Jews of Tunisia

Nadene Goldfoot                                               

Tunisian synagogue in Ghriba.  Today, Marcia Fine, author, said, "This is one
 of the places  (Tunisia) where Jews and Muslims live together in harmony. .
They work together, their children play together, they accept the other's traditions.
 Yes, it can work if people remain calm and caring."

Carthage was first a settlement founded by the Phoenicians in North Africa, directly across the sea from Italy.  It probably was the biblical Tarshish.  Tarsus, a town, was in Cilicia to the north of which were situated large forests and copper mines in biblical days.  Possibly, the ships of Tarshish were made there.  Some scholars maintain that the ships of Tarshish refer to vessels traveling to the Phoenician colonies in Sardinia and Spain.                                            

Carthage-notice the amp hi-theaterCarthage, today is a seaside suburb of Tunisia’s capital, Tunis

 Jews were first mentioned here about in 200 CE, but by then were already long-established.  There was a Jewish cemetery in Carthage from the Roman period which had 3,000 Jewish tombs.  Jewish proselytization was "apparently active in the 3rd and 4th centuries. The city started as one of a number of Phoenician settlements in the western Mediterranean that were created to facilitate trade from the city of Tyre on the coast of what is now Lebanon. 
                                                                         

 Justinian, the Byzantine emperor from 527-565 who was so intolerant towards religious minorities and brought about a thoroughgoing anti-Jewish policy,  brought on a conquest in 535 and so the Jewish community declined due to persecution by him. Jews were not allowed to serve in civil or military posts, to own Christian slaves, to give evidence against Christians, or to celebrate Passover at the same time as Easter.  In 553, he issued an edict regulating the synagogue service and forbidding the DEUTEROSIS, the rabbinic expositions.  Justinian didn't allow the rabbinic interpretation mentioned in the synagogue.  This would have been anything under the title of Targum, Mishnah or Midrash, and probably any rabbinic exposition.  In Africa, he outlawed synagogues in 535 and forcibly converted the Jews of Borion.
                                                                         

Samaritans living in Israel now-and their Judaism is more of a basic form of ours today.

 There was an unsuccessful revolt by the Samaritans (the Talmud called them the Kutim, people with their capital at Samaria, originally calling themselves Bene Yisrael or Shomerim-the keepers of the Law, descendants of the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh with an admixture of non-Israelite colonists) and Jews against his rule in Caesarea in 556.   There were many scholars mentioned in the Talmud from Carthage.  Now this area is part of Tunisia.

The city of Kairouan was the greatest center of rabbinic scholarship in the west.  The position deteriorated under the Almohades when many Jews accepted Islam in the 12th century.  These were Moslem sectaries who rose in north Africa and conquered southern Spain in 1149-1174.  In both areas they compelled all non-Moslems to become converted.  Though north African Jewry ultimately recovered from the blow, in Spain it brought final disaster to the communities living under Moslem rule, who embraced Islam or fled to Christian Spain.  Thus, today,  the descendants who are still Muslim could find Sepharic Jewish  DNA in their tests.  Of course, the Spanish Inquisition occurred in 1492, when Columbus sailed the ocean blue.  Jews were forced to convert to Catholicism under penalty of death if they remained in Spain, so many didn't stay.  Many moved next door to Portugal.  .

.  Spanish refugees who settled in Tunisia were different in their customs and way of life from the native Tunisian Jews and founded separate communities.  The 2 groups merged later.

When Tunisia was under Spanish rule from 1535 to 1574, many Jews died or were sold into slavery.  The discriminatory legislation was lifted a little during the 19th century.  Tunisia passed under French protection in 1881, and its Jews were permitted to have French citizenship since 1910.

The community suffered from Vichy laws and the German occupation during World War II.  The members of the Bet Din curt in Tunis are appointed by the bey and their decisions are executed by the authorities.  The Great Council of Tunisia has 3 Jewish representatives.

There were 67,000 Jews in Tunisia in 1959 with 55,000 living in the town of Tunis.  Most of the Jews are merchants, storekeepers, and office workers, but by 1990, the total for the country had dropped to 2,500. as a result of emigration to France and Israel.
                                                                       

Tunisian Jewish lady praying in oldest synagogue-Ghriba 2015
She really looks like my Ashkenazic grandmother.  

Jews on the Tunisian island of Djerba (Jerba) (an island off the coast of Tunisia) trace their roots all the way back to Babylonian exile of 586 B.C., and still pray at Africa's oldest synagogue.  The Jews were saved in 1943 from extermination at the hands of the Nazis by paying a gold ransom.  Most of its Jews left for Israel in 1949.  Less than 1,000 remained by 1990, mostly pious and some deeply learned.  The ancient synagogue in the former place is a renowned center of pilgrimage and the subject of many legends.  

Resource: The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conquest_of_Tunis_(1535)
facebook: author, Marcia Fine
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Carthage

2016: Year Judaism and Islam Get Together at Sundown, October 11th

Nadene Goldfoot                                                                      

Our Book of Life where everything we do is written down:
Only we ourselves are responsible, and no one else pays for our sins but us,
so we ask forgiveness and better mean it, for G-d will know.  "The Talmud,  (Rosh Hashana 32b),  says that on Rosh Hashana, God inscribes everyone's name into one of three books. The righteous go into the Book of Life, the evil go into the Book of Death, and those in-between have judgment suspended until Yom Kippur."

Blowing the Shofar on Rosh Hashana and Yom KippurThe shofar blast marks the beginning of a period of amnesty which is known as The Ten Days of Repentance. Repentance is based on the fact that since humanity has been given free-will, and our actions are not pre-determined, we must take responsiblity for our actions. The ability to repent teaches us that our future is not bound by our past and that by changing our behaviour we have the ability to change our past.

 Yom Kippur, the Jewish day of Atonement, falls on October 11, 2016 at sundown.  It's a remembrance day that starts with a special large dinner with the family and friends in preparation for the next 25 hours of fasting and being in the synagogue asking  for forgiveness for our sins against G-d..  Jews were directed by Moses to hold this holiday in perpetuity. ...In the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, you shall afflict your souls, and you shall not do any work ... For on that day he shall provide atonement for you to cleanse you from all your sins before the L-RD. -Leviticus 16:29-30 This is our most holy and  important holiday of the year.

This year, a holiday I did not know about, Ashura, is also celebrated by Muslims at the very same hour, sundown of October 11th.  This is celebrated differently by Sunnis and Shiites.  With Sunnis,   (who refer to it as The Day of Atonement) as the day on which the Israelites were freed from the Pharaoh (called 'Firaun' in Arabic) of Egypt.   
                                                                               

Celebration of Shiite Muslims during Ashura showing extremes of the day. "Ashura is an islamic holiday that only the Shi’ites celebrate like this. Ashura is the day in which the Shi’ites repent for the loss of Husayn, Muhammad’s grandson." This is something they cannot pin on the Jews.  Ashura is also a day of fasting for some Sunni Muslims. The basis for Ashura in Sunni Islam, according to tradition, is the prophet Muhammad's adoption of this practice after observing Jews in Medina fasting on this day. 
However,Shi'a Muslims who are mainly found in Iran,  reject these stories and maintain that Ashura is a day of great sorrow due to the tragic events of Karbala so atone for letting Husayn get killed in battle.  .

  The Battle of Karbala took place on Muharram 10, in the year 61 AHof the Islamic calendar (October 10, 680 CE)  in Karbala, in present-day Iraq.  The battle took place between a small group of supporters and relatives of Muhammad's grandson, Husayn ibn Ali, and a larger military detachment from the forces of Yazid I, the Umayyad caliph.  
                                                                          

A revered Torah, a scroll

It is important to remember at this point that Judaism is far far older than Islam.  We attribute our Torah being written by Moses, who was already 80 years old when he trekked back to Egypt to talk to the Pharoah, his relative by adoption, about freeing the Israelite slaves.  That would have been in about 1311 BCE, and he wrote down his messages from G-d for the next 40 years, and died in 1271 BCE.  So our Yom Kippur day of atonement is 3,326 years old, and Jews still abide by this day.  
                                                                            

Middle Ages-in the Synagogue on Yom Kippur,
Carrying the Torah for everyone to see and touch

Mohammad lived in the vicinity of Jews in Arabia, who resided in Medina.  Amazingly, here are Muslims now celebrating on this special day, something they learned from him who learned some of our Jewish history when it was already 1,942 years old, for he was born in 570 CE and died in 632 CE.  They are not celebrating the same holiday, however.  They have mixed this day with our Passover (Pesach) celebrated in the early Spring. 
                                                                                    

Jews praying on Yom Kippur in Israel

Yom Kippur on October  11th is the Jewish day of Atonement, but to G-d for sins. 

Passover was this past April 22nd at sundown when the Israelites were freed from the Pharaoh.  

Then again, the Shiites have a different concept. " Shiite commemorations of the Day of Ashura have traditionally included rituals which have been condemned by many Shia religious authorities recently under the claim that such practices are wrong or unislamic."   
                                                                                  

Karbala was a time of a great battle.  "The Battle of Karbala took place on Muharram 10, in the year 61 AHof the Islamic calendar (October 10, 680 AD)^a in Karbala, in present-day  Iraq.  The battle took place between a small group of supporters and relatives of Muhammad's grandson, Husayn ibn Ali, and a larger military detachment from the forces of Yazid I, the Umayyad caliph."  There were 3 of them.  Yazid I (680-683) of the Sufyan Branch, and ; Yazid II (720-724) of the Marwan Branch, and Yazid III (744) of the Marwan Branch.  

What they are remembering is an ambush of Husayn ibn Ali where he was killed.  In 680, when Yazid became caliph, Husayn refused to acknowledge him and secretly left Medina to join his own followers in Kufa, who had already proclaimed him caliph.  Unfortunately for Husayn, the plot was discovered and the small band, including women and children, was ambushed in Karbala, and oasis south of modern Baghdad.  Most of the men were killed.  Husayn, the grandson of the Prophet, was beheaded;  and the women and children were taken captive.  

This was the culmination of a series of unsuccessful political moves on the part of the partisans of Ali to secure the caliphate.  The ambush could have been recorded as another political failure, and at the time it did not create much excitement.  Later, it assumed important religious significance.  Ali and Husayn became more formidable foes of the established caliphate through their deaths than through their lives.  Husayn was considered the prince of martyrs, and his death in 680 became a rallying time for opponents of the caliphate.  The followers of Ali separated themselves from the main body of Islam and formed their own theology and philosophy of its own.  

Interestingly, Marwan, founder of the Marwanid branch of the Umayyads, came to power in Damascus with the help of the southern Arabs.  
                                                                          

The Umayyads expanded Islam throughout the world from 661 to 750 CE.  Then the Abbasids took over.  Perhaps they all learned from the Byzantine Empire previously who did the same thing.  "It's riches beckoned the fighters of Islam, and the possibility of its conversion kindled the hopes of many Muslims."  

Resource:  CE (Common Era) and AHof =AD (anno domini.from (year 1-2016)
http://www.jewfaq.org/holiday4.htm  Yom Kippur
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Day_of_Ashura
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Karbala
http://classroom.synonym.com/significance-ashura-sunni-islam-8916.html
http://www.aish.com/atr/Book_of_Life.html
http://www.chabad.org/holidays/JewishNewYear/template_cdo/aid/3061833/jewish/Why-Do-We-Blow-Shofar-at-the-End-of-Neilah-After-Yom-Kippur.htm
College text: MIDDLE EAST-PAST & PRESENT, by Yahya Armajani, Thomas M. Ricks, pp 55-58.

Mis-Translations: VIRGIN: Muslims and Christians

Nadene Goldfoot                                                                 

Middle Eastern Belly Dancer

On Fareed Zakaria's Sunday morning program of GPS (GLOBAL PUBLIC SQUARE)  this morning,  Fareed had a Muslim woman on who was skilled in Arabic.  She has brought out something most people haven't realized.  The translation of virgin has been incorrect.  The word,  which is a gift for good behavior for Muslims in the after-life,  is not Virgins, but Raisins.  Virgin= عذراء;   Raisins=زبيب  
Now, Fareed Zakaria was born in  Mumbai, India, and may be a Muslim.  Fareed Rafiq Zakaria is an Indian-born American journalist and author. He is the host of CNN's Fareed Zakaria GPS and writes a weekly column for The Washington Post.  He's Harvard educated.  He didn't mention what he thought of the outcome of his guest's analyzing the word, Virgin, but his father was an Islamic scholar, so I believe he must be a Muslim and was not offended.   

Being curious, I looked up the word Virgin in our Hebrew Dictionary, and it is betooliah or batool,

                                                                                 

Young Israeli girl did blessing over Shabbat candles
and has taken off her scarf now.  

Our Hebrew word for "Young Lady" is bakhoorah, which is very similar to Virgin. גברת צעירה, and this Hebrew is saying young lady using Geveret instead of Bakhoorah.  So there are at least 2 words for lady.
Only in my dictionary , young lady it start with a B (Bet) .  This is the google translator.
Virgin in Hebrew is בתולה  betooliah or batool.  

The pronunciation of betoolia and bakhoorah  are slightly similar.  Look at (young lady) and if it started with a B as it does in my dictionary, not geveret-the ending is the same as Virgin.
                                                                           

Almost all girls now serve in the IDF at age 18. 

Israeli girls are known for their beauty.  The religious girls
do not bathe in the sun on a mixed beach, though.  

It makes you wonder how competent the translators were and what they were depending on.  Jewish commentators have said for many years that the word, Virgin, really was young lady in Hebrew.

Fareed's guest was quite emphatic that there were no 72 virgins awaiting people who die for the cause and need rewarding.  Perhaps that should slow down ISIS, hmmm?

It would take a lady to argue against 72 virgins.  We'd much rather the reward be 72 raisins any day.  Anyway, in these days, they should have  run out of 72 virgins per man quickly.  They'll have to resort to 72 raisins.

When translating from one language to another, it really is important to be an Anthropologist as well as a Linguist.  I marvel at people who are bi-lingual or even tri-lingual or more.  I had a teacher in Israel who knew 26 languages.  How deeply or at what grade level that would be, I do not know.  It could be just to say hello in 23 languages or it could be to read literature in 23 languages.  Some languages are related to each other.  That makes the transition easier, like Spanish and Italian.  Some people can barely handle one language-English.

Reading Hebrew is difficult even though it only has 22 letters, and English has 26.  Hebrew only as vowels that are the Aleph, Ayin, and Vuv  which becomes an oo or an oh sound.  You just have to KNOW the word to read it.  Sight reading is more important that sounding it out many a time.

Arabic and Hebrew have many similarities.  They should find the transition from one to another quite a bit easier than us who are not native readers.  Arabic and Hebrew are both taught in Israel's school system.  The lucky students do help each other in their homework.  I never had a friend who could help me with my Latin studies, and my husband and I both floundered with out Hebrew homework assignments as we were new Olim, and I had quit learning after the primer book in 1st grade!  We had to hire a tutor for our 10 months 6 days a week school in Haifa as middle-aged adults.  My husband could read prayers, but forget the newspaper!

I've come to the conclusion that you either have a talent for languages or you don't.  Obviously, there have been some un-talented translators in the past.

Reference: Fareed Zakariah, May 22, 2016 program
google translator 

Israel's Legal International Right's Ignored by BDSers

Nadene Goldfoot                                                  

After King Solomon died in 920 BCE, Israel divided into Israel and Judah due to political differences.
King Saul ruled first, about 1,000 BC, then David,  followed by son Solomon.  Jordanians started
calling Judea and Samaria, the West Bank-west bank of the Jordan River.  

      What the BDS movement against Israel is doing is spreading lies about the legal rights that Israel has.  They are also hurting the very Palestinian Arabs that they think they are helping.  They are interferring with their rights to employment.  That's usually what meddlers do-mess up people's lives, not help them because they're poor at getting the facts.
                                                                         

BDS movement wants to stop Caterpiller from selling tractors in Israel.

"The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Movement (BDS Movement) is a global campaign attempting to increase economic and political pressure on Israel to comply with the stated goals of the movement: the end of Israel's occupation and colonization of Palestinian land and the Golan Heights, full equality for Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel, and respect for the right of return of Palestinian refugees."  Arab Palestinans have had full equality since they became citizens.  They're in the Knesset and every other form of whatever citizens have.  The only difference for them is that they are not expected to enter the army.  Only those that have wanted to, like the Druze, do this.  The Arabs would like to flood the state with more Arab relatives connected to them, or not, but this is the one and only Jewish state.                                                    

War of Independence 1947-1949, Jews from the Holocaust, surviving those horrors only
to be met with a war in their new home-and this time they are soldiers.  

The balance is not to be altered.  We now have a ratio of 6 million Jews to 1.7 million Arab citizens of Israel.   The "OTHERS" the Palestinians want to come in are descendants of those  who were in the land when Israel became a state on May 14, 1948 fled, told to leave as the Arab armies were coming to take over and it was after that that they could have Jewish homes, treasures, etc.  They had their chance and blew it.  They followed the wrong people, not the Jews who begged them to stay.  Golan Heights is not going back to Arab hands who had it before and rained all the rockets, mortars and missiles from there down onto Israelis.  NO WAY!  Jews also have a right to live where they are in Judea and Samaria.   ABC sections have already been discussed.  Now, how about talking about peace and not continuance of attacking Israelis?  First, stop the attacks so that people are in the mood to talk about their problems and solving them.  
                                                                               

The mandate of Palestine covered ALL the land of Palestine.  What you're looking at today
is mostly what has become Jordan.

WWI lasted from July 28, 1914 to November 11, 1918; 4 years, 3 months, 2 weeks long.  It took place in Europe, Africa, the Middle East, the Pacific Islands, China and off the coast of South and North America.                                                        

  The Ottoman Empire and Bulgaria joined the Central Powers against the Allies.  Palestine was a part of the Ottoman Empire.  Turkey lost their Ottoman Empire.  The Arabs are still in denial about it.  

The facts are that after WWI  in 1922,  representatives of the Jewish people were in conferences with the Allies.   The League of Nations Mandate for Palestine was given to the British.  The body of the League of Nations  Mandate recognized the Jewish National Rights in the WHOLE of the mandated territory of Palestine.

Recognition was given because the Jews had such a historical connections with Palestine and needed to claim their rightful place where they had been forced out and was to reconstitute their National Home in this land of Palestine again.  The members of the League of Nations did not create the rights of the Jewish People.  What they did was RECOGNIZE A PRE-EXISTING RIGHT.  This was the 2,000 year old quest of the Jewish people to re-establish their homeland.
                                                                           

1949 Armistice Lines

By 1946, Israel's rights were preserved under the United Nations (UN) as well.  This is according to Article 80 of the UN CHARTER.  This established that nothing in the UN Charter should be construed to alter in any manner the rights whatsoever of any states or any  peoples or the terms of EXISTING INTERNATIONAL INSTRUMENTS.

These rights were unaffacted by the UN GENERAL ASSEMBLY RESOLUTION  181 of November 1947's Partition Plan, which was a NON-BINDING RECOMMENDATION  that was rejected by the Palestinians and the Arab states.   This is all documented.

JORDAN occupied the West Bank (Judea and Samaria-original Jewish land of the Israelites; king Saul, king David, King Solomon).  They had stolen the land by their illegal invasion in 1948 IN DEFIANCE of the UN SECURITY COUNCIL.  Then they had the temerity to annex the West Bank in 1950.  Remember, Abdullah was a prince from SAUDI ARABIA, not a native Palestinian, nor a Jew.  He was an outsider who had helped the Allies win WWI in the Middle East, same as the Jews did, only he had more men who fought.

Jordan's annexation of the WEST BANK was recognized by Pakistan and Great Britain but excluded the annexation of Jerusalem.  The ANNEXATION by Jordan was rejected by most of the international community, including THE ARAB STATES!  
                                                                           

Jordan insisted that the 1949 Armistice Line, the Israeli-Jordanian boundary until 1967, was not a recognized international border but ONLY A LINE SEPARATING ARMIES.  The Armistice Line Agreement specifically states:  NO PROVISION OF THIS AGREEMENT SHALL IN ANY WAY PREJUDICE THE RIGHTS, CLAIMS, AND POSITIONS OF EITHER PARTY HERETO IN THE PEACEFUL SETTLEMENT OF THE PALESTINE QUESTIONS, THE PROVISIONS OF THE AGREEMENT BEING DICTATED EXCLUSIVELY BY MILITARY CONSIDERATIONS.  (Article II.2)
                                                                                     

Israel-9 miles wide.  

NEVER was the word, "Occupation" used legally in other situations.  BUT ONLY IN THIS CASE, WITH THE WEST BANK AND GAZA, where no internationally recognized sovereign control previously existed, ISRAEL WAS LABELED WITH THE STIGMA AS AN "OCCUPIER."   There have been many other cases where international borders were crossed in armed conflicts and sovereign territory was seized; even in clear-cut cases of aggression.

EGYPT HAD BEEN OCCUPYING THE GAZA STRIP.  They also had invaded the land illegally in 1948, the time of Israel's announcement of their state which was the time of their fight, The War of Independence that was from November 29, 1947 to 1949 when the parties signed the Armistice Agreements.  This was a war started by the Arabs because they would not accept the UN partition resolution.  They came in from Syria, Lebanon and Egypt.   to reinforce local Arabs who were attacking Jews.
                                                                       

This was also a time that Jews held in Holocaust camps  were coming out of the Holocaust and needed a home.  They didn't want to return to Poland or Ukraine, places the native population had been helpers of the Nazis to kill them off.  They needed Israel and had been kept from there before even in 1940-41.Those that managed to arrive illegally themselves were thrust into fighting for their new country's life!

Where the prior holder of territory had seized that territory unlawfully, the state which subsequently takes that territory in the lawful exercise of SELF DEFENSE has, against that prior holder, better title.  So said Stephen Schwebel, former State Dept. Legal Advisor in 1970.  International jurists generally do draw a DISTINCTION between situations of "AGGRESSIVE CONQUEST"  after a war of "SELF DEFENSE".
The West Bank was to be part of the new Israel.  That was a deal.  It was stolen during an aggressive conquest.  Israel was fighting in self-defense.  Stephen Schwebel later headed the International Court of Justice in the Hague.                                  

2007; Judea/Samaria (West Bank)- Jewish towns. 

Israel only entered the West Bank AFTER repeated Jordanian artillery fire and ground movements across the previous armistice lines.  Jordan attacked at 10:00am.  Israel warned them to stop through contacts at the UN at 11:00am.  Jordan continued hitting Israel.  Israel's military action began at 12:45pm.  By then, Iraqi forces crossed Jordanian territory and were poised to enter the West Bank.  The temporary armistice boundaries of 1949 lost all validity the moment Jordanian forces revoked the armistice and attacked.     Israel took control of the West Bank as a result of a DEFENSIVE WAR.  
                                                                               

June 1967 IDF Finally were able to visit the Western Wall in Jerusalem after the battle was over 
and Israel had won.

Palestinians continue the fight by using the term, OCCUPATION, REPEATEDLY.  In this way they manage to reverse the causality of the conflict, and those judging it, the media, the governments, are too weak in their judgments to see the differences.  The people who use this term, Occupation or occupiers, are obfuscating this history.  The territorial disputes giving reasons to use BDS against Israel as one form of a weapon is not the result of a war imposed on Israel by a coalition of Arab states in 1967, rather more by the lies by the Palestinians.                                                                    

Gaza, Israel pulled out for the sake of Peace-Sharon was Prime Minister.
It took place from August 15 to September 12, 2005.  Instead,
they've been shelled by the Arabs from there.

The results of the fighting is that Israel was only expected to withdraw FROM THE TERRITORIES to secure and recognized boundaries.   Israel was not expected to withdraw from THE territories or ALL the territories captured in the Six Day War of 1967.  You may say this is being picky-but it's a part of law. Lawyers have to recognize these important but teeny words and what they mean legally. (UN Security Council Resolution 242) The UN Security Council recognized that Israel was ENTITLED TO PART OF THESE  TERRITORIES FOR NEW DEFENSIBLE BORDERS.  242 MEANT THAT iSRAEL WILL NOT WITHDRAW FROM ALL THE TERRITORIES.  

With Resolution 338, it became clear that ONLY NEGOTIATIONS WOULD DETERMINE WHICH PART OF THESE TERRITORIES WOULD BECOME ISRAELI TERRITORIES AND TERRITORIES TO BE KEPT BY ISRAEL'S ARAB COUNTERPART.                                                                               

According the the UN's charter Article 80, nothing should be construed to alter in any manner the rights.
Israel has legal rights with respect to the West Bank and Gaza Strip that appear to be ignored by international observers who keep saying that Israel is an OCCUPIER.  Israel is not a foreign OCCUPIER with no territorial rights.  Israel has strong historical rights to the land that were already RECOGNIZED by the main bodies serving as the source of international legitimacy in the previous century.  

Judea and Samaria are divided by further talks into areas A, B, and C.  One is for the Palestinians, one for the Jews and one they both are in.  The Palestinians build illegally in the wrong places,  yet the international community stays blind to what they do illegally.  
                                                                        

BDS'ers Crusading against Israelis

We already know that Israel  pulled out of Gaza completely in the name of a promised peace which has given them nothing but a constant rain, a storm of rockets, mortars and missiles.  This is the opposite of a promised peace.  This is what Israel has experienced by listening to the Left.  Now they must protect themselves from a people who do not care at all to have their own state and live in peace with their neighbor, Israel.  BDSers are simply Old Crusaders  wanting to draw Jewish blood.  

Resource: Occupied Territories to disputed Territories, by Dore Gold
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boycott,_Divestment_and_Sanctions
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_I

Can USA Funding Israel Go On?

Nadene Goldfoot                                                                    

Is Israel in danger of not receiving funds from the USA these days with a new President?
                                                                           
This is what Israel's Ambassador to the USA, Ron Dermer,  said:

"What do you say to those who argue that Israel is a rich enough country to forgo U.S. assistance?

Military aid is primarily spent in America to purchase U.S. military platforms and weapons, such as fighter planes and ammunition. In Israel's case, about three quarters of military assistance is spent in the U.S. to buy U.S. military systems. . .

As to your question as to why Israel still needs military assistance, it is true that Israel has a relatively high GDP per capita -- about $37,000. The problem is that Israel doesn't have enough "capita." That is, we have a very small population -- 8.5 million people -- and a total GDP of approximately $300 billion. . .

The prime minister recently pointed out that in the last 10 to 15 years, the U.S. has spent over $1.5 trillion in Iraq and Afghanistan. That's the equivalent of about 500 years of U.S. assistance to Israel. And Israel has never asked American soldiers to risk their lives to defend us -- only to provide us with the tools we need to better defend ourselves.
                                                                          

USA and Israel cooperation: a EUCOM picture

That is probably why former Secretary of State Alexander Haig once called Israel the largest American aircraft carrier in the world that cannot be sunk, does not carry even one American soldier, and is located in a critical region for American national security, and why Vice President Biden recently said that if there were not an Israel, America would have to invent it.

If there is a country in the world from which American is getting the most bang for its buck, it is Israel -- a strong, reliable democratic ally in the most dangerous region on earth. "
                                                                             

Ziva David on NCIS: played by Cote de Pablo of Chile

Israeli female IDF as good as Ziva on NCIS 

Resource: Gary L. Bauer, Director:  CUFI Action Board from
http://www.jpost.com/Magazine/Netanyahus-man-in-DC-453702

Trandsjordan Is Palestine

Nadene Goldfoot                                                          

Palestine-1917-1922:  All inhabitants were Palestinians; Jews and Arabs alike.
It was a name given to the land of Israel and Judah (Judah being the southern end of Israel)
by the Romans who were naming the land they took in 70 CE for the Jewish enemy-the Philistines.
They liked to run the noses of their conquered people in it.  It was their way of getting even with
Aluf Bar Kokhba for being the hardest general they had had to fight against.  

            

British held Mandate over Palestine; April 24, 1920 map.
Documented to be the Jewish National Home-in Mandate.
Britain was to help the Jews reach this goal.
Now King Abdullah has had enough Arab Palestinians in Jordan.  

The Arabs wanting a state called Palestine actually got it when King Abdullah took 80% of the land away from the Jewish Homeland.  All of what was called Palestine-was named by the Romans after 135 CE after a 3 year war with Aluf Bar Kokhba, a Jewish general who had retaken Jerusalem and held it for 3 years until he was killed in battle with the Romans.

The League of Nations, created at the end of WWI in 1917, became defunct with outbreak of WWII in 1939,  stood by when this severing of land was done by the British in 1922.  The allocated land  became Transjordan.  Jewish settlement there was then barred.  That's why the Jews didn't get to settle there in their ancient homeland which was Judea and Samaria.  It was the Jordanians who called it all-The West Bank.  Yes, the western bank of the Jordan River.  The part they kept was called Jordan. Jordan annexed this West Bank in 1950.
                                                                                 

When the United Nations  was created on October 24, 1945,  they replaced The League of Nations. They partitioned the 20% of remaining Palestine to be the Jewish National Home into 2 states.  This is the map of 1922.  

Arabs then controlled about 80% of the land of the British Mandate that was meant to become the Jewish National Home.  The Palestinian Jewish State held  about 17.5%.  Gaza, occupied by Egypt, was the remainder.                                                

Now Israel's wee land can be hit by missiles, mortars and rockets,
and must guard diligently for safety.  Gaza finds it very easy to hit
southern Israel.  Notice that Israel got the Desert of the Negev.  What
Jordan created made the situation that much harder for Israel in their
creation of their own state.  

 Why is it that the Arabs living in Judea, Samaria, Gaza and East Jerusalem need their own state?  There are 48 Muslim majority states in the world.  Most of their Arab connections probably are already in Jordan and are Jordanian subjects.  They had their day with Black September when they tried to take over Jordan and lost.  Why not let Abdullah do the leading?

Palestinian Arabs never were a people like the Hashemite Kingdom once was.  That's who Abdulah's people are; Hashemites.  Palestinian Arabs were from all over the Middle East.  They were people looking for better wages, looking for jobs.  They had heard that Jews were hiring.  They came.  They found a few large landowners that were Arabs already living there.  Some of them sold out and moved to Paris and other exciting places.  These Arabs were never land holders.  They never had a country of their own.  They mostly were nomads.  Now too many of them have become terrorists.  Their tribe is their gang of terrorists.

We have Jewish communities in Judea and  Samaria-our old homeland.  We have taken Jews out of Gaza where the Palestinians who were affiliated with Arafat and his PLO have turned more savage and now follow Hamas, the outgrowth of the PLO only much worse.
                                                                       

My high rise apartment in Safed.  We were lucky to live on the fround floor.
We had to have bars on all our windows.  Can you imagine having bars on your living room windows?  

 Isn't this what can happen if Judea and Samaria have to exile all the Jews from there as the Arabs follow the Nazi rule of having no Jews in their midst?  That's what they plan for their state: to be Judenrein.  The UN knows this.  The horror is that being that close-they can also rain down rockets, mortars and missiles easily from there.  Even the Jews removed from  Gaza have a hard time finding a home to live in in Israel, as it's getting very crowded.  People live in high rise apartments.  The creation of a Palestine will mean the same thing to Jews of Judea and Samaria.

Resource:  Myths and Facts by Mitchell G. Bard, Joel Himelfarb, page 32; answering the accusation that Israel had usurped all of Palestine in 1948, which some people would like to believe-but it isn't true.