Suez Canal's Sudden Importance To China, Iran, And Israel

 Nadene Goldfoot                                             

Information coming to us is that Iran's present meshugana government be as it is, is looking into using the Suez Canal for shipping. They have competition going on already.  

Officially, Israeli-registered ships and vessels carrying cargo to or from Israeli ports are permitted to use the Suez Canal under the 1979 Egypt-Israel Peace Treaty.

 However, in practice, Israeli-affiliated commercial shipping frequently faces severe logistical hurdles, delays, and security risks when navigating the region.

   Follow the red line: Mediterranean Sea and Indian Ocean 

In late June, shortly after the United States and Iran agreed on a ceasefire, the International Maritime Organization (IMO) announced an operation to move trapped ships and more than 11,000 seafarers out of the Strait of Hormuz. The strategic international waterway has been effectively closed by the Iranian regime since the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran at the end of February.President Trump's assertion last week, which he quickly backed away from, that the U.S. could control the Strait of Hormuz and collect tolls itself, likely did little to quell concerns about the independence of international waterways.

The canal was strategically important, as it provided the shortest ocean link between the Mediterranean Sea and the Indian Ocean.

Historically, there is: The Blockade Era: From 1948 until the 1979 peace treaty, Egypt strictly prohibited all Israeli shipping and cargo bound for Israel from passing through the canal, a major source of tension that led to the Suez Crisis. 

The Suez Crisis, also known as the second Arab–Israeli war, the Tripartite Aggression in the Arab world and the Sinai War in Israel, was a British–French–Israeli invasion of Egypt in 1956. Israel invaded on 29 October, with the primary objective of re-opening the Straits of Tiran and the Gulf of Aqaba as the recent tightening of the eight-year-long Egyptian blockade further prevented Israeli passage. After issuing a joint ultimatum for a ceasefire, the United Kingdom and France joined the Israelis on 31 October, seeking to depose Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser and regain control of the Suez Canal, which Nasser had nationalised earlier in the year.

The Right of Passage: The 1979 peace treaty normalized relations and legally secured Israeli passage through the Suez Canal, formally opening the route to Israeli vessels. 

                                   CIA map 1996 SW Asia

Current Challenges: While the waterway remains vital for global trade, geopolitical tensions, fluctuating tolls, and recent Red Sea security crises make transit unpredictable. Consequently, Israel has explored alternatives like the proposed Ben Gurion Canal project to bypass Egyptian-controlled waters entirely.  The Ben Gurion Canal is a proposed $16 billion to $100 billion mega-project to carve a 160-mile waterway across the Negev Desert, connecting the Red Sea (Eilat) to the Mediterranean Sea. Conceived in the 1960s, it has resurfaced as a strategic alternative to the Suez Canal to bypass Houthi threats and challenge Egypt's regional trade monopoly. The project remains heavily conceptual, with no active construction or finalized official blueprints. Experts debate its feasibility, as the harsh desert terrain, logistical hurdles of carving through solid rock, and the immense financial cost present massive obstacles to the canal ever moving past the proposal stage.

Special Treatment: Iranian officials have indicated that while new fees will be charged for ships using the Strait of Hormuz, "friendly" nations such as China will receive special considerations. Beijing has generally viewed open passage as being compatible with regional toll or service fee mechanisms. 

China's Resilience: Despite the severe impact of blockades on global markets, China is uniquely positioned to weather the crisis. Thanks to extensive strategic petroleum reserves, a massive electrified transportation sector, and robust clean-energy dominance, China has avoided the worst of the economic shocks.

Geopolitical Stance: China has criticized the U.S. and Israeli naval actions but has used the crisis to promote itself as a stable global partner rather than engaging in direct military confrontation.

Resource:

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

Jews in Palestine and the British During World War 2 Part VI

 Nadene Goldfoot                                                   

World War II started on September 1, 1939, initiated by Adolf Hitler.  In only 10 months, he conquered all of Europe.  

Then He went to North Africa.  His goal was to cut off the supply lines of Great Britain by capturing the Suez Canal.  From Suez, it would be a short leap to Palestine, where he could exterminate the Jews, just as he was murdering them in Europe.  

From Palestine, he also could easily swallow up the oil fields of the Middle East.  

The Arabs were eager for a Nazi victory.  some of the Arab leaders gave only quiet support to the German cause.  Others worked actively for Hitler.  One spent the war in Berlin, broadcasting to the Arab people the order to "RISE UP AGAINST BRITAIN AND HER ALLIES."

                                               

     Muhammad Anwar el-Sadat December 25, 1918-October 6, 1981 

The British arrested those who were pro-Nazi when they could.  One of those sent to prison was Anwar Sadat, a man destined to become a key figure in the history of the Middle East. 

The Striking arm of the Haganah, set up in May 1941, The Palmach Unit, here some of 300 pictures as yet unidentified.  They worked until May 1948 underground, and became part of IDF upon statehood.  

Nazis were also setting up bases in Syria.  the British wanted these bases destroyed, but could not spare soldiers for the task.  They turned to the Yishuv for a solution.  A special Jewish strike force was created by the Haganah.  The new group was called  THE PALMACH.  It was a very efficient commando unit, and soon the enemy bases in Syria were in ruins.                                    

Still, the Germans in North Africa marched east, closer and closer to the vital Suez Canal.  The British took their stand at El Alamein, just 70 miles west of Alexandria, Egypt, and only 200 miles from the Suez Canal.  The British army, joined by many Jews of the Yishuv, held its ground.  the Nazi advance was at last turned back.  The tide of war began to turn in favor of the Allies.  The Suez Canal---and the Yishuv, were safe.

Now that Britain no longer needed the help of the Jews of Palestine, it promptly extended a hand of friendship to the Arabs.  The pro-Nazi Arabs were treated as allies.  The Jews who had helped defend the Suez Canal were treated as enemies.  Though the British needed solders, they said they would accept volunteers from Palestine only if Jews and Arabs enlisted in equal numbers.  Very few Arabs were interested in fighting the Nazis, while thousands of Palestinian Jews were eager to help destroy Hitler.  By insisting on being "even-handed," the British kept many Jews from fighting to save their fellow Jews in Europe.

It was September 1944 before an official Jewish army unit was permitted.  the Jewish Brigade fought valiantly, was one of the 1st units to make contact with survivors of the Nazi death camps, and played an important role in rescuing and caring for Jewish survivors.

                                             

Moshe Dayan, (May 20, 1915-October 16, 1981) a founder of the Palmach, later one of Israel's great leaders. 

Britain's constantly shifting attitudes had a deep effect on a man who one day became one of Israel's great military leaders.  The man was Moshe Dayan.  He was the 1st child born in Palestine's 1st communal kibbutzim, Degania Alef.  From his early years, he took part in the Yishuv's defense, and joined the Haganah. When WWII erupted, the British were afraid that the Haganah would fight the Arabs while the British were fighting Germany.  Dayan and 42 other Haganah officers were arrested and sentenced to 10 years in prison. Then the British realized they needed a Jewish task force to attack Syria, so they released the Haganah men.                          

Dayan was brave.  In one battle, he alone captured 12 enemy soldiers.  In another shootout, he lost his eye, and always wore a black patch over it afterwards.  Britain took back the weapons loaned to the Jews when they no longer needed their help.  Needing them against the Arab attacks, the Palmach broke into the British arsenal and stole them back.  The British retaliated by outlawing the Palmach and the Haganah.  Dayan and the Jewish Defense Force continued their operations, but now trained and organized in secret.   The British had ignored the very reason they were in Palestine in the 1st place:  to assist the JEWS in creating their Jewish Homeland.   In direct defiance of the British authorities, the Haganah continued to smuggle refugees into Palestine.  A 1939 poster showed the names and faces of 43 Jewish fighters who had been captured and sent to British jails.  

                                                   

The Haganah brought Jews from Europe to Palestine. The British White Paper of 1939 had announced that Jewish immigration to Palestine would be cut to 15,000 a year.  They kept to this number even knowng that the Nazis were exterminating more than 15,000 Jews every few days.  The Haganah smuggled Jews in.  By May 14, 1948, more than 100,000 Jews had been saved "illegally" from death. 

The whole world was closed to the Jews in their greatest time of need.  They couldn't survive in Europe.  A few entered Palestine--legally and illegally.  A handful was admitted to USA.  Some found refuge in isolated places like Hong Kong and Shanghai, China. For 6 million, there was no escape.  Only the Jews in the USA were safe-as long as the country was untouched.             

   In Hamburg, Jews boarded the SS St. Louis, headed for Palestine.

                                            

Tragedy came to 2 ships with Jewish refugees escaping death.  The SS St. Louis crossed the Atlantic just before the war, and was refused by the USA, Canada and all of Latin America.  It had to return to Hamburg, Germany and its passengers were murdered by the Nazis.  On 13 May 1939, more than 900 Jews fled Germany aboard a luxury cruise liner, the SS St Louis. They hoped to reach Cuba and then travel to the US - but were turned away in Havana and forced to return to Europe, where more than 250 were killed by the Nazis. By early 1939, the Nazis had closed most of Germany's borders and many countries had imposed quotas limiting the number of Jewish refugees they would allow in.

Cuba was seen as a temporary transit point to get to America and officials at the Cuban embassy in Berlin were offering visas for about $200 or $300 each - $3,000 to $5,000 (£1,800 to £3,000) at today's prices.

                                                  

The 2nd refugee ship, the Struma, old and rickety, escaped from Rumania in 1941.  The British would not permit it to land in Palestine.  It was kept in a Turkish harbor for 2 months, people hungry and panicky.  It was towed out to sea  where it sank.  More than 700 men, women, and children drowned because no one would give these Jews a corner of land on which to live.            

Born in Budapest on July 17, 1921, to a wealthy, distinguished, and assimilated Hungarian Jewish family, Hannah Szenes escaped the anti-Semitism she experienced in Hungary and joined a kibbutz at Caesarea in Palestine.

                                         

The war dragged on.  Hannah Senesch left her family in Hungary at the age of 18 and settled in Palestine.  WWII broke out a few months later.  She wanted to return to Europe and rescue her mother and others.  She joined a group of 32 young Jews who parachuted into Nazi-occupied Europe.  Several stole some Hungarian uniforms.  They took charge of arrested Jews in Hungary after landing.  Hanna was betrayed and arrested by the Nazis. Szenes was arrested at the Hungarian border by Hungarian gendarmes. She was imprisoned and tortured, but refused to reveal details of her mission. She died by a firing squad at age 23.  Her poem tells it all;  Blessed Is the Match, which became known and loved throughout Israel.  

“Blessed is the match, consumed in kindling flame.
Blessed is the flame that burns in the heart's secret places.
Blessed is the heart that knows, for honors sake, to stop its beating.
Blessed is the match, consumed in kindling flame.”

                                                                         

― Hannah Senesh

Resource:

A Young Person's History of Israel, 2nd edition, by David Bamberger

The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia

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

https://www.amazon.com/Blessed-Match-Death-Hannah-Senesh/dp/B003LB2AFI

https://www.pbs.org/independentlens/documentaries/blessed-is-the-match/

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

https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/hannah-senesh

Chaim Weizmann; First President of the State of Israel, in World War I in Palestine (Part II)

Nadene Goldfoot                                                   

Chaim Weizmann, 1st president of the state of Israel: (b:1874 in Motel city, near Pinsk, Brest Region of Belarus-d: 1952), about my paternal grandfather, Nathan Abraham Goldfus's age who was born in Telsiai, Lithuania. Later, this will all be referred to as the Russian Empire.  Answering a census question will be the answer, born in Russia.  Chaim is buried in Rehovot, Israel where the national project, YAD CHAIM WEIZMANN has been erected in his memory.  WEIZMANN INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE.   It's a research institute, dedicated in 1949.  

                                                 

Chaim Weizmann grew up in a family that dreamed of a rebuilt Zion even before the Zionist movement existed.  He organized support for the movement, and attended all but the first of the World Zionist Congresses.  Chaim soon became a World Zionist leader.  He was not yet 30 when he led the opposition to Herzl's plan for a temporary homeland in Uganda.  

It was in 1903 that Herzl bought into England's offer of this African state being anti-Semitism had become so terrible. The Uganda Scheme was a proposal presented at the Sixth World Zionist Congress in Basel in 1903 by Zionism founder Theodor Herzl to create a Jewish homeland in a portion of British East Africa. He presented it as a temporary refuge for Jews to escape rising antisemitism in Europe. 

                                               

At the congress the proposal met stiff resistance. To those attending, this was simply a band-aid.  They wanted the permanent solution of their land in Palestine.  The only problem was it was in the hands of the Ottoman Empire, but they had had about 3 groups of Jews who had returned and were living there already, the people who made Aliyah. The large-scale immigration of Jews to Palestine began in 1882.  

The pronounced persecution of Russian Jews between 1881 and 1910 led to a large wave of emigration. Since only a small portion of East European Jews had adopted Zionism by then, between 1881 and 1914 only 30–40,000 emigrants went to Ottoman Palestine, while over one and a half million Russian Jews and 300,000 from Austria-Hungary reached Northern America, my paternal grandparents among them.

Why didn't more go to Palestine and live under the Ottoman Empire? The USA was so enticing, so free, and streets were already there, paved with gold.  Going to Palestine was almost like going to conditions that Uganda had to offer.  Read:  THE SETTLERS, by Meyer Levin.  (about Palestine from the turn of the century to the Balfour Declaration, Nov 2, 1917)

WWI had brought terrible misery.  In 1914, the Jewish population in Eretz Yisrael was 85,000.  At the end of the war, it was fewer than 55,000.  Nearly 1/3 had died of starvation, illness, or exposure.  But they achieved by proving they could be equals in anything that a great power could undertake, even in the longest and bloodiest war the world had yet known.  They gained self-confidence.  In this end, great Britain, with the support of the USA, had declared that the Jews were entitled to a national home in Palestine.       

They had also made common cause with the Arabs, another group long oppressed by the Turks.  During the war, Chaim Weizmann had met with Emir Feisal, on of the most important of the Arab leaders.  The 2 men had agreed that there was room enough in Palestine to fulfill the dreams of both Arabs and Jews.                                              

Lord Balfour (1848-1930) who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1902 to 1905. with which Herzl negotiated in 1902-3.  He was Foreign Secretary in 1917 and issued the Balfour Declaration, and was always outspokenly devoted to the Zionist ideal.  

Weizmann's work as a research chemist had brought him to England, where he met a leading British statesman, Lord Arthur James Balfour.  Balfour tried to convince Weizmann that the Jews should accept Britain's off of a homeland in Uganda. 

It was Weizmann who convinced Balfour that Palestine was the only place that could mobilize the loyalty, energy and commitment of the Jewish people.  This was the reason that submerging themselves in other people's countries didn't help the Jewish soul. Look what happened in England.  Jews had been thrown out of the country from 1290 to 1655;  365 years of not being allowed to enter!  Countries had been turning against Jews.  If they weren't expelled, they were being forcibly converted.  Those that remained were suffering from pogroms.   They had to get back to their origins.  Balfour became an enthusiastic Zionist.

During World War I, the British had a problem which only a chemist could solve.  The  country needed a steady supply of the chemical acetone to make ammunition.  before the war, this chemical had come from Germany.  Where would the acetone come from to fight Germany?

Weizmann was able to provide the answer.  He succeeded in producing acetone from corn, which was plentiful in England.  through his political and chemical work, Weizmann came to know most of the political figures in England.  the time would come when these contacts would help the Zionist cause.                         

          The Ottoman-German attack on the Suez Canal

The Turks launched 2 attacks on the Suez Canal, something important to England as it was the key link between Britain and India, connecting the Mediterranean to the Red Sea, which cut the shipping distance from England to India by more than 4,000 miles.  The British didn't trust the Egyptians to defend the Canal, but an excellent defense, however, would be a strong Jewish settlement in Palestine.

                                             

This map shows the land of Palestine-but Jews got only 10% of it for their Jewish Homeland.  All the decision-making in dividing it was not considering the where the Jewish ancient homeland laid.  They barely included Jerusalem and then argued over it, ignoring where Judea and Samaria was (Israel's ancient homeland.)  The Jews had miraculously created Tel Aviv by then on the coast.  Tel Aviv was started in 1909.  By 1921 it was a separate town from Jaffa, where it had been a garden suburb.  

On 2 November 1917, British Foreign Secretary, Lord Arthur Balfour, issued a statement of British government policy, which has since become known as the Balfour Declaration. It stated: "His Majesty's government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavors to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country."

The Declaration's promise of a homeland for the Jews was later accepted internationally and incorporated into various resolutions.

The Balfour Declaration, encouraging and allowing Jewish immigration, was on the docket.  A small but influential group of wealthy but Hellenized English Jews fought this move. They were afraid Zionism might damage their position in England where they enjoyed full political rights for only one generation!  Now, Zionists were showing loyalty to Palestine!                            

The President of the USA, Woodrow Wilson, cabled the British government his approval of a Jewish homeland.  This broke the deadlock.  On November 2, 1917, Lord Balfour, by then Foreign Secretary of Great Britain, issued a letter which stated: 

    His Majesty's government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people. 

France, Italy and the US officially agreed.   

Remember the Jewish Mule Corps?  While the Jewish Legion was being formed, the British launched their attack in Palestine under the command of General Edmund Allenby.  Within a few weeks, Allenby drove the Turks from Jaffa.  On December 11, 1917, he marched into the City of David to proclaim "A NEW ERA OF BROTHERHOOD AND PEACE IN THE HOLY LAND."  Allenby's arrival in Jerusalem took place on HANUKKAH.  On the same day, Jews celebrated both the liberation of Jerusalem from the Turks in 1917-------and from the Syrian Greeks more than 2,000 years before.   

The war wasn't over yet.  Winter rains prevented Allenby from ending his conquest.  That winter was the worst for the Yishuv.  The Turks attacked the Jewish farm settlements, mercilessly robbing and murdering.  At last, the Spring came and Allenby---now joined by the Jewish legion----marched north.  The Turks fled.  Jabotinsky himself led a Jewish unit across the Jordan River in pursuit.  By September 1918, the last of the Turkish forces in Palestine had been defeated.  Two months later, WWI ended.  

Resource:

A Young Person's History of Israel, 2nd edition, by David Bamberger

Facts About Israel, published by division of Information, Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Jerusalem

The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia