that 15% of Israeli wine is for religious purposes. Some wineries are not even producing a separate Kosher line. The Golan Heights Winery and two other large producers account for more than 80% of the domestic market with the United States being the largest export receiver. Israel has been willing to adopt new technology and has a large export market. The culture in America is into wines with up-scale restaurants and love international wines. Israel has been exporting over $22 million worth of wine each year.

If you thought you were drinking the same wine grown in the bible days, you would be mistaken. Because of Muslim rule there are no more indigenous grape varieties. The wine industry uses French grape varieties imported in the late 19th century like Cabernet Sauvignon, chardonnay, Merlot and Sauvignon blanc. Also gaining in popularity are their Cabernet Franc, Gewurztraminer, Muscat Canelli, Riesling and Syrah. They also hae Emerald Riesling, Muscat of Alexandria and the crossing Argaman. The Golan Heights Winery is famous for its Yarden wines. Their label of GAMLA is very good. The Muscat of Alexandria comes the closest to the indigenous varieties of long ago.

Israel announced in 2008 that they would create a 150 acre wine park on the slopes between Zichron Ya'akov and Binyamina to promote tourism in the area and wine tourism in Israel in general.

Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israeli_wine
http://winetastingguy.com/?p=68&cpage+1#comment-2777

Missed Opportunities for a Palestine: Opting for Terror Instead

Nadene Goldfoot

The so called Palestinians missed many chances to create their own state, but opted instead for terrorizing Israel. That was more important to them. They missed their first chance in 1947 when the UN was partitioning the region and wanted to create two states.

In 1949 through 1967, Egypt and Jordan were the occupiers of Gaza and the West Bank. The Palestinians did not even try to create their own state then. It probably was not even in their minds to do so.

The Six Day War against Israel occurred in 1967, and Israel offered to withdraw from lands they captured in the winning of that war. The Palestinians refused the offer, and stated: no peace, no negotiations and no recognition of Israel. Thus, the land was in Israel's hands. Up to this time, we had no Israelis in any settlements in Gaza or the West Bank.

From 1968-1979, we see that 6,000 Israelis settled in these areas. Menachem Begin became Prime Minister in 1977. Terror from Palestinians did not deter us. Then we had a peace treaty with Egypt, and Israel removed their Sinai settlers in order to have peace with Egypt. In 1979 the Camp David treaty was created. Israel offered autonomy to the Palestinians, something just short of statehood that would have led to independence. This also allowed Israel to watch their behavior and see if they turned away from terrorism. At this time Israel had 136,109 settlers in the territories, which is about 1/4 the population of Portland, Oregon.

From 1995 to 1999 we had the 2nd Oslo Agreement and we continued to withdraw from territories while terror never stopped. Terror then escalated, and Israel realized peace was not to be with the Palestinians. At this time we had only a slight increase in population to 146,207 in the territories as we stopped withdrawing people from these areas.

In 2000 we had a 2nd Camp David and we probably reluctantly agreed to the creation of a Palestinian state in all of Gaza and most of the West Bank. We also promised to dismantle most of the West Bank and compromised on one point on Jerusalem; that being that East Jerusalem would be the capital of Palestine. To my great relief, Yasser Arafat rejected the deal without even countering another idea. For him it was all or nothing, no negotiations. At this time we had a growth in the territories to 203,067 Israelis. Ehud Barak was Prime Minister of Israel then.

Two years later in 2002 the Road Map to Peace was created. The Palestinians are asked to fulfill some commitments starting with ending the violence against Israel. Israel's part is to end the settling of the territories. However, the Palestinians just escalated their terror. The Road Map fails. Israel does evacuate all their citizens and soldiers from the Gaza Strip. Palestinians ignore the chance to build a state in Gaza to prove that they are interested in living as peaceful neighbors. Instead, Hamas takes over Gaza and fires over 10,000 rockets and missiles into southern Israel. Israel reels at the reality that they have traded land for terror, and are unwilling to discuss new territorial concessions. Why should they? The Palestinians are not behaving like Egypt did. At this point there are now 253,748 Israelis living in the West Bank. None are in Gaza.

Today Israelis have given up on the idea of trading land for peace for these deadly neighbors. Hamas has deadly rockets that could hit any part of Israel. Now the settlers in the West Bank total 276,000. It would be difficult to move and resettle them. What has stopped the state of Palestine from being created is the people's own rebellion and hatefulness toward their future neighbor, Israel. If the Palestinians would adopt the mind-set of Anwar Sadat, there would be a peaceful Palestine that would not be a threat to Israel. Evidently it is not to be.

Don't blame Israel for settling in the territories. What it was promised originally in the Balfour Declaration was a much larger Israel that was hacked up, until it became very small. If the Arabs don't ever intend on having peace with Israel, Israel is legally free to use the land they inherited from the Arab attacks that failed. That is a lesson; don't mess with Israel and attack it, or you suffer the consequences. Crime doesn't pay off. Somebody seems to be watching over Israel.

Resource: Mitchell Bard #69
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/talking/69_settlegrowth.html

The Gaza Strip and Israel

Israel was created in 1948, and immediately attacked by all the Arabs. Some Arabs, not many, were living in Palestine at the time. Some heeded their leaders’ advice and fled the area, only to become refugees. Those that stayed became Israeli citizens and make up 20% of the population of Israel. The Gaza Strip stretches for about 22 miles and is only 8 miles wide. The Egyptians attacked Israel in 1948 and went into the Negev and by December Israel had driven them out, except for the Strip. That's how it came to be.

After the war Egypt controlled the Gaza Strip and its more than 200,000 inhabitants but refused to let them into Egypt. Not only that, but Egypt wouldn’t allow them to move to any other country.

In June of 1949, Israel offered to accept the refugees if Egypt agreed to give up Gaza, but Cairo refused. Egypt’s handling of the Palestinians was so bad that Saudi Arabian radio said that Nasser’s regime in Gaza was like Hitler’s rule in occupied Europe in WWII.

In 1952 UNWRA was set up with a fund of $200 million dollars to provide homes and jobs for these refugees, but it wasn’t used at all.

In 1956, Egypt blockaded the Straits of Tiran and Nasser nationalized the Suez Canal. Nasser was fighting against Israel. He said his hatred of Israel was very strong and that there was no sense in talking about peace with Israel. 17 maritime powers said at the UN that Israel had a right to transit the Strait. The closure of the Strait of Tiran was the casus belli in 1967.

We had a war that started June 5, 1967 with Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon, and poised and ready to also attack were the armies of Iraq, Algeria, Kuwait, Sudan and the whole Arab nation. Israel came into control of the Gaza Strip by winning the war in six miraculous days. The Gaza Strip was originally in Egypt’s hands . At the end of this 1967 Six-Day War, it fell to Israel because Egyptian forces were ready to launch attacks from Gaza into Israel. We kept sovereignty over the area because the Arab leaders rejected Israel’s offers to return conquered territories in exchange for peace. Every Arab state had rejected UN resolutions 242 and 338. They had called for peace negotiations and the establishment of recognized borders for all states in the region.

The 1967 census found 352,000 people living in the Gaza Strip of whom 172,520 were Arab refugees.

Ralph Garroway, former director of UNRWA, said in 1958 that the Arabs don’t want to solve the refugee problem. They want to keep it like an open sore like a weapon against Israel. Arab leaders don’t give a damn whether the refugees live or die.

Israel kept control of the Gaza Strip and ceded all of the Sinai peninsula in its peace treaty with Egypt in 1979 because Anwar es-Sadat didn’t want to rule over more than one million Palestinians in the Strip anymore.

Israel provided economic assistance. Palestinians in the Gaza Strip were moved from camps to new homes. This caused protests from Egypt, who had done nothing for the refugees when it controlled the area. Arabs were given freedom of movement. They were allowed to travel to and from Jordan. Israel was treating them humanely. That was bad for aspiring terrorists who were not willing to accept Israel’s presence.

By 1994, Yassir Arafat rose to power after the Oslo Accords. The Gaza Strip was the center for terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians. In 1995 Israel built a fence around the whole Strip, with guarded crossing-points. This stopped terror attacks.

Arafat died in 2004 which gave rise to Hamas’s leadership in the Strip. Rocket attacks against Israel rained from Gaza, sometimes 80 per day, hitting civilian sites in Israeli communities in and near the Strip, like S’derot. This is still happening.

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon saw the the Palestinian leaders were not enforcing peace that Arafat had signed for at Oslo. Sharon wanted to show the world that he was all for peace, so had Israeli citizens move out of Gaza Strip in August of 2005, and also had several Jewish communities in the northern part of the West Bank move out also.

It was most costly to move 9,000 Israelis out of the Gaza Strip who had been in their homes for 35 years. Israel felt that they had to move because of the Arab’s hatred of Jews is so great that it would be hard to protect them. However, more than one million Arabs are settled peacefully in Israel without need for protection. Israelis felt that putting the Gaza Strip under Palestinian control would be starting the peace process. We haven’t had peace. Shelling of rockets continues, even now because in January 2006, Palestinians in Gaza voted for the Hamas terrorist group, who won on the stand of destruction of Israel and establishing an Islamic state from the river to the sea.

Israel had voted for peace while the Palestinians voted for terrorism. It appears that everyone is now trying to get Israel to return to the armistice lines of 1949, thinking that will bring peace.

The Arabs were threatening, planning and trying to destroy Israel at that time. They attacked us on three sides. This war cost Israel in 6 days twice as many dead in proportion to her total population as the USA lost in 8 years of fighting in Vietnam. For 18 years the Arabs had done hostile acts against Israel, had broken every relevant paragraph in the Armistice Agreements of 1949 which everyone had signed. It meant nothing to the Arabs.

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

Big Lies: demolishing the myths of the propaganda war against Israel by David Meir-Levi

The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia by Dr. Geoffrey Wigoder, D. Phil,

Battleground, Fact and Fantasy in Palestine bySamuel Katz

Giving Up Golan Heights For Peace ?

Nadene Goldfoot                                                                      

Giving Up Golan Heights For Peace

Let it not be said that Israel hasn't given up land for peace. It has in the past and is willing to do it again. Surprisingly, Israel's Olmert has offered Syria the Golan Heights in exchange for peace. He has asked that Syria cuts it ties with terrorist groups of Palestinians in Damascus. Israel had received the Golan Heights after the 1967 Six Day War where Syria was one of many Arab countries attacking Israel.

The problem is that the Golan Heights is now home to 20,000 Israelis. It is a beautiful area. Even the rabbis are against the offer and say it goes against Halacha. Army officials are saying that the topography is less important now than it was in 1967. Fighting has changed. What they might be worried about is guerilla warfare.

Reference: Jerusalem Post