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Thursday, October 4, 2018

A NEW ISRAEL: What Happened to Judea and Samaria ?

Nadene Goldfoot                                                         
1948:  David Ben Gurion, Golda Meir and Moshe Sharett in BIRTH OF A NATION:  ISRAEL

On Israel's day of birth, May 14, 1948, the population in Israel was 806,000 of which 600,000 were Jews, the same number that came with Moses and was able to enter Canaan in about 1271 BCE.
                                                  
Joshua's reception in entering Canaan, the first battle
people who were taller and bigger than the smaller Israelites

We had to wait 3,219 years to regain a scrap of our original holy land of Judea and Samaria, yet still had to stay outside of it as King Abdullah, then of Transjordan, had manipulated it away from our proposed JEWISH HOMELAND, promised land by the British Balfour Doctrine,  the League of Nations and the United Nations.  
                                                   
With much angst and elation, Jews forged their way to Israel and LIFE,
only to be handed a rifle shortly after to deal with their first War,
Their War of Independence,
Like Entering the Promised Land with Joshua
   


The end of WWII left surviving Jews in death camps near death and wanting to get out of Europe.  Do you blame them after 6 million of their families had been brutally slaughtered in death camps or in fields in mass executions?  Even though the war was over, people in those countries were still trying to kill them, especially in Poland.  Jews needed a refuge, their own home.  
                                                       
1949 Armistice Lines of 20% left for Jews
Now divided for Jews and Arabs taking
much original Land away from Jewish section

The UN had taken that 20% of Palestinian land left for the Jewish Homeland and in 1947 partitioned it into Jewish and Arab states of which the Arabs flatly refused to agree to, wanting all of it for their part in helping in the war effort of WWII.  Though Jews did likewise, they agreed to such a deal feeling that half a loaf of bread was better than none at all after their going without their needs.  The Arabs' refusal was followed up with immediate attacks on Jews dwelling in Palestine, trying to drive them all into the sea.  The leaders of 7 Arab states;  Egypt, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Yemen and Transjordan attacked the newly born Israel a few minutes after its birth on May 14, 1948.

Arabs were also living within earshot of the Jews in Palestine.  They were told by these very leaders to leave because they were coming to kill the Jews and take over the land.  200,000 to 570,000 Arabs hurriedly left their homes so they would not obstruct the victorious Arab armies in their planned massacre of any possible  Jewish defenders.    Some Arabs have cited 630,000 left Israel in 1948.  
                                                        

In a miracle, Israelis won against this onslaught.  Arabs who left could not return as their leaders told them to stay put.  They were settled in refugee camps, instead.  Arab refugees were INTENTIONALLY not absorbed or integrated into Arab lands.  The whole after-affair was used as a weapon of sorts against Israel; psychological war; geographical war.  religious war.  

These Arabs which people today call the Palestinian Arabs were not all natives of the soil.  No, they had been Arabs living in the surrounding lands such as Greece and closer Arab neighbors like Syria looking for work with these new Russian immigrant Jews who were trying to build a country to live in.  
                                                       
Judea-Samaria (West Bank) Arab refugee Camp

Out of the 100,000 refugees since WWII, The Palestinian Arabs are the ONLY refugee group in the world that has NEVER been absorbed or integrated into their own Muslim Arab neighbors' lands. There was a hook in these facts.  If the Arabs had only been in Palestine for 2 years they were deemed "refugees" by the British who were the record keepers of the day-a job left over from the mandate.   Most of these Palestinian "Arabs" were new immigrants to Israel, many coming across the way from Syria.  Only a few had been there previously with any history, and then most had not owned any land, for the real landowners now were living in places like Paris.  These people had been the migratory sort, looking for odd jobs, work of any type for none existed for them involving their limited skills in their own countries.  
                                                          
Children in the Yemenite immigrants' camp at Rosh Ha'ayin, circa 1950.

Jewish refugees that streamed in from Arab countries the minute of Israel's birth because they were told to leave were completely absorbed into Israel, even as hard as it was on everyone.  Israel was now on divided territory losing it's 20% to probably a 10% section of land, the size of the USA's small state of New Jersey.  
                                                 

160,000 Arabs stayed in Israel in 1948 without running from the oncoming war.  200,00 to 570,000 had left temporarily, they thought,  for the  safety of neighboring states.  Many of those that remained are the Christian Arabs who live in Haifa.  They are not terrorists.  Israel has had good relations with the Christian Lebanese who were in in trouble in 1981-1982.  Major Hadad, their leader, would come into Israel for his R&R.  He also came to the Army hospital in Haifa.  We had a deal with him to take care of his family in case, G-d forbid, anything happened to him.  I might add that the Arab income is the highest in Israel compared to the rest of the Arab world.  Arabs are not required to serve in the IDF, either.  It's obvious as to why.  They couldn't be expected to kill their own people.
                                                    
Kurdish Jew that immigrated to Israel

At the same time that Arabs left Israel to help out their own Arab soldiers, 700,000 Jews living in Arab countries were kicked out of their homes, so had nowhere else to go but to Israel.  Yemen is one place that this took place.  They were driven from their country and came to Israel and were settled. 
                                                     
   
Israel is less than 1/3 rd  the size of Oregon, USA, or 1/19th   the size of California.  It is made of 10,840 square miles.  California has 160,222 square miles.  Israel stripped of its territories is only 8,000 square miles, or 2 1/2 times the size of the state of Rhode Island, USA.  Today the population is 8,487,469.  My records back in 2006 show that the population was 7,026,000.   That included 187,000 Israelis living in Judea and Samaria (West Bank), and 20,000 Israelis living in the Golon Heights, and 5,000 living in the Gaza Strip as it was before Israel removed themselves to give that parcel of land to the Arabs in the name of keeping the peace.  Also, there were 177,000 Jews living in East Jerusalem in historic ancient sites, revered so much by Jews who were Orthodox.  These Jews were not into fighting but preserving their heritage and religion.  
                                                       
Indigenous Land of the Jewish People

Out of these 7 plus million Israeli population, 5.4 million  as of May 2003 were Jewish in 2006.  Today we have a cool 6 million Jews in Israel.  In 2003 we had 77.5% of the population that were Jewish, 15.9% Muslims, 1.7% Arab Christians, 0.4% other Christian nationalities, 1.6% Druze -similar to Muslim religion, and 3.9% unidentified.  
                                                                             
Today as of October 4, 2018, "over the last 10 years, many migrant workers have moved to Israel from Africa, China, Romania, and South America. While there are no precise figures with many living in the country illegally, it's estimated there are up to 203,000 migrants, including 60,000 African migrants.
                                                           
Having children in Israel

Around 92% of Israelis live in urban areas. There were more than 300,000 Israelis in Judea-Samaria (West Bank) towns, 250,000 in East Jerusalem, and 20,000 in Golan Heights settlements;  as of 2009. 6.5% of the population is made up of Israeli settlers. Almost 8,000 were living in the Gaza Strip until they were evacuated during the country's disengagement plan a decade ago.
About 91% of Israeli live in urban communities
                                                       
Visiting the Western Wall in Jerusalem

Tel Aviv
 such as Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Haifa and Rishon Letzion. 
                                                        

 I lived in Safed (Tzfat) on top of a mountain almost as high as Jerusalem.  It was cooler there and more like the Pacific Coast that I had left.  I taught English to the jr. high of 7th, 8th and 9th graders.  They started learning English in the 4th grades.  It took an extensive program of 10 months learning Hebrew 6 days a week with many other subjects pertaining to Israel and passing a 3 hour Hebrew test to gain my teaching certificate.  I taught Jews and Circassian Arabs in our school from 1981 to the end of 1985.  They studied Hebrew and either  Arabic or French and all studied English.  Many Jews were from Morocco and spoke French.  I was there during the 1982 incursion into Lebanon, always being aware of bombs that could be hidden in any piece of litter.  It was the experience of a lifetime.  


Resource: My speech of 2006.
http://worldpopulationreview.com/countries/israel-population/
  

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