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Wednesday, June 16, 2021

The City of David, Jerusalem, Capital of Israel, and it's Rebirth in 1967's Six Day War

 Nadene Goldfoot                                                

Jerusalem, capital of Israel in the center of the Judean Mountains.                 

Jerusalem.  The most important city in Judaism.  Netanyahu told a parliamentary session commemorating Israel's capture of East Jerusalem from Jordan in the 1967 war that "Jerusalem" and its alternative Hebrew name of "Zion" appear 850 times in the Old Testament, Judaism's core canon of the Torah consisting of the 5 Books of Moses.  The Jewish Bible is a book called the Tanakh, also including the Prophets and other writings of Psalm, Proverbs, etc.  Jerusalem is mentioned 142 times in the New Testament of the Christians, and never appears, even using the 16 various Arabic names for Jerusalem in the Koran of Islam.  However, in an expanded interpretation of the Koran from the 12th century, one passage is said to refer to Jerusalem.                                              

 Jerusalem was created by King David who ruled Israel from 1010 B CE to 970 BCE.  It's been in the royal line of Kings ever since, destroyed in 70 CE by the Romans.  That was 1,080 years of being in the hands of the Jews of Israel and Judah, the southern district of Israel.  For the last 868 years it has been in many hands but not as a beloved city.  It had been left to rot, to turn into nothing but weeds and swamps.  Even the Ottoman Empire of Turkey did nothing with it when they held it for  400 years -long claim from 1516 to 1917 except take tax money from its poor farmers.  World War I put an end to that.  Jerusalem was waiting for its own people to return and they did in 1948. 

                                                           


                          Look at it now.  It is the Jerusalem of gold, the city Jews sing about, combining the old wih the modern.                                               

Now, Arabs living in East Jerusalem are having a tizzy over the celebration of Flag Day commemorating Jerusalem's release from Jordan's hold in the 1967 Six Day War.  About 2.16 million Arabs live in the West Bank, 1.84 million Arabs live in Israel, and 1.79 million Arabs live in the Gaza Strip. About, 2,155,743 Arabs live in the West Bank, 1,795,183 Arabs live in the Gaza Strip, and 391,000 Jews live in the West Bank. Approximately 214,600 Jews live in East Jerusalem.   All Jews had moved out of Gaza for the Arabs in the name of Peace.  it's been a mistake in that it's become the harbor for rocket fire into Israel ever since.                                                                                  

During the 2018 Gaza border protests Palestinians from the Gaza Strip have flown fire bomb kites over the Israel–Gaza barrier, setting fires on the Israeli side of the border,   Since the beginning of May 2018,  longer range helium filled incendiary balloons, devised from party balloons and condoms, have been used alongside the kites.   In one instance, a falcon outfitted with a harness with flaming material at the end was utilized as well. 

As of 10 July 2018, incendiary kites and balloons have started 678 fires in Israel, destroying 2,260 acres of woodland and 1,500 acres of agricultural fields as well as causing additional damage to open fields.  The feeling is that the Arabs are testing Israel to see if they mean what they say.   fields.   

This comes at a time when their cohorts in Gaza are busily burning all the Israeli fields once again with their incendiary  balloons, causing fires in 26 places as of today.  By doing this Arabs are showing that they are against Israel claiming Jerusalem for their capital.  The Arabs want the whole city to their capital of a future state of Palestine.  This is how most Israelis see the situation,  They see this after the Arab's demonstrations and acts against them for so long.               


They have never accepted the fact that WWI has brought changes in the whole world as to ownership of land, and that the Arabs were on the Axis side, losing land of the Ottoman Empire to the Allies.  After a 30 year  period, Israel became the owners once again but still not Jerusalem.  They had to wait until the experience of being attacked  in 1948, 1956, and finally in the Six Day War of 1967 did Israel rightfully regain their capital, Jerusalem.  They had reason to celebrate by holding their flags. 

My grandmother lived in Lazdijai, Suwalki, Lithuania.  She was born in 1884.  Lithuania was in a war with Poland and she found herself living in Lazdijai, Poland one day.  When she was a part of Lithuania, she was a very proud woman, proud of the Jewish heritage of producing so many famous rabbis.  She was a Litvak and would always be a Litvak, she felt, but obeyed the laws of Poland.  She was living in the times of war and change.  

The borders of nations during the nineteenth century in Eastern Europe changed so frequently that immigration from eastern and central Europe cannot be accurately divided up into nationality counts. As Russia and Austria-Hungary expanded their empires, taking over many smaller countries, countries like Poland that had existed for centuries disappeared as sovereign (self-ruling) nations. Many ethnic groups besides the Poles found themselves without a state: the Lithuanians, the Czechs and Slovaks, the Croatians, and the Slovenians were all displaced (involuntarily removed from their home) at one time or another. In the twentieth century, the Russian Revolution (1917–21), World War I (1914–18), and World War II (1939–45) changed the national borders drastically again, displacing millions of Eastern Europeans.

India contained Hindus and Muslims with warring going on between the two peoples.  Finally something was done.  The Muslims were moved out of India and their new home was Pakistan.  In August, 1947, when, after three hundred years in India, the British finally left, the subcontinent was partitioned into two independent nation states: Hindu-majority India and Muslim-majority Pakistan.

    Turkey still hasn't given up.  They had infiltrated east Jerusalem in October 2019, causing unrest and demonstrations.  

Israel did not move any Muslim out of East Jerusalem.  They were allowed to stay. In fact, Jews had begged Muslims to stay and not leave, but many did since it was their leadership that told them to leave.  This was when the Arabs were about to attack the Jews and they were sure they would win.  All the Jewish homes could then be taken over by the Arabs.  Those who remained are now citizens of Israel.  Those who left for these greedy reasons wound up in camps in other Arab countries, like Syria, dependent on the UN. 

                                                                IDF and civilians seeing wall for 1st time, 1967    



After Six Day War 1967, IDF get to see Jerusalem.   

 If they couldn't stand to use their new address of Jerusalem, Israel, they could have left for 48 other Muslim majority countries to live in.  They have no dog in this race.  What do they think they are doing by demonstrating constantly against Israelis?  They are doing this to back their old decision to cause the Jews to be forced out of Israel.  Whatever Martin Indyk , Former Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs,  thinks, he is wrong.  He doesn't know the mind-s set of all the Muslims.  He's been in denial all his life. 

                                                                  

I bring his name up because I just saw a debate of Martin Indyk and our new Prime Minister, Naftali Bennett, who did a marvelous job.  He earned my respect as being a good choice for the position. The featured speaker was Jewish Home Party chairman Naftali Bennett, who headed the Israeli economy ministry as well as the ministry of religious services, Jerusalem and diaspora affairs, and the discussion quickly morphed into a fierce debate between two profoundly divergent visions for advancing peace and security for Israel.  It was on you tube, in 2014 in the Saban Forum.  As long as Bennett is the same fighter as he was then, Israel will be in good shape today.   


Resource:

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-palestinians-israel-jerusalem/netanyahu-turns-to-bible-in-tussle-over-jerusalem-idUSTRE64B2EY20100512

https://www.history.com/topics/ancient-middle-east/history-of-jerusalem#:~:text=The%20Ottoman%20Empire%20ruled%20Jerusalem,from%20about%201516%20to%201917.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incendiary_kite

https://www.brookings.edu/blog/markaz/2014/12/08/martin-indyk-and-naftali-bennett-a-fierce-contest-of-ideas-on-israel-and-the-peace-process-at-the-2014-saban-forum/














1 comment:

  1. i hope you are right nadene. and i hope and pray he does not listen to the likes of martin indyk. i think yair lapid will for sure but don't know about bennet. indyk is part and parcel of think tanks that hate the way netanyahu defended the jewish state. brookings institute is famously anti-israel and indyk is part of the group. javier solana (i have told you that name before) is of brookings institute. here is a telling article from 2008 spells out some names of globalists in the think tanks who sit behind closed doors and devise ways to strong arm politics the global way (anti-sovereignty such as fierce netanyahu is)
    -- https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2008/12/post_152.html -- from wikipedia about indyk : Of views on Israel
    Indyk's career has "featured two abiding, and at times competing, characteristics: his support for Israel, and his disdain for Israel's West Bank settlement activity."[25] Indyk's views "have irked both Israel and the Palestinians at various times."[25]

    Isi Leibler criticized Indyk in a 2010 Jerusalem Post op-ed, calling him a "anti-Israel apologist."[26] In 2014, Ha'aretz reported that "Indyk is being identified in Jerusalem as the anonymous source" in an article by Nahum Barnea of the Yedioth Ahronoth, 'in which unnamed American officials blamed Israel for the failure of the peace talks."[27] The anonymous source in Yediot Acharonot was quoted as saying: "The Jewish people are supposed to be smart; it is true that they’re also considered a stubborn nation. You're supposed to know how to read the map: In the 21st century, the world will not keep tolerating the Israeli occupation. The occupation threatens Israel's status in the world and threatens Israel as a Jewish state...The Palestinians are tired of the status quo. They will get their state in the end – whether through violence or by turning to international organizations."[27] The remarks angered Israeli officials.[25]

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