What's Judea To You, President Biden?

 Nadene Goldfoot                                          

Judah's land was allocated by Joshua to the tribe of Judah back in the biblical days, around 1500 BCE. The Exodus of 40 years led Moses and Joshua to Canaan where Joshua dispensed the land to the 12 tribes.  Moses kept 2 census of the freed Egyptian slaves:  and Judah had 74,000 in the 1st census; then 76,500 outside of Canaan in the 2nd census.  They had added 1,900 more through new births even though some had died along the way.  Being Egyptian-raised, Moses was in the habit of keeping notes. Everything he experienced was written down in the 5 books he kept on scrolls, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. 

The land was ruled over by Judges at first, then kings like all the other surrounding lands.  Saul was chosen as the 1st king, then David was selected and David's son, Solomon was the 3rd king.  Their lives were recorded and read like Soaps on radio and then TV programs, they were so interesting, so human.  They made mistakes and had to correct them.  They had love affairs, lapses in religion, all sorts of things most people reading could relate to.

The monarchy generally passed peacefully from father to son in the Davidic House except for the usurpation of  Queen Athaliah (833-837) daughter of King Ahab of Israel, son of Omri (876-853 BCE) and Jezebel. So her father ruled the opposing land divided in Civil War before she ruled.  After Athaliah, Joash ruled (837-798 BCE) When Joash was 1 years old, the throne was seized by his grandmother, Athaliah, who had all members of the house of David murdered.  Joash was rescued by an aunt, Jehosheba, whose husband was the high priest, Jehoiada, and they kept Joash hidden in the Temple for 6 years. 

 Our history includes such human events; it does read like a Soap with tragedy galore along with ecstasy.   The Psalms, written by David,  have been enjoyed by people of all faiths, known for finding comfort.                

Like 3 Musketeers, we have Simeon in the South, Judah and little Benjamin bordering Judah.  They hung together as the Kingdom of Judah after the Assyrian kidnapping of the northern population.  

After Solomon died, a Civil War ensued and the Kingdom of Judah, the southern kingdom,  was separated in 933 BCE from her brothers.  Most of the tribe of Benjamin remained with her as well as absorbing the tribe of Simeon added to her strength.  Solomon's son, Rehoboam became king then in 933-917 BCE and the kingdom was lastly ruled by Zedekiah who ruled from 597-586 BCE. 

      Cyrus saving the day by sending Israelites back to Jerusalem. 

Babylonians had attacked and had taken much of Judah's population to Babylonia and kept them for about 80 years, with the ruler, Cyrus, sending them back joyously to rebuild their destroyed Temple. Our history of Purim comes in this period with Haman trying to kill all Jews in the land and Queen Esther putting an end to him.  Judeans run into the Greek period with Alexander the Great  as their savior.  The  Greek Ptolemies & Seleucids were controlling the land. 

This brings us to the year 63  when  Rome (Pompey) annexed the land of Israel.  From 66 to 73 the First Jewish Revolt against Rome took place, and  happy days were there with Vespasian giving Yochanan ben Zakkai permission to establish a Jewish center for study at Yavneh that would become the hub for rabbinic Judaism.                        

That was just a tease.  The year of 70 will never be forgotten by Jews with the Destruction of Jerusalem and the second Temple.  Jews today still mourn this event. 

 It was the most traumatic experience of all except for the Holocaust of 1939-1946.  

Judaism was born with Abraham, developed by Moses, and we Jews have been following it ever since even though Christianity and Islam have tried to prevent our following of it.  Judah, later called Judea by the Romans, is our history, and our documented history at that.  It is a history 4,000 years long.  It's part of our genes.  We are called Jews because of the name, Judah.  

Some Jews managed to hide out in Israel even though the Romans didn't allow any to remain in Jerusalem.  There were Jews who made attempts and were successful in returning decades later.  

Jews all over the world are now returning to Israel.  It's written about (prophesized) in the Good Book (Old Testament)(Torah).  It's been happening ever since Israel was created again in May 14, 1948. Are you WOKE to our history?  It's only natural that Israelis want to live in their ancient land as every centimeter of it is precious to them.  

Samaria was the name of the capital of the northern Kingdom of Israel, founded in 880 BCE by King Omri.  It's purchase  on a hill is vetted in the Bible's Old Testament of  (I Kings 16:24). 

        Nablus was in Jordanian territory (1948-1967), then controlled by Israel.  It was under Egyptian control  since 12th century.  Our Jewish biblical Patriarchs camped under its walls and it was pillaged by the tribes of Simeon and Levi (Gen.34).  Later, Samaria was in the territory of Ephraim, and was a Levitical city and a city of refuge, as well as the center of the House of Joseph of the Jewish people.  Joseph was buried here.

In the year of 72, Vespasian founded the nearby Neapolis (modern Nablus) which became an important Roman city;  most of its inhabitant remained Samaritans. In 1967 had 44,000 population.  For decades it has been a center of fanatical Arab nationalism.  

This site is about 7 m. NW of Shechem (Nablus).  It's been taken over by the Arabs today.  The city developed there covered 25 acres.  King Ahab had lived here.  (I Kings 22:39).  The Syrians attacked it and Samaria (now a city) fell in 721 BCE  to Sargon II of Assyria who resettled it with Cutheans.  They intermingled (married ?) with the remnants of the former population and became the ancestors of the Samaritans.  

The name, Samaria, is also applied to the entire northern region as it is today, of the central highlands of what had been Palestine.  

It wasn't until England was given the 30 year mandate to rule over Palestine, the land that England had promised Jews their Jewish Homeland, that England gave away 80% of that promised land to Prince Abdullah of Arabia.  He was looking for land to be the king. It was then that Judea and Samaria were renamed as The West Bank-the bank of the Jordan River that was granted to Abdullah.  

Abdullah I bin Al-Hussein , 2 February 1882 – 20 July 1951) was the ruler of Jordan from 11 April 1921 until his assassination in 1951. He was the Emir of Transjordan, a British protectorate, until 25 May 1946, after which he was king of an independent Jordan. As a member of the Hashemite dynasty, the royal family of Jordan since 1921, Abdullah was a 38th-generation direct descendant of Muhammad. 

          Promised Land of the Jewish National Home in 1920

 It wasn't the genealogy that impressed England into giving him this land, but it may have been the fact just discovered about oil on the property, and THAT they were interested in sharing.  It's always about money.  

   Jordan mining minerals and fuel resources

Oil shale in Jordan represents a significant resource. Oil shale deposits in Jordan underlie more than 60% of Jordanian territory. The total resources amounts to 31 billion tons of oil shale.  The modern exploitation of Jordanian oil shale began under Ottoman rule prior to and during World War I, when the German Army produced shale oil from the Yarmouk area. The oil shale was processed to operate the Hejaz Railway. It was mined and processed near the Maqarin station along the Haifa spur of the railroad, which partly follows the Yarmouk River valley. In addition to the shale oil production, oil shale was also utilized as a mix with coal to fuel locomotives.

Resource;

Tanakh, the Stone Edition

The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia

https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/timeline-of-judaism-after-the-babylonian-exile-538-bce-70-ce

https://www.jns.org/opinion/the-west-bank-or-judea-and-samaria/