Who Deposessed Whom In Palestine

 Consider the population figures in current day Israel (2020) *

               Tel Aviv           440,000

               Haifa                260,000

               Jerusalem         600,000

                                                                             *  These are reasonable estimates.

Now consider the total population of Palestine in 1882 :     roughly 300.000

The cities of Tel Aviv and Haifa today, each hold almost as many people -- and in the case of TelAviv more -- than the entire population of Palestine in 1882.  As for Jerusalem, it holds today twice as many people as were in all of Palestine in 1882.  Note too that Palestine, then, included the area of present day Jordan.

It's quite apparent that Palestine back then was greatly underpopulated.  The reason: Much of the land was arid.  Land that doesn't get much rain isn't worth much for farming.  True, there was a mountain range.  But, again, not great for farming. It should also be noted that there were extensive swamp lands loaded with malarial mosquitoes. 

That the land held little promise is evidenced by the fact that great swaths of land were held by the Ottoman Empire, headquartered in Istanbul.  The government held this land because no one had any interest in buying it.  That changed with the arrival of land-hungry Jews, who purchased a considerable number of acres of government held land.  They also bought land from Arabs willing to sell it at elevated prices.

The Jews were determined to make the land flourish and began draining swamps.  They introduced fish that fed on mosquito larvae.  Nevertheless, many did succumb to malaria.  The Arabs who worked the land were largely tenant farmers with little incentive to drain these swamps.

A final hardship afflicting the Arab farmers were the Bedouins on their annual trek from today's Jordan down to the Sinai.  Along the way they'd raid the poor farmers and steal their grain and livestock.

The Jews introduced modern farming implements and water saving techniques.  They also banded together and fought off the Bedouin.  With increasing abuse of Jews in Russia. and Europe in general. more Jews made their way to Palestine.  The Balfour Declaration served as a green light.

However, with the rise of Nazism, things began to work against the Jews.  One third of Europe's Jewish population was killed under Hitler's reign.  An equally vile hater of Jews was Haj Amin Husseini.  He admired Hitler and consorted with him.  He founded the Muslim Brotherhood and served as a mentor to  Arafat.  Despite all that, the British catered to his wishes.  They wanted him on their side in the fight against the Germans and, later to blunt Russian influence in the middle east.

They failed on both counts.  The Ottman Empire had been destroyed in the First World War.  And, the Jews in Palestine worked far harder to serve British interests in the middle east than was ever the case with Haj Amin Husseini.  The British, however, felt that Husseini had the numbers on his side; namely, the many Arabs in the middle east.  They therefore bowed to his wish that Jewish immigration to Palestine be restricted. No such restriction was ever placed on Muslims from Syria, Iraq, Lebenon and Egypt.  With the British establishing offices and stationing troops in Palestine, the influx of investment suddenly grew and made Palestine more attractive to poor Arabs from surrounding countries.  Jews, however, were kept out.

Despite all these many obstacles Israel came into being.  It was voted in as a nation by the U.S. and by Russia.  The U.K. abstained.

 

Trump - Great and Small

 Trump shook up the presidency by hearing the voice of the people.  He didn't have to be a genius to understand that unfettered immigration  (open borders) would be a disaster for America.  Americans are not only favorably disposed to immigration, generally speaking, they welcome immigrants. But to invite a million plus, with no screening, to enter this country illegally, is placing a burden on American citizens that has not yet been fully tallied.  Trump understood this.  He came up with a solution: the wall.  It might not be a perfect solution, but it was far better than anything else.  Bottom line:  It was well on its way to solving our immigration problem.  (Because it was a Trump initiative, Bidden killed it.)

Covid:  Trump incentivized the drug companies to come up with a vaccine to fight this lethal variant of the flue faster than it had ever done before.  Under his direction they came up with a vaccine in less than a year.  (It generally takes 2 plus years.)  He also reconized that this pandemic had started in China, he stopped travel from Chine sooner than any other western country.)

Trump realized that the Palestinians had been creating obstacles to peace.  Hamas in Gaza had become an arm of the Iranians.  Fatah in the west bank was totally corrupt.  (Abbas was in his 14th year in office.  An office which had a term of 4 years.)  Trump recognized an undivided Jerusalem as the capitol of Israel.  He consequently moved the U.S embassy from TelAviv to Jerusalem; something a number of previous presidents had promised, but had never done.

His desire to get out of Afghanistan was a strategic error.  He viewed our presence in Afghanistan as putting us in a never-ending war.  It was not.  It was simply a military deployment.  Actually, we had won the war.  A viable government had been established.  It had its problems but nothing like the problems that arose when Bidden actually with drew our troops.  True,  Trump also wanted to withdraw, but it was unlikely he would have bungled the job as badly as Bidden.  

Trump took a number of other initiative to which liberals objected.  Included were our posture vis a vis Iran, climate change and oil drilling.  But that's not why Trump lost, so I'll skip those for now.

The Democrats were after Trump the day he entered office.  They were after him for connections to Russia which never existed.  They labeled him a racist and most ludicrous of all their charges was that he was an anti-Semite.  If that ridiculous charge were true, I'd be the first to say,"give us more anti-Semitic presidents like Truep." He's now out of office but the Democrats continue to hound him.  Currently, they're trying to tie him to the Jan 6th attack on the Congressional Building.  And, most bizarre of all is that he is somehow tied to Qanon.

Trump downfall was his manner.  I, for one, was outraged when he said McCain was no hero.  His remark might have been characterized as something said in a school yard brawl.  But there was no excuse for it.  In connection with Covid treatments, he made mention of bleach.  It was a stupid remark.  But, I judge a man more by what he does than what he says.  Others, the elites, the media, etc.  will take any stupid utterance and tar you with it.  It's a pity.  I would vote for Trump again, but I hope he won't run a second time.  He'll lose.