Ashkelon, Portland, Oregon's Sister City

 Nadene Goldfoot                                            

                               Ashkelon National Park

Ashkelon or Ashqelon, is a coastal city in the Southern District of Israel on the Mediterranean coast, 50 kilometres (30 mi) south of Tel Aviv, and 13 kilometres (8 mi) north of the border with the Gaza Strip.

The modern city is named after the ancient seaport of Ascalon, which was destroyed in 1270 and whose remains are on the southwestern edge of the modern metropolis.  

The site was an important city during Roman, Byzantine and pre-Crusades Muslim rule, and particularly during the period of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, due to its location near the coast and between the Crusader states and Egypt. 

Baldwin of Jerusalem:  Baldwin IV, known as the Leper King, was the king of Jerusalem from 1174 until his death in 1185. Baldwin ascended to the throne when he was thirteen despite having leprosy. He launched several attempts to curb the Egyptian ruler Saladin's increasing power.

The Kingdom of Jerusalem was established in 1099 by Crusaders following the First Crusade. It was initially captured from the Fatimid Caliphate. While Godfrey of Bouillon was a key figure in its founding, his brother Baldwin I was the first to be crowned king in 1100. The kingdom existed until 1291, when its last major city, Acre, fell to the Mamluks. 

The Battle of Ascalon was the last action of the First Crusade. In 1270, the Mamluk sultan Baybars ordered the fortifications and harbour at the site to be destroyed. As a result, the city was abandoned by its inhabitants and fell into disuse.

 The Muslim conquests of the Levant began after Mohammad's death in 632 CE. The first Muslim conquest of Jerusalem, previously under Byzantine rule, took place between 636 and 637 CE. The Rashidun army, led by Abu Ubayda, initiated a siege in November 636. Patriarch Sophronius eventually agreed to surrender the city after six months, but only to the caliph. Caliph Umar traveled to Jerusalem to formally accept the surrender in either 637 or 638. 

So after 70 CE when Jerusalem was taken by the Romans, other empires took the Levant.  567 years lapsed before the Arabs entered in 637.  The name, Ashkelon, is Semitic, but Majdal (Arabic) and Migdal (Hebrew) mean 'tower'.

In the 1922 census of Palestine, Majdal had a population of 5,064; 33 Christians and 5,031 Muslims, increasing in the 1931 census to 6,226 (6,166 Muslims and 41 Christians) with 172 in the suburbs (167 Muslims, 4 Christians, and one Jew). Jews were often attacked. 

Majdal was occupied by the Egyptian army in the early stages of the 1948 war, along with the rest of the Gaza region that had been allocated to the Arab State in the United Nations plan. Over the next few months, the town was subjected to Israeli air-raids and shelling. All but about 1,000 of the town's residents were forced to leave by the time it was captured by Israeli forces as a sequel to Operation Yoav on 4 November 1948. Israel had been declared, reborn in May 1948.  

Some of the new Israeli government wanted the Arabs to leave, butsome also wanted them to remain.  With time passing, perhapsthe best move was to allow them to stay and build up an Arabtrust in the Jews.  They didn't realize what could happen, andthey moved the Arabs.  

Majdal was granted to Israel in the 1949 Armistice Agreements. Re-population of the recently vacated Arab dwellings by Jews had been official policy since at least December 1948, but the process began slowly. The Israeli national plan of June 1949 designated al-Majdal as the site for a regional urban center of 20,000 people. From July 1949, new immigrants and demobilized soldiers moved to the new town, increasing the Jewish population to 2,500 within six months. These early immigrants were mostly from Yemen, North Africa, and Europe.

In 1949, the town was renamed Migdal Gaza, and then Migdal Gad. Soon afterwards it became Migdal Ashkelon. The city began to expand as the population grew. 

In 1951, the neighborhood of Afridar was established for Jewish immigrants from South Africa, and in 1953 it was incorporated into the city. The current name Ashkelon was adopted and the town was granted local council status in 1953.

                     Skyline of Ashkelon

In 1955, Ashkelon had more than 16,000 residents. By 1961, Ashkelon ranked 18th among Israeli urban centers with a population of 24,000. This grew to 43,000 in 1972 and 53,000 in 1983. In 2005, the population was more than 106,000.The most recent population estimate for Ashkelon, Israel, is 153,138 as of 2022. This figure ranks Ashkelon as the third-largest city in the Southern District of Israel. 

Resource:

https://www.worldhistory.org/image/11675/muslim-invasion-of-the-levant-634-ce/

Were Arabs Expelled From Their Villages in Palestine?

Nadene Goldfoot                                                  

 Jews did not expel the Arabs from their villages in Palestine.

When Israel announced that they became a state, which was on May 14, 1948; the date the 30 year mandate had been held by the British and was up, their becoming a state was already cleared through
the League of Nations in the 1920s, and then cleared again with the United Nations for this date in 1948.                                                  

Jews just arrived from Holocaust DP camps, tired and hungry-fighting within days against attacking Arabs May 1948 

However, the leaders of the Arabs attacked within minutes and told the Arabs to leave their homes as they were commencing to attack, and that within hours they could return and take over the Jewish homes as they would win and drive the Jews into the sea.  
                                                                                   

Israel's War of Independence: 1947-49

They didn't win, even though they had been shooting at Jews since November 29, 1947 when the UN created a partition resolution.  In April 1948, before the announcement that their state had been created and accepted, units of Arab irregulars came to attack from Syria, Lebanon and Egypt to reinforce the local Arabs in their attacks on Jewish towns, and they even tried to block the main roads.  Israel was created with only 650,000 people.  It had a poorly equipped army quickly slapped together, but they drove back the invading forces.  One girl and an old man drove back the Syrians from Kibbutz Degania Aleph and left a tank which is still there to see todaiy.    The new Israelis drove back the invading forces.  The Israeli amy penetrated into the Sinai peninsula in the process of driving out the Egyptian invaders.                                   
                                                                                      

So, on the 14th of May, Israel was immediately invaded by the regular armies of Egypt, Transjordan, Iraq, Syria and Lebanon and the Saudi Arabians  even sent a contingent of fighters.  They tried to exterminate the Jews.  They planned on massacring everyone.  6,000 Israelis were killed in this War of Independence ----more than in all the subsequent wars combined.  
                                                                               

This was said by Azzam Pasha, Secretary-General of the Arab League.  He proclaimed from Cairo that "This will be a war of extermination and a momentous massacre which will be spoken of like the Mongolian massacres and Crusades."  

Druse Arabs of IDF protecting Israel

This attack on Israel went on into 1949, and of course the Arab leaders told the Arabs who had left their homes to stay in refugee camps where they remain today.  Those that didn't leave became citizens of Israel along with the Jews.  There are 1.7 million Arab citizens of Israel today.  

After the Arab armies had been driven back, a truce was called and negotiations for an armistice began.  In the course of 1949, separate armistice agreements were signed between Israel and Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria.  In each agreement it was laid down that the purpose was "to facilitate the transition from the present truce to permanent peace.

In 1949, nobody foresaw that, instead of leading to peace, the armistice agreement with Egypt would, after 7 years, end in war; and the agreements with Jordan, Syria and Lebanon, after remaining in force for 18 years , also ended in war, each time started by the Arabs again.  

Since May 14, 1948, PEACE has been a permanent part of the policy of every Government of Israel.  The policy of the Arab States was diametrically opposite to Israel's.  They did not reconcile themselves to Israel's existence and refused to recognize Israel.  Today only Egypt and Jordan are on good terms with Israel and have signed peace pacts.  

What reason has Israel to think that Abbas's Palestine, made up of present day terrorists armed with rockets, mortars and missiles, this United Palestine made up of Fatah and Hamas terrorists, will be any different?  The only difference is that there would then be 23 nearby Muslim Arab states instead of 22 with Palestine on Israel's doorstep, more like a murderous boarder rather than a neighbor. 
                                                                              

 I say murderous since they keep trying and  often accomplish it.  Yesterday a lone knifer managed to knife 12 people on a bus; women included with 4 very seriously injured.  (shown on CNN TV this morning.)  The knifer was a 23 year old Palestinian who had illegally entered Israel.  He was video-taped running after a woman from the bus when it stopped and hitting her back with his knife.  

Resource: facts about israel 1973 Published by the Division of Information, Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Jerusalem
http://news.yahoo.com/police-shoot-man-stabbed-passengers-tel-aviv-bus-060800485.html
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/History/1948_War.html

Israel: That Speck on the Map That Is So Beyond the Norm

Nadene Goldfoot                                                                  

Why should so much attention be given to 8,000 square miles of land called Israel?  Florida is 8 times larger.   Many are lamenting the fact that it could be the downfall of the world today with the battle between the Palestinians and the Israelis.  It only has about 8 million population, 6 million being Jews.  Such a tiny place to cause a whole lot of whoopity doo seems unfathomable.

Moses, an adopted Israelite in Egypt, was called to lead the 600,000 slaves out of Egypt and felt the supernatural power over natural forces when he was trying to get the Pharaoh to agree to letting the slaves go after holding them for 400 years. That was 16 generations of enslavement of a people.   He himself possessed a supernatural power or influence that seemingly came from a supernatural source which he conceded was our one and only G-d.  So there were special things happening in this land.
                                                                             

This is the land that has birthed Judaism, for it was Moses who introduced it to the Israelite slaves and the others who accompanied them out of Egypt on their 40 year trek.   From here was also birthed Christianity who the Christians believe was because that Jesus was born to a Jewish teenager, Mary and her older Jewish husband, Joseph.  For the Christians, Jesus was the son of G-d who was the birth father and it is to him that they pray.
                                                                         

This is the land that the Arab nations coveted.  Israel is located on the crossroads between Asia and Africa, and  between the Mediterranean and the Red Sea.  It's location has made the Land of Israel an object of imperial ambitions throughout history.  Ancient Egyptians, Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, Greeks, Romans, Arabs, Crusaders, Ottomans and British have all crossed the Land on their way to further conquest.  It is indeed the crossroads of the world.
                                                                           

                                               Israel, Judea and Samaria, Jordan
Today, the world is just a few hours away from Israel.  Mountains and plains, city and villages, fertile fields and desert of Israel are often minutes apart from each other.  Israel can be crossed by car from went to east in 90 minutes!  On the Mediterranean Coast to the Jordan Valley, Jerusalem and Tel Aviv are but one hour apart.  Tel Aviv on the Mediterranean Sea to Eilat on the Red Sea are only 5 hours apart.  These short distances mean that Israelis are familiar with their country and are involved in what happens in different parts of it.

Israel is 263 miles long and from 9 to 71 miles wide.  In contrast, 5.3 million square miles belong to the oil-rich Arab nations.  Yet they have no room or jobs at their inns for the Palestinians.

From Jerusalem to Haifa are 94 miles.
            "                Tel Aviv are 38 miles
           "                Jericho  are   21 miles
          "                Bethlehem are 5 miles
          "                Beersheba are 54 miles
From Tel Aviv to  Haifa       are 59 miles
                            Beersheba are 67 miles
                           Gaza are         48 miles
from Beersheba to Eilat are       146 miles.
                                                                     

Israel lives on the edge of the desert.  A large part of Israel is made up of the Negev, mostly desert.  Jerusalem is on the threshold of the Judaean Desert.    Its northern part is a prairie and the southern part is mountainous.  The Sinai Desert has throughout history been the region separating the Land of Israel from the Land of Egypt.  Israel had turned into swamps if not desert land and had mosquitoes and malaria to stave off when the 1st and 2nd Aliyot (Jews from Russia, eastern Europe) came to settle in the 1880's and on.

In biblical times, much of the Land of Israel was covered with forests.  In the centuries since 70 CE and especially during the Middle Ages, many forests were destroyed by nomads and their goats and some by the Turks as fuel for their military trains.   Israel has planted trees during the past 50 years.  Of the ancient forests, very few survive, mainly in the Galilee.  In 1948 there were 4,388,000 trees in Israel.  In 1970-71, there were 103,000,000 trees, almost all planted by the Jewish National Fund.

The boundaries of the Promised Land was given to us by Moses as written in the Torah.  I note that the land from Transjordan from the river Arnon to Mt. Hermon, and to the Valley of Iyon was to be part of Israel along with the rest of the description. Its total surface in the Torah was 17,500 square miles of which about 45% was in Transjordan.  It included most of Syria and altogether covered about 58,000 square miles.  This entire area was occupied by the Israelites under Kings David and Solomon.

The Jewish National Home under the British Mandate embraced  the area west of the Jordan River (Judea and Samaria) excluding part of the Upper Galilee north of the ladder of Tyre which was given to Lebanon.  The southern Negev beyond the Rafiah-gulf of Eleath line had been handed over by the Turkish government to Egypt for administration in 1906.  The UN resolution of November 29, 1947 recommended the establishment of a Jewish state in the larger part of the mandated area of western Palestine, although still with a complex frontier.  The armistice agreements of 1949 left Israel with 8,000 square miles, a larger area than envisioned, although still with complicated borders.  Judea and Samaria were left in Jordan's hands who had taken it illegally during the fighting in 1948 outside of the armistice agreements.

After the 1967 Six Day War, Israel was in occupation of all of Judea and Samaria, the Golan Heights and the Sinai up to the Suez Canal.  Sinai was returned to Egypt in the early 1980's.

 Modern Israel has never known permanent boundaries.  Until 1967, its boundaries were made of temporary armistice lines, agreed upon in 1949.  Since 1967, and pending a peace settlement, cease-fire lines demarcate the area under Israeli control.  The cease-fire lines are 523 miles long, compared with the armistice lines which were 570 miles long.  Most of the urban regions of Israel are less than 2 hours away from the  nearest cease-fire lines.  Before 1967, the armistice lines bisected Jerusalem and were 20 minutes away from Tel Aviv.

Because Israel lives on the edge of the desert, its civilization has been pre-occupied throughout history with the supply of water.  In 1972, Israel and the USA signed an agreement for the establishment of 2 water desalination plants in Israel--the one in Eilat and a much larger one in Ashdod.  The technique to be used in these plants were developed by an Israel Government engineering corporation.  an experimental station was  established in San Diego, California as part of the agreement.

As Moses was blessed by G-d to be given so much knowledge to the Israelites, so the Jewish people have been blessed with creative minds and have continued to give to the world much that they daily create.  Israel  is the 2nd highest start-up nation in the world, creating more jobs in an economic stalemate.  Medical creations of benefit to the world come from here.  You are not to lament for Israel's creation.  Be generous in your praise for her and wish peace be upon her.  You are surely to benefit.

Resource: The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
Facts About Israel  by the division of Information, Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Jerusalem
http://lamblion.com/articles/articles_jews2.php