Showing posts with label wall. Show all posts
Showing posts with label wall. Show all posts

Wednesday, August 3, 2022

Do You Think Israel's Counter-Terrorism Strategies Hold Humanitarian Standards ?

 Nadene Goldfoot                                         

Credit...Gil Cohen-Magen/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images from New York Times, May 8, 2022.

JERUSALEM — Israeli security forces captured two Palestinians on Sunday who were suspected of perpetrating an ax attack that killed three Israeli Jews in the central town of Elad on Thursday night. Their arrests ended an intensive search but left Israel’s fragile government grappling with how to combat the recent surge in terrorist attacks.  So even Israel has to review its methods to cover new terrorism plots.  

Credit...Jaafar Ashtiyeh/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images  The police had distributed the names and photographs of the suspects on Thursday night, identifying them as Asad Al Refai, 19, and Subhi Abu Shakir, 20, both residents of the Palestinian village of Rumana, in the northern Jenin district of the occupied West Bank.The two suspects were captured unarmed on Sunday, officials said, as they hid in bushes in a woodland not far from Elad, a predominantly ultra-Orthodox town. The Israeli police, the military and the Shin Bet internal security agency announced the capture on Sunday morning, and the authorities, apparently seeking a victory image, promptly released photographs and video of the moment of the men’s arrests.                      

“Capturing the murderers is not enough,” Prime Minister Naftali Bennett of Israel said Sunday at the start of a weekly cabinet meeting, adding, “We are at the start of a new stage in the war on terrorism.”The search, involving hundreds of soldiers and police officers as well as helicopters and drones, had closed in on an area near a quarry, less than a mile from Elad.

Because Israel has had so many years to deal with terrorism, ever since the 1920s,  they have been forced to develop innovative counterterrorism strategies.  Israel is now respected as a global expert in the field, and its policies have become a model for other democracies that are also committed to upholding humanitarian standards even while they face terrorists who operate among civilians.  

They have dealt with wars and terrorism since 2000 and sought ways to defend its citizens and, at the same time, protect the lives of innocent Palestinians and Lebanese who were also victimized by those who want to destroy Israel.  It must be remembered that their enemy holds no such feelings towards their own people and have often used them as chattel, weapons to use against Israel.  

The guiding principles of Israel's policies are:

1. Humanitarian

     A. Save the lives of Israeli citizens   

    B. Protect the lives and well-being of innocent Palestinians

    C. Uphold civil and human rights with Supreme Court review of contested policies

Israel chose not to use its full military power to eliminate the terrorists in order to limit the loss of innocent Palestinian lives.  One strategy was to try to block the terrorists' ability to access Israeli population center.  There are no natural barriers between Israel and the West Bank (Judea Samaria). 

 There were man-made barriers when Jordan occupied the West Bank, but Israel removed them when it gained control of the area in the 1967 War.  For the next 33 years people traveled more freely between the 2 regions.  However, this free movement ended when the terrorist campaign erupted in 2000.  Israel had to prevent terrorists from simply walking or driving into Israeli communities to maim and murder men, women and children.  

2. Defensive

    A. Stop terrorists and dismantle their infrastructures

      1. Checkpoints:  are temporary legal and part of the Oslo Accords.  They inconvenience Palestinians and Israelis though Israel has progressively introduced improvements to ease the transit for Palestinians.  

      a. Security checks within pre-'67 Israel: All Israelis and visitors must go through metal detectors and bag/body checks when they enter public places such as malls, bus stations, museums, clubs, cafes, hotels and religious sites.

      b. Border-Crossings;  have had 26 checkpoints between Israel and Territories in Sept. 2005.  Like border crossings between countries.                            

       The fence, accommodating areas.  Fences go up when there is a need, and in this case, a case of life or death of Israelis.  If terrorism hadn't happened, there would be no fence.  
    Original wall around Jerusalem.  Many cities were walled back then.  

      c. Security checkpoints within West Bank, control movement of terrorists, built around cities known to be terrorist centers like Nablus.  As the fence went up, Israel reduced the number of checkpoints from 25 to 12 and the roadblocks from 87 to 66.  

  B. Prevent the success of terrorist missions

  C. Root out terrorist leaders and their supporters

Mossad-Intelligence Gathering:  is a defensive force.  Israel's most effective and important weapon is its intelligence operations, which allow it to monitor and preempt attacks against its citizens. 

Update 8/5/22: The IDF remains on high alert along the Gaza border and has redeployed reinforcements and called up reserves to the area. The IDF continues to maintain road closures in the border area. This comes after security forces arrested an Islamic Jihad commander, al Saadi, earlier this week in Jenin. The IDF says that it has intelligence that the Islamic Jihad terror group in Gaza is planning attacks on Israeli targets in the border area.

According to a report in the Palestinian al Quds news paper in Jerusalem, Islamist Jihad told Egyptian moderators that they demand to see proof that al Saadi was unharmed by his Israeli captors as well as a resolution of the 144 day hunger strike of another member of the Islamic Jihad held in prison in Israel. The terror group also said that they were not interested in a violent conflict but reserved the right to respond to the "the crimes perpetrated by the enemy occupiers."   This, coming from the people who beheaded Daniel Pearl.  

Resource:

Israel 101 magazine of 2010, by Stand with Us.  p. 28-29, 

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/08/world/middleeast/israel-suspects-arrested-attack.html


Sunday, May 23, 2021

What Israel Will Do to Save Lives

 Nadene Goldfoot                                            

                  "Save one life  Save the entire world--including yourself" Rabbi Dan Moskovitz, “Whoever saves a single life is considered by scripture to have saved a whole world” (Mishnah, Sanhedrin 4:5). This classic rabbinic quotation describes the fact that human life is greatly precious in the eyes of God. A related principle in Jewish law is called pikuach nephesh, which literally means ‘preserving life’, a rule that all laws (except a few) can be set aside to save a human life. Even though Sabbath laws are quite strict, any one of them can be broken if a life is at stake. Just the possibility is enough to put this principle into effect. As a result, Jewish doctors and nurses go to work on the Sabbath because they may potentially save a life. Saving a life is the greatest mitzvah.  
                                                               
 
What Israel will do to save lives means that they will do everything to save a life.    They will go to the ends of their minds thinking of how to stay alive. They're not worried about hurting someone's feelings;  a life is the most important thing to consider.   Israeli Lives Matter.  LIFE-L'Chaim ! Israel's life matters.  We can't lose it again.  

Israel has been under incessant attack since its inception in 1948 and has learned how to preserve its humanitarian values while protecting its citizens. Israel had already lost 6 million Jews in WWII.  They are not about to set their people up to lose anymore lives and will do everything they can to save lives, both theirs and the innocents within the enemy.  Do do everything they can during war to save the lives of innocents on the other side.  At the same time, the enemy; in this case Hamas terrorists, do everything they can to put their weapons among their own civilians thinking that Israel will not attack there, so Israel gives out warnings before striking if necessary.             

  

Bomb shelters are built into every building.  Schools have bomb shelters.  In some places in Israel, one has only 15 seconds warning to get to a bomb shelter.  People are encouraged to have a bomb shelter made out of one of the rooms, like a safe room.  Oldsters are at a disadvantaged if they have to run to a shelter, so most likely,  people consider this fact before going to someplace unless there is a shelter close by.  This past 11 day war surprised the public in that Central and Southern Israel was hit by rocket fire.  That hadn't happened for some time.  It happens daily to Sderot and even Ashkelon, cities near to the border of Gaza. 

It's an all-too-common occurrence in Israel over nearly a month of conflict with Hamas. People will be carrying out the days tasks, running errands, buying groceries, meeting with friends in a cafe, when a loud siren will blast, alerting citizens off a potential shelling.  Everyone rushes to the nearest bomb shelter to wait it out.  During these past 11 days, no one could leave their shelter in southern Israel.  Food was brought to them by volunteers .   

  Daniel Pearl, journalist, was beheaded by a terrorist who claimed wrongly that he was an Israeli Intelligence Agent  (Mossad) agent.  "I decapitated with my blessed right hand the head of the American Jew, Daniel Pearl, in the city of Karachi, Pakistan," Mohammed told a US military panel,

Their most effective and important weapon is its intelligence operations, which allow it to monitor and preempt attacks against its citizens.  Mossad is the intelligence gatherers.   Mossad's former motto, be-tachbūlōt ta`aseh lekhā milchāmāh (Hebrew: בתחבולות תעשה לך מלחמה‎) is a quote from the Bible (Proverbs 24:6): "For by wise guidance you can wage your war" (NRSV).  During the 1990s, Mossad discovered a Hezbollah agent operating within the United States in order to procure materials needed to manufacture IEDs and other weapons. In a joint operation with U.S. intelligence, the agent was kept under surveillance in hopes that he would betray more Hezbollah operatives, but was eventually arrested

Mossad informed the FBI and CIA in August 2001 that, based on its intelligence, as many as 200 terrorists were slipping into the United States and planning "a major assault on the United States." The Israeli intelligence agency cautioned the FBI that it had picked up indications of a "large-scale target" in the United States and that Americans would be "very vulnerable." However, "It is not known whether U.S. authorities thought the warning to be credible, or whether it contained enough details to allow counter-terrorism teams to come up with a response." A month later, terrorists struck at the World Trade Center and the Pentagon in the largest terrorist attack in history.

Personally, my favorite books to read are by Daniel Silva who tells about his spy, Gabriel Allon and his life as an Israeli, presumably,  Mossad spy.  

Israel chose not to use its full military power to eliminate the terrorists in order to limit the loss of innocent Palestinian lives.  One strategy was to try to block the terrorists' ability to access Israeli population centers.  There are no natural barriers between Israel and the West bank.  There were man-made barriers when Jordan occupied the West Bank, but Israel removed them when it gained control of the area in the 1967 War.  For the next 33 years until 2000 , people traveled more freely between the 2 regions.  However, this free movement ended when the terrorist campaign erupted in 2000.  Israel had to prevent terrorists from simply walking or driving into Israeli communities to maim and murder men, women and children.                                                          

 Only about 3% of Israeli's security barrier is a wall to protect against snipers. It may take away rights of travel, but it saves lives, the higher command in Israel.

The long history of terrorism against Jews of Palestine and even before Israel announced itself as a state in 48 has forced it to develop innovative counterterrorism strategies.  Israel is now respected as a global expert in the field, and its policies have become a model for other democracies that are also committed to upholding humanitarian standard even while they face terrorists who operate among civilian.  In responding to the wars and terrorism since 2000, Israel has sought ways to defend its citizens and, at the same time, protect the lives of innocent Palestinians and Lebanese who were also victimized by those who want to destroy Israel.               

 Dalal Mughrabi (Arabic: دلال المغربي‎, Dalāl al-Muɣrabī; c. 1959 – 11 March 1978) was a Palestinian militant who was a member of the Fatah faction of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and participated in the 1978 Coastal Road massacre in Israel. The attack resulted in the death of 38 Israeli civilians, including 13 children. Mughrabi and eight other militants were also killed in the course of the operation. While she has been hailed as a martyr and a national hero among many Palestinians, Israel and the United Nations have described her as a terrorist.

An armed terrorist dressed as a woman was captured by the Israeli military.  Palestinians do use females as terrorists.  Dalal Mughrabi, who killed 38 civilians in 1978, and Fatima Bernawi, who served 10 years for failed Jerusalem bombing, honored in special broadcast on official PA TV.                

Sbarro restaurant suicide bomber was a Palestinian terrorist attack on a pizzeria in downtown Jerusalem, on 9 August 2001, in which 15 civilians were killed, including 7 children and a pregnant woman, and 130 wounded. 

Attacks on Israel showing disregard for life as been: using suicide bombers in crowded Israeli restaurants that have destroyed restaurant and people within.

                                                   

Terrorists have smuggled bombs and terrorists into Israel using ambulances.  Using an ambulance as an attack modality offers many advantages to a terrorist organization. Ambulances can carry more explosives than most vehicles and can often bypass security. Yet, studies examining how terrorist organizations have incorporated ambulances into their attacks are lacking.

                                                   

       Syrians seek help from Israelis.  

Hospitals go to the border and care for the injured enemy. Helicopters bring in enemy wounded to Israel hospitals.  I had plenty of experience seeing that from 1980-85 living in Safed where the hospital was across the street from the school I taught in.  This was during 1982.   

                                                                        

Rockets were frequently fired from Palestinian areas like Gaza and from Lebanon into Israel.  Israel just went through 11 days of shelling that hit the entire parts of Israel, along the border near Gaza where many fell into Gaza itself killing Gazans, as well as Central and Southern Israel.  They are being made in Gaza and are from other places. Three were from Lebanon.  

                                                                       


                                                                           
                                                                     https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/three-rockets-launched-toward-israel-lebanon-no-damage-israeli-military-2021-05-13/

Israeli soldiers have uncovered many tunnels used to smuggle weapons and terrorists by 2010, and now have uncovered and hit THE METRO, over 70 miles of tunnel work under Gaza. 

                                                                       

    Tower building eventually targeted by Israel holding Hamas as well as Al Jazeera TV, In such situations, warnings are given to evacuate first before strike.   

Palestinian Militants frequently use women and children as human shields during attacks.  They put their rockets launchers in mosques, schools and hospitals, and hide behind them that way knowing that Israel won't hit.   Over 4,300 rockets were shot at Israel.   At least 243 people, including more than 100 women and children, were killed in Gaza, according to its health ministry. Israel has said it killed at least 225 militants during the fighting. Hamas has not given casualty figures for fighters.

In Israel 12 people, including two children, were killed, its medical service says.                                                                                        

Israeli checkpoints are set up to stop terrorists from reaching Israeli civilians.  Here 2 Palestinians were arrested for carrying knives.  Knifing attacks have been wildly going on in Jerusalem.  Actually the police need reinforcements on the Temple Mount.  It's been a bad scene.  The Palestinians have been going crazy.                                                                         


The principals guiding Israel's policies are:  (#) Humanitarian:  and (X) Defensive

1. Save the lives of Israeli citizens

2. Protect the lives and well-being of innocent Palestinians

3. Uphold civil and human rights with Supreme Court review of contested policies.

    A. Stop terrorists and dismantle their infrastructures

    B. Prevent the success of terrorist missions

   C. Root out terrorist leaders and their supporters

                                                  

Checkpoints:                                         

All checkpoints are temporary, legal and part of the jointly agreed-upon Oslo Accords.  They inconvenience Palestinians and Israelis thought Israel has progressively introduced improvements to ease the transit for Palestinians.  

Israel had built highways in the Territories that bypassed crowded population centers, okayed by Oslo agreements.

Israel's tall fence's construction began in 2002.  by 2010, THE NUMBER OF TERRORIST ATTACKS HAD DROPOPED BY MORE THAN 90%.  97% OF THE BARRIER IS A CHAIN-LINK FENCE;  APPROXIMATELY 3% OR 10 MILES OF IT IS A CONCRETE WALL BUILT TO PREVENT THE SNIPER SHOOTING THAT WAS FR3QUENT IN SELECTED AREAS.  

Only 5% to 8% of West Bank land and only 3/10s of 1% of Palestinians will be on the Israeli side of the fence.                                     

Thousands of Palestinians left their homes in cities and towns across the West Bank early Friday morning in order to make their way through a number of Israeli checkpoints leading to Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa Mosque in the Old City for Ramadan prayers. This was published June 2016.  Today, the Temple Mount has been a scene of rioting and fighting  even after a cease-fire has taken place between Israel and Gaza.  

Palestinians can bring their grievances about the barrier to Israeli's Supreme Court, which in several cases has ruled in the favor of the Palestinians, resulting in rerouting of the fence.  I have read the many article of complaints by Palestinian enthusiasts writing a terrible attack upon Israel, but remember, all these checkpoints and walls are there for a reason, attacks on Israelis.  Rules and laws and walls develop from reasons; and here it is the lives of people.  People are being defended by these inconveniences.  Stop the attacks and someday laws change and walls come tumbling down.  Isn't that what happened with the Berlin Wall?  

Resource;

ISRAEL 101 Produced by StandWithUs, 2010

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33109290/

https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/three-rockets-launched-toward-israel-lebanon-no-damage-israeli-military-2021-05-13/

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-57205968

https://www.972mag.com/photos-palestinians-cross-israeli-checkpoints-for-ramadan-prayers/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mossad#:~:text=the%20prime%20minister.-,Motto,your%20war%22%20(NRSV).

https://www.jpost.com/international/911-terrorist-pearl-was-mossad-agent

https://www.businessinsider.com/a-look-inside-israels-bomb-shelters-photos-2014-8


Saturday, January 16, 2021

THE POINT IS: Why THIS IS MY LAND

 Nadene Goldfoot                                            

                                                             Judaea-  Judea

This land of Israel is land that rightfully belongs to the Jews; Jews who lived here 3,972 years ago.  I'll tell you why.  There's lots of documentation.  

Jews had lived here on this very land, brought here by Moses 3,600 years ago on the Exodus. It was land they had lived on before, when Abraham had entered Canaan and their descendants, Isaac and then his son Jacob had lived there.  

Their descendants had established the kingdom of Israel with King Saul 3,051 years ago and it so remained until  the Assyrians attacked and took many captives away 2,742 years ago, later called the Lost 10 Tribes who were most of the northern tribes of Israel. Israel was left with their remnant population, the largest tribe of the 12 which was Judah and some of Benjamin and the straggling others, either too old or too young or out of harm's way at the time.  

Israel continued on-now being called Judaea, carrying on with Jerusalem as their capital which had been thus since their King David from 3,031 years ago had created for Israel's capital. The Romans renamed it "Judaea."  Judaea was still Judah as it always had been until the Babylonians attacked 2,607 years ago and took a great many of them away, ironically having replaced the Assyrians who had held the same land the Babylonians had this time.  The Babylonians in other words, had replaced the Assyrians, literally.  However, this time they finally allowed these Jews the right of return to Jerusalem, and rebuild their Temple which the Babylonian leader Nebuchadnezzar had destroyed.  The Jews returned  in 538 BCE which was 2, 559 years ago.  

                                                 


They rebuilt the temple from 538-515 BCE- 23 years of working on it.  

Jews held onto Judah until the Romans destroyed it in 70 CE by burning Jerusalem and the 2nd Temple and killed thousands and thousands of Jews while taking prisoners as many as they could capture.  This happened 1,951 years ago.  

For these some past 2,000 years, Jews have been praying 3 times a day for their return to Judah;  to Israel.  They have tried intermittently to do so.  Not enough Jews were on the land to form a state, country or empire again.  They simply continued living there as before, best as they could do.  

They saw their temple turn into a Roman  center of military activity and after the destruction the same site turned into a Roman Temple .  Since then, during the Moslem Period, a mosque has stood there, called the Mosque of Omar-on the very same site where the 2nd Temple had stood.  To keep the peace, Moshe Dayan gave the Muslims the right of policing the area.  As that turns out, Jews are kept from praying on or even near this area. 

                                                  

 What has become dear to Jews now is the Wall, first called the Wailing Wall,  now the Western Wall, the wall around King Herod's Temple that still stands in Jerusalem.  He had worked on the Temple remains and he rebuilt or refurbished it.  It is sacred because the site of the Holy of Holies is figured to be at the western end and this includes it.                                                   

      The first to be at the wall in 1967, and they danced!  

 This part of the wall was under Jordanian rule, meaning Jews could not come here until 1967's war's conclusion.  The war was not over the wall, but the wall returned to Israel hands because all her surrounding nations had attacked her and Israel won, miraculously!  

 Some Jews had been able to hide from the Romans and had remained; people they could return to.  The land was never without Jews living there, but so very many had lost their lives, especially in the Roman attack.  The Jewish general who lived through it all was Josephus, and he continued to live by obeying the Romans by writing the history of this war on the Jews, and it lives on.  

Before the rest of the world started to write, the Jews were writing, and their history was recorded for posterity by Moses who led them to their land and told them that G-d said that this was where they were to live. (Scholars now recognize that writing may have independently developed in at least four ancient civilizations: Mesopotamia (between 3400 and 3100 BCE), Egypt (around 3250 BCE which was 5,271 years ago),  This was their land.  He gave them laws to follow given to him by G-d,  and the laws have lived onto this very day.  

Along with our history of Moses, we gathered the history of Egypt, as it included Moses since Moses was from the Jews taken as captives during the time when Jacob and his family had entered Egypt and remained slaves of Egypt for 400 years.  Moses, at age 80 had returned to Egypt from the desert to bargain with the pharaoh along with his newly found brother, Aaron,  also born in Egypt.  They had been separated when Moses was a baby, placed in a reed basket in the Nile to escape the pharaoh's decree to kill all Jewish babies.  This piece of news is also documented in Egyptian history.  Moses did have reason to do what he could as a member of the royal family of Egypt to free the Jews.  

Jews have a history longer than any other people alive today; first being one of the oldest people to be alive today.  All the others have died out or have been assimilated into other groups, including the Jews themselves.  They are distinctly Jews (of Judah), the original Israelites, now proved by DNA.                         

     Bar Kokhba fighting the Romans 132-135 CE over Jerusalem

The land of Israel was taken by the Romans who renamed it "PALESTINE"  1,886 years ago in 135 CE in a fit of anger when the Jewish general, Shimon Bar Kokhba,  had retaken Jerusalem and held it for 3 years.  

Since then, many countries have taken the land but never have lived in it or made it into any other country.  There was no country of Palestine; only the land had this new name.  The land itself was wasted, went into waste of swamps and deserts unattended and was not used for farming except for a few new Syrians who came down and lived there in the late 1800s. 

It was in 1880 that Russian Jews appeared, fleeing pogroms and found that the Ottoman Empire had been holding the land but simply taxing these Arabs who said they were Syrians.  They knew their history and that this was where they were told to live.  The taxes were very high and the Arabs were not making a living on this land.  Jews kept following and building, hiring the Arabs in their endeavors of creating a new country.  Arabs sold the land to the Jews who valued it higher than gold. 

 This was where they were determined to stay for their descendants' sake.  This was their land once more on May 14, 1948.  The cruelty of others had driven them back home.  Yes, G-d does work in mysterious ways!  The cruelty of other nations towards Jews had finally come to the great impasse!  Enough  already.  They were home and so let it be.  The Jewish Homeland  became legal through the League of Nations and the United Nations, the world's center of declarations to help keep the peace on earth and good will towards all men.  

This was the homeland of a people who believed in one G-d amid a world of people believing in more than one force such as the Jews believed. The Jewish G-d had no form, no shape, no idol, different from other beliefs in this way.   They would not treat others as they didn't like to be treated.  They knew what it was like to be treated so cruelly.  They knew only so well after the world tried to eradicate them and all they stood for during the HOLOCAUST from 1939-1945 when 6 million Jews were killed by the Nazis and those who aided and abetted in the many countries they were taken from. 

                                                   

                             chaff separated from the grain

 For so many people decided they agreed with the Nazis;  those and those who feared for their own lives.  People who were brave and determined people didn't and helped Jews to live by hiding and feeding them.  Like wheat, the people were divided like chaff is from grain.  

Anti-Semitism continues to live on, building up again like in the late 30s.  This time we have our country back  and will hold it with the good graces of our belief system and the good people still existing in the world.  For any people of any religion can agree that it is not a good thing when one people can turn on another and kill them just for their differences in religion.  A mass extermination of a people can never be good to anyone.  The extraordinary thing is that Jews gave to the world the religions they now follow.  Something from Judaism has gone into their own religions. 

                                                 

1. I am the Lord your God. 2.’You shall have no other gods before me; You shall not make for yourself a graven image; 3. ‘You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain;’ 4. ‘Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy;’ 5. ‘Honor your father and your mother;’ 6. ‘You shall not murder;’  7. ‘You shall not commit adultery;’ 8. ‘You shall not steal;’ 9. ‘You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor;’ 10. ‘You shall not covet.”

How about the Ten Commandments?   Most follow 7 of these commandments and include them in their morality and so into the laws of their towns and states.  This was from Judaism.  Judaism also follows more; totaling 613 laws, many of which any normal people do normally without even knowing it.                                                    

Funny thing is that in living in a country of many religions, the 10 are not allowed freedom of speech.  They cannot be seen posted anywhere; it might offend someone.  So in Israel, at least during Shavuot, it's allowed, I wouldn't be surprised, even though there are multiple religions residing there-the basic religion of the land and why it was created in the first place is that of Judaism.  It is our land of refuge.                                                    

    A synagogue in Portland, Oregon with the 10 Commandments in Hebrew which is allowed.  Only Jews can read it, so it doesn't offend anyone.  (Public displays of religious symbols, including Ten Commandments monuments, are subject to review under the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.)

This photo shows the Ten Commandments written on one of the Dead Sea Scrolls in Jerusalem. (photo credit: AP/Dan Balilty)

The Dead Sea Scrolls include the 10 Commandments and can now be seen as they are included in the display.  They are the oldest ever found.    

1492 was the year of the Spanish Inquisition when Jews were forced out of Spain because they were Jewish.  The ship, the Mayflower, didn't sail those dangerous seas until 1620.  The Mayflower had sailed 128 years after the Inquisition!  This gives you an idea of time-how old the Jewish people are.  In 128 years you can have 5 generations of families.  1492's horrible and bloody Inquisition happened 529 years ago;  the very worst display of anti-Semitism! 

Jews are an ancient people who have survived, knowing many bottlenecks to lose genes of valued family lines but whose own genes carry on those ancient ones.  They know their history for their history is involved in their religion; a religion that values their memories!  It's a religion of the living, of how to live and not harm others, yet now they have to spend their young's lives in defense of these very lives.  

Resource:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VpGMxNPCLVQ&feature=push-sd&attr_tag=3fz5QaXHdatVppCQ%3A6  THIS IS WHY I WRITE ON THIS SUBJECT; THE CONTINUATION OF ATTACKS ON ISRAELIS.  WHEN IS THE WORLD EVER GOING TO ACCEPT THAT ISRAEL IS A LEGAL COUNTRY AND CREATED AS A JEWISH ONE-THE ONLY JEWISH LAND IN THE WORLD.  

https://jewishbubba.blogspot.com/2020/12/claiming-rights-to-land-this-is-my-land.html

https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/the-bar-kokhba-revolt-132-135-ce

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/613_commandments

https://www.timesofisrael.com/oldest-complete-copy-of-ten-commandments-goes-on-display-in-israel/

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

FROM TIME IMMEMORIAL-THE ORIGINS OF THE ARAB-JEWISH CONFLICT OVER PALESTINE 

https://jewish-heritage-europe.eu/2018/05/18/shavuot-2018/

Tanakh, The Stone Edition from ArtScroll Series;  Exodus, 20:1-14

Saturday, March 30, 2019

One Way Israel Attempted to Help Palestinians After Deplorable 1967 War

Nadene Goldfoot
1949 armistice lines from attack at birth-May 14, 1948
The shock to Israel and the Palestinian Arabs was that Israel won the war started by all the Arabs on June 5, 1967 and lasted 6 days, ending June 11th. 
In those days, Jordanian Arabs were ruled by King Hussein.  After what the war had cost Israel in lives, started by the Arabs' greed and hatred, Hussein created 242 in the UN asking that Israel go back to the lines before 1967.  In other words, Israel was expected to retreat to where they were before this unwanted, unwarranted war in exchange for peace.  

What the Arabs had done to Jerusalem after 1948 when they took the eastern part was terrible.  "Upon its capture by the Arab Legion, the Jewish Quarter of the Old City was destroyed and its residents expelled. Fifty-eight synagogues--some hundreds of years old--were destroyed, their contents looted and desecrated. Some Jewish religious sites were turned into chicken coops or animal stalls. The Jewish cemetery on the Mount of Olives, where Jews had been burying their dead for over 2500 years, was ransacked; graves were desecrated; thousands of tombstones were smashed and used as building material, paving stones or for latrines in Arab Legion army camps. The Intercontinental Hotel was built on top of the cemetery and graves were demolished to make way for a highway to the hotel. The Western Wall became a slum area".It was wonderful to finally be able to see the Western Wall again, the Kotel.                                         


 Their planned mass attack, like THE WALKING DEAD aiming at Israel  with ammunition and tanks, had turned against themselves.  Both sides were stuck with Israel's surprise win.  Israel had to win; they had no place to run to.  The Arabs sulked all the way back to their own states in defeat.  The aftermath of this short war was monumental, earth changing, and the Middle East would not get over it.  
                                                      
This was the biggest defensive effort Israel had to put into these 6 days.  When it was over, they found they were to administer territories they had won.  The land they received had been held by Jordan, illegally, but they had held it.  
                                                        
1956 
It had started in May, actually, in 5 stages.  Syria, Egypt and the Soviet Union spread rumors-gossip-false news that Israeli forces were on the Syrian frontier.  In those days the UN was telling the truth that Israel wasn't there, and nobody listened.  It was Egypt's pretext for putting their own army in Sinai-90,000 men and 900 tanks.  Then Egypt demanded that the UN Emergency Force leave the scene.  They had been sitting out there between Egypt and Israel.  Good-bye-UN Forces. "In 1950, Jordan annexed the territories it had captured in the 1948 war–-eastern Jerusalem and the West Bank. The April 24th resolution declared “its support for complete unity between the two sides of the Jordan and their union into one State, which is the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, at whose head reigns King Abdullah Ibn al Husain...”

 Egypt closed the Straits of Tiran to ships wanting to dock in Israel, and they CALLED FOR WAR.  Egypt led the way, and the Arab States formed a war pact against Israel.  jordan's army followed.  Israel watched for 3 weeks a buildup of men, weapons and their tanks.  The Great Powers and the UN did nothing, so on 5th June, war started.  Syria and Lebanon joined them.  Behind them as backup were the armies of Iraq, Algeria, Kuwait, Sudan and the whole Arab nation.                                       
                                                         

This meant that there were about 250,000 troops of Arab forces against Israel.  Nearly half of them were in Sinai.  Nasser had moved 100,000 men an 1,000 tanks into Sinai.  The Arabs had more than 2,000 tanks and 700 aircraft which were ringing around Israel, on the ready for attack.  These other Arab states quickly made preparations for a unified attack on Israel, complete with agreements between Nasser and King Hussein of Jordan.  The Arab world was seized with war hysteria.  
                                                      
1967 At the Wall, finally, deprived of praying here since 1948.
Israel had been in stand-by mode for over 2 weeks now.  They did a pre-emptive strike.  At the end of the 6 days, Israel had conquered enough territory to more than triple the size of the area it controlled, from 8,000 square miles of teeny Israel to have 26,000 square miles.  Israel had won the Sinai, Golan Heights, Gaza Strip and  Judea and Samaria (West Bank).  The surprise victory enabled Israel to unify Jerusalem which had had a barricade dividing east from west though it.  
                                                     
Young IDF seeing Wall for first time.
The high cost for Israel for this win was losing 777 to death and 2,586 wounded.  That was a lot for her.  In proportion to her total population, it was like the USA losing what she did after 8 years of fighting in Vietnam.  Yet, if she hadn't won then, what would have happened to Israel and its population?  They would have all been massacred.  Israel would be no more.  Throughout it all, there were times of miracles that saved so many Israelis.  One has to believe that G-d was with them.  

Israel destroyed the armies massed along its frontiers and menaced its vital city centers.  
                                                       

Unemployment seems to be a problem all the time with Middle Easterners.  Before 1948, Emir  Feisal was looking forward to his Arabs learning skills from the Jews entering the country and creating their own homeland.  

"Unemployment rates in Egypt, Iran, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Tunisia and Yemen (the MENA 7) have remained stubbornly high, particularly among youth (15–24 years) with an average rate of 22 percent for young males and 39 percent for young females . Some estimates show that the youth unemployment rate is as high as 40 percent in Tunisia and even higher in the inland governorates. The latest official figures put the youth unemployment rate in Iran at 25 percent while unofficial estimates suggest that the real figures are as much as double that rate. Except for Lebanon, the gender gap in unemployment is large: the female youth unemployment rate is almost three times the male youth unemployment rate in Egypt and double in Iran, Jordan and Yemen. Female youth unemployment rates in Egypt remains at 65 percent, Jordan and Yemen at 50 percent and Iran at 40 percent."
From 1967's war, the economy of their administered areas has been transformed from a condition of stagnation and unemployment as Israel had found it was in shambles to one of growing prosperity.  Israelis were on a high.  They wanted to do so much good for the people they were administering, so that they would want to be happy, satisfied with their lot in life, and peaceful 
                                                    If you eat the fruit of the labor of your hands, you will be happy and prosperous.     
Arab media praised Israel for treatment of Palestinian workers 

                                                             (Tanakh,   Psalms.  128.2) 

In September 1967, nearly 11% of the labor force in Judaea and Samaria was unemployed.  By September 1972, less than 2% of the force of 134,000 were jobless.  That's an improvement seen within 5 years with a change in administration.  At first, work was found by schemes of public undertakings;  road building and afforestation.  Later, employment in Israel of workers from the areas was permitted and labor exchanges were opened up.  

In the Gaza Strip and North Sinai, 15% of working men were jobless after the war.  By 1972, 98% of a labor force of 64,000 was employed.  Refugees were treated in the same way as local people in the matter of employment, whether for local special schemes or for work in Israel.  The latter is largely provided through 18 labor exchanges.

The number of workers employed daily in Israel rose from 4,000 at the beginning of 1969 to an estimated 55,000 in mid 1972.  Average net daily local earnings rose from IL4.00 in 1966 to IL9.25 in 1972.; daily earnings in Israel were approximately IL13.  Farm workers were 39% of the total employed,  workers in crafts and industry 13.8%, and in building and public works 14.5%
                                                                       
Every minute after the 67  on Israel's side was spent with the goal of having peace within secure borders.  Not the Arabs.  They went home and then straight to Africa, gathering together in Khartoum in August for a Summit Conference about what to do and how to react after losing and well planned attack to wipe out Israel and drive them all into the sea.  They came up with 4 principals.
1.  No peace with Israel.
2.  No negotiations with Israel.
3.  No recognition of Israel.
4.  Demand: Palestinians can live in their "own country" which is their "right".  
     
   Facts remain that this was not their "own country."  Palestinians followed the Jews into the country of Palestine in 1880 when the Russian Jews entered.  Those that had been there had been taxed out by the Ottoman Empire already and with Jews entrance, had found willing buyers for G-d forsaken neglected land laid waste into swamps, attracting mosquitoes carrying malaria, deserts and an occasional marauding Bedouin on camel who was there to raid whomever had wandered into his path.  Land owners asked for ungodly prices for this run-down land,  and the Jews paid.  This was the Jewish ancient land, and had their ancestors' stories lying underground and even above at times.  They and their ancestors had prayed 3 times a day to return and now they had.  They had reached the unbearable point in Europe of life, and needed their home that their ancestors had been burned out of.  Like the swallows of Capistrano, they found their way back!  Dare I say it--the prodigal son hath returned.  

Some Arabs were happy with their return, and the educated and cultured Emir Feisal of Arabia was one of them.  He and Chaim Weizmann worked together in Paris and elsewhere making commitments for each of themselves for the end of WWI and land being held by the allies such as Palestine.   One Arab not happy with the Jews' return was Haj Amin al-Husseini, who had become the Sherif of Jerusalem through the dealings of an English Jew on the mandate team  who rewarded him to this position already.  
                                                     

Lots has happened since then.  Israel removed all their own Jews from Gaza to give to Palestinians in the name of peace, which was not the best move as it gave them a platform from which to attack with rockets, mortars and missiles.  They have been living up to the Khartoum Conference.  
                                                       
Arabs refused to deal with Israelis in the administered areas, and instead had Gaza and their own government.  They voted in Hamas-the terrorists.  Their skills for the work force have turned into tunnel making for sneaky attacks into Israel and in retrieving illegal weapons to use on Israel.  
                                                              
Hamas tunnel digger

Israel is such a small state and so much is expected of her.
She has high expectations for herself.  


                                                
Resource:Myths and Facts by Mitchell G. Bard, Joel Himelfarb
facts about israel, Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Jerusalem, division of information. 
Battleground;  fact and fantasy in Palestine by Samuel Katz
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israeli_disengagement_from_Gaza
The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia 
http://www.sixdaywar.org/content/jordanianocuupationjerusalem.asp
https://unitedwithisrael.org/arab-media-lauds-israels-treatment-of-palestinian-workers/