PM Menchem Begin to Senator Joe Biden 1982-On Aid to Israel

 Nadene Goldfoot                                          

13. “I am not a Jew with trembling knees. I am a proud Jew with 3,700 years of civilized history. Nobody came to our aid when we were dying in the gas chambers and ovens. Nobody came to our aid when we were striving to create our country. We paid for it. We fought for it. We died for it. We will stand by our principles. We will defend them. And, when necessary, we will die for them again, with or without your aid.” – Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin to Senator Joe Biden, in June 1982, who threatened to cut off US aid to Israel

"Menachem Begin communicated strength, pride and conviction. He was a proud Jew who knew that he had an incredible history and spiritual heritage behind him and consistently drew strength from that." 

                                           

    At the time, 40 year old Biden was scolding Begin in a Senate Hearing  over Israel's Senate policy in Judea and Samaria (West Bank), threatening to cut off economic aid to Israel if they did not stop building there.  This was in 1982.  Israel had won the Six Day War in 1967 and the USA had not given approval for Israel, who got their original land back in this terrible war when Israel had been attacked by all the Middle East countries and not only held their own alone but had won?  15 years had gone by and the Palestinians were still saying NO to peace which they had decided to say in 67 in the Kartoum Conference held in Sudan, Africa.   Begin exploded with his defensive tirade.                

The presumptive Democratic nominee, former Vice President Joe Biden, has denounced Israel’s plan  to cede towns and cities that were the Jewish ones built in area C, the Jewish part of Judea-Samaria according to the Oslo division of the land into A,B, and C.  as likely to undermine the long defunct “two-state solution” to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Israelis see frightened American Jews suffering from the Galut mentality of fear of upsetting the applecart. 

May 4, 1982: Prime Minister Menachem Begin said today that Israel would demand sovereignty over the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip at the end of the five-year transition period envisioned by the Camp David accords. He also vowed that no Jewish settlements in the territories would be dismantled as a result of any future peace negotiations. 

"The Jewish claim to Judea and Samaria goes back at least 3,000 years and is supported by literary, historical and archaeological evidence. In 1967, the State of Israel legally acquired territory in Judea and Samaria in a defensive war after being attacked by Jordan, which had itself been illegally occupying the land for the past 20 years. Jewish settlements in Judea and Samaria are lawful and consistent with international law, as the U.S. government recently underscored."

If Biden wins this presidential election, what will this 78 year old man on November 20th do to Israel?  

Sudan, the 3rd state to declare,  just announced  that they are making peace with Israel.  It has taken them months to make this decision but with Jared Kushner's leading the way, is doing it.  "Sudan officially went to war with Israel in the 1948 Arab–Israeli War and the Six-Day War in 1967 though it did not participate in the Suez Crisis. In the early 1950s, Sudan – then still not independent – had active trade relations with Israel. ... Later that month, Israeli planes were allowed to fly over Sudan.  In October 2020, an Israeli delegation visited Sudan, where they met with Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, for talks on a normalization of ties between the two countries. On 23 October 2020, Israel and Sudan agreed to a deal to normalize ties, and so today they made it official.  

Resource:

https://www.jns.org/opinion/i-am-not-a-jew-with-trembling-knees/

https://www.nytimes.com/1982/05/04/world/west-bank-is-israel-s-begin-asserts.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel%E2%80%93Sudan_relations#:~:text=Sudan%20officially%20went%20to%20war,active%20trade%20relations%20with%20Israel.&text=Later%20that%20month%2C%20Israeli%20planes%20were%20allowed%20to%20fly%20over%20Sudan.

- Josh Pittleman

Professor Kontorovich defending Israel-international lawyer