Category: Israel

History of Israel Palestinian Wars

If you believe that the latest cease fire in Gaza you need to think about the history of Israel’s fight for survival.

When the UN voted to partition the British Mandate on
November 29, 1947, Palestinian Arabs, with the help
from Arab states, launched attacks against Israel
to seize the entire Mandate. On May 14, 1948, Israel
declared independence and was immediately invaded
by the armies of five Arab nations: Egypt, Syria,
Transjordan, Lebanon, and Iraq. The newly formed
Israeli Defense Force (IDF) managed to prevail after
fifteen months of war.

THE SIX-DAY WAR (1967)
Israel was forced to defend itself when Syria, Egypt,
Jordan, and Iraq intensified their attacks and Egypt
illegally blocked Israel’s access to international waters
and expelled UN peacekeeping forces. Four Arab
countries mobilized more than 250,000 troops in
preparation for a full-scale invasion. Israel preempted
the invasion in a defensive war and managed to
capture the West Bank from Jordan; Gaza and
the Sinai Peninsula from Egypt; and the Golan
Heights from Syria

An infographic depicting the timeline of conflict in Gaza.

The focus of the RAND study was on the five-year period between the end of Operation Cast Lead in 2009 and the end of Operation Protective Edge in August 2014.

Dec. 27, 2008 – Israel launches a 22-day military offensive in Gaza after Palestinians fire rockets at the southern Israeli town of Sderot. About 1,400 Palestinians and 13 Israelis are reported killed before a ceasefire is agreed.

The Israel Defense Forces, or IDF, launched a ground invasion of the Gaza strip on Aug. 7, 2014, with the goal of destroying Hamas’ widespread network of underground tunnels that were being used to stow rockets.

In 2018 on May 29, Gaza’s Hamas rulers said they had agreed to a cease-fire with Israel to end the largest flare-up of violence between the two sides since a 2014 war.

Egypt mediated a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, which came into effect on 21 May 2021, ending 11 days of fighting in which both sides claimed victory.

October 7, 2023 Hamas attacks Israel and Israel is at war with Hamas again.

When will this end?

My guess is NEVER!

The War in Gaza

On the nights of March 9–10 1945 16 square miles of central Tokyo was destroyed by U.S. bombing during WWII, leaving an estimated 100,000 civilians dead and over one million homeless. Japan did not surrender so the U.S. dropped atomic bombs and an estimated 140,000 people in Hiroshima, and a further 74,000 in Nagasaki were killed. From 1965 to 1968. 214 tons of bombs were dropped by the U.S. over Cambodia killing an estimated 50,000 people or more during the Vietnam War.

Hypocrisy could not be more obvious. If the United States is killing innocent civilians that is OK.  If others do it that is a war crime. War is brutal.  Israel is fighting for its survival. “From the River to the Sea” is a Palestinian slogan declaring their intention to destroy Israel and drive every Jew from that land. Israel’s goal to destroy Hamas is a worthy goal and must be accomplished to protect the State of Israel.

President Joe Biden’s call for a cease fire means a win for Hamas. Biden has lost my vote.

Top Democrat Schumer calls for new elections in Israel, saying Netanyahu is an obstacle to peace

WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer on Thursday called on Israel to hold new elections, saying he believes Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has “lost his way” and is an obstacle to peace in the region amid a growing humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

Schumer, the first Jewish majority leader in the Senate and the highest-ranking Jewish official in the U.S., strongly criticized Netanyahu in a 40-minute speech Thursday morning on the Senate floor. Schumer said the prime minister has put himself in a coalition of far-right extremists and “as a result, he has been too willing to tolerate the civilian toll in Gaza, which is pushing support for Israel worldwide to historic lows.”

“Israel cannot survive if it becomes a pariah,” Schumer said.

—

The problem is that Israel’s “religious right” hold the view that they have a divine right to all of Gaza. Some of those people have blocked the roads to stop the delivery of food and medical supplies to Palestinians.

Hatred of Jews has Reached a New High

It’s called anti-Semitism.

Harvard President Apologizes for Congressional Testimony on Antisemitism. The president, Claudine Gay, told the campus newspaper that she “should have had the presence of mind” to answer differently.

The presidents of leading Ivy League universities seem to be in support of on campus groups calling for a genocide against all Jews.

The exchanges involving Congresswoman Elise Stefanik, Dr. Gay and two other university leaders, Elizabeth Magill of the University of Pennsylvania and Sally Kornbluth of M.I.T., have thrown three of the country’s most influential colleges into turmoil. On Thursday, a House committee opened an investigation into “the learning environments” on all three campuses, and Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, Democrat of New York, said the three presidents should leave their posts.

When the hate reaches a fevers pitch there is one place American Jews can go and feel safe. Israel. That is the reason that even Jews who believe Israel attacks on Gaza are too much still support that country.

“Never Again”

Despite all the support for Hamas in the United States and around the world supporters of Israel rally in Washington under heavy security, crying ‘never again’

Supporters of Israel are rallying by the thousands on Washington’s National Mall, voicing solidarity in the fight against Hamas and crying “never again.”

For those of you who do not understand the words “never again” it resulted from the killing of 6 million Jews by the Nazis in World War 2. Hamas wants to kill every Jew in Israel. That is their goal.

History of Israel

In 1948, the UN established the State of Israel, a nation of Jews. It is not a big area. Think Yosemite to San Diego. This map appeared in the Los Angeles Times.

The land of Israel has been populated by the Jewish people since 2000 BC. Here’s the timeline, in case you didn’t realize that it is their homeland.

1900 BC: Abraham chosen by God as the Father of the Jewish Nation.

1900 BC: Isaac, Abraham’s son, rules over Israel.

1850 BC: Jacob, son of Issac, rules over Israel.

1400 BC: Moses leads the people out of Egypt and back to Israel.

1010 BC: King David unites the 12 tribes into one nation.

970 BC: King Solomon, son of David, builds the first temple structure in Jerusalem

930 BC: Israel is divided into two kingdoms, the Kingdom of Israel and the Kingdom of Judah.

800s BC: The rise of the prophets, God’s messengers.

722 BC: Kingdom of Israel is conquered by Assyrians.

605 BC: Kingdom Judah is conquered by the Babylonians.

586 BC: Solomon’s Temple is destroyed by the Babylonians.

539 BC: Persians conquer the Babylonians and take control of Israel.

538 BC: The Jews return to Israel from exile.

520 BC: The Temple is rebuilt.

450 BC: Reforms made by Ezra and Nehemiah.

433 BC: Malachi is the end of the prophetic age.

432 BC: The last group of Jews return from exile.

333 BC: The Greeks conquer the Persian empire.

323 BC: The Egyptian and Syrian empire take over Israel.

167 BC: Hasmonean’s recapture Israel, and the Jews are ruled independently.

70 BC: Romans conquer Israel.

20 BC: King Herod builds the “second” temple

6 BC: Yeshua is born in Bethlehem

70 AD: Romans destroy the temple

After that, the people were captives to the Romans, Byzantines, Arabs, and Crusaders. Through all of these events, the Jewish people continued to live in Israel. There were more or less of them, depending on the centuries, but there was never a time when the Jews didn’t live in the land. They stayed, they built their communities, they raised their families, practiced their faith and they suffered at the hands of many outside rulers, but they always kept their faith. It is what sustains them, even now.

Israel Is Walking Into a Sympathy Trap

With help from The Atlantic Monthly

It’s a trap. Hamas’s ruthless and spectacular attack on southern Israel last Saturday was many things: an atrocity, a display of militant ingenuity, and a demonstration of the weakness of Israeli intelligence and defenses. Israel and the Palestinians have a long history of brutality against each other, but the Hamas killing spree outdoes anything seen since the founding of Israel in 1948.

Hamas surely would not have meticulously planned its audacious assault without also extensively planning a response to the hoped-for Israeli counterattack on the ground. The Israeli military will likely encounter a determined insurgency in Gaza. 

Iran and Hamas are counting on Israel to attack Gaza with such ferocity that the international sympathy of the past week toward Israel, even in the Arab world, evaporates quickly and is replaced by outrage at the suffering inflicted on the 2 million residents of Gaza. Those civilians have already been cut off from electricity, water, food, and medicine, all of which are controlled by Israel. They rely on everything from the outside world that is controlled by Israel.

Gaza has been an open-air prison for the Palestinians living there.  They have no way to leave.

Hamas and Iran hope that Israel will refuse to return to the status quo ante and will instead institute a prolonged ground occupation of Gaza, declaring that Hamas can no longer be allowed to pose such a threat. But Gaza, they trust, will be a slaughterhouse for Israeli soldiers, both during the immediate incursion and over time as the anticipated insurgency gains its footing.

Israel’s dilemma is Hamas’s goal is to eliminate the entire country and all of its Jewish citizens.  That is not going to happen. But the worldwide hatred of Jews predicts a never ending war for Israel.

When Someone Comes to Kill You

This all started on May 14, 1948 when Israel established itself as a free nation.  At the time, the Jews were about a third of the population of Palestine the British Protectorate created after World War One. The following day, the armies of four Arab countries—Egypt, Syria, Transjordan and Iraq—entered into parts of what had been British Mandatory Palestine, launching the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. The apparent purpose of the invasion was to prevent the establishment of the Jewish state at inception, and some Arab leaders talked about “driving the Jews into the sea”.

Hamas formed in late 1987 at the beginning of the first Palestinian intifada (uprising). Hamas is a Sunni Islamic group that does not recognize Israel’s right to exist and whose goals from the beginning have been to liberate Palestine from Israeli occupation through any means necessary.

Unlike the Palestinian Authority, Hamas does not support the so-called two-state solution — the creation of an independent and sovereign Palestinian state alongside Israel — as a permanent solution. It advocates for a Palestine from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea, without an Israel. (Some extremists in the current right-wing Israeli government similarly believe in an Israel from the river to the sea, without Palestine. Israelis are not likely to kill millions of Palestinians to reach their objective as it is only the right-wing of their government that holds this view.

As is evident now, Hamas wants to kill every Jew to reach its objective.

This week revenge is the goal of the Israeli government.