Protestants Against Israel Now For BDS

Nadene Goldfoot                                                               

Portland, Oregon's Mt. Hood

Portland, Oregon's City Hall has chosen some volunteer committee to decide on a big issue, and that is whether or not to back BDS (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions ) against Israel.  They have chosen to do so.  The Oregonian newspaper  published an opinion article on Sunday written by Alice Rothchild, who is well known enough back East to have her own page in wikipedia online.  She is one of those Jews who is backing the Palestinians and not her fellow brothers and sisters who live there.  She said, "As a Jewish American, I am proud to stand with my Christian brothers and sisters in the US and Palestine, to support boycott and divestment as peaceful tools to bring occupation to an end." 
                                                                             

Christians of Jerusalem live without fear because Israel protects them.
This is not true in other Middle Eastern countries.  

 Peaceful for her, maybe, but not for the people who live there.  She about gave me a heart attack after reading her article.  I found I made several spelling errors when typing my response.  I was shaking!  I thought she had to be a fellow Oregonian and see now that she lives in Massachusetts.  This is a tool for our volunteer city council group to prove they made the right decision which some of us have been fighting against.
                                                                         

Fatah and Hamas, unified for this picture 

 There is no real state of Palestine yet, but she addresses it as if it exists already.  They do have a committee, but not a country-yet, even though so many groups have recognized them.  The so called Palestinians have yet to recognize Israel and agree to live in peace.

You can read her article with this website.  http://www.oregonlive.com/opinion/index.ssf/2016/05/divestment_an_appropriate_respo.html

My response to the Oregonian is below.  It will not be published.  I could not write a short note to answer such an attack.

                                                                          

Taking advantage of negative publicity against Israel like BDS, this is what happens on
the Temple Mount in Jerusalem; rock throwing Palestinians hitting Jews who are
now using knives and cars, ramming them into crowds. .  

In response to Alice Rothchild's opinion article from page A21, Divestment is an appropriate response to Israel's treatment of Palestinians, I think this is the worst bit of anti-Semitism  written by a Jew I've read that is not based on any sort of research, only self-hatred feelings and heresay.                                                                                      

King David  of Israel (1010 BCE to 970 BCE) 

                                                                           

Moses, who led us to the Promised
Land b: 1391 BCE-d: 1271 BCE

As 

opinionated as Alice Rothchild  is, I am holding dual citizenship and make research about Israel my life work.  Let's look at some facts.  Israel was a real empire, and the first king was Saul of the 11th Century BCE  in about 1030 BCE.  Our settlement of the land had started in the 13th century BCE.  Israel-Judea (Samaria was the surrounding land of Jerusalem)  was taken by the Romans in 70 CE-so had been an empire and country for 1100 years.  There never ever has been a country of Palestine, so there aren't Palestinian people that need to reclaim land to rebuild  their old state like the Jews are doing.  They are a conglomeration of neighboring people from all the other Middle East states who came there looking for jobs  Most  came after Russian Jews returned in the late 1800's   when the Ottoman Empire (Turks) held the land.  Jews have been homeless for over 2,000 years, and have suffered from a lot of anti-Semitism.  Not the Arabs called Palestinians today;   they were Syrians and also others who came  from every other Middle Eastern country since created after WWI by the allies.

                                                                         

Emir Feisal

Emir Feisal was the Arab leader of the day, and he accepted the return of the Jews, hoping his people would learn something from them.  He was a leader, educated and intelligent who was from Saudi Arabia originally.  He was of royal blood looking for land to rule, and got it from the British who held the WWI mandate.     Another Arab, Haj Amin al-Husseini, the "Sharif of Jerusalem, the Grand Mufti, was against the idea and was able to turn his very excitable and ill -educated followers against the Jewish return.    He was a big fish in a little pond and didn't want to lose his status.  His attitude led to the Khartoum Conference where all the Arab leaders met after 1967's failing attack on Israel and declared their THREE NO's.  They said NO peace, NO negotiations, NO recognition, and then insisted on rights of the Palestinians people in their own country which was a down right lie.   They've been saying NO to every offer since.  They didn't want the return of these people, evidently, and they weren't about to have Jews moving into the Middle East since they were looked upon as Dhimmis (2nd class citizens in their countries.).                                                                                       

Wailing Wall in Herod's day (73 BCE-4 BCE)

                                                                             

Western Wall "Wailing wall" in Jerusalem
 1967 was the first time that Jews could pray there since 1948
It had been under Jordanian rule until Jordan and
other Arabs  lost the war.
 

Israel held off building for over a year with no results except NO.  It didn't help.  The so called West Bank, which we call Judea and Samaria, are the foundations of ancient Israel and include Jerusalem, of course.  Jews have been praying 3 times a day for a return to Jerusalem in every synagogue around the world for the past 2,000 years, and now it's been happening. 

                                                                         

At a time when we could use the love Christians offer to everyone else, we're not getting it from the Protestants; only reprimands.  Israel happens to be a country making their own decisions on how to handle people who keep attacking them, which the Palestinians have been doing.  Our American Senators respect this little country and have done their own research as well, so feel it is beneficial to American interests as well as to Israel's to help them out financially.  They help everyone else.  For the Protestants to feel they can force issues they see or hear about upon Israel  without knowing why Israel takes certain positions is ludicrous.  How would they like it if China  decided not to do certain things that would jeopardize our economy unless we go along with China's wishes?  Hm???  Who knows what is best for the USA?  Others?  The same goes for Israel, who will be 68 years old on May 14th.  Israel has been attacked in 1948, 1956, 1967, 1973, and all because of these Palestinian non-existent rights other than all the rights Israel has given them. 

                                                                     

All of Israel's high school students go into the army upon graduation unless
they are doing studies in the Yeshivote, but that may soon be abolished.  They
will then need to serve every year for a month until age 50.  They live in a
very dangerous neighborhood.  Even now, ISIS is trying to get in.    

Gaza Palestinians  have  been raining missiles, mortars and rockets on their southern  cities for years.  It's like being asked to have Nazis as neighbors of the Jews.  Palestinians speak Arabic.  Israelis speak Hebrew.  Arabs are Muslims, a contrary religion to Judaism.  Jews are Jewish.  There's some similarities, but even education is of different levels between the two.  What we're trying to do is mix oil with vinegar and they're not mixing.

                                                                                                                             

Druse Arab Israeli soldier

Christian Arab Israeli soldier

                     

Israeli soldier from
Ethiopia

Everything Israel, a country of 6 million Jews and 1.7 million Arabs, has been doing is for their own protection and the need to stay alive.  Arabs are doing everything they can to destroy Israel.  Since 1948, people like the Secretary-General of the Arab League, Azzam Pasha,  said in Cairo,  

"This will be a war of extermination and a momentous massacre which will be spoken of like the Mongolian massacres and  Crusades."  Every leader of Arabs and Iran have followed suit saying equally nasty things aloud to their people.  Now we even have the Protestants and Alice. 

BDS with their  B for Boycotting, D for Divestment, S for Sanctions is not right at all.  It's trying to do an arm-twisting  of Israel into complying with their own wishes which amounts to destroying Israel.  I have news for these glorious city leaders.  It's not working.   Facts are showing that it's not working.    What they are doing is trying to interfere with Israel's ability to pay back loans to the USA as well.  What I feel is that Alice and her buddies in Portland's City Hall are control freaks  as well as followers of other anti-Semitic groups who have no background as to  the current or past events pertaining to Israel and have no business mixing in in this manner.  

Update: 5/9/16 3:55pm  Clinton: 'The BDS campaign is

counterproductive to the pursuit of peace'

by Jacob Kornbluh, Jewish Insider

Resource:  http://www.oregonlive.com/opinion/index.ssf/2016/05/divestment_an_appropriate_respo.html  

Pope Francis's Three Day Visit to Holy Land-May 24-26th

Nadene Goldfoot                                                                                 

77 year old Pope Francis (Jorge Mario Bergoglio) , born in Buenos Aires,  Argentina,  is scheduled to visit Israel on May 26th, which is an important event.  He is the 4th Pope to visit what Christians call "The Holy Land" of Jordan, Palestinian Territories and Israel and will do so in his 3 day visit which for him starts on Saturday the 24th..  There will be live streaming of the visit.  Many countries that are Catholic majorities will be interested in this, such as the USA, Brazil, Italy, Spain, Poland, Germany and France.  Israel's Tourism Ministry is very interested as they are investing about $2.9 million dollars in marketing for the visit of the Pope. Last month a campaign was on going where people were asked to upload a 15-second video on why they wanted to visit the Holy Land.  Gustavo Aldolfo Franco Picaza from Venezuela won  a free trip to Israel with his winning video.  Hundreds of journalists will cover the Pope's visit.

"He is a visitor of the highest importance", stated Minister Dr. Uzi Landau, Israel's Tourism Minister.  Israel spends a lot of shekels on Christian sites.  Christian tourism brings about 60% of tourists, and this visit should increase that number.  Out of Israel's population of 8,134,100, 2.0% are Christians or 155,100.  "Argentines in Israel are the largest immigrant group from Latin America and one of the fastest growing groups. The vast majority of Argentines in Israel are Jewish Argentines who make Aliyah but there is also an important group of non-Jewish Argentines who choose Israel as their new home. There are about 50,000 Argentines residing in Israel although some estimates put the figure at 70,000.

Most Jewish Argentines are Ashkenazi Jews."

Considering that Christian groups are highly involved in the BDS movement against Israel like the Presbyterians, this is a positive event for Israel, so the thought that the Pope will recognize Palestine and call for an end to occupation is a huge disappointment and stab in Israel's heart after whizzing through in 3 days.

The PA (Palestinian Authority of Abbas) and the Arab Christians probably led by Sabeel are already celebrating Pope Francis's visit to their territory  which starts this coming Sunday as a visit to end "occupation.".  The Pope evidently has already decided on starting his trip with going to Bethlehem, which is held by the PA and is a sign to them of recognition. Whereas Bethlehem used to be populated by all Christians, it is now 2/3 Muslim.   This piece of information comes from Father Jamal Khader of the Latin patriarchate in Jerusalem.  Information of starting in Bethlehem comes form Rabbi Sergio Bergman of Argentina and close friend of the Pope who said that he intends to define himself as the "Che Guevera of the Palestinians" and support their "struggle and rights" during his visit.

He plans on traveling in an open car in Bethlehem and meet with Abbas and hold a "mass" prayer services there instead of in Jerusalem to show support for the PA.  Then he plans on visiting the Dheishe  refugee camp to see them suffering.  Palestinians have been in such camps since 1948, and are the longest people to stay in such camps.  The surrounding Muslim countries do not accept them in any state of being except as refugees in camps.

Christians have been violently persecuted in Bethlehem by the Muslims who have taken over Bethlehem, but the Pope has not said a word about it.  This is turning out to be a highly political visit as the Arabs see it.  The Pope will lunch with Palestinian families who have suffered from the occupation.

The Arabs are delighted that this visit is to Palestinian sites first and see it as a slight to Israel.

Besides visiting PA-controlled areas, the Pope plans to visit Arab-populated neighborhoods of eastern Jerusalem.  He will later visit with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu at the "Vatican-owned Notre Dame complex located between Jewish and Arab neighborhoods.  There the Israelis hope to explain their point of view of political events in the region.  Since the Arabs keep pushing the idea of Israel's "occupation," which they are stressing, Netanyahu will have to address much background and history in about a half hour.  What he wants to address the most is to explain the Iranian threat to Israel.

The question remains about his visiting in Gaza.  After all, Fatah and Hamas are united these days, so does he dare go there?  That's an area not very friendly at all to Christians.  In 2005 it was estimated that there were about 5,000 Christians living in Gaza.

The Greek Orthodox Church is also a main branch of Christianity in Israel and the 2 groups have not always been friendly with each other.  "Francis will meet the patriarch of Constantinople, Bartholomew, regarded as the “first among equals” in the Orthodox world, and for the first time in the Holy Land the two leaders will preside together over a public prayer. The encounter recalls a famous 1964 meeting between Paul Paul VI and Patriarch Athenagoras of Constantinople, which led to lifting excommunications born of the feud between Eastern and Western Christianity and that date to 1054.. "

Councilman Aryeh King is not planning on attending an official welcoming of the pope unless he has packed in his suitcase all the treasures of the Jewish people stolen by past popes known to be stored in the Vatican's basement.  That's not going to happen, so he won't be in attendance.

The "Last Supper Hall' is located at the complex of King David's Tomb.  Christian services are held there at the complex once a year.

Christians are disappearing in the Middle East. They've gone from making up 26% of the population to 10% in the Middle East.  "In the rubble of Syrian cities like Aleppo and Damascus, Christians who refused to convert to Islam have been kidnapped, shot and beheaded by Islamist opposition fighters. In Egypt, mobs of Muslim Brotherhood members burn Coptic Christian churches in the same way they once obliterated Jewish synagogues. And in Iraq, terrorists deliberately target Christian worshippers. This past Christmas, 26 people were killed when a bomb ripped through a crowd of worshipers leaving a church in Baghdad's southern Dora neighborhood." 

 The only country they are safe  in is Israel.  I imagine that the Pope will attack this only state protecting Christians in deference to the Palestinians who have done quite a number on them already in Bethlehem.  After all, it's a Jewish state, and everyone attacks Israel for their own  imagined reasons.  The sun and stars will move in heaven when someone of importance stands up for Israel.  

Resource:  http://www.algemeiner.com/2014/05/19/israel-tourism-ministry-prepares-to-welcome-pope-francis/
Arutz Sheva:  Pope will recognize Palestine, call to end occupation by Ari Yashar
http://www.bostonglobe.com/news/world/2014/05/17/what-stake-when-pope-francis-visits-holy-land/T3bErULMEJVFelIUfeqC0J/story.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Francis
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Israel
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palestinian_
Christianshttp://www.danielpipes.org/1050/disappearing-christians-in-the-middle-east
http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303630904579417482632439814 Ron Proser on the Middle East War on Christians

All About Israel's Administered Areas From Six-Day War

Nadene Goldfoot                                                                       

  We Jews Do Not Enter Area A.  There is no similar sign on the other side for B and C.

Territories that were occupied by Israel in the course of the Six-Day War against Israel came about when the Israel Defense forces miraculously defeated the massed Arab armies which menaced Israel's frontiers.  There are 4 administrated areas.

1. Judea and Samaria (West Bank) of the Jordan.  This territory had been until 1948 part of the British Mandate of Palestine.  Between 1948 and 1967 it was ruled by Jordan, which annexed it in 1950.  Since Judea and Samaria were never officially annexed by the Israeli government, the IDF Civil Administration has jurisdiction over the districts today.

2. The Gaza Strip had also been, until 1948, part of the British Mandate of Palestine.  Between 1948 and 1967 (with a short interruption in 1956-7), following the Sinai War, it was administered by an Egyptian Military Government.  It was not annexed by Egypt. Israel left completely in 2005 but keeps control of shipping lanes to keep out arms to be used against her.  .

3. The Sinai Desert was, until 1967, under Egyptian administration. It was given back to Egypt in return for peace agreement in March 1979 by Sadat with Begin.  .

4. The Golan Heights were, until 1967, under Syrian administration.  Since the 67 War, the Golan has officially been incorporated as parts of Israel.

The status of the administered areas had not changed from June 1967 to 1973.  Pending a peace settlement in which the borders between Israel and its neighbors will be decided, it is that of territories occupied during a war.  Israel had not annexed any part of the areas.  East Jerusalem was reunified in June 1967 with West Jerusalem.

Population: By July 1972, almost a million Arabs lived in the administered areas.
640,600 of them in Judea and Samaria (2,270 sq miles)
388,600 of them in the Gaza Strip and North Sinai (140 sq. miles)
   8,000 of them in the Golan Heights (500 sq miles)

The population of the areas is predominantly Muslim.  The smaller Christian communities of Greek Orthodox and Latins are mainly in Ramallah, Bethlehem and Beit Jala.  In the Golan Heights there are Druzes.

Until a peace settlement, which will determine the political future of the areas, Israel's policy tries to achieve the objectives of co-existence and cooperation between the Arabs of the areas and Israelis.  It is trying to enable the people to live normal lives  and to maintain security to all alike.  During the 1970's, Judea, Samaria and Gaza were the 4th fastest growing economy in the world-ahead of such places as Singapore, Hong Kong and Korea, and substantially ahead of Israel itself. (Historian Efrain Karsh).  Israel had been working hard to improve their lot.  

Local Authorities include 23 municipalities and 31 rural councils in Judea and Samaria.  Elections were held in 1972 in accordance with Jordanian law.  75% of voter participation caused about half the mayors to be replaced by new ones.   There were 3 municipalities and 7 rural councils in the Gaza Strip and North Sinai.  Liason officers of the Israel Ministry of the Interior approved their budgets, arranged to lend them funds at low interest, and audited their finances and administration.

Israeli Living in Administered Areas:  Between June 1967 and December 1972, Israel had established 14 towns in the Golan, 6 in Judea and Samaria, 7 in Gaza and North Sinai and 5 in East and South Sinai.  by 1977 there were 76 Jewish communities built in the Territories on undeveloped land.
 There are 3 different types:

1. Nahal villages:  Established by the IDF.  Nahal is a corps which combines military training with farm work.  Members become farmers when service ends.  The villages are military points, like those held by any other unit of the IDF.

2. Civilian villages:  Established in areas which Israel hopes may be assigned to its jurisdiction by peace treaties.  Israel knows where borders need to be for security.  These positions are not conditions and that in peace talks, everything will be negotiable.

3. Communities: Established where political future is not covered  with the assumption that should the area revert to Arab sovereignty under a treaty of peace, it should be allowed to continue to live in it just as Arab communities live in Israel..  We are talking about our ancient history of Judea and Samaria, established by King David and his son, King Solomon of which this land contains the Jewish holy shrines in areas beyond the bounds of pre-1967 Israel.  No Israeli would relinquish large parts of the administered area or accept any arrangement that banned Jews from living in places which are of religious and historical significance.

By 1977, some Israelis, such as the survivors of the Gush Etzion block, returned to rebuild Jewish communities that Arab forces had captured and destroyed in the 1948 war.  After 1977, 74 additional communities were built in the Territories on unallocated government land.  By 2005, the 150 communities included about 200,000 Israelis living on less than 2% of the land of Judea and Samaria.   80% of the people here live in communities close to the Green Line, currently consisting of suburbs of Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.  The Green Line (a pre-1967 boundary) is not an internationally recognized border.  It is an armistice line, marking positions held by Israeli and Arab troops when the final truce was called at the end of the 1948 War.  the Green Line remained an armistice line because Arab leaders refused to negotiate to set final border lines.  The Oslo Accords called for Israelis and Palestinians to negotiate for a final border between the State of Israel and a future Palestinian state.  To date, these negotiations haven't resolved outstanding issues to the satisfaction of both parties.

Disputed Territories:  The communities that Israel built in Gaza and Judea and Samaria were in undeveloped, uninhabited areas and are entirely legal.  Palestinians have legitimate claims to sovereignty over some of the land..  Many are longtime inhabitants who feel they have been deprived of political rights and self-determination.  Israel disputes their territorial claims and Israel also has strong claims to the land.  Therefore, these lands are referred to as disputed territories.  Israel has 3 types of claims:

1. Legal claims:  The British Mandate 1920-1948.  this was the last legal sovereign authority for the Territories.  Jordan and Egypt illegally held them between 1948 to 1967.  They remain unallocated portions of the British Mandate since no government formally replaced the mandate's jurisdiction.  The guidelines called for Jews to settle the area on what was called, The Jewish Homeland as per League of Nations.  the Jews' right to live on the land is a "legal right assured by treaty and specifically protected by Article 80 of the UN charter.  ...the Jewish right of settlement in the area is equivalent in every way to the right of existing Palestinian population to live there.  (Eugene Rostow, former US under Secretary of State, 1990).

2. Historical claims:  Judea and Samaria (West Bank) were the cradle of Jewish civilization since the 2nd millenium BCE and had a continuous Jewish presence until the 1948 War when Jewish inhabitants were killed and about 10,000 were expelled by the Jordanians.

3. Security-related claims:  Arab states had repeatedly launched attacks against Israel from the Territories' strategic locations and UN Resolution 242 envisioned bilateral negotiations that would give Israel more secure borders and lead to greater regional stability.  Until 1988, the PLO officially continued to call for a Palestinian state to replace Israel, not for a separate state that would exist alongside it.  Today Abbas offers recognition if Israel takes his steps that would allow the destruction of the state as they continue to call for the destruction of the state!

Ending Occupation:   From 1993 to 2007, Israel gradually ended the "Occupation."  when the Oslo peace process began in 1993, Israel began ending its military administration as it turned civil governance of the Palestinian population over to their elected government.  In 1994 Israel began turning the administration over to the PA.  However, radical Palestinian groups call all of Israel "Occupied Territory."  Since 2005, Israel uprooted Jewish communities from Gaza.  Israel's goal was to help create a self-governing Palestinian state in all of Gaza and most of Judea and Samaria, incorporating land where 98% of Palestinians live.

Since 1993, the regions have been divided into areas A, B, and C.  Area A was assigned to the Palestinian Authority where most of the Arab residents live. According to many estimates, 1.5 million Arabs live in the region.  Accurate statistics have been difficult to obtain with claims that Arab demographics have been artificially inflated.   Area B is under joint control and has large tracts of barren land.  Israel has full control of Area C where most of the over 340,000 Jewish residents live.

All the while, Israel's security needs remain urgent.  In Gaza, the Hamas-led Palestinian government continues to call for Israel's destruction and even after the recent cease fire, have fired rockets, missiles and mortars into southern Israel.   Israel has been repeatedly attacked from Palestinian and Lebanese territories.  Hamas has ties with Iran, Syria and Hezbollah and has forged ties with al Qaeda.  They all call for Israel's destruction.  

Today an even bigger threat looms over Israel with Iran getting atomic capabilities and their threat to destroy Israel.  Syria, though engaged in a 2 year old civil war and has killed almost or more than 80,000 of their own people, are now threatening Israel with missiles bought from Russia.  Egypt is falling apart since putting in a Muslim Brotherhood leader, Morsi.  Jordan is straining with taking in Syria's refugees and a large Palestinian citizen population.  The Middle East is heating up along with the weather.   

Resource:  Facts About Israel 1973, published by the Division of Information, Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Jerusalem
Israel 101 published by Stand with Us, supported by Christians United for Israel
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egypt%E2%80%93Israel_Peace_Treaty
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/163774 Sections A, B, C
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judea_and_Samaria_Area
http://jewishfactsfromportland.blogspot.com/2013/04/some-facts-about-occupation-subject.html
http://israel-nadene.blogspot.com/2013/05/1973s-real-nitty-gritty-on-judaea-and.html

Some Facts About "Occupation"; The Subject That Norway Holds As Reason to Support Terrorists

Nadene Goldfoot
Here are some facts that most people are not aware of in their zeal to discredit Israel as being those "terrible occupiers" of Palestinian Land."

Lets start with the fact that Canaan, or Eretz (land of)  Canaan, as the Jews called it originally, almost 4,000 years ago, was named Israel as it was the Israelites who entered and took it and then later the land was Israel and Judea.  These were Jewish states.  Israel was created first with King Saul in the 11th century BCE, then King David and  King Solomon.  When Solomon died in 920 BCE, the Jews divided up as if they were Republicans and Democrats and created Judea  with the southern half with the remainder of the tribe of Judah which included Jerusalem.  They were the more religious of the two by then.   There was never a country or state called Palestine.  It was the Romans who simply renamed the land as "Palestine, out of nastiness in order to minimize the Jewish association with it, which they then called it Palestine Syria."  After 70 CE it was no-man's land except for the remaining Jews that lived there as well as nomadic Arabs that wandered through on their way to better places.

True, our case rests on land held 4,000 years ago, but no one has really wanted it or lived there besides Jews who hadn't left and some nomadic Arabs wandering through.  The few Arab landowners lived elsewhere, not in the swamp and desert, and weed-filled barren land it had become from neglect after 70 CE.  Many rulers have held title, but none lived there.  It was only after many  Jews returned in the 1880's CE as pioneers fleeing from pogroms that Arabs tagged along to get jobs from them. If Arabs wanted their own state, which the British assumed that they would, wouldn't they also have accepted their offer in 1948?    No, their goal was just to oust the returned Jews.

By 1948 CE we find Egypt occupying Gaza and Jordan occupying Judea and Samaria, the original Jewish land.  Jews had congregated in Western Palestine and had built Tel Aviv and other cities along the coast.  That's one reason why England gave away 80% of the Jewish Homeland after WWI to Transjordan.  Yes, the Jewish Homeland had included Jordan's site as well.  Take out your Old Testament and read about the land G-d had allotted to Moses and the freed slaves.  It's there in detail.

Palestinian terrorism began before any occupation in 1929 when the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem ordered terrorist attacks against Jewish residents of Hebron.  The Jews had lived there since Abraham bought a cave to bury Sarah.  Hebron, because of that, is a Jewish holy city and has been for generations.  Today it's taken over by the Arabs.

After 1967's war whereupon the Arab countries attacked Israel in the attempt to drive her into the sea and destroy her, Israel, with guts, determination and the will of G-d won, defying all odds.  That's when she inherited Gaza and Judea-Samaria and they became "occupied" by her. Did Israel attack these places to take them to occupy?  Indeed not.  It had enough problems to deal with.  This was almost the straw that broke the camel's  back.  However, it did allow Jews to go to the sacred Western Wall for the first time in Jerusalem since before 1948 to pray, which the soldiers all did.  Now Jerusalem, Israel's capital, is a unified city. It was our capital between 1,000 BCE and 586 BCE and again between 516 BCE to 70 CE.   I must say thanks to Ha Shem (G-d) , who works in wondrous ways.  Had the Arab countries not attacked in 1967, this would not have happened.  "The armies of Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon are poised on the borders of Israel...to face the challenge, while standing behind us are the armies of Iraq, Algeria, Kuwait, Sudan and the whole Arab nation." So said the King of Jordan.   It was over in 6 days.

Terrorism grew worse after Israel ended its occupation of southern Lebanon and Gaza around 2005.  These unoccupied lands  became launching pads for rockets and missiles and mortars and the Palestinians started kidnapping soldiers.

No matter how kind Israelis reacted to Palestinians and no matter how many good programs they set up to help them attain a normalized life, the Palestinians had a set mind of attack and kill, shown by voting in Hamas, terrorists and ousting Fatah's Abbas-Yasser Arafat's replacement.

Islamic terrorists have sworn to continue terrorism even if Israel were to end its occupation of the Judea-Samaria area , and Israel has about 3/4 of the way already by allowing the PA to govern themselves.  Israel just keeps minimum rights there for their own security.  The sad fact is that Terrorists regard all of Israel as occupied.  They do not recognize the UN decision of their legal statehood of May 14, 1948.  If there were no Israel, terrorism would continue as long as any part of the world is not under Islamic control.  Just check out and see where Shaaria law is to supersede USA law lately.  It's already happening.

Countries have occupied others in the past.  For instance, the Tibetans have never resorted to terrorism against innocent Chinese civilians, though they have never been offered independence, and their occupation has been longer and more brutal than anything experienced by the Palestinians.  From 1911 to 1949 Tibet was an independent country till the Chinese invasion and occupation.  The difference is in the temperament between Tibetans and Palestinians, of course, helped along  by their different religious goals in life.   After WWI England occupied "Palestine" which had been part of the holdings of the Ottoman Empire.  France occupied Syria and Lebanon.  The British were terrible towards the Jews but allowed Arabs into the country illegally.  Britain also occupied India since the 1800's  and other places, but they've never been occupied, themselves.

The United States "occupied" Germany and Japan after WWII.  How would Americans like it if they continued to attack the USA from there or other areas closer.  Israel is in a far more precarious position of having Gaza and Judea-Samaria on the left and right borders of tiny Israel.

Occupation doesn't cause terrorism unless the occupiers are very cruel, and Israel has bent over backwards to help the Palestinians but were "slapped in the face" for doing so.  After all, Israel was occupied by the Romans in the first century and suffered greatly from it.  These Arabs were treated terribly by their Arab occupiers and Israel mistakenly thought they were actually freeing them.

Terrorism causes occupation and the measures taken to bring safety to the citizens.  Israel would have left Gaza and much of Judea and Samaria if not for the fear of terrorism from those areas.  Would Israel have gone into southern Lebanon in 1982 if it had not become a base for terrorism?  No.  Israel had to repeat this again in 2006 to stop rocket attacks and retrieve kidnapped soldiers out of Lebanon.

The international community did nothing to protect Israeli citizens from cross-border rocket attacks, kidnappings and suicide bombers.  If occupation is the only resource for Israel for protection, they may need to do it.  Israel has given land for peace, while the Palestinians have ventured nothing but more attacks.  Israel will not give land again which will be used for terrorism.

Israel left Gaza after a 2 day occupation in July 2006 and what happened?  A rocket from there hit an Israeli kindergarten causing children to go to the hospital.  Israel had left leaflets when they departed warning of dire consequences if rockets were fired again.  Our enemy feels that their deaths are worth the trouble if they can kill Israelis.  They put Arab mothers on pedestals who have given many sons to the cause.   Where we toast a l'chaim to life, they must be praying for death where they will be rewarded.

People who are notorious for not having human rights in their countries are Syria, Zimbabwe, China, Venezuela, Cuba, Cambodia and the former Soviet Union.  They always blame everything on their revolutions.  Islam has allowed extremists to bubble up in their religion such as Hezbollah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other groups.  They are oppressors of women, gays, racial minorities, religious dissidents and real human rights advocates.  Saudi women can only ride a motorcycle while covered completely and if accompanied by a male family member in designated areas. This wouldn't be so terrible but their counties can get up to 130 degrees F.   They torture and murder civilians, use human shields in their zeal to attack Israel with propaganda.  That's probably how they conducted their past year's voting in of Hamas once again.  How is it that all these groups come down on Israel and every other country is following suit?  Can they not see the Pied Piper of Hamelin through the haze?  They're following the wrong ideals!  There are Muslim states such as Syria that follow Iran who advocates nuclear proliferation and  environmental destruction.  There are 49 Muslim majority states, so there are others as well.

Jews are extremely  sensitive in calling to attention the bad points about Islam as they have put up with people doing this to them for the past 2,000 years.  But I must point out that the Muslims were on the side of the Nazis in WWII so are also a political group as well as a religious one, even going to Hitler in Germany and were so desirous of seeing Jews destroyed that they are still reading Nazi literature for their recreational time.  It amazes me since they are also Semites, but they see a great distinction.

Yet we have weak-minded professors from Columbia U. that planned to travel to Iran to apologize to Ahmadinejad   for Columbia U.'s president Lee Bollinger who gave a critical introduction of him on September 24, 2008.  .  It's like apologizing to Hitler, and I imagine we have Americans today that would have done just that back in 1939.  Ahmadinejad, who must be the #1 worst person in the world today,  is a bigoted tyrant who has incited genocide and whose government has murdered innocent Jewish children, women and other civilians in Argentina.  It is his country who wants to wipe Israel off the map with an atomic bomb and right after that dump a few on the USA as well for good measure. It is he who is helping Assad's regime in Syria who have killed over 60,000 people already.  This past week alone they killed 6,000 or better.

In our letters to the editor of the Oregonian of March 30th were 2 letters complaining that Israel was now calling the shots to attack Iran's nuclear facilities because Obama promised that he had Israel's back.  They didn't like allowing Israel to call the timing of this should it ever happen.  It is a huge responsibility to protect one's own land from harm.  If irrational Iran  cannot be stopped by all that Obama is doing, there is only one alternative left before being incinerated, folks, and this includes the USA in the wake of all this as well. Israel is not suffering from paranoia as it's not an imagined fear.

 Iran has announced publicly over and over of their sense of purpose in destroying Israel.  You must be a student of Islam to understand that they don't make rash threats.  They first warn, and then they do the deed.  Even some Arabs such as the Saudis are counting on the Israelis to stop Iran for they're in dire danger as well.  It wasn't too long ago that Iran fought Iraq, a Sunni state against a Shi'a state.  Christians have had their Catholic-Protestant battles and the Islamists have this difference that makes them fighting mad. To allow a 4th religion in the area is beyond their comprehension.   Look at what's happened to the Christians in Egypt lately.

Israel isn't occupying Gaza at all.  That's why the Palestinian Arabs have shot at southern Israel citizens. They try to  make sure that weapons do not get to them since they use them all against Israel, though.  Wouldn't you?   So tell me, what's all the to-do about "occupation" being the reason that people have been supplying terrorists with finances to continue with?

Resource: The Case Against Israel's Enemies by Alan Dershowitz page 182-185, Copyright 2008
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/History/67_War.html
Oregonian newspaper March 30, 2013 letters to the editor.
http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2008/01/columbia_university_professors.html
Facts About Israel 1973 published by Division of information,  Ministry for foreign affairs, Jerusalem
The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
From Time Immemorial by Joan Peters -a book all Norwegians should read.
http://www.savetibet.org/resource-center/all-about-tibet/china-tibet-a-brutal-occupation
http://www.san.beck.org/20-1-BritishIndia1800-48.html

Why We Look At History: Israel and the Palestinians-Past, Present and Future

Nadene Goldfoot
Between 1514 CE and about to 1850, the Arab population of Palestine which was in the control of the Turkish Ottoman Empire remained to be about 340,000.  It suddenly increased around 1855 and by 1947  stood at about 1,300,000, multiplying 4 times over in less than 100 years.  Why?  What happened?

We look at our history because we did not get to the present without its past.  As Einstein has said, it's all connected as one, anyway.  His theory of relativity and thinking that there are 4 dimensions to deal with, the quantum theory and now even a string theory emphasizes the connections involved in time, so we will start looking at the validity of the past.  Maybe it has some bearing on our present and indeed, our future.  Just what are the residual effects from our past?

We have a refugee problem where Arabs want to be able to allow the return of millions of their descendants.  Israel is only a neighborhood in size and is set up to be the homeland of the Jews since they have faced discrimination for 2,000 years in this world.  It would become swamped with Muslims and therefore would become like the many countries that would be intolerant of our presence.  We feel they can go to the 48 Muslim  majority states already established instead of turning the one Jewish state into another Muslim majority.


The other issue of prominence is that we are said to be  occupying Arab lands and have Jewish settlements in the "West Bank" (Judea and Samaria) and of course all occupiers are bad people.  Arabs were hostile to Jews before Israel's birth of May 14, 1948, and became even more so afterwards.  Since 1967 and the Six Day War, we find ourselves with Judea and Samaria because of being victors in the battle, and always, to the victors go the spoils.  In this case the spoils turns out to be the ancient homeland of Jews which was a part of the original Jewish Homeland in the first plan.  If Arabs wanted to keep this property, they shouldn't have attacked Israel in the first place.  Being who they were, the Jews tried their utmost to make life for the Arabs as normal and happy as they could.  What they were running into were the leaders who instigated the people into having a huge attitude problem and turned many of them into terrorists, suicide bombers, killers.

The 1850's CE found Jewish pioneers who had come to "Palestine" and joined up with local Jewish communities from the time of King David to rebuild in what was then the Turkish Empire.  They bought land from the Turkish Crown and Arab landowners.  It was done very peacefully.  Arabs living in the region had been Turkish subjects for the past 400 years.

By 1892 a group of Arab landowners (effendi) sent a letter to the Sultan asking that he make it illegal to sell land to the Jews because so many had bought so much.  More did the same thing in 1915.  At this point it had become offensive to some to have Jews in the land.  However, no Arabs were driven from their homes, the sales were all legal.  It was like whites having to become accustomed to Blacks moving into the neighborhood, and we Americans know how that went.  People have to get used to changes.

A demographic study published by Columbia U shows that the Arabs benefited and grew quickly during this time because of the economic growth that the Jews generated.  With the Jews' presence, though a shock to the existing Arabs, the economy entered the modern day and serfdom came to an end which had been the case that they lived under.  An Arab was now working in a factory or farming community and could earn in one month what his father earned in a year using medieval technology.  Infant mortality dropped and longevity increased.  Knowledge was shared with the Arabs.

What kind of land did the Jews buy?  We wouldn't have considered such poor land.  It was desert or swamp.  It was deserted and uninhabitable even by the Arabs.  Jews fought off either heat or mosquitoes, reclaimed this land and turned it into prime real estate with wonderful farms, growing communities with modern technology and a healthy market economy.  Would you expect anything less?

Now the other Arab migrants came flocking from the surrounding states.  They too wanted a better life and opportunity.  It was like having the USA right next door.  Sheikh Yousuf al-Qaradawi himself, the head religious leader of Qatar, speaker to millions in Egypt, known international Arab terrorist and lieutenant to Osama bin Laden, spoke on TV in May 2005 and chided his followers saying:  "Unfortunately, we Arabs do not excel in either military or civil industries.  We import everything from needles to missiles....How come the Zionist gang has managed to be superior to us, despite being so few?  It has become superior through knowledge, through technology, and through strength.  It has become superior to us through work.  We had the desert before our eyes but we didn't do anything with it.  When they took over, they turned it into a green oasis.  How can a nation that does not work progress?  How can it grow?"  


From 1919 to 1936 Arab violence grew with the British doing almost nothing to stop it and even sometimes helped it along. In 1922 Britain ceded all of the Palestine Mandate east of the Jordan River to the Emir Abdullah which became the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan and by their law, no Jews was permitted to enter.   Lord Earl Peel led a commission of inquiry in 1936 to find a way to stop it.   He came up with a partition plan of letting Jews have their state on 15% of the lands they had bought and redeemed.  Let the Arabs have the other 85%.  Partition came about as an appeasement to the Arabs.  The Arabs, instead of taking their 85%, chose war and terrorism  in 1937.  This was called the "Great Arab Revolt" of 1937-1939.  World War II was starting.

Even so, Zionists continued to buy more land from the British.  According to international law, what had been crown land under the Turkish Empire was now legally crown land under the British Mandate.  The purchases were made legally.  Then WWII was over and by that time Zionist organizations owned about 28% of what is today Israel, and private Arab land ownership or British crown land accounted for the rest.   The Arab leaders promoted violence and terrorism against Jewish settlements and the British there.  Jews were preaching restraint and tried to find political solutions through the U.N.  A minority was involved with "terrorism" against the British and reprisals against the Arabs.  Their idea of terrorism was not exactly like the terrorism practiced by the Arabs, however.  When the King David Hotel was bombed, the hotel was informed of the plan so that the occupants could get out safely.  Lives were not wanted, only a statement.

Now the British decided to give the "Palestine Question" back to the new UN and they came to agree with Lord Peel.  November 29, 1947 the declared 2 states: the Arabs got 45% of the land and Israel would get about 55%.  The division sounded good but the Jews' part was that 60% of their 45% was on the Negev desert.  It was crown land, unpopulated and worthless, supposedly.  Arab states were members of the UN and you'd think they'd abide by the decision, but they didn't.  Instead they started a war of aggression which as they said, was to be the war of annihilation.  They were out to destroy the new State of Israel and get rid of the 605,000 Jews living there.  Arabs were biting the hand that had brought them out of poverty and into the 20th century.

Back to the past.  Moses had led his 600,000 minion of Jews to Canaan out of slavery from Egypt.  Could that be a coincidence in numbers?  That brings us to the day of creation of Israel once more and how we got into this muddle in the first place.

Resource: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eternalism_(philosophy_of_time)
http://quantumrelativity.calsci.com/
David Meir-Levi, Publication of the David Horowitz Freedom Center, 2005-2006, Los Angeles, CA

Occupation? Israel's Involvementa in Judea and Samaria Isn't This

Nadene Goldfoot
Looking at the facts may be hard as they are so flavored with political involvement that they are almost hard to decipher today.  The fact is that Israel was attacked by all the neighboring states in 1967 and won.  The many against the littlest on the block is what occurred.  It wasn't a fair fight nor was there even a logical reason to attack.  It was out of greed and misplaced  egotistic righteousness on the attackers' parts. In fact, it was downright coveting, that sin listed in the Ten Commandments that many think is out of date.

In winning, Israel took over the West Bank, a name given to Judea and Samaria by Jordan, who had occupied the area without any legal basis in 1948 when Israel was created a state legally through the UN.  Israel did not take land from a state called Palestine.  It was taken from Jordan who occupied it illegally in the first place from 1948 to 1967.  Actually that area had been supposed to be a part of the future Jewish state under the British Mandate, and they in turn had the Mandate because the Ottoman Empire had it and lost it at the close of the 1st World War, and they had lost it to the Allies because the Ottoman's had sided with Germany who was defeated, but then the only people noticing this little fact are a few Israelis and a smattering of other caring historians.

"Occupation" is often used as a political word.  The people who use it do not understand the general or legal meaning of the term.  By using "occupation" it reduces complex situations of competing claims and rights to Right and Wrong.  Today it's freely used when talking about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict which implies that Israel bears ultimate responsibility for the welfare of the Palestinians and is used in an extreme derogatory manner.  This denies Israel's right to even defend itself against the continual Palestinian terror.  It takes away the Palestinian's responsibility for their own actions and the consequences thereof.  It's another assault on Israel's legitimacy, as if Israel didn't follow enough of the rules to be re-established after its 2,000 year hiatus.  It has nothing to do with Israel's status as an occupier under international law, which I'm sorry to say, is not being followed by the U.N. itself.

Israel maintains that Judea and Samaria are "disputed territories" under international law.  This does not stop them from developing and settling its own ancestral homeland.  What had become absolute untended and wild wasteland, left alone for Israel's absence of  2,000 years, was sacred land to the Jews, land of historic and valued meaning.  It was only when Jews had returned to their brothers who had never left the "Palestine" area-in reality Judah and Israel but renamed by the Romans to remove the stigma or fact that it had been the Jewish state, did the nomadic Arabs come around hoping to get jobs.  They had no interest in building another state themselves.  When Mark Twain visited in the 1860's it was an utter wasteland.  One should read his "The Innocents Abroad"  when he traveled to "Palestine" in 1867.  When he visited Jerusalem there were only 14,000 people living there: " Moslems, Jews, Greeks, Latins, Armenians, Syrians, Copts, Abyssinians, Greek Catholics, and a handful of Protestants of which there were 100.  Rags, wretchedness, poverty and dirt, those signs and symbols that indicate the presence of Moslem rule more surely than the cresecent-flag itself abound."   page 240.

Today we still hear the obligatory call of "OCCUPATION' from Judea and Samaria even though  they were placed under the Palestinian Authority (PA-meaning Fatah through Abbas) on September 28, 1995.  Israel had then withdrawn its military forces and today one cannot call it "occupied" by Israel.  The agreement did include the presence of Israeli troops in the area.  That was a part of the Agreement, but that this presence can not longer be looked upon as the O word-OCCUPATION.  Let's face it.  The Arab people living there are constantly fed a diet of hatred for the Israelis by their leaders, no less.  They have not ended their attempts and successes of killing Israelis.  Thus the need for this policing of terrorism.  If it didn't happen there would be no need.

The miracle of this all is that Judea and Samaria were originally to be a part of the Jewish Homeland, decided upon on November 2, 1917: England was in favor of the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people.  It was given international ratification.  This was laid down in the preamble.  Therefore, the British Mandate was to carry this out, but everything got under the control and pressure of politics going on under the surface and once again the Jews were screwed.  They wound up settling for far less.  Another miracle came along under the guise of a slaughter of little Israel and who knew the little land of milk and honey could conquer all those armies?  Our rose garden in Eden is full of thorns, though, one of which is the UN who cannot bring themselves to accept Israel today.  Probably they never thought they'd last for 64 years in the first place.  But they have and in doing so are trying more than any other country would to be be fair to those that hate them and desire their blood.

Occupation?  Are the people locked up inside a ghetto as the Jews had been treated in Italy's  past?  No!  Since 1967 Israel had an Open Bridges policy allowing movement of people and goods between the administered areas and Arab countries.  People traveled overseas freely through Israel's airports and harbors.  Open bridges over the Jordan River permitted regular trade with the Arab countries and free movement of persons either way.  People had family reunions, work and study advantages.  In 1972 people in the administered areas visiting Arab states were over 100,000.  Every summer residents got permission for visitors from Arab states to stay with them for up to 4 months.  152,000 arrived, with some asking to remain and most went on to visit---yes---even Israel.  There were more than 40,000 Arabs joining their families by the end of 1971.  An arrangement with Egypt was an exchange of people, so that 3,1000 Palestinian Arabs had been brought back.  Any problems?  Only the ensuing terrorism against Israel that doesn't make any sense at all.

Resource: http://emetnews.org/analysis/why-is-israels-presence-in-the-territories-st
http://emetnews.or/analysis/occupation-whose-occupation.php  by Moshe Sharon
Book: The Innocents Abroad by Mark Twain, copyright 2009 by Seven Treasures Publications
Facts About Israel, Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Jerusalem by division of Information.  

BDS Movement with Apartheid Activists Trying to Destroy Israel

Nadene Goldfoot
 Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions are being used against Israel, the only Jewish state in the world.. This is to cut off all economic, political and cultural ties with Israel. The list of people organizing and pushing this is long, with a lot of Middle Eastern surnames of people in the USA.

 Bill Ayers is one from Chicago with a lot of influence on the list. This is how the Holocaust started in Germany, with sanctions against stores owned by Jews. These leaders are still screaming that Israel is an Apartheid state, and the truth is just the opposite. No matter how many times I or others have proved this to be false, they are still accusing Israel of this. Why? They figure no one even knows what the term means let alone read anything to prove them liars.

 They accuse Israel of Occupation. Hamas has taken over Gaza and is in charge there. Israel moved out, lock, stock and barrel between August to September 12, 2005. They had 21 civilian communities that they left in order to bring about peace.

 Judea and Samaria, ancient parts of Judah, have Jewish communities there. Israel protects these communities from attacks. Otherwise, the Arab communities are under the control of Fatah, who police them. The Arabs want to create their own state called Palestine out of all of Judea and Samaria (West Bank)-named by Jordan who had occupied it illegally from 1948 to 1967 as well as Jerusalem and Gaza. 

Their idea of a state is to have it Judenrein (no Jews allowed). Whereas Israel has 1.4 million Arab citizens living among the Jewish population. They are full citizens and they are even serving in the Knesset as well as in Miss Israel contests. Arab Israelis have a much better and safer life than others in Arab states.

 In the 7th Knesset there were 6 Arab (one being a Deputy Speaker and one Deputy Minister) and one Druze-the Deputy Minister.

 Territories were occupied during the 6 Day War and are administered but not occupied. Until a peace settlement comes about, Israel is trying to keep the security for all alike and allow the population to live normal lives without losing contact with Arab in other countries. They try to help Arabs to obtain rapid economic development and to encourage co-existence and cooperation between the Arabs and Israelis. 

This last part has been interfered with by their constant attacking Israel. Right now Arab children are hearing a child recite a poem on PA TV “Israel is “Satan with a tail.” This is not something that will bring about cooperation and peace, which they as a culture are against doing. The whole idea of these movements is to bring down Israel so that there can be a Palestine, the 49th Muslim state in the world.

 The leaders of Fatah and Hamas refuse to have peace talks with Israel and are continually getting away with attacking Israel from Gaza with rockets, missiles and mortars.while the UN is silent. Here we have many Americans foolishly siding against Israel, the only Democracy in the Middle East. They’ve become a new type of ammunition to use against Israel.

 Resource: http://www.horowitzfreedomcenter.org/bds-supporters/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boycotts_of_Israel http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel's_unilateral_disengagement_plan http://palwatch.org/main.aspx?fi=157&doc_id=6776

Insidious Plans to Take Over Israel

Ever since March 11th when the Oregonian came out with the article, "Building plans rile Palestinians" telling about the 1,600 apartment units to be built in East Jerusalem by Israel and the huge editorial of the same day, "In Israel, new construction drowns out new peace talks", the hate mongers have been coming out of the walls.

Whatever is printed in the paper is the bible for so many people. The news never came out with the facts that Israel is building on their agreed -to side in East Jerusalem or any of the other important pieces of information that goes along with this.

The USA has decided they were highly insulted by our unforseen announcement and in reacting violently have empowered the Palestinians to also react accordingly, which they are. Rioting was going on in Jerusalem just before Biden's visit and has increased greatly since then. Talk about aiding and abetting a peace process!

One letter to the Editor criticizing Israel , I have deduced, was from the president of the local Americans United for Palestinian Human Rights and who is also on the board of national US campaign to end the Israeli Occupation. It was full of inaccuracies and falsehoods he is trying to spin. Then the editor got on board with a huge editorial against Israel. Another letter today thanks the article for information "like this" to be informed about Israel's negative contributions for peace.

I throw my hands up. This is the only information that people know and read; biased, and most likely based on a dislike for Jews to start with.

I feel like the old joke's subject where the person goes to the doctor and says, "doctah, I feel that people don't like me; they're saying terrible things about me, am I paranoid?"
"No dear," the docter answers, "They really don't like you. You got it right."

There is so much to know and to understand about what is happening between the Palestinians and Israel. Where is it ever written in a newspaper that the Palestinians are being used by their leaders as pawns in a chess game to destroy Israel? For instance, the Palestinian children watch a kid's show on the official Palestinians Authority television that uses a map of "Palestine" that teaches kids that Israel doesn't exist. This program is called "Chicks" and it shows them all of Israel yet is labeled "Palestine." Another heading in English and Arabic reads, "Explore Your Country." This is to reinforce the message to them to not recognize Israel. They've already done a good job on the adults from conditioning earlier telling them all of the land is theirs. That's what they have in store for Jerusalem, and Israel is highly aware of it, though America has decided to pretend not to know.

This is what we're up against. Expecting people to move in next door who hate us and who want to take over our land is not a happy experience, no matter how many of us feel sympathy and would like to see these people settle down and live and let live as we want to do. I've even thought that they really are a little crazy to want to live so close to us when Iran would like to pop off an atomic rocket or two our way. They'd be right in the way. How little they realize that Iran would be most happy to sacrifice their lives in order to take ours. After all, they have so many more Muslims.

Expecting people to move into our capital that want to take it over is not what any other country has had to put up with, either. We ask, why should we? There's not going to be any tea and crumpet exchange in daily events there between the two groups at the rate the education of their people continues like this. So far what I've seen as exchanges are attacks on Israelis, even from Fatah.

Netanyahu was elected to keep Jerusalem in Israel's hands. Why our USA is reacting in such shock is a shock to me. Israel at this point is not against a two state solution, but is against the Palestinians taking over our state; one for Fatah and one for Hamas! You see, we've already given away so much of our original intended land that the Palestinian children already think the whole state is theirs! Please, give me a break.

Answering Discouraging Newspaper Letter to Editor Concerning Israel

Nadene Goldfoot
Today's Letter to the Editor in the Oregonian had a very discouraging letter from a writer in Beaverton that I tried to answer in 150 words, but felt I could not address his accusations properly, so I will try to answer them better in my blog. My short answer will probably not even by published.

He wrote that our government and Israel have agreed to continue taking more Palestinian land for another year while punishing or killing any Palestinian who resists.

Perhaps he does not realize that on November 29, 1947, the United Nations ended the British Protectorate of "Palestine" and created a partition which the Arabs turned down. When Israel was created by the United Nations in May 1948, Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, Trans-Jordan and Iraq attacked Israel. Ever since then Israel has offered land for peace which the Arabs have continually turned down. Their intentions have not been honorable. They want to destroy Israel, not live next door to her.

By attacking Israel and losing in 1967, Israel found itself in charge of much more land than in 1948. Actually, in the original documents, Israel was to have a much larger piece of land, but a great deal was taken in the offer of a partition that wasn't accepted by the Arabs. In a sense, they gained back what was originally promised to them. However, this land came into Israel's hands fairly. When a country attacks and loses, they lose the land they were gambling on. Thus Mexico lost Texas. This is a part of international law.

Israel is not continuing to take "Palestinian land". Israel pulled out of Gaza completely, and this was for peace. What has happened is that it is now a hotbed of terrorists who have not stopped shooting rockets into Israel. I'd say that was a bad move. The "West Bank" which is actually Judea and Samaria, originally Jewish land, has been designated to become "Palestine'. Olmert has said a million times that he will honor his promise, but first expects the Palestinians to stop their terrorism and stop attacking Israel. This was agreed to in the Oslo agreements and we are still waiting to see a stopping of attacks.

Israel is not taking Palestinian land and killing people who resist, but the Palestinians still allow terrorism and the attacking of Israel. If they want a Palestinian state, they first have to stop terrorism and reeducate their students to stop hating Israel by using better textbooks.

He stated that the USA should withhold further military aid and funding from Israel until it agrees to recognize Palestine on the pre-1967 borders. Israel has been the only democratic state in the Middle East, and shares its military expertise with the USA. He's asking the country that won the wars to give in to 1967 borders as if Israel were the loser. Since when does a country have to give in to the bullies? I'm afraid Olmert has even extended much of this on the condition of peace, which isn't being offered. Palestinians have not wanted to accept or recognize Israel. Why should we give back land to a people who want to do us in? We're not that stupid.

The writer also added that Israel should stop its illegal occupation and vacate all settlements. Bush even used the term "occupation" in Israel today, and Olmert had to let that one roll by. I guess we should stop our illegal occupation of Texas and vacate the Alamo. Israel is not occupying any land illegally. Attack and lose ground. That's what has happened with the Arabs in Israel. A crime needs punishment. It was a crime to attack Israel. The punishment is the loss of land they never wanted in the first place. They only want it now because Israel has done something with it. The commandment, thou shalt not covet, includes wanting Israeli land, and they have have been highly coveting.

The man in Beaverton ends his letter by stating that all settlements are an illegal aggression against Palestine. Israel feels that the land rightly belongs to them and they can build as they wish and need. Palestine is not an entity yet, and may never be until they wise up and stop their aggressions against Israel. No country in its right mind wants to have a state bent on the destruction of itself.

Interestingly, a new poll found that 62% of Palestinians (Israeli Arabs) who are living in Israel say they would prefer to live in Israel rather than a Palestinian state. They know that, despite problems in Israel, Israel is still a democratic state that offers them freedom of speech, assembly, religion, and the press and respects human rights in general and women's rights and gay rights in particular. All these rights would be denied under Palestinian rule.

Reference: Oregonian Letters to the Editor 1/11/08
Mitchell Bard Myth #284. Palestinians prefer to live in a Palestinian state.
Prelude to a Palestinian Bloodbath by Alan Caruba