Israel or The USA, Which is the True World Power?

I'm really getting a kick out of the fact that the USA is so nervous about Israel policing Syria.  The link is from an article that topped the NY Times "Afternoon Update," which I get by email.

American and Israeli political analysts agree that Israel has little motive to intervene in Syria’s civil war, but that it is deeply concerned about the transfer of advanced weapons, as well as the danger that Mr. Assad’s stockpiles of chemical weapons could be used against it.

Take a look at a map and see how important it is to Israel that Syria remember that they will pay dearly for attacking us.

As you can see from the map, Israel's Golan Heights is full of small agricultural communities, lots of civilians.   The Golan Heights were liberated by Israel in the 1967 Six Days War.  Prior to that, the Syrians used the vantage to attack Israel's northern communities.

The Golan Heights and Syria are presently separated by "UNDOF Zone."  As we've seen many times in the past, the various United Nations peacekeeping sic forces  do not actively police between the countries. 

When there is an aggressor, however, when one side seeks to keep the peace and the other is devoted to its violation, as is now the case on the Golan Heights, the peacekeepers are asked to fill a role that they are, perhaps ironically, ill equipped to handle — actually keeping the peace.

On the Golan Heights, several experts say, the worsening situation is likely to lead to one of three options.

The first would see the retreat of the Golan peacekeepers, known as the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force, or UNDOF, and the collapse of what has been a very successful peacekeeping program.

The second would see a shift in the force’s mandate, equipping it with more firepower and more authority, along the lines of the bolstered United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon, UNIFIL.

The third would see a weakened force – much like UNIFIL before the Second Lebanon War of 2006 – that turns a blind eye to low-profile terror activity on one side of the border while vigorously documenting the violations by the IDF which are sure to follow.

They don't risk their lives fighting aggressors when one country invades or seriously threatens the other.  They leave.  That's what happened in the Suez Canal, when Egypt threatened to destroy Israel in 1967.  The UN made no effort to protect Israel against the three countries, Egypt, Jordan and Syria which announced to the world that their aim was to drive Israel into the sea.

And don't forget that the United States has never been quick to help an ally. 

That's right, not even when the German Nazis were invading Europe. The isolationists were ruling the State Department until America had no choice other than to join in the fight.  The same happened on the Pacific front.

The US was sucked further towards the conflict when its navy and air force began to ‘escort’ British convoys which transported Lend-Lease material across the Atlantic, protecting them from German submarines. Roosevelt’s announcement of a ‘shoot on sight’ policy in September 1941 following an attack on the USS Greer enraged isolationist senators; they alleged that Roosevelt was deliberately provoking skirmishes with the Germans. Meanwhile, Churchill repeatedly attempted to convince Roosevelt to enter the war. At the August 1941 Atlantic Conference, the two leaders composed a charter for the post-war world; Roosevelt tackled the thorny issue of the British Empire, promoting the recognition of “the right of all peoples to choose the government under which they will live.”
Churchill did not have to wait long. After the bombing of the US Pacific fleet at Pearl Harbor in December 1941, only one congressman opposed the declaration of war; the vote in the senate was unanimous. Hitler’s declaration of war on the US, which came four days later, was actually a blessing in disguise for Roosevelt; it enabled him to legitimately pursue a ‘Germany first’ strategy. In November 1942, Operation Torch, the invasion of North Africa, became the first US military offensive of the war in the West. Allied troops slowly cornered German forces in North Africa, who surrendered in Tunisia in May 1943. The joint British-US victory, costly and hard fought as it was, was invaluable in mobilising US public opinion behind the war effort.

Considering that the Untied States hasn't been in danger of invasion since its earliest history, it hasn't a clue as to Israel's dangers from.  We can't expect any real assistance from any other country or international alliance.

Words, platitudes and threats won't keep us safe.  We're a tiny country surrounded by enemies.  When in danger we must shoot first.

Lucky Obama. What if the Benghazi Leaks Had Hit The Fan Before Election Day?

The details about how United States President Barack Hussein Obama and his then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton handled the Benghazi crises is just now getting big play in the media. 

Friday, in a bombshell report that blew the long-simmering Libya scandal wide open and right into the arms of the mainstream media, ABC's Jonathan Karl reported that an email written by Rhoades specifically mentioned the State Department's concerns about the CIA talking points. Here is how Karl transcribed the Rhoades' email:

We must make sure that the talking points reflect all agency equities, including those of the State Department, and we don’t want to undermine the FBI investigation.  We thus will work through the talking points tomorrow morning at the Deputies Committee meeting.

Though this point wasn't the main focus of Karl's report, it was important because it showed that the White House was backing State in pushing inconvenient facts out of the talking points -- this included the fact that terrorists were behind the attack and that State had been negligent when it came to providing security for our diplomatic mission.
In the end, as we now all now know, and apparently due to the prodding of Hillary Clinton's right hand woman at State -- Victoria Nuland, the talking points ended up being completely wrong, which resulted in the American people being misled by the Obama Administration, straight through to a speech the President gave at the United Nations almost two weeks after the attack.

Do you think he would have been elected? 

The Benghazi terror attack was an issue in the campaign, but now it has been revealed that Obama had fudged his answers and statements about it.  Or should one say lied?  What's really clear and was clear all along to many was that the United States Government did reacted totally incorrectly.

And now, will this be the death of Hillary Clinton's last chance for the presidency?  Stay tuned...

Shavuot, The Holiday of Jewish Unity

I'm not referring to the traditional Shavuot menu, based (at least according to Ashkenazim) on dairy foods, because lactose intolerance aka milk allergies/sensitivity is the latest Jewish genetic trait. 

The more I study Jewish History, Biblical, ancient Jewish History, the more obvious it seems to me that there were always Jews who sinned, or skimped (a popular label for this in Israel nowadays is "dati lite," the diatietc/low calorie religious observance) on their observance of the Torah, G-d's instructions. Most probably the only few seconds in time when all Jews agreed, were united and obeyed were as long as it took to shout out in unison:

נעשה ונשמע.
Na'aseh vinishmah.
We will do and we will listen.

Those crucial, magical, life-changing historic event took place at the foot of Mount Sinai, after the exodus from Egypt when we, the Jewish People, accepted the Torah, G-d's instructions on how to live.

By saying "Na'aseh" before "Nishma" they expressed acceptance of Hashem's Torah "sight unseen" - without first understanding. After the unqualified acceptance of "Na'aseh, saying "Nishma" means that we are ready to open our brain, our intellect and our hearts to understand Hashem's Torah to the extent that Hashem will help us to do so.

If this sight unseen acceptance hadn't happened, Jewish History would have taken a different path.  But it did happen.  Chazal, our sages say that the soul of every single Jew to be born (or converted) was there at that great historic moment.  That was the pledge, the oath that linguists say is the key to the name of this holiday, which should be called Shvu'ot, oaths, not Shavu'ot, weeks.

Our ancestors, accompanied by our souls, pledged our allegiance, obedience to G-d all those thousands of years ago.  We saw, experienced the miracles which G-d produced to facilitate the exodus from Egypt, the end to the bondage to Pharaoh in Egypt.

Today we see, even among many Jews who claim not to obey the Torah that despite this they are attracted to the Torah.  There are "secular yeshivot" in which religious observance isn't required in order to study the classic Jewish texts.  Shavuot is a very traditional time to study Torah, Talmud and commentaries.  More and more we hear:

"The dati'im (Torah observant) don't have a monopoly on our Jewish texts."

I'm glad to hear this.  We're all Jews, and nobody "owns" the Torah.  The Torah must unite us to remain one people.

Chag Sameach

Have a Joyful Holiday

Lapid's Marie Antionette Style Budget

There isn't much  good I can say about our new Finance Minister's budget, except that Yair Lapid has a lot of guts.  There's hardly anyone, especially among those who voted for him, who likes and agrees with Lapid's first budget.  I agree this the detractors here.  This budget makes no sense to me.

In terms of the cuts in the military, it's outrageous, ridiculous and dangerous.   On one hand Lapid and the Israeli government still say that they want to draft pretty  much all the chareidi men, claiming the army needs them, but if the military budget is reduced, there won't be money for that.  And that's one of the simpler points to ponder.

With a vote in the full cabinet expected Monday on Finance Minister Yair Lapid’s budget proposal for 2013- 2014, the security cabinet met throughout the day Sunday and into the night to parse out NIS 4 billion in proposed cuts to defense spending.

I agree with Professor Ron Breiman that reducing army service will only endanger us.

Only once before in Israeli history has a similar measure been taken, and only two draft classes were able to enjoy it. I'm talking about those who were drafted in August and November of 1964 and served only two years and two months. Not long after, the quiet along Israel's borders, since 1956, was broken and the winds of war began to blow from Egypt, Syria and Jordan. The result was the Six-Day War in 1967.

In the years following the Six-Day War -- the years of the War of Attrition, the Yom Kippur War, the First Lebanon War -- it was clear to everyone that there was no choice but to maintain the three-year mandatory service policy. Only in the 1990s , when the bells of "peace" rang in "the new Middle East" did country's leaders think again about shortening military service. This time, however, the easing of the security burden was directed at the reserve army, not towards changing the three-year mandatory service policy. The reserve service cut-off was lowered to 40 years of age, the need to receive a permit for travelling abroad was cancelled, and more.

It will make a much less professional and competent IDF.

I call it a Marie Antionette budget, because it harms the poor more than the rich.  In a rare move, I agree with Labor's  Shelly Yacimovich.

According to her figures, after factoring in tax changes, price increases, National Insurance Institute child allotments and so forth, the bottom 10 percent of Israelis would lose a whopping 25.1% of their income while the richest decile would only lose 2.2%. The majority of the changes stemmed from proposed reductions in child allotments.
“A picture arises of a heavy bur- den from difficult, regressive, non-egalitarian cuts that clearly hurt the poor and middle classes, primarily, and hardly touch the rich,” Yacimovich said.

I work in one of those minimum wage jobs, and none of us have any "fat" to trim from our budgets.  So, big deal if the wealthier will take fewer trips abroad or keep their cars a year or two longer.  For many of us those sorts of luxuries are just dreams.

Please add your opinions on the various aspects of Lapid's budget in the comments, thanks.

Looking at The Whole Picture versus The Danger of a Distorted Image

The following picture has been making the rounds on facebook and other internet sites:

I'm not sure of the original source, but from the first time I spotted it, I  just knew that I had to write about it.

Here we are in the twenty-first century.  With computers, internet, smartphones, tablets etc., it's incredibly easy to do research  history, find out simple facts, truth. So how has the "Palestinian sic myth" taken such hold.  Supposedly educated, intelligent people are convinced that there had been an Arab Palestinian state which was invaded by Jews, the Zionists, and replaced by the State of Israel.

Just like the very cropped version of the picture here which only shows an IDF soldier hitting an Arab on the ground, too many people shorten the title this Land was given by the League of Nations in July, 1922, British Mandate for Palestine.

The Mandate system was instituted by the League of Nations in the early 20th century to administer non-self-governing territories*. The mandatory power, appointed by an international body, was to consider the mandated territory a temporary trust and to see to the well-being and advancement of its population.

In July 1922, the League of Nations entrusted Great Britain with the Mandate for Palestine. Recognizing "the historical connection of the Jewish people with Palestine," Great Britain was called upon to facilitate the establishment of a Jewish national home in Palestine-Eretz Israel (Land of Israel).  *The italics and bold here are mine.

There never, ever was a country called Palestine. Even on my relatively old and slow computer, it took just seconds to get this information.

It's a good idea to look at this phrase, which I highlighted:

non-self-governing territories

What does that really mean?  It means that there was no independent country, no state.  Actually, prior to the decision to entrust Great Britain with those territories, to prepare the Jewish population to rule it.  The Jewish People had always been present in the Holy Land and were the only people who had self-rule there with thousands of years of history including many kings, judges etc. all recorded in the Bible. That's the same Bible also read and recognized by Christians.

From the destruction of the Second Holy Temple in Jerusalem until the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, the Land was held/governed by invaders.  Prior to the British Mandate, the Ottomans (Turks) ruled for four hundred years.

The Turks ruled Palestine almost uninterruptedly for four hundred years. The only break in their rule was from 1832-1840 when Muhammet Ali, an Egyptian vassal of the Turkish Empire revolted against his patrons and conquered Palestine, Syria and parts of Asia Minor. However, with the assistance of the British and the Russians, the Ottomans regained control of the area. The price of this assistance was various capitulations to foreign governments that increasingly undermined the Turkish domination of the area. By the latter part of the century it was clear that without European assistance, the Ottoman Empire would have collapsed.

The Ottomans never controlled Palestine as a single unit. Instead they divided the immediate and surrounding areas into a number of villayets (districts) whose boundaries altered over the years.

At no point was there ever a "Palestine."

The idea of a "Palestine" was created to sabotage the mandated Jewish State. The lie has taken off and is considered true fact/history by most of the world including the major world leaders such as United States President Barack Hussein Obama, academics, intellectuals and the media, even Jews and in Israel.  The name/term "Palestine" was used to designate some land on a map, but there never was an actual people, culture etc. by that name.

We must reveal, publicize the full, complete picture.  Only the Jewish People have a national history in this part of the world.  It's our Land and nobody else's.

Drawn to The Past; The Bible Lives

After over thirty years of living in Shiloh I'm not the same person I was when we moved here September 1, 1981.  And it's not just a matter of being almost thirty-two years older than I was then. 

Living a short walk from where the Mishkan, holy Tabernacle had stood as the central point of Jewish Prayer for three hundred and sixty- nine years has done something to me, especially since I began a monthly pilgrimage to pray on Rosh Chodesh, the beginning of each Jewish Month at Tel Shiloh.

There are other Jewish women fighting over how one should pray at the Kotel, but davka, it's Shiloh which is the most ancient place for Jewish women's prayers.  It was at Shiloh where the Biblical Chanah, Hannah, had successfully prayed for a son.  Her mode of silent prayer, while obviously mouthing the words has been adopted by Jewish sages as the correct way to pray.

When I'm at Tel Shiloh and hear the traffic below, my mind goes to Biblical Eli, the Priest, who educated Chana's much awaited son Shmuel, and how he heard the hullabaloo of the unnamed runner arriving with the news of the capture of the Aron HaBrit, Holy Ark and the death of Eli's sons.  No doubt the sounds traveled up to Eli, HaKohen, like today's modern traffic can be heard by us.

It's easy to imagine Shiloh as a busy administrative and spiritual center when you see the large jugs that have been found by the archeologists.  Not only did Jews live here, but pilgrims came on the Jewish Holidays and all year long to pray.

Next month, G-d willing we'll be back at Shiloh HaKeduma to pray, again, together.

Women's Prayers at Tel Shiloh
Rosh Chodesh Tammuz

Sunday, June 9, 2013

1 Tammuz 5773, 8:30am

Tour of Tel & Dvar Torah, Short Torah Lesson

Please come and invite family, friends and neighbors

תפילת נשים
ראש חודש תמוז בתל שילה
יום א' 9-6 א' תמוז תשע"ג 8:30
יהיה דבר תורה קצר וסיור בתל
נא לבוא, לפרסם ולהזמין חברות, משפחה ושכנות

 

 

There's now a very well kept up tourist center in Shiloh, Shiloh HaKeduma, at Tel Shiloh.  You can arrange tours and events there by emailing visit@telshilo.org.il or call 02-994-4019. 

Some Truth About Israel From Caroline Glick and Latma's Tribal Update

Caroline Glick's article this week is about Arab integration in Israeli society vs the NGO's, something the Left claims isn't happening.

A poll of Arab youth carried out in late 2007 made clear how widespread this integrationist impulse has become. Seventy-five percent of Arab youth aged 16 to 22 supported voluntary national service.

And yet, despite these sentiments and developments, Arab Israelis who seek to integrate into Israeli society and reject the separatist messages of their political leaders are forced to contend with extraordinary social pressures and even coercion to prevent them from acting in accordance with their wishes.

A study completed this week by Im Tirtzu exposes the vast array of NGOs generously funded by the supposedly pro-Israel New Israel Fund as well as by foreign governments which are running a campaign to oppose Cpl. Joseph and her comrades - Arabs and Jews alike. Since 1999, these groups have been conducting a campaign to undermine Arab integration into Israeli society specifically and to demoralize and reduce the social standing of those who serve in the IDF, national service and IDF reserves generally. The campaign is being carried out on a dual track of discouraging Israeli Arabs from serving in the IDF or national service, and of opposing government benefits to IDF veterans, reservists and those who undertook national service by claiming that these benefits unjustly discriminate against Israeli Arabs.

And Latma's Tribal Update exposes the "cool," calm, quiet in Arab villages, sings for Jerusalem and Bibi's priorities.

Chodesh Sivan Tov, A Good Month of Sivan to You

and Shabbat Shalom!

The Voters Are Complaining of Being Conned

Sometimes I really get a kick out of how Jewish things are here in Israel.  Yes, I do complain frequently that it's not Jewish enough, but once in a while there's one of those "wow, only in Israel" moments that keep me going for a long time. *Read to the end, please.

Yair Lapid, Israel's newbie Knesset Member, leader of the second largest political party, Yesh Atid and our Finance Minister had been coddled and  touted by the media as the "great white secular hope."  Now that they succeeded so well in getting him elected, he's in position to be criticized.  There isn't a ministry that attracts anger more than the Finance Ministry does.

A feature newscast about a local politician in a southern city who had campaigned for Lapid is now complaining bitterly.  His townspeople gave Yesh Atid a very high percentage of votes, and now with Lapid's austerity budget they are going to suffer greatly.  Lapid campaigned that he wanted to help the middle-class.  His budget which includes raising taxes and decreasing benefits makes life a bit harder for the upper middle-class, (the income that Lapid touts as being "middle,") but it means starvation for the lower middle-class and those who try to survive on minimum wage and standard fixed pensions.  That's most of the population.

The ministry is looking to cut government spending by some NIS 6.5 billion (almost $2 billion) in 2013 and by NIS 18 billion (some $5 billion) in 2014, largely through the cuts in defense, child benefits (NIS 2 billion or $560 million) and transportation infrastructure projects (NIS 1.2 billion or $336 million). (complete article)

NRP aka Bayit Yehudi's Naftali Bennet has expressed his full support.

On Thursday, Economics Minister Naftali Bennett (Jewish Home) came out with emphatic support for his political ally Lapid.

That has his voters upset, too.  Miriam blogged this:

If this headline is true, you will not get another vote from my family. http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/167877#.UYua9qLfCSo

We are pensioners who like many seniors live on a fixed income. Raising the VAT to 18% is going to hurt. Chopping the child family allowance is dreadful, and adding 18% VAT to basic daily..fruits and vegetables is immoral. Most people use their family allowance to help pay for grocery and school bills [tuition, clothes]. The average family will not be able to buy fruits and vegetables for their children. Fruits and vegetable promote good health. Adding the VAT to hotels will keep many tourist away and that will hurt our economy. The domino effect, employees will loose their jobs, putting more people to seek unemployment benefits. MK Bennett, we didn't vote for you to team up with Yair Lapid..He says, "I'm not my father" the truth is he is worse than his father..his father went through hell and back, what's Lapid's excuse..I'll tell you, he is an elitist who doesn't live from pay check to pay check and doesn't care about families that do..We didn't vote for you to be the anti haredi spokes person..some of your comments leave me shaking my head. We voted for you, because you said you would protect Eretz Yisrael...Bibi is calling for a building freeze in Yehuda, Shomron and East Jerusalem. Why aren't you screaming "NO, NOT ON MY WATCH!" Up to now, your actions have made me very sorry I wasted my vote on your party...  

*The TV news broadcast ended with:

"This is not the son we prayed for."

I had to laugh.  That's a play on a very famous Biblical verse.  It's from Chana's Prayer.  And davka the story of Chana took place in Shiloh.

1 Samuel Chapter 1 שְׁמוּאֵל א

כז  אֶל-הַנַּעַר הַזֶּה, הִתְפַּלָּלְתִּי; וַיִּתֵּן יְהוָה לִי אֶת-שְׁאֵלָתִי, אֲשֶׁר שָׁאַלְתִּי מֵעִמּוֹ.

27 For this child I prayed; and the LORD hath granted me my petition which I asked of Him;

Simply put, a large percentage of Israeli voters feel they were conned.

Chodesh Tov and Shabbat Shalom.  I must hurry up to join my friends for Rosh Chodesh Prayers at Shiloh HaKeduma, Tel Shiloh.

Proudly Israeli as a Jew

Last year at Yafiz, we had a variety of little boy sports outfits for sale.  They are faux soccer team uniforms kiddie size for all sorts of international teams.  As soon as the "end of season sale" had started, I quickly bought one to fit my grandson this year.  It's funny.  I doubt if he would have wanted to wear it last year, since then he wasn't very interested in sporty things. But this year I've seen him in it a number of times.  Kids grow up and change.

For some reason, it isn't very "in" in some Israeli circles to be patriotic.  Of course, we ought to define "patriotic."  On the Left of the Israeli political spectrum, the concept of "patriotic" is very different from on the Right.  The Left wants to see Israel is a state for all its residents, stressing multiculturalism. They worry that Arabs aren't comfortable living in a country established as a refuge for Jews to be a Jewish State for the Jewish People.  So they are trying to dilute the Jewishness of Israel.  The Israeli singer Ahinoam "Noa" Nini is one of those, so there were many complaints that she had been hired as a featured singer at the Jerusalem Day celebrations.

Gabay said that Nini has, on several times in the past, voiced her support for the Arabs and the Palestinian Authority, saying that their claims were more valid than Israel's. Nini, a radical leftist, does not belong on a Jerusalem stage, Gabay told Arutz Sheva. “Jerusalem Day is a national holiday that represents the unity and sovereignty of of the city. A singer who makes speeches and expresses support for a Palestinian state, with its capital in Jerusalem, cannot sing on this day. She can participate in other events, but not this one,” he added.

The point of Jerusalem Day is to celebrate the fact that the parts of Jerusalem, which had been illegally occupied by Jordan from 1948-1967, were liberated by the IDF on the third day of the 1967 Six Days War.  Someone who thinks that our victory harmed the enemy-Jordan, Syria and Egypt had planned on destroying Israel- and identifies with the enemy isn't much of a patriot.

I listened to Israeli President Shimon Peres's Jerusalem Day speech and he too, another extreme Leftist, stressed that Jerusalem should be for all its residents, not primarily Jewish ones.  This is very troubling and dangerous for our continued existence.

I'm not advocating banishing all Jews from Israel.  I just consider it of the utmost importance to make it clear de facto and de jure that Israel is to always be a Jewish country, not a multinational, multicultural one.

The Hawking Boycott, Fact or Fiction?

Today, as if Israel has no more pressing needs, the media is full of news about Stephen Hawking.  Is his change in travel plans, his cancellation of a trip to Israel due to a medical issue or an ideological one?

By the time I came home today, lots of keyboards have been pounded about the question.  First it was stated that he's staying away to boycott us.  And then I saw on Algemeiner.com that it was simply a deterioration in his medical situation. 

It turns out that Stephen Hawking’s cancelled trip to Israel is not a matter of boycotting the Jewish state, but rather merely a result of his health.
The Guardian, which broke the faux story late last night, claimed that Hawking was to boycott the Presidential Conference in Jerusalem next month after receiving an erroneous statement from the British Committee for the Universities of Palestine (BRICUP),  which claimed that it had issued it with Hawking’s approval.
The statement said that the move was “his independent decision to respect the boycott, based upon his knowledge of Palestine, and on the unanimous advice of his own academic contacts there.”

His Israeli fans were relieved and worried after hearing that news.

Then another news item was published saying that he is boycotting Israel.

A University spokesman told The Algemeiner that “We have now received confirmation from Professor Hawking’s office that a letter was sent on Friday to the Israeli President’s office regarding his decision not to attend the Presidential Conference, based on advice from Palestinian academics that he should respect the boycott.

IMHO, if he really likes and respects those Arabs so much, then he should be declared persona non grata and not allowed to enter Israel at all. 

Yes, the same should be for all of the international  extreme Leftists.

Just because Stephen Hawking has survived and functioned longer than probably anyone else with ALS doesn't make him right and correct in terms of his opinions and ideology, especially his opinion about Israel.  Everyone should stop judging him as some sort of miracle novelty item and listen to what he says and look at what he does.  Hawkin's support of the Arabs whose aim is the destruction of the State of Israel makes him a very dangerous man.  We shouldn't let sympathy for his medical condition cloud and distort our feelings for him.  If he prefers our enemies, then he is one of them, an enemy of the State of Israel.

Bibi Mocks The Six Days War

When G-d facilitated Israel's unexpected and glorious victory in the 1967 Six Days War, it was very obvious to many of us that we were supposed to have rapidly and enthusiastically begun settling all of the Holy Land liberated as a result of that victory.

Judea, Samaria, the Jordan Valley, Golan and the Sinai  were pretty empty.  Those lands had never been independent countries.  There had never been a "Palestine," sic, not there nor in pre-1967 Israel.  The Golan had been used as a launching pad for missile launchings and terror attacks on Jews in the valley below.  The kings of Jordan ignored and didn't develop the Jordan Valley, Judaea and Samaria.  When we first began visiting Shiloh in 1981, the few phones were via old-fashioned operators.  It was Israel that brought in electricity, modern phone systems, piped water and sewerage. Remember that this was the late twentieth century when computers were becoming popular all over the developed world.  Shiloh, even though it has always been a well-known archeological and Jewish religious site, was only reachable by a difficult to traverse path. It shouldn't be forgotten that Jordan illegally had taken over all of that land and eastern Jerusalem.  They took advantage of their closeness to Israel to send in terrorists and have snipers shoot at Israelis.

The Sinai was a loosely controlled buffer protecting Israel's south. But it, too, was a popular route for those who wanted to attack Israelis.

It's now forty-six years after the Six Days War.  Egypt now "controls" the Sinai, since then Prime Minister Menachem Begin, soon after his historic election in 1977, gave it to Egypt.  And a very large part of Judea-Samaria is in the de facto and even de jure control of local Arabs and the P.A.

 

Jews who live in Judea-Samaria are treated as second class citizens of Israel.  We're constantly maligned by politicians, the media and academics.  Even though we pay full taxes, we don't get full benefits. One example is the "TV Radio Broadcasting Tax."  All television owners in Israel, including Jews in Land liberated in the 1967 Six Days War are required by law to pay this tax.  Inspectors even go around the yishuvim, aka "settlements" fining families who own televisions but don't pay.  There's a big problem here.  The Broadcasting Authority doesn't broadcast to us.  We have never gotten the same TV reception you'd get in Tel Aviv, Haifa, Beersheba, kibbutzim all over or Eilat.

It's also much, much more complicated to get building permits.  Supply and demand aren't factors in government decisions.  It's all politics.  The larger cities and communities in Judea and Samaria such as Ma'ale Adumim, Efrat and Ariel have suffered the most. Thousands of people want to buy homes in those communities and the government, that's the Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu,  keeps refusing to finalize permits, even after announcing that he is in favor of building.

Will this refusal by Bibi to sign the tenders break up his coalition? Many of Bayit Yehudi's voters and MK's won't stand for it.  By refusing to allow building for Jews in Judea and Samaria, Bibi is making a farce out of our great 1967 victory.