JUDEA and SAMARIA: AKA The West Bank-The HEART of Judaism

 Nadene Goldfoot                                          

Judea and Samaria are the heart of Judaism.  No one has a religion as old as Judaism that is still vital, in fact, has made a comeback after almost being destroyed in the Holocaust.  Our religion started about 4,000 years ago and remains relevant. 

One cannot fathom that the history that developed into Judaism can understand that the feeling for this runs in our blood and our minds.  Taking this place away from Jews after promising its return to them is like taking away Washington DC from the USA and giving it to China, or giving Mexico city to Great Britain.  It's heart and soul of our people, whether they realize it or not.

There is no comparison in the world as to how Jews  feel about this land. What these boys see is not beauty, it's their history that they are looking at, knowing what took place here.  Their ancestors' blood and vitality are mixed with this soil.  It's where it all happened for them.  

                                             

  Judaism is not a religion whose aim is to convert others to their belief.  Islam is the opposite; their aim is to convert Christians, Jews, Hindus, Buddhists, any religion to theirs. Arabs came to this land only lately , in the 1880s, looking for work from the Jews.  Those Arabs here before were spotty, and ready to leave after the treatment of the Ottoman Empire, Turks only interested in getting tax revenues out of them. The Arabs were able to live in other places, and left for Damascus, Beirut, Paris, anywhere where living was easier than here with the swamps and mosquitoes and weeds that were prevalent.  The year 1916 marked four centuries since Palestine had become part of the Ottoman Empire, also known as the Turkish Empire.  This had been Turkish land, not Palestinian Arab land.                                                   

Part of Judaism is the promise, found in the Old Testament, of living on this particular piece of land, a promise G-d required of us made by Moses.   This is part of our history.  The promise was made to G-d, not to man. Why is this so important?  We don't know why but it hasn't worked out very well living in other places since 70 CE.  We've tried and have been served up an awful lot of anti-Semitism. Jews live here now, hoping to  survive in peace, knowing that the gestapo cannot come breaking down their door and dragging them away. There are those Arabs who are still trying to drive them out, however, killing those in the middle of the night, children, everyone in a home, a community.   

                                                  

 Balfour Declaration, (November 2, 1917), statement of British support for “the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people.” It was made in a letter from Arthur James Balfour, the British foreign secretary, to Lionel Walter Rothschild, 2nd Baron Rothschild (of Tring), a leader of the Anglo- Jewish coalition. 

Lord Rothschild was an active Zionist and a close friend of Chaim Weizmann, and he worked to formulate the draft declaration for a Jewish homeland in Palestine. On 2 November 1917, he received a letter from the British foreign secretary, Arthur Balfour, addressed to his London home at 148 Piccadilly. In the letter, the British government declared its support for the establishment in Palestine of "a national home for the Jewish people". The letter became known as the Balfour Declaration.

                               LordLionel Walter Rothschild,          

Rothchild was a British banker, politician, zoologist and soldier, who was a member of the prominent Rothschild family. As a prominent Zionist leader, he was presented with the famous Balfour Declaration which pledged to a Jewish national home in Palestine. Rothschild was the president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews from 1925 to 1926.  This was not just a happenstance letter.  It had merit and weight considering who it was from. It may have not been in the best of legal terms, but it was the plan behind it that counted to the Jewish people..                     

Jews are a documented people in the Bible, the Old Testament and their living in Israel.                           

This is probably why the League of Nations decided to house Jews back in the land of Palestine and said they'd get this country back, (Great Britain) to help create the Jewish Homeland.   The history of this land was well-known in Christianity and of course, in Judaism, and it was of the empire of Israel, land of Kings Saul, David and Solomon, to most known through King David's psalms, quoted by many of all religions. 

                                 

Part of the history of Arabs with Mohammad's birth  was to invade other countries, take their land and building mosques over their  churches, synagogues, etc. Arabs have been doing this ever since he died in 632.

                                               

Secretary of State James Baker had to learn that the hard way when he tried to get Arabs and Jews together for a meeting about peace.   No matter who was attending, every Arab happened to be representing the PLO, terrorism, and Baker didn't want any of that. The USA had reason to dislike the PLO since they were on Saddam's side, but to the Jews, they were murderers, terrorists, despicable.  They were beyond reason.  

                                                    

James Baker's opposition to Israel-Morocco accord further undermines his diplomatic legacy;   At the 1991 Madrid Conference, Baker succeeded in bringing together delegations from Israel, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, and Egypt together in the same room, as well as the Palestine Liberation Organization, which attended as part of the Jordanian team.  The agreement followed Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, and Sudan also signing normalization agreements with Israel in September and October 2020. Along with Egypt and Jordan, Morocco became the sixth Arab League country to normalize ties with Israel. As part of the agreement, the United States agreed to recognize Morocco's claim to the disputed Western Sahara territory while urging the parties to "negotiate a mutually acceptable solution" using Morocco's autonomy plan as the only framework. This is what James Baker was against.

                                             

 Golda Meir (1898–1978) was an Israeli politician who helped found (1948) the State of Israel and later served as its fourth prime minister (1969–74). She was the first woman to hold that post.  She's been there since the beginning, just like a George Washington of the USA.  She was a woman of great wisdom.  This is what the Palestinian leadership has done with the Jewish people, erase their past connections to the land of Israel.  

Not all our American and Jewish leaders have  been that religious, but they all feel a sense of nationalism and the need for the Jews' own land, a sense of belonging there.   Living on the land again as in the past has been their #1 priority. It was up for grabs and who got it was up to those who won the 1st world war.  They had the power to make that decision, a decision without more fighting.  Britain had been given a 30 year mandate over the land, and they were very wishy-washy about what to give to Jews, despite Balfour's promise.    Arabs got 90% of land that had been promised and planned for the Jews, and actually were going against the Balfour Declaration.                                                

A few years ago, they were up against Arabs like Hanan Ashrawi, female, professor of English literature at Beit Zeit University, who didn't know her Middle East history at all and told Baker that the majority of people with her saw this initiative with him as an attempt to bypass the PLO, and they living in the (Occupied territories) would not carry out any political steps without direct orders-instructions--from the PLO in Tunis.  

Arafat's thinking was fear of being replaced with other Arabs, but finally realized they had to allow these others to take their place in the Baker confab.  The participants were Faisal Husseini, Hanan Ashrawi, Saeb Erekat, and 7 other leaders and they met with Baker. First thing they told Baker was that they were PLO's delegation.  Baker let them know they couldn't speak with him as they had backed Saddam Hussein.  Erekat said, "if the US could get Iraq out of Kuwait, then they could get the Israelis out of the (Occupied Territories.) Baker said that was true but they wouldn't do it.  The UN said Jews and Arabs were to negotiate. Up to this very day, that's been impossible.As of 1967, they have been determined to say no to anything the Jews have presented.  That's 55 years of NOs.  

  Young IDF paratroopers  seeing Jerusalem's wall for the first time since Jordan held it  in 1967. That was a deal England made that feathered their nest, though cut off a lot of land from the Jewish Homeland plan.  

 The grandparents of these men had been able to be in Jerusalem but not them, though it was a part of Israel born in 1948.  During World War II (1939–45), Abdullah actively sided with the United Kingdom, and his army, the Arab Legion—the most effective military force in the Arab world—took part in the British occupation of Syria and Iraq in 1941. In 1946 Transjordan became independent, and Abdullah was crowned in Amman on May 25, 1946. So good-bye Jewish Homeland and hello Jordan.                                    

The next day  Israel hit Baker with news that they were building a new neighborhood of homes for Israelis in Judea-Samaria, Israel's original homeland, where Moses and Joshua had designated where the 12 tribes were to live. With the Ottoman Empire actually owning the land, Jews were able to build up Tel Aviv first which was along the Seacoast, easy for them to reach and not upsetting the Ottomans.  Jerusalem was the other place they were building back after being destroyed by the Romans and then being taken over by Islamists by about 637 CE. 

                                              

                            Baker with Arafat

  The Jewish reasoning was to tell Baker that they were not about to negotiate away any part of Judea-Samaria.  Baker was so mad.  He saw it as destroying his mission that was given to him. He had no feeling at all about their religious history there. He was only interested in his own success story.  

  Since 1967, Israel felt they had the right to do this;  it was their land, and they got it back after it was promised to them in the first place. They remembered when it was given away to Abdullah of Trans-Jordan by Britain.  Jordan fought against Israel in 67 war and lost, and that gave Israel the land, free and clear, won by defense; the land west of the Jordan River, that Arabs and Brits called the West Bank- erasing the memory of its historical origins with Jews.                            

Judea-Samaria originally was one of the 12 "states" of the 12 tribes of Israel.  It was made up of the tribe of Judah, 4th son of Jacob and Leah.  When Solomon died in 933 BCE, the northern part of the empire left the southern end of Judah in a Civil War.  Then in 721 BCE, that northern section was attacked by the Assyrians and the best people were kidnapped and taken away to parts unknown on the way back to Assyria.

                                               

Romans came along about 150 BCE and occupied Jerusalem, ending by burning down Jerusalem and the holy Temple of Solomon  in 70 CE who had finished his task of building it.  

    Here is Nicki Haley on the right, who had to deliberate with people like the Palestinians, Hanan Ashraw, smiling here, but one who drove me up the wall in her arguments and lack of understanding of the history of the land.  The person best understanding the Israeli position about Judea and Samaria was Nicki Haley, USA Representative at the UN. How she was chosen for this role was a miracle.  

                                                   

Judea was best known as the tribal land that included Jerusalem. It, along with a little of the tribe of Benjamin, were the remaining Jews after the attack of Babylon and who had to remain there for about 70 years before many returned.  That's how we got our handle of Jews; the Jews of Judea.  Samaria was the land surrounding the 2nd capital, the capital of the northern tribes  before they were whisked away by the Assyrians, the capital  of the Northern kingdom of Israel, called Samaria. This had been founded by King Omri of Israel in 880 BCE.   

 Resource:

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

Israel and the Arabs by Ahron Bregman and Jihan El-Tahri