The Ancient Biblical Golan of Israelites, Ready to Double Its Population

Nadene Goldfoot                                                 

                                                            Mt. Hermon in Winter                                                                                                                                      

                                         Skiing at Mt. Hermon

The Golan was originally an ancient town of West Bashan, one of the cities of refuge as told in Joshua 20:8.  There were 3 east of the Jordan and 3 west of the Jordan.  They were cities of asylum, provided for in which an accidental killer was to be safe from the vengeance of the murdered man's kinsmen, and where he was required to live until the death of the reigning high priest.  It was also for political fugitives but proved inadequate protection for them.  The city of refuge was a place of expiation and only operative in cases of contributory negligence.  Grave carelessness could not be adequately atoned for by seeking sanctuary.  

 It was the capital of a region in the 2nd Temple times and had a Jewish settlement until the 5th century CE.   Bashan was in the region of Transjordania, now a part of Jordan.  Broadly speaking, Bashan contains Haurana, the Argob region, Golan as far as Mt. Hermon, and NE Gilead as far as the Yarmuk River. 

                                                       

            Yarmouk is an arm of the Jordan going eastward.  

 In ancient times, it was on the trade-route from Damascus to Arabia and the Red Sea ports.  It's original inhabitants, according to the Bible , were the Rephaim who were succeeded by the Amorites.                                                          

The Rephaim were an ancient people living in Transjordania in the time of Abraham as told in Genesis 14:5. Some of them apparently settled near Jerusalem in the "Valley of Rephaim.   During the Exodus period, it was ruled by Og, an Amorite king of the land of Rephaim in Bashan and Gilead, called "king of Bashan."   who was defeated and slain by the Israelites. Og was noted for his stature and physique.  He tried to interrupt the march of the Israelites but was defeated. Israel was made up of 603,550 members when they started off, losing only 1,820 at the end of their journey to Canaan.  His land was strongly fortified territory throughout the Middle and late Bronze Ages.   Bashan, then noted for its oak woods and fertile pasture and sounding like Oregon, was settled by half of the tribe of Manasseh.                                                                                                                   

Tiglath-Pileser III of Assyria overran Bashan in 732 BCE in the Great Assyrian Attack that started in 721 BCE.  It was subsequently under the rule of the Persians in the 4th century BCE, and then the Seleucides in the 2nd century BCE, and then the Romans from the 1st century BCE.                                                                                                               

Augustus gave it to King Herod of terrible reputation who settled Idumeans-or Edomites of Mt. Seir, descendants of Esau, hunters, of which he was one of,  and Jews from Babylon there to guard the country from desert robbers.  

The other Golan spoken  of so often is the Western region of Bashan, named after its chief town.  It was known in Greek as Gaulanitis.  The upper Golan, called in the Bible as Beth-Maachah, stretched from Mt. Hermon to the Sea of Galilee, and was pasture land, sparsely populated.  

The Lower Golan, which was the biblical Geshur, was rich and fertile until the Arab invasion.  The name "Geshur" is found primarily in biblical sources and has been taken to mean "stronghold or fortress". The Bible describes it as being near Bashan, adjoining the province of Argob (Deuteronomy 3:14) and the kingdom of Aram or Syria (2 Samuel 15:8; 1 Chronicles 2:23)

The Golan Heights, from which the Syrians bombarded kibbutzim along the upper Jordan Valley, was occupied by Israeli troops in the 1967 Six Day War (June 5-11), and was extensively populated with Israeli settlements.  Its 1985 population was 22,500 which included the Druze population.  

The Golan was part of biblical Israel and remained under Jewish control until the early part of the common era. Israel officially annexed the Golan in 1981 and the US, under President Trump, recognized it as part of Israel in 2019.                                                            

Legend has it that Safed was founded by a son of Noah after the Great Flood. According to the Book of Judges (Judges 1:17), the area where Safed is located was assigned to the tribe of Naphtali.

Safed is a city in the Northern District of Israel. Located at an elevation of 900 metres of the Hula Valley, the Golan Heights and parts of modern-day South Lebanon.  In 1974, 25 Israeli Jews (mainly school children) from Safed, were killed in the Ma'alot massacre. Over 1990s and early 2000s, the town accepted thousands of Russian Jewish immigrants and Ethiopian Beta Israel. In July 2006, "Katyusha" rockets fired by Hezbollah from Southern Lebanon hit Safed, killing one man and injuring others. Many residents fled the town for the duration of the conflict. On July 22, four people were injured in a rocket attack.  I lived here from 1981 to almost 1986 and taught in the junior high across the street from my apartment building.                                  

     Golan as seen from Bental Mountain

The government approved a plan to double the Jewish population in the Golan over the next 5 years. The plan includes 1 billion shekels of spending on housing, infrastructure and other projects to attract 23,000 new residents to the Golan. Around 25,000 Israelis currently live in the Golan, along with around 23,000 Druze, who remained in their villages after Israel took the Golan Heights from Syria in the 1967 Six Day War. 

The area was part of extreme southwestern Syria until 1967, when it came under Israeli military occupation, and in December 1981 Israel unilaterally annexed the part of the Golan it held.  The area's name is from the biblical city of refuge, Golan, in Bashan (Deuteronomy 4:43; Joshua 20:8).

"On the other side of the Jordan, by Jericho, to the east, they designated Bezer in the wilderness in the plain from the tribe of Reuben, and Ramoth in Gilead from the tribe of Gad, and Golan in the Bashan from the tribe of Manasseh". (3 places of refuge on the other side of Jordan-from Joshua).   

Resource:

The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia

Israel AM-top Israel news

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

Fact: Six Day War Cause Due to Arab Aggression, Changing Legality Issue

 Nadene Goldfoot                                                 

 Is the fact that Israel wasn't the aggressor in the Six Day War of 1967 an issue because of Anti-Semitism or what?  Of course it is.  Professor Avi Schlaim is one of the most critical of Israel's own historians, and even he has had to admit that Israel was the VICTIM of Arab aggression in that amazing War that started from June 5th to the 11th and changed the future of the Middle East.

   

Avraham "Avi" Shlaim FBA (born 31 October 1945) in Bagdad, Iraq,  is an Israeli-British historian, Emeritus Professor of International Relations at the University of Oxford and fellow of the British Academy. He is one of Israel's New Historians, a group of Israeli scholars who put forward critical interpretations of the history of Zionism and Israel.  Usually, no one is harder on Israel than its own people, and he is a hard one.  We Jews seem to have a lot of judgemental personalities.  He married the great-granddaughter of David Lloyd George, who was the British prime minister at the time of the Balfour Declaration. He has lived in the United Kingdom since 1966, and holds dual British and Israeli nationality.

Beit El: Beit El is an Israeli settlement and local council located in the Binyamin Region of the West Bank. The Orthodox Jewish town is located in the hills north of Jerusalem, east of the Palestinian city of al-Bireh, adjacent to Ramallah. In September 1997, Beit El was awarded local council status

Professor Kontorovich is an advocate of Israel and the legal eagle about International law.   He lives in Israel with his family.  

International law is very clear about the issue of Israeli settlements in and sovereignty over JUDEA-SAMARIA (West Bank) and Gaza.  "Had Israel been the aggressor, its occupation of JUDEA-SAMARIA and the Gaza Strip would have been illegal, as would all future expansion of Israeli population into these territories. 

That wasn't the case, though, was it.  Israel was the VICTIM of aggression.  They weren't the one who went out and aggressively attacked these areas.  The AGGRESSORS came to them;  and one country wasn't enough.  They had to gang up on one of the smallest states in the world; They had a coalition:  Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Iraq, Lebanon with Russia supplying lots of weapons.  Other Arab states were in the mix as well.  And no other nations were helping Israel.  She was alone facing unbearable odds.  The difference is that the people were praying for their higher power in such a situation as this.  They were aware that they had had one in their past history, but it certainly didn't seem like it during the Holocaust when many had lost hope. 

                              

     Roman aggressors taking land

The difference in international law is this:  If Israel had been the AGGRESESORS in this looming war, its occupation of JUDEA-SAMARIA and Gaza Strip would have been illegal as would  ALL FUTURE EXPANSION of Israeli population INTO THOSE TERRITORIES.  

                                                

    Winning a battle in 6 days, considered a miracle and allowing these IDF soldiers to see Jerusalem and the wall for the 1st time since Jordan held it since 1948.  Nasser had moved 100,000 men and 1,000 tanks into Sinai while the other Arab states rapidly made their preparations and coordinated their moves for a unified attack on Israel, including an agreement betwen Nasser and King Hussein of Jordan. Could I call Egypt and Jordan narcissists?  The Arab world was seized with war hysteria and in a preemptive move.   

That wasn't the case, now, was it?  As the VICTIM OF AGGRESSION, Israel's legal position is EXACTLY THE OPPOSITE.  Let this be a lesson to any future Nazi-type aggressors looming  and drooling over someone else's land that they've been sitting on for thousands of years.  There should be no more ROMAN  or NAZI-thinking AGRESSORS! 

                                               

                 Netanyahu and Obama discussing peace objectives

The legal disposition of territories conquered in a DEFENSIVE WAR can be determined ONLY  by a peace treaty between the belligerents.  No peace treaty cometh?  Well, then, there is allowed the continued sovereignty and economic activities of the VICTIM OF AGGRESSION over its NEWLY WON TERRITORIES.  This is completely legal as long as:  such activity doesn't unfavorably prejudice the indigenous people involved.  

Israel's sovereignty over JUDEA -SAMARIA and Gaza Strip was helpful,...until their administration was turned over to the Palestinian Authority (PA) under the Oslo Agreements. 

                                                   

Haj Amin al Husseini, the Sherif of Jerusalem who was always stirring up the Arabs against the Jews.  He didn't want to lose his newly given title.  

The problem has always been since 1948 that the Arabs are not interested in creating their own land of a Palestine, which they have never ever experienced in the past. Trotting back and forth across the land were Bedouins on camels or donkeys, and later, Arabs from all the surrounding areas looking for work.  They came from established countries but were the labor force out of work.  They saw a future in sharing the beginning of the Jewish nation.  It didn't take much for people like Haj Amin al-Husseini, who had just received his title from the British mandate of the Sherif of Jerusalem to stir up these workers and use their competitive inclinations to attack the Jews.  

                                   The Hebron massacre of Jews by Arabs          

1929 was not only bad economically for the USA, but bad in Palestine with the Arabs attacking Jews in Hebron, where Abraham had bought the Cave of Machpelah and surrounding land from the Hittite to bury Sarah, and later he and his family, Judah's ancient city only 18 miles south of Jerusalem.  The Arabs massacred many Jews of this town of 700, and the Jews who survived the attack had fled.  30 Jewish families returned in 1931.  Then there were Arab riots again in 1936.  The population in 1967 was 38,310.  After the Six Day War of 1967, a number of Jews again settled there, as was their right. They established the Kiryat Arba quarter east of the city.  This numbered 3,700 in 1988. It was Haj Amin al-Husseini who caused this riot.    

                                                

Following the 1995 Oslo Agreement and subsequent 1997 Hebron Agreement, Palestinian cities were placed under the exclusive jurisdiction of the Palestinian Authority, with the exception of Hebron,which was split into two sectors: H1 is controlled by the Palestinian Authority and H2 – which includes the Old City of Hebron – remained under the military control of Israel.  Around 120,000 Palestinians live in H1, while around 30,000 Palestinians along with around 700 Israelis remain under Israeli military control in H2. 

                   Cave of Machpalah, now cave of our fathers

As of 2009, a total of 86 Jewish families lived in Hebron. The IDF (Israel Defense Forces) may not enter H1 unless under Palestinian escort. Palestinians cannot approach areas where settlers live without special permits from the IDF. The Jewish settlement is widely considered to be illegal by the international community, although the Israeli government disputes this knowing the facts as explained above.

                                                  

                          Moses and the 10 Commandments

What is amazing is that Jews and Israel have been a land of law.  Judaism contains 613 points of law to be followed, like the first 10 Commandments.  Israel was under the rule of Judges in its beginning stages like Deborah, a judge of the people AND a leader-fighter.  Not even Golda Meir went that far to actually lead a unit and fight.  

(a woman, by the way), Gideon, Samson with each judge governing their own tribe or an alliance of tribes.  Jews are known to go into the law profession in profusion, as it is so natural for them, and many Jews have become judges in their diaspora countries. Yet the international world can't wipe away their anti-Semitism  to see the fact; that International law has advanced; changed since Germany first entered Poland in 1939.  World War II began in Europe on September 1, 1939, when Germany invaded Poland. Great Britain and France responded by declaring war on Germany on September 3.

Gus Jerome Solomon (1906-1987)  was a United States District Judge of the United States District Court for the District of Oregon. He was a Jewish lawyer who became a judge and sat as the longest serving federal judge in the state.  Born in Portland, Oregon, Solomon was the child of immigrant Jewish parents, his father having been born in Romania and his mother in Russia. Solomon received a Bachelor of Philosophy degree from the University of Chicago in 1926 and a Bachelor of Laws from Stanford Law School in 1929. He was in private practice in Portland from 1929 to 1949, first individually and then in partnership with Raymond M. Kell. The Portland law firm of Kell, Alterman & Runstein traces its origin to his practice. Laws seem to be a part of our thinking.  it's a natural.  

                                                     

     Israel has always fought alone, but their women fight with them.   

Where was the international community for Israel?  This was the 3rd war that Israel was fighting Arabs.  Each one was a defensive war, actually due to anti-Semitism.  Funny, since Arabs are also Semites, and DNA is showing us that they really are our very very distant cousins.  We should coin a new term in this case.  Greed, unwilling to share, that was really the cause, to do so with Jews was beyond grief for them since Jews living in Arab lands were always treated as 2nd class people, living under a list of predudicial laws because they weren't Muslims.  They simply could not allow 2nd classers into their social strata at that time.  It was like the untouchables and the Brahmas social class of India.  We were the untouchables.  Untouchables with high IQs.  They were afraid Jews would show them up.  Jews had mixed in with the West, and these Easterners couldn't handle this new breed of people coming in with new ideas and old Middle Eastern DNA.               

Israel is the only country in the world to be born again via legal and beneficial land development as opposed to history's conquests like the  Roman Empire, Ottoman Empire  and Hitler, who came close to owning the whole world, east and west.  Did this happen in the Age of Aquarius or what?  It should be the dawning of a great age now that our calendar has a 2 for starters such as 2001-and now we're about to be in 2022. Judaism, Christianity and Islam all expect the Mochiach to be arriving at any time.  The Abraham Accords are the best thing developed so far, and it's hopefully going to grow.  

Resource:

Big Lies: Demolishing the myths of the propaganda war against Israel by David Meir-Levi from David Horowitz Freedom Center

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

The Adored King David, In Opposition to a Narcissist

 Nadene Goldfoot                                       

King David, who ruled Israel from 1010 BCE till 970 BCE is still a much loved and respected personality after all these years.  That's over 3,000 years of being in the minds of men.  What narcissist wouldn't love to have that respect and love?  How was David so different from narcisstic people?                               

 For one thing, he never expected such reverence from anyone.  He was the youngest son of Jesse, and was born in Bethlehem.  At age 23, he became the armor-bearer of King Saul and was the friend of Prince Jonathan. He had talent, talent as a musician and prowess for military war.                                           

 David was supposed to be a gingery-red head which was slightly unusual amid a lot of dark-haired people. He stood out in a crowd naturally.   

David was brave.  When the Philistines were attacking Israel, they presented their best warrior who was a huge giant of a man as a challenge;  whoever could kill him would send the Philistines home.  David, a kid with a slingshot who used this little weapon on wolves who threatened his flock of sheep, felt he could do it.  He took the challenge and slew Goliath.  (I Sam.17:21:10).David remained as an enemy of the Philistines from then on.  He succeeded in breaking the Philistine military power and annexing the entire coastal belt. 

The prophet, Samuel certainly thought David was special, for he selected him to be king over Israel.  Samuel was Israel's last judge during the day of Judges before they had Saul as king.  Saul had gone to Bethlehem where he anointed David as Saul's successor.                                                   

His defeat of the Edomites gave the Israelites an outlet to the Red Sea at Ezion Geber.  He crushed Ammon and Moab, which became subjects of Israel and decisively defeated Arm (Syria), annexing large tracts of territory including Damascus, as far as the Euphrates River.   David signed treaties with Tyre and Sidon of Lebanon and extended the Israelite frontiers to an extent never again attained.  

Internally, he made energetic preparations for building a central temple and organized the national administration.  Religiously, he wasn't to build it as he was a king of war, but this was passed onto his son, Solomon for a goal, and he did build the Temple.  

In his old age, his 3rd son, Absalom, rebelled against him and was killed in the revolt.   David's  succession was eventually secured by his son, Solomon, son of Bathsheba.  Absalom  had killed his own half-brother to avenge the rape of his sister, Tamar. 

David's own desire was not checked when he first saw Bathsheba bathing on the rooftop one hot night.  He gave in and had his way with her.  Bathsheba was the wife of one of his own soldiers who was away fighting.  David had an affair with Bathsheba, and wound up having her husband serve on the front line and get killed so he could marry her.  David and Bathsheba paid for this crime emotionally.                       

Amnon was David's eldest son by Ahinoam, the Jezreelite. He had fallen for his half sister, Tamar and had raped her.  It took Absalom 2 years to have Amnon killed for this attack. Then again, Absalom's mother is said to be Maacah, a wife of David, and daughter of Talmai, King of Geshur.  David was said to father Absalom and Tamar by her.  Isn't this rather typical of the children of leaders, though?  Sometimes it's the gruff way of acting toward their children, and here he couldn't keep the peace among his own, and he had raised 2 killers who killed their own siblings.  One thing is noticeable here, the Bible doesn't cover up the faults of  its heros at all.  They're pictured as original human beings.   Maybe that's why David is so beloved.  He's like us; a good person with faults and problems.  

 He stirred up a rebellion against David who had to flee across the Jordan River for safety.  Absalom's army was vanquished and he himself was killed by Joab after his long hair became entangled in a tree.  Absalom as a soldier is cited as a striking example of vanity (a narcissist) and rebellion.  Perhaps he got that way  by trying to compete with his father, David's history.                             

 One fact discovered is that  all abusers show narcissistic behaviors. Narcissism, as a personality disorder, does not excuse abuse. Even a narcissist is still choosing certain behaviors that are abusive. They are still in control of their behavior, which is based on deep beliefs that it is okay to use controlling behaviors.

Your partner may have rationale for why they are being abusive, but reasons and rationales never excuse abuse. They are choosing to be abusive. It is NEVER your fault if someone abuses you. All forms of abuse cause emotional harm, which is often the hardest to understand and heal from. Recent studies also show that children in the home with emotional abuse, even if it is not directed towards them, have much higher cases of PTSD, anxiety and learning issues.                                           

 A narsistic personality disorder Requires a medical diagnosis.  Symptoms include an excessive need for admiration, disregard for others' feelings, an inability to handle any criticism, and a sense of entitlement.                

As Israel's second king, David built a small empire. He conquered Jerusalem, which he made Israel's political and religious centre. He defeated the Philistines so thoroughly that they never seriously threatened the Israelites' security again, and he annexed the coastal region. He founded the Judaean dynasty and united all the tribes of Israel under a single monarch. His son Solomon expanded the empire that David built. David is an important figure in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. The thing is, he didn't go around bragging about how good he was, which a narcissist would do.  He gave all the credit where credit is due, to G-d.  It is said he is the author of Psalms, found in the bible. 

                                                 

As an example:  131:  A song of ascents, by David:  Hashem (G-d), my heart was not proud, and my eyes were not haughty, nor did I pursue matters too great and too wondrous for me.  I swear that I stilled and silenced my soul.  Let Israel hope to Hashem, from this time and forever.  

Resource:

Tanach: The Stone Edition, Psalms

The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia

https://www.britannica.com/biography/David

http://womeninthebible.net/women-bible-old-new-testaments/maacah-davids-wife/

https://abuserecovery.org/am-i-being-abused/?https://abuserecovery.org/am-i-being-abused/&gclid=CjwKCAiAn5uOBhADEiwA_pZwcOD_cbXZ6QIBYEBKEjJODdqcNiDx3NkfbKAGm027Q3ZRrFvTqZN3uhoCbL8QAvD_BwE

Israel's Success Amid Former Ottoman Empire's Toppled States

 Nadene Goldfoot                                                

The irony of the League of Nations' decisions on what to do with the Ottoman Empire's land and their decision to cut it into sections  has turned out 100% wrong.  They held back any help to the Jews in the creation of Israel and it has blossomed, while other states have fallen 100% flat. They managed to allow 80% of the Promised Jewish Homeland to be given to Abdullah for Jordan, and then split the 20% left of the Jewish section in half and gave that to the Palestinians.  

One of the countries was formerly known as Syria, and by 2015 was no more in reality.  Too much has happened to it since its outbreak of a Civil War in March 2011.  It had been a great threat to Israel with thousands of rockets pointed at her.  Syria as a state simply no longer exists and stopped in 2015.  Like they say, an egg made into an omelet will never be an egg again, and so, Syria hasn't become itself again.  We have a situation now between Syria and Iran, both against Israel.

Three other states  had  evaporated with Syria;  Iraq, Libya, and Yemen.  In their place are organizations and gangs with intervals and agendas that are sometimes contradictory and sometimes compatible.  Short-lived alliances have formed only to be soon dissolved.  

                                             

At the end of WWI, the allies won this terrible war of all wars, and inherited the Ottoman Empire, who were on the loser side. That was  held by Turkey for 400 years from 1517 to 1918.   The allies cut up the vast sections of the empire to keep it in manageable-sized states.

                                         

           Emir Feisal ibn Hussein (1885-1933)was their king assigned by the League of Nations.  He was the oldest son of Hussein, the Grand Emir and Sherif of Mecca,  and had led the Beduin Arabs against the Turks of the Ottoman Empire in WWI, and this was his payoff.  He was a 38th-generation direct descendant of Muhammad, as he belonged to the Hashemite family.  He was related to Abdullah, King of Jordan.  His agenda for his Arabs and the Arabs' agenda for themselves was not the same, so Feisal chose to run with them.  In 1933 he died from cancer.    

Iraq, was Mesopotamia before the war, and before that, called Babylonia.  How did it receive the name Iraq out of Mesopotamia?  On the 23, 1921, the British installed Feisal as king of Mesopotamia, permanently,  changing the official name of the country at that time to Iraq, an Arabic word which, Fromkin says, means “well-rooted country.” The first 11 chapters of Genesis are largely set in Mesopotamia. Eden is a Sumerian word meaning “steppe," and was a district in Sumer.  The Tower of Babel was in Babylon. The Hanging Gardens may have inspired the story of the Garden of Eden. According to Genesis Abraham and Cain and Abel and numerous other Biblical figures were born in Mesopotamia and the first cities founded after the flood were Babel (Babylon), Erech (Uruk), and Accad (Akkad) there.  It became a state on October 3, 1932. Emir Feisal ben Hussein was selected to be their king by the League of Nations from August 23,1921 to 1933. 

Syria was called Aram in the bible.  During the Seleucid period (312-64 BCE), the term Syria was introduced as Hellenistic designation for this region, but the native name (Aram) persisted in use among Arameans, up to the Arab conquest in the 7th century CE.  It became a state on October 24, 1945 when France's mandate from WWI was finished, and they were on their own by April 17, 1946.  Feisal was proclaimed King of the Arab Kingdom of Syria or Greater Syria in 1920.  

Libya : Prior to its independence in December 24, 1951, the territory comprising present-day Libya (Tripoli) had been a semi-independent province of the Ottoman Empire from 1711 to 1835, an Italian colony from 1912 until 1947, and was under British and French occupation from 1943 to 1951.  The Iran and Libya Sanctions Act of 1996 (ILSA) was a 1996 act of the United States Congress that imposed economic sanctions on firms doing business with Iran and Libya....

Yemen:  This country is the name of SW Arabia.  It became an independent state on May 22, 1990.  Five years of negotiations ensued, and ended with the signing of the Treaty of Daan on 9 October 1911, which led to Yemen becoming a vassal state of the Ottoman Empire.Dubai, United Arab Emirates — The U.S. Navy said it seized a large cache of assault rifles and ammunition being smuggled by a fishing ship from Iran likely bound for war-ravaged Yemen.

                                              

        Jerusalem in December's rain

Israel: Became a state on May 14, 1948.  David Ben-Gurion, leader of Mapai and head of the Jewish Agency, became Israel's first prime minister. The position became permanent on 8 March 1949, when the first government was formed.  Israel is a going concern.  While England allowed Arabs in, they kept Jews out, especially ones fleeing from Nazis.  It was a shameful act and England's bad. The Jewish history was born in ancient Israel, and the people have wanted to return for over 2,000 years.  Their destiny is to all return.  They have more reason than anyone to need their 2nd Israel.  Like Golda Meir has commented, "Israel has a secret weapon.  We have nowhere else to go".     

The League of Nations broke up the Ottoman Empire with the Sykes-Picot Agreement:

• The Sykes-Picot Agreement was a secret 1916 agreement between Great Britain and France, with Russia assenting, that defined their mutually agreed spheres of influence and control in Southwestern Asia, under control of the declining Ottoman Empire.
• The agreement allocated to Britain control of areas between the Mediterranean Sea and the River Jordan, Jordan, and southern Iraq;  France got control of southeastern Turkey, northern Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon; and Russia received Istanbul, the Turkish Straits, and Armenia.
• The agreement is seen by many as a turning point in Western and Arab relations, still mentioned when considering the region and its present-day conflicts.
• Many historians consider the borders created by the Sykes-Picot Agreement “artificial” and argue they have given rise to many conflicts in the region.  We can't argue with that, they have dissolved and are taken over by terrible people.  

The territory of the Syrian Arab Republic had extended over 185,000 square kilometers which is some 9 times more than Israel in the pre-June 1967 borders.  Half of it is desert. 

                                                      

President Bashar Assad is a member of an Alawite clan, supported in 2015 by Iran and Hezbollah. Also, the Lebanese Shi'ite Movement, supported by Iran, who is a Shi'ite country, controlled 20% of the territory, now, probably all of it.  Assad does have control of the capital, Damascus, the coastal strip which is predominantly populated by Alawites.  Alawites as and ethnic sect of Shi'ite Islam.  Asad in 2015 still held onto a small strip in the south adjoining the border with Jordan.  Assad's territory is called "Little Syria." 

Bringing Syria down has been "Islamic State-ISIS." They controlled 80,000 square kilometers (over 40%) of Assad's territory and its 7 million people, about 1/3 of the former total population.  However, lots of the land under ISIS now is just desert with Raqqa in the NE, their capital.                                     

                      ISIS in the act of beheading dissidents

Until 2011, ISIS was the  Iraqi branch of al-Qaida led by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.  He had sent jihadi volunteers to Syria to fight the Assad regime when the civil war broke out. The war started in 2011, when Syrians, enraged by corruption and emboldened by a wave of "Arab Spring" protests across the region, took to the streets to demand democratic accountability for their leaders. ... The chaos of the war allowed ISIS, al Qaeda and other terror groups to seize more than 70% of Syria's territory.  The fighters were local Syrians, called the Nusra Front and put Syrian Islamist Abu Muhammad al-Julani in charge.  Al-Baghdadi'ss barbarism was too much for even al-Qaida's leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri,  who had replaced Osama bin Laden and gave himself the title of caliph, successor to the Prophet  Muhammad. 

Al-Julani, the Syrian rebels, remained loyal to al-Qaida and al-Zawahari. The 2 groups have joined to fight against Assad and other moderate Islamic groups and at times, each other!  The scene becomes a free-for-all.                                       

       ISIS Leader:  Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi

ISIS terrorizes people and enacts staged killings of its rivals in a whole gamut of barbaric practices, but has started to govern over people, too, by establishing courts of the 7th century style.  

The Nusra Front of Syria doesn't deal in governing. They and al-Qaida use terror attacks to wreak havoc whenever possible.   ISIS, the violent caliphate, has toppled the regimes of Syria, Libya and Iraq.

                                                  

Hezbollah, backed by Iran, was ingrained in the Golan's some 20,000 Druze who are still supporters of Assad in 2015. Iran's al-Quds Force was led by  General Qasem Soleimani who established a small "forward command" on the Syrian side of the border.  They've been attacking Israel from their vantage point.  Earlier, they had hired proxies to do this job from the Druse village of Hader.  In August 2015 Iran sponsored the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group (PIJ).They are in the West Bank and Gaza. They are committed to the creation of an Islamaic Palestinian state and the destruction of Israel through holy war.  The oppose pro-Western  Arab governments.    Israel has had to fight groups who have fired rockets at Israel from them.  Israel has had to kill a senior Iranian General and a few Hezbollah  senior operatives like Jihad Mughniyeh, the son of Hezbollah's Defense Minister, Imad, who was assassinated in 2008 in Damascus in a joint Mossad-CIA operation.  He was involved in terror plots against Israel.

Fast forward to the present day.  Iran's Ayatolla has Persian expansionist goals again, and finds that power will come if they topple Israel. Following Islamic Law, Iran has told the world of their intentions to destroy Israel, and they're already past the point of stopping their nuclear goals.  Now Israel has to concentrate on ending their method of delivering such a missile on Israel's soil. 

      Iran has 11 million soldiers.  In 2011, they had 545,000.  
 

The Iran–Israel proxy conflict, also known as the Iran–Israel proxy war or Iran–Israel Cold War, is an ongoing proxy war between Iran and Israel. The conflict involves threats and hostility by Iran's leaders against Israel, and their declared objective to dissolve the Jewish state by a popular referendum . Iran has provided funding, weapons and training to groups, including Lebanese Hezbollah, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) both in the Gaza Strip, which have vowed and carried out attacks on Israel, and which have been designated terrorist organizations by many countries. Because of Iran’s hostility to Israel, Israel is also concerned by Iran's nuclear weapons program and missile program, and is seeking to downgrade Iran's allies and proxies, as well as preventing Iranian entrenchment in Syria, another sworn enemy of Israel.                                    

Strains emerged during talks this week after a short period of strong relations between a new Israeli government and new American one.  Golly, what timing!

 

Atta Kenare/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images, credit.

American negotiators have signaled that Iranians’ advancements in their nuclear program and their recent hard line in Vienna mean Tehran is not serious about a diplomatic agreement.   But the tougher line was also aimed at calming increasingly frustrated Israeli officials. Though they will not criticize the American president in public the way former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did during the Obama administration, Israeli officials in private argue that the Iranians are advancing their nuclear program while betting that the United States, eager to diminish American commitments in the Middle East, will not abandon the Vienna talks for more forceful action. Israel expects a more direct stance.  

Update 4pmPT: Asked about a possible Israeli to attack Iran, the US official commented that he would not speak for Israel. which is “a sovereign state.”  The Biden administration clearly remains committed to diplomacy, while Israel maintains that Iran is playing for time to weaponize its nuclear program

Sullivan also travelled to Ramallah to meet Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.

https://www.debka.com/mivzak/us-israel-gaps-on-iran-smaller-after-sullivan-visit-but-remain/

 

Resource:

The Jerusalem Report, September 21, 2015, p 14-15.

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

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

https://history.state.gov/countries/libya

https://courses.lumenlearning.com/boundless-worldhistory/chapter/partition-of-the-ottoman-empire/

https://factsanddetails.com/world/cat56/sub402/entry-6059.html

atimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-09-02-bk-1977-story.html#:~:text=23%2C%201921%2C%20the%20British%20installed,“well-rooted%20country.”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran%E2%80%93Israel_proxy_conflict

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