Jews in Israel From 1948 to 2025, What Brought Them and How They Have Survived Through All The Wars

 Nadene Goldfoot                                 

    When The Last British Troops Left Palestine;  British tanks roll aboard transports at the port of Haifa, and Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion speaks to Israeli crowds as Israel’s flag is hoisted over the city.   “The Union Jack was hauled down, and the doors closed for good on the 30 year British Mandate.”  Jews finally breathed a sigh of relief.   

Jews had been through the Holocaust where Nazis of Germany murdered 6 million Jews because they were Jewish.  A few had tried to reach Palestine but most were caught and turned back by the Brits.  Jews helped Jews illegally in entering the country while Brits brazenly helped Arabs enter the land.  American Jews continued to feel and see the anti-Semitism of others, socially, at school, and work places. Very few considered moving to Israel, however.   

                      

The Jewish leadership in Palestine declared the establishment of the State of Israel on 14 May1948, the moment the British mandate terminated, though without announcing its borders. 

The following day Israel was invaded by five Arab armies, marking the start of Israel's War of Independence.

 The fighting ended in 1949 with a series of ceasefires, producing armistice lines along Israel's frontiers with neighbouring states, and creating the boundaries of what became known as the Gaza Strip (occupied by Egypt) and East Jerusalem and the West Bank (occupied by Jordan).

                   Modern State of Israel (May 14, 1948–Present)

• The Un had a resolution; of November 29, 1947, to partition the country into Jewish and Arab states with Jerusalem as a corpus separatum.  Palestinian Arabs (and veterans of the 1936-1939 fighting, members of Arab youth groups and police started fight against the Jewish population.  They were soon joined by volunteers from neighboring Arab states.   In 1947, the estimated number of Jews living in Palestine was around 630,000 people, according to Wikipedia, Jewish Virtual Library, and the Jewish Voice for Peace. This represented approximately one-third of the total population of Palestine at that time.  
• Remarkable, because Joshua had entered Canaan with 601,730 of the Exodus multitude of Jews and other Egyptian former slaves.  They had lost 1,820 of their original count after their 40 years of walking and riding wagons and being attacked by the Amalaks to their destination.                                   
  
• Jewish forces were organized mostly in the HAGANAH (underground militia)  with a full-time component of about 4,000 mostly members of the PALMAH, the striking arm of the HAGANAH IN 1941.    The early attacks looked like the fights of 1936-1939, the Haganah restricting itself to defense of settlements and communications and limited retaliation.  
  
    Announcing the birth of Israel was Golda Meir and David ben Gurion, leaders.  David Ben-Gurion was the first Prime Minister of Israel and Chaim Weizmann was the first President. The initial governing body was a Provisional Government established in May 1948, which was replaced by a formal government in March 1949. 
• Early in 1948, the 1st attack on a Jewish village of Tirat Tzevi occurred which proved unsuccessful.  In the cities, the Arabs employed terrorist methods.  During March, they concentrated on roads and on towns with a mixed population.  The Jerusalem-Tel Aviv road was fiercely attacked and eventually, Jewish Jerusalem was cut off, except for communication by a few light aeroplanes.  
• Immigration to Israel is primarily governed by the Law of Return, which grants Jews the right to immigrate to Israel, known as aliyah. Non-Jews seeking to immigrate generally have limited options, with some qualifying for asylum or temporary protection based on origin country, while others can pursue naturalization after three years of residency. Key documents for aliyah include proof of Jewish connection, a passport, and a background check.  
  Motivations: 
  Aliyah is often driven by religious, ideological, or historical connections to Israel, as well as concerns and experiences of rising antisemitism in other countries. 
• Traditionally described as "the act of going up" (towards the Jewish holy city of Jerusalem), moving to the Land of Israel or "making aliyah" is one of the most basic tenets of Zionism. The opposite action – emigration by Jews from the Land of Israel – is referred to in the Hebrew language as yerida (lit. 'descent'). The Law of Return that was passed by the Israeli parliament in 1950 gives all diaspora Jews, as well as their children and grandchildren, the right to relocate to Israel and acquire Israeli citizenship on the basis of connecting to their Jewish identity.
• Since its establishment in 1948, Israel has received over 3 million Jewish immigrants (aliyah), with significant waves in the early 1950s, 1960s, and 1990s. The early mass immigration saw nearly 700,000 people arrive by 1952, doubling the existing Jewish population. Later, large-scale arrivals from the former Soviet Union in the 1990s, following the collapse of communism, significantly boosted the population, with over a million Jews arriving in that decade alone.

  
• Sinai War of 1956-8 years after Birth
• Egypt had closed the Straits of Tiran to Israel, which affected not
  only Israel but other countries and their shipping methods.  
• The Suez Canal was an important waterway linking the Mediterranean with the Gulf of Suez and the Red Sea.  Benjamin Disrsaeli helped to secure it by a British controlled company which held it until 1956.
• The WAR was a British–French–Israeli invasion of Egypt on October 29 to November 5, 1956. Israel invaded on 29 October, having done so 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. It's objective was to break the ring of encirclement created by the anti-Israel alliance of Egypt, Jordan, and Syria, to destroy the menacing concentration of Egyptian armaments, and to eliminate marauder bases in the GAZA STRIP.  Within a few days, Israel forces conquered he entire Sinai peninsula, with the exception of a 10- mile strip along the east side of the Suez Canal (not occupied in accordance with an Anglo-French ultimatum) and took possession of the Gaza Strip.  Large quantities of Russian manufactured material and 5,600 Egyptian prisoners were captured in the operation, and an Egyptian destroyer that was trying to shell Haifa's port.  This war cost Israel 171 dead, 700 wounded and one taken prisoner.  The Arabs opened the Gulf of Elath to Israel shipping and Nasser's prestige declined after this military defeat.  
•          The Six Day War of June 1967 after 11 years of War

• Ongoing Control: The subsequent Six-Day War in June 1967 saw Israel's re-declared ownership of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, marking the core issues of the ongoing Israeli–Palestinian conflict that turned into a declared War.  
• This was a war between Israel and Egypt, Jordan and Syria in 1967. 
• First off, there was a building of tension due to over 2 years of sabotage activities inside Israel and border incidents, mostly done by the Syrians who were interested in involving the other Arab states in a further war with Israel.  Syria feared retaliation so tried to deflect it by letting Egypt move its army into the Sinai peninsula on May 15, 1967.  Nasser demanded the removal of UN troops posted along the Gaza Strip and Sharm e-Sheikh.  The UN secretary-general, U Thant, immediately obeyed his demand.  Again, no shipping would be permitted to go to the port of Elath.  Israel tried diplomatic acts to prevent the war but  Nasser moved 100,000 men and 1,000 tanks into Sinai while the other Arab states quickly readied themselves for a unified attack on Israel, including an agreement between Nasser and King Hussein of Jordan.  The Arab world was seized with war hysteria, resulting in Israel, seeing all the line up against them, made a pre-emptive move and struck them on June 5th.   They had had 21 days of seeing what lay before them. Needless to say, Israel won the war in 6 days, including numbers of miracles happening during that time favoring Israel. 
  
     IDF Paratroopers now seeing the Wall for the 1st time after they won the war.  No Jews had been allowed in this part of Jerusalem by Jordan. 
  
      IDF and Civilians dancing at the Wall at the end of the 6 Day War
•  The results were that Israel wound up gaining land they had wanted in 1948 that was denied by people not aware of their own history and the British desire for oil.  They gained the Gaza Strip and Judea and Samaria now called by Jordan as The West Bank. 
  
  
  
• Yom Kippur War of October  6, 1973, 6 days after 6 Day War  
• On this specially holy day of October 6, 1973 remembering Yom Kippur, a day of fasting, being in a synagogue and asking G-d's forgiveness and promises to do better, hoping our behavior was remembered in the BOOK OF LIFE  to live another year, on this very day the Egyptian and Syrian forces attacked Israel, and full-scale war erupted.  
• The Syrians overran much of the Golan Heights and had helpers from Iraq and Jordanian troops as well, but were stopped and driven behind the lines where they initially attacked from.  The Egyptians crossed the Suez Canal andd seized Israel positions.  Tank battles occurred over it.  Both sides suffered losses in equipment.  When a Soviet airlift replaced Arab material the US countered with a major arms airlift starting on October 14, 1973.  2 days later, the Israeli force crossed the Suez Canal and in a few days cut off the Egyptian 3rd Army.  
• Then the USSR (Russia) entered the picture.  They were concerned of a major Arab defeat so invited the US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger to Moscow to work out terms for a cease fire which was accepted by the UN on October 22 and became operative on October 25th.  Israel's overall military victory notwithstanding, the war had grave repercussions within the country because of the initial defects that showed up with the loss of more than 2,600 IDF and the effectiveness of the Arab oil weapon used internationally for the 1st time.  
• I made Aliyah in September 1980 with a husband and a German shepherd female.  My experience is in my book, LETTERS FROM ISRAEL.  No war was going on then, as Iran and Iraq were busy fighting it out.  I knew nothing;  I was just ready to go and had visited the Shaliach who made arrangements for us in Portland, OR.  
•  The 1982 Lebanon War-9 years after 6 day war
•  Also known as the First Lebanon War or "Operation Peace for Galilee," was an invasion launched by Israel with the initial objective of expelling the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) from southern Lebanon.PLO-Israel cross-border conflict: From their new position in southern Lebanon, Palestinian guerrillas launched rocket and guerrilla attacks on civilian settlements in northern Israel.
•  The war lasted from June to September 1982, though Israeli forces remained in parts of Lebanon until 1985. 
• Invasion: On June 6, 1982, Israel launched its full-scale invasion of southern Lebanon, with its forces advancing quickly.
• Engagement with Syria: The Israeli military engaged Syrian forces stationed in Lebanon, achieving air superiority by destroying a large portion of Syria's air force and anti-aircraft missile systems.
• Siege of Beirut: Israeli forces laid siege to the Lebanese capital for several months, bombarding the city by land, air, and sea. An international peacekeeping force eventually oversaw the evacuation of more than 14,000 PLO fighters from Beirut to Tunisia and other Arab countries.
• Sabra and Shatila massacre: After the PLO withdrawal, newly elected Lebanese President Bashir Gemayel, an Israeli ally, was assassinated. The Israeli army then occupied West Beirut and allowed Christian Phalangist militiamen to enter the Palestinian refugee camps of Sabra and Shatila. From September 16–18, the militiamen carried out a massacre of Palestinian and Lebanese civilians, unknown to IDF.                        More wars are listed happening until October 7, 2023 when the worst happened on October 7, 2023 along the Gaza border to the Jews.
• 1. South Lebanon Conflict 1982-2005
• 2. 1st intifada 1987-1993
• 3. 2nd intifada 2000-2005
• 4. Israel-Hezbolla War 2006
• 5. Gaza Operation Cast Lead 2008-2009
• 6. 2012 Gaza War
• 7. 2014 Gaza War
• 8. Syrian Civil War
• 9. 2021 Israel -Palestine War
•   
• MASSACRE ON OCTOBER 7, 2023 
•  Since October 7, 2023, Israel has been at war with the Palestinian Sunni Islamist group Hamas (a U.S.-designated foreign terrorist organization, or FTO), which led an attack that day from the Gaza Strip into Israel. The October 7 attacks were a series of coordinated armed incursions from the Gaza Strip into the Gaza envelope of southern Israel, carried out by Hamas and several other Palestinian militant groups on October 7, 2023, during the Jewish holiday of Simchat Torah, which takes place right after Sukkot.  Young adults on the many kibbutzim were in the holiday mood, dancing outside.  They were surprised and attacked with those taken away as hostages. 
• The kibbutzim were massacred in ungodly ways;  babies burnt alive in front of parents, men beheaded, parts of bodies cut off, gruesome ways of being killed, leaving others raped, tortured, all left in a state of PTSD, families forever never to forget such scenes. 
•  Hamas is an armed Palestinian group and political movement in the Gaza Strip. On 7 October 2023 it attacked Israel, killing about 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages. To this date, possibly the last 20 hostages that had been hoped to be freed are most likely  deceased by now.  The affect on Jews everywhere, knowing now how hate has been advanced on us Jewish people, that I could not even bring myself to write about it in this article, we all are appalled and amazed that the whole world is now cheering for Hamas to have a state out of our Judea and Samaria that we have been waiting for 2,000 years to call home and Israel again.  That they should be rewarded for slaying Jews!  That is some love the Christian Europe is showing the Jews of the world.  We are grateful for the smaller Christian Evangelicals who stand with us in this final hour; and are perplexed with Trump's everchanging views towards us and towards Ukraine in which he runs hot and cold.  
• Gaza war or Operation Iron Swords (October 2023–present) – After a October 7 attacks from the Gaza Strip into Southern Israel on 7 October 2023, Israel responded with a devastating bombing campaign and invaded the Strip. 
  
                                             Metro tunnel under Gaza

In total, 1,195 people were killed by the attacks: 736 Israeli civilians (including 38 children),79 foreign nationals, and 379 members of the security forces. While attending the Nova music festival, 364 civilians were killed and many more wounded. At least 14 Israeli civilians were killed by the IDF's use of the Hannibal Directive. About 250 Israeli civilians and soldiers were taken as hostages to the Gaza Strip. Dozens of cases of rape and sexual assault reportedly occurred, but Hamas officials denied the involvement of their fighters.

• 
  
• The war has created a humanitarian crisis in the Strip and an ongoing famine, with experts stating that Israel is perpetrating a genocide against Gazans through its conduct in the war.

Attacks kept on happening:

• , such as:
• Israeli invasion of Lebanon or Operation Northern Arrows (September–November 2024).
• 
  
• Iran–Israel war or Operation Rising Lion (June 2025).

Hamas will not accept terms of a cease fire and President Trump wants the war to end NOW.  All the world is tired hearing about it and believes Arab propaganda that Israel is starving the Arabs to death.  Meanwhile, the Arabs have been fighting with a death wish of hiding behind their people, stealing food from UN trucks and others while even the UN participate on their side against Israel.  Hamas has one objective only;  not in having a Palestine but in driving out the Jews and staying in power above all other Arabs.  

Edited: 9/26/25-added more

Resource:

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

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/October_7_attacks

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/clyv7w3gdy2o

•    . 

How Judea Was Built Up By the People Who Loved It

 Nadene Goldfoot                                          

There is much misunderstanding as to the rights of Jews who are living on land that is only a few minutes away from Jerusalem by car.  Most non-Jewish and even our own Jewish people are not aware of the history of this land nor why there are Jews who are breaking international law to live there.

Our Jewish biblical history goes back to King Saul and King David and King Solomon to about 1060 BCE, which is almost 3,000 years ago, and ended in the burning of Jerusalem in 70 CE.  We are the natives of Judea and Samaria, which the present world population calls "The West Bank."  

           Politicians of the Palestinians for a Palestine

There are some of the Palestinian Arabs who are in denial about this as they have plans for the land to become their nation.  They are not native people.  Those Jews who were living here from 1880 and on during our first returns called the First Aliyah from Europe, Jews suffering under the Pogroms of Russians,  were soon joined by surrounding Arabs looking for work.  Any Arabs owning land sold it to returning Jews at immensely high prices, but were successful and quickly left for better places such as Beirut, Paris, etc.  These Arabs referred to themselves as Syrian Palestinians.  They had no intentions of creating another Muslim country. 

  Husseini conferring with the Nazis in Germany in beginning of WWII as to how to get rid of the Jews

 By 1929, a instigator against Jews who had a cushy job, awarded to be the new Sherif of Jerusalem by a Jewish Englishman, was Haj Amin al-Husseini, the Grand Mufti, a big fish in a small fishbowl. He was terrified that he'd be replaced by a Jew, so he instigated murderous attacks on the Jewish population as if he were America's killer, Charles Manson, or Hitler himself.    

England was given a 30 year mandate, ending on May 13, 1948 to be those in charge of Palestine.  They were charged with helping the Jews to create their Jewish Homeland, but they renegged on that and aided and abetted Arabs to enter during WWII while keeping Jews out.  They had better fish to fry as Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia was looking for deal on land he could rule over, so they broke the trust of the League of Nations by going ahead and giving him 80% of the promised Jewish Homeland, which ultimately was called Trans-Jordan, then,  Jordan.  Out of the 20% left, came Judea and Samaria (West Bank-named by Jordan).  Judea and Samaria have been divided into areas A,B,C, A for Arabs C for Jews and B for both, as I understand with Arabs building in Jewish land without permission which has been going on.  )

There went Judea and Samaria, land surrounding Judea.  Samaria was the former capital of Israel after Solomon had died, when a divide occurred where Israel split into Israel and Judah.  Judah, the land including Jerusalem, was the largest of the tribal land, and they also included parts of the tribe of Benjamin and Simeon.  The northern 10 tribes were abducted, never to be seen or heard from again.   

They experienced their own Israel Civil War, which weakened both sides.  To complicate matters, the Assyrians took advantage and attacked Israel in 721 BCE, carrying off most of the intelligencia into their hinterland, where we find today that the Pashtos of Afghanistan, Pakistan and India are the native people taken from us. (Today the Pashtos are fighters.  Maybe they were back then, too, but the Assyrians were the Roman Army of that period, unassailable).

    Golda Meir was at the birth announcement of Israel.  She later became Israel's Prime Minister.  
   

Jump to 1948 and the birthdate of Israel, May 14, 1948.  There was a war between  the still instigated Arabs that started on November 29, 1947 and lasted until the signing of the Armistice Agreements in 1949 called The War of Independence..  We lost Judea and Samaria, and were only able to hold onto the coastland, pretty much and Jerusalem.  We didn't get Judea and Samaria back until we went through attacks which were wars in the Sinai War of 1956 and then faced a war made up of all Arab nations, the Six Day War of 1967, and with G-d's help, surely, won that war.  We had to win.  There was no other choice other than being driven into the sea.

Former TV personality in Ukraine, President Zelensky, one of the Jews of this country

First we were praised such as President Zelensky of Ukraine is today, as being so brave, standing up to such a force.  Then, the usual world-wide anti-Semitism sunk back into the picture and we were hated people once again, That remains, as I noticed a sneer on a shop-keeper's face when he ease-dropped on my conversation with my friend about sending something to a community outside of Jerusalem, saying under his breath, "Well, it depends on who lived their first."  He was not referring to us Jews, but was thinking that the Palestinians were there first.  They are newcomers, as Journalist Joan Peters has pointed out in her well-researched book that puts Noam Chomsky  to shame,     FROM TIME IMMEMORIAL.  Peters had been on the Palestinian side first, but her research showed her otherwise.  There were only a few landowners, and they sold out to the Jews at very high prices and made a bundle, leaving happily all those taxes that were bleeding them of the Ottoman Empire.  

Simcha Jocobovici hosts this 26-part series, stripping biblical archaeology naked and treating the Bible stories with his own brand of investigative journalism.

There is a Jewish Israeli who has made wonderful TV programs about his discoveries, many of which involve the history of Jesus, called "The Naked Archaeologist."  In one of his productions, he showed homes of Arabs with nameplates still a part of the home with the name of Jews on it in Hebrew.  This showed that they had been Jewish property but had been taken over by the present Arabs.  There were enough of them found to make a strong point.

So that brings me to the point of my explanation of who lives in Judea and why they need to be there.  

Beit El is a Jewish community in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Judea.   It's in the Binyamin Region of Judea.  It's the Orthodox Jews who have defied world opinion and have moved out into Judea and Samaria.  "The Orthodox Jewish town is located in the hills north of Jerusalem, east of the Palestinian city of al-Bireh, adjacent to Ramallah." 

 Ramallah is now the headquarters of the Palestinians.  "In 1838 American biblical scholar Edward Robinson visited the area, noting that the inhabitants were Christian "of the Greek rite". There were 200 taxable men, which gives an estimated total population of 800–900 people. The village "belonged" to the Haram al-Sharif, Jerusalem, to which it paid an annual tax of 350 Mids of grain." So, first it all was Jewish land, then this fell into Christian hands, and lastly the Muslims.  Ramallah is 6 miles north from Jerusalem, and had become part of the Turkish Ottoman Empire.  

Pisgat Ze'ev  is an Israeli city in the Jerusalem neighborhood, which others call a settlement,  in East Jerusalem and the largest residential neighborhood in Jerusalem with a population of over 50,000. Pisgat Ze'ev was established by Israel as one of the city's five Ring Neighborhoods on land effectively annexed after the 1967 Six-Day War.                                          

Kokhav Yaakov is also a religious community. It's 10 minutes from Jerusalem by car.  It's part of the Mateh Binyamin Regional Council.  It was created in 1985 by the Amana Settlement Movement with this name change occurring in 1988.  

                                           

Land to create it was from Kahr Aqab of their 2,037 dunams and from Bura with their 284 dunams. (A dunam is 0.247195 of an acre.  Divide the dunam area by 4.087 for acres).  The Palestine Exploration Fund's Survey of Western Palestine (SWP) suggested that Kafr 'Aqab was the Crusader village Kefreachab, which was one of 21 villages given by King Godfrey as a fief to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.                          

It was like Russia trying to take over eastern Ukraine as to

how the Crusaders divvied up Jewish land.  In 1838, Edward Robinson noted Kafr 'Aqab during his travels in the region, as a Muslim village, part of El-Kuds district.

  In 1883, SWP described it as "a small hamlet on the slope of a hillside, with a few olives."  In 1896 the population of Kefr 'akab was estimated to be about 135 persons.

In the 1922 census of Palestine conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Kafr 'Aqab had a population of 189 Muslims, increasing in the 1931 census to 250 Muslims, in 59 houses.  In the 1945 statistics the population of Kafr 'Aqab consisted of 290 Muslims and the land area was 5,472 dunams, according to an official land and population survey. Of this, 829 dunams were for plantations and irrigable land, 2,736 for cereals, while 10 dunams were built-up areas.

In the wake of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, and after the 1949 Armistice Agreements, Kafr 'Aqab came under Jordanian rule, and was annexed in 1950.

In 1961, the population was 410 persons.

After the Six-Day War in 1967, Kafr 'Aqab has been under Israeli auspicious. The population in the 1967 census conducted by the Israeli authorities was 287, of whom 8 originated from the Israeli territory.  It is still in the northernmost Palestinian Arab neighborhood in East Jerusalem.

Israel has confiscated 2,037 dunams of land from Kafr 'Aqab in order to construct the Israeli settlement of Kokhav Ya'acov.

According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, in 2006, Kafr 'Aqab had a population of 10,411. Primary health care for Kafr 'Aqab is most likely obtained in Al-Ram. In 2007, Kfar 'Aqab was described as a middle class suburb.

        Kafr "Aqab in 2013

While Kafr 'Aqab was unilaterally annexed by Israel with the rest of East Jerusalem and falls under its full jurisdiction, it is separated from Jerusalem by the Israeli West Bank barrier. Municipal inspectors never inspect the area beyond the barrier. This creates "a planning nightmare and developer's dream".

The al-Faruq mosque in Kafr 'Aqab offers weekly classes in the Islamic teachings of Hizb ut-Tahrir, so part of their land was used by Kokhaav Yaakov, but they still exist and have a mosque offering classes.  

. 

  

Resource:

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

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

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pisgat_Ze%27ev