Three Big Meetings: Israel's Historic Summit Meeting With Arab Accords States and USA, Jordan and Egypt Also Hosting Others

 Nadene Goldfoot                               

The Trump Administration got Abraham Accords going with the help of Donald Trump's son- in- law, Jared Kushner.  Biden hasn't done much to add to it.    Big meetings are planned for today-Friday by Jordan, Sunday by Israel in the Negev and Tuesday by Egypt.                                                               

The Kedma Isrotel in Sde Boker, site of the historic Negev Summit, March 27, 2022. / YouTube screenshot

Update: 3/27/22: Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said at the start of Sunday’s weekly Cabinet meeting: “This is a very festive day. We are hosting the ‘Negev Summit’ here in Israel. The foreign ministers of Egypt, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Morocco, and Bahrain will arrive in Sde Boker for a meeting with Minister Lapid and Secretary of State Blinken.”  Sde Boker is a kibbutz in the Negev desert of southern Israel. Best known as the retirement home of Israel's first Prime Minister, David Ben-Gurion, it falls under the jurisdiction of Ramat HaNegev Regional Council. In 2019 it had a population of 479.

     Knesset in Jerusalem, Israel 

     Tel Aviv, Israel  where the fun is

1. The Abraham Accords States are meeting in Israel on Sunday, March 27, 2022 in Israel at the invitation of Foreign Minister Yair Lapid,  in an historic summit,  who is the host.  US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, will also attend.  This is happening because the states became normalized with Israel in August 2020. The Arab states arriving will be from UAE, Bahrain, and Morocco.  "Bahrain and Morocco followed suit, while Sudan also agreed to normalize ties with Israel, although it has yet to finalize a deal".While in Morocco, Blinken is also due to meet Crown Prince Mohammed, the Department of State said.                               

The talks are being organized to coincide with a regional tour by Blinken due to begin on Saturday.

Antony John Blinken, b: April 6, 1962, US Sec. of State, 60 years old.  

Blinken is to visit Israel including the West Bank (Judea and Samaria), Morocco and Algeria in this trip.  Blinken is also due to visit Algeria and Morocco at a time when the region is reeling from the backlash of Russia’s war on Ukraine.  Blinken’s visit also comes amid Israeli efforts to mediate a solution to the war in Ukraine, which has left both sides with heavy losses, and shows no signs of abating.  

It also comes as the US is close to reaching an agreement with Iran, not appreciated by Israel's needs,  to restore the 2015 accord limiting Tehran’s nuclear development program, in return for removing sanctions on the country. The 2015 agreement was so bad that Trump excused himself from the group and left it.  Now, It may be even worse.

“We know this pain is keenly felt in the Middle East and North Africa, where most countries import at least half of their wheat,” much of it from Ukraine, Department of State Acting Assistant Secretary Yael Lempert told reporters in Washington, in reaction to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

2. Before this meeting takes place, Jordan is hosting one of their own today in Aqaba,  Friday the 25th of March with Egypt and Abu Dhabi, the capital of UAE.  Jordanian state media said King Abdullah II would host Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, Iraq’s Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi and Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Abu Dhabi’s powerful crown prince, in the southern Jordanian city of Aqaba on Friday. 

The Arab countries which have normalized ties said they were motivated by the economic benefits of establishing official relations with Israel, despite opposition from the Palestinians.

Jordan and Egypt were one of the very first states to normalize relations with Israel.

Egypt The Camp David Accords, signed by President Jimmy Carter, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin in September 1978, established a framework for a historic peace treaty concluded between Israel and Egypt in March 1979.

  Jordan had a population of over 2 million of whom 85% were Moslem Arabs by 1992.  Today it is 10.2 million!  The king married a Palestinian woman.  On 26 October 1994, Jordan and Israel signed the peace treaty in a ceremony held in the Arava valley of Israel, north of Eilat and near the Jordanian border. Prime Minister Rabin and Prime Minister Abdelsalam al-Majali signed the treaty and the President of Israel Ezer Weizman shook hands with King Hussein.

3. It also follows a three-way summit hosted by Egypt on Tuesday, March 29, 2022  at the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh between Egypt's el-Sisi, Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, and Saudi Arabia's 

                             Crown Prince Mohammed.

The upcoming talks come against the backdrop of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, a conflict that has sparked wider security concerns, and sent oil and food prices soaring.

Resource:

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/3/25/israel-to-host-historic-summit-of-us-arab-diplomats

https://www.chathamhouse.org/2021/09/abraham-accords-one-year-missed-opportunity-biden

Bahrain and It's Jews Joining the Abraham Accords

 Nadene Goldfoot                                                

The 5 Bahrein Islands is an emirate in the Persian Gulf.  Jews, originating from Iraq, Iran and India, first settled there in the elate 19th century. In the 19th century, there were Jewish merchants from Iraq, Persia, and India in Bahrain. Their existence was peaceful until 1947 which was the beginning of Israel's War of Independence and word was out that the UN was about to hear that they were to declare Israel as a state. There were anti-Israel demonstrations going on in the islands in 1947.  In 1956, the year of Israel's Sinai War, there were 400 Jews who lived in Bahrain, but few remained by the 1980s.

Bahrain makes up 295.5 mi² in size. 

Jews have lived in Bahrain for 140 years;  the Israel deal changes their lives.  

"Leader of tiny community, Ebrahim Nonoo, says he can now talk to relatives and feel free about coming to Israel; hopes Jews will settle in Gulf nations."

 Well, Ebrahim has been away from a real feel of Jewishness living in Bahrain, though it is beautiful there, is my opinion.  Once he visits Israel he will see why this is the greatest thing that has happened to the Jewish people since King Solomon's day.  I know, I made Aliyah in 1980 and had never visited it before.  Living in Bahrain all his life, there's lots of history he may have missed reading about that will exemplify my reaction to Israel.  You've got to see it and breathe in the air to understand. 

 But this small community has done wonders in cementing a union between Jews and Arabs that has been successful, an example to us all in how it can work and should work. Why it worked here and not in Gaza today with the Palestinians should be studied.  Hope you're up to it, Ebrahim.  I see a great future ahead for you.     

 At the beginning of the twenty-first century, about 30 Jews remained in Bahrain. The community maintained ownership of a synagogue, but it was not in use and services were held in private homes on holidays. The Jewish community also maintained its cemetery. Modern Bahrain's Jewish community traces its origins to the migration of Iraqi traders from the Jewish Yadgar family in the 1880s.  

 A mob looted Jewish homes and shops, destroyed the city's synagogue, physically assaulted Jews, and murdered an elderly Jewish woman. Most members of Bahrain's Jewish community abandoned their properties and evacuated to Bombay, later settling in Israel, many of them in the town of Pardes Hanna-Karkur; others went to the United Kingdom. The 1950 census found 293 Jews in the country.

Houda Nonoo told The Independent newspaper: "I don't think it was Bahrainis who were responsible for attacking their homes in the riot. It was people from abroad. Many Bahrainis looked after Jews in their houses." I just saw a Jewish man, I think Houda Nonoo's uncle,  on YouTube's Israel TV today and he spoke highly of his Bahrain non-Jewish friends who he invites to Jewish holidays, etc. He still lives there.  

Bahrain, the largest of the islands, officially the Kingdom of Bahrain, is a country in the Persian Gulf. The island nation comprises a small archipelago made up of 50 natural islands and an additional 33 artificial islands, centered on Bahrain Island which makes up around 83 percent of the country's landmass.  Its capital is Manama.  According to the 2020 census, Bahrain's population numbers 1,501,635 people, of which 712,362 are Bahraini nationals. At 760 square kilometres (290 sq mi) in size, it is the third-smallest nation in Asia after the Maldives and Singapore. The capital and largest city is Manama.

Bahrain is the 42nd out of 48 Muslim majority states in the world as of 2011.  It was 81% Muslim then, 70.3% Islam now of which Islam is the state religion with Sunnis and Shi's.  Other religions are allowed to live there.  

• 70.3% Islam (official)
• 14.5% Christianity
• 9.8% Hinduism
• 2.2% Buddhism
• 0.3% Judaism
• 1% Other religions
• 1.9% Unaffiliated

In the late 1800s, following successive treaties with the British, Bahrain became a protectorate of the United Kingdom. In 1971, it declared independence. Formerly an emirate, Bahrain was declared an Islamic constitutional monarchy in 2002. In 2011, the country experienced protests inspired by the regional Arab Spring.  

                                                  

The Abraham Accords are a joint statement between State of Israel, the United Arab Emirates, and the United States of America, reached on August 13, 2020. Subsequently, the term was used to refer collectively to agreements between Israel and the United Arab Emirates (the Israel–United Arab Emirates normalization agreement) and Bahrain, respectively (the Bahrain–Israel normalization agreement).

                                               

          Yusuf al Qaradawi, b: 1926,  Who broadcasts from Qatar against Jews and Israel on Al Jazeera, 95 years old

Qatar is the larger peninsular Arab country whose terrain comprises arid desert and a long Persian (Arab) Gulf shoreline of beaches and dunes. Also on the coast is the capital, Doha, known for its futuristic skyscrapers and other ultramodern architecture inspired by ancient Islamic design, such as the limestone Museum of Islamic Art. The museum sits on the city’s Corniche waterfront promenade.

Qatar is another story.  It's where the Egyptian cleric Qaradawi lives. He hates Jews.  Al-Qaradawi supports suicide attacks on all Israelis, including women since he views the Israeli society as a "completely military" society that did not include any civilians. He also considers pregnant women and their unborn babies to be valid targets on the ground that the babies could grow up to join the Israeli Army. 

Along the same line citing from New York-based Jewish-run ADL (Anti-Defamation League) report, on 24 January 2011 al-Qaradawi had voiced his desire to see Jerusalem conquered in a fatwa in which he claimed that it was the Muslims' duty to "defend" Jerusalem with "their lives, their money and all they pos-sess, or else they will be subject to Allah's punishment."  Much of all the hatred viewed by Muslims towards Israel comes from his speeches against the only Jewish state in the world. 40 to 60 million Muslims are faithful listeners.  

The Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani (Arabic: تميم بن حمد بن خليفة آل ثاني‎; born 3 June 1980) is the Emir of Qatar. He is the fourth son of the previous Emir, Hamad bin Khalifa. He has been the ruler of Qatar since 2013 when his father abdicated the throne of Qatar and has been Qaradawi's  friend and protector as I remember  from past articles I've written about him.    

My hat is off to Bahrain as a very brave little Island with Qatar so near and yet so far from Bahrain's attitude towards Jews and Israel. Being so close to Saudi Arabia who has never allowed any Jew to step on their land, has not influenced them in that direction.  As I heard the Jewish man from Bahrain being interviewed today, he loved the Bahrain people and said that they were so much alike Jews, and that they got along so well.  

Resource:

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

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

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yusuf_al-Qaradawi

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

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

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

https://www.timesofisrael.com/jews-have-lived-in-bahrain-for-140-years-the-israel-deal-changes-their-lives/

Bahrain, 4th Country to Make Peace With Israel

Nadene Goldfoot
                                                                     

Bahrain just announced that they are making peace with Israel, first, by recognition.  They are the 4th country after Egypt, Jordan, United Arab Emirates, and now Bahrain.  The island nation comprises a small archipelago made up of 40 natural islands and an additional 51 artificial islands, centered around Bahrain Island which makes up around 83 % of the country's landmass.
                                                   

King of Bahrain:  Hamad bin Isa bin Salman al KhalifaHe has been the monarch of Bahrain since 6 March 1999, initially reigning as emir, and from 14 February 2002, as the first king. He is the son of Isa bin Salman Al Khalifa, the previous and first emir.

Bahrain is the 42nd state in population of Muslim majority countries with a population of only 1,046,814 as of 2011.  81% were Muslim Sunni/Shi'a.  Bahrain’s population was  1.5 million at the end of 2017, according to the Central Information Organization (CIO). This number is made up of 677,000 Bahrainis, or 45 per cent of the population, and 823,000 foreigners, who make up the remaining 55 per cent.This is their state religion. 

"After World War II on May 8, 1945, increasing anti-British sentiment spread throughout the Arab World and led to riots in Bahrain. The riots focused on the Jewish community. In 1948, following rising hostilities and looting, most members of Bahrain's Jewish community abandoned their properties and evacuated to Bombay, later settling in Israel (Pardes Hanna-Karkur) and the United Kingdom. As of 2008, 37 Jews remained in the country.
                                            

The Kingdom of Bahrain is the island nation between Saudi Arabia and Qatar. This former British protectorate achieved its independence in 1971. Since the discovery of oil in the mid-20th century, Bahrain’s petroleum industry has been the backbone of the country’s economy and has become one of the wealthiest countries in the world. With its newfound wealth, the Bahraini government invested in public welfare, infrastructure and public sectors. This led to a steady increase in life expectancy in Bahrain.

Bahrein Islands are an Emirate in the Persian Gulf.  Jews, originating from Iraq, Iran and India first settled there in the late 19th century.  Their existence was peaceful until 1947, just before the announcement of Israel becoming a state which would follow on May 14, 1948.   In 1947 there were anti-Jewish demonstrations, even on this small island off of Saudi Arabia.  It was during Israel's War of Independence which started on November 29, 1947 when all Arabs responded with violence to the United Nations resolution on Palestine, and lasted until the signing of the Armistice Agreements in 1949.                    
                                                                       

     
In 1956, when  there was another war against Israel called the Sinai War.  This lasted from October 29 until November 5, 1956, a war that lasted 7 days.  It was when a threat was removed and the blockade was broken.  Egypt played a central role with hostile actions and they had reached their climax.  Throughout the previous year, the USSR had been massively supplying military equipment to Egypt and Syria, and within a year, there was a significant increase in the military strength of the  States.  

At this time in 1956, 400 Jews lived in the Bahrein Islands, but few remained by the 1980s.  
                                                        

President Trump in 2017 with the King of Bahrain, King Hamad bin Isa bin Salman Al Khalifa.  

Today, the 10th anniversary of 9/11's terrorist attack when over 3,000 Americans were killed in a brutal attack on the buildings they were in with an airplane that aimed for it and all died, was the fitting day for peace, said President Trump. 
                                                                                   

Bahrain accuses Iran of a"biological Agression" over COVID 19.
Israel will work with Bahrain in the fight against this virus, as well as with
the UAE.  

 Bahrain's ruling al-Khalifa royal family has been accused and criticized for human rights abuses including imprisonment, torture and execution of dissidents, political opposition figures and its majority Shia Muslim population. 
                                                   

Summers are very hot. The seas around Bahrain are very shallow, heating up quickly in the summer to produce very high humidity, especially at night. Summer temperatures may reach up to 50 °C (122 °F) under the right conditions. Rainfall in Bahrain is minimal and irregular. Precipitation mostly occurs in winter, with an average of 70.8mm of rainfall recorded annually.
                                                   

Bahrain has established bilateral relations with 190 countries worldwide. As of 2012, Bahrain maintains a network of 25 embassies, 3 consulates and 4 permanent missions to the Arab League, United Nations and European Union respectively. Bahrain also hosts 36 embassies. Bahrain plays a modest, moderating role in regional politics and adheres to the views of the Arab League on Middle East peace and Palestinian rights by supporting the two state solution. 

Bahrain is also one of the founding members of the Gulf Cooperation Council. Relations with Iran tend to be tense as a result of a failed coup in 1981 which Bahrain blames Iran for and occasional claims of Iranian sovereignty over Bahrain by ultra-conservative elements in the Iranian public.

Saudi Arabian troops were sent into Bahrain to crush pro-democracy protests in 2011.

On September 2020, after the United Arab Emirates announced normalizing relations with Israel, Bahrain announced that it would allow all commercial flights coming from Israel to fly over its airspace.

  On September 11, 2020, Bahrain officially agreed to recognize Israel.

Resource:
facts about Israel from division of Information, Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Jerusalem
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Muslim-majority-countries
The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/11/world/middleeast/bahrain-israel-trump.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bahrain
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamad_bin_Isa_Al_Khalifa
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/03/bahrain-accuses-iran-biological-aggression-covid-2019-200312165334964.html
https://fanack.com/bahrain/population/

What Happened to the Jews of Bahrain ?

Nadene Goldfoot                                            

Bahrain is a group of islands which is an Emirate in the Persian Gulf. It is a monarchy with King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifah. He has a new law.  If anyone insults him, they will be thrown in jail.  The Arab Spring brought out people who wanted more of a Democracy.  "Demonstrators say authorities killed dozens of people and arrested, tortured and imprisoned hundreds of others. Opposition leaders have tried to keep the protest movement alive."  

The present capital is Manama.   The majority are Shiites.   Hajar, the ancient capital, recorded Jews living there in 630 CE, about the time of Mohammad who was born in 570 and died in 632.  They refused to convert to Islam.  Later, Jews who originated in Iraq, Iran and India  first settled there in the late 19th century. The Yadgar family came from Iraq in 1880.

Benjamin of Tudela found in the 12th Century that 500 Jews were living in Qays.  He found 5,000 in al Qatifa who were involved in their pearl industry.   Many came because of being traders and finding the place very satisfactory,  stayed there.  Such was the Nonoo family who went into banking.

 Life was peaceful for them until 1947 and the discussion of the declaration of Israel.  At that time there were anti-Jewish demonstrations here as well as in other Middle East countries.  By 1948 there were 1,500 Jews in Bahrain.  In 1956 there were 400 Jews who lived there. "By the 1960s, about 200 to 300 Jews remained in Bahrain, but once riots broke out again following the Six Day War in 1967, virtually the entire Jewish community left the country..  
                                                                          

 By 1980, very few remained.  Right now there are 36 left of which one, Houda Ezra Ebrahim Nonoo,  a woman, was their ambassador to the USA.  She was chosen in 2008. Her term was up November 2013.   The 36 still  have a synagogue, but it is not being used.  It's closed. One was destroyed in the 1948 riots.  Boys are sent to public school where all the students study the Koran.  Girls are sent to the American school.

These Jews cannot visit Israel if they so wanted to because they hold a Bahraini passport.  Actually, they show, at least publicly, no interest or ties to Israel. Houda said she only learned of the Holocaust when she was 14 years old.

 Since the Arab intifada of 2004, Oman closed their trade office and agreed to stop boycotting companies that dealt with Israeli companies in order to have a free-trade agreement with the USA

This is the same story as all the Middle Eastern countries have of their Jewish population.  Jews were held as Dhimmis, or 2nd-3rd class citizens, and when Israel was about to be created, rioting broke out in Palestine and all over against it from happening.  The result was that Jews were attacked and many were killed, which caused a great influx of Mizrachi Jews to flee to Israel, which is what it was set up to be, a haven for Jews who were being persecuted.  The Arab rioting and nonacceptance of Jews in what they considered to be Muslim only territory helped to expand the Jewish population of Israel.  Jews had been held back from entering Israel before by the British who allowed only Arabs to enter while they held the  mandate which was up on April 14, 1948.  That's when Israel announced it was officially a state, having been voted on in the UN and accepted.

Resource:  http://www.haaretz.com/jewish-world/meet-houda-ezra-ebrahim-nonoo-bahrain-s-jewish-u-s-ambassador-1.349208
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/vjw/bahrain.html
http://www.cnn.com/2014/02/06/world/meast/barhain-new-law/
http://www.cnn.com/2013/08/25/world/meast/bahrain-human-rights-activist/

Iran's Threat to Israel When Announcing Missile Tests This Week

Nadene Goldfoot
Iran threatened Israel in 2005 with Ahmadinejad saying that Israel must be wiped off the page of time-meaning wiped off the map.  Israel has been hearing threats like that since 1948, but not from people like Iran's leaders.  We know that allowing Iran to get nuclear arms would be a threat to Israel's existence.  We have 7 million people living there.  This cannot happen.

Iran just announced to the world that it will be doing 3 days of missile tests this week.  She expects to see this as a message that Iran is standing up to bullying and will respond to anything. " If Israel takes any action, that will be their excuse to wipe them off the face of the earth", said Hajizadeh, head of the guards' airborne division.  That could only mean decisive air-born attacks, and to wipe someone off the face of the earth implies atomic warfare, which is doubtful that they are prepared to do this weekend.  It sounds like they are goading Israel into acting, just like bullies do on the playground.

The missile tests will pretend to hit air bases in the region which of course are the USA's.  They think that if they show they can hit our bases there in the gulf, the USA will be afraid and won't support Israel.  They want to show that the USA ships are in Iran's range of missiles and weapons.

If anyone has threatened their oil markets, they turn around a threaten them with reprisals.

This threat come on the day Europe began enforcing an oil embargo and harsh new sanctions which is about time.  They will ban imports of Iranian oil by EU states and will make it difficult for other countries to trade with Iran that were enacted this year but only came into effect today.  That must have given the countries time to stock up on these supplies. The market affected in Iran is 18% of its exports.  EU companies area not to transport Iranian crude or even insuring shipments.  This should hurt its trade worldwide.  This is being done to seek a peaceful resolution  about Iran's nuclear program.  Jay Carney from the White House hopes Tehran will change their tune later this week in the talks in Istanbul.

The United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, unfriendly also with Iran whose countries face Iran on the Gulf have announced they will also have their own joint air force exercises today that will last for several days.

Now while threatening Israel that they can blow up their whole country from one side of their mouth, they are telling everyone that they are not seeking the bomb in their nuclear technologies.  Mahmoud Bahmani, governor of the Iranian central bank said that they are implementing programs to counter the sanctions.  In the meantime, his rial currency and rising inflation are taking effect, but that Iran has $150 billion in foreign reserve to protect them, so evidently he's not worried at all.

The last warning came from Ali Fadavi, Revolutionary Guards commander who said that Iran would equip its ships in the Strait of Hormuz with shorter-range missiles.  In other words, if anyone comes into their waters, they're going to be hit.

Resource:  news.yahoo.com/iran-threatens-israel-eu-sanctions-force-185016871.html