Israel's Need For Defense From The Beginning 1948-2024--Part II

 Nadene Goldfoot                                                        

Golda Meir, formerly Meyerson:  (1898-1978) born in Russia, Settled in Palestine in 1921;  Active in Labor Zionism, part of Histadrut and Jewish Agency.  There to announce the state of Israel.  1st minister to the USSR in 1948, Mapai member of the Knesset since 1949, Minister of Labor in governments 1949-56.  1969 chosen to succeed Levi Eshkol as Israel's prime minister and therefore was at helm during Yom Kippur War.  Re-elected at end of 1973, but retired in 1974.  Then she wrote MY LIFE.  

Israel had a fight on its hands immediately after the announcement that it was recreated and named Israel.  That was its obvious name, and all were quite happy with that.  It was Israel's War of Independence (1947-1949) In human terms, the War of Independence was Israel's costliest war, with over 6,000 Israelis were killed and 15,000 wounded.                                                

    Safed on top of a mountain where I lived from 1981-85  Safed, the northern city known for its kabbalistic mystics, magical alleyways, and art galleries, is worth a visit. The Jewish settlement in Tzfat dates back to the Temple period but Safed – pronounced “Tz-fat” in Hebrew – achieved fame and a reputation as the “City of Kabbalah” during the 16th century. Rabbis, Kabbalistic scholars, and other Jews fled the Spanish Inquisition, making this their mountaintop home. Tucked within the Galilee mountains, Safed is a haven for religious and secular tourists.

Safed had a pre-war population of 10,000–12,000 Arabs and 1,500 Jews and was the base for 700-800 local and foreign irregulars. Jewish forces were outnumbered over 20 to 1 and the Arab forces promised the Jews that they would slaughter them when they conquered the city. A few aging artillery pieces, named “Davidkas” were smuggled into the Jewish Quarter. The Davidka, first used on March 13, 1948, was a homemade mortar that was inaccurate but extremely loud and effective in demoralizing Arab defenders.

Israel went through growing inflation after 1950 and its public services were overworked due to all the new immigrants that were coming in.  However, they were slowly integrated with the former Jewish residents.  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.

Paratroopers from Six Day War seeing the Wall for the 1st time in their life in Jerusalem as before it was under Jordan rule and Jews were kept away by them.

The number dropped during the 1960's  but grew in the 1970's  when 150,000 arrived from the USSR (Russia). Six-Day War, or Arab-Israeli War of 1967, War between Israel and the Arab countries of Egypt, Syria, and Jordan. Palestinian guerrilla attacks on Israel from bases in Syria led to increased hostility between the two countries. A series of miscalculations by both sides followed.

 This flow stopped in the late 1970's but again flooded the country from the end of the 1980's, reaching 300,000 by 1990.  The Yom Kippur War, also known as the Ramadan War, the October War, the 1973 Arab–Israeli War, or the Fourth Arab–Israeli War, was fought from 6 to 25 October 1973 between Israel and a coalition of Arab states led by Egypt and Syria.  1982 Lebanon War-The Israeli military, together with the Christian Lebanese Forces and South Lebanon Army, seized control of the southern half of Lebanon and laid siege to the capital Beirut. The Israelis sought to end Palestinian attacks from Lebanon, destroy the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in the country, and install a pro-Israel Maronite Christian government.

Danny and I at our Bon Voyage Party at my mother's home in Ontario, Oregon; leaving for Israel, September 1980.  We had never been there before !  Danny, born in Brooklyn, and lived in Orlando, Florida,  had been in the USA Airforce and  wondered if he could help Israel.  Skinheads were in Idaho, leaving anti-Semitic material in Ontario.  

 Danny and I had arrived in 1980 from Portland, Oregon.  It was a day when everyone was on strike (Shveeta).  We were not driven in the cab to our designated hotel but to a hostel, instead, and one cup of water for the two of us!!!

Israel's own  Arab population of some quarter-million was also slowly integrated but the addition of another million Arabs after the Six-Day War posed new problems and led to new tensions, fostered by external Arab forces.   The Arabs in the Administered Areas (Judea/Samaria), and Gaza, became acutely conscious of their Palestinian identity and identified to a large extent with the PALESTINE LIBERATION ORGANIZATION or the fundamentalist Moslem movement.  

Here I am in my basement apartment in Safed.  We had bars already on our only window since the building knew that terrorists would try to enter that way.  It was a reminder of where we were.  

Their demand for an independent Palestinian State received much international backing and led to considerable pressure on Israel, especially in view of the continuing Israeli policy of creating Jewish settlements in the administered Areas.                                               

New towns and villages were built and large areas of land were brought under cultivation for the Jewish population throughout the entire period.  In the selection, transportation, and settlement of immigrants, the JEWISH AGENCY played a leading part:  as also in the raising of the necessary sums abroad.  However, being my husband and I were teachers, this decided where we would live after spending the year in Haifa studying for a position for 10 months. 

 We were able to get hired in Safed (Tzfat) in 1980-81. Some capital, especially for industry, was provided by private investors, but much of the development was undertaken by the government and other public bodies.  As far as I know, mistakes were made in reading our resumes and length of time experience in teaching, and I was underpaid for almost the whole year, but corrected later.  I had 22 years of experience.  The government's aim was to increase Israel's capacity to absorb new immigrants with grants in order to keep up with the rapidly expanding population.  A constant effort was made to  increase self-sufficiency in raw materials and agriculture as well as in manufactured goods.  The vast capital required was raised from a variety of sources---private investment, US grants, GERMAN REPARATIONS until the  mid 1960's, the sale of Israel government bonds (in USA), loans from foreign banks, and large sums in gifts from Jewish communities in the Diaspora.  

In consequence, Israel's production slowly increased, as did its exports.  Israel's external debt stood at $25,000 million in the mid-1980's and it was rising.  

       Israel's government sits here in the Knesset in Jerusalem, Democratic but more English structure

Israel was busy creating a stable and effective government on a secular and democratic basis.  A single-chamber legislative assembly, the KNESSET, was created with a broad franchise.  They adopted an extreme form of proportional representation, many political parties with Cabinet coalitions was created.  The MAPAI Party was for the first 20 years the strongest single political party, and had a majority in the knesset by many coalitions with the religious parties;  some of the parties of the right, and then of the left.   By the 1960's it consolidated its positions by merging with other left-wing groups to form the ISRAEL LABOR PARTY.  In 1977, the right-wing LIKKUD Its ideology is right-wing conservative, nationalist, and Zionist, called -National Liberal Movement-  bloc was the largest group, and led two  government coalitions.  An even distribution between right and left led to the formation of Government of National Unity, but from 1990 the government was led by the Likkud.  From 1948, the executive was kept under popular control and a fiscal and budgetary system laid down.  A new administration was recruited and trained, while the independence of the judiciary was assured.  The social services were developed.  Compulsory and free elementary education was introduced, while the Hebrew language was spread among the new immigrants.  Higher education  of LITERATURE,  the fine arts, ARCHITECTURE, and Music.  

South Lebanon conflict (1982–2000) – Nearly 18 years of warfare between the Israel Defense Forces and its Lebanese Christian proxy militias against Lebanese Muslim guerrilla, led by Iranian-backed Hezbollah, within what was defined by Israelis as the "Security Zone" in South Lebanon.

• First Intifada (1987–1993) – First large-scale Palestinian uprising against Israel in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
• Second Intifada (2000–2005) – Second Palestinian uprising, a period of intensified violence, which began in late September 2000.
• Israel–Hezbollah War (2006) – Began as a military operation in response to the abduction of two Israeli reserve soldiers by the Hezbollah. The operation gradually strengthened, to become a wider confrontation. The principal participants were Hezbollah paramilitary forces and the Israeli military. The conflict started on 12 July 2006 and continued until a United Nations-brokered ceasefire went into effect on 14 August 2006, though it formally ended on 8 September 2006, when Israel lifted its naval blockade of Lebanon. The war resulted in a stalemate.
• Gaza War or Operation Cast Lead (December 2008 – January 2009) – Three-week armed conflict between Israel and Hamas during the winter of 2008–2009. In an escalation of the ongoing Israeli–Palestinian conflict, Israel responded to ongoing rocket fire from the Gaza Strip with military force in an action titled "Operation Cast Lead". Israel opened the attack with a surprise air strike on 27 December 2008. Israel's stated aim was to stop such rocket fire from and the import of arms into Gaza. Israeli forces attacked military and civilian targets, police stations, and government buildings in the opening assault. Israel declared an end to the conflict on 18 January and completed its withdrawal on 21 January 2009.
• 2012 Gaza War or Operation Pillar of Defense (November 2012) – Military offensive on the Gaza Strip.^[1]
• 2014 Gaza War or Operation Protective Edge (July–August 2014) – Military offensive on the Gaza Strip as a response to the collapse of American-sponsored peace talks, attempts by rival Palestinian factions to form a coalition government, the kidnapping and murder of three Israeli teenagers, the subsequent kidnapping and murder of a Palestinian teenager, and increased rocket attacks on Israel by Hamas militants.^[2]
• Syrian Civil War and the Iran–Israel conflict during the Syrian civil war.
• 2021 Israel–Palestine crisis or Operation Guardian of the Walls (May 2021) – Riots between Jews and Arabs in Israeli cities. Hamas fired rockets into Israel, with Iron Dome intercepting the most dangerous projectiles. Israel began airstrikes in Gaza.
• Gaza war or Operation Iron Swords (October 2023–present) – After a Palestinian incursion from the Gaza Strip into Southern Israel on 7 October 2023, Israel responded with a devastating bombing campaign and invaded the Strip. The war has created a humanitarian crisis in the Strip, including an ongoing famine caused by Hamas terrorists;  not Israel.  All hostages have reported also being kept from food and have also been starving....dying from criminal acts against them.....
• 
  
• Israeli invasion of Lebanon or Operation Northern Arrows (September 2024–present).

Need to regain hostages being held, perhaps 25 out of 50 bodies since Oct 7th.....

Resource:

The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia 

https://www.gov.il/en/departments/ministry_of_foreign_affairs/govil-landing-page

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suez_Crisis#:~:text=The%20Suez%20Crisis%2C%20also%20known,invasion%20of%20Egypt%20in%201956.

https://www.touristisrael.com/a-walk-through-safed/7485/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wars_involving_Israel#:~:text=South%20Lebanon%20conflict%20(1982%E2%80%932000,Security%20Zone%22%20in%20South%20Lebanon.

The People of the Book, Teachers of the Ten Commandments, Called Aggressors?

Nadene Goldfoot                                                 

                                                                         

1918:  Friends making peaceful plans: Chaim Weizmann and King Feisal

Before IDF was created, Haganah in 1946 defended Jews in Palestine.
These Jews were rescued by them.  

People have been calling Israelis aggressors.  Since its birth on May 14, 1948, Israel has had to be defensive in order to exist.  it is constantly being attacked.   Israelis haven't started any war against its neighbors or the Palestinian Arabs.  Israel does not want anyone else's land.  Israel has always wanted peace.

The Palestinian Arab and her surrounding neighbors have not accepted a Jewish presence in their Muslim neighborhood.  Their goal, stated in their political groups and at the Kartoum Conference in 1967, has been to drive the Jews out and take over the land.
                                                                         

 
Israel has had to defend themselves  against some major attacks:
1. War of Independence 1947-1949 when 7 Arab armies attacked Israel. "1948-1951: Israel’s population increases from about 650,000 to slightly over 1.3 million, the result of an influx of some 684,000 immigrants. About half of the new immigrants are Ashkenazi Jews from Eastern Europe.  Others come from long-established Jewish communities in such Arab countries as Egypt, Iraq, Yemen and Morocco. Israeli authorities take over vacant Palestinian villages, urban dwellings, and farmland to house and feed the immigrants. The absorption of Palestinian land property into the Israeli economy makes it next to impossible for Israel to consider the repatriation of the Palestinians."  Arabs had left and Jews had entered.  Empty homes were used by the new immigrants.  

                                                                           

Kadesh Operation in Sinai War 1956

1956 Suez War British Troops were in the Suez Canal here 

2. War of 1956.    
In 1956, three of the Twentieth Century's most dominant forces came together in a short, violent clash in the Egyptian regions known as the Suez Canal and the Sinai Peninsula.                                             



























                                                                                                                                               

3  War of 1967 (Six Day War)
.  when Israel wound up with the Gaza Strip, the vast Sinai Peninsula, and the Golan Heights in their defensive moves fighting off attackers.  They also fought against the Jordanians who were attacking and thus wound up repossessing their own ancient lands of Judea and Samaria-called THE WEST BANK by Jordan.  East Jerusalem Arabs fought against the rest of Jerusalem citizens and that also returned to Israel's holdings.  This part of Jerusalem had been occupied by the Jordanians 19 years earlier when they invaded Israel in 1948.  This was the miracle:  Judah and Samaria were our original land, which was the southern part of ancient Israel.  By being attacked by the enemy who stole it from us in battle earlier, Israel got it back again fighting in a defensive battle for her life.
                                                                             

General Moshe Dayan on right in 1973 born on May 20, 1915
at Degania Alef Kibbutz in Palestine

Moshe Dayan was an Israeli military leader and politician. He was the second child born on the first kibbutz, but he moved with his family in 1921, and he grew up on a moshav. Wikipedia  "Dayan's activities in the 1948 War of Independence began when he commanded the defense of Jewish settlements in the Jordan Valley. He later commanded the battalion that attacked the city of Lydda and helped halt Egyptian forces on the southern front. In August 1948, he was appointed commander on the Jerusalem front. In 1949, he participated in armistice talks with Jordanian officials at Rhodes. Dayan's military prowess allowed him to rise to the rank of chief of operations at General Headquarters in 1952, and, in 1953, he was elected Chief of Staff of the armed forces."

4. War of 1973 (Yom Kippur War) when Egypt and Jordan, the 2 closest neighbors, begrudgingly accepted Israel's presence, much to the horror of their Arab brothers, and made peace.  It has been beneficial for all 3.  To make peace with Egypt, Israel returned all the Sinai to Egypt.  Israel has always been prepared to give autonomy to Arabs living in Judea and Samaria (the West Bank).  However, it is important to Israel to keep it for security reasons.
                                                                           

Trump and Kushner

      The problem now is that they are being ruled by Abbas who has not made any peace agreements with Israel.  Even today, President Trump of the USA has Jerad Kushner there trying to establish a peace agreement but Abbas still abides by the Kartoum Conference Arab rules of NO No No.
                                                                       

A new Jewish immigrant from Africa, now immersed in
Orthodox Judaism, takes time every day to pray, wearing phylactrics, which
is the custom.  On the back of his head he wears a head covering, the kippah.
He does not have his prayer shawl while on duty, called the Tallit.
That's okay.  On his head and on his arm are the tefillin. "Four passages in the Torah call upon the Israelites to keep God’s words in mind by “bind[ing] them as a sign upon [their] hands and making them totafot between [their] eyes.” Tefillin, as ordained by the rabbinic leaders of classical Judaism, are intended to fulfill that commandment."

Israel is one of the smallest countries in the world.  It is different from others.  It is the only democracy in the Middle East and is of a different religion from all the others;  similar though distinctly different.  Judaism is also the oldest religion of the 3 major ones of Judaism, Christianity and Islam.
                                                                             

4 2015: Jews in France recently murdered in a grocery store while shopping
for Shabbat (Friday evening's dinner) 

No, Israelis are not by nature aggressive people.  By nature they are creative industrious people with their ancient ancestors being very religious.  They were taught that their role in life was to be priests, set apart from others, to bring the light to the world in  the form of the Torah.  This Torah teaches people to be civilized, respectful of each other, to abhor and condemn killing of each other, to consider each other's feelings and treat each other as they would want to be treated.
                                                                                 

They love learning and books and writings of people.  They are peace-loving, so much so that they even have special feelings for animals.  They have given land away in a trade for peace.  That should tell the world that they are not another Hitler out for others' land.  They have not had their own land for over 2,000 years.
                                                                       

Husseini, Palestinian Arab Grand Mufti of Jerusalem  working with Hitler against the Jews, start of WWII set the example of unreasonable and unfounded hatred for Jews.

People have been aggressors to them, slaughtering 6 million in WWII's Holocaust, the last aggression the world has viewed along with them.  Jews are among the first to speak out against other aggressive moves by countries to want to do them harm.

European Jews about to be exterminated
by a Nazi government

                                                                           

Iran is one who hasn't learned the lessons from having a WWII that killed millions and millions.  This threat over the Middle East today has even caused Saudi Arabia to make friends with Israel in the line of, THE ENEMY OF MY ENEMY IS MY FRIEND.
                                                                         

King Salmon of Saudi Arabia since 2015 

  My prayer is that pretending to be friends in this dire time of need for all the Middle East will become a habit and we will have peace with all the Middle Easterners.  Maybe it might even turn Abbas of the Palestinian Arabs around, and Hamas in Gaza around and stop their constant attacks.
                                                                                 

     
Resource: http://jewishbubba.blogspot.com/2013/05/the-myth-of-israel-being-aggressive.html
 https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/kippah-tallit-and-tefilin-the-clothing-of-jewish-prayer/
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jan/13/jersualem-funeral-french-jewish-victims-paris-supermarket-attack