Nadene Goldfoot
The answer to the question, "Does Israel Occupy Judea and Samaria, is NO. Juan Williams was very wrong today when he stated such a fact when talking about Netanyahu winning the election in Israel. Juan is a member of the 5 on Fox News, a very interesting panel made up of different opinions. He needs a brush up on facts and probably is not the only person who thinks this. So here's some background.
Judea was the original land of Judah. Judah, in turn, was the southern part of Israel that broke away after King Solomon died in 920 BCE. The tribe of Judah lived in Judah. It was the largest of the 12 tribes. This is how Jews get their name of the Jewish people. Judaea was the name given to the land by the Romans. The land had become their vassal kingdom under their rule in 63 BCE. The Romans named the entire land Palaestina (Prima and Secunda) "Palestine" after 135 CE after the 3 year war with Bar Kochba, general of the Jews in their last stand against the Romans. Samaria is in the center and was the surrounding land of Jerusalem, and Galilee is in the north. Israelites and later, Jews, refer to the land as Eretz Israel (the land of Israel.)
When Jews returned to Palestine in the late 1800s, they came by ship which let them off right at the water's edge, and they had procured land from the Ottoman Empire who owned the land. There, they built Tel Aviv. Other Jews spread out creating developments.
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Read THE SETTLERS by Meyer Levin of 832 pages to get the feel of being pioneers in this country." It's set in Palestine from the turn of the century to the Balfour Declaration and encompasses over a quarter of a century of turbulent events: the hardships of the first Jewish pioneers, the spasmodic tyranny of the Turkish overlords, the blighted relationship between neighboring Jews and Arabs, in which the wars of the present were foreordained in the blood feuds and hatreds of an earlier generation, the vast upheaval of the 1st World War and the Russian Revolutions, the creation of a Jewish fighting force, and the triumphant laying of the foundations for a new land."
The Ottoman Empire lost the land with WWI since they sided with Germany, who lost the war. That's when the British got the Mandate of 30 years to be the policemen of the land. The Jews were promised the land and the Arabs were promised the same land. This is the problem.
The territory of Judea and Samaria, also known as the "WEST BANK" OF THE Jordan River, had been until 1948 part of the British Mandate of Palestine. Between 1948 and 1967, it was ruled by Jordan, which annexed it illegally in 1950. They had taken it during the war of Israel's Independence; land designated to be part of the Jewish Homeland.
Judea and Samaria became administered areas occupied in the course of the Six Day War (1967) when the Israel Defence Forces defeated the massed Arab armies which menaced Israel's frontiers. They included Judaea and Samaria, The Gaza Strip, The Sinai Desert and the Golan Heights. East Jerusalem was reunified in June 1967 with West Jerusalem.
Up until 1972, almost a million Arabs lived in the administered areas. 640,600 of them lived in Judaea and Samaria in land 2,270 sq. miles. Israel itself is only 8,000 sq miles in size. By comparison, Oregon is 98,380 square miles in size. Metropolitan Portland, the largest city in Oregon, is 6,684 sq. miles. (The Portland metropolitan area or Greater Portland is a metropolitan area in the U.S. states of Oregon and Washington centered on the principal city of Portland, Oregon. The U.S. Office of Management and Budget identifies it as the Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA Metropolitan Statistical Area, a metropolitan statistical area used by the United States Census Bureau and other entities.) It's hard for Americans to understand that the whole state of Israel is just a little larger than Portland, Oregon.
Because the Arabs had moved into Judea and Samaria during the time Jordan's government had taken over the land, they are still there along with Jews who moved there who are more religious, being reverent about the history of the land and wishing to keep it in Jewish hands. Otherwise, many special areas would have been destroyed by people wishing to erase the Jewish history. The total number of Israelis who had settled in the administered areas between 1967 and 1972, including Nahal military settlements, was 4,200. Then war broke out again in 1973.
The basic policy of Israel has been that until a peace settlement is obtained, there will be no ceding over the areas to Arabs who want it for their state of Palestine which would include eastern Jerusalem. Israel needs to have conditions of security for both Arabs and Israelis. The people must be able to live normal lives without losing contact with Arabs or Jews in other countries. Israel wanted to make possible the land's rapid economic development-a reason for peace. They have tried to encourage co-existence and cooperation between the Arabs of the areas and Israelis, as an example for relations to come between the 2 peoples.
Judea and Samaria have been under the auspices of Abbas while Gaza has been under Hamas terrorists who took it over in their first democratic election. Israel kept the right of policing the area for terrorists. "Following the signing of the Oslo accords, the Israelis withdrew from nearly half of the territories, including the cities where 98.5% of Palestinian Arabs reside. The notion that the Palestinian Arabs are living under "Israeli occupation" is simply false. The areas from which Israel has not withdrawn are virtually uninhabited, except for the 2% where Israelis reside."
"Finally, it should also be noted that the Oslo Accords recognize Israel's right to remain in the territories, at least until a final settlement is reached. The Oslo accords accept Israel's presence in the territories at least until an Israel-PA agreement on the final status of those areas. Chapter 2, Article X, Clause 4, specifically recognize that in the disputed territories, "Israel shall continue to carry the responsibility for external security, as well as the responsibility for overall security of Israelis for the purpose of safeguarding their internal security and public order" until a final accord is reached. Furthermore, the Oslo accords from August 20, 1993 do not require Israel to dismantle any of the Israeli communities in Judea-Samaria-Gaza--in effect, an acknowledgment of Israel's right to maintain those communities, at least until a final-status agreement is reached."
Instead, we've had Intifada after Intifadas. We've had Gazans attack and tunnel and kidnap and be walking suicide bombers. Nevertheless, Europe and the UN have given in to the Palestinian demands and have done everything to accept them as a state. What remains to be done is a peace treaty that has not come about, the same problem Israel has faced since 1948.
The Palestinians want a state without Jews in it (Judenrein). That's like the Nazis wanting all of Europe to be without Jews- the whole world, as a matter of fact. This means all Jews would have to leave. Israel has not said that to their 1.7 million Arab citizens. Do you think that Israel wants to give up their homeland written about in the Bible? It's like letting your parents be taken away by terrorists to be slaughtered. This is not just any old land. This is the heart and soul of the Jewish people.
Resource: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portland_metropolitan_area
Facts About Israel, Division of Information, Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Jerusalem
The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
http://www.takeapen.org/Takeapen/Templates/showpage.asp?DBID=1&LNGID=1&TMID=84&FID=1001
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oslo_I_Accord
Judea was the original land of Judah. Judah, in turn, was the southern part of Israel that broke away after King Solomon died in 920 BCE. The tribe of Judah lived in Judah. It was the largest of the 12 tribes. This is how Jews get their name of the Jewish people. Judaea was the name given to the land by the Romans. The land had become their vassal kingdom under their rule in 63 BCE. The Romans named the entire land Palaestina (Prima and Secunda) "Palestine" after 135 CE after the 3 year war with Bar Kochba, general of the Jews in their last stand against the Romans. Samaria is in the center and was the surrounding land of Jerusalem, and Galilee is in the north. Israelites and later, Jews, refer to the land as Eretz Israel (the land of Israel.)
When Jews returned to Palestine in the late 1800s, they came by ship which let them off right at the water's edge, and they had procured land from the Ottoman Empire who owned the land. There, they built Tel Aviv. Other Jews spread out creating developments.
The Ottoman Empire lost the land with WWI since they sided with Germany, who lost the war. That's when the British got the Mandate of 30 years to be the policemen of the land. The Jews were promised the land and the Arabs were promised the same land. This is the problem.
The territory of Judea and Samaria, also known as the "WEST BANK" OF THE Jordan River, had been until 1948 part of the British Mandate of Palestine. Between 1948 and 1967, it was ruled by Jordan, which annexed it illegally in 1950. They had taken it during the war of Israel's Independence; land designated to be part of the Jewish Homeland.
Judea and Samaria became administered areas occupied in the course of the Six Day War (1967) when the Israel Defence Forces defeated the massed Arab armies which menaced Israel's frontiers. They included Judaea and Samaria, The Gaza Strip, The Sinai Desert and the Golan Heights. East Jerusalem was reunified in June 1967 with West Jerusalem.
Up until 1972, almost a million Arabs lived in the administered areas. 640,600 of them lived in Judaea and Samaria in land 2,270 sq. miles. Israel itself is only 8,000 sq miles in size. By comparison, Oregon is 98,380 square miles in size. Metropolitan Portland, the largest city in Oregon, is 6,684 sq. miles. (The Portland metropolitan area or Greater Portland is a metropolitan area in the U.S. states of Oregon and Washington centered on the principal city of Portland, Oregon. The U.S. Office of Management and Budget identifies it as the Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA Metropolitan Statistical Area, a metropolitan statistical area used by the United States Census Bureau and other entities.) It's hard for Americans to understand that the whole state of Israel is just a little larger than Portland, Oregon.
Because the Arabs had moved into Judea and Samaria during the time Jordan's government had taken over the land, they are still there along with Jews who moved there who are more religious, being reverent about the history of the land and wishing to keep it in Jewish hands. Otherwise, many special areas would have been destroyed by people wishing to erase the Jewish history. The total number of Israelis who had settled in the administered areas between 1967 and 1972, including Nahal military settlements, was 4,200. Then war broke out again in 1973.
The basic policy of Israel has been that until a peace settlement is obtained, there will be no ceding over the areas to Arabs who want it for their state of Palestine which would include eastern Jerusalem. Israel needs to have conditions of security for both Arabs and Israelis. The people must be able to live normal lives without losing contact with Arabs or Jews in other countries. Israel wanted to make possible the land's rapid economic development-a reason for peace. They have tried to encourage co-existence and cooperation between the Arabs of the areas and Israelis, as an example for relations to come between the 2 peoples.
"Finally, it should also be noted that the Oslo Accords recognize Israel's right to remain in the territories, at least until a final settlement is reached. The Oslo accords accept Israel's presence in the territories at least until an Israel-PA agreement on the final status of those areas. Chapter 2, Article X, Clause 4, specifically recognize that in the disputed territories, "Israel shall continue to carry the responsibility for external security, as well as the responsibility for overall security of Israelis for the purpose of safeguarding their internal security and public order" until a final accord is reached. Furthermore, the Oslo accords from August 20, 1993 do not require Israel to dismantle any of the Israeli communities in Judea-Samaria-Gaza--in effect, an acknowledgment of Israel's right to maintain those communities, at least until a final-status agreement is reached."
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| Union of Fatah and Hamas leaders |
The Palestinians want a state without Jews in it (Judenrein). That's like the Nazis wanting all of Europe to be without Jews- the whole world, as a matter of fact. This means all Jews would have to leave. Israel has not said that to their 1.7 million Arab citizens. Do you think that Israel wants to give up their homeland written about in the Bible? It's like letting your parents be taken away by terrorists to be slaughtered. This is not just any old land. This is the heart and soul of the Jewish people.
Resource: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portland_metropolitan_area
Facts About Israel, Division of Information, Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Jerusalem
The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
http://www.takeapen.org/Takeapen/Templates/showpage.asp?DBID=1&LNGID=1&TMID=84&FID=1001
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oslo_I_Accord
thanks for these good articles nadene. i want others to read and understand the actual history. how would they feel living with the constant threats that the jewish people have endured?
ReplyDeleteI'm happy that you are gaining more understanding by reading them, Andre. Most Americans have no idea what it's like. One thing, it sharpens up your senses and you become alerted to danger, like a 6th sense.
ReplyDelete