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!

President Joe Biden has a Problem

I previously predicted that Joe Biden will not run for re-election. My reasons revolved around the economy. Today young people are opposed to America’s support of Israel.

The turmoil we’re seeing on campuses today brings back memories of the widespread student protests of 1968 — a comparison that won’t be lost given that the Democratic National Convention this year will take place in Chicago. The 1968 Democratic Party convention was also held in Chicago.

On March 31, 1968, following the New Hampshire primary and Robert Kennedy’s entry into the election, the president made a televised speech to the nation and said that he was suspending all bombing of North Vietnam in favor of peace talks.

After concluding his speech, Johnson announced,

“With America’s sons in the fields far away, with America’s future under challenge right here at home, with our hopes and the world’s hopes for peace in the balance every day, I do not believe that I should devote an hour or a day of my time to any personal partisan causes or to any duties, other than the awesome duties of this office — the presidency of your country. Accordingly, I shall not seek, and I will not accept, the nomination of my party for another term as your President.”

After President Lyndon Johnson announced that he would not run for reelection, the party nominated his vice president, Hubert Humphrey. But Humphrey’s moment of coronation quickly turned into a moment of chaos. As Chicago police, unleashed by Mayor Richard Daley, confronted anti-Vietnam War protesters with tear gas and batons on the streets outside the convention, the televised images of violence greatly harmed Humphrey’s prospects in November.

President Joe Biden knows this history. The anti-war protests in the 1960s went on for years. Now, it remains unclear whether the protests — which are not yet nearly as large in scale or scope as were the anti-Vietnam protests — will continue to intensify or start to dissipate, especially as school lets out for the summer months. And in one recent Harvard Kennedy poll surveying young people between the ages of 18 and 29 in March, the findings showed the Israel/Palestine conflict ranked second-lowest in importance, coming in below gun violence as well as bread-and-butter issues such as inflation, health care and housing.

Will Biden’s belief that a Trump victory mean the end of the American democracy continue his run for re-election? I hope so when Trump says he will be a dictator on day one.

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.

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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.

Bernie Sanders: If you don’t like Israel don’t ask me for money!

Mr. Sanders:

You continually send me e-mails asking me to send you money so that you can be elected to be the President of the United States.

I am Jewish and I fear for the safety and future of Jews in the world, especially when Iran is launching missiles – dedicating to the eradication of the State of Israel.

I will not vote for you because I believe that you do not know the difference between good and evil. You have spokespeople, like Linda Sarsour, who decry the State of Israel and liken it to white supremacists and say that it is an apartheid state.

After the Germans, Arabs and Japanese conspired to conquer the world and wipe out every Jew in the world in World War 2, the world (at the U.N.) voted to divide Palestine into Arab-land and Jew-land (this was after Great Britain gave 80% of Palestine to Jordan in 1922).

Israel agreed to accept the “partition” plan and the Arabs refused, claiming that they wanted 100% of the land – that the Jews could live in the Mediterranean. After the war of 1948, the borders were fixed; except that the Arabs again refused to honor those borders or acknowledge that the Jews had any right to live anywhere.

In 1967, the Arabs launched another offensive against Israel. Israel won that war too. Israel ended up with more territory. They gave most of the “gains” back to Egypt in order to make peace with Egypt.

They offered to give the “West Bank” back to Jordan to make peace, but Jordan refused to take it – because Jordan hates the Palestinians (the Jordanians have kept the Palestinians in camps for the past 60 years – rather than accept them as Jordanian citizens).

Israel kept, accepted and made citizens of the Israeli Arabs. I’m sure that you know that 20% of Israelis are Arabs …. and 20% of Israeli medical students are Arabs. Did you know that the new assistant head of the Police is an Arab (named yesterday)?

Your outrageous lying statement that the Israelis overreacted in the Gaza conflict is immoral. No fighting army (against Hamas terrorists who use human shields and launch missiles from schools and mosques) has EVER acted with such restraint and morality as the Israeli’s.

Shame on you Bernie that you cannot tell good from bad; morality from evil. You are turning your back on the only democracy in the Middle East. You are turning your back on the country that is the nicest and best place for Palestinians to live (Syria, Lebanon and Jordan have them locked up in camps). You support those whose motto is “From the River to the Sea” (meaning that ALL of Israel should be Arab … and the Jews should live in the Sea). You just don’t understand the real world. You have bought into Arab propaganda and turned against the only Jewish country in the world.

written by Michael Waterman, teacher at Temple Beth Am in Los Angeles