The Hold On A Palestine State and Why Not?

 Nadene Goldfoot                                          

Saudi Arabia's Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud speaks during a news conference in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia March 22, 2021. REUTERS/Ahmed Yosri/File Photo

This morning's news in Israel is that Saudi Arabia's foreign minister said in an interview that his country would only normalize relations with Israel when a Palestinian state is created, with East Jerusalem as its capital.  For those of us who thought that Saudi Arabia would be next in joining the Abraham Accords, this means they will not be joining.

The Arabs that are called Palestinian Arabs, were met by Ashkenazi Jews in Palestine when it was under Ottoman rule (Turkey) in 1880-1881 when these Jews first made a return to their native homeland because of the unbelievable horror that they were living under in Russia and other Eastern European countries that were being intolerable towards Jews.  Jews were the scapegoats of Europe, under attack of pogroms at any moment.  My own grandmother, born in 1886 in Lithuania/Poland, had both legs broken in a pogrom.  She opted for the USA at an age of 16 and came alone, illiterate, speaking only Yiddish,  and scared, but her half sisters and brother were already waiting for her in Council, Idaho, and they remained safe.

1914 and World War I happened, ending in 1918.  The Ottoman Empire had joined Germany in the attack on the allied states and lost the war. Jews of Europe, the Ashkenazis, Sephardis and Mizrachim had been waiting since they were forced out of Judea and their capital, Jerusalem since the year of 70 to return.  They held many meetings with the Allied forces to be able to return to their native lands.  All the reasons for doing so were in the Old Testament, the bible of the Jewish people's history.  We've been vetted  deeply for anyone who reads it. 

                                             

                Attacking Jews on Temple Mount 

Throughout history, there never has been a country or state or city or village of Palestine.  The name came about as an invention of the Romans for Judah and Samaria, the ancient land of Israel, ruled by Kings Saul, David and Solomon, remembered so well from the bible.  The ruling continued through the centuries till the year 70 when the Romans burned down Jerusalem and the 2nd Temple.  Romans would not let Jews into the wreckage as they were then busy turning it into a Roman town with a Roman Temple to the gods.  However, in 132, a descendant, Bar Kokhba, returned with his army of young men, and they actually took Jerusalem and held it for 3 whole years, only to end with Bar Kokhba's death in battle.  Romans, furious, renamed the land Palaestina, after the Jews' worst enemy, the Phillistines. All people, both Arab and Jew were called Palestinians.   And indeed, these new Palestinians have turned out to be the Jews of today's worst nightmare. 

 This Grand Muft, Haj Amin al-Husseini, is the one who ran to Hitler to get rid of the Jews of Palestine.  

The first real attack that the Palestinian Arabs did to Jews was in 1929 under the direction of the main leader, selected by the British who held a 30 year mandate over the land  given to them by the League of Nations-the first UN.  His name was Haj Amin al-Husseini, and he was given the title of the Sherif of Jerusalem, and he was holding onto that title.  He was the Grand Mufti.  

Chairman Arafat was born August, 1929 in Cairo, Egypt. Arafat was born to Palestinian parents in Cairo, Egypt, where he spent most of his youth and studied at the University of King Fuad I. While a student, he embraced Arab nationalist and anti-Zionist ideas. Opposed to the 1948 creation of the State of Israel, he fought alongside the Muslim Brotherhood during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. Returning to Cairo, he served as president of the General Union of Palestinian Students from 1952 to 1956. In the latter part of the 1950s he co-founded Fatah, a paramilitary organisation seeking the removal of Israel and its replacement with a Palestinian state. 

Yasser Arafat has taken his place since then, leader of the PLO (Palestine Liberation Organization), and now Mahmoud Abbas of the PA Palestine Authority has taken Arafat's place.                                                                               

     Mahmoud Abbas, He has been the chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) since 11 November 2004, PNA president since 15 January 2005, and State of Palestine president since 8 May 2005. Abbas is also a member of the Fatah party and was elected chairman in 2009.  He's the PA's forever chairman.  

 Hamas Picks Ismail Haniya as Leader as Power Balance Shifts to Gaza    

The PA split in half with half becoming Hamas, (Islamic Resistance Movement), the terrorist organization. All this time, Jews have been attacked, causing them to fight back defensively.  It was never the Jewish intention to take land by force.  Jews were not fighters nor did they want to fight.  They were back on the land for the very reason of being Jewish and attacked by the people they lived near who would not tolerate them being of a different religion.  This was their original native land, land of their history, of their fathers, and they needed to stay.                  

Jerusalem's Fragile Peace Splintered by Bloody Attacks

The Muslim countries surrounding Israel have not taken Israel's presence well at all.  They have attacked them before they claimed statehood in 1947 when the UN was making many decisions.  That was the Israel's "War of Independence" that started on the 29th of November, 1947." They lost, but attacked again in 29th of October, 1956, Israel's Sinai War.  They lost but attacked again on the 5th of June, 1967 in Israel's Six- Day War-a very important war which was almost the end of Israel but were saved-and actually gained back land lost which has caused a lot of bru-ha-ah. The American president Obama tried to make Netanyahu  return to the temporary armistice line of 67, and of course Netanyahu said no, as it was an indefensible temporary demarcation line to begin with, impossible to any military man in his right mind.  The 1973 Yom Kippur War was an attack of the Muslims on the Jews' most holy day when they were all in their synagogue, fasting for 25 hours and praying for forgiveness of any sins.  Palestinians lost that one, too. 

                                              

 Our bon voyage party September 1980 at my mother's home.  We were taking our female German shepherd, who became a big hit in Israel.  

 My husband, Danny Eskow and I made Aliyah in 1980. In my apartment building in Safed lived Jews and Arabs. 

Here I am with Blintz, our dog and our Subaru that we bought a few years later, in front of our apartment in Safed. I became more dottee (religious), with a scarf covering my hair.   

1981, waiting for our lift to arrive at the port.  We're on the ground floor, so the windows are barred to prevent terrorists to crawl in.  My sofa here is a sochnut single bed.  Life did get better.  

 We lived in the lowest ground floor of the building.  One time water pipes broke and the water was gushing into our apartment, the only one at this level of a very high apartment building.  Two women came to help me push water out of my living room;  an Israeli Mizrachi Jew and a Muslim lady.  The two of them could talk to each other  but I understood nothing, being quite new, "the new kid on the block."  They saved the day for me, and were so wonderful.  And then they left when all the water was out.  I've never forgotten their kindness.  So there is hope, all is not in vain, but it is not the norm.  Not when Hamas is the government.  One does not deal with terrorists.    

• 2020-07-06 11:51

  Ayatollah Khamenei: Iran will spare no effort in backing Palestinians

  TEHRAN - In response to a letter by Hamas political bureau chief Ismail Haniyeh, Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has reiterated that Iran will “spare no effort” in backing the oppressed Palestinians against the Zionist regime of Israel.                                                                                       

55% of Israeli Arabs are ‘proud citizens’ of Israel, but 76% reject its definition as a ‘Jewish state’, even though 80% of the population is Jewish.  They are living in denial.  20% of Israel's population are Arab citizens, some of which are Christian Arabs.  They are full citizens, and are even in the political arena.  Those Jews living near Gaza go through punishment every day, as Gazans have not stopped shooting at them.  If Gaza were an official state with statehood and all the pluses, it would be even worse.  It would be all-out war with them attacking Israel.  

                                                                               

Druze dignitaries celebrating the Ziyarat al-Nabi Shu'ayb festival at the tomb of the prophet in Hittin.    Most Israeli Druze live in the north of the country and are recognised as a separate community to Arabs. The Galilean Druze and Druze of the Haifa region received Israeli citizenship automatically in 1948. After Israel captured the Golan Heights from Syria in 1967 and annexed it to Israel in 1981, the Druze of the Golan Heights were offered full Israeli citizenship under the Golan Heights Law. Most declined Israeli citizenship and retain Syrian citizenship and identity and are treated as permanent residents of Israel.

After being on the defense since, lets say, 1929, I'd guess that Israelis have their share of PTSD.  They're like my students, veterans in southern Oregon who had been in war and had PTSD.  I dare not walk behind their chairs;  they told me so in warning me.  When the Palestinians unify themselves and get along which they are not today; when they recall the oath they took in the African Khartoum Conference in 1967 of their famous 3 NO NO NOs,  then some sort of agreement might be reached.  As of now, we're all suffering a little of that PTSD, and are in no mood to face a Palestine next door to Israel.  Changes in the Arabs themselves have to occur.                             

That's one thing that even President Biden of the USA does not seem to understand.  He is giving into the Palestinian demand of a USA embassy special just for them.  It's not a kosher idea.  It's against rules already agreed upon.  "It was among several moves that incensed the Palestinians, who want East Jerusalem as capital of a hoped-for, future state. President Joe Biden has pledged to restore ties with the Palestinians, back a two-state solution and move forward with reopening the consulate. It has been closed since 2019, with Palestinian affairs handled by the embassy.                                       

Israel's foreign minister is the first to visit the Gulf state. He has opened the nation's embassy in Abu Dhabi and will open a consulate in Dubai. He will also sign an economic cooperation pact.

"We think it's a bad idea," Foreign Minister Yair Lapid told a news conference when asked about the reopening. "Jerusalem is the sovereign capital of Israel and Israel alone, and therefore we don't think it's a good idea. "We know that the (Biden) administration has a different way of looking at this, but since it is happening in Israel, we are sure they are listening to us very carefully."

Jerusalem is unified, the capital of Israel.  The embassy, now in Jerusalem and not in Tel Aviv anymore, is where it should be.  That's what capitals are for.  The Palestinians should use the same one Jews are using.  Jews are not discriminating the use of the embassy.  Surely the Americans working in the embassy can handle the 2 peoples, can't they?  They're being very discriminatory.  

Movie of King David was made in 1985. 

   History of Jerusalem was that King David captured the city in 1010 BCE when it became the unified capital of United Israel.  David even dealt leniently with the Jebusites, ands moved into the city himself, and added the fortress of Zion and also a House of Heroes" for his guards.  He constructed a tomb inside the city for himself and his dynasty.  Jerusalem is called "THE CITY OF DAVID."

Resource:

israelAM, 11/1/2021  

https://www.reuters.com/world/biden-plan-reopen-jerusalem-consulate-palestinians-bad-idea-israeli-fm-says-2021-09-01/