Nadene Goldfoot
Gaza is located 2 miles from the sea along the seacoast. It was captured by the enemy of the Israelites, the Philistines in 1200 BCE.
, and remained the most important of their 5 coastal cities where they housed their temple of Dagon, an important aspect of their religious acts.
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After arriving in Canaan, the Exodus of Israelites found that the land of Gaza was allotted to the tribe of Judah but remained in Philistine hands and was the place of the imprisonment and death of Samson, an Israelite strong man through his hair and Judge, son of Manoah of the tribe of Dan, a Nazirite from birth, and his feats against the Philistines, expressed the Israelites' desire for freedom from the Philistine suzserainty. he fell into Philistine hands as a result of the deceit of his love, of Delilah who betrayed his secret of his strength.
In 720 BCE when Assyria attacked Israel, it was annexed by Sargon of Assyria and in 521 BCE, by Cambyses of Persia. Alexander the Great recolonized it as a Hellenistic city in 332 BCE. In 198 BCE it was annexed by Antiochus III of Syria. Like a ping pong ball, it was independent in 110 BCE and then captured by Alexander Yannai in 96 BCE, becoming a free city by General Pompey of Rome in 61 BCE.
The Jews moved there throughout the Middle Ages, as did Samaritan community until its capture by Napoleon in 1799 CE. It became the center of Sabbetaism in the 17th century. The Jewish people left Gaza in 1917 at the beginning of WWI with some returning who then left during the 1929 Arab uprisings: a week of fighting and riots that took place in Palestine in late August 1929, between Arabs on the one hand and Jews and Mandatory security forces on the other. The immediate cause of the events was violence resulting from friction over Jewish prayer rights in the Western Wall (Wailing Wall) in Jerusalem.
For over 2,000 years, Jews have wanted to return to their homeland but felt they lacked the backing to do so until after many pogroms in Russia and eastern Europe occurred, made the realize that they, a small number remaining of the one Empire of Israel, would be gone. Finally, World War I provided them the chance to return being the English were winning and would be in charge of the once Ottoman Empire's land. The British held a 30 year mandate over Palestine. The Jews, after many meetings forms and letters, waited those 30 years, and finally were able to pronounce that they arrive home on May 14, 1948 !
Gaza City became the main city in the Gaza Strip with a population in 1949 of 30,000. It had enlarged with many returning refugees. By November 1956 it was captured by Israel forces who remained there until March 1957 in the War. In 1967 Six Day War it was under Israel rule. Just a few years after the Nazis had killed six million Jews, the dream of establishing a state in their biblical homeland had come true. Palestinians call 1948 "al-Nakba", or "the Catastrophe". For Jews, it was a blessed miracle !!!
Up to 750,000 Palestinians fled or were expelled from the land that became Israel, and were never allowed back by their own leadership. Instead, they wound up in refugee camps. A meeting in Africa by all the Muslim states had resorted to saying their 3 famous No's; The Arab League summit in Khartoum, Sudan, ends with the signing of the
A census taken later that year gave its population at 119,000. The population has since soared, since the people practice having 4 wives at one time. That means that the usual growth of a population elsewhere of 0+X=4 (man and woman and 2 children). In Gaza it was 0+X=40 (each wife having 10 children, usually). Another million Arabs were added after the Six-Day War and led to new tensions caused by external Arab forces present.
The Arabs in Gaza became acutely conscious of their Palestinian identity and identified to a large extent with the PALESTINE LIBERATION ORGANIZATION or the fundamentalist Moslem movement. They demanded an independent Palestinian State which received much international backing and led to considerable pressure on Israel who was involved in the Oslo agreement allowing Jewish settlements in Administered Areas. On September 13, 1993, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and
Not only the growth in population by birth, but the English were allowing Arabs into the land while keeps out Jews, who were to have help from the English in the creating of a Jewish Homeland once again ! Many lives were lost during WWII that remained on their heads of not allowing Jews escaping the Holocaust to be returned back to Germany by the British !
In 2005, Israel, overcoming huge political pushback domestically and the terror onslaught during the Second Intifada, withdrew from the Gaza Strip, dismantling its settlements and military installations in the name of peace, and giving it to the Arabs to live. The Jewish population there left businesses and homes for the Arabs, who destroyed them. Then they started attacking Israelis from Gaza and haven't stopped since. Israelis will not repeat this act of peace again since it has only provided a platform from which to attack. Talk about biting the hand that feeds you....
Obama, with his first act to fly to Egypt to speak with the Arabs of Palestine. At the White House in May 2009, Obama told deputy national security advisor Ben Rhodes, and National Security Council spokesperson Denis McDonough that he intended to deliver a speech to the Muslim world from Egypt's capital Cairo. He did, and the result was them getting to vote, which they had no previous experience in doing, to vote for the people who would be their government, and they voted in Hamas over the Palestine Authority.
Obama said a two state solution was a priority, Benyamin Netanyahu did not explicitly endorse the creation of Palestinian state. Netanyahu said Israel has the right to continue settlements, whereas Obama called for settlement growth to be frozen. Obama also stated a "range of steps" are still available against Iran, including sanctions, if it continues its nuclear program. Hamas turned out to be terrorists.
After October 7th even the most leftist Israeli may have changed their attitude by having a 2 state solution right now as a reward for insane slaughtering of the Jewish people. The only people for it are the older American leaders along with the Europeans; not Jews. What the Palestinian Arabs should have done was what the Arabs who have become part of the Abrahamic Accords have done, accept Israel as one of them, which we are. Instead, they stuck with their 3 No's.
Today, Gaza is in rubble due to Hamas terrorists who had taken over politically and every other way. The Arabs want to return but there is nothing to return to. Trump, in presidential position on his 2nd day on January 25th , called for Jordan and Egypt to take more Gazan refugees into their country, thereby "cleaning" out Gaza. “Something has to happen,” the president said. “But it’s literally a demolition site right now. Almost everything’s demolished, and people are dying there.” Israel went overboard warning Palestinians of danger, trying to keep them safe, but Hamas terrorists, who are the children of the Palestinian Arabs, kept arms in schools, mosques, hospitals, even individual homes, where Arabs congregated, and put them all in harms way.
Their way of thinking is different; they will meet up with 70 virgins in Paradise if they die in battle. Israelis do everything they can to preserve life (L'chaim !) using bomb shelters everywhere.
Everyone is meeting, especially in Qatar, about what to do with Hamas and Palestinians. ILTV sits down with Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus to discuss IDF strategy and military conduct within the Gaza strip. Jonathan is my favorite go to commentator about the Gazan situation. Conricus is the son of an Israeli mother and a Swedish father. He was born in Jerusalem, Israel, and raised in Malmö, Sweden--in Hyllie and Djupadal. His grandfather, Daniel Bornstein, grew up in Oswiecim in Poland, where the Germans built the Auschwitz concentration camp, and was a Holocaust survivor along with his sister. The rest of Bornstein's family was murdered.
Jonathan Conricus (יהונתן קונריקוס; born 1979) is a Swedish-Israeli spokesperson and media commentator. He was the international spokesperson of the Israel Defense Forces from 2017 to 2021. Conricus is a senior fellow at the think tank Foundation for Defense of Democracies, based in Washington, DC, in the United States. He was an officer in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), in which he served for 24 years. He is still being interviewed and gives excellent interpretations of what's going on. Not only that, but like Netanyahu, his English is perfect.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VsV0xY1fyg4 Conricus on Gaza:
Jonathan joins i24 News to discuss the release of Israeli hostages, aid in Gaza, Hezbollah's opposition to a ceasefire extension, the redesignation of Houthis as a terrorist organization, IDF operations in the West Bank, and more.
Resource:
The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philistines#:~:text=1200%20BC.,Ashkelon%2C%20Ekron%2C%20and%20Gath.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Conricus
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