China and USA: Friend or Foe

 Nadene Goldfoot                                                

China covers about 9.6 million square kilometers (3.7 million square miles)  It ranks as the 3rd or 4th largest country in the world,  and is very close to the size of the United States.  

Even China has now come under pressure to send military support for the US effort in the Middle East. A highly anticipated summit between US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping was postponed this week, with Trump saying the ongoing war required he remain in Washington.

 Questions about the planned meeting in Beijing began to arise on Monday, following Trump’s threat to delay the summit should China refuse to help the United States reopen the Strait of Hormuz. 

The Chinese Foreign Ministry responded to the request by reiterating its call “on parties to immediately stop military operations.”   

Earlier this week, President Trump threatened to delay his summit with President Xi unless China sent warships to help reopen the Strait of Hormuz—and then requested that delay after China refused. Where does that leave the US-China relationship? Is this a genuine rupture, or is it a negotiating tactic?  

President Donald Trump with Chinese leader Xi Jinping during his state visit to China in 2026

Let’s say what that means for the US-China relationship more broadly. It seems to some writers that China right now is very keen to get into negotiations with the US side in general and with the president in particular. I think that they feel that there are a variety of areas—Taiwan is one, technology is probably another, and tariffs another—where they will find it extremely useful to be able to sit down with the Americans and talk to them.

                                 TAIWAN           

Military Aid and Sales: The U.S. routinely supplies defensive arms and military equipment to help Taiwan maintain self-defense capabilities, alongside ongoing bilateral military training and defense budget adjustments by Taipei
Strait Operations: U.S. Navy ships and aircraft frequently transit the Taiwan Strait to underscore international navigational rights and ensure a free and open Indo-Pacific, drawing frequent pushback from Beijing. 

Trade and Technology

Semiconductors: Surging global demand for artificial intelligence and advanced tech has made Taiwan a top-tier U.S. trading partner, anchored by massive investments from companies like TSMC in U.S. manufacturing facilities. 
Economic Agreements: Both sides engage through initiatives like the U.S.-Taiwan Initiative on 21st Century Trade and ongoing tariff and reciprocal trade discussions managed through AIT and TECRO
            WAR WITH USA -- IRAN

One of the indications that we have that the Chinese are keen to have the meeting was China’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi's statement when the Iran war started. He said this was a war that should never have happened. It was not an outright condemnation of the United States or Israel, or indeed of   Iran. It was a more generalized statement of regret.  

                         CHINA --USA

The first direct high-level political meetings between the United States and the People's Republic of China took place on June 5, 1954, at the Geneva Conference in Switzerland, where delegations from both nations held direct talks regarding detained civilians and regional conflicts, following years of severed ties and the Korean War.

1955 Ambassadorial Talks: Formal, regular bilateral talks between the two countries began on August 1, 1955, held in Geneva and later Warsaw as a substitute for official diplomatic recognition.

1972 Nixon Visit: President Richard Nixon traveled to China in February 1972 for the first summit meeting between a sitting U.S. president and Chinese leadership, leading to the Shanghai Communiqué. 

Key Post-1972 Diplomatic Milestones

Normalization of Relations (1979): The Carter administration and Chinese leadership finalized full diplomatic ties.
Presidential Visits: Subsequent U.S. presidents—including Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama, Donald Trump, and Joe Biden—have held multiple official meetings and summits with Chinese leaders in both countries.
Ongoing Summits: Leaders and high-ranking cabinet officials continue regular geopolitical, economic, and security dialogues.

 Iran. It was a more generalized statement of regret.  

Europeans Ignoring Oslo Accords of Areas A, B, C in Judea/Samaria

 Nadene Goldfoot                                                

France, Germany, Britain and Italy issued a joint condemnation Thursday evening following a tender published by Israel's Housing Ministry for the construction of 1,234 housing units in the E1 area between Jerusalem and Ma'ale Adumim. 

E1 Area:  is a strategic 12-square-kilometer stretch of Area C land .  This is land for Israel only to live in ever since the Oslo Accords.  

 This area is divided between Area A – under full Palestinian Authority administrative and security control, 

Area B – under Palestinian Authority administrative control and joint Israeli and Palestinian security control, and 

Area C – under Israeli administrative and security control. The whole area is bisected by borders, security fences, bypass roads, and checkpoints.                                             

The Land of Judea is an area with a fascinating history. The home of the biblical forefathers; Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the area of the Davidic and Solomonic kingdom of Judah, the homeland of the prophets Amos and Jeremiah, the birthplace of Jesus, the land of the Edomites who joined the Jewish Hasmonean Kingdom. King Herod built his royal estate in the area as well as a system of aqueducts that supplied water to Jerusalem. Bar Kokhba, together with Rabbi Akiva, led the second Jewish rebellion against Rome from this area. After the destruction of the Jewish villages in the Land of Judea, following the revolt, in the fourth century CE the Byzantine Desert Fathers built monasteries and churches for the thousands of hermits that settled in the Desert of the Holy City – i.e. the Judean Desert.
 In parts of it, Areas A, Israelis are not permitted to enter without permission from the Civil Administration of the Israel Ministry of Defense. Other areas, deep in the Judean Desert, can only be reached by off-road vehicles. Nevertheless, for people living in Israel and visitors from abroad, the Land of Judea is a region where a deeper insight of this land, from the past to the present, can be gained – notwithstanding the political opinion of the reader.

So E1 lies between Jerusalem and Ma'aleh Adumim. It is about  (4.6 square miles, or roughly 4.5 square miles)  Well, first, we Jews are calling area C  by it's original name of Judea-Samaria.  

Part of the European's  statement said, "The E1 settlement will undermine the prospect of the two-state solution by driving a wedge through the West Bank and harming the territorial contiguity of the Palestinian Territories.  Ladies and Gentlemen, you do not realize it, but the Arabs called Palestinians are not ready for nationhood and probably will not be ready until 100 years passes by.  They have not fulfilled the requirements for nationhood in the first place, and after October 7, how any nation dare expect Israel to want them to be the neighbors whose only goal is to destroy Israel.  Do the Europeans think that the Israelis are crazy?  

Legal Criteria for Statehood

Permanent population living stably within the region.
Defined territory with recognizable geographic borders.
Functioning government capable of maintaining internal order.
Diplomatic capacity to interact with other global powers.
Explore the formal legal framework in the Montevideo Convention.
Review the academic breakdown of state criteria via London School of Economics.
Read about cultural definitions on Britannica. 

 International law is not clear that Israeli settlements in the West Bank are illegal." Would you like to have a debate with our international lawyer experts on the subject?  I'm sure that would he a thriller to watch on TV.  

 A European diplomat said: "Israel explicitly promised its friends on the continent that there would be no progress on construction in E1. 

If true, they had to be from the opposing party, include Gadi Eisenkot's surging Yashar Party, alongside opposition factions like Yair Lapid's Yesh Atid and Naftali Bennett's circles.  It used to be the Labor party.   They continue:   This therefore crosses a red line and is a very bad development." 

According to the diplomat, European countries are now discussing whether to take measures against Israel even before the election. He estimated that Finance Minister Smotrich was behind the move and that "he is doing it for political reasons." He also warned that, from the perspective of European countries, advancing construction in E1 could justify a significant shift in policy toward Israel.

Yes, actual housing construction has moved forward from the planning phase. Israel’s housing ministry issued active tenders for the first batch of over 1,200 housing units in the strategic E1 corridor, shifting the long-delayed project into the implementation stage.

Whoever reads the Bible these days?  If you did, you would be reading about Judea and Samaria and the Jewish kings who lived there with their subjects.  Jews are the indigenous people of Judea-Samaria, from being Judah to Jew;  that's who we are.  Indigenous peoples are the original inhabitants of a specific region, maintaining a deep cultural, spiritual, and generational connection to their ancestral lands long before the arrival of outside colonizers or modern states.  

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