Romney Spoke In Israel: Palestinians' Excuse for Not Being Productive

Nadene Goldfoot
It seems that the Palestinians took offense when Romney spoke in Israel pointing out the differences in economic vitality between Israel and the Palestinians.  He mentioned that as he looked at the city and thought of the accomplishments of the people of Israel, he recognized the power of at least culture and a few other things.  He cited the innovative business climate and the Jewish history of thriving in difficult circumstances.

Palestinian Labor Minister Ahmed Majdalani called the statement "a clear racist spirit."  He felt insulted.  The Palestinians noted that Romney wasn't addressing the stifling effect of Israel's occupation and used that as an excuse as to why they were not a productive group of people.  What kind of spirit do the Muslim Religious Leaders display by putting fatwas on all Jews everywhere to be killed?  How racist can they get?

I would reply that if they put their energy into work instead of bombing Israel with missiles, mortars and rockets constantly, they could become a different productive culture as well, but right now their culture is all wrapped up in doing in Israel!  How dare he use "occupation" as a crutch.  The only reason restrictions have come about is because of their murderous behavior towards all Israelis.  Saeb Erekat, senior Palestinian official is now blaming Romney's comments as hurting the US efforts to restore Washington's standing in the Muslim and Arab world.  Well, what was it getting the USA?  Were the Palestinians coming to the peace table with Netanyahu?  No!  Nothing Hillary was saying induced them to respond in a positive way.

Israel does not want to have to deal with war, contrary to other's beliefs.  "As Golda Meier had said, "We hate war. We do not rejoice in victories. We rejoice when a new kind of cotton is grown, and when strawberries bloom in Israel."  This is a far different culture than what the Palestinian Arabs have developed.

The Palestinians interestingly reminded readers that there are 57 Muslim and Arab countries while US diplomats are exerting every effort to explain their position.  I think Romney has far more knowledge of the region  than Obama ever has had, so they are in for a surprise, which they just realized.  57 Muslim countries exist and they want to add one more-Palestine.  I'm behind times;  I only had listed 48 Muslim majority countries.  Who else are they counting?  Are they including England and France already?

Israel withdrew all Jewish people from Gaza in 2005 in the offer of peace, and what they got instead was the slap in the face of bombings.  Their homes became the grounds from which death-harboring rockets were fired from.  Any restriction of trade and movement there is due to their bringing in these weapons to use on Israel.  They refuse to have any peace pact with Israel or live in any sort of peaceful life such as Mexico, the USA and Canada enjoy, or England and France, etc.  It's a state of war.  The same goes for Judea and Samaria.  Fatah and Hamas have joined together in their desire to destroy Israel.  What do they expect?  They are receiving far better treatment than they ever gave to Jews who had lived in Muslim lands.  Their people are existing by being on the dole with the United Nations!

They speak of Occupation.  It was Jordan who occupied Transjordan and took it over when it was originally planned by Britain who held the Mandate to be part of the Jewish National Home, and then Britain gave in to them because of their demanding nature and Britain wanting to keep a hand in the Middle East.  Then Jordan occupied Judea and Samaria illegally, as that certainly was to be part of the Jewish National Home as well, having been the original Judah.  Jews had lived in Gaza since the beginning of Jewish history and that was given up for a peace we didn't receive as well.

Jews have treated Palestinians like people, but it hasn't been reciprocated.  What they teach their children in schools is disgusting.    In Muslim countries like Syria, Jews were less than 3rd rate non-citizens.  They were called "dhimmis" and had to pay special taxes.  Testimony against Muslims didn't count in courts.  They were forbidden to ride a horse to town; forbidden to wear Muslim clothing; forbidden to carry arms; prohibited to build or repair places of worship.  They were oppressed, suffered from extortion and violence by local authorities and the whole Muslim population.

In Aleppo in the 19th century, money was extorted by officials on every pretext, petty bullying was a commonplace thing, and if a Jew walked in the market, people would throw stones at him, trying to kill him.  Others might try to pull his beard or his ear locks, spit on his face and just be an abused person.  By 1831, Christians had full equality but not Jews.  1840 saw an economic slump in Syria so that they pulled out the Damascus blood libel.  In the 1850's Christians were treated with violence again.  1936 saw anti-Jewish riots on Jews in Damascus and again in the late 30's.  Jews were stabbed by activist Muslims.  By now a Nazi delegation visited Damascus so that propaganda grew and German and Arab youth organizations developed and were against Jews.  As it turned out, Jews were held prisoners in Syria and not allowed to leave, and if they tried, were killed.

One of the differences in cultures is another comment that Golda Meier said that is quite deep.  "When peace comes, we will perhaps in time be able to forgive the Arabs for killing our sons, but it will be harder for us to forgive them for having forced us to kill their sons."  I think Romney recognizes this difference quite easily.

Resource:  http://www.boston.com/news/world/middleeast/articles/2012/07/30/romney_angers_palestinians_with_pro_israel_comment/?page=2
Book:  From Time Immemorial by Joan Peters, page 60-65 on Syria
http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Golda_Meir

Twelve Years of Shelling Southern Israel Continues

Nadene Goldfoot                               
                                                          Sderot at top and Ashkelon on the bottom
Yahoo news reports that Israel's Iron Dome Air Defence System stopped a rocket that was aimed at Ashkelon, Portland's, sister city on Tuesday. It lies 8.1 miles north of the Gaza border and has a population of about 113,000.   That's like shooting at the hand that feeds them, as Ashkelon houses the Barzilai Medical Center's hospital that assists Arabs,  even if they are from Gaza as well as Israelis. This 500 bed general public hospital services 502 square miles.  It's a level 2 trauma center and is Israel's foremost center for trauma care and nurse training.

The Gaza border shot 1600 Kassam missiles in 2006 and the hospital treated 1400 patients with acute and post traumatic stress disorders and diseases that same year.  Each year they have 100,000 emergency admissions.  Their 500 beds allow 1 bed per 1,000 residents which is the lowest in the country as they serve over 500,000 people.  The nurses get no breaks as they have 150% constant occupancy each year.  Their cafeteria has been converted into hospital bed space as well.

Then on Friday Hamas terrorists shot a rocket into the Eshkol region which usually covers Nir Oz and Nirim Yesha..  Later today 3 rockets were shot at Sderot, a city of 24,000 which is the closest town to Gaza. Sderot happens to be right in the line of fire, being  less than a mile from the border and is caught under constant attack, shock and confusion with the people having daily fears and suffering from a silent threat daily.  They have been paying the heavy price of having their community shelled constantly.  Thousands of their families have been living under constant fire.   No casualties or damage happened, except people had to seek refuge in bomb shelters, and the bombing shatters their lives for both children and adults.  Just from 2007-2008 they were hit with 771 rockets and 857 mortars, making this happen at least 3 to 4 times daily.  

It was in June of this year that the terrorists fired dozens of rockets into Israel who replied with several air raids, killing 15 terrorists.  However, this type of bombing into southern Israel has been going on since  2000, climaxing what Israel had hoped to be once and for all on December 27, 2008 with Operation Cast Lead.  Up to this point Israel had taken about 12,000 rocket, missile and mortar hits. The UN never said a peep against the terrorists, and I presume just thought that Israel should be the sitting ducks and deserved the shelling due to their silence.

2008 was the last straw for Israel.  In that year alone they were hit with about 3,000 rockets and mortar bombs.  Perhaps that came about because in June 2007, Hamas took over the Gaza Strip and overthrew the acceptable Palestinian Authority.  Abbas had to leave and go to the Judea-Samaria area to live and Hamas set up a radical Muslim entity.  Then they really were following the Muslim Brotherhood Code.

Iran and their sidekick, Syria supported Hamas who now used Gaza as its launching pad for terrorism against Israel.  They have more than 20,000 armed operatives in Gaza and kept improving the range of the shelling.  By late 2008 they could reach some of Israel's largest and most populated cities.  Israel suffered from deliberate attacks which caused them deaths, injuries and lots of property damage.  Business had to close and tens of thousands of Israeli citizens had to leave their homes for bomb shelters.

Israel tried several methods of stopping the affront through proper channels like appealing to the UN Secretary General and many presidents of the security council as well as overtures to diplomats directly and through intermediaries with no luck.  They were only able to see the Palestinian terrorists escalate in their cross-border attacks and raid Israeli territory in June 2006 and even kidnap an IDF soldier, Corporal Gilad Shalit.

After much warning of what would happen to the whole world, not just to Gaza, Israel resorted to force, feeling it was high time and a proportionate response to the attacks.  The IDF did more than the USA soldiers would have done in avoiding or limiting harm to civilians in Gaza.  They were rewarded by a punishing report from South Africa's Goldstone Report, which Goldstone himself had to apologize for later, admitting it was wrongly reported to him by his comrades.  The damage had been done, however.  The attack against Israel has caused them much harm politically.

Has Goldstone or anyone else in the UN tried to stop the continual attacks of Hamas on Israel?

Resource: http://news.yahoo.com/gaza-militants-fire-rockets-israel-military-160928600.html
http://www.mfa.gov.il/GazaFacts/About/Operation-Cast-Lead-against-Hamas.htm?DisplayMode=print
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sderot

Does Abbas Use Israel's Innovations?

Nadene Goldfoot
The video below tells it all.  Israel is extremely innovative and has come up with all sorts of inventions that have helped the world, many of which are in the medical world as well as technologies that we have come to love and expect.

I am in awe of this teeny little state who is surrounded at least on 3 sides by enemies that have been trying to destroy them, from the Palestinians on the West side to Iran way in the East as well as Lebanon and Syria in the North.  Iran threatens with atomic bombs and Syria has chemical weapons. For the past 6 years they have also been continually bombed by the Palestinian Arab terrorists from Gaza as well, so the Southern Israeli population spends a lot of time in bomb shelters.  Besides the immediate dangers, there is also the UN who has managed to single out Israel as the one and only terrible country in the world, causing many to side with them.

To top it off, there are people who want to boycott, divest and sanction Israel's products in  destructive BDS movements.   They just want to punish Israel for trying to stay alive.  This is a situation for only the best of psychologists or sociologists to understand.  Anybody else would crumble under the stress Israelis live under, but for them they just keep inventing.

BDSers see everything Israel does as a crime, and in my opinion, twist facts as only the UN bias views things.  To these misinformed, hateful, judgemental  people, Israel has "denied Palestinians their fundamental rights of freedom, equality, and self-determination through ethnic cleansing, colonization, racial discrimination, and military occupation."

Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, chief  of the Palestinian political group, Fatah and main negotiator has been refusing to sit down and talk to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu for a long time, now.  Hillary Clinton only pressures  Netanyahu to do this but never Abbas, so Netanyahu just offered to release 124 Palestinian terrorist murderers from Israeli prisons in exchange for a meeting with Abbas. Of course, as usual, Abbas refused.  Did he want more of an offer?  Actually, he wants a settlement before he sits down to settle anything.  It's "give in to his wishes" and then he'll sit down, and that's the way it has been going on.  Netanyahu thinks that this is why people sit down and talk,  to decide on things together; some give and take on both sides of an issue.

This only brought on an attack against Israel by the Obama administration.  They are also angry now because Israel's Supreme Court, led by retired Supreme Court justice Edmond Levy, came out with the decree that their communities that go beyond the 1949 armistice lines are legal!  The findings were published this week and say that under international law, they are legal.  This is not new as it has been the position of Israel since 1967 and even since 1922.  Israel has held the right to sovereignty over Judea, Samaria and Jerusalem as well as all the land Israel took control over during the 1948-1949 War of Independence.

In the mandate that Britain held up till May 14, 1948, Britain was to facilitate settlement by Jews on the land, including state lands and wastelands not required for public purposes.  They were not to prohibit Jewish settlement and they did so  in every way possible.  They went against the requirement that they were to help Jewish settlement.   They took horrible action to prevent Jewish settlement, such as not letting Jews in the land in the late 30's who were escaping the Nazi persecution, even to the point of turning back shiploads of Jews needing their promised homeland, thereby causing their ultimate deaths. Then they went ahead and opened the land up to the Arabs, instead.

Israel is bucking a lot of negative pre-determined viewpoints about their state that say that their land, once said to be a nice piece, like a 9 X 12" sheetcake, shouldn't be any bigger than a postage stamp, and having shrunk to that size, should now give up more land called Judea, Samaria and East Jerusalem.  Actually, Jordan (Transjordan) was to be a part of Israel originally.  And I ask, just who has been the people who have been denied their fundamental rights of freedom?  Who has been racially or religiously discriminated against?  Who's still the scapegoat in this world?

Reference: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3iIoSesQB2U
http://www.bdsmovement.net/bdsintro
http://jewishfactsfromportland.blogspot.com  (my latest posts on Britain, the mandate and events)
From Time Immemorial by Joan Peters
http://frontpagemag.com/2012/caroline-glick/obamas-spectacular-failure/

Swedish Muslim Possible Bomber of Israeli Bus in Bulgaria

Nadene Goldfoot
Mehdi Ghezali, 36 year old Stockholm, Swedish born Muslim welder  whose parents were Algerian and Finnish has been fingered as the suicide bomber of the Israeli tour bus in Bulgaria and a Hezbolla operative.  That wouldn't surprise me one bit as Malma, Sweden, is full of Muslims who hate Jews and have driven out many of them.  Jews had found safety in Sweden from the 2nd world war days and many had settled in Malma.

Sweden of course is denying that he is the bomber, but they can't find him.  Netanyahu is blaming Iran, who supports Hezbolla.  Iran is denying involvement in this Burgas attack which means nothing as they always deny involvement in Israeli assassinations.  For months they have been trying to mass murder Israelis in Thailand, India, Georgia, Kenya, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Cyprus..  This time 5 Israelis including a pregnant woman were blown to smithereens  as well as the Bulgarian tour guide and the bomber.  Some 30 were injured and flown back to Israel.  It's possible he didn't mean to be killed in the placing of the bomb on the bus.  DNA tests are being used for identification.

Ghezali had arrived in Bulgaria 5 weeks before the bombing and got to the airport by taxi.  Somebody else gave him the bomb.  That somebody must have known of the habits of Israel using the Bulgarian seaport as a tour place at this time of year, which tells me that someone at the resort may have been in on it.  Israelis have used the resort for high school graduates before they go into the service.

Ghezali had a fake American passport and a fake Michigan driver's license.  He has a wikipedia page showing past involvements and was held in Guantanamo Bay detainment camp in Cuba in 2002.  He attended a Muslim religious school and mosque in Britain before traveling to Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan and Pakistan where he was captured.  Sweden had dropped all charges against him for criminal misconduct before his capture.

The authorities even have a video clip of him walking around before the blast at the Burgas International Airport.  He had a backpack, and was casually dressed wearing a baseball cap and had long dark hair and a slight mustache.

Israeli and Bulgarian officials are investigating the attack.  The FBI and CIA have joined them as well.  The police may have come to the conclusion that this man was the suicide bomber after reading his rap-sheet and knowing that he was seen in the airport just before the bombing and not found afterwards, do you think?

It has been brought to my attention that this attack on Israelis has not warranted enough interest in our local papers or TV to make the news, though it has been reported on the web.  Evidently Israelis can be murdered without much interest to the rest of the world, which is a shunda.  That Israelis cannot travel or vacation without fear outside of Israel is a terrible shame.  Of course the land most likely to be responsible is the one who has cursed and hated it the most:  Iran.  It's not a puzzlement to Israel but the obvious.  .

Resource: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mehdi_Ghezali
frontpagemag.com/2012/davidhornik/the-burgas-attack-irans-terror-war-against-israel/print/
news@israelnationalnews.com Arutz Sheva Bulgaria:  Iran-Financed Hizbullah Behind Terror Attack by Chana Ya'ar
http://www.examiner.com/article/israelis-accuse-hezbollah-of-attacking-bus-outside-bulgarian-airport

Israeli Bus bombed in Bulgaria: 6 Dead

Nadene Goldfoot
Bulgaria, on the coast of the Black Sea,  is a state that trades with Israel. It used to be a part of the Ottoman Empire also, and then later became a Communist state, now gone Democratic.   I remember loving the Bulgarian jam that I bought in Israel in the 1980's.  Not long ago Israelis could be tourists in Egypt, but I wouldn't recommend it today.  Since Israeli tourists can't visit its own neighbors,  Bulgaria was a destination for a trip.  154 Israeli tourists flew from Tel Aviv to the Burgas airport in Bulgaria and were aboard one of 7 Israeli tour buses by 5pm when it was bombed by terrorists.  They had been headed for a resort some 30 miles away.

Now 6 people are reported  killed and 32 injured with 3 in ICU when the bomb exploded Wednesday.  A suspicious package was found on the bus.  Dan Shenar, head of security at the Israeli Transportation Ministry had requested some increased security when they found it.

Israel has feared that Hezbollah would attack Israelis in connection with the 4th anniversary of the assassination of Imad Mughniyah, their military commander and have blamed Israel's Mossad.  There was a Hezbollah plot earlier uncovered.  Hezbollah may be from Lebanon, but they get their support from Syria and Iran.   Also, today was the anniversary of an attack 18 years ago in Buenos Aires when the Jewish Community Center was bombed, killing 85 people.

Resource: http://www.cnn.com/2012/07/18/world/europe/bulgaria-israel-blast/?hpt=hp_t2
http:;//www.jpost.com/LandedPages/PrintArticle.aspx?id=277989
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hezbollah
//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1994_AMIA_bombing

Plans on the Table-Do They Include Deep Throat?

Nadene Goldfoot
Deep Throat is a guided bomb-unit 28 (GBU-28) and weighs 5,000 pounds.  It is laser guided and was used in Operation Desert Storm to penetrate Iraqi underground command centers.  2 were dropped.

During former US President George W. Bush's administration (2001-2009) in 2005, the USA sold 100  bunker-penetrating bombs and refueling aircraft to Israel, possibly  thinking they would be used to strike Iran's nuclear facilities.  By 2006 Israel accelerated the request and finally 55 units were delivered in 2009 as the order had been deferred for 2 years.

When Obama entered the White House,  he approved a string of Israeli requests to purchase advance armament.  Netanyahu requested the approval of the sale of advanced refueling aircraft as well as GBU-28 bunker-piercing bombs during a recent meeting with Leon Panetta in March 2012.  Obama instructed Panetta to work directly with Ehud Barak, Israel's Defense Minister, on the matter.  He indicated that they looked favorably on this request.

WikiLeaks exposed discussions about it about discussions in 2009 noting that it should be quiet to avoid allegations that the USG is helping Israel prepare for a strike against Iran.

The USA sold some to South Korea after North Korea had a practice bomb drill.  They were to be delivered sometime between 2010-2014.

Israel had on December 23, 2011 received bombs fused to prematurely detonate before penetration.  "According to the Jerusalem Post on December 23, 2011 the US Justice Department announced that it had reached a settlement with Kaman Corp. which allegedly substituted a fuse in four lots of fuses made for the bombs. Under the settlement, Kaman Corp. will pay the government $4.75 million. "  Kaman Corp is a USA corporation.  

Resource: http://www.npr.org/2011/09/24/140773755/u-s-sells-bunker-busters-to-israel
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/netanyahu-asked-panetta-to-approve-sale-of-bunker-busting-bombs-u-s-official-says-1.416900
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GBU-28
http://www.kaman.com/

Clinton's Greeting in the Middle East

Nadene Goldfoot
Egypt's military head, field Marshal Hussein Tantawi warned today  after Hillary Clinton left that he won't let the Muslim Brotherhood dominate Egypt, even though Hillary  had advised him to work with Egypt's elected Islamist leaders, so he wasn't very happy with her suggestions. He stated that "Egypt will never fall.  It belongs to all Egyptians and not to a certain group--the armed forces will not allow it."  The military has cut Morsi's powers and has taken over the job of writing a new constitution.

Egypt itself wasn't happy with her either,  boys holding placards showed they hated Israel just a little more than they hated her.  Her motorcade was hit with shoes, tomatoes and a few water bottles.  The people called out "Monika, Monika, remembering her husband's affair just to irk her.

While Egypt's liberals were for the Arab Spring, the liberals and Christians are now accusing Clinton and Obama with forcing the Muslim Brotherhood down Egypt's throat to curry favor with the Islamists.

With that greeting behind her,  Hillary then met with Prime Minister Binyamim Netanyahu in Jerusalem on the last leg of her trip abroad.  She was there to talk about Iran's nuclear power and the stalled peace process with Hamas and Fatah.

As usual, southern Israel at that moment was hit with a rocket at around 9:30pm.  An Israel News Daily article explained what happens is that first the scream of the Color Red rocket alert sounds.  15 seconds later a rocket explodes.  This time it was a short-range Qassam and it exploded somewhere in the western Negev.  Security personel have to go out to locate the site where it exploded.  Israelis must stay in their shelters for 10 minutes after its impact to make sure it's not being followed immediately by another which can happen.

An hour later, another attack did come, this time against the nearby city of Sderot, which is the closest to the Gaza Strip.  This rocket exploded in a field on the outskirts of the city.  Hillary should visit the southern part just to see what it's like and what the population endures from the terrorists.

Resource: Oregonian 7/16/12 page A3, In Egypt by AP
arutz sheva,, Rocket fire Aimed at southern Israel by Chana Ya'ar
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/157910
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/157915

Anti-Tank Missile Aimed at Farmers

Nadene Goldfoot
An Israeli air force  pilot killed one terrorist Thursday in response to the many attacks on southern Israel by Hamas terrorists this past week.  The attack happened east of Gaza City.

Earlier the IDF armored corps artillery forces attacked a Hamas terror cell  that operated within Gaza.  They were ready to launch an anti-tank missile at Israeli soldiers patrolling the security fence.

On Monday, Kibbutz Yad Mordechai was targeted  by an anti-tank missile along with sniper fire aimed at a group of farmers in a field and cars including a child's infant seat that was directly targeted.  A bullet hole pierced the back of the infant's seat.  Luckily, the 7 month old wasn't in it at the time.  The kibbutz, started in 1930 by Polish Jews, relocated to its present site a few miles south of Ashkelon in 1943.  It remembers its founders fighting the Nazis in the Warsaw Ghetto.  In 1948 they were attacked by Egypt.

Southern Israel has endured at least 300 strikes by Gazan terrorists so far this year.  This puts all of southern Israel in jeopardy as they never know where they will land.  .

Ashkelon, Portland's sister city, is the home of Barzalai Hospital where all people, both Israelis and Arabs can come for their wounds and find medical assistance.  They've had to go underground in order to continue helping people, and that means to dig down to a lower level for protection. The  Ashkelon Marina is well known in the yachting community as a center for International rallies and regattas.  It's famous marina is large enough for 600 ships and is located between two beaches.  

    

Resource: Arutz Sheva news@israelinationalnews.com Terrorist Dead in IAF Strike on Gaza by Chana Ya'ar
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yad_Mordechai
http://www.ashkelon-marina.co.il/

Restaurant Hit in Southern Israel by Machine Gun Fire

Nadene Goldfoot
Southern Israel's Monday rocket attack also included machine gun fire that came from the Gaza Strip.  They hit two cars and a restaurant wall in a plaza.  No one was injured but that must have been a shock.  The terrorists must have moved their location of firing as usually they hit open fields with rockets.

Shells found were from an 0.5-caliber automatic machinegun, reports  Ynet News.  This brought out both soldiers and police to check out the area.  People in the restaurant were quite surprised, I'm sure.

This of course caused retaliation by the IAF who hit two Hamas centers in south Gaza overnight.  No injuries were reported.  Evidently from reports, the terrorists had fired a missile into the Eshkol region and were shooting at cars with the machine guns.  It is thought that they couldn't have seen the restaurant from their point, so that could have been wild shooting.


Resource: http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4253338,00.html
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/gaza-rocket-hits-israel-army/972542/
http://www.focus-fen.net/index.php?id=n282669

What the Fight Between Jews and Arabs Is Really All About

Nadene Goldfoot
Actually, The modern effort to establish a national homeland for the Jewish people began in 1839 with the petition by Sir Moses Montefiore to Sa'id, Khedive of Egypt, for a Jewish homeland in the region of Palestine.


Finally, November 29, 1947 was the day the UN decided to recommend the partition of Palestine into an Arab and a Jewish state.  The Jewish state would be even smaller than what was later decided by Armistice Lines in 1949, after all the Arab nations had attacked the new-born Israel.   It was only a little more than half of western Palestine, about 15,000 square km or 6,000 square miles and that was including the semi-arid Negev Desert.  In contrast, Egypt has 386,000 sq miles. Today Israel amounts to 7,992 square miles.

 At the time there were already 7 Arab states in the same area:  Egypt, Iraq, Syria Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Yemen and Transjordan.  The area of land they already had was 230 times larger than the planned Jewish state and had a population 60 times more than the Jews, who numbered about half a million, or pretty close to 600,000.

At this time the Arabs wanted the Jewish land as well.  This is what they fought the Jews about.  There were no "occupied territories" to fight about The Arabs were guaranteed their state out of the Jews' promised Jewish Homeland. There weren't any Arabs living in refugee camps.   In fact, their portion was 7/8 of all of Palestine on both sides of the Jordan River.  All 7 states would invade Israel.  It was a ratio of 7:1.

They even refused to recognize the Jewish claims to the land.  That hasn't changed as we saw on the Geraldo show last night that Palestinian legislator, Dr. Hanan Ashrami vehemently denied Jews any history to Jerusalem or the land at all.

Palestine was quite a large piece of land as known at the time of the British Mandate of 1918 at the end of World War I.  In the map above you can see the Dead Sea.  February 1919 Emir Faisal, the recognized Arab leader of his day was also  in the act of striving for  the creation of an Arab political independence in Syria where he was a king for a brief time and Iraq where he ruled for 40 years.  He signed a formal agreement with Dr. Chaim Weizmann for cooperation between the two over the projected Arab state and the projected reconstituted Jewish state of "Palestine"  Faisal saw the borders proposed as moderate and proper.  The Zionists included what became Mandatory Palestine on both banks of the Jordan as well as NW Galilee up to the Litany River, later included in S. Lebanon, part of the Golan Heights, later included in Syria and part of Sinai.  

What the League of Nations was establishing was separating the  "state of Palestine" from Syria. They had the mandate over the Ottoman Empire that had lost the World War I.  Britain saw that Palestine would control its own source of water power and irrigation on Mount Hermon in the east to the Jordan.  This was of great importance since the success of the new state would depend upon the possibilities of agricultural development. " The mandate formalised British rule in the southern part of Ottoman Syria from 1923–1948."


 " It was recommended the the Jews be invited to return to Palestine and settle there, being assured by the Conference of all proper assistance in so doing that may be consistent with the protection of the personal (especially the religious) an the property rights of the non-Jewish population, and being further assured that it will be the policy of the League of Nations to recognize Palestine as a Jewish state as soon as it is a Jewish state in fact. "


The League of Nations Report said:  "It is right that Palestine should become a Jewish state, if the Jews, being given the full opportunity, make it such.  It was the cradle and home of their vital race, which has made large spiritual contributions to mankind, and is the only land in which they can hope to find a home of their own;  they being in this last respect unique among significant peoples."


Instead of following Emir Faisal's wishes which would have had a good outcome for all, the Arabs followed the advice of the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem and attacked the Jews instead.  The Grand Mufti was in cahoots with Germany.  " as shown in a memo written November 2, 1943 from Heinrich Himmler to an anti-Balfour Declaration meeting: 


"To the Grand Mufti:
  "The National Socialist Movement of Greater Germany has, since its beginning, inscribed upon its flag the fight against world Jewry.  It has, therefore, followed with particular sympathy the struggle of the freedom--loving Arabians, especially in Palestine, against the Jewish interlopers....." 


The British had compounded the Jewish efforts by doing everything in their power to keep them out of the area.  It was truly a miracle that Israel was pronounced a state as the British Mandate was up and they left on May 14, 1948.


Reference: http://www.colostate.edu/orgs/ESA/general.html
Book: Battleground, Fact and Fantasy in Palestine by Samuel Katz
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geography_of_Israel
Book:  From Time Immemorial by Joan Peters
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Mandate_for_Palestine_(legal_instrument)

Original Borders of Israel 1271 BCE

Nadene Goldfoot
Moses lived from about 1391 BCE to 1271 BCE.  The Borders of Eretz Yisrael were dictated to Moses by G-d  as found in Numbers 33:52 to 34:21. " The land of Canaan is to fall to you as an inheritance. The fact remains that Moses never did get to enter Canaan but certainly was able to be knowledgeable about the geography through this communication. .

The  southern side shall be from the Wilderness of Zin at the side of Edom, 
Your southern border shall be from the edge of the Salt Sea to the east.  The border shall go around south of Maaleh-akrabbim, and shall pass toward Zin; and its outskirts shall be south of Kadesh-barnea; then it shall go out to Hazar-addar and pass to Azmon.  The border shall go around from Azmon to the stream of Egypt, and its outskirts shall be toward the Sea.

The western border:  It shall be for you the Great Sea and the district; this shall be for you the western border.

This shall be for you the northern border:  from the Great Sea you shall turn to Mount Hor.  From Mount Hor you shall turn to the approach to Harnath, and the outskirts of the border shall be toward Zedad.  The border shall go forth toward Zifron and its outskirts shall be Hazar-enan;


You shall draw yourselves as the eastern border from Hazar-enan to Shefam.  The border shall descend from Shefam to Riblah, east of Ain; the border shall descend and extend to the bank of the Kinnereth Sea to the east.  The border shall descend to the Jordan, and its outskirts shall be the Salt Sea;

 This shall be the Land for you,  according to its borders all around".  In the map above, the brown shaded areas were not yet taken by the time Joshua, the Israelite commander and successor of Moses,  died.  Moses had directed him to to lead the people in the conquest of Canaan.  Judah and Samaria are included inside the borders of Israel being they are on the West side of the Jordan River; thus the incorrect name of "West Bank," given to the area by the Jordanians.

Knowing the borders of Israel became important because of the many commandments that are to be followed only inside this land.  Notice that the border begins at the extreme southeast and goes from there to the west, then northward, eastward and finally, southward. to join the original starting point.  The Jews could not bring themselves to eliminate all the Canaanites.   The Northern shaded area with the Lebanon Mts. remained as Lebanon.  King Solomon was able to get Cedar trees from there to use in the Temple through trade and friendly relations.  .

Reference: Tanach, The Stone Edition; the Torah/Prophets/Writings; the 24 books of the bible by Rabbi Nosson Scherman by Mesorah Publications, ltd.

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

Justice Edmond Levy Rules: ISRAEL HAS RIGHT TO LIVE IN JUDEA-SAMARIA

Nadene Goldfoot
Judge Levy is not the first legal expert to say that  Israel has,  according to international law,  the legal right to live and build in Judea and Samaria.  Eugene Rostow and Stephen Schwebel have also ruled that they are not breaking international law.  They just investigated their position once again and take the same stand as found earlier.

Israel, a land where justice has always been extremely important, from times of their very beginnings with Moses to the present,  revisited the their legal status once again to get a new read on it by retired Supreme Court Justice Edmond Levy.  He headed a committee that has been examining the legality of Jewish construction in Judea and Samaria and  declared on Tuesday that Israelis have a legal right to settle the region, a decision that Israel had already come to take after winning the 1967 war. 

 Israel was attacked in 1967 by surrounding states of Egypt, Jordan and Syria, who lost.  The UN has upheld a ruling that Israel is breaking international law of building in what they call the Palestinian territory citing the 4th Geneva Convention.  It should be mentioned that the UN is also top heavy with 48 Muslim majority countries who would rather get rid of Israel entirely and find fault with her at every possible moment.   In fact, Syria is up again to serve on the Human Rights Council of 2013 along with such countries as Pakistan and Venezuela.

Israel was promised by the mandate holder, England, in the Balfour Declaration to have a Jewish Homeland in Palestine.  The original decided piece was lopped off and 80% of it was offered to the Palestinian Arabs who rejected it and have continued to do so for 64 years!  This included Judea and Samaria.  Actually, they were being piggish in wanting Israel's piece as well and in my opinion, weren't after a state but after a way of getting rid of the Jews. At that time they had not voiced any claims of nationalism at all, being Arabs coming from many of the surrounding countries whereas the Jews were in dire need of a homeland and wanted their own homeland back once again after a 2,000 year wait for it.  To the Jews, the land was holy.

At the very least, Jews have this right to live in the lands that they control under the agreements with the Palestine Authority, he has stated.  The establishment of Jewish settlements in Judea and Samaria, which the press calls "West Bank" is in itself, not illegal.

"The laws of "occupation" do not apply to the unique historic and legal circumstances surrounding Israel's decades-long presence in Judea and Samaria."

The report continued to say that the 4th Geneva convention's part addressing the protection of civilian persons in time of war-on the transfer of populations does not apply, and  wasn't intended to apply to communities such as those established by Israel in Judea and Samaria.

There were some criticisms for Israel in the report, though.  The problems were the dozens of new neighborhoods that had been erected without government authorization but not halted by the government, either, and without a link to the mother community.  Several had been built outside the legal jurisdiction allotted to the community .  The ruling is that they are to operate within the confines of the law and this must be enforced better in the future.  This situation is undoubtedly why Netanyahu had this committee formed.  

The committee gave recommendations to be followed.  Future problems of unauthorized communities will be dealt with from now on in a faster manner.  Rules are now clear and must be enforced.

Judge Levy, born in Iraq, was an active criminal lawyer.  He was appointed to the supreme court in 2001.

Resource: http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_article.php?id=4945
http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2012/07/05/hillel-neuer-syria-is-heading-for-a-seat-on-un-human-rights-council/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmund_Levy
http://israel-nadene.blogspot.com/2010/11/international-law-concerning-judea-and.html
http://jewishfactsfromportland.blogspot.com/2012/06/part-ii-on-international-law-concerning.html

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

Who Has Ruled Palestine Since 70CE? How Did People Fare?

Nadene Goldfoot
Our "birth certificate" was validated by the promise of the Bible.  Eretz Yisrael was not called Palestine until 135 CE when Bar Kochba lost a 3 year battle with the Romans to regain Jerusalem.  There have been many foreign rulers in what was called Palestine, but Palestine was ruled, and not even occupied.  Transient people just came and went. No country owned it after the Jews were dispersed in 70 CE.  Large communities were re-established in Jerusalem and Tiberias by the Jews in the 9th century.  In the 11th century, Jewish communities grew in Rafah, Gaza, Ashkelon, Jaffa and Caesarea.  The land remained a crossroads of trade and empire-making. It remained trampled, unloved and untended  until the Jews' return, a wasteland for 2,000 years.    

70 CE -395 Destruction of Jerusalem by Romans, Romans and Byzantine Empire Ruled (Constantinople) :
135 CE:  Romans changed name to Palaestina (thought to be after long-vanished Philistines, Aegean people, enemies of Judah) Jerusalem changed to Aelia Capitolina. Jews became minority population,  Christians majority, languages used were Greek, Hebrew, Aramaic.   Constantinope had Emperor Justinian


395-636  The Period of Ignorance(of Islam) : Population lived in a few towns on trade routes, most were nomadic tribes, land barren, uninviting, superpowers did not come into land, had garrisons for defense against nomadic tribes.
570 CE Muhammad born in Saudi Arabia
 622-Mohammad created 1st Islamic government, died 632.  Campaigning, attacking for 11 years clear to Egypt.

1037-1194-Seljuks, Turkish-Persian Empire, ruled 1,505,798 sq miles, Sultans,

Seljuk,  founded the first major Muslim Turk dynasty...which extended in various forms -- right from Ghazni in Afghanistan to Anatolia (modern Turkey), for 500 years, hero of Seljuk Turks,  was thought to have been an officer in Khazaria army (Jewish royal family) , active from 985 to 1038 when died, descendants carried on, conquered to Baghdad, guardians of the declining  Abbasid caliphate..

636-1072 Arabs :   Arabs were on both sides of Jordan River; filastin (Palestine), Urdun (Jordan).  Built Ramla for an administrative centre.  Genealogy became important to determine money Muslim Arab received. Slowly Islamizations happened, Arabic used, immigration of Arab tribes from Arabia and Egypt, con't through 7th to 20th centuries.  Sabaeans and Nabataeans traders from Arabia.    Jewish communities grew.  

1072-1099 Seljuks, Confederacy of 9 Clans carried on the dynasty, Overlapping with Arabs

1099-1291 Crusaders' Rule massacred Muslim, Jews -Christians from Europe,  Land named Kingdom of Jerusalem 30,000 Crusaders entered Godfrey named king of Jerusalem,

1291-1516 Mamluk Rule; Cairo Slave successors, Egyptian rulers, 3 districts or Mamlaka:  :  Safad, Gaza and Damascus.  Used no name for land.  Destroyed most cities and villages along coastal plain to deter foreign invaders, remained empty.

1516-1917 Ottoman Rule; Turks,  land divided into administered districts, no name for land. 17ith, 18th centuries very bad oppression, marauding Beduin tribes, rival local alliances, villages reduced, population dwindled-19th century had no more than 250,000.  Middle of 19th century Jews and Arabs started to grow. 1914 population west of Jordan 680,000 (85,000 Jewish). Sultan Suleiman.

1918-1948 British Mandate through League of Nations at end of WWI.  name used-Palestine, mandate on both sides of Jordan till Eastern side given to Arabs for Transjordan.  May 14, 1948-birth of Israel.

Resource:   facts about Israel division of Information, Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Jerusalem
Middle East, Past and Present by Yahya Armajani, Thomas M. Ricks
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seljuk
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Seljuq_Empire

Why Iran Sneers at the Whole World

Nadene Goldfoot
Iran has made it plain that they are out to get Israel.  The only people drastically worried about their ability are the Israelis who feel that they will soon have the capabilities if not stopped in time. Continued meetings have not shaken Iran at all.

Iran already has enough uranium for 4 bombs with their 3% while the world is only worrying about them reaching the level of 20%.  Iran has plans to go beyond that level as they don't think anyone is really determined to stop them.  This came from a speech by Netanyahu to the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee today.

Sanctions that started yesterday  are only cramping their style and not severe sanctions.

Iran has stockpiles of weapons in Gaza that can reach Tel Aviv.  The situation in Sinai is deteriorating in that since the elections "it has become an "arms depot and firing range for Hamas missiles."  This is why Israel is working on building a border fence in that region.

Netanyahu feels  that to be concerned about Iran's goals to "wipe Israel off the map" is not being obsessive, but  healthy as it is a great threat to the people of Israel.  His responsibility is to keep everyone there safe.

The picture is even grimmer coming from the IAEA, the International Atomic Energy Agency back in May 25, 2012.  They scientifically predict that Iran will have enough uranium up to speed to make 6 nuclear weapons by the end of the year and already have enough for 4 of them.  Between the Fordow and the Natanz plants, they have enriched uranium up to 3.5% or 5 times what was foreseen in 2009.

This is why Netanyahu has often spoken of a time period of the open window that doesn't stay open for long.

Resource:  http://jewishbubba.blogspot.com
http://www.jpost.com/DiplomacyAndPolitics/Article.aspx?id=276013 by Lahav Harkov, Gil Hoffman
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2012/05/31/irans_growing_stockpile

Who'd Ever Take a Vacation to Palestine? What You'd Most Likely Find

Nadene Goldfoot

"The Report of the Palestine Royal Commission quotes an account of the Maritime Plain in 1913, the year my mother was born:

The road leading from Gaza to the north was only a summer track suitable for transport by camels and carts...no orange groves, orchards or vineyards were to be seen until one reached [the Jewish village of] Yabna [Yavne]....Houses were all of mud. No windows were anywhere to be seen....The ploughs used were of wood....The yields were very poor....The sanitary conditions in the village were horrible. Schools did not exist....The western part, towards the sea, was almost a desert....The villages in this area were few and thinly populated. Many ruins of villages were scattered over the area, as owing to the prevalence of malaria, many villages were deserted by their inhabitants."       

Lewis French, the British Director of Development in Palestine in 1931 wrote the following that simply would not make it in a travel magazine to induce visitors.  "We found it inhabited by fellahin who lived in mud hovels and suffered severely from the prevalent malaria...Large areas...were uncultivated....The fellahin, if not themselves cattle thieves, were always ready to harbor these and other criminals.  The individual plots....changed hands annually.  There was little public security, and the fellahin's lot was an alternation of pillage and blackmail by their neighbors, the Bedouin." Fellahins are peasants or agricultural laborers in Egypt, Syria and other Arab countries.   Bedouins are nomadic Arabs  of the Arabian, Syrian, or north African deserts.  


That's not much different from Mark Twain's description in 1867 when he took the ship on February 1st for an excursion to the Holy Land, Egypt, The Crimea, Greece and Intermediate points of interest from Brooklyn .  "If ever an oppressed race existed, it is this one we see fettered around us under the inhuman tyranny of the Ottoman Empire.  I wish Europe would let Russia annihilate Turkey a little-not much, but enough to make it difficult to find the place again without a divining -rod or a diving-bell.  The Syrians are very poor, and yet they are ground down by a system of taxation that would drive any other nation frantic.  Last year their taxes were heavy enough, in all conscience-but this year they have been increased by the addition of taxes that were forgiven them in times of famine in former years.  On top of this the Government has levied a tax of one-tenth of the whole proceeds of the land.  ...The plows these people use are simply a sharpened stick, such as Abraham plowed with, and they still winnow their wheat as he did-they pile it on the house-top, and then toss it by shovel-fulls into the air until the wind has blown all the chaff away.  They never invent anything, never learn anything."

"Twain continues.  Palestine is only from 40 to 60 miles wide.  The State of Missouri could be split into 3 Palestines, and there would then be enough material left for part of another-possibly a whole one".  From Dan to Beersheba must be a trying trip a without railroad, he mused.... He spoke of the Bedouins and said he thought "these chaps would sell their younger brothers if they had a chance...They attacked our camp last night, and I bear them no good will.  Here a man rides a donkey (pigmy jackasses) and carries the child, and the woman walks.  The customs have not changed since Joseph and Mary's time.  ..We found water but no shade.  then they found a tree but no water.

So who was going to change their life for the better?  People who were not sympathetic to Jews returning to Palestine were the very ones who believed that the Jews could improve the condition of these Palestinian Arab.  Dawood Barakat, editor of the Egyptian paper Al-Ahram, in 1922 wrote:  "It is absolutely necessary that an entente (international understanding providing for a common course of action) be made between the Zionists and Arabs, because the war of words can only do evil.  The Zionists are necessary for the country:  The money which they will bring, their knowledge and intelligence, and the industriousness which characterizes them will contribute without doubt to the regeneration of the country."

That was  also the initial philosophy of the Zionists who moved to Palestine in the 1880's to build a country.  It cannot be said better.  There were those Arabs that also believed it and were counting on it as well.  But they were not living in a vacuum and the overseers, the British,  the French and the greedy disbelievers had other ideas.  

Resource:  Myths and Facts a concise record of the Arab-Isreli conflict by Mitchell G. Bard PhD and Joel Himelfarb
The Innocents Abroad by Mark Twain
http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2000/467/chrncls.htm , article, picture of Barakat
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/History/Arabs_in_Palestine.html

Prime Minister Shamir Died

sNadene Goldfoot
Prime Minister  "Yitzhak Yzernitzky" Shamir b: October 15, 1915 in Ruzinoy, Poland, Israel's 7th, PM,  passed away Saturday  "Shabbat" at age 96 years 8 months 15 days.  For the past 10 years he has suffered from Alzheimer's disease. He has been in a coma during this period as well.  The funeral will be on Monday.

President Shimon Peres said in a statement that "Yitzhak Shamir was a brave warrior for Israel, before and after its inception.  He was a great patriot and his contribution will be forever etched in our chronicles.  He was loyal to his beliefs and he served his country with the utmost dedication for decades.  May he rest in peace.

 He started his life's work as an underground leader in Palestine and became Israel's Prime Minister.  He immigrated to Palestine from Warsaw at age 22 where he had been studying law. After reaching Palestine he enrolled in the Hebrew University and then  joined the Irgun Tzevai Leumi  or known as Etzel in 1937.  It was an offshoot of the Haganah, a  Zionist paramilitary group  which started in 1931 and continued till the birth of Israel in 1948. It turned out to be the political predecessor to the Likud party that Shamir belonged to.
  
However, Shamir left the group in 1940  for the Lohmei Herut Israel (Lehi)  or the Stern Group (Fighters for the Freedom of Israel) of which he became one of the 3 heads. This is the group my cousin, Stanley Goldfoot b: 1914 belonged to and had been the Chief of Intelligence.  They held to the belief that Britain must be fought notwithstanding the war effort against the Germans.  Shamir was its operational commander.  They had about 300 members. " Lehi split from the Irgun in 1940.   Stern declared that he incorporated elements of both the left and the right."  Twice the British tried to arrest Shamir but he escaped, as they were arresting many Jewish men, including Goldfoot who was imprisoned.   Shamir had been deported to Eritrea ( on Horn of Africa between Sudan and Ethiopia) and had escaped that place. He found asylum in France in 1947 and returned to Palestine in 1948 to continue as head of Stern Group (Lehi)  until Israel's birth May 14, 1948.  The group did see the British as the most evil of all their enemies.  

From 1955-56 he worked for the Mossad (Israeli Secret Service).  From 1973 he served in the Knesset as a Herut member, serving as speaker in 1977-80 and foreign minister from 1980.

In 1983 he succeeded Menahem Begin as prime minister.  The 1984 elections led to a stalemate and an agreement was reached between Shamir's Likud party and Shimon Peres' Labor party for a government of National Unity with rotation between the two men.

1984-86 Shamir was the Prime Minister.  After the 1988 elections he continued being the head of the National Unity government.  The Labor party left the government in 1990 when he led a right wing-religious coalition which was involved with the peace talks with the Arabs.  Shamir must have been frustrated with those talks like we are today, as he then believed in the expansion of Jewish life in the Administered Territories.

He will be remembered also for giving the green light to Major Hadad of the Christian Militia in 1982, when the Major's men went into Lebanon to clean out the PLO terrorists who had been hammering the northern border of Israel-Lebanon where Hadad and his men patrolled.  Major Hadad was a good friend of Israel and took his R&R in the army hospital in Haifa.  Then men took advantage of the situation and it was not a good scene.  This put Shamir in a bad light for having allowed the deaths of the PLOs.  My feeling was that he had no idea of what they could do, trusting in Hadad, who I can't believe realized it, either.

Resource:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irgun
Arutz Sheva news@israelnationalnews.com  Netanyahu eulogizes shamir on "The Arabs Are The Same Arabs" by Chana Ya'ar
The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
http://www.jta.org/news/article/2012/07/01/3099566/former-israeli-prime-minister-yitzhak-shamir-dies
Also read http://jewishfactsfromportland.blogspot.com to see the British attitude in Palestine and understand where the Jewish fighters were coming from-1st two posts that come up.  .