About The Tiny Land Mass That Is Israel: Facts to be Aware Of

 Nadene Goldfoot                                             

       Travels of Abraham from  Ur in Sumer to Babylonia on Euphrates to Canaan to Egypt 

Abraham, grandfather of Moses, was the first purveyor of Monotheism, breaking away from the polytheistic beliefs of the people in Ur of the Chaldees.  He traveled by foot and by donkey   from Ur to Canaan, visited Egypt and returned to Hebron in Canaan and then G-d told him his descendants would continue to live there and around from the Nile River of Egypt to the Euphrates River of Mesopotamia; the Middle East we see today. Abraham's son was Isaac by Sarah, and then later had Ishmael by Hagar, Sarah's handmaid.   Isaac had twins, Jacob, later called Israel, and Esau.  Both Ishmael's and Esau's descendants became the Arab people.  Jacob AKA Israel, became the father of the Jewish people.  The Jews were the descendants of the people of Judah, the southern part of  the land Israel.                                                                                 

From Ur to Hebron is 600   miles...Hebron is where Abraham bought land so that he could bury Sarah there, and for their family. It became a Levitical city, a city of refuge.  Today Hebron is the biggest city in the Palestinian West Bank with a population of 200,000 Palestinians and around 1,000 Israeli settlers. .   From Hebron to Cairo, Egypt is 251  miles by flying.  From  Cairo, Egypt to Hebron by land is 416 miles.  It's 50 miles from Ur to Babylon.  From Bethel in Israel  to Egypt is 225 miles.  Bethel, ancient city of Israel, is located just north of Jerusalem. Originally called Luz and in modern times Baytin,   Bethel was important in Old Testament times and was frequently associated with Abraham and Jacob. It was near where Abraham had pitched his tent.                                                       

July 2020:  Mayor Tayseer Abu Sneineh explained to The Media Line that under the Hebron Protocol that the PLO signed with Israel in 1997, the city was divided into two zones: Area H1 under Palestinian control, and Area H2 under Israeli control.  “This agreement resulted in the oppression of the city and its people and divided it into two cities, and since H2 is under Israel’s control and the latter neglects this area and the Arab citizens there, it has become a haven for all sorts of outlaws,” he said.  “Not to mention that the PA has lost some of its authority in the Palestinian territories because of a variety of political circumstances, because of division [between the Fatah-dominated West Bank and the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip] and other political disputes. Therefore it couldn’t impose and implement its orders and instructions with the people without first coordinating them with the resident families and tribes, given the major role of the latter in the city of Hebron,” Abu Sneineh said.  

Israeli officials have said the Palestinians are responsible for vaccinating their own people according to the 1993 Oslo Accords between the two sides, although some officials have said that Israel will consider providing doses once all Israelis are vaccinated. I add that every day, Gaza has been shooting a rocket or more into Israel.  They want to have their cake and eat it, too.  

From Hebron  to Cairo is actually only 250 miles (402km) by flying distance. There are 4 ways one can travel the distance today;  by train,  plane, metro, etc.  The cheapest way lists $34.  One flies in 6 1/2 hours.  Hebron, an ancient town of Judah, is now a Palestinian town.  

The name Judea, when used in Judea and Samaria, refers to all of the region south of Jerusalem, including Gush Etzion and Har Hebron.  So Hebron is in Judah, called Judea later by the Romans, also now called THE WEST BANK. 

The Negev contains the oldest discovered surface on Earth, with an approximate age of 1.8 million years. It covers more than half of Israel, over some 13,000 km² (4,700 sq mi) or at least 55% of the country's land area. It forms an inverted triangle shape whose western side is contiguous with the desert of the Sinai Peninsula, and whose eastern border is the Arabah valley.   The peninsula was returned to Egypt in stages beginning in 1979 as part of the Egypt–Israel peace treaty. Israel dismantled eighteen settlements, two air force bases, a naval base, and other installations by 1982, including most oil resources under Israeli control.        

                                                               

       The Return of the Sinai Peninsula to Egypt                                                  

Abraham and Jacob, Abraham's grandson,  would have taken much longer to travel from Canaan to Egypt. Isaac never left his land of birth.  His parents, Abraham and Sarah, were quite old when he was born. He was already 60 years old when his own twins, Jacob and Esau were born. Esau broke away from his family when probably a teen-ager and went off to live with Others.  He had become an enemy of his twin, Jacob. They were not identical twins.    In his old age, Jacob's  sight was failing.   It's hard to imagine, but that distance of the Exodus from Egypt back to Bethel of 225 miles took  Moses and the former 603,550 slaves 40 years to return.  This was 400 years after entering Egypt, so perhaps the flora and fauna had grown a lot, making traveling that much harder,, and of course no one had traveled that distance before. 

We know that Jacob had left home and evidently traveled to Haran.  Jacob had married in Haran to Leah, and then 7 years later to her sister, Rachel.  The ruins of the city of Harran, called Haran (Hebrew: חָרָן‎, Ḥārān) in the Hebrew Bible, lie within present-day Turkey. Haran first appears in the Book of Genesis as the home of Terah and his descendants, and as Abraham's temporary home. Later biblical passages list Haran among some cities and lands subjugated by Assyrian rulers and among Tyre's trading partners.  Then he resettled in Canaan.  His son, Joseph, had been sold to Nomads of a caravan who took him to Egypt, so we know that camels had been used as transportation.

                                                                   

Jacob had taken all the people in his household totaling 70 and traveled to Beersheva first.  Then they moved on to Egypt.  This was a trip of 408.6 miles that would take us  7 hrs and 57 minutes by driving.   

Why were Isaac's descendants to live in this particular area somewhere between the two Rivers?  What made it so special?  Why in particular was Canaan chosen as home for the Israelites led there by Moses?  Canaan originally referred to the coastline area.  Before the Israelites entered the land with Joshua, who took over from Moses when he had died, the country they found was made up of into small city-states.  The Israelites called the land, Eretz Yisrael, (The Land of Israel).  Jacob's new name was Israel, and they were the 12 tribes from the 12 original sons of Israel.  They called the northern part of it, "Aram" (Syria).  

The Canaanites, descended from Canaan, son of Ham,  had become a mixture of Horites, Hittites, and Hebrews, dating back to the Hyksos period of the 17th century BCE. They were all almost entirely obliterated or assimilated by the Israelites by the 13th century BCE. DNA may reveal more.  The Philistines lived along the coast in the 12th century BCE and the Arameans in the North by the 11th century BCE.  Remnants of people were subjected by kings David and his son Solomon and subsequently were absorbed.  later, the name of Canaanites was preserved only among the Sidonians and Phoenicians.  

This land was at the crossroads of the world.  When Moses aimed for Canaan, the future land of Israel, he placed them at the crossroads of civilization. He wanted his Israelites to occupy Eretz Yisrael because he knew that people from many lands would pass through. In this strategic city, The Israelites would have a tremendous opportunity to influence the world.

"According to the Bible, Joshua and the Israelites defeated the King of Gezer (Joshua 10:33), but the Book of Judges (Judges 1:29) relates that the Tribe of Ephraim did not drive the Canaanite inhabitants from Gezer and that they remained in the city among the Israelites.It was right smack dab in the center of the crossroads.  "  Gezer was located on the northern fringe of the Shephelah region, approximately thirty kilometres northwest of Jerusalem. It was strategically situated at the junction of the Via Maris, the international coastal highway, and the highway connecting it with Jerusalem through the valley of Ayalon, or Ajalon.

                                                                         

Israel today is made up of only 8,630 square miles (22,145 sq.km).  By contrast, Oregon is made up of  98,466 square miles.   Texas is 268,597 square miles in size.  The USA is a country made up of 3.797 million square miles.  That's why they are the big brother to teeny Israel. Former President Bush's ranch Prairie Chapel Ranch, is  is made up of a 1,583-acre (6.4 km²) (2.47105 sq. miles of  ranch in unincorporated McLennan County, Texas, located 7 miles (11 km) northwest of Crawford (about 25 miles (40 km) from Waco). The property was acquired by George W.  That's why he joked about the size of Israel, saying it would fit into his driveway.                                                                        

Judea and Samaria (West Bank)  has an area of 5,628 square kilometres (2,173 sq mi), which comprises 21.2% of former Mandatory Palestine (excluding Jordan) and has generally rugged mountainous terrain. The total length of the land boundaries of the region are 404 kilometres (251 miles). Jews had no choice, really.  Their religion states that G-d had Moses lead them to Canaan, and after being released from Bondage of slavery after some 400 years, who was going to argue with an 80 year old Egyptian  Prince who could read, write and knew so much that had pull to release them into freedom?  Their very distant cousins  also share the area around them within the parameters of the Nile and Euphrates Rivers.  

Mountains and plains, fertile land, and desert are often minutes apart. The width of the country, from the Mediterranean Sea in the west to the Dead Sea in the east, can be crossed by car in about 90 minutes; and the trip from Metulla, in the far North, to Eilat at the country's southern tip takes about nine hours.

 I lived in Safed, Israel  from 1980 to the end of November 1985.  It was more like the Pacific Coast with fir trees, though smaller than our Oregon trees. .That made it less of a traumatic change.  The war between Iran and Iraq of from September 22, 1980 to August 20, 1988 was going on then which left Israel alone.  

I grew up with Mimi Padrow from Tel Aviv pinching my cheeks in Portland, Oregon.  She and her family had been immigrants from the 1929 attacks in Palestine on Jews, and were our neighbors on our street.  Matthew, her husband, was a pharmacist and a dentist, and had his office nearby.  Their daughter, Joan, and I played together.  Ben, Joan's older brother, became a professor at Portland State College, and editor of our Jewish newspaper.  I grew up hearing many stories about Palestine.  Mimi's family had orange groves there.  Now I wish I had heard more of her stories.  

Resource:

http://www.biblecharts.org/oldtestament/journeysofabrahamone.pdf

https://www.britannica.com/place/Bethel-ancient-city-Palestine

https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/246630/jewish/Jacob-and-His-Family-Go-To-Egypt.htm

https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/gezer

https://mfa.gov.il/MFA/AboutIsrael/Maps/Pages/Israel-Size-and-Dimension.aspx#:~:text=The%20total%20area%20of%20the,km%20is%20land%20area.

https://www.mfa.gov.il/mfa/aboutisrael/land/pages/the%20land-%20geography%20and%20climate.aspx#:~:text=The%20total%20area%20of%20the,km.)%20is%20land%20area.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negev#:~:text=The%20Negev%20or%20Negeb%20(%2F%CB%88,administrative%20capital%20is%20Beersheba%20(pop.