Showing posts with label Hussein. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Hussein. Show all posts

Friday, September 1, 2023

The Sherif of Jerusalem: Haj Amin al-Husseini, The Grand Mufti and How He Fought Against Jews

 Nadene Goldfoot                                                 

Hajj Mohammed Amin al-Husseini  (1893-1974) in Jerusalem, the son of the mufti of that city and prominent early opponent of Zionism, Tahir al-Husayni. The al-Husseini clan consisted of wealthy landowners in southern Palestine, centered around the district of Jerusalem. 

            Musa al-Husayni was the Mayor of Jerusalem and led the Palestinian national movement

Thirteen members of the clan had been Mayors of Jerusalem between 1864 and 1920.  Another member of the clan and Amin's half-brother, Kamil al-Husayni, also served as Mufti of Jerusalem.    Al-Husseini was the scion of the al-Husayni family of Jerusalemite Arab nobles, who trace their origins to the eponymous grandson of Muhammad.  Husayni (Arabicالحسيني also spelled Husseini) is the name of a prominent Palestinian Arab clan formerly based in Jerusalem, which claims descent from Husayn ibn Ali (the son of Ali). 

 al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAlī, (born January 626, Medina, Arabia [now in Saudi Arabia]—died October 10, 680, Karbalāʾ, Iraq), hero in Shiʿi Islamgrandson of the Prophet Muhammad through his daughter Fāṭimah and son-in-law ʿAlī (the first imam of the Shiʿah and the fourth of the Sunni Rashidun caliphs).

I would say that the Husseini and the Hussein families are like  the Hatfields and McCoys;  on opposing teams.  Islam split between Shi'i and Sunni because Mohammad did not leave a male heir.  Muslims follow the 2 different leaders.  



                             Abdulla I Hussein (1882-1951), king of TransJordan  His father was Husayn bin Ali.  

The question is if Amin is related to King of Jordan Hussein (reigned from 1946 to 

1951.   His son  eliminated the British officers from his Arab Legion

in 1956 and signed a pact with Egypt and Syria but later refrained from joining the Sinai Campaign with them.  He kept

his throne and in 1967 attacked Israel with the others, but his

army was defeated and they retreated from Eastern Palestine.  Then he was threatened by the Palestinians and Black September came about.   As a member of the Hashemite dynasty, the royal family of Jordan since 1921, Hussein was a 40th-generation direct descendant of Muhammad.                        

In 1936, as chairman of the Arab Supreme Council, Husseini organized the Palestine riots and for this he was sentenced to exile in 1937.  Instead, he fled to Lebanon, and during World War II, participated in Rashid Ali's pro-Axis coup in Iraq before going to Europe, where he assisted Hitler and was largely responsible for the liquidation of the Jews in the Moslem areas of Bosnia. 

 Rashid Ali Gaylani (1892–1965). Prime Minister of Iraq 1933, 1936–8, 1940–1 Born in Baghdad from a distinguished Sunni family, he graduated from Baghdad Law School. In 1924, he became Minister of Justice, and in 1925–8 he served as Minister of the Interior.  A group of increasingly powerful anti-British and pro-German colonels made Rashid Premier. His subsequent denial of help to the British army, and his expulsion of the Hashemite dynasty, led to the intervention by British forces, who deposed him and reinstated Faisal I. He fled to Nazi Germany, and remained in exile in Saudi Arabia until 1958, when he returned to support Qassem's revolutionary regime. He was soon linked with attempts to oust Qassem, for which he was sentenced to death. He was pardoned, and released from prison in 1961.


He was selected by Viscount Herbert Louis Samuel (1870-1963) of the British government in the cabinet since 1909,  to be the Sherif of Jerusalem.  Up till now, I have never understood why a Jew, the only one in Parliament, would do such a thing as to have chosen one of Israel's worst enemies from the Palestinian Arabs.  

Husseini's father, Tahir al-Husayni,  was an anti-Semite.  Born in Jerusalem to the al-Husayni family, Tahir was appointed the Qadi of Jerusalem in the 1860s by officials in the Ottoman Empire. From 1865 until his death, he held the post of Mufti of Jerusalem. Tahir sat on the committee of A'ayan scrutinising land sales to foreigners in the Jerusalem area, this in effect stopped land sales to Jews for a few years, beginning in 1897. When he died, his son Kamil became the Mufti of Jerusalem and later (1918) the Grand Mufti.

Samuel's father was 1st Viscount Marcus Bearsted Samuel  (1853-1927) an English industrialist.  He was responsible for the creation and following development of the Shell Oil Company and its important subsidiaries.   Shell plc is a British multinational oil and gas company headquartered in London, England. Shell is a public limited company with a primary listing on the London Stock Exchange and secondary listings on Euronext Amsterdam and the New York Stock Exchange.

Marcus was Lord Mayor of London from 1902-1903, ending when he refused to entertain officially the representative of the anti-Semitic Romanian government.  He was raised to the peerage in 1920.  Samuel was born into an Ashkenazi Jewish family from western Europe in WhitechapelLondon. His father, also named Marcus Samuel, ran a successful import-export business, M. Samuel & Co., trading with the coalition in the Far East, which Marcus carried on with his brother, Samuel Samuel. M. Samuel & Co launched the first Japanese gold sterling loan issued in London in 1897, and was largely concerned in the introduction of Japanese municipal loans, and in the development of the coal trade in Japan.   Samuel was lord mayor of London in 1902–03, the fifth Jew to hold this office. In 1921, he was made baron, and in 1925, Viscount Bearsted. Although holding no important Jewish communal offices, Samuel used his influence to help persecuted Jews.

           Colonel Walter Horace  Samuel was the son of Marcus Samuel, 1st Viscount Bearsted and his wife Fanny Elizabeth Samuel, brother to Viscount Herbert Louis Samuel .

His son, Walter Horace Samuel, 2nd Viscount b: 13 March 1882-8 November 1948) was active in philanthropic work, especially for the relief of refugees from Nazi Germany.  

 Samuel had done one good deed in that he had sent a memorandum to the Cabinet in 1914 concerning a British Trust for the Jewish Homeland which did influence the Balfour Declaration.  From 1920 to 1925 he himself was the 1st High Commissioner  for Palestine.

Both Samuel and Husseini had long family histories  of dealing with their present positions, only Husseini was determined to get rid of all the Jews as he saw them as threatening his position.  Samuel was only thinking of the control Husseini had and his high position;  not how he felt about Jews.  What a pair they were!  

Resource: 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Husayni_family

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

Thursday, June 2, 2022

Keeping Peace with Egypt and Jordan, First Members of Abrahamic Peace Accords

 Nadene Goldfoot                                     

   

Anwar Sadat was president of Egypt in 1979, the year peace was signed with Israel.   He was an Egyptian army officer and politician who was president of Egypt from 1970 until his assassination in 1981. He initiated serious peace negotiations with Israel, an achievement for which he shared the 1978 Nobel Prize for Peace with Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin. Under their leadership, Egypt and Israel made peace with each other in 1979.      

                                                                   

Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid (L) meets Egyptian Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Nabil Habashi (R) in Cairo, Egypt on 9 December 2021. [Shlomi Amsalem / Pool - Anadolu Agency]  They've had 43 years of peace between the 2 countries.  

Menachem Begin was PM of Israel in 1979 when Egypt signed the peace treaty with Israel.

"During all the wars against the Gaza Strip, the regime in Egypt sided with Israel and took an anti-Palestinian resistance stance in Gaza, except the 2012 war that took place during the reign of Morsi, who fully supported Gaza, " Sawaf explained.

The analyst said that situation worsened further when the Rafah crossing – connecting Gaza with Egypt – was closed following the Israeli aggression as punishment for the Palestinian resistance. He said the crossing was restored only after Hamas leaders threatened to suspend all agreements with the Egyptian side regarding security in Sinai.                     

Sadat with Jimmy Carter of US and Begin of Israel with Camp David Peace Accords in 1978.  
               

    King Hussein of Jordan (l) shares a smoke with Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin after the signing ceremony of the Israeli – Jordanian peace treaty. October 26. Photo credit: Reuters

Jordan celebrating their 25th anniversary of peace with Israel 

The treaty between Israel and Jordan in 1994 was the culmination of over thirty years of discreet engagement and cooperation, punctuated by periods of tension and conflict. It reflects a broad base of shared interests and of particular but complementary perspectives.

Yitzhak Rabin was the PM of Israel when Jordan signed their peace treaty with Israel.

Egypt signed a peace treaty with Israel  in 1979 and Jordan signed in 1994, a span of 15 years.  "Since then, both countries have maintained full diplomatic relations, as well as close, though clandestine, military and security cooperation."                                          

   Bill Clinton of USA with King Hussein and  Rabin of Israel

                                                 

U.S. President Bill Clinton (C) looks on as Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin (L) and Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) leader Yasser Arafat shake hands after the signing of the Israeli-PLO peace accord at the White House in this September 13, 1993 file photo. REUTERS/Gary Hershorn/Files (UNITED STATES - Tags: POLITICS TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY)ATTENTION EDITORS - THIS PICTURE IS PART OF PACKAGE '30 YEARS OF REUTERS PICTURES'TO FIND ALL 56 IMAGES SEARCH '30 YEARS' - LM2EB2A0WTA01
U.S. President Bill Clinton looks on as Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) leader Yasser Arafat shake hands after the signing of the Israeli-PLO peace accord at the White House in this September 13, 1993. Photo credit: Reuters

Security, normalized interactions, acceptance of Israel in the region, the right of Palestinian self determination, and the role of Egypt and Israel in the newly emerging Middle East setting were topics of discussion at a historical meeting which had taken place in May 1979, in Cairo.  About a dozen intellectuals from Israel and Egypt met to discuss these and related issues. 

They identified important areas in which they shared crucial common interests with Israel which were shown by the dangers and threats posed by the rise of radical and militant Islamist groups such as Islamic State (ISIS) and the various jihadist factions affiliated with al-Qaida and Hamas.

Israel saw that there was a big difference between perceptions of the three of them of these dangers and the reality facing Jordan to the east and particularly Egypt to the west.

ISIS was such a danger, causing the struggling in bloody battles in Syria and Iraq and turning its eyes on Jordan for future take-overs.  However, Israel's security sources saw no evidence of its presence then in the Hashemite Kingdom.  They thought that Jordan and Israel really needed a "peace" border to forstall future changes, having nothing like a fence between them at the time.  

The Egyptian border was not calm and had more cause to worry Israel, though they had a peace treaty for a longer time.  Israel completed a 200 km long fence from Eilat to Gaza in 2012. It's 3-4 meters (13.1234 feethigh equipped with electronic sensors and cameras.   

The fence was first designed to stop the flood of African immigrants and job seekers from Eritrea and Sudan that were invading the little Israel when 6,000 to 10,000 people-sometimes entire families--were able to easily infiltrate Israel from the Sinai Peninsula. PBS reported 60,000 sought refuge in Israel by 2013. Just 12 people managed to reach what is for them the "promised land" of Israel the next year from these African countries.  

From 2011 to 2014, the fence became the stop, or at least scaled down the threat of terrorism. The 'sand clock') referred to the fence built by Israel along its border with Egypt. Initial construction on the barrier began on 22 November 2010.

Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak's regime  in 2011 was toppled during the Arab Spring, and the installation of the Muslim Brotherhood regime of Mohamed Morse  In response, watch groups were organized by civilian vigilantes to protect their neighborhoods. On 11 February 2011, Vice President Omar Suleiman announced that Mubarak resigned as president, turning power over to the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF).  He was sentenced to death by an Egyptian court.                                   


A terrorist group emerged in Sinai calling itself Ansar Beit al-Maqdas, meaning Supporters of Jerusalem. Later in 2014, they renamed itself ISIS (Islamic State, also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, and by its Arabic acronym Daesh in the Sinai Province (SP)of the Islamic State, after pledging allegiance to ISIS and its leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.  Why?  Its ideology and hope for financial gain.  ISIS is a militant Islamist group and former unrecognized quasi-state that follows the Salafi jihadist branch of Sunni Islam.  

ISIS had split in 2012 from Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida and had introduced radical Islam.  Instead of advocating world terrorism with no borders, it preached the creation of territorial units that would follow  the fundamentalist 7th century ideas that ruled the region with the spread of Muhammad's Islam, more like Iran.  By 2014, ISIS conquered Iraq and Syria, spreading this view.  During 2015, SP militants killed 350 Egyptian soldiers, policemen, security servicemen and government officials. 

New York Times reported in August 2021 that An Islamic State (ISIS)  affiliate that is a sworn enemy of both the Taliban and the United States threatens a large-scale attack against the mission at the airport.  ISIS poses the biggest immediate terrorist threat to evacuation in Kabul, Afghanistan.   The United States has been battling the Taliban and their militant partners in Afghanistan, Al Qaeda and the Haqqani network, for 20 years.

                 Egypt and Jordan's view of Iran

Following the Egyptian Revolution of 2011, and the appointment of ambassadors after nearly 30 years, Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi made a historic first visit to Iran since the Iranian Revolution for the Non-Aligned Movement summit on 30 August 2012, where it handed over the rotating presidency to Iran. Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, also visited Egypt in February 2013, making him the first Iranian president to visit Egypt since the Iranian Revolution..                        

Part of Iran’s expansion effort, as the Jordanian monarch noted, includes the destabilization of Jordan from the north, where drug smugglers are already wreaking havoc. Jordan also faces a threat from the south, with Iranian assets reportedly operating in the Red Sea. This all amounts to a direct threat to both Saudi Arabia and Israel. Both view the Hashemite Kingdom as a valuable asset. Stability on their respective borders is something both countries will protect at great cost.

Building on the momentum of the Red Sea islands negotiations, the White House has an opportunity to push the two sides in the right direction. After Abdullah’s recent visit to Washington, the Biden administration has renewed its commitment to Jordanian security. Enlisting the help of Riyadh and Jerusalem, separately and together, is the next logical step. 

Resource:

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Anwar-Sadat

https://www.jstor.org/stable/173749

https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20220218-normalising-ties-with-israel-still-lacks-popular-support-in-egypt-says-analyst/

https://jiss.org.il/en/krasna-the-jordan-israel-peace-treaty-at-25/

The Jerusalem Report, March 23, 2015 , magazine

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/spc/unpromised-land/ 2013

https://www.brookings.edu/blog/order-from-chaos/2019/10/23/25-years-on-remembering-the-path-to-peace-for-jordan-and-israel/

https://thedispatch.com/p/jordan-has-an-iran-problem-can-israel?s=r

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Egyptian_revolution#:~:text=In%20response%2C%20watch%20groups%20were,the%20Armed%20Forces%20(SCAF).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egypt%E2%80%93Israel_barrier#:~:text='sand%20clock')%20refers%20to,from%20African%20countries%20into%20Israel.

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

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/25/us/politics/isis-terrorism-afghanistan-taliban.html

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

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egypt%E2%80%93Iran_relations#:~:text=Despite%20oft%2Dwavering%20tensions%20between,OIC%20and%20the%20Developing%208.&text=According%20to%20a%202013%20BBC,48%25%20expressing%20a%20negative%20view.



Tuesday, January 24, 2017

1967 When USA's CIA Involvement With Israel and Jordan's "West Bank" Was Routine

President Lyndon B. Johnson of USA during Israel's Six Day War
Nadene Goldfoot                                            
Prime Minister of Israel during Six Day War, Levi Eshkol
June 5th to June 11th, 1967 when Egypt, Jordan, Iraq and Syria's armies
attacked Israel.  
Back in 1967, the USA was "big brother" to Israel.  Israel had to keep them informed before they did anything  defensively when under attack.  It was like they had to ask permission before they acted.
                                                                       
Richard Helms, Director of CIA from 1966 to 1973
under Johnson and Nixon.  
For the past 10 years, there had been a UN Emergency Force standing between Egypt and Israel to keep the peace after the 1956 War.  Clashes continued along Israel's frontiers, but the frontier with Egypt remained the quietest.  The Gulf of Eilat was open to ships going to and from Israel, but all this was illusionary.  Underneath the Arabs were plotting again.

Arab hostility and hatred never slackened.  Egypt was again their leader in wanting to get even since Israel had won wars against them from the Arabs in 1948, and 1956 and all the attacks in between.
                                                                     
President Gamal Abd el Nasser of Egypt wrote letters to his co-conspirators such as:
WE BELIEVE THAT THE EVIL WHICH WAS PLACED IN THE HEART OF THE ARAB WORLD SHOULD BE ERADICATED !  This was sent to King Hussein of Jordan on March 13, 1961.

THE PROSPECTS ARE FOR WAR WITH ISRAEL.  IT IS WE WHO WILL DICTATE THE TIME.  IT IS WE WHO WILL DICTATE THE PLACE.  Nasser said this from Cairo on February 24, 1964.

THE ARAB NATIONAL AIM IS THE ELIMINATION OF ISRAEL. Nasser published this with President Aref of Iraq on May 25, 1965.
                                                                         
Nureddin al-Atassi President from 1966 to 1970 of Syria
born in Homs, Syria in 1929
1967 came and there was much tension between Syria and Israel because of this active policy of hostility towards Israel.  By the middle of May, the tension was exploited by the USSR, Egypt and Syria to produce the escalation which led to the Six-Day War of 1967.
                                                                               
Leonid Brezhnev, Chairman of Presidiuim of USSR Oct 1964 to November 1982
 shared power with Premier Alexei Kosygin 
 Egypt, Syria and the Soviet Union spread false reports of Israeli forces being on the Syrian frontier.  The UN gave out on the spot reports that they were not and that this was false reporting that was ignored.  The Arabs did this on purpose in order to have reason to menace Israel's borders.

Israel had launched a preemptive strike in the Sinai in 1956 without Washington's direct approval, and the CIA was angry about it.  Imagine-it was strike or be killed and Israel didn't have the time to waste to defend itself to have to call and wait for approval.  Now the CIA had been briefed from the Israeli embassy in Washington about Israel's plans to preempt an Arab invasion that was seen from their binoculars.  Egypt had already closed the Straits of Tiran on any ship trying to get to Israel.  The Arabs had formed a war pact against Israel and their soldiers were sitting along the frontiers with Israel.  Jordan's army was among them, being led by an Egyptian officer.  The Arabs were busy making speeches, and they publicly proclaimed that they were going to destroy Israel.

WE ARE RESOLVED, DETERMINED AND UNITED, TO ACHIEVE OUR CLEAR AIM OF WIPING ISRAEL OFF THE MAP...THIS IS THE DAY TO WASH AWAY THE STAIN.  GOD WILLING, WE SHALL MEET IN TEL AVIV AND HAIFA.  This was said on Radio Baghdad by President Aref of Iraq on June 1, 1967.  It was only one of other threatening comments.

Every major facet of the impeding campaign of the Israelis was first discussed in advance with the CIA including a strike against Syria.  The US government knew that Israel planned to attack the Golan Heights before it happened and gave them the OK.  Syria, who held it, was in thick with the Russians and was not a friend of the USA.  Jordan was different.  A CIA agent in Amman, Jordan leaked word to Jordan's King Hussein about the secret Israeli briefing, thinking this was good news.  He told Jordan that the Israelis would  counterattack only in the north and south against Egypt and Syria and not Jordan.

Israel had been under USA pressure to not send the IDF into Judea and Samaria (West Bank) which was their eastern border.  They would not do this as long as Jordan didn't attack Israel.  That way, Jordan would not lose the provinces of Judea, Samaria and the old city of Jerusalem that they held even though they had stolen these from Israel in 1948 as they had been part of the planned Jewish National Home being they were the Jewish original lands.

However, as many plans go astray, it turns out that of course Jordan was under pressure from the other Arabs to join in the attack against Israel, so they had to make a showing.  It was only about 9 miles from Israel to the ocean.  A Jordanian armored column could cut the country in half, King Hussein thought.

Hussein then sent Jordanian troops to attack from Syria while he promised the CIA that not a single Jordanian soldier would attack Israel from the West Bank.  Thus, the CIA told Israel that Jordan would not attack from the east..  Well, Israel does have Mossad and Mossad has spies, just like the CIA.  They found out quickly about the deal with Hussein and were furious!  This was a big deal to the safety plans for Israel.

Then Israel found out more.  The CIA had also made a deal with the Egyptians.  As it turns out, the CIA was actually acting like the messenger boy for others because the deal this time was made in the White House, Aramco and the other big players in the oil business who were concerned that American aid to Israel would alienate the Arab oil producers.

It wasn't enough that the White House was withholding military assistance to Israel in this coming war.  The Moslem world knew that the USA was still neutral but still  favored  Israel.  The oil men wanted some under-the-table help for the Arabs.
                                                                                 

At this time, Lyndon B. Johnson was President of the USA.   The oil producers got to LBJ or his closest person and asked if the president could throw the Arabs a bone.  They wanted to keep the oil flowing no matter what was going to happen.  So the White House approved a contingency plan to send the Arabs a little intelligence about the IDF; not too much, nothing that would change the balance of the war.  Their plans fell through and the small-scale contingency plan just expanded!  Only some of the staff in the WHITE HOUSE, the NATIONAL SECURITY AGENCY AND THE CIA knew what had happened, and they all accused each other of the leaks.  

The CIA had had few positive experiences  by 1967.  They were successful in 1949 with a Syrian coup, and installed the Shah of Iran in 1953, but they failed in rolling back communism and in keeping the Middle East safe for the oil companies.  They were failures with Egypt even though Kermit Roosevelt and Miles Copeland had worked on them for a long time to get Nasser to be their tame puppet.  Nasser was favoring the Soviets instead.  
                                                                       
USS Liberty, American ship attacked by Israel on June 8th, 1967
that had been spying on Israel with information for her enemies.  
Israel apologized for the attack, saying that the USS Liberty had been attacked in error after being mistaken for an Egyptian ship
In May 1968, the Israeli government paid US$3,323,500 (US$22.9 million 2017) in compensation to the families of the 34 men killed in the attack
 
It was back 1957, Roosevelt had sent CIA agents to bribe Nasser.  Roosevelt had left the CIA to head up Gulf Oil and had worked with Copeland in anti-Israel operations!  His CIA agents built Nasser a sophisticated communications tower in Cairo-right downtown.  Nasser took the CIA money and laughed as he called the tower "Kermit's phallic symbol" and kept on bringing in more Soviet advisers.  The CIA then bowed out to let in the National Security Agency.  They had in their basket of goodies, the ship:  USS Liberty.  This ship picked up 2 non-Jewish but Hebrew translators who were NSA employees from Spain and they headed for the eastern Mediterranean.  They were to spy on Israel and betray its secrets, all planned in advance.  The Liberty was a giant magnet for electronic intelligence.  The US embassy in Beirut could monitor all the radio traffic in all of Israel.  This embassy taped the Israeli pilots talking back and forth when the hit the Liberty.  The Egyptian embassy in Jordan could listen to radio traffic and they were closer than the Liberty was.  The Liberty was there in order to make a war map.  The ship could hear an IDF soldier on his walkie-talkie, record his voice and index it on  map.  It's called doing "raw intelligence take."   With such friends, who needs enemies?  It wasn't done to help out Israel.  In 1967, the British had planned to hand the Liberty's intelligence report to the Egyptians!  

Israel waited for 3 weeks from May 15th for international intervention to stop the escalation and remove the threat from its frontiers.  They were all incapable of effecting any change.  On June 5th, War broke out.

On June 4th, King Hussein had called Nasser to tell him that the CIA had just alerted him that the Israelis would attack in the morning.  Again, Nasser laughed off the CIA's betrayal of Israel's plans.  The Americans had called Wolf once too often.   The Egyptians stopped laughter on June 5th.

King Hussein was angry with the CIA, ignoring the fact that he had lied to them about not attacking.  Jordan had also been shooting in Jerusalem before Israel had fired one shot at Jordan.  The Jordanians had also had an air attack on Israel before the war even started.

Israel destroyed the armies along its frontiers and were menacing its vital centers.  Cease-fire lines were established along the Suez Canal, the Jordan River and the Golan Heights.  The Straits of Tiran were open to navigation and Jerusalem was finally re-unified like it was in 1947-48.

In 6 days Israel had won, despite all the conniving against her from her "friends."  Which tells  you something;  Israel as been rightly needing its friends but must rely on itself also, as it has done, knowing it has G-d's help.  And as we know, G-d helps those who help themselves.
                                                                     
Levi Shkolnik in 1920's Palestine
Israel's Prime Minister was Levi Eshkol, originally Shkolnik, born in Kiev, Ukraine in 1895-part of the Pale of Settlement.  His father's family were from Vilnius, Lithuania and mother was from a Hasidic family.  He had made aliyah in 1914 to Palestine.  He died in 1969 at age 73.  I believe this was one of the tensest of times in Israel's history.  The decisions he had to make and at the same time to make sure the USA was kept in the loop must have been horrendous to most of us.  He was there at the right time to see it through.

Resource:  p. 46 Facts About Israel, Division of Information, Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Jerusalem, Israel
Book:  The Secret War Against the Jews" by John Loftus and Mark Aarons:  How western espionage betrayed the Jewish people.  1994
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Levi_Eshkol
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Presidents_of_Syria#/media/File:Nureddin_Atassi.jpg
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Liberty_incident

Sunday, May 4, 2014

Jordan, Sitting on the Edge of Peace

Nadene Goldfoot                                                          

July 25, 1994 with King Hussein I of Jordan;  President Bill Clinton of USA, PM Yitzhak Rabin of Israel This was when the 3 signed the peace treaty with Israel.  

Who has lived traditionally in the land where Jordan now lies? The kingdoms of Edom, Moab, Ammon, Israel and also the Amalekites had lived there   They were all Semitic Canaanite-speakers.   

The Kingdom of Jordan comes from 1921's area that was called Transjordan.  It was detached from the area originally taken by Abdullah, of the Hashemite Kingdom for himself that was designated through the Palestine Mandate to be part of the Jewish National Homeland. Abdullah was a Hashemite, which was a clan of Hashim, Banu Hashim, an Arabian clan which was part of the Quraysh tribe of Arabia.  The English owed Abdullah for helping them fight against the Germans.  They owed the Jews, too, and had given their promise to create the Jewish Homeland out of Palestine.  The Jews wound up with 20% of "their" homeland while the Arabs go 80% of it and are still complaining as they want the remaining 20% that happens to be Israel.  After all, 8,000 square miles of Israel is not a big chunk.

 "In September 1922, Transjordan was officially formed from the British Mandate of Palestine, once the League of Nations sanctioned the British Transjordan proposal which laid down that the Mandate regions to the east of the Jordan River would be kept out from all the stipulations taking care of Jewish colony. Transjordan was governed as a semi-independent province by as-Sayyid Abdullah bin al-Husayn, who was nominated as Emir by the British Government in 1921. After independence, he was made known as King Abdullah I, also Abdullah the Founder."
                                                                   
                                                              King Abdullah II of Jordan

 The Hashemites trace their lineage of DNA to J1ca3d  haplotype which goes back to Mohammad. " The Hashemite royals of Jordan are descended from Al-Hassan bin Ali's (ra) son Al-Hasan al-Muthanna."  The wisest move was that Abdullah I had become the king and not his half brother, Faisal who was a rebel to the idea of peace with Jews.  They have maintained peaceful coexistence since after the 73 War, 41 years ago.  When they reach the 50 year mark I hope both celebrate with a great Jubilee.

The nation was under British control till after the Second World War. The British authorities urged the United Nations in 1946 to endorse a conclusion to British Mandate regime in the territory.  So, in 1946 the British handed over the reigns to Jordan.  They celebrate May 25th as their Independence Day.  This year they will celebrate 68 years of being a state.

In 1948 Abdullah annexed the eastern part of Cisjordan (Judea and Samaria)  which had been designated by the UN as a separate state.  It made up almost 80% of the Jewish Homeland promised, however.  It was now proclaimed as "The Kingdom of Jordan. and he was the king.

 Judea was  formed when King Solomon, the Jewish king, died in 920 BCE.  It came under Roman rule in 63 BCE and was renamed Palaestina in 135 CE when the 3 year battle of Bar Kokhba was finished with Kokhba's death.  For 400 years till 1917, it had been under Ottoman Empire rule of Turkey.  The Empire had sided with the Germans in WWI and lost the war to the Allies (England, USA, France, etc)  Samaria had become the capital of Israel when Judah was formed and included the surrounding lands.  What people call "The West Bank" was the original land  of Israel and Judah.  Originally it had all been Israel, but Judah broke away the southern part to become Judah.

I've often wondered why Jews didn't settle in Judea/Samaria first when they started to return in the 1880's during the first aliyah.  Most Jews who had never left were living in Jerusalem and Safed, two cities that had a high elevation and were more tolerable in the immense heat of the Middle East.  These were the preferable centers in the 1500's.  They were also holy cities.  When Russian Jews returned, they came by ships who entered ports, and there Jews remained till they had their bearings.  Meyer Levin's book, "The Settlers" tells about how the immigrants spread out all over the land and developed towns and cities as well as a kibbutz and later a moshav.  If we Americans think we had problems pioneering our West, you should see what they also went through.  They had very similar problems except that the Ottoman Empire did have some sort of government control going on and they came down pretty hard on the Jewish settlers.  Then again, the Sephari Jews returned at the creation of Israel in 1948 when they were tossed out of their states because of this, so came to Israel and found refuge where there were vacancies and jobs.  

From 1952 the country of Jordan was ruled by Abdullah's  grandson, Hussein.

By 1967, Hussein entered the Six-Day War with Egypt and Syria against Israel but the Arabs lost which meant that Israel took over Judea and Samaria, the ancient homeland of the Jews.

 In 1970 he was forced to expel the PLO (Palestine Liberation Organization under Arafat) from his country because they tried to take over in what was called Black September. The war lasted from September 1970 to July 1971.   Later reconciled with the old leader.  In fact, there exists 2 states today, Israel and Jordan which is basically the Palestine state right next to Israel.  He doesn't want anymore Palestinians entering his state.  Who acted as a protector of Judea and Samaria?  Why, Hussein, of course.  A change of heart happened and in 1988 he announced that he was not going to act as their protector anymore and was leaving it to the PLO to manage.  His own supporters come from the Bedouin tribesmen of Jordan while a majority of the population are Palestinians.

" Wadi Araba Treaty) was signed in 1994. The signing ceremony took place at the southern border crossing of Arabah on 26 October 1994. Jordan was the second Arab country, after Egypt, to sign peace accord with Israel.  The treaty settled relations between the two countries, adjusted land and water disputes, and provided for broad cooperation in tourism and trade. It included a pledge that neither Jordan nor Israel would allow its territory to become a staging ground for military strikes by a third country.
The population of Jordan is about 5,568, 565 with about 95% being Sunni Muslims.  Islam is their state religion, of course.  They now face a new danger of al Qaeda and other terrorists from a takeover. The real danger lies in the Muslim Brotherhood who will try to overcome the government.  Jordan is also facing Syria's refugee problem by building several refugee camps for them.   Zaatari Refugee Camp was built in 2012 and held 144,000 by 2013.  It's like a large city in size. Jordan  built another camp to hold 130,000.   "UNHCR remains responsible for the refugees and the camps are managed by the Jordanian Hashemite Charity Organization / JHCO.   In March 2013 the UNHCR called the German Mr Kilian Kleinschmidt to be the "Senior Field Coordinator" of the first camp."  Food is a scarce commodity. 

Resource:  The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel%E2%80%93Jordan_peace_treaty
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jordan
http://www.kinghussein.gov.jo/jordan.html
http://www.mapsofworld.com/jordan/independence-day.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_September_in_Jordan
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hashemite
http://www.merip.org/mer/mer236/jordans-new-political-development-strategy
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zaatari_refugee_camp
Messages From a Syrian Jew Trapped in Egypt by Nadene Goldfoot, Jack Huffman-detail on Syrian refugee camps.