Thursday, June 6, 2013

Why Israelis Are Such a Happy Lot

Nadene Goldfoot                                                                    

Nadene Goldfoot
They are home!  They waited for 2,000 years to come home.  They have been through hell to get here.   That's why they are so happy.  John F. Kerry doesn't understand this.  He's complaining about Jews being a happy and contented lot.  He thinks this is why it's they who won't end the conflict with the Palestinians.  That's like not understanding that a horse pulls the carriage, not the carriage that pulls the horse.

He just doesn't get it at all.  The fact of the matter is that Israelis know that it's the Palestinians who have been saying NO to having their own state ever since Israel was created.  After 65 years of hearing NO, and realizing that they think their whole state of Israel is being "occupied" and that they want all of the land, not just a portion, they are not holding their breath waiting for the peace table to be occupied.

Daniel Pipes wrote that in a recent survey, 93% of Jewish Israelis are proud to be Israeli.  I don't know what happened to that other 7%.  Maybe they didn't understand the question.  It's hard to believe.  Even with the threat of extinction from Iran, things are bubbling along quite well for Israel.  The shekel is not devaluing.

How do we know they are happy?  Usually, western women have 2 children only in a marriage and Israelis are more western-minded.  To maintain their population, they need 2.1 children each.  Their birthrate is 2.65.  Though the orthodox are having large families like our Catholic families in the USA have had, it's also the secular families that are having lots of children, too. I wrote an article about their sperm count falling.  Evidently it's not hindering their  production of a family.

All this time oil has never been discovered in Israel, where it lies in all the surrounding states.  Israelis have had to mine their own minds and be the most inventive to make up for this loss.  However, gas and oil finds have now been found with more modern technology and it could now be the most valuable country in the world.  In a way that's bad, because now Muslim countries will really want to take it away from the Jews.  It should, however, enhance Israel's position.  Jordan should be happy because they are still peaceful neighbors and at times have scratched each other's back.  This would mean they could rely on Israel for this energy.

When I lived in Israel in 1980-85, Iran and Iraq were fighting each other, leaving Israel alone.  We only had the Lebanon War to contend with at the time, and I, as a shaking American Jewish princess had my taste of war and fear.  Today it is Egypt and Syria who are very busy with their own internal problems to work on, keeping them off of Israel's back.  There are lots of threats riding the airwaves, but Israel has a most dependable service core such as the IDF, the best in the world.  When Israel has been in wars, the whole population knows it is life or death and they fight with their heart for each other.  The invaders have wondered if they were doing the right thing and really didn't have their hearts into death and killing their new neighbors.  There is a difference.  There is quite the story at Kibbutz Degania Alef about how a child and a very old man  held off the invaders.

Perhaps the reason why Kerry is demanding talks today is that it is his job to do so which is right on his resume.  His job description is to get Israel and the Palestinians to sit down and talk.  He is not to mind that the timing is not right, and the whole Middle East is ready to explode over a bad season of the Arab Spring.  He could be using his time to bone up on the history,  so I will help him.

Robbie Sabel, professor of international law at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem,  and of the Institute for Contemporary Affairs in the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs compiled  some facts Kerry should know and consider.  I've thrown in a few, as well.

1.  Israel's opponents have manipulated international law by inventing rules only applied to Israel, no one else.  .

2. Illegal Occupation is an invented concept that the opponents have pulled out of a hat, not a legal fact.  In an armed conflict or war, Israel is permitted military occupation.  The UN Security Council has never said their occupation is illegal.  The US occupied Iraq after the 2nd Gulf War and this was a legal act.

3.  The Green Line is not a binding border.  Israel and Jordan signed a peace agreement.  This terminated the Armistice Agreement and its green line.  There is no legal validity to the Green Line, though there have been problems along this line.  Some Christian friends were living near the green line and their children were hassled by neighbor thugs from the nearest Muslim community, putting their children in harm's way.  They have since moved to a safer community.  Israel is going to have to work a little harder to protect citizens.

4. Gaza is not under Israeli occupation.  They kept certain rights involving the protection of Israel, but there are no more Jews living in Gaza and haven't been for a long time.  Opponents have rewritten a new term called occupation that defies the legal definition.

5.  Opponents have made up their own tailor made rules for Israel.  A legal system is one in that a law pertains to all.

6. The USA is still Israel's ally.

7.  Israelis can be most proud of the contributions that they have made to improve the world in medical and technical areas.  They have helped the USA to combat terrorism, to protect their airports, etc.  They have contributed to culture all over the world, especially in classical music.  Israel is a "pocket superpower in the arts."  They stand for morality for themselves and for others.

8. They are the hub of Democracy in the Middle East.  Perhaps this is the reason they have not received the Welcome Wagon.  This upsets the apple cart in a sea of kings.

This is why Israelis are happy people.  They are a legal minded people, having been given 613 laws to follow by Moses himself, and respect law.  The USA is full of Jewish lawyers.  Israel has a most complicated legal system with laws left over from the Ottoman Empire to add to their own.  One has to be a genius to understand it all.  Each and every Israeli is a human rights advocate and genocide expert, having lived on the other end of the lollipop for a good 2,000 years.  Samantha Power, the new outspoken  UN representative for the USA,  may  have a degree in this, but she doesn't understand the half of it.  She's coming into her new position after having believed in invading Israel!  That's not what our friend, the USA, should be entertaining in her mind and papers.  Academic papers and reality are not always in sync.  However, Israelis are home.  It's a beautiful sentence.  It's music to our ears.  They had to re-buy the land and bleed for it.  They have the deed.

Resource: http://jcpa.org/article/manipulating-international-law-as-part-of-anti-israeli-lawfare/
 http://www.danielpipes.org/12962/happy-israel
http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/kerry-s-improbable-peace-process-lacks-israeli-and-palestinian-buy-in.premium-1.527575
http://jewishbubba.blogspot.com/2012/08/oy-sperm-count-falling-in-israel.html

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