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Sunday, April 30, 2023

Israel's Casualties of War--With Moshe Dayan

Nadene Goldfoot                                             


                                  Moshe Dayan (1915-1981)  in middle
                                       
Dayan joined the Haganah in his youth and was a founder of the Palmah later.  He lost his eye in 1941 when in the British Army on the Lebanese territory.  He was in the Israel War of Independence and his unit repelled the Syrian army from Jordan Valley;  became commander of the Jerusalem region in august 1948.  He was chief of general staff from 1953 to 1958;  in 1956 responsible for the Sinai Operation;  elected to the Knesset in 1959 as a Mapai, Minisater of agriculture in 1959;  Minister of defense just before 6 Day War;  resigned in 1974;   and from 1977 to 1979 with Menahem Begin working on peace negotiations with Egypt.  
                       Aerial view of Temple Mount 

Dayan’s first act on the Temple Mount, only a few hours after IDF Chief Rabbi Shlomo Goren blew the shofar and gave the Shehecheyanu blessing beside the Western Wall, was to immediately remove the Israeli flag that the paratroopers had raised on the mount.

Dayan’s second act was to clear out the paratroop company that was supposed to remain permanently stationed in the northern part of the mount. Dayan rejected the insistent pleas of the head of Central Command, Uzi Narkiss, who tried to prevent him from taking this measure. Narkiss reminded Dayan that Jordan, too, had stationed a military contingent on the mount to maintain order, and that long ago the Romans had done the same, deploying a garrison force in the Antonia Fortress that Herod had built near the mount. But Dayan was not persuaded. He told Narkiss that it seemed to him the place would have to be left in the hands of the Muslim guards.

Despite harsh criticism from religious and nationalist circles, Dayan, just a few hours after his first public announcement to the Israeli people about the holy places and particularly the Temple Mount, succinctly stated: “We have returned to the holiest of our places, never to be parted from them again….We did not come to conquer the sacred sites of others or to restrict their religious rights, but rather to ensure the integrity of the city and to live in it with others in fraternity.

             David  Ben Gurion ( David Gruen) 1886-1975) 1st Prime Minister, Minister of Defense, organized the Israeli army

Here Dayan behaved as the successor of David Ben-Gurion, who already during the War of Independence in July 1948, when it appeared that the Jewish forces were about to conquer the Old City,   

 ordered David Shaltiel, Haganah commander in Jerusalem (Jewish self-defense group in Eretz Israel) or Palestine before 1948, to “prepare a special force, loyal and disciplined…


that will use without mercy a machinegun against any Jew who tries to rob or desecrate a holy place, Christian or Muslim.” Ben-Gurion also recommended that Shaltiel
 mine the entrances to the holy places so as to prevent harm to them.

    Haganah, They succeeded the Ha-Shomer in 1920 that had formed. and Haganah kept going until 1948.  Then members transferred to Tzeva Haganah Le-Israel.  Under the British, there was little if any protection for the Jewish population.  That's why they had formed.   

And may this be the last, Israeli casualties of war, in addition to those of Israel's nine major wars, include 9,745 soldiers and security forces personnel killed in "miscellaneous engagements and terrorist attacks", which includes security forces members killed during military operations, by fighting crime, natural disasters, diseases, traffic or labor accidents and disabled veterans whose disabilities contributed to their deaths.

 Between 1948 and 1997, 20,093Israeli soldiers were killed in combat, 75,000 Israelis were wounded, and nearly 100,000 Israelis were considered disabled army veterans.

 On the other hand, in 2010 Yom Hazikaron, Israel honored the memory of 22,684 Israeli soldiers and pre-Israeli Palestinian Jews killed since 1860 in the line of duty for the independence, preservation and protection of the nation, and 3,971 civilian terror victims. 

The memorial roll, in addition to IDF members deceased, also include fallen members of the Shin Bet security service, the Mossad intelligence service, the Israel Police, the Border Police, the Israel Prisons Service, other Israeli security forces, the pre-state Jewish underground, and the Jewish Brigade and the Jewish Legion (which served alongside British forces in World War II and World War I respectively).

Regular conflicts

Bold indicates conflicts considered wars by the Israeli Ministry of Defense (as they were named by Israel):

ConflictMilitary deathsCivilian deathsTotal deaths (not including foreigners)Military and/or civilian woundedTotal casualties
War of Independence (1948)4,0002,4006,373[1][better source needed]15,000[26]21,400
1951–1955 fedayeen attacks including Retribution operationsUnknownUnknown400[27]-967[28]900[27]-1,300[29]1,300–2,267
1956–1967 fedayeen attacksUnknownUnknown178[12]1,574+[30]1,752+
1968–1987 fedayeen attacksUnknownUnknown567[12]UnknownUnknown
Sinai War (1956)231[1][better source needed]02318991,130
Samu Incident (1966)1011011
Six-Day War (1967)776[31]20[32]7964,5175,293
War of Attrition (1967–71)1,424[33][34][better source needed]127[34]1,5512,7004,251+
Palestinian insurgency in South Lebanon (1968–1982)unknownunknownunknownunknownunknown
Yom Kippur War (1973)2,65602,6569,00011,656
Operation Litani (1978)18[35]018113[35]131
First Lebanon War (1982-1985)657106676,500[36][37][38][better source needed]7,167
Security Zone in Lebanon Campaign (1985-2000)256906361,2001,836
First Intifada 1987–199360[39]100[39]160500660
Palestinian political violence 1993–2000170[40]99269400669
Second Intifada 2000–2008 including Operation Defensive WallOperation Rainbow and Operation Days of Penitence (fatalities since the outbreak of the Second Intifada and until Operation Cast Lead)332[10]731[10]1,0638,800[41][42]9,863[43]
2000–2006 Shebaa Farms conflict167231942
Second Lebanon War (2006)121441652,0672,237[44]
Operation Cast Lead (2008–09)10[45]313518531
Current Palestinian and foreigner violence in Israel and the Palestinian Authority and Gaza Strip (since 19 January 2009) including Operation Pillar of Defense (excluding Operation Protective Edge and Operation Guardian of the Walls)18[46][47][48][49]52[50][51][52][53][54][55][56]70[7]322[57][58][59][60]392+
2010 Israel–Lebanon border clashHanikra border clash and Golan clashes4[61][62][63]1[64]517[64][65][66][67][68]22
Operation Protective Edge (2014)67[69]572530602
2021 Israel–Palestine crisis11011119130

Israel has had enough casualties of war for a teeny country now maintaining a population of about 9.053,070 million with about 6 of those million being Jewish and this was figured in 2023 by the worldometer.  This amounts to 0.11% of the world's population.  Back in 1955, the population was only 1,691,878 which was  0.06% of the world population.  They have been so unimportant to the world population-wise, but important in other ways; the very seat of the Bible...a people who have come back to life after the Nazis tried to stamp them out, to eradicate them like unwanted rats, as that's how they saw Jews. 

 Jews know;  they realize how others see them.  They are determined;  I know I am, to show that they are there in Israel to stay;  that their rights will not be taken again from them;  that they stand for justice and peace--something that was taken from them....that the moment any of this is threatened, even by their own government--they will rise up.  So you've seen them in action.  Don't try to stifle these creative minds with any type of hatred--whether it be from BDS or Iran..  They are there to repair the world from Jerusalem somehow, some way, and will do so.   

Reference: 

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

Saturday, April 29, 2023

Life For a Jewish Bubba at 88 and 2/3

 Nadene Goldfoot                                               

                                                                          

Me, the ex-dancer-ex Marie Easterly model of Portland, Oregon .  Such choices as these gave me self-assurance in life.  Teaching came naturally as I was doing it with my dolls since 5 years old when I taught them all how to read-right along with me.  Before I taught I was working as bookkeeper for my dad from age 15 onward, driving myself to work at 16 after school at $15 per week, but I was lucky.  My parents paid for my city college education.    
             About 4 years ago in my hiking-walking stage with my son and daughter in law.

Considering that our President Biden is considering running for another term and will be 88 at the end of it, I thought I'd talk about what it's like to be 88 since I'm 88 2/3 right now.  I looked up a few facts.                                           

Nikki was my hero speaking up for Israel at the UN.  She told those men a thing or two!!  Israel has had  no better defender than Nikki, and she told all the truth that I had found in my research.  She's a very truthful woman, almost to a point of being problematic;  lack of tact this time about Biden's age,  but then again...look at the statistics!  I'm so lucky to be here and say so every Friday night when I light candles.  Whooooh, now I'm shaken!!!

Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley says President Biden is unlikely to live to the end of a second term so his backers will have to rely on Vice President Kamala Harris, age 68,  b: October 20, 1964 to lead the nation.     

Statistics back her up.  Nikki was born January 20, 1972 and is only 51 years old.  

Women's life expectancy was 79 years in the U.S. in 2021, while men's was about 73, according to CDC data. The U.S. has a higher rate of avoidable deaths, which is measured as death before the age of 75, among men than any comparable country.  “As long as records have been kept in all countries, women have lived longer than men,” said Amelia Karraker, a program official at the National Institute on Aging. “Across, basically, almost every major cause of death, men are more likely to die than women are.” 


  
That number for men could be blamed on all the deaths by guns that keeps on rising.  Any little disagreement is solved by shooting at each other.  Everyone's a cowboy.  

They may have more muscle mass and can lift and carry more than women, but evidently we come with a better sense of staying alive due to the fact that we usually become mothers with hormones telling us to be careful.  

The U.S. has a higher rate of avoidable deaths, which is measured as death before the age of 75, among men than any comparable country.  But there hasn’t always been such a large gap between men and women. What became known as “the female advantage” emerged around 1890 and continued to grow throughout the 20th century, except for a decline during the 1918 flu pandemic.


As for me personally, I feel like I'm still 25 in spirit and me-ness but physically I've changed a lot.  Whereas I spent my life until 25, let's say, it was all dancing classes and piano classes and school with enough energy for whatever I faced.  Today, I'm short on energy.

   I look at my exercise bicycle in the corner and feel ennui, weariness, lack of interest, fatigue,  spiritlessness and yawn.  That's just me. Music has always moved me; ballet music, Russian, Jewish, Spanish;  emotional music that moves one .

I've had a knee replacement and on the right side of my chest lies a pacemaker because I'm left-handed.  I take 12 pills every morning-9 of them for my heart.  Every year I walk less and less until I've just reached the point where even a wee walk is a walk too far.  

The one thing I can do besides having fingers that are numb next to my fingernails is type on my computer and that I do a lot, with the patience needed to make corrections, of course.  I have been writing since 2004 in my blogs, and previously wrote 2 books.  Gosh, computers are terrific!!

My thinking is still clear, better than ever, I think.  I wish I had the wisdom I think I have now back in the days of making so many mistakes in life.  However, this comes with problems, too.  There's usually a word I can't think of and have to think of a synonym of it and google that to retrieve the word I want.  When I'm talking to someone, the situation worsens.  I can't think of names of people or things that I want to mention so many times.  It's the fact of being under pressure.  When I'm alone, these things can come to me easily.                                  

My appetite is less;  good thing considering how high grocery prices have raised, and my Social Security check certainly hasn't been able to keep up.  Where it might increase by $10 per year in its monthly checks, prices rise immensely more.  It's especially evident for me as I started teaching in 1959 at $4,000 per year and thought that was terrific since the month before my contract would have been for $3,700 per year.  We don't stand a chance.

I say that because living through life is not without problems.  Who has lived problemless?  We go through with divorce or deaths, losing money and gaining money, the stock market rises and crashes, wars and peace to reach 88. Biden is no different.  It all comes out in some physical ailment or another on the body.       

 We're an emotional people and it shows itself on our behavior of drinking, smoking, drugging, or not and I haven't done any of these things and was still in need of a pacemaker.  That's because there is the DNA prospect for all of us.  We inherit a lot of who we are.  I was an unwilling patient that allowed my heart to be stopped and started once, and that was enough for me.  Little did I know that that decision forced the doctor's decision for the next choice--pacemaker.  My stubborness.  Well, It's good on this battery until I'm 99.

November 17, 2011's report on aging:     The nation's 90-and-older population nearly tripled over the past three decades, reaching 1.9 million in 2010, according to a report released today by the U.S. Census Bureau and supported by the National Institute on Aging. Over the next four decades, this population is projected to more than quadruple.

     Because of increases in life expectancy at older ages, people 90 and older now comprise 4.7 percent of the older population (age 65 and older), as compared with only 2.8 percent in 1980. By 2050, this share is likely to reach 10 percent.  Joe Biden's next term is from 2024 to 2028, and 88 won't be a part of the 10% of the population yet.  

     The majority of people 90 and older report having one or more disabilities, living alone or in a nursing home and graduating from high school. People in this age group also are more likely to be women and to have higher widowhood, poverty and disability rates than people just under this age cutoff.  This means that it's likely Joe Biden might have some sort of disability at age 88---like me.                                 

                    Traditional oldest old lady is 85

     “Traditionally, the cutoff age for what is considered the 'oldest old' has been age 85,” said Census Bureau demographer Wan He, “but increasingly people are living longer and the older population itself is getting older. Given its rapid growth, the 90-and-older population merits a closer look.

     “Previously, relatively little research focused on this increasingly important population group, and this report attempts to fill that void,” she continued. “The American Community Survey, with its large sample size in multiyear data sets, allows an in-depth and comprehensive analysis of the characteristics of the 90-and-older population.”

     An older person's likelihood of living in a nursing home increases sharply with age. While about only 1 percent of people in their upper 60s and 3 percent in their upper 70s were nursing home residents, the proportion rose to about 20 percent for those in their lower 90s, more than 30 percent for people in their upper 90s, and nearly 40 percent for centenarians.                        

      At my Passover table several years ago when I could still make a Passover Seder with sister-in-law and cousin and my desert rose china.  

Yes, I know.  I'm lucky to still be living in my manufactured home-a home I chose after my mother died when I moved closer to my son.  I left little Ontario, Oregon and moved back-not to Portland where he lives but outside it in a smaller community with a swimming pool which I used in my first few years here.  My son drives here from Portland and occasionally I drive there.  Yes, I'm still driving--my mother's Cadillac that I had inherited.  I gave up my little cutie of a car for this;  oh, it's SO comfortable !!!  I couldn't afford to live in Portland anymore;  even in a duplex.  


    " While nearly all people in their 90s who lived in a nursing home had a disability (98.2 percent), the vast majority (80.8 percent) of those who did not live in a nursing home also had one or more disabilities. Difficulty doing errands alone and performing general mobility-related activities of walking or climbing stairs were the most common types, which indicates that many who live in households may need assistance with everyday activities."

     "The proportion of people age 90 to 94 having disabilities is more than 13 percentage points higher than that of 85- to 89-year-olds."  Chances are, Biden could have a disability.  His stance and walk show to me that he's not 25 anymore.  Otherwise, he does stand up with a good back when he's standing which is a good point.  

My mother, Mildred Elizabeth Robinson (1913-2005 Oregon)  lived until 92.  She had had a stroke and wound up in a nursing home.  My father died at 59.  I've outlived their average age.  The doctor refused to prescribe Eliquis for her.  It's what keeps me from having a stroke.  Dad was in a business of wholesale meats as a meat packer that had the highest death average for men in 1967 in the states.

 At 92 Mom had the most beautiful skin with nary a wrinkle in it, half Swedish she was and half English/Scotch/Irish,  and still those gorgeous long legs. She did not drink or smoke either all her life.  She didn't drive until about 65. 

 Her time was spent dusting and cleaning,  washing, hanging up the wash outside, ironing, sewing, hanging wallpaper, cooking, baking daily, and shopping weekly all day long. She never sat down!!! The kitchen and basement were her hangouts. She knew how to hang curtains and make dancing costumes!  She belonged to the PTA.   She and her two children did take vacations at the beach every year where she checked out a book to read while on the beach,  and picnics with her brother's family.                                   

 

  

Resource:

https://www.cnbc.com/2023/03/01/why-american-men-die-younger-than-women-on-average-and-how-to-fix-it.html#:~:text=Women's%20life%20expectancy%20was%2079,men%20than%20any%20comparable%20country.

https://www.census.gov/newsroom/releases/archives/aging_population/cb11-194.html