Palestinian Journalist Claims Israel No Apartheid State

Condensed by: Nadene Goldfoot

Khaled Abu Toameh is a Palestinian journalist who is also a citizen of Israel. He writes about Palestinian affairs, mainly on Judea and Samaria (West Bank) and Gaza. His past history was writing for the Palestinian press when the PLO was in command. Now he writes for the Jerusalem Post about Palestinian issues.

He feels that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is about "Israel's very existence in this part of the world." Being a journalist interested in writing the truth, he's always looking for facts and truth.

He said that Israel is no apartheid state, but there are problems and some discrimination with the Arab minority. However, in an apartheid state he would not be working for a Jewish newspaper or live in a Jewish neighborhood or own a home, which he does. The laws of Israel do not distinguish between a Jew or an Arab. It's a free and open country with a democracy that respects the freedom of the media. He feels he can write any anti-Israel story and does not worry about his safety and that there is freedom to be a journalist in Israel. Here he is, a Palestinian Arab that only finds his freedom of expression in writing for a Jewish newspaper. How ironic!

Toameh said that if you want to find an apartheid state, look at Lebanon where the law bans Palestinians from working in 50+ professions. Apartheid is alive and well in many Arab and Muslim nations like Kuwait. His Palestinian uncle has been living there for 35 years and is still banned from buying a house.

Toameh continued saying that we should believe Hamas when they say they want to destroy Israel. Stop analyzing Ahmadinejad when he says he also wants to destroy Israel. He means it. The PLO, however, will say one thing in English and another in Arabic. Abbas is corrupt and weak without much power. The only reason he continues with the power he has is due to Israel's existence. If Israel had to withdraw to the 67 borders Abbas would collapse and Hamas would take over. He tells Israel not to give Abbas one inch of land in Judea and Samaria.

America and others need to tell Arab governments to stop the incitement that feeds radicals. Billions of dollars in aid from US and EU have been supporting various Arab dictatorships. They need to stop calling for Israel's death. We need to weaken Iran, Hizbullah and Hamas, the enemies of peace so that moderates can speak out. Military action is something they do understand, not talk and appeasement.

Resource: Abou Toameh, a Palestinian journalist's point of view. 8 page printout by Arsen Ostrovsky.

Ramallah, West Bank

Rumbling in Judea/Samaria "West Bank"

Nadene Goldfoot

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

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

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

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

Where's Peace and Good Will Towards Israelis?

Nadene Goldfoot

While most of us bask in the holiday spirit of peace on earth and good will towards all, Israel is still findng itself in a game of Dodge Ball, only with deadly rockets and missiles.

Two Islamic Jihad terrorists were killed while planting a bomb along the border of Gaza meant to blow up Israelis. This happened on the eve of Operation Cast Lead of two years ago when Israel had to go into Gaza to stop the thousands of missiles that had been shot into Israel for the past 6 years. While the Palestinian terrorists claim that they want a truce, they keep shooting at Israel. This morning they shot 2 rockets into the Eshkol region of the Southern Negev desert, part of Israel. This escalation of attacks on Israel may lead to another Cast Lead type operation.

We have to respond with air raids into Gaza. Saturday, Hamas threatened Israel with a secret weapon.

The terrorists have been smuggling missiles into Gaza which they shoot into Israel. They try to hit civilians. We aim at these tunnels that are the means for smuggling. Everytime we respond back, they cry out that they are seeking revenge.

There's no United Nations keeping the peace. Other nations must be just sitting back and watching the game. I wonder if there are wagers going on.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20101226/wl_afp/israelpalestiniansconflictgaza

Getting to Know you, Oh Future Palestine

Nadene Goldfoot

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

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

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

You are precisely

My cup of tea,

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

Day by day".

Oscar Hammerstein

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Hamas Wants Truce With Israel

Nadene Goldfoot

How long will a truce last this time? After shelling Israel with 26 rockets and mortars into Israel this week with one exploding near a kindergarten, Israel conducted an air strike that killed a 5-man rocket squad and included shooting a "Palestinian shepherd" near the border.

The 27th of this month is the anniversary of Operation Cast Lead, in which a Seattle Palestinian biased group wanted to escalate tension for Jews by having 12 buses run for a month with huge ads against Israel that were very provocative starting on that date. The deal was denied finally by the bus company who changed their rules to the better. This is the same city that saw a terrorist walk into the Jewish Federation office and shoot 6 women of which one died not so long ago.

Now Gaza's Islamist Hamas leaders have signaled that they have a desire for mutual ceasefire. Israel feels they escalated the situation so now they can simply stop the rocket fire. Hamas and other terrorist groups had been committed to an agreement they had reached last year to stop firing rockets into Israel. Today, another rocket from Gaza landed into Israel, so where's the desire? I'm thinking they just want to rest and maybe take a bath, get more arms and start up again. It would be nice if they ever meant it.

12/25/2010: The latest is that the total rockets shot into Israel is now 30 with a 15 year old girl injured and Israel retaliating by hitting a Gazan training facility and a tunnel carrying weapons of which was devoid of people. Hamas is now threatening Israel to quit retalitation and they'll make Israel disappear. "You are going to disappear! "they declare. First they asked for the stoppage of fighting and now they're threatening. What do they want or expect? They only see the creation of Judea and Samaria into Palestine as a lull in the attack to make "Israel disappear."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101225/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_israel_palestinians 1/25/10

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20101224/wl_nm/us_palestinians_israel_violence/

Nazis In Bed With Muslim's Grand Mufti of Jerusalem

65 Years Late Transparency

Nadene Goldfoot

The National Archives have opened up the facts that the Nazis told the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin al-Husseini 1875-1974, that he would be the overall leader of Palestine with complete control. They even paid him 50,000 marks each month for the job of recruiting Muslims to the SS.

Everyone knew that he was working with the Nazis, but of course, after the war his claim was that he did it to avoid being arrested by the British authorities, who gave him his title in the first place. We realize that his takeover would be followed after the Britsh were gone and the 350,000 Jewish population had been murdered. He was quoted by Abbady, a Jew he spoke with: "
"Remember, Abbady, this was and will remain an Arab land. We do not mind you natives of the country, but those alien invaders, the Zionists, will be massacred to the last man. We want no progress, no prosperity. Nothing but the sword will decide the fate of this country."Al-Husseini represented newly emerging proponents of militant, Palestinian Arab nationalism, a previously unknown concept. Once he was in power, he began a campaign of terror and intimidation against anyone opposed to his rule and policies. He killed Jews at every opportunity, but also eliminated Arabs who did not support his campaign of violence. Husseini was not willing to negotiate or make any kind of compromise for the sake of peace. Who was the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem's nephew? None other than Arafat, leader of Fatah. "Arafat gave an interview in which he referred to "our hero al-Husseini" as a symbol of Palestinian Arab resistance."

The Grand Mufti of Jerusalem also arranged for the assassination of King Abdullah I bin al-Hussein, ruler of Transjordan and then Jordan from 1921 to 1951 of Jordan who was living in Egypt in 1951. He is the leader who met secretly with Golda Meier. The present king of Jordan is the 43rd generational descendant of the Prophet Mohammad. He's married to an American-born "Palestinian" lady who was featured on a genealogy program here in the states. The program had done her family tree.

England's own Jack Philby, a spy for his country, visited Jerusalem in 1929 where he became close friends with the "viciously anti-Jewish grand muft Haj Amin al Husseini. Husseini's role was that of a religious leader. He became so close to him that he converted to Islam in order to receive his 4 wives. The part hardest for him in the conversion was circumcision as he was 45 years old and this was painful at that age, but he was into the whole aura of it all. Jack Philby was a friend of Lawrence of Arabia. His influence reached then President Roosevelt and he was able to turn him against Jews. He also made arms deals with the Third Reich to supply weapons to terrorists in Palestine to use against the Jews.
His son, Harold Adrian Russell Philby, became a well known communist double agent. Like father like son.

These documents went into the US Intelligence and the Cold War and revealed the extent of collaboration between the US government and Nazi officials after the holocaust, also revealed in the book, THE SECRET WAR AGAINST THE JEWS by John Loftus and Mark Aarons. The US National Archives revealed that tracking and punishing war criminals was not high for our Army in late 1946. It does reveal al-Husseinis total collusion with the Nazis while Jews were being exterminated across Europe. Jews in the British Mandate of Palestine were also targets. You can be sure that American Jews would be on the list, too.

The downside is that these documents reveal that the US assisted Nazi leaders like Klaus Barbie, Rudolf Mildner and even knew about the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem is disgusting and a slap in the face to all Jews in America.

We can say that the Muslim goal of keeping the Middle East all Muslim can be on the shoulders of the Nazis who promised such a reward to the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem. He, in turn, most certainly spread this idea to all others of his sphere of influence, which continues to this day. The English also played a huge part in the problems Jews faced before and after the birth of Israel. They promised Jews their country in return for helping their country win in the war, then renegged, winding up doing everything in their power to destroy the Jews chances of having even an inch of the land. Today they still cast nay votes against Israel. And our dear country, the USA, in bed with Nazi criminals, assisting them in the end. What ever were the Nurenburg Trials held for?

http://www.thejc.com/news/israel-news/42607/palestinian-arab-leader-struck-wartime-deal-nazis

http://www.palestinefacts.org/pf_mandate_grand_mufti.php

http://www.zionism-israel.com/dic/Haj_Amin_El_Husseini.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdullah_I_of_Jordan

http://www.danielpipes.org/comments/355

The Secret War Against the Jews by John Loftus and Mark Aarons 514 pages of shocking facts

Hamas's Escalation of Attacks on Israel

Nadene Goldfoot

While South American countries are recognizing Palestine, Gaza's terrorists have stepped up their missile and rocket attacks on their future neighbor, Israel. What a way to win Israeli hearts! What's a worry is that their maps do not show Israel at all! It's all PALESTINE. You'd think they're planning on destroying Israel.

Two years ago, Israel had to deploy their 23 day Operation Cast Lead because they had been bombed for 6 years and their citizens couldn't take it anymore, especially in the areas of Southern Israel where Sderot and Ashkelon lie. Other than Israel, nobody raised their voices of protest to Hamas terrorists, so they just kept on terrorizing and warring. Countries seem to only want to find fault with Israel.

All this year, Israel has been hit with about 200 missiles and rockets. They fell in every one of the 12 months. On Monday and Tuesday, 15 mortars or rockets were fired from Gaza. One Israeli teenager was wounded. Israel filed a formal protest with the United Nations. They won't do anything about it but at least it's in writing. I hope Israel has a copy.

Are terrorists trying to instigate another Israeli operation? Continued rocket fire could bring it about again. Saeb Erekat has condemned the bombings and he is the Palestinian Authority negotiator. I wonder what he's doing about stopping it?

Alex Fishmen thinks Hamas is just testing their limits and are setting up new game rules. He's a writer for Yediot Ahronot.

Israel's military officials have found that the terrorists are now armed with Kornet missiles that can penetrate armor on tanks. This adds to the tension.

Since Hamas took over Gaza in 2007, Israel has had to blockade it both economically and militarily because they have sworn to destroy Israel. It's wartime. Because of this, Israel has been facing increasing international isolation. It's about impossible to get support from the US or the European Union today. Israel, of all the nations in the world is expected to take declarations of war on the chin and not react like others would. They are to sit like ducks in a pond and be shelled but not bite back.

Everyone is pondering the reasoning for the escalation. I see it happening because of the states recognizing Palestine already, the stalling of the peace talks with Abbas taking such a negative stand, and the wearing down of the world that is giving into terrorism. Hamas even has its own political problems. There are other wilder terrorists like Islamic Jihad and the Army of Islam who are butting into the fighting arena.

Resource: http://jewishworldreview.com/1210/gaza_missles.php3

People Undermining Peace for Israel

Nadene Goldfoot

A well known principal to establish peace between nations is to have a stable and long lasting peace through negotiations between the parties involved and a committment to keep the peace.

Israel has not known peace ever since its birth in May 1948. Her neighbors have been belligerent and unaccepting. I haven't noticed anyone condemming them. In the past, the USA has stepped up to the plate in defense for Israel when others have been their usual anti-semitic selves. However, I see a turn of tide and much two-facedness. On one hand the USA is a friend while on the other hand they are unconcerned or uncaring and certainly not understanding the issues. I feel that much of their attitude of late has encouraged terrorism. They seem to be down-right afraid to continue taking sides with Israel, not wanting the Muslims to think ill of them. In fact, they are denying their friendship or any favoritism with Israel.

December sees a rash of people ready to solve the problems between Israel and Palestine and have taken the sides of the Muslims. The Muslim population is almost equal to Christians right now, and Christianity is seeing a trend of non-practicing or caring about religion at this time. Jews are less than 1% of the world's population, have no oil, and are therefore unimportant in their eyes.

December 4: Brazil recognizes Palestine. This is followed by Argentina, Uruguay and Bolivia, all South American countries who were not helpful at all to Jews during World War 2 or afterwards. Many Nazis found refuge there, though.

Europe was approached for recognition but has stated that it is not time yet for official recognition and they suggested the time would be around August 2011.

December 10: 26 Influential Europeans wrote a letter denouncing Israel's lack of "sincerity" and are deciding on sanctions from anything from the West Bank (thinking all products are coming from Jews), demand that Jewish settlements be disbanded.

Saeb Erekat wrote an Op Ed in the Engish newspaper, "Guardian" demanding to return 7 million Palestinian refugees to Palestine (Number of refugees have now grown from original 600,000)

December 11: Hillary Clinton made a speech in Washington DC saying that the it was unacceptable to keep Palestine from being born. She is demanding immediate talks on borders, security, settlements, water, refugees and the status of Jerusalem

December 12: Portugal made Palestine into an embassy.

December 17: Norway made Palestine into an embassy.

Nobody cares that that Abbas of the Palestinians refuses to talk to Israel anymore. He has wanted the subjects on the table to be discussed decided by him beforehand before he will talk to Netanyahu. It's all one-sided for him.

Nobody has demanded that Gaza Palestinians stop shelling Israel's civilians. Nobody has suggested they stop making war on Israel. Nobody has suggested that they show they can be respectful neighbors.

In their right minds, these people accepting and demanding recognition of Palestine would not want Palestine to be next door to their country. In the present context, they are demanding that Israel accept a death sentence because they have run out of patience, sitting in their homes safe and sound, not having to worry about Katusha rockets, poison gases, poisoned water supplies, missiles, or atomic attacks.

These people have just condemmed the only Democratic country in the Middle East, their ally, their friend in need in fighting terrorism and diseases because Israel is a Jewish state. I think Harry Truman is rolling over in his grave.

At a time when Palestinian terrorists from Gaza are infiltrating and plotting harm to the police force of the Palestinians in the West Bank, I can see that Palestinians are still a divided group with their own infighting for power, and the strongest are the terrorists of Gaza. This is not the time for a state of Palestine to be created, for their goal is the destruction of Israel. Yes, even Abbas's people would go for that. There's no sign that they are readying their people for acceptance of Israel's existence; it's been quite the opposite.

The more the terrorists get people tired of hearing about the Palestine-Israel problem and give into their demands, the more they demand. If the day ever comes when nations speak out for Israel will be the day of peace in the world.

Resource: Friends of Israel

My own thoughts

Palestinian Statehood Rebuffed

Nadene Goldfoot

The Palestinians are probably very angry right now. They tried to get both the USA and the EU to recognize a Palestinian state based on the June 4, 1967 (from the 6 Day War) lines.

The United States denies any recognition to any unilaterally declared Palestinian
state.

The EU also refused and told them that they needed to negotiate a solution.

That may be some time before that happens. The Palestinian have vowed not to talk to Israel in any way until Israel stops building in Judea and Samaria. What they want stopped is settlement there, and building indicates this to them. They are trying to take over East Jerusalem completely minus Jews as well as all of Judea, Samaria (West Bank), and Gaza, which they have. To them it doesn't matter that though all the Arabs ganged up and attacked Israel in 1967 and to their shock Israel won, that the result is their loss of land. They are more than poor losers. They want the rules of war to be according to the way they write them.

According to the Debka file, "Abbas knows as well as Israel and Washington that the lines which preceded the 1967 war were never approved borders. What he is really after is the 1949 armistice lines, which the US opposes."

http://www.jpost.com/DiplomacyAndPolitics/Article.aspx?id=199816

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20101216/wl_mideast_afp/israelpalestinianspeaceus

http://www.debka.com/article/20451/

http://www.jcpa.org/jlmbldg.htm

10th of Tevet or December 17

Sadness in Jewish History

We're had so much sadness in our history that we have fast days in remembrance. One is coming up on December 17th this year. It's to remember the siege of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar II (634-562 BCE) , King of Babylon and the beginning of the battle that destroyed Jerusalem and the first Temple of Solomon. This was when he conquered Judah which is in Southern Israel. This is the same king that had the Hanging Gardens of Babylon constructed.

The prophet Yechezkel was in Babylon, brought there in the first exile by the king. Eleven years later more Jews were exiled for a period of 70 years. Yechezkel is the author of the descriptive writings about this event. This makes me wonder as to who the people could have been who created those hanging gardens. It's possible that Jews could have been the workers.

By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, we also wept, when we remembered Zion. We hung our lyres on the willows in its midst. For there those who carried us away captive required of us a song; and those who tormented us required of us mirth, saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion. How shall we sing the Lord's song in a foreign land? If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning. If I do not remember you, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth; if I do not set Jerusalem above my highest joy. (Psalms 137:1-6) This may be how Jews first used humor and even singing when terrible things have happened.

When Israel was reborn in 1948, Israelis found Jews coming from Iraq that could trace their family tree back to the exile in Babylon.

This is the historical reason for the fast. Today it also takes in the holocaust, though we do have another day for that, but the holocaust was so terribly destructive, that we have incorporated our grieving into this day, also.

This also shows that we have been able to keep records for a very long time. Unlike the Egyptians, who always recorded good events and erased anything detrimental to them, Jews have recorded the good with the bad. Our record-keeping shows our history in Jerusalem. At a time when Arabs are denying that we have any connection with Jerusalem, all they have to do is to read our sacred book and see that it is part and parcel of us. After all the years of being denied our city, we are back.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nebuchadnezzar_II
http://www.aish.com/jl/h/48938087.html
http://www.aish.com/h/10t/48960111.html

Differences Between Hamas and Israel's Democratic Government in Regards to Life

Nadene Goldfoot


Since the beginning of 2010, rockets have been flying into Israel from Gaza fired by Hamas terrorists. There has not been a month that goes by without rockets landing in civilian neighborhoods. That said," more than 11,000 patients with escorts have left the Gaza Strip for medical treatment in Israel." This was in 2009. Usually Ashkelon's hospital receives them. By taking in the enemy, Israel is taking great risks, but being a humanitarian society, they have continued to do so.


"Israelis ask that Palestinians change cars at the border because cars had been rigged to explode. A woman on crutches was changing cars. She fell down. Three Israeli soldiers ran to help her get up. She blew herself up, killing the four of them. The Hamas government is preaching genocide of Israel, yet Israel is treating Gaza's sick."


180,000 Palestinians have been treated in 2010 in Israeli hospitals. Judea and Samaria also have their casualies and come to Israel for treatment. "To Israel, the answer to these questions is clear. According to its Division Medical Officer “The treatment of the Palestinian population is first and foremost a moral and professional obligation for every one of us. Do we treat them? There is no question about it. "

What does Hamas do? It has become their practice to target hospitals where Palestinians are being treated. Ashkelon's hospital has had to create a hospital underground in order to continue its work. Ashkelon's Barzilai Medical Center is Israel's front line hospital on the Gaza border. They have medical care for the surrounding 502 square miles with a 500 bed hospital and a level 2 trauma center. They target civilian towns such as nearby Sderot and schools and hospitals as well as anyplace within reach. Their reaches have been lengthening. 1600 Kassam missiles attacks happen each year since 2006. They have treated 1400 patients with acute and post traumatic stress disorders and diseases since then. Each year they admit 100,000 emergencies. They have 150% constant occupancy each year. Even their cafeteria has regularly been converted into hospital bed space. This is not unusual for Israel. In 1981 I was admitted into the army hospital in Haifa and had to be kept in the hallway immediately after surgery. There was no room for me then. The next day, I was brought to a ward with many women.

Robert Bernstein, founder of Human Rights Watch in 1978, commented "that it struck him as bizarre that in an asymmetric war of attrition, which we're still learning about how to fight, a nation cares for the sick of a neighbor that is preaching genocide to its people, and the only human rights comment has been that they are not doing it well enough. " Robert has spoken out criticizing the group he had founded.

Resource: http://www.jpost.com/Features/InThespotlight/Article.aspx?id=196646.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article6883034.ece
http://haifadiarist.blogspot.com/2010/11/180000-palestinians-treated-in-israeli.html
http://www.mererhetoric.com/2009/01/03/israeli-hospitals-treating-wounded-palestinians-plus-hamas-unleashes-another-round-of-missiles-at-israeli-schools-and-hospitals/

Barzilai Medical Center in Ashkelon

Isrmail Haniya's Chutzpah

Nadene GoldfootI have never read such Chutzpah from Hamas in my life as what is found in the reference below.

In 2006, Abbas was defeated in an "election" and the Hamas terrorists won in Gaza. By June 2007 they forced out Abbas who found refuge in Samaria.

Hamas terrorists are about to celebrate their 23rd anniversary of the birth of their group, said Ismail Haniya. They repeated their aim to recover all of Palestine from the Mediterranean Sea to Jordan". Ismail will accept a peace deal with Israel only if the Palestinian people approve it in a referendum, he says. However, in the same breath, he says they will cede nothing. They will not ever recognize Israel. Their intention is to make all of Jerusalem their capital of Palestine. They will have no Jewishness in Jerusalem.

As if that will ever happen, they also demand a solution to the Arab refugees. Of course he wants all of them to return and live there.

The author of this article sees a shift from never accepting a peace treaty to an acceptance of one. I say, look at his stipulation and demands. He's asking Israel to give up as if it is a beaten country. He's asking for the moon! This is not going for any sort of peace treaty, but it's a statement of absolute war! Nothing has changed Gaza's stand of attacking Israel.

Mahmud al Zahar, another Hamas terrorist leader, showed his distain and hatred of Israel by burning the Israeli flag at a rally in Gaza City. At the Jebaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza, they also celebrated wildly at another rally. Masked terrorists marched in the Nusseirat refugee camp's rally in Central Gaza.

I note that these people have remained in refugee camps willingly or by the directions of their leaders since 1948. They have continued to be surviving on the assistance of the U.N. They are people on assistance for the longest time for the U.N. The aim was not to get on with their life after making such a blunder as to follow their leaders in the first place, but to remain a pitiless group used as a weapon against Israel. For 62 years these refugees have not worked, have not tried to make something out of Gaza, but have become fodder for the terrorists. Keeping them helpless and angry has been a campaign of hatred against Israel.

Now I see that the younger generation of terrorists have such radical hate for Israel without even knowing where it has come from, other than their teachings in their Koran. For it's not what Israel has done to them, but what their leaders teach them that they are completely immersed in Jihad.

http://www.demotix.com/hub/hamas-celebration
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20101213/wl_mideast_afp/israelpalestiniansconflicthamasanniversary

Jewish National Home and Transjordan

Nadene Goldfoot

The Ottoman Empire had swallowed up King Solomon's land of Israel and held onto it till the end of World War I. It then was given to the British and French to take care of until they knew what would happen to it.

On April 24, 1920, the British wrote the mandate for Palestine, to become the Jewish National Home. It contained 120,466 square km.

However, on July 24, 1922, it was reduced in order to create Transjordan because they had neglected to take into consideration that an Arab complained, wanting his own kingdom. Britain reduced the National Home by 77%. We accepted the piece left, anyway. The pre 1967 Israel amounted to 20,770 square km or, 8,019 square miles. The width is only 12 miles.

Reference: http://www.nationsencyclopedia.com/Asia-and-Oceania/Israel-LOCATION-SIZE-AND-EXTENT.html

The Mind-Set of the Islamic Movement Towards Jerusalem

Aksa Mosque

Nadene Goldfoot

Raed Sulah spent 5 months in Ramle's Ayalon Prison for assaulting and spitting on a police officer who was providing security at a demonstration sponsored by Sulah in 2007. He was just released on Sunday.

He sees a victory over "occupied Jerusalem and the Aksa Mosque and looks forward to the expulsion of Israeli occupation from both of these places. Nothing is more righteous in his eyes than the cause of taking over Jerusalem and the mosque. After his shout-out that they will cling to every piece of earth in Jerusalem, the crowd responded with cheers and then called out that "we'll sacrifice ourselves over al-Aqsa, Oh Raed."

I don't know why he is acting like there is such a problem for the Muslims in relation to this "Temple Mount." The mosque is under the administration of the Palestinian-led Islamic waqf, which consists of the diretor, Grand Mufti of Jerusalem and the Islamic council. They have been allowed by Israel to retain their authority over the Temple Mount since 1967 when Israel won the battle of the Six Day War when Jordan and all the other surrounding countries attacked Israel.

How easily they get themselves all riled up over a city that is not number one of importance in Islam. It is the 3rd mosque that Muslims need to visit. The first is in Mecca and the 2nd is in Saudi Arabia. It was in Jerusalem that monotheism was declared by Judaism. Here, Muhammad stated in the 8th century that the angel Gabriel took him up into heaven on his horse to be shown signs of G-d. He then went back to Mecca.

The waqf prohibits Jews and Christians from entering the mosque. Israel complies with this demand by stationing Israeli soldiers outside to uphold their Islamic rules.

Yet, here is a Muslim leader plotting the takeover of all of Jerusalem and he's now out of prison.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Aqsa_Mosque
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerusalem_Islamic_Waqf
http://islam.about.com/od/jerusalem/a/quds.htm
http://www.jpost.com/NationalNews/Article.aspx?id=199075

My visit to Nearby Samaria-1982

Above is a home in Kfar Saba.

Nadene Goldfoot

October 7, 1982

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Israel, Judea and Samaria (West Bank) and Gaza Strip

Size and Population
Nadene Goldfoot

According to the CIA Report, Israel is made of 22,072 square km. Water available consists of 430 square km. The coastline is 273 km. It is slightly smaller than New Jersey. The population of Israel is 7,353,985 which is including over a million and a half Palestinian Arabs.

  

To be exact, the population is 7.6 million with 5.7 million Jews and 1.5 million Arabs. Judea/Samaria or the West Bank is 5,860 square km. Water available is 220 square km. It is slightly smaller than Delaware. The population is 2,514,845.

The Gaza Strip is made of 360 square km and has no water source. it is a little more than twice the size of Washington D.C. The coastline is 40 km long. The population is 1,604,238 led by the Hamas terrorist organization.

The West Bank and Gaza together are 6,220 square km. That's 360 sq. km more than Israel. Their population comes to 4,119,083. Israel contains about 2 million more minus the Palestinians that are Israeli citizens. Israel sits in the middle of two beligerent people, the Hamas terrorists who want to wipe Israel out and Fatah, who are most likely also wishing for Israel's disappearance.

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/gz.html
http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/Facts+About+Israel/Land/THE+LAND.htm

Abbas's New Friend, Darfur's Genocidal Ruler

Nadene Goldfoot

Remember the genocide of Darfur? It started in Sudan in February 2003 and is still ongoing. 400,000 black Sudanese were killed by Arabs of the government. Who was the government? President of Sudan Omar Hassan Al Bashir was in charge. Sudan is the world's 8th most populated Muslim country. Its population is 43,939,598 as of July 2010 with 70% Sunni Muslims, 25% indigenous religions, and 5%Roman Catholics. 52% of the people are black. 39% are Arabs. Al Bashir runs an authoritarian republic.

Darfur is a very large (190,420 square miles or size of Spain) region of Sudan divided into West, South and North sections. It had been an independent Sultanate for about 200 years but was incorporated into Sudan by the Anglo-Egyptian forces.

Almost a year ago on January 9, 2010, Amnesty International proclaimed Global Day of Action for Sudan Awareness. They wanted to educate the public of the plight of the Darfurians so as to help protect them.

"A long-awaited referendum on southern Sudan’s independence, set in motion by a 2005 peace agreement to stop one of Africa’s worst civil wars, is scheduled for Jan. 9, 2011.
The vote could bring an end to the nearly one-million-square-mile experiment called Sudan, which for many troubled decades served as a bridge between the Arab and African world." NY Times.

Abbas of the Palestinians just sent a letter to Al Bashir saying that he and his people have complete faith in his wisdom. He gives his personal support to him. The letter goes on to say that the Palestinian people stand side by side with their brother country, Sudan.

Al Bashir has been charged with murder, extermination, forcible transfer of people, torture and rape. He and his government are not nice people. This is who Abbas stands with and recognizes. This is his role model. This is scary, indeed. This is not the kind of man nor the kind of future neighbor that Israel wants or needs. Hamas is bad enough. Instead of wanting to emulate someone like the USA Canada, or even Jordan, Abbas picks the worst of the Arab regimes to align his future with.

Abbas has done other things, like take part in ceremonies revering terrorists who have been killed in action in ceremonies in the West Bank. He hasn't changed the goals of education but seems to keep them all hepped up to hate Jews.

http://palwatch.org/main.aspx?fi=157&doc_id=3900

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Muslim_majority_countries
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/su.html
http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritories/sudan/index.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_in_Darfur

Daily Mortar Attacks from Gaza

Nadene Goldfoot

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

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

December 3, 2020 7 mortar shells hit Israel

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Kissing Oslo Accords Good-bye

Nadene Goldfoot

Salam Fayyad, unelected Prime Minister of the Palestinian Authority, just announced on Wednesday on his radio show that the PA will no longer be following the Oslo Accords that they signed in 1993. He said they wouldn't be a prisoner to their restrictions any longer. I wonder if he's also put this in writing.

The Oslo Accords were said by Feisal Husseini to be a Trojan horse designed to deceive Israel. So obviously this must mean that since the accords are now broken by the PA, Israel can also kiss them goodbye.

It could also mean that Israel could now annex the Israeli controlled areas of Judea and Samaria and create my new idea of calling the PA's area "Israel's Commonwealth," just like Puerto Rico is to the USA.

On the other hand, "Abbas said that despite the crisis in the peace talks with Israel, the Palestinians remained committed to a political solution on the basis of the road map and the Arab peace initiative, which he described as a “precious gift” to peace in the Middle East. Abbas plans to go to talk to Hosni Mubarak in Cairo tomorrow and discuss the situation. He said that as a last resort, he would ask Israel to take over.

"In exchange for statehood, the road map requires the Palestinian Authority to make democratic reforms and abandon the use of violence. Israel, for its part, must support and accept the emergence of a reformed Palestinian government and end settlement activity of the Gaza Strip and West Bank as the Palestinian terrorist threat is removed." They have not complied in reforming their educational goals in their hatred of Jews as shown in their textbooks. Their maps refuse to show Israel and instead just show Palestine. That would be under democratic reforms and using violence. They have had outbursts of violent acts of course, coming from their teachings and attitudes. Hamas broke off with Fatah in June 2007, so there is no reason for Israel to abide by the accords being they are constantly attacked. The Palestinians themselves are a divided group intent on different goals, at least on the surface. I do believe that Fatah differs only in that they are trying to achieve the same goal by diplomacy instead of so much bloodshed.

"Palestine" was to be all the land east of the 1949 armistice according to Palestinians. "The territory in question is home to approximately 500,000 Jews, along with up to 1.5 million Arabs, and includes historically Jewish towns as well as the Temple Mount, the Tomb of the Patriarchs, and Rachel's Tomb, Judaism's first, second, and third most holy sites respectively".

Resource: http://www.israelunitycoalition.org/ Palestinians Say They Are No Longer Bound By The Oslo Accords Daily News.

http://www.jpost.com/International/Article.aspx?id=198572

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Road_map_for_peace

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/15/world/africa/15iht-mideast.5.6163185.html

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/141037

How Jordan Came To Be

Nadene Goldfoot

The Ottoman Empire ruled Palestine, the land renamed by the Romans, from 1517 to 1917. It was just an empty expanse of land and swamps. There was no government, no country.

Turkey was on the axis side in World War I and lost. As a consequence, she lost all her power. The French and British mandates were then set up with France taking over the area now called Lebanon and Syria. The British got Palestine and Iraq. In 1926 Lebanon was separated from Syria.

Britain installed Emir Faisal, who had been in Syria but was evicted. He was then made ruler of the new kingdom of Iraq.

In 1922, the British created the emirate of Transjordan, which included all of Palestine east of the Jordan River. They did this because Emir Abdullah would have a Kingdom to rule. After all, his family had been defeated in tribal warfare in the Arabian peninsula and lost out.

He may have been the Emir, but it remained under British supervision until after World War Ii. In 1946 the British asked the UN to end their British Mandate. Then in May of 1948, Israel was born into the UN.

King Abdulla was made the first ruler of the Hashemite Kingdom of Transjordan and was assassinated in 1951.

These two nations, Jordan and Israel, were inevitably linked in the President Truman's mind as twin emergent states: one serving the needs of the refugee Jew, the other absorbing recently displaced Palestinian Arabs. In addition, Truman was aware of the private agreements that existed between Jewish Agency leaders and King Abdullah I of Jordan. Thus, it made perfect sense to Truman to favour both states with de jure recognition.

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

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jordan

Countries Aiding Israel During 2010 Carmel Forest Fire

Thank You Letter to Countries that Came to Israel's Aid During Forest Fire

December 7, 2010,

Twenty-Four Countries Who Came to Israel's Aid Fighting the Carmel Fire

Dear People of the 24 Helpful Countries ,

Thank you for the support you provided to Israel to help fight the horrible fire. I was deeply moved by the assistance.

I greatly appreciate your generosity to provide life-saving help. Your nation made an important difference and many lives were saved.

Thank you for the compassion of your people. You stood with Israel in a moment of suffering-and I will not forget it. You can be sure that Israel will not forget it, either.

Sincerely,

Nadene Goldfoot
Citizen of USA and Israel

Good and Bad News

How Would You Like to Be a Commonwealth?
Nadene Goldfoot

The good news is that the US is stopping their insistence that Israel not build in Judea and Samaria. Abbas is ready to dissolve his Palestinian government which has been in progress since 1993 if statehood is not achieved. Now I think that is stupid. Right now they are governing themselves, which is what statehood is all about, isn't it? Why would he just give that up. Who is to step in and do the governing? Israel? Perhaps he is trying to load Israel up with this headache and then Israel would be only too happy to allow them statehood on their terms. At least he may be thinking along this line. In the meantime, Hilary is trying to renew negotiations. Netanyahu is not about to buy into any type where the outcome is achieved before the discussion.

Another piece of very good news is that the Carmel fire is out. Evidently it was started by a 14 yr old boy who was smoking some type of pipe in the woodland and turned it over, spilling cinders into the brush, and the fire started. He was frightened, ran away and didn't tell anybody about it. 42 passengers in a bus were caught in the fire on a mountain road. They were on their way to a prison to transfer the men to a safer place, being they may have been in the path of the fire. Now Palestinians area yelling about the slowness of getting them transfered. 5 million trees burned in this fire that was centered around Haifa. One good outcome was seeing so many countries (24) that came to Israel's aid. Even the Palestinians did a mitzva by coming to help. that list can be found on "The Israel Project."

The bad news is that Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay are recognizing the undeclared Palestinian state already, just when it's about to be dissolved. The US statement about this is that they aren't helping the peace process by doing so. I noticed that S. America didn't send any aid to Israel during the fire, either.

Some people fear that dissolving a two nation state plan will lead to a one nation state being Israel minus the Jewish predominance. I don't believe that will happen. The United States has several areas that are not counted as states but are under her domain, such as Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands. Perhaps that might happen with Judea and Samaria. I believe England has been in the same position with Scotland, Ireland and Canada besides past experiences with India and such. I may have my facts all wrong, but something very Solomonly-wise will happen. As for Gaza, that is a mystery.

I propose that like Puerto Rico is a self-governing commonwealth or Republic under the auspices of the United States, Judea and Samaria should be the same to Israel. Palestine would have control over internal affairs and Israel would have a say over external affairs. Puerto Rico had been under the government of Spain for 400 years, and at the end of the Spanish American War, came under USA domination. By 1952 they were in this commonwewalth position. They've had chances to vote as to staying this way or becoming their own country and still are a commonwealth, so I presume they are happily governed. On a positive note for them, they are not connected to our land mass, so may feel more independent. Israel, on the other hand, would find Palestine as close to them as Laurelhurst is to Ladd's Addition. Hopefully, people will see this as a third posssibility and appreciate all the advantages it has to offer.

The US Virgin Islands' government is similar to being a commonwealth. It is an organized unincorporated U.S. territory. That may be an option, also, to become an Iraeli territory, and get rid of the stigma of being occupied.

There are literally hundreds of commonwealths, etc, in the world. Not all populated areas become countries or states. My last reference lists them.

Reference: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20101207/pl_nm/us_palestinians_israel_talks

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20101207/pl_afp/palestinianmideastdiplomacyargentinauruguay

brazilus

http://www.topuertorico.org/government.shtml

http://gopuertorico.about.com/od/introductiontopuertorico/f/Statehood.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Virgin_Islands

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_list_of_Non-Self-Governing_Territories

King David's Israel

Nadene Goldfoot

David, king of Israel, lived from 1,000 BCE to to 960 BCE. He was born in Bethlehem to Jesse. At age 25 he was the armor-bearer to King Saul, Israel's first king. He became friends with the king's son, Jonathan. After showing that he had great military skills in a war with the Philistines, he was able to marry the king's daughter, Michal. Eventually Saul became very jealous of David.

David settled in Hebron and declared himself king of Judah. After ruling for eight years he captured the Jebustite's Jerusalem and made it his capital. He then moved the ark there. He became a great military leader, taking in much land. He fought the Philistines and annexed the entire coast. He defeated the Edomites which gave the Israelites an outlet to the Red Sea at Ezion-Geber. Then he crushed Ammon and Moab who became two of Israel's subjects and defeated Aram (Syria) and annexed large territories, including Damascus and as far as the Euphrates River. He even signed treaties with Tyre and Sidon and extended the frontiers to an extent never again attained.

The bible tells us that King David's Israel was quite large, much larger than it is today. To the West was the Mediterranean Sea, to the East the Syrian Desert, to the South the Brook of Egypt (Wadi El-Arish) to Kadesh Barnea as far as the Valley of Zoar south of the Dead Sea and in Transjordan from the river of Arnon to Mt. Hermon and to the Valley of Iyon. The total surface was 17,500 square miles of which 45% was in Transjordan in the East which is now called Jordan. The Promised land included most of Syria and covered 58,000 square miles. This whole area was Israel under Kings David and Solomon. Jerusalem has also been called "The City of David."

This warrior king was quite the lover with several wives and involved in the scandal of Bathsheba, suffering from his actions. He was endowed with the skill of writing the Book of Psalms that people of many religions read to find solace .

Reference The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia

Today's Teeny Tiny Israel

Teeny Tiny Israel

Nadene Goldfoot

In the pictures above at the top is the 1947 partition plan of Palestine between a Jewish and an Arab state. The orange would be Israel and the yellow would be Palestine.

The 2nd picture shows biblical Israel and the 3rd shows Israel as it is today in pale yellow.

It's easy to get around in Israel because the distances from one place to another is so short. Israel can be crossed from west to east in 90 minutes by car. Jerusalem and Tel Aviv are an hour apart. From Tel Aviv on the Mediterranean Sea to Eilat on the Red Sea in the South would take you only 5 hours of travel. It takes me about 6 1/2 hours to travel from Ontario, Oregon to Portland, Oregon which is the width of Oregon from East to West. Israel sits between 2 continents and 2 seas so has always been on the crossroads between Asia and Africa. Throughout its history people with imperial ambitions have wanted to possess the land. We've had Ancient Egyptians, Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, Greeks, Romans, Arabs, Crusaders, Ottomans and the British traveling the land to take over some other people's land.

To go from Haifa to Jerusalem by car, you have to travel 94 miles. To go from Tel Aviv to Haifa you only have to drive 59 miles. From Tel Aviv to Gaza, you would drive only 48 miles. Jerusalem is only 5 miles away from Bethlehem. I'm telling you, it's a small, small country.

A large part of Israel is the Negev desert. People live on the edge of it. Jerusalem is on the doorway of the Judean Desert. The Sinai Desert separates the Land of Israel from the land of Egypt. Northern Israel is the Galilee where mountains rise to 3,300 feet. In the center of Israel is Samaria and Judea which people refer to as "The West Bank" and it also has mountains of this height.

What are the boundaries of Israel? Until 1967, its boundaries were made of temporary armistice lines, agreed on in 1949. Since 1967, pending a peace settlement, armistice lines demarcate the area under Israeli control. They are 523 miles long compared with the armistice lines which were 570 miles long.

The Armistice Agreements of 1949 were with Jordan, Syria, Lebanon and Egypt. At this time Israel was most vulnerable as the middle of Israel was only 10 miles wide, like a woman's waistline. Here lies Tel Aviv with Ramat Gan and Petah Tikva on the east, Bat Yam and Holon to the south, Herzliya and Natanya in the north. This is the commercial and industrial section of Israel. To the North the Huleh Plain had been land reclaimed from swamps and holds green villages on a flat tabletop lying under the Golan Heights which had been held by the Arabs of Syria. They want it back, of course. The South with the Sinai desert holds Egyptian military airfields. It only takes 3 to 10 minutes to fly to Israel's coastal strip of dense population.

Under this scrutiny of all its enemies, Israel stopped the June 5, 1967 invasion and wound up gaining land. The Arab states had threatened and tried to destroy her but wound up losing land themselves. For eighteen years the Arabs had been hostile and all their acts broke every paragraph in the Armistice Agreements of 1949 where they had all negotiated and signed a paper of promise in their relations with Israel, and they had broken it.

Israel's birth certificate has been validated by "The Old Testament" or Tanakh, uninterrupted Jewish settlement from Joshua's time till now; the Balfour Declaration of 1917; the League of Nations Mandate which included the Balfour Declaration ; the UN partition resolution of 1947; Israel's admission to the UN in 1949, recognition of Israel by most other states; and a society created by Israel's people in living there. Abba Eban has said that Israel has the right to exist just like the United States, Saudi Arabia and 152 other states.

The Peel Commission in 1936 said that the "Jewish National Home to be established was understood, at the time of the Balfour Declaration, to be the whole of historic Palestine, including Transjordan."The British Mandate created an Israel with only the area west of the Jordan River excluding part of the Upper Galilee north of the ladder of Tyre which was given to Lebanon. The southern Negev beyond the Rafiah-Gulf of Elath line had been handed over by the Turkish Ottomans to Egypt for administration in 1906. The UN resolution of Nov 29, 1947 recommended the Jewish state to be in the larger part of the mandated area of western Palestine, but it had a complex frontier. The agreements of 1949 left Israel with 8,000 square miles, a larger area than envisioned, but with complicated borders. The original Promised land contained 58,000 square miles of land.

1967 saw the occupation of all of Judea and Samaria, the Golan Heights and the Sinai up to the Suez Canal. Israel gave back the Sinai to Egypt in the early 1980's.

Our twelve tribes of Israel constituted the first monarchy in Palestine in about 1000 BC. Saul was the first king and David, the 2nd king, made Jerusalem the nation's capital. We're people who have a 2nd chance in holding our country and mean to keep it. Jews from Europe and elsewhere started to go back in large numbers in 1882 when fewer than 250,000 Arabs lived there. More Arabs immigrated into the area when they saw construction going on and were seeking work. In 1920 8,223 Jews immigrated into Palestine. In 1933, on the brink of Nazi rule in Germany, 37,337 Jews immigrated into Palestine. The next year 45,267 came and in 1935 had 66,472 enter. In 1939, as the door in Germany about closed, 31,195 arrived.

Between August 1945 after the war and Israel's creation in May 1948, 65 illegal immigrant ships came carrying 69,878 people from Europe with nowhere to go but to Israel. By August of 1946, the British began to confine or impound those they caught in camps in Cyprus. About 50,000 people were detained in camps, 28,000 of whom were still imprisoned when Israel declared independence. These people were in great need of having an Israel and even after all they had gone through in the Holocaust, still were being treated indecently by the British.

The fact remains that many peoples and countries are tying to get Israel pushed back to the vulnerable pre-1967 armistice lines. The attitude of the Arabs has not changed. They still are adamant about destroying Israel. They're mad because we have gained Judea and Samaria . Our continuing presence there is not a violation of the agreements in the UN Security Council Resolution 242 or the Camp David Accords, the Oslo Accords, or the Road Map.

Resolution 242 asks for Israel to withdraw from territory in the context of negotiations that assure the "right to live in peace within secure and recognized boundaries free from threats or acts of force." There has been no peace summit or signed accords defining "secure and recognized boundaries". That's what Abbas has balked at.

UNSCR 242 does not specify the extent of Israel's withdrawal from Judea-Samaria. The people involved in this creation said that security doesn't come from arms, territory, geography or domination of another. It can only come from agreement and mutual respect and understanding and that's what we haven't received from the Palestinians. People like Canadians and Americans have been good neighbors. That's not happening between Israel and the Palestinians.

In its creation, Jews settled for less than half of the land promised by the English to become the state of Israel. It was given a crumb of land that was certainly hard to defend. This division of land was done after finding that the Arabs resented that Jews were receiving such a good deal at a time that other sheiks were taking over land after the breakup of the Ottoman Empire and they were creating states of their own. Why should Jews be cut in on a deal that should go to them, they thought. Even so, they did not take advantage of the offer and did not create their Palestine.

I maintain that Israel cannot go back to the size it was in 1948. It was vulnerable and open for attack constantly. The British developers were short sighted or evil to think that Israel could exist safely without any defenses. There has to be a judgement against nations that attacked it in violation of world treaties in that it was a declared nation among all the other nations, even though it was so little. Since the Arab countries gathered as if in a gang and attacked Israel, they will have to suffer the consequences and accept the fact that they have lost land. After all, Jordan had occupied Judea and Samaria illegally themselves so should not complain.

Since the Palestinians have not tried to make peace with Israel, they can kiss their chance of creating their Palestine now, after 62 years of warfare, goodbye. It will take a complete make-over of their people to convince me that they are a peaceful neighbor and deserving of having their own state. They need an overhaul on their educational programs and their parental psychology to become civil people. Abbas wants to create a state right now but has not come to terms with Hamas in Gaza or even Israel.

Perhaps as soon as 100 years from now something like that might happen, but certainly not now. In the meantime, the Palestinians are free to live peacefully as they should be and start acting like good neighbors. Nobody is thinking of deporting them. However, such problems that exist like their intention of flooding the area with millions of relatives just cannot happen. I would suggest that they emigrate to their relatives if they wish to all live together. Wherever they are there must be more room than in Judea and Samaria.

Reference: Facts About Israel: Division of Information, Ministry for foreign Affairs, Jerusalem
Battleground: fact and fantasy in Palestine by Samuel Katz
Myths and Facts-a concise record of the Arab-Israeli Conflict by Mitchell G. Bard and Joel Himelfarb
The Case Against Israel's Enemies by Alan Dershowitz