May 20, 2012
"Our Homeland": A Speech Before the European Parliament
The dynamic head of the Shomron Regional Authority, Gershon Mesika,
gave a stirring, well received speech at the official meeting of the
EU Parliament in Brussels.
From Gershon Mesika, Shomron Regional Council Head
Heads of...
Map made in London, year 1700, of the Middle East.
Note: Jerusalem is in the area known as Judea - and the word Palestine is not present.
ϟ Jewish Population In Yesha Set to Pass 350,000 in 2012
The Jewish population in Judea and Samaria soared to 342,414 last year, a yearly increase of 4.3 percent, and the 350,000 figure is all but certain to be passed this year.
The numbers, stated by the Interior Ministry and reported by the Hebrew-language Yisrael HaYom newspaper, are higher than the 300,000 estimate used by most mainstream news agencies.
There are also an estimated 250,000-300,000 Jews in Jerusalem neighborhoods that are claimed by the Palestinian Authority for its desired new country within Israel’s borders.
Population figures are less precise for the Arab population in Judea and Samaria and areas in Jerusalem that the Palestinian Authority claims. Using the Palestinian Authority estimate of 2.4 million, a number that may be largely inflated, Jews now make up approximately 22 percent of the total population.
The actual percentage may be substantially higher because the World Bank and American-Israeli Demographic Research Group identified a 32 percent discrepancy between first-grade enrollment statistics documented by the Palestinian Ministry of Education and Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, according to Wikipedia.
The true figure may be only slightly over 1.6 million Arabs, which would raise the Jewish percentage to closer to 25 percent.
PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas has said that a PA state would be devoid of Jews. The Arab population of areas in the capital and in Judea and Samaria is estimated at 2.4 million. The presence of 650,000 Jews represents approximately 22 percent of the total population.
The figures for the Jewish population do not include thousands of students from urban centers who are learning in high schools and post-high school institutions in the region.
Judea and Samaria: The heart of the eternal Jewish homeland
(Source: israelnationalnews.com)
ϟ Yesha Residents - Let the Facts Speak for Themselves
Over the years, many entities in Israel have made systematic attempts at delegitimizing the sector of the Israeli public that lives in Judea, Samaria and Gaza (Yesha). The media, politicians and various spokesmen have done their best to demonstrate that the Jews of Yesha are outcasts, on the fringe, and all in all, a burden on Israeli society.
ϟ Israel is our land: Israeli PR effort will fail as long as we don’t declare that land belongs to the Jews
By: Naftali Bennet
Some people claim that the Judea and Samaria public relations effort, which is premised on our historical right in this land, is doomed for failure. This is also the perception that dominates Israel’s PR establishment.
Our diplomats say that we must not speak of the Bible and history, because it’s primitive; rather, we must only explain our security needs and point to the murderous behavior of the Palestinians. The enlightened world, say the diplomats, has no interest in irrational issues, but rather, only wishes to see practical arguments such as water, topography and security.
Yet there is no greater mistake. Those who seek an answer to the perpetual question of Israel’s PR failure should not resort to budgetary or tactical explanations. The problem is that the Palestinians have been arguing for dozens of years now that this land is theirs, while we have been responding with “true, but we need security.”
Amos Oz described it as follows: We, the Jewish people, drowned at sea, and found a lifesaver in a Land of Israel that belongs to the Palestinians. As we were facing an existential distress, we have the right to take part of the land from them.
If this is our moral basis, we are undoubtedly doomed for failure. There is no wonder that the nations of the world would see us as robbers who pushed the Palestinian people out of their home. Regardless of how many PR campaigns we present regarding the Tel Aviv beach and our glorious high-tech industry, we shall remain robbers.
However, this is not the truth. This land is ours.
David Ben-Gurion expressed it well when he was asked by the Peel Commission about the Jewish people’s right for the land of Israel. He responded simply: The Bible is our mandate. He did not explain our right only by saying that we have no other shelter.
As long as we keep on utilizing practical arguments while leaving the arena of justice to the Palestinians, we shall lose. The time has come for the Israeli government to go back to the simple truth: The Land of Israel belongs to the people of Israel.
ϟ Asarah B’tevet - Tenth of Tevet.
Today is the 10th of Tevet, a fast that commemorates the siege of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar during the First Temple Period. This culminated in the destruction of the First Temple on the 9th of Av, the Babylonian Exile and the Babylonian conquest of the Southern Kingdom.
Today, for the first time since the Destruction of the Second Temple and the start of the Roman exile, Jerusalem is once again whole, and in Jewish Hands.
Today, when we mourn the ancient siege of Jerusalem and the Destruction of the Temple - we can also be grateful, that we have a Jewish Jerusalem that is waiting for us with open arms.
Today, which is also used as a “general Kaddish day” for Holocaust victims - we can be grateful that we have the State of Israel - a sovereign homeland; something that Holocaust victims didn’t have to protect them, and something that they never got to see whilst living.
While Asarah B’tevet is a day of commemoration and mourning, it is also day which gives us the opportunity to think about renewal, the phoenix rising from the ashes and be grateful for what we have today - the State of Israel and Jerusalem.
(Source: zavatchalavudvash)
ϟ פרשת וישב
וַיֵּשֶׁב יַעֲקֹב בְּאֶרֶץ מְגוּרֵי אָבִיו בְּאֶרֶץ כְּנָעַן:
Jacob dwelt in the land of his father’s sojournings, in the land of Canaan.
(Genesis 37:1)
The first verse of this week’s Parsha uses two words to denote living arrangements - וַיֵּשֶׁב - and he dwelt, and מְגוּרֵי - sojournings.
וַיֵּשֶׁב has connotations of a permanent living space, whilstמְגוּרֵי refers to a temporary living arrangement.
After returning from Laban’s house, Jacob planned to make the Land of Canaan his permanent home. In fact, after his return from Charan, Jacob only left Canaan to go to Egypt - in order to reunite with his missing son. Jacob lived in Egypt for 17 years, while his son, Joseph was Viceroy, and his body was returned to Canaan - his real home, for burial.
In contrast to Jacob are his father and grandfather - Abraham and Isaac. Although both lived in the Land of Canaan, it was never their permanent home.
Today, the Hebrew word for settlements in Judea and Samaria is ההתנחלויות. Contrary to popular belief, not all these settlements were built post-1967, when Israel reclaimed Judea and Samaria. Many of these neighbourhoods and cities, were actually built pre-1948, and are given the status of a Yishuv - ישוב (from the same root of וַיֵּשֶׁב). Kalia, Beit HaAraba, Kfar Darom, Hebron and Gush Etzion are just a few examples of communities established before the creation of the State of Israel.
Like the title they are given (“Yishuv”, which indicates an element of permanence), these communities are permanent Jewish communities. They should never be destroyed, their citizens should never be relocated or expelled.
As mentioned earlier, the Hebrew world for settlements is ההתנחלויות. This word comes from the root, נ.ח. ל. This root means inheriting, passing through the generations. In fact, the Torah uses this root to describe the giving of the Land of Israel to the Jewish people.
לָתֵת אֶת הָאָרֶץ בְּנַחֲלָה בְּגוֹרָל לִבְנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל
to give the Land as an inheritance through lot to the children of Israel,
(Numbers 36:2)
Just like the Land of Israel, which includes Judea and Samaria, is the permanent homeland for the Jewish people; the settlements built by Jews in Judea and Samaria should also be permanent homes. We should not be afraid to live permanently, or build permanent homes in our own country, in our permanent, national homeland.
As Benjamin Netanyahu said to Tamar Fogel earlier this year
הם רוצחים ואנחנו בונים
They murder, and we build
ϟ Sons of the Land, Not Colonists
Written by: David Haivri
Judea and Samaria are Israel’s historic heartlands and we are that lands’ returned sons.
More from this writer Universities and the “Twitterverse” are flooded with anti-Israel propaganda accusing Israel of being an apartheid state that discriminates against Arabs on a racial basis. These propagandists’ other mantra is that Jewish settlers are colonists selling land that rightfully belongs to others.
The two main strategies of Israel’s enemies are: 1) keeping the international community in ignorance of the region’s true history (with a sprinkling of anti-Semitic conditioning), along with 2) simply repeating the same lies again and again until they are unquestioningly accepted as truth.
The topic of Israel’s control of Judea and Samaria (aka “the West Bank”) is the number one issue used to hound Israel in international debate and planned efforts for de-legitimization of the Jewish State. The boldness of this approach has caused otherwise strong Israel advocates discomfort with taking a stand on the core issue, resulting in continual efforts to redirect the discourse to other topics that are “easier” to present and win.
But, in truth, there is no reason to put aside the core issue, because Israel cannot allow itself to admit defeat here.
Judea and Samaria are not just “some areas in Israel.” This region -which is in fact Israel’s higher ground - towers eight to nine hundred meters above sea level, and is just a stone’s throw from Israel’s main population center on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea. Considering that the main result of Israel pulling out of Gaza in 2005 has been Hamas and Islamic Jihad factions endlessly shooting rockets into our southern cities (and this - without having any The propagandists’ mantra is that Jewish settlers are colonists selling land that rightfully belongs to others. topographic advantage - has cost the lives and livelihoods of many Israelis), how wise would it be for Israel to give up this strategic territory?
If, G-d forbid, the terrorists were to be given the advantage of the high ground of the “West Bank” along with the freedom they enjoy in Gaza, all of Israel’s center could potentially be shut down. The Ben Gurion International Airport itself would be in the crosshairs of RPG rockets that could be carried on the shoulders of teenagers. Talk about the threat of Israel being isolated! I wonder how many brave airline pilots would agree to land in an airport under such a clear threat from the mountains towering above it? Just consider the vulnerability of a 747 landing in the Sderot Airport.
But the “defensible borders” chip is only part of the argument, and not particularly the most important part. Judea and Samaria are Israel’s heartland. They are at the core of our national call - the call that birthed the modern Jewish movement of return to the homeland. Zionism is built on the foundation of the connection of this people to their land: the Jewish people and the land of Israel. We are a people who have never forgotten the covenant made between the Creator and our forefathers.
The Bible records that here in Elon Moreh, Shechem (Nablus), and Hebron, G-d spoke with our fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and promised the land to their descendants. The prophets of the Bible foresaw that the children of Israel would return to this same land after a long exile. Whether one believes in the divine origins of the Bible or not, all must agree that the reports written there are a powerful motivation for the “people of the Book,” who have preserved our traditions and culture throughout history, while other once-powerful nations have fallen into oblivion.
The Jewish people have returned to settle the land of their fathers, not as foreigners, but as sons of the land. We are settling the hilltops of Judea and Samaria that have lain barren for thousands of years; we are investing all our physical and financial resources to bring roads and water to the tops of those hills that have been unused since biblical times; we take great joy in hiking the landscape and discovering the ancient winepresses carved in the stone (witnesses of the ancient wine industry that existed here, cultivated by the tribes of Israel).
I am not aware of another people in the entire world who celebrate the pouring of cement and building of new homes as do the Jewish residents of Judea and Samaria, who can sense that every building block is connecting them to their history and their destiny.
The Jews in Judea and Samaria are not colonists, as the American settlers and European colonizers were. A colonist is not one who settles in his own land and invests to build and develop it; a colonist takes over a foreign land, sometimes in order to remain there and sometimes to take its gains back to his motherland.
Judea and Samaria are the heart of the nation of Israel. The Jewish people will forever respect, cherish, protect and rebuild this holy land.
(Source: israelnationalnews.com)
