Israel's Illegal Immigrants Problem

 Nadene Goldfoot

"A 37 year old terrorist, who entered Israel illegally from his village in Samaria, rammed his car into a 68 year old man in Beit She'an (in northern Israel), killing him," evidently on purpose.

Palestinians generally require specific permits from Israeli authorities to enter Israel legally for work or other exceptional humanitarian reasons, and these permits are often limited in number. For those without permits, illegal entry methods include: 

• Breaching the barrier: Individuals often use ropes or makeshift aids to climb over sections of the Israeli West Bank barrier where there are breaches or known weak points.
• ** circumventing checkpoints**: While there are official checkpoints, many illegal entrants bypass these by finding unsecured routes, particularly in rural or less monitored areas along the "seam line" separating the West Bank from pre-1967 Israel.
• Smuggling: Smugglers are also involved in facilitating the movement of people across the border. 

Israeli officials report that thousands of Palestinians attempt to enter Israel illegally each month using these methods. Security forces work to thwart these attempts, with arrests of large groups being a regular occurrence. 

The map above shows Samaria, in Hebrew-Shomron), the northern land and Judea the southern including Jerusalem. ; which had been the capital of the northern kingdom of Israel that was founded in about 880 BCE by King Omri of Israel; built on a hill bought from Shemer (I Kings 16:24).  The site was 7 miles NW of Shechem, now Nablus, and was on an isolated elevation dominating a wide countryside consisting of 25 acres. The name, Samaria, is also applied to the entire northern region of the central Highlands of Eretz Yisrael. 

The Assyrians, led by King Shalmaneser V and completed by Sargon II, conquered Samaria, the capital of the Northern Kingdom of Israel, around 722 BCE after a three-year siege, leading to the deportation of many Israelites and the settlement of foreigners in the region, creating the people known as Samaritans.   

It was later passed to the Neo-Babylonian Empire, then the Persians, and was rebuilt by Herod the Great as Sebastia. 

 The Second Temple in Jerusalem was destroyed by the Romans in 70 CE (Common Era), specifically on the 9th of Av (around August 30th) during the First Jewish-Roman War, marking a catastrophic event that ended the Second Temple period and reshaped Jewish history. Roman forces under General Titus besieged the city and set fire to the Temple after months of fighting. 

Jews got control of the biblical region of Samaria (referred to by Israel as Judea and Samaria) back after the 1967 Six-Day War, when Israel captured it from Jordan, restoring Jewish authority over the area for the first time since the Second Temple's destruction, leading to the re-establishment of Jewish communities there.

 A short time later our 37 year old terrorist rammed into a 16 year old, lightly injuring him. 

The terrorist then drove onto Highway 71 toward the Ein Harod area, where he rammed a vehicle carrying a 19-year-old woman near Kibbutz Tel Yosef. The woman, Aviv Maor of Kibbutz Ein Harod Ihud, managed to flee her car, but the terrorist chased her and stabbed her to death.                                       

The terrorist then drove toward Afula, where he was stopped near the city and neutralized by a security guard.  Afula is located in the Jezreel Valley (also known as the Valley of Megiddo) in the Northern District of Israel, in the region historically known as the Lower Galilee, not in Samaria or Judea. It is often referred to as the "Capital of the Valley" due to its central location. While Afula is geographically separate from the regions of Judea and Samaria, it is close to the administrative border with the northern West Bank (Samaria region), which has made it a target of terrorist attacks in the past.

Afula, Israel, had a population of approximately 64,578 in 2023, though recent estimates for 2025 place it around 54,250, with figures varying slightly depending on the source and date. It's a diverse city in the Jezreel Valley, known as the "Capital of the Jezreel Valley," with a predominantly Jewish population alongside Arab residents and immigrants from places like Ethiopia, the former Soviet Union, and Latin America.

Resource:

israelAM

https://bible.ucg.org/bible-commentary/2-Kings/Fall-of-Samaria;-Rest-of-Israel-deported/

Terror Attack Against Jews On The Freeway of Judah

 Nadene Goldfoot                                              

Terror attacks on Jews in Israel are not stopping.  One happened yesterday when Aharon Cohen, age 71, from Kiryat Arba, was attacked and killed  at the Gush Etzion Junction in Judah.  He was  a resident of the Judea-Samaria (West Bank) settlement of Kiryat Arba near Hebron, local authorities announce.   

Judah's Gush Etzion Junction (Hebrew: צומת גוש עציון, romanized: Tzomet HaGush Etzion), also known simply as Gush Junction, is a 120-dunam (0.12 km²; 0.046 sq mi) business, commercial and tourism center in the southern West Bank, which serves as the entry point to the Gush Etzion bloc of settlements. It is administered by the Gush Etzion Regional Council.  Long known as a "congenial meeting spot for Israelis and Palestinians," in the fall of 2015 the junction was the site of about ten Palestinian attacks against Israelis

 

 Beitar Illit, the largest city in Gush Etzion, was founded in 1985, 40 years ago

Gush Etzion  (Hebrew: גּוּשׁ עֶצְיוֹן, lit. Etzion Bloc) is a cluster of Israeli settlements located in the Judaean Mountains, directly south of Jerusalem and Bethlehem in the West Bank. The core group includes four Jewish agricultural villages that were founded in 1943–1947, and destroyed by the Arab Legion on May 13, 1948 in the 1948 Palestine war, in the Kfar Etzion massacre. The area was left outside of Israel with the 1949 armistice lines. These settlements were rebuilt after the 1967 Six-Day War, along with new communities that have expanded the area of the Etzion Bloc. As of 2011, Gush Etzion consisted of 22 settlements with a population of 70,000.  They find themselves out of the area left for Jews.  It had always been discussed with the government to one day have a trade off of land and they would be included.  

Judah's Kiryat Arba or Qiryat Arba is an urban Israeli settlement on the outskirts of Hebron, in the southern Israeli-occupied West Bank. Founded in 1968, in 2023 it had a population of 7,572, slightly bigger than Gush Etzion. Hebron is mentioned.  It is a very important city in Jewish history, and Jewish people have tried to get as close to it as they can.  In the Bible it is also called Kiriath Arba, a city in the land of Judah.  It is only 18 miles south of Jerusalem.  It was Abraham, father of both Jews and Muslims, who bought a plot of land that held the Cave of Machpelah in order to bury his niece who also was his wife, Sarah.  Today, a mosque stads on the site.  Today, both must deal with this problem as Jews pray here.  

Hebron as it looked in 1839, a painting by David Roberts

The man murdered in the terror attack yesterday was Aharon Cohen, 71, from Kiryat Arba. The father of one of the 2 Palestinian terrorists who murdered Cohen and wounded 3 others and who were killed, praised his son for dying as a martyr and said that he had looked forward to such an event his whole life. Abraham and Sarah lived in about 1948 BCE.  

Border Police sappers inspect a car belonging to two Palestinian terrorists following an attack at the Gush Etzion Junction in the West Bank, November 18, 2025. (Israel Police)

The attack was carried out by two Palestinian assailants who accelerated their vehicle into people at the junction, before one got out and stabbed several victims, according to preliminary findings by the Israel Defense Forces.  They were later identified by Palestinian officials as Imran al-Atrash and Walid Sabarneh, both 18.  In the aftermath of the attack, several explosive devices were discovered in the vehicle and disarmed.  Both terrorists were shot dead by security forces at the scene, the IDF and first responders said.

I note that Aharon Cohen had remained in Judah the whole time; lived in Judah and was killed in Judah.  Judah was our last stand through the ages of our Israel, made up of the 12 lands of the 12 sons of Jacob.  We Jews come from the land of Judah.  

Resource:  

The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia

https://www.thetorah.com/article/kiryat-arba-is-hebron-but-is-it

Who Lives in Judea and Samaria Today?

Nadene Goldfoot                         

Jewish Cities, Towns and Villages

                in Judea-Samaria  

Israel won the Six Day War in 1967, a war started by the aggression of surrounding Arab nations.  Chances of winning were nil so it was a miracle that they did.  Since then 53 years have gone by.  
Today there are in Judea and Samaria almost 200 cities, towns and a few villages that are populated by Jews; Jew who do care about their history, as this is the most historic area in Jewish history.  There are cities with the population of over 73,000 to villages of 150 population in Judea and Samaria.  These are lumped together by foreigners who call them all "settlements".  People don't realize the closeness that is going on in teeny Israel.  For instance, a "settlement" may exist only a few miles away from Jerusalem.  
                                              

        Update: 5/21/20 Area A:  Area A is the space in which the PA has political and military jurisdiction over its residents – all of whom are Arab.

This includes all of the major towns and their immediate environs – with the partial exception of Jewish Hebron, which came under exclusive Israeli control in the 1997 Hebron protocol between Israel and the PLO. This area comprises approximately 18 percent of Judea and Samaria’s land mass.

Area B:  In Area B, Israel and the PA share jurisdiction.
                                               

Judea and Samaria's Area CArea C, controlled by Israel under Oslo Accords, in blue and redMOST OF geographic Judea and Samaria (60% of the area) is designated Area C, over which Israel has exclusive jurisdiction both administratively and in security matters.

Area C’s distinguishing characteristic is that it was sparsely populated – by Arab or Jewish inhabitants.

It's interesting the the some towns Arabs are living in have history as Jewish towns.  "One-quarter of the 584 Arab localities in Israel and beyond the Green Line have ancient Biblical names. For example, Sakhnin was a Jewish town during the Talmudic era, and Beit Lehem is the Hebrew name for the biblical city of Bethlehem."  Homes have been found to still bear very old Hebrew inscriptions on them.  

Most Arabs are as new in Israel as many of the Jews were for as researcher/journalist Joan Peters explained, came in following Jewish immigrants from surrounding areas to obtain jobs in building.  They were allowed to enter the country by the British who prevented Jewish immigration at the same time.  

The name Judea, when used in Judea and Samaria, refers to all of the region south of Jerusalem, including Gush Etzion and Har Hebron. The region of Samaria, on the other hand, refers to the area north of Jerusalem. East Jerusalem has been incorporated into the Jerusalem District and is under Israeli civilian rule, and is thus excluded from the administrative structure of the Judea and Samaria Area. 
Jerusalem is now a united city, no longer divided.
                                           

                     Yellow area is Israel includes all of Jerusalem
                      Red Stripes-Area C most likely
                      http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/227750
          West Bank is not just land along the Jordan River but the whole mountain range of Judea and Samaria.  It is simply the appetizer if taken over for the dinner of the USA if attacked by enemies.  Comment by Mark Langfan.  

Almost 450,000 Jews live in Judea and Samaria today. That's close to Portland, Oregon's population in 1990.  
There are about 2.5--2.7 million Arabs living there as well,
about the same population as Toronto, Canada was in 2016.  
The state of Israel now has a little over 6 million Jews and over 2 million Arabs, all who can vote.  Total as of today is
8,655,535.   

Israel's land size is 8,550 sq. miles
Judea-Samaria's land size is 2,270 miles.  
                  Total size:  10,820 sq. miles
Total size of Portland, Oregon is 145 sq. miles
Total size of Toronto, Canada is 243.3 sq miles

Israel was once compared to New Jersey's 7,439 sq miles, but Massachusetts might be as close with a listed 7,838 sq. miles.  Are they including the Dead Sea in Israel's measurements?  

"As we have made consistently clear, we are prepared to recognize Israeli actions to extend Israeli sovereignty and the application of Israeli law to areas of the West Bank that the vision foresees as being part of the State of Israel," US State Department spokesperson says.
  
Resource:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Israeli_settlements
https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/05/19/israel-west-bank-annexation-reshaping-middle-east/
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-52680096
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/israels-netanyahu-armed-with-a-new-mandate-sets-his-sights-on-west-bank-annexation/2020/05/12/1b363612-938c-11ea-87a3-22d324235636_story.html
https://www.timesofisrael.com/saudi-arabia-condemns-israeli-plans-for-annexation-in-west-bank/
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/07/opinion/contributors/annexing-west-bank-israel-palestinians.html
https://apnews.com/48a4df69f8735ef54fdf356cd004ce1f
https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3085463/china-voices-concern-over-israels-west-bank-annexation-plan

https://www.israelhayom.com/2020/04/28/report-us-prepared-to-recognize-israeli-annexation-of-judea-and-samaria/
https://www.jpost.com/blogs/the-zionist-advocate/occupied-territories-hebrew-origins-of-palestinian-arab-towns-in-judea-samaria-478675
https://israel-nadene.blogspot.com/2015/05/the-true-legal-facts-on-green-line-near.html
https://www.jpost.com/magazine/knowing-your-abc-448963
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/03/arabs-outnumber-jews-israel-occupied-territories-official-180326181707023.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_the_Palestinian_territories
https://israel-nadene.blogspot.com/2010/12/israel-judeasamaria-west-bank-and-gaza.html  in 2010

Palestinians in Judea and Samaria Act Out

Nadene Goldfoot                                                               

We're always hearing about the rockets, mortars and missiles coming from Gaza and hitting southern Israel.  Judea and Samaria are acting out as well in different ways.

From June 11th to the 17th , 2013, there have been 72 rock throwing incidents of Arabs throwing rocks at Jews, and 15 firebomb attacks.  Before this there was a stabbing incident where Eviatar Borovzky was stabbed to death by a Palestinian.

 

"The name Judea, when used in Judea and Samaria, refers to all of the region south of Jerusalem including Gush Etzion and Har Hebron. The region of Samaria, on the other hand, refers to the area north of Jerusalem. East Jerusalem has been incorporated into Jerusalem District and is under Israeli civilian rule. Jerusalem is undivided today.  That part of the West Bank is thus excluded from the administrative structure that is the Judea and Samaria Area."

By 1967, there were 565,904 Muslims living in Judea and Samaria. By July 1972, there were almost 1 million Arabs living in Israel's administered areas.  640,600 were in Judea and Samaria on land that was 2,270 sq miles.   Today there are about 2,316,700.  As of February 2013, there were 360,000 Jews living in both Judea and Samaria.   There are 1.7 million Arabs living in Israel.  

Judea and Samaria are acting like a buffer zone between 4 million Jews of the Tel Aviv and Netanya corridor.  This original Israelite land is the Iron Dome for the 6 million Jews of today's Israel.  There is nothing else protecting them from the land of Jordan, Iraq, Saudi Arabia,  Syria, and Lebanon and the ultimate Iranian  incursion.  

Resource:  https://www.facebook.com/idfonline
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judea_and_Samaria_Area
http://www.algemeiner.com/2013/02/14/jewish-population-in-judea-and-samaria-on-the-rise/
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/History/demograhics.html
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/fields/2119.html#we
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/settlers-riot-after-west-bank-terror-attack-6-arrested.premium-1.518394
Facts About Israel, Division of information, ministry for foreign affairs, Jerusalem

SAMARIA; PAST AND PRESENT FOR JEWS; Dealing with Rock Throwing Arabs

                            A view of the Kana Nature Reserve, Karnei Shomron. In Biblical times, 
               the Kana Stream (center) divided the tribal portions of Ephraim and Manasseh.                                    
Nadene Goldfoot
Samaria,founded way after King Solomon had died in 920 BCE,  also called Shomron, Capital of the northern kingdom of Israel, founded in 880 BCE by King Omri (887-876 BCE) on a hill bought from Shemer.  It's cited in I Kings 16:24)  It fell in 721 BCE to Sargon II of Assyria.  He brought in another population while taking ours away.  It is where the ancient Jewish tribes of Judah, Benjamin, Ephraim and part of Menasseh lived, Judah being the largest of the 12 tribes.  It is the very heartland of our ancient Eretz Yisrael (Israel).  Leave it to the British who held the mandate after WWI.  They did not know enough to include this territory into the National Jewish Homeland possibly because our friend, Emir Feisal, wanted to create Transjordan at the same time.  He was friendly with us as long as he got his fair share of land for having fought with the British against the Ottoman Empire.  But what a piece!  Our heartland!

"The world declares that the Jewish settlements in Judea and Samaria are illegal and must be destroyed and the Jews relocated. They base their claim on either the Geneva Convention, UN General Assembly Resolution 181, UN Security Council Resolution 242, or any number of other documents. The facts, however, prove otherwise. The Jewish settlements in Judea and Samaria are, in fact, quite legal, under the provisions set forth in the previously mentioned documents and others, including the Balfour Declaration and the League of Nations Mandate for Palestine."

Are we Jews in Samaria illegally?  We think not.  "According to Eugene Rostow, a former Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs in the Johnson Administration, Resolution 242  gives Israel a legal right to be in the West Bank. The resolution “allows Israel to administer the territories” it won in 1967 “until 'a just and lasting peace in the Middle East' is achieved,” Rostow wrote in The New Republic (10/21/91). During the debate on the resolution, he added, “speaker after speaker made it clear that Israel was not to be forced back to the 'fragile' and 'vulnerable' [1949] Armistice Demarcation Lines.”"  Rostow is not alone.  There are many international lawyers who are in agreement with him.

"Perhaps the most significant of these decisions was the San Remo Resolution of 1920, which recognized the exclusive national rights of the Jewish People to the Land of Israel on the strength of their historical connection to the territory then known as Palestine. The outcome of this resolution was the 1922 Mandate for Palestine, an historical League of Nations document that formally established the legal right for Jews to settle anywhere in western Palestine, between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea. This includes  all of Judea and Samaria."

Maayana Miskin writes of an attack that happened to a Bitons, a Jewish family driving along in their car in Yakir, Samaria by rock-throwing Arabs. The town was near Ariel. Ariel  is one of 5 large cities in Samaria.  It is only 10.3 miles away from the Green Line established after the 1967 attack on Israel.  Ariel was established in 1978 and now has a population of 18,000. It is 21 miles west of the Jordan River.   "It is composed of veterans and young Israelis, English-speaking immigrants, and immigrants from the former Soviet Union with an additional influx of 10,000 students.  It is the fourth largest Jewish city in the West Bank,  Yakir is a town with 260 families and the population is about 1,300. It was developed in 1981 and is an Orthodox Jewish community about 35 km (21 miles)  east of Tel Aviv.    Their two-year-old girl was critically wounded in a rock attack  on Thursday night and remains in extremely serious condition.

The girl, Adelle Biton, was in a car along with her mother and two older sisters, 6-year-old Naama and 4-year-old Avigail.  Adelle was most seriously hurt. Her mother suffered moderate-to-serious injuries and the two  girls are in moderate condition.All four were wounded when Arab men hurled rocks at a truck traveling the opposite direction, causing it to veer off course and hit their car.

“The two-year-old toddler is in critical condition,” a doctor at Beilinson hospital said. “We aren’t giving up, we’re doing everything we can to save her. We’re optimistic.”

Just minutes before the attack in which the family was injured, terrorists carried out a similar attack targeting a car driven by a man from Eli. That attack wounded a one-year-old baby boy. The child suffered light injuries and is expected to recover.

A former MK’s wife was hurt in a third rock attack Thursday. Aviva Hazan, who lives in Ariel, was hit in the eye by broken glass when terrorists hurled stones at a bus headed for Tel Aviv, breaking its windows.
The attacks Thursday led to renewed calls for the army to take rock attacks seriously and to change the rules of engagement to encourage soldiers to fire on rock-throwers. The IDF has since arrested 10 suspects in one of the attacks.

By 1973 almost a million Arabs lived in the administered area.  640,600 of them lived in both Judea and Samaria which is 5,900 sq km or 2,270 sq miles.  The population of the areas was predominantly Moslem.  It was also called the West Bank of the Jordan, now spoken of as "West Bank" incorrectly.  Between 1948 and 1967 it was ruled by Jordan, which annexed it in 1950.  By 67 it was under Israel's administration.

Israel administered Judea-Samaria and local affairs were administered by the local population.  Open bridges on the Jordan allowed movement in either direction between the areas and the Arab States.  Arabs and Israelis, who until 1967 had lived in mutual separation and estrangement, began after 1967 to enjoy the beginnings of a peaceful and fruitful co-existence.  The hope was that this would contribute towards a transformation of Arab-Israeli relations from conflict into cooperation.

As of February 14, 2013 the Jewish population numbers 360,000 of both Judea and Samaria.  It has had its problems.    Arab leaders, Fatah and Hamas have had other ideas. They want Judea, Samaria, Gaza and East Jerusalem as their Palestine and it is to be Judenrein, free of all Jews.  They want all Jews to move out.  Yet, at the same time, Fatah is broke.  They do not have money on their own but must depend on the other Arab states to give them money.  At the same time they teach their population through schools and TV programs to hate the Israelis.  This rock throwing is a good example of the ethics they are learning.

 The rock throwers show their true goals of not accepting Israelis. However,  " Miri Maoz-Ovadia, spokesperson for the Binyamin Council, the largest council in Judea and Samaria, told Tazpit News Agency that the increase in the Jewish population growth rate is evidence of the prosperity of the region. “This prosperity has been supported by a development of joint industrial areas, shopping centers  open to all populations and an increase of tourism throughout the region. We hope that the development continues for the benefit of all residents living in Judea & Samaria.”"  Today's presence of an Arab population in Samaria should not in any way detract from the time-honored Jewish rights to this land.  

Resource: Arutz Sheva: http://www.israelnationalnews.com article by Maayana Miskin
Facts about Israel

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Peace/settlements.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ariel_(city)

http://emetnews.org/analysis/are_settlements_illegal.php
http://www.jewishpress.com/indepth/opinions/what-judea-samaria-mean-to-the-jewish-people/2013/01/17/#

http://www.algemeiner.com/2013/02/14/jewish-population-in-judea-and-samaria-on-the-rise/

http://shomroncentral.blogspot.com/p/5-legal-rights-to-samaria.html

Clashes in West Bank (Judea-Samaria)

 Nadene Goldfoot                                     Judea-Samaria  (West Bank)
                        
Does anyone realize that the West Bank (Judea-Samaria) happens to be the very land that was ancient Israel?  King David, of the tribe of Judah,  had ruled over Israel with Jerusalem as his capital in about 1,000 BCE.  It split into 2 kingdoms with Judah keeping the Davidic dynasty and Jerusalem while Israel made Samaria its capital.  This "West Bank" was to be part of the Jewish Homeland in the original plans with Britain who held the mandate. Jordan had illegally grabbed the area in 1948 as it lies next to his state, allowed or encouraged Palestinians to live there, and it didn't come under Israel's domain until 1967.   Now, the land is designated to become "Palestine" when the conditions become peaceful.  The catch is that Abbas and his crew plan to have it devoid of Jews, just like the Nazi plan of Judenrein.  Israel contains 1.4 million Arabs but the Arabs' state is to have zero Jews.

350,150 Jewish Israelis now lived in this area as it holds so many places and feelings for Jews. 300,000 Jews also live in East Jerusalem, which is also counted as part of the "West Bank."   Palestinian Arabs also live here. Area C of the West Bank is 70% Jewish.   Now that Gaza has quieted down, clashes are happening in many cities.  There are 4 Palestinian prisoners who decided to go on a hunger strike, and all belong to terrorist groups and are dangerous.  For some reason, the Arab population in the West Bank have suddenly started rioting, demanding they be released.

Now, another new prisoner, Arafat Jaradat, 30 years old, arrested for throwing rocks at Jews in Judea, was found dead in his cell and the crowd's immediate conclusion was that he had been tortured to death.    Israeli officials deny this and said that bruises on his body were from resuscitation.  They thought he had died from a heart attack.  An autopsy was done Sunday which was observed by a Palestinian doctor who was the Palestinian Prisoners Minister Issa Qaraqi.  He saw bruises on the chest, back, arms and mouth.  His conclusion was torture during interrogation causing psychological shock leading to immediate death.  Now Palestinians are calling for an international inquiry of the jails and how Jaradat died.  Israel is saying they need the results of a toxicology and other tests are completed and that torture didn't happen.    His body was returned to the family for burial today.

Before this unfortunate event happened, clashes were going on in Hebron, Ramallah, Bethlehem, Jenin and at checkpoints in East Jerusalem and south of Nablus. between IDF and young Palestinians.  With so many clashes going on at the same time, I feel they  had been purposely organized.  President Obama is due to arrive in Israel on March 20th, so somebody is stirring up trouble here.

Palestinians threw rocks and Molotov cocktails against Israeli soldiers who used tear gas and rubber bullets. The outcome was 4 protesters that were seriously wounded, report  the Palestinians.

Torture seems to be a world cry right now.  President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan is charging the USA that they are torturing and murdering innocent people and ordered all US special operations forces to leave a province in 2 weeks.  This results in  calling in NATO airstrikes in populated areas citing civilian casualties.  We're supposed to be out of there by 2014.  In the meantime, Taliban suicide bombers targeted Afghan security forces in 3 different attacks on Sunday with the results of 4 Afghan security men and one civilian killed.  Karzai is pinpointing US special forces in Wardak for harassing, annoying, torturing and murdering innocents.

Resource: Oregonian newspaper 2/25/13 Riots follow West Bank death by Edmund Sanders and Maher Abukhater, LA Times.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Bank
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israeli_settlement
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jul/26/jewish-population-west-bank-up
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Peace/settlepop.html
http://baruchsbreeze.blogspot.com/2012/09/official-yesha-population-stats-yossi.html

Jordan's King Abdullah II Offers Help in Peace Process

Nadene Goldfoot
King Abdullah II  of Jordan is working with European countries to get negotiations between the Palestinians and Israel back on track.  He said that "Settlements are eating up all of Palestinian lands!

Is he talking about land thought about for a Palestine state way back in 1948 when Arafat was offered the chance to have his own stateand refused it?  Is this the land that has been repeatedly offered by Israel through left and right governments with negotiations, of course ever since then and refused by Arafat and now Abbas?    Is this the same land that Abbas wants with conditions going his way first before he will deem himself to sit down in the presence of Netanyahu?

Is this part of the land that was planned originally for the Jewish Homeland after World War I with all the nations of the world in agreement?

This is the same land that Jordan stole after being rewarded with Transjordan?   In 1948 they just helped themselves to the Jewish Homeland in an aggressive action and took Judea and Samaria  along with east Jerusalem.  The Jews wound up with only 20% of the original Homeland promised not only by Britain but by all the nations at the San Remo Conference.

Palestinians were Jews and Arabs, so evidently "Palestinian land" should include Jews as well, since there was no state of Palestine ever.  It was simply the name of the former land of Judah and Israel.    We can blame the Romans for giving it that name in 135 CE when Judah lost the last battle in which Bar Kokhba made a last stand against Rome after they burned Jerusalem in 70 CE.

For 64+ years Israel has waited and offered  peace but instead have received mortars, rockets and missiles from people who had a chance for peace and their own state.  For every rocket hitting Israel, Israel should build another city in this "so called Palestinian land."  For Israelis  haven't built pioneer settlements and stockade but cities; nice sized cities in these past 64 years.  Israel is building in the legitimate area that was cordened off to be a part of Israel.

Israel hasn't remained the size of the original 600,000 in 1948 but have taken in all the Jews from around the world, especially from the Muslim countries who were treated as 2nd class citizens or worse as dhminnis.  France and every other country where anti-Semitism has been blatent have driven Jews back home along with religious Jews who swore never to forget Jerusalem and haven't.   From being treated by religious fanatics as unwanted and unforgiven,  to suffering from pogroms and finally  almost wiped out through a holocaust,  our 6 million are going to fight for their rights as a people.  There are no other people on the face of this earth who have suffered as much as the Jews have and deserve their own home again.  The mirror-image of this is that there are no other people who have offered so much to the world, either.  So go figure that one out; from the 10 Commandments to Nobel prizes to medical discoveries that are beneficial to all.

The only thing that has come out of the Muslim world for Israel is the action and word of wiping Israel off the map.  In fact, who among them even prints Israel on their maps these days?  Israel may only consist of 6 million Jews and are up against a Muslim world of billions, but they are as essential to this world as anyone else and are not about to be wiped  out.  Israel is aware of a people who call out that what Hitler didn't accomplish, they will.

So it's good that King Abdullah b: 1962  sees that the longer the Palestinians hold out for what they  demand  without regard to Israel's legitimate international legal rights and history, the more they are losing land.  His own father, King Hussein,  didn't fare so well when he joined the gang in attacking Israel in 1967.  It was Jordan who lost the West Bank and East Jerusalem.  After all, Jordan has their own hand's full being a kingship over a big population of Palestinians himself.  His country even fought against them.  Now that he governs so many, he knows that he doesn't want to take anymore into his country. He even has protesters trying to get rid of him in the sweep of the Arab Spring.   He wants them to have their own space, and so does Netanyahu.  I imagine King Adbullah has enjoyed peace between Israel and Jordan since 1967. He has never known war, having been only 5 years old in the last one.

Resource: Jerusalem Post http://www.jpost.com/
http://maurice-ostroff.tripod.com/id350.html San Remo Conference
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hussein_of_Jordan
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdullah_II_of_Jordan
http://articles.latimes.com/2012/nov/16/world/la-fg-jordan-protests-20121117

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