老司机直播

Editor, News-Register:

The 老司机直播 printed two Associated Press articles on July 4-5, the first was titled “Israel Turbocharges West Bank Settlement Expansion With Largest Land Grab In Decades.” The second was titled “Israel Approves Plans for nearly 5,300 New Homes In West Bank Settlements.” There is so much misinformation in these two pieces that a review is in order.

Judea and Samaria are the home of the Jewish People for well over 2,000 years. In fact, the name Jew is derived from “Judea.” During Israel’s War of Independence in 1948, when the armies of five neighboring countries attacked Israel, Jordan illegally took control of Judea and Samaria and renamed it the “West Bank” as in the West Bank of the Jordan River. Israel regained control during the Six Day War in 1967. There are Jewish cities and Palestinian Arab cities in this region.

Beginning in 1993, Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA) signed many peace agreements. These are the major agreements: 1993- Oslo Accords; 1995- Oslo II; 1998- Wye River Memorandum; 1999- Sharm el-Sheikh Memorandum; 1999- Agreement of Final Status

In addition, there were sub agreements with the PA, which are too numerous to list. The PA has not fully complied with any of the agreements.

Under Oslo, Judea and Samaria AKA “the West Bank,” was divided into three parts: Areas A, B, and C. It gave the PA full control of Area A and Israel full control of Area C. Area B was placed under the joint control of Israel and the PA. Ninety-eight percent of Palestinian Arabs living in the “West Bank,” live in Area A. Among many of the items that the PA has not fulfilled is the preservation of Jewish sites. Illegal PA construction in Area C continues at a vigorous rate as they try to remove all remains of Jewish holy sites and archaeological history. How does it happen? They go in at night and build a few shanties out of sheet metal and plywood. After a week or two, there may be 30 to 40 people living there. The construction becomes more substantial as time goes on and much of it is funded by Europeans. The Israel Defense Forces tries to deter and stop this construction, but sometimes it is overwhelming and, in times like this when Israel is defending the southern border from Hamas and the northern border from Hezbollah, it doesn’t have the manpower.

The question is why does the Associated Press spend so much time on building proposals when these developments often never get built? Just like in the U.S., it is a long process getting design, utilities, site plans, financing and other items in place. And the headline stated “5,300 new homes” is somewhat misleading. That sounds like single family units when most new construction in Israel consists of apartments, condos, and townhouses.

The two AP articles contain many errors, half-truths, and worse. I just want to discuss a few of them. One item is, “Gaza’s Health Ministry said Thursday that the number of Palestinians killed by Israel’s campaign in Gaza had climbed past 38,000.” The Gaza Health Ministry is essentially Hamas. A couple of months ago Hamas admitted that it did not have the names for about 10,000 previously reported deaths and the total number of deaths was revised down by Hamas and the United Nations. The 38,000 does not appear to reflect that correction. A second item is “Hamas wants a deal that ensures Israeli troops fully leave Gaza and the war ends.” That was the case when Israel pulled out of Gaza in 2005. Gaza was a de facto Palestinian State. Without Israel in Gaza, from 2005 to last year, Hamas fired roughly 30,000 missiles into Israel, killing about 3,000 Israelis. They can’t have it both ways!

Bethlehem, the birthplace of Jesus, is in an area controlled by the PA. In the 1950s around 86% of the population of roughly 80,000 was Christian. By 1995 the Christian population was roughly 20,000. By 2012 Christians totaled only 7,500 and today the estimate is roughly 1,000. The numbers have declined so that last year there were news articles questioning if it was the last Christmas that would be celebrated in Bethlehem. Whereas Israel is the only Mid-Eastern country with a growing Christian population. It was under 40,000 in 1950. Last year it totaled 187,900 and has been growing each year by 1.3%.

Stuart V. Pavilack, Executive Director

Zionist Organization of America: Pittsburgh