Three Palestines in the Making

Nadene Goldfoot                                                                    

                                          Grand Mufti of Jerusalem Plotting with Hitler to Destroy Jews

Instead of pushing for a democracy, Britain pushed for a monarchy and helped establish Jordan as one in 1923.  They felt they owed Emir Abdullah (1882-20 July 1951), 2nd son of the Sherif Hussein bin Ali,of Saudi Arabia, who asked to be a king for his fighting help in WWI.  After all, he had been a part of the Ottoman Empire legislature's ruling class.  The Brits understand things like that.   Abdullah was pretty clever having been educated in Turkey. He talked his father into become the Grand Sherif of Mecca.  He became the King of Transjordan.

  Britain had also made a deal with Jews through the Balfour Doctrine at the same time who also had helped Britain and her allies to win the war with their fighters, but mostly by Chaim Weizmann's invention of increasing the capacity of their weaponry.  Britain had also taken on the responsibility of creating the Jewish Homeland, something decided through the League of Nations that was signed in agreement by all the countries in the world at that time by accepting the mandate.

Jordan became the pet project of Britain which was under the rule of King Abdullah and assisted them in many ways.  Britain trained military units of Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Iraq, the Persian Gulf states and Jordan, but Jordan held special status with them and saw to it that they continued the special British pattern well after WWII.  It was British officers who directed Jordanian military and paramilitary units.  Perhaps with Britain's off-stage help, King Hussein and his Royal Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan have managed to survive since Britain acted as their tutor.

Britain had made a private commitment to assist them.  They helped to establish after WWI the Jordanian border patrol which led to create the Royal Jordanian Guard and Arab Legion under Glubb Pasha.  Britain was looking out for their own interests since the oil pipelines from Kirkuk and a later Trans-Arabian Pipe Line from Saudi Arabia put Jordan in the right position for oil exports.  It was also strategically in the  right spot to help Britain defend the Suez Canal and Red Sea zone.  Jordan helped them carry out their Palestinian mandate that way, they told themselves.  This desert kingdom was a very special British client and of  high importance to the British foreign office.

In 1948, the UN had tried to get the Arabs to accept their partition of Palestine and establish their own state like Israel was doing, but the Arabs refused, intending to take all of Palestine eventually, not settle for half of it.  It's possible the Brits were backing off from seeing the   Palestinians create  a Palestinian state headed by the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem,  Mohammad Amin al-Husayni, born in Jerusalem in 1893, son of the Mufti of Jerusalem, the richest and most powerful clan in the Ottoman Empire. He was an Arab who was from the land for several generations.    "In the lead-up to the 1948 War against Israel, Husseini opposed both the 1947 UN Partition Plan and King Abdullah's designs to annex the Arab part of British Mandatory Palestine to Jordan.  He and King Abdullah were related to each other but opponents.  

The Grand Mufti, Al-Husseini,  was a new militant Palestinian Arab with nationalism in his being which was a new feeling among the Arabs.  Once he was in power, he began a campaign of terror and intimidation against all opposed to his rule and policies.  He killed Jews at every opportunity, and also eliminated Arabs who didn't support his violence.  He wouldn't negotiate or make any kind of compromise in the name of peace. He later went on to make pacts with Hitler against the Jews.    

Originally the UN had planned to make Jerusalem an international city, but King Abdullah I of Jordan went ahead and on his own without anyone's permission, annexed half of Jerusalem and all of the Palestinian highlands many call the West Bank, which are part of the original Jewish lands of Israel and Judah of which Samaria was the capital and surrounding land of Israel after the creation of Judah and was part and parcel of their promised Jewish Homeland.  When the king did this illegal act, the UN just looked the other way.  By doing this, he had added this fertile land of the West Bank of the Jordan River to his Hashemite Kingdom and more importantly,  increased the population of Jordan by one million people.

Now Jordan became physically very close to the new state of Israel since the border between the two was a haphazardly drawn one in the countryside and the streets and alleys of Jerusalem.

Two-thirds of the population of Jordan were now Palestinians.  There was a difference between them and the Bedouin Arabs, nomadic desert dwellers,  who lived on the East Bank of the Jordan River, for the Palestinians  were better educated and more politically aware of their position.  The Palestinian Arabs saw how King Abdullah manipulated and took land and they then thought how they could do the same thing.  So in July 1951, one of the Palestinians assassinated King Abdullah while he was in the Mosque of Aqsa in Jerusalem.  This was a case of jealousy of what Jordan's king had accomplished and he and his people coveted it.  After, all, there was this class difference between them, and they couldn't let nomads take over and be so successful.

Talal, Abdullah's son stepped into the kingship position but then abdicated due to illness which allowed his 18 year old son, Hussein to become king.  He had his hands full of strife between the Palestinian Arabs and the Jordanian Bedouins.  Then Nasser of Egypt rose to power,  and everyone thought he would overpower the Israelis so that they could take over their land.  Hussein found his position was not that easy and decided not to join the United Arabs or make peace with Israel without being dethroned by his angry coveting subjects.  He became afraid of being attacked by the UAR (United Arab Republic) which would be the open door for Israel to get their West Bank back.  At the same time, Hussein was taking money for military and economic aid from the USA which the Palestinian Arabs resented but without it, couldn't stay in power for long.

The Iraqis had a revolution in 1958, putting Hussein in more danger.  He cried out to his friend, Britain and 2,000 British troops came to protect Jordan against the other Arab nations.

The Arabs of UAR (heads of the Arab States) met in Cairo in 1964 and approved making the Palestinians a political entity and called them the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO).  This was a conglomeration of factions with the biggest being Fatah under Yasser Arafat who became their leader.  Others were the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), and the Democratic Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DPELP).  The Arab nations supported them by giving the PLO the funds to work with.  Most all the Palestinians were actually living right in Jordan which made 2 armies within its borders; one led by King Hussein and the other by Arafat.

This made Jordan the staging area for the many attacks on Israel's land, just like Gaza assumed today.  This resulted in Israeli retaliations, of course.  There was a Palestinian village called Karameh on the east bank of the Jordan River that had become a terrorist stronghold. In March 1968 Israel retaliated and hit it resulting in the UN blaming Israel but not the Palestinians who were attacking Israelis from there.  The Arabs used this "blame the victim" as a cause celebre, a psychological and a military victory for the PLA who were defending the village.  Now the PLO's prestige skyrocketed and this led to more of the same; airplane heists, political murders like killing the Israeli athletes in the 1976 Munich Olympics.  The Palestinian Arabs now concluded that only a disaster or an armed confrontation would make Europeans and Americans feel sorry for them.  Violent deeds were the key to their success!

The world didn't really seem to join their thinking so they went onto 1970's Black September in Jordan. It was then that King Hussein had had enough of their free-wheeling control of Amman, his capital.  They had actually taken over Jordan, he felt.  The king had the superior armed forces and the assistance of Britain and the USA.  Syria and Egypt were silent, so he went about crushing the PLO leadership.  In the act, hundreds of Palestinians were killed  and thousands fled to Lebanon and Syria.  The king had decided to win back his kingship powers and he closed the door to anymore cooperation with them.

At any rate, the Arabs of the Middle East again attacked Israel on their most sacred holy day, a day when they were fasting and attending a whole day in the synagogue asking G-d for forgiveness, Yom Kippur in October 1973.  Israel begged Jordan not to join in, but they weakened and wound up playing a rather passive role this time.  This angered Egypt and Syria who also held against King Hussein the fact that he played an active part in crushing the Marxist-Leninist Dhofari uprising against the Sultan of Oman so why didn't he fight more against Israel!

 A Rabat Conference was held in October 1974 making the sole rep of the Palestinians conferred upon Arafat.  Arafat, now with too much confidence, pleaded brazenly in the UN in November 1974. He wound up with observer status for his state he had not yet accepted.

 Arafat in 1983 tried to consider a possible federation of a joint Palestine-Jordan state. Hussein weakened by going along with the PLO status and like the others, condemned Sadat of Egypt for visiting Jerusalem  in 1977 and the Camp David Accords of 1979.

 This was following the Beirut and Tripoli evacuations. However, even today when approached about taking more Palestinians into his country, the King of Jordan is adamant against the idea.   There are so many Palestinians living in Jordan that it is actually a monarchy run by the Beduin Hashemite kingdom with a population of 5 million mostly Palestinian Arabs.  Today's King Abdullah II bin Al-Hussein  has married a Palestinian girl, now called Queen Rania Al Abdullah.

Jordan has been a dependent state since its inception.   The Arab states have been conferring $1.25 billion annually since 1978 but decreased it to $850 million in 1983.    He is trapped and can't act on his own freely.  It's been dependent on the USA militarily for arms.  56 US senators signed a resolution against selling arms to Jordan finally because it has been an enemy of Israel.  Politically, he has been caught between Israel and Syria, one of the major Israel attackers in 73.  Syria gets its weapons from Russia and Israel gets theirs from the USA.

Today, Arafat has been replaced by Abbas of Fatah (formerly called the PLO). He is dickering with Israel and has pledged to stay in for 9 months of talks.  His goal is to create Palestine out of Judah and Samaria and Jerusalem.

We still have his other half left to deal with, the rest of the Palestinians led by Hamas, a declared terrorist group who have sworn never to make peace and who constantly shoot rockets, mortars and missiles into southern Israel, Eilat and anyplace their weapons can reach so far.  

Only a handful of the original Arabs were from Palestine.  Most all came into the area from the surrounding lands looking for work in the 1880's when Jews from Russia came, escaping pogroms and wishing to return to their roots.  Arabs were scarce in the land when  Mark Twain and his contingent toured the Middle East. in  February, 1867.  The average Arab considered themselves to be Syrian Arabs.  They had no burning desire or need for a state of their own, only decent wages.

As Theodore H. White put it, to understand what is happening in the Middle East is to begin with its past.  Joan Peters, in her research, has traced the history to the present with unmatched skill.  I'm afraid this has not been a strong requirement for government involvement from any other country dealing with the peace table and Israel and the Palestinians.  Without in-depth knowledge, drastic mistakes have already been assumed as far as I can see.  Where many men of the West haven't clamored for political positions of ruling, it seems that there is no end to men who have yearned for this position in the East.

Israel is looking at a next door neighbor already made up of Palestinians, a new one taking over the original Jewish lands of belonging to Israel and Judah and a despicable enemy in Gaza who will never make peace.  That's 3 Palestine states!  .  How secure can Israel become against this horde?  For the creation of a state means more money to create more weapons and even more voice in the UN than they have now.  It means the peacock will have brighter feathers and will attract more than the Palestinians number today being they want to take in all other Palestinians who have settled elsewhere.  For Israelis, this should be a nightmare.  There has been no regard among the advisers to alter the hateful attitude of any of the Palestinians.  All they teach is that they will take over Israel and that Jews of Israel are the enemy and are terrible people.  There can be no "peace" between two different people this way.

The Jewish Homeland was originally to include land east and west of the Jordan River.  Israel has had to see it chopped apart where they have received 20% of the original promised land, and now they are expected to give up  land again to the attackers that was Israel's  in the first place won back after being brutally attacked in the 1967 war.  To reward people who attack you with the land they covet just to see you destroyed is a first in this world.  It could only happen to Israel because they are a Jewish country and have been vilified by the losers of the many battles that have gone on since 1948.

Resource: Text: Middle East Past and Present by Yahya Armajani and Thomas M. Ricks
 http://www.alhelalat.8m.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdullah_I_of_Jordan
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haj_Amin_al-Husseini
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20070905142855AAgf2XY
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen_Rania_of_Jordan
From Time Immemorial, the origins of the Arab-Jewish Conflict Over Palestine by Joan Peters, Christian reporter-researcher

Chilling Factors Against Israel's Creation From England and USA

Nadene Goldfoot                                                                

The Balfour Declaration of 1917 and Internationally enforced at San Remo Conference in 1920  was a decision of the whole world made through the League of Nations to create the Jewish Homeland (a national home).  This was decided after WWI when the Ottoman Empire fell as it had sided with Germany and the Axis powers.  Jews had been discriminated since 70 CE when they were dispersed by the Roman Empire who took  Samaria (Israel) and Judea and with it the city of Jerusalem.  The creation of Christianity caused undo hardships against Jews through every generation and increasing persecution such as the Spanish Inquisition and pogroms in Russia.  Finally, Jews had their fill and decided to return to what had become a wasteland with their absence: Eretz Israel in 1880's with the First Aliyah.   Along came the Alfred Dryfus Affair in 1894 accusing a French soldier on the general's staff of selling secret documents to Germany and was given a life imprisonment.  He was Jewish and innocent.  Anti-Semitism was in full swing.  Jews realized then that their formal European emancipation was a joke.  By 1897, Theodor Herzl, Austrian reporter,  created the World Zionist Organization to return to their land.
                                                                       

The British were given the mandate to see that the Jewish Homeland was created that all the nations had signed onto.  They really didn't care about Jews as much as they were after foreign propaganda purposes,  according to sources in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.   Germany came out with Hitler's anti-Semitic "25 points" which was spread to the populous by his speeches in 1920.  What was said in Germany was heard in England.  During this same year, both England and the USA were very interested in  gaining oil interests in the Middle East.  The invention of the automobile made this a very serious acquisition and needed gas to run.

Harry St. John Bridger Philby, better known as Jack Philby,  was a British spy who spied on Zionists, and carried on a secret war against Jews.  His close friend was Allen Dulles, brother of John Foster Dulles, who because of his influence, created a US policy in the Middle East that lasted through George Bush's White House in the 1990's.  Reports are that this secret service M16 agent Philby is the secret founder of Saudi Arabia.  He had passed intelligence information that caused the military victory for the House of Saud to ibn Saud.  Philby used Dulles to influence American policy against the Jewish Homeland and to help him in the development of Saudi Arabian oil.  They had a partnership and both wanted to make a lot of money.  They created a partnership with American oil companies and were against the British interests as well as were in favor of Nazi Germany!

By 1921, Haj Amin al-Husseini was appointed the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem by the Jewish British High Commissioner, Sir Herbert Samuel.  He was also appointed as head of the Supreme Moslem Council.  .  Arabs were attacking Jews in Jaffa and  Petach Tikvah who were helped by the British officials.  Of course the outcome was a suspension of Jewish immigration by the British.   Allan Dulles headed up the Near East Division in Washington from 1922 to 1926.  He met most of the emerging Arab leaders and met Chaim Weizmann and then decided that a Jewish Homeland would be a zero to helping the USA get oil fields by complicating  American oil companies from getting into the region.  He held a private audience with Abdullah of Jordan.  Dulles and his colleagues in the State Department had decided that Jews were an obstacle to Arab oil.

The Arabs had helped the British to win the war by fighting against the Ottoman Empire.  Chaim Weizmann, a chemist in England, helped by inventing  better ammunition  which definitely caused the British to win.  Besides that, Jews had also fought with them against the Ottoman Empire.  The Arabs were ticked off about the reward as they saw it, of land to the Jews for their homeland.  To pacify them as well, Eastern Palestine, called Transjordan, about 75-80% of the Jewish Homeland to be, was given to King Abdullah for his state of Transjordan as their reward.  In other words, the Jews have now lost 80% of their homeland by 1922.  In the same year, Winston Churchill wrote the White Paper which limited Jewish immigration to "capacity to absorb new arrivals".  This was indeed limiting their numbers.

In 1928 the British came up with their "Organic Law" which provided separate Commissions for Palestine and Transjordan which was against the Mandate.   Jews were prohibited from settlement in Transjordan.   Arabs were incited by Mufti Haj Amin al-Husseini in the Wailing Wall incident and also incited his followers into anti-Jewish attacks in other places.  The US company, Gulf Oil, started exploration in Bahrain and then turned over its interests to Standard Oil of California and went to to Kuwait to explore.  The British government had invoked agreements it made with Kuwait and Bahrain that oil development was to be only to British concerns.  The US had a campaign to replace Britain and dominate the Middle Eastern oil and Britain backed off after a lot of negotiations.
                                                                       

                                               Grand Mufti and Adolf Hitler
The Shaw Commission found Jewish immigration in 1925 and 26 excessive and recommended restriction of Jewish immigration and land sales in 1929.  They had a Ratification of Agreement regarding Transjordan.  Arabs  massacred Jews in Safed and Hebron, 2 of the  4 Holy cities to Jews.  Arabs also rioted and assaulted Jewish villages  and in Jerusalem caused by deliberate religious inflammation for which Mufti and his party were solely responsible.  Who did Britain favor in this?  The High Commissioner Chancellor came out with a Proclamation on September 1, 1929 called the "Protection of Cultivators Ordinance" enacted for "displaced" Arabs.  This is when Philby visited Jerusalem and formed a lasting friendship with the Grand Mufti Haj Amin al Husseini.  He then "went" Arab by converting to Islam and even had his own concubines but had to go through circumcision at age 45  before he could have his 4 wives that were promised to him.  He was even given a house and a job by the Mufti.

The next year found Arabs rendered "landless" and unemployed and were caused by the Jewish immigration in 1930 with the Hope Simpson Report.  State lands were then allocated for "landless Arabs" instead of the Jewish settlement which was called for in Art. VI of the Mandate.  This Report ignored whether Jewish purchase had caused their landlessness or if they ever owned land in the first place.  The 1930 Passfield White Paper came out which restricted Jewish immigration and land acquisition which was based on this "absorptive capacity. decision."   Hitler's plan for Jews' demise  was already in motion and was gaining popularity.

However, the Hope Simpson findings were disproved by investigation and other British studies in 1931. They passed an amendment to the Protection of Cultivators Ordinance.  It was to further benefit landless and displaced Arabs.

Muslims were again incited against Jews in 1933 at the Festival of Nebi Rubin by Musa Kasem Pasha al-Husseini's violent speech against Jewish immigration.  There were strikes and anti-Jewish riots.  The government was accused of favoring Jews.  Hitler came into power.  The Cultivators' Ordinance of 1933 replaced earlier laws.  It instituted allowances of subsistence area or remuneration for any Arab "statutory tenant" not grossly neglecting areas of grazing or occasional presence.

By May of 1932, oil was discovered in Bahrain.  Ibn Saud had consolidated his rule and proclaimed the modern nation of Saudi Arabia.  Jack Philby helped to start exploration for oil there, as well.  This grew into the Arabian-American Oil Company, Aramco.

In 1934 there was an influx of 30,000 to 35,000 Arab immigrants from the Hauran-Syria to the Jewish settled areas in Western Palestine during a 3 month period.  The population movement was recognized by Syrian leadership and the League of Nations Permanent Mandates Commission, but denied by and omitted from the British Mandatory Government data, records and statistics.  In other words, Syria knew about this and recorded it but the British would not.  They were allowing the illegal immigration of Arabs into the land set aside for the Jewish Homeland.   At the same time, the British government instituted the practice of deducting the estimated numbers of illegal Jewish immigrants from the Jewish immigration quotas.  This is when Jews wanted to emigrate from Germany.  Mein Kampf had come out and spelled danger for the Jews.

Anti-Jewish pogroms and riots were happening in Eretz Yisrael by 1936, just as Jews had experienced in Russia.  Arabs were striking with the imported assistance of hired Syria and Iraqi mercenaries.  This was known as the "Arab Revolt."

A royal Commission in 1937 was appointed to investigate the deteriorating Palestine conditions.  Lewis Andrews, District Commissioner for the Galilee, was assigned to administer the Commission's tour.  He was murdered outside his church by "moderate" Arab terrorists.  Nearly 100 Jewish deaths resulted and the Government personnel were murdered with about 150 wounded.  The Palestine Royal commission Report then recommended the partition of the land into one Jewish and one Arab state.
                                                                 

Unemployment rose and the Jewish immigration restrictions continued causing illegal Jewish immigration to rise in 1938.  Germany was most dangerous now for Jews and they were trying to get out of that country.  There was the Mufti-led guerrilla warfare that was aided by imported Arab rebels and included anti-Jewish pogroms, and the assassinations of other Arabs, ambushes of the military and the general sabotage which led to the occupation of the Old City of Jerusalem.  The Mufti engaged in a plan of systematic extermination of his opponents.

There was rivalry between Husseini and Nashashibi which brought on violence and rebellion..  348 died in the first quarter of the year 1939.  England declared war against Germany.  The Nazis committed atrocities against the Jews of Europe.  Arab leaders collaborated with the Nazis and other axis.  The English government came out with a White Paper that enforced the new rigidly pro-Arab, anti-Mandate policy that restricted Jewish immigration for the next 5 years  and afterwards at the discretion of the Arabs of Palestine. This was all strictly against the mandate they had promised to uphold.  This was a promise to the whole world who had signed the Balfour Declaration.

Land Transfer Regulation came out in 1940 which were enforced by the White Paper of 1940.  It prohibited transfers of most land in Western Palestine except to a Palestinian Arab.  Again, this was in violation of Article 6 of the mandate.

The Nazi hatred against Jews spread to Baghdad in 1941 when the Jewish community was attacked by mob killing 180 Jews.

There were only about a half a million Jews in Germany at the beginning of WWII.  Hitler wanted Jews to emigrate.  There were very few countries that would accept more than a handful.  They couldn't hardly get into Palestine as Ibn Saud, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem hated Jews, he said in 1937 because  of their persecution and rejection of Christ and their subsequent rejection of Muhammed.  Ibn Saud reiterated that for him to be killed by a Jew or to kill a Jew ensures him an immediate entry in Heaven and into the august presence of G-d Almighty.  This appealed to Philby and was an inducement to converting to Islam.  He became a double agent for the Third Reich and publicly pretended to help Jews while privately helped the Nazis.  He made a profit for the House and Saud and for himself this way.  He was always out to hurt the British Empire's position in the Middle East.

The USA entered WWII on December 7, 1941 when Pearl Harbor was bombed by the Japanese.  By May 14, 1948, Harry Truman said yes to the creation of Israel in the new United Nations.  He was not a part of the scheme of the State Department, who was more anxious for oil and wanted to keep Israel from becoming a state.  It was a miracle that Harry Truman was President at that time in history.  It was a miracle that Israel was able to have a population of 650,000 by that time in order to create their own state. (600,000 people of the Exodus had entered Canaan).   From the moment of creation, Arab countries then persecuted their Jewish communities and there were mass expulsions where most went to Israel.  Jews were denied the right of national identity in the Soviet Union and could not practice Judaism by attending a synagogue or reading Hebrew.

Resource: Updated 6/30/13  Video: http://www.israpundit.com/archives/56077  A must to watch.  Take notes. Notice Waldheim was Nazi officer  15 minute video on role of Haj Amin al Husseini and Nazis.  Excellent!  
From Time Immemorial -the origins of the Arab-Jewish conflict over Palestine by Joan Peters, 1984.
The Secret War Against the Jews-how Western espionage betrayed the Jewish people by John Loftus and Mark Aarons, 1994.
Facts About Israel, Division of Information, Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Jerusalem

Iran's Plan to Drive Israel Into the Sea

Nadene Goldfoot
Israel and the USA and its allies feel that Iran is using its civilian nuclear program of peaceful and medical goals as a cover to develop nuclear weapons that they will use on Israel first.  This is because of the threats it has already made on Israel by Ahmedinejad. He frequently tells his people that Israel must be wiped off the map.   Isn't it rather worrisome that the huge country of Iran, almost drowning itself with its oil wells, needs nuclear energy as well? Needless to say,  what a combination of oil and atomic energy that could be if something goes wrong like it did in Japan with their atomic plant.  It could be as dangerous as a meth operation that blows itself up. 

The US congress has passed a bill banning dealing with the Iran Central Bank, and President Barack Obama hasn't signed it yet but is set to sign it. 

Netanyahu of Israel said that he didn't know whether such "crippling" sanctions would stop Iran's nuclear program, but thought that they would make things difficult enough for the Iranian government that it would have to reconsider its actions.

If these sanctions are not imposed, it would be interpreted by the Iranians as a sign that the West did not have the will or intent to stop Iran.  If Iran gets the bomb, we will be living in a completely different world.  I think most people can understand this, except Ron Paul, who is running for president of the USA, as he would just like to leave Iran alone to do what they wish. 

Yesterday the USA warned Iran against closing the Strait of Hormuz if the USA imposes sanctions targeting the country's crude oil exports.  This waterway carries 1/6 of the world's oil supply.  It would affect the oil prices to levels that could hurt the global economy.  This was Iran's 2nd warning in the past 2 days.  George Little, Pentagon news secretary said that interference with ships through the Strait will not be tolerated. 

What can the USA do if it is closed?  We have the 5th Fleet in Bahrain, and they are ready to ensure freedom of navigation.  They are there to safeguard the vital links to the international community.  Iran is the 4th largest oil producer in the world.  Right now Iran's navy is in the Sea of Oman in the midst of a 10-day exercise in international waters near the strategic oil route through the Strait of Hormuz.  No wonder they are so brave.  The situation is like a boil ready to pop.  Right now just before New Year's Eve we are on a precipice; the brink of disaster.  If we back down we are giving into Iran in more than this one challenge, and it's not a rational country to deal with.   

Resource: Embassy of Israel paffairs!@washington.mfa.gov.il
Oregonian newspaper,  page A5, Iran threatens to block oil passage12/29/2011
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahmoud_Ahmadinejad_and_Israel
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Middle-East/2011/Dec-29/158272-mossad-hints-nuclear-iran-not-existential-threat-to-israel-report.ashx#axzz1hxNvwqI9
http://www.jpost.com/IranianThreat/News/Article.aspx?id=251348
http://www.cnn.com/2011/12/29/opinion/nasr-iran-oil-hormuz/index.html
http://www.jewishjournal.com/iranianamericanjews/item/obama_refuses_to_sign_tougher_sanctions_on_irans_central_bank/
http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20111215-716586.html
http://www.cnbc.com/id/45806878

Jews & Qatar: That Small Fishing Village and What Oil Has Done For It

Nadene Goldfoot
Qatar and its Emir, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, has made the news in Portland by supplying Lincoln High with a teacher of Arabic.  It's one of only 5 schools in the USA thus endowed.  One of the important facts is that the Emir of Qatar has established many educational sites throughout the USA.  His religious leader, Qaradawi,  is a major leader of the Muslim Brotherhood.  With that in mind, I personally hope that the textbooks used to learn reading stick to bland subjects and do not bring in political issues.   

Qatar was just a little fishing and pearling village and sea port at Doha after WWI.   At the end of WWI it was ruled by the al-Thani family. When oil was discovered in 1950 , this shaykhdom  changed dramatically. At that time their population was about 30,000.  Of those people, at least 20,000 were related to, or in the service of the al-Thani family.   With this discovery, the population increased eightfold.  By 1981 it was 250,000 with a per capita income of $29,000.  Their oil revenues accounted for 90% of its GNP.  Food must be imported.  Trading partners have been Britain, Japan, Western Europe and the USA.  It is not a part of the United Arab Emirates.  That's because its geographical position and their history is with Bahrayn, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.  A large number of immigrant workers are mostly from Iran and Pakistan. 

In February 1972, Shaykh Khalifa, deputy ruler and prime minister, deposed his cousin, Shaykh Ahmad and took the throne.  Qatar had announced that by 1970, a Basic Law that included a bill of rights.  It has not gone very far as yet.  Shaykh Kalifa's reign has used the oil revenues in petroleum and gas-related industries, infrastructure projects, building, social services and light industry. 

By 1977 it set up the Qatar General Petroleum Corporation to regulate and control the oil industry.  They went into a number of joint ventures with foreign firms and expanded the port at Doha and industrial and port facilities of Umm Said.  It also bought into the Gulf Aluminum Rolling Mill Company in 1982 as a 10% shareholder. 

In 1995 the present Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani deposed his own father in a bloodless palace coup.  He is all for the Muslim Brotherhood which has exerted a profound influence on the conservative Bedouin society of Qatar.  That's because the Emir is so impresssed by their piety and morality so that he gave them his trust and let them carry out a wide range of religious and cultural activities.  (One of their goals is to kill all Jews and drive Israel into the sea.)  They helped to set up the Ministry of Education and Culture as well as an institute of religious studies;  two institutions that the emirate lacked. 

Qatar is active on the Gulf cooperation council, the Arab League, OAPEC, OPEC, and the UN. today they have a population of 547,761  of which are 100% Muslims.  It wound up sharing many of the economic and political problems of Bahrayn as well.  It is worth mentioning that Bahrayn has been under the control of the al-Khalifa family since the late 18th century.  Bahrayn or Bahrain has 590,042 population and they are also 100% Muslims. 

With the typical Muslim attitude toward Jews, they present us  with their anti-semitic stereotypes in their newspapers.  The ADL has protested.  The USA has an air force base in Qatar, and of course we have Jews in the air force.  During Passover two seders were served there for the Jewish servicemen. 

Strangely, on January 10, 2004, a US-Islamic Forum was held in Doha sponsosred by a Project on US Policy Towards Islamic World  which is funded by the Saban Center. Haim  Saban is an Egyptian born American Israeli entertainment mogul.  He  attended as a USA representative.  One Israeli  attended, Martin Kramer, the editor of the Middle East Quarterly.  

By 2010, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was in Qatar's Education City and was introduced by Sheikh Abdallah al-Thani, who commented that there are now 6  universities from the USA that have branches in Qatar.  Their Education City is just a short walk from the Al-Qaradawi Center for Research in Moderate Thought, named for Sheikh Yousef al-Qaradawi who is barred from entering the US as he has called for the destruction of America and for the annihilation of the Jews.  I wonder what they consider as "moderate thought." 

Resource:  http://www.jcpa.org/JCPA/Templates/ShowPage.asp?DBID=1&LNGID=1&TMID=111&...
Textbook:  MiddleEast  Past &I Present by Yahya Armajani, Thomas M. Ricks 1970, 2nd edition
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Jews_in_Qatar
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/post/billionaire-israeli-donor-obama-is-not-anti-israel/2011/03/03/AG8k2DMH_blog.html
MEMRI  Sheikh al-Qaradawi & Qatar's Education City HOsting American University Branches