Apr. 18, 2004 - 20:35 PST

THE WONDERING JEW

Provocative ?

Reading the newspaper today led me to 'google' a bit about the Jewish Diaspora. So the Diaspora first, "The Jewish state comes to an end in 70 A.D. when the Romans began to actively drive Jews from the home they had lived in for a millenium. But the Diasopora had begun long before the Romans had even dreamed of Judea.

When the Assyrians conquered Israel, the Hebrew inhabitants were scattered all over the Middle East, these early victims of the dispersion disappeared utterly from the pages of history.

However when Nebuchadnezzer deported the Judeans in 597 and 586 B.C. he allowed them to remain in a unified community in Babylon. Another group of Judeans fled to Egypt, where they settled in the Nile Delta. So from 597 onwards, there were three distinct groups of Hebrews, a group in Babylon and other parts of the Middle East, a group in Judea and another group in Egypt.

Thus, 597 B.C. is considered the beginning of the Jewish Diaspora. In 63 B.C., Judea became a protectorate of Rome. After 73 A.D., Hebrew history would only be the history of the Diaspora as the Jews and their world view spread over Africa, Asia and Europe. Of course, later to America and other places in the world.

++++++++++

Then later in history came the infamous Balfour Declaration and it's additions amd subtractions. The motives for the declaration are still being pondered, but seems that Britain wanted to do right by the Jewish but left a lot of clutter laying around.

++++++++++

In the Register-Guard April 18, 2004 is an article by George Will ([email protected]) who is a columnist based in Washington, D.C., headlined:

Israel had few other options left

(in part)"The United States government is not a speed reader, but after 37 years of reading U.N. Resolution 242, on Wednesday the government saw what is not there -- the missing definite article, (the)."

" Passed after the 1967 Six Day War, 242 mandated the withdrawal of Israel 'from territories occupied in the recent conflict. Israel insisted on deletion of 'the' because it implied, as Arab and other powers acknowledged by their vehement opposition to the deletion -- withdrawal from all territories."

"This was strategic ambiguity. On Wednesday, ambiguity was abandoned. In his letter to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, Prsident Bush said: 'In light of new realities on the ground, including already existing major Israeli populations centers, it is unrealistic to expect that the outcome on the final status negotiations will be a full and complete return to the armistice lines of 1949, and all previous efforts to negotiate a two state solution have reached the same conclusion."

"It is fine to talk about 'new realities,' such as patterns of new settlement, but this new U.S. policy also, and primarily, comes to terms, at long last with an old reality. It is that 242 also recognized the right of every state in the region to 'secure and recognized boundaries,' which Israel's 1967 borders were not."

"Bush by emphasizing 1949 rather than 1967, reminds those who are forever saying Israel is being provocative that for 56 years -- since Israel's founding in May 1948 -- the problem has been that , to Israel's enemies, Israel's being is provocative. Hostility to Israel predated 1967 and would not be cured by a return to 1967 realities."

"The territories occupied by Israel since 1967 have been lawfully held because a nation that occupies territories in the process of repelling aggression launched from them can hold them until the disposition of the lands is settled by negotiation between the relevant parties. Palestininians and their supporters have tried to erase this fact by semantic infiltration of the world's vocabulary, getting the territories routinely referred as 'Palestinian lands.' Actually in law the territories are unallocated portions of the 1922 Palestine Mandate, the final disposition of which is still be settled by negotiations.""It is instructive -- and wonderful -- how few and optional have been references to Yasser Arafat in discussions of Wednesday's developments. In a life of terror, his only service to peace was his demonstration, at Camp David with in July 2000 with President Clinton and and Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak , that the most that Israel could ever offer in the way of concessions is less than the current Palestinian leadership will accept."

"Which is why Wednesday's policy flowed ineluctably from Bush's June 24, 2002, pronouncement that the first prerequisite for progress is for the Palestinian people to produce 'regime change': 'I call upon the palestinian people to elect new leaders, leaders not compromised by terror.' That prequisite being unattainable, Sharon has chosen unilateral disengagement -- the -- fence -- and a long wait for the time when, in Bush's words, "The Palestinian people have new leaders, new instititutions new security arrangements."

++++++++++

I guess that Jordan was about the only country in the Mid East that kept good diplomatic relations with Israel since it was established in the late forties, even in the 67 war. It appeaars to me that most every other country was going to push Israel into the sea or wipe them off the face of the earth. Even Egypt was in on the action then. Present days it seems that arms, ammunition and money is flowing from many secret people and places into Palestine to continue the fight to wipe the Jews completely out. So, to return to what I read about Israel tonight after 1000 years of having a country then the Jewish Diaspora began in 597 B.C. So, who is being Provocative ? . . . . . . . . . . .

Blog