Showing posts with label Samaria. Show all posts

Monday, May 4, 2026

Tennessee, My Hero For Today

Nadene Goldfoot

Can you find Judea and Samaria on his map of Palestine?

Keep your eye on the Jordan River and look below :

Yellow means the land was under Jordan's rule until 1967.

Red means under Egyptian rule until 1967

On April 27, 2026, Tennessee Governor Bill Lee signed the Recognizing Judea and Samaria Act into law, prohibiting state entities from using the term "West Bank" in official documents, instead requiring the use of "Judea and Samaria". The law, which takes effect July 1, 2026, targets state materials to align with biblical terminology and recognize the territory as the ancestral heartland of the Jewish people.

As of early 2026, multiple US states are enacting legislation to recognize "Judea and Samaria" instead of "West Bank" in official documents, with Arkansas leading, followed by states like Tennessee. Reports indicate up to 20 states are moving towards this, including Alabama, Florida, Utah, Oklahoma, Louisiana, and Iowa.

Florida, Alabama, Utah, Oklahoma, Louisiana, and Idaho are also involved in advancing similar, sometimes uniform, legislation based on a model act supported by ALEC.

Then again: Based on reports as of early 2026, neither Idaho nor Iowa have been finalized as the state that signed the bill to replace "West Bank" with "Judea and Samaria" in official documents. Instead, Arkansas is reported as the first state to sign such legislation into law, with Arizona also passing a resolution and several other states, including Tennessee, Alabama, and others, advancing similar legislation. AI just can't make up its mind !

Red states move to use 'Judea and Samaria' instead of 'West Bank' in official documents

State legislators from Utah, Tennessee, Alabama, Louisiana, Idaho, Iowa and Oklahoma to follow Arkansas in passing new laws favoring biblical name as settlement leader pushes for U.S. support for annexation

The initiative, driven by lawmakers in collaboration with the Samaria Regional Council, aims to stop the use of the term "West Bank" in state-level official documents.

There is a simultaneous effort to pass a similar federal bill (H.R.902, "Recognizing Judea and Samaria Act").

"Judea and Samaria" is primarily used by the State of Israel as its official administrative term for the territory. While supported by some political groups in other countries, it is not used as an official name by any other country in the United Nations, which generally recognize the region as the "West Bank" or "Occupied Palestinian Territory." The UN always acts against Israel as it is, so this is not surprising.

Purpose: Supporters, including the National Association of Christian Lawmakers (NACL), argue this recognizes the historical, biblical, and legal ties to the region, countering the use of "West Bank" as a political term that obscures Jewish history.

Waiver: Agency heads may request a waiver to use the term "West Bank" if they provide a written justification to the General Assembly.

Background: The legislation is part of a broader nationwide effort by conservative groups to influence how the Israeli-occupied territory is described.

Monday, February 9, 2026

Interest In Buying Judea and Samaria Land ?

israelAM

Nadene Goldfoot

This is Eretz Yisrael with Judea and Samaria in brown. The names come from Jewish history. Judea was one of the 12 Tribes of Israel, the Israel under Kings Saul, David and Solomon, and Jeroboam (933-912 BCE) who was not Solomon's son but the superintendent of labor who rebelled for the pittance they were earning, and divided the country. Solomon's son, Rehoboam took the remaining state of Judah, Benjamin and Simeon and became their king under Judah's name, being it was the largest and included Jerusalem, the capital and most important. Samaria or Shomron was the name of the Capital of the Northern kingdom of Israel, founded in about 880 BCE by King Omri, king of Israel (887-876 BCE) on a hill bought from Shemer as documented in I Kings 16:24.

King Omri of Israel purchased the hill from Shemer for two talents of silver (approx. 150 pounds or 68 kg) to establish his new capital city, Samaria (1 Kings 16:24). Omri built the city on this hill around 880–870 BC, naming it Shomron (Samaria) in honor of Shemer.

The site, 7 miles NW of Shechem-now Nablus, was on an isolated elevation dominating a wide countryside. It city was on 25 acres. It had withstood the siege of the Syrians but fell in 721 BCE to Sargon II of Assyria who resettled it with Cutheans who intermarried with the former population left behind. Cutheans (or Cuthites) were a group of people from Cutha (or Cuthah), an ancient Babylonian city, who were forcibly resettled into Samaria by the Assyrian king in the 8th century BCE to replace the exiled Ten Tribes of Israel. They were largely identified with the Samaritans in Jewish tradition, often acting as opponents to the returning Jews during the Second Temple period.

They became the ancestors of the Samaritans..

Until now, Jews were prohibited from purchasing land directly and had to do so through locally registered companies. Under the new framework, most barriers to land purchases are removed, with transactions requiring only basic professional registration rather than approval from the Civil Administration. The cabinet canceled a law banning land sales to foreigners and abolished the requirement for special transaction permits.

Jewish buyers will now also be able to look up owners in land-owning registries and approach them directly with purchase offers. The government summarized the measures as allowing Jews to “purchase land in Judea and Samaria just as they purchase in Tel Aviv or Jerusalem.”

[Sounds fair. If an Arab wants to sell his property and a Jew wants to buy it, and they both agree to make the transaction, what could be wrong with that? Unless, of course, you believe that Jews should be discriminated against and be prohibited to buy real estate??]

Also, planning and construction authority for the Jewish settlement in the city, including at the Cave of the Patriarchs, will be transferred from the Hebron municipality, which is under the Palestinian Authority, to Israeli authorities. Similar steps were approved for Rachel’s Tomb, located within Bethlehem’s municipal boundaries, including the establishment of a dedicated Israeli municipal administration for the site and an adjacent yeshiva.

The measures also authorize Israeli enforcement bodies to act against illegal Palestinian construction even in Area A, a move that until now had been largely restricted to Area B. The policy would allow demolitions and land expropriation in cases involving damage to archaeological or heritage sites.

Well, knock me down with a feather!!! In a rare joint statement, the foreign ministers of Egypt, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Turkey, Indonesia and Pakistan condemned what they described as “illegal Israeli decisions and steps aimed at imposing illegitimate Israeli sovereignty, entrenching settlements and creating a new legal and administrative reality in the West Bank.” The EU also criticized the move. [So much for fairness and free economies.]

So much for buying your own land back, land that holds the indigenous Jews' ancestors' bones and memories. The problem is these Arabs cannot admit that Jewish history started in Canaan which became their Israel. It's known how most Arabs refuse to accept the fact that Jews were here first and have the Bible for proof. It is unfortunate that Jews lost the land to many empires and countries, like England who held a 30 year mandate-like a lease, sort of, life with them for 30 years of their police/soldiers under their rule. We had family living under this that had returned.

Where fools rush in, Angels fear to tread. It's not a GOLD RUSH. We had a lot of Angels buying land from Arabs who couldn't pay the taxes to the Ottoman Empire owners and were all too happy to find buyers who were Jews willing to pay their high prices.

Baron Edmond de Rothschild

Key individuals and organizations facilitating Jewish land purchases from Arabs before and after 1920 included Zionist leader Arthur Ruppin, the Jewish National Fund, and philanthropists like Baron Edmond de Rothschild (1845-1934). The early Jewish Pioneers appealed to him in the early 1880s to save the land for the Jews. He helped to protect their new settlements and visited the land in 1887, 1893, 1899, 1914 and 1925. He bought 125,000 acres in Palestine and its to be credited with the settlement of Galilee and Samaria. He and his wife, Adelaide Rothchild are buried in Israel.

Land was often purchased from absentee landlords through entities like the Palestine Land Development Company.land-purchasing company of the world zionist organization.

Established in 1908 by Arthur Ruppin, a German Jew, as part of the World Zionist Organization, the Palestine Land Development Company (PLDC) used Jewish National Fund and private monies to purchase and populate tracts of land with Jewish immigrants. It acquired extensive holdings in northern Palestine (Galilee), particularly in the 1920s and 1930s.

The PLDC bought nearly 90 percent of its land from large landowners, rather than individual peasants. Many of the transactions created controversy, such as the PLDC's purchase of 240,000 dunums (144,000 acres, 60,000 ha) of fertile land in the Jezreel valley between 1921 and 1925, its purchase of 30,000 dunums (18,000 acres, 7,500 ha) at Wadi Hawarith in 1929, and its assumption of the Lake Huleh concession in 1934.

Oh yes, the Arabs were only too happy to sell their holdings and get out of the there. They went on to Damascus and Paris, places like that. Our angels found out what they bought; land of mosquitoes and swamps, and had a lot to do to turn it into what it has become today.

People born and ancestrally native to a land are typically referred to as Indigenous peoples, original inhabitants, or natives of that region. They share deep, generational, and cultural connections to their ancestral land, often predating colonization or written history.

Next time you're found
With your chin on the ground
There a lot to be learned
So look around

[Verse 1]
Just what makes that little old ant
Think he'll move that rubber tree plant
Anyone knows an ant can't
Move a rubber tree plant

[Chorus]
But he's got high hopes
He's got high hopes
He's got high apple pie in the sky hopes

[Post-Chorus]
So any time you're gettin' low
'Stead of lettin' go
Just remember that ant:
Oops, there goes another rubber tree plant
Oops, there goes another rubber tree plant

Friday, August 29, 2025

Building Housing Units In Samaria Today

Nadene Goldfoot

How the Palestinian Arabs see Judea and Samaria

Israel won the Six Day War in 1967 and by doing so, received Judea and Samaria in the process. Yes, it is historically accurate that Israel gained control of the West Bank (which it refers to by the biblical names Judea and Samaria) during the Six-Day War in 1967. That is the Jewish homeland that they were led to by Mosesand Joshua. Their Jewish history tells all about it in the Bible, from Genesis onward. Some call this the "Old Testament; weJews call it the Torah, and Tanakh.

Prime Minister Netanyahu’s inner circle debated new steps to apply sovereignty to parts of Judea and Samaria.

Bezalel Yoel Smotrich (Hebrew: בְּצַלְאֵל יוֹאֵל סְמוֹטְרִיץ׳; born 27 February 1980) is a 45 year old Israeli politician and lawyer who has served as the Minister of Finance since 2022. The leader of the National Religious Party–Religious Zionism, he previously served as a Knesset member for the Jewish Home and Yamina, leaving in 2023 after resigning under the Norwegian Law, allowing him to remain a minister in the government while his seat in the Knesset could be taken by another candidate from his party.

Smotrich lives in the Israeli-Judea Samaria, living in the town of Kedumim, which is illegal under international-UN law. Israel disputes this. His residence was also built illegally outside the town proper. Kedumim (Hebrew: קְדוּמִים, romanized: Kdumim), is an Israeli town in the northern Samaria. Founded on Hanukkah 1975;50 years ago, by members of the Gush Emunim settlement movement, it later became a local council. In 2023 it had a population of 4,539.

Beit El is located next door to the end of Ilit, above Ramallah

Smotrich was born in Haspin, a religious Israeli settlement in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, and grew up in the Beit El settlement, deemed illegal under international law, but not to Israel law. Beit El or Beth El (Hebrew: בֵּית אֵל) is an Israeli settlement and local council located in the Binyamin Region of the West Bank. The Orthodox Jewish town was settled in 1977–78 by the ultranationalist group Gush Emunim. It is located in the hills north of Jerusalem (Samaria), east of the Palestinian city of al-Bireh, adjacent to Ramallah, a Palestinian town. In September 1997, Beit El was awarded local council status. The head of the local council is Shai Alon. In 2023 its population was 6,040.

Finance Minister Smotrich advanced the controversial E1 settlement plan, authorizing 3,401 housing units in Ma’ale Adumim, declaring it “the final nail in the coffin of the Palestinian state idea.” That must be because it's a city, not a town or village, and it is populated by Jews of Israel.

Construction in E1 is controversial.When the Israeli far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich approved the construction plans in for the 3400-home settlement August 2025, he clarified that the move is designed to "bury the idea of Palestinian state". Specifically, the plan aims at preventing any possible expansion of East Jerusalem by creating a physical link between Ma'ale Adumim and Jerusalem, and that it would effectively complete a crescent of Israeli settlements around East Jerusalem dividing it from the rest of the West Bank and its Palestinian population centers, and create a continuous Jewish population between Jerusalem and Ma'ale Adumim. It would also nearly bisect Judea-Samaria (the West Bank), jeopardizing the prospects of a contiguous Palestinian state.

Palestinians describe the E1 plan as an effort to Judaize Jerusalem.

That is such a statement! Jerusalem is Jewish! It was built by David who was king of Israel in 1010 BCE. It became the capital of united Israel. He had taken over the Jebusites and dealt leniently with them.

Ma'ale Adumim (Hebrew: מַעֲלֵה אֲדֻמִּים; is an urban Israeli city organized as a city council in Judea-Samaria ( the West Bank), seven kilometers (4.3 miles) east of Jerusalem. Ma'ale Adumim achieved city status in 1991. In 2015, its population was 36,680. It is located along Highway 1, which connects it to Jerusalem and the Tel Aviv Metropolitan Area. The international community considers Israeli villages, towns, cities in Judea-Samaria illegal under international law, but the Israeli government disputes this.

Judea and Samaria's land was divided into areas A,B, and C during the Oslo Accords. "Yes, the Oslo II Accord of 1995 divided the occupied West Bank into three administrative areas: Area A, under full Palestinian Authority (PA) control for civilian and security matters; Area B, under PA civilian control but with shared Israeli military control; and Area C, remaining under full Israeli civil and military administration. These divisions were intended as part of an interim period before final status negotiations on issues like borders, settlements, and Palestinian statehood were to take place." That was 30 years ago. During this time, the Arabs havenot followed the rules and reports of them building in thewrong sections are many.

The primary leaders who met during the Oslo II Accord in 1995 were Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat, with U.S. President Bill Clinton and Russian representatives also present to witness the signing in Taba, Egypt. The leaders from the original 1993 Oslo Accord, which laid the groundwork for the 1995 agreement, were Yitzhak Rabin, Yasser Arafat, and Bill Clinton.

Ron Dermer, though born in Miami, Florida, is Israel's (Hebrew: רון דרמר‎; born April 16, 1971)54 year old politician and diplomat serving as the Minister of Strategic Affairs since 2022 and as head of the negotiations for hostages' release since February 2025. He served as the Israeli Ambassador to the United States from 2013 to 2021.He was only 42 then as a new ambassador.

Strategic Affairs Minister, Ron Dermer, supported sovereignty, saying “there will be sovereignty in Judea and Samaria,” while Foreign Minister Sa’ar and others warned unilateral annexation could trigger major European backlash.

The UK has summoned Israel’s ambassador to protest the plan, and 21 countries have issued a joint statement condemning the move.

Considering that about all of the UN members are going to accept "Palestine" as a state in the next vote in October due to the false accusations that are using photos to prove their case, that Israel is starving children, it's no wonder that the UK and 21 countries all condemn this move. It's timing is not good!

I might add that when King Solomon died, his son, Jeroboam took the throne and the northern states divided themselves from Judah over a dispute about taxes to pay for the Temple and the labor of workers lack of pay. 10 northern tribes were attacked by Assyria. What was left was Judea/Samaria with Samaria being the outer land of Jerusalem.

Area spoken of as the Jewish National Home by Britain and the Jewish spokesmen in 1920. This became the Jewish Expectation but Britain saw more in it for themselves by giving the land to Abdullah, Prince of Arabia instead; Jews got 10% of the promised land only. Judea and Samaria were part of the 10%. Israel got the southern desert area more than anything.

While Britain's 1917 Balfour Declaration promised to establish a "national home for the Jewish people in Palestine," Judea and Samaria were not designated part of a Jewish state due to the area's overwhelming Arab population. This reality shaped the numerous and ultimately unsuccessful partition proposals put forward by the British and the United Nations. What most people don't realize is that Britain did keep Jewsout while letting Arabs in the land. They were not so innocent intheir deception. The Peel Commission of 1937 (well into Germany's attacks on Jews already) tells us "

Context: Escalating Arab-Jewish violence in the 1930s prompted the British to establish a Royal Commission, led by Lord Peel, to investigate the causes and propose a solution.
Proposal: The commission recommended partitioning Palestine into separate Arab and Jewish states. Judea and Samaria were allocated to the Arab state, along with most of the Negev and the Gaza Strip. A small, internationally controlled zone was proposed for Jerusalem, Bethlehem, and a corridor to the coast.
Following the 1948 war, the territory of Judea and Samaria was not included within the newly formed State of Israel. Instead, it was captured and annexed by the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. This arrangement held until the 1967 Six-Day War, when Israel captured the territory from Jordan.
Since when has international or UN law been fair in dealing with Israel?