DAY 1473, WEEK 9, SIGNIFICANT MINERAL DEPOSITS IN AFGHANISTAN, MESHAAL AND ABBAS, HELEN THOMAS, AND $400 MILLION TO P.L.O. FROM OBAMA (GEZINT A'HEYT)

TODAY IS DAY 1473 IN THE CAPTIVITY OF GILAD SHALIT. Week #10 has started with respect to the Gulf Oil Spill. I throw that information in here only because the Gulf Oil Tragedy will have consequences for decades to come, is tantamount in scale to a major military attack on the USA, and may be interpreted as an example of British impact. Make what analogy you will to the Middle East. And, while we are counting, let us remind the world that it should be counting the days of Shalit's Captivity, not only the days of the Gulf Oil Spill.

In different but similar expressions to Charlie Rose, Khalid Meshaal of Hamas and Mahmoud Abbas of the PLO have essentially stated the same thing, namely that Israel must go.. Where to? They do not say. But, Helen Thomas was clear and direct, right to the face of a Rabbi: go back to Russia, Poland, Germany, and the USA! Meshaal said two things: (1) Hamas will make peace with Israel, when Israel has left the Occupied Territories (read, when Israel has left the Middle East, as according to Hamas's Charter, all of Israel and all of Palestine constitute Israeli Occupied Territory); (2) Hamas will "accept" Israel's retreat to pre-1967 borders and will then offer the Palestinian Arabs a plebiscite on the recognition of the existence of Israel. Abbas on the other hand has also stated that Israel must return to the pre-1967 borders, after which time land-swapping might be considered. For two ostensible enemies, these two sure seem to sing the same song. But, why not? They all belong to the Muslim Brotherhood! As to the Helen Thomas Affair, perhaps some good may come of it, if discussions of the matter are sufficiently widespread to educate the world as the the genuine identity of Jews and their right to Israel by dispelling the myth that Jews are European converts and not original Jewish natives by heritage.

Major mineral deposits are reported to have been discovered in Afghanistan into the billions of dollars. Now Afghanistan will have riches other than poppy seeds, hashish, and beautiful mountain scenerry. But, protected and theoretically democratic thanks to the USA and Allies, there is no requirement that Afghanistan recognize Israel, nor is there any similar requirement made of Iraq. But, whoever said that the USA and Allies were devoid of hypocrisy?

May God Bless President Obama, who is doing such a great job of seeing things the way they are and doing the right lawyerly things. Oil keeps gushing into the Gulf from the same busted pipes; but, the lawyers are filing all kinds of paperwork (printed on recycled paper, we hope?) to go after BP; but, alas, not from a mile under the ocean, where there appears to be no mouth big enough to fit over that darn pipe! And Mahmoud Abbas shall return to Judea-Samarea with a promise of $400 million from Obama for construction. How do you spell relief? O-b-a-m-a! Whew! Instead of all that concrete from the "Rachel Corrie" being delivered into Gaza for bunker building, now Obama has funded the PLO with $400 million for concrete, so that now the PLO can build bunkers in Judea-Samarea! This will ease Israeli tensions in a profound way -- that is, in a profoundly negative way!

"WEST BANK OCCUPATION" -- THE DIFFERENCE TODAY COMPARED TO 1967.

IT IS ALMOST 43 YEARS NOW SINCE THE "SIX DAY WAR", AND 1407 DAYS SINCE GILAD SHALIT WAS KIDNAPPED. HOW ARE THESE EVENTS RELATED OR UNRELATED?

In 1967 Israel "occupied" the "West Bank" [Judea-Samaria] as a result of the famous "SIX-DAY WAR". It was then that Israel also occupied the Golan Heights (well into Syria), Southern Lebanon, and the Sinai.

As of today, most of the Golan has already been returned to Syria in fruitless peace efforts; with the exception of the Sheva Farms, all of Southern Lebanon has been returned to Lebanon, again with no peace. Neither Syria nor Lebanon acknowledges Israel nor Israel's existential right. All of the Sinai has been retuned to Egypt as part of a peace agreement that is a very cold peace, "warmed up" perhaps by Egypt's "failure" to successfully patrol the Egypt-Gaza border or to identify and destroy smuggler tunnels large enough to bring automobiles into Gaza. Israel has a similar peace with Jordan.

Contemporary to Israel's achievement of statehood, Jordan overran and occupied Judea-Samaria, then the de facto homeland of Palestinian Arabs. Post 1967 it was Israel's expectation that Israel would aid the Palestinian Arabs in creating a Palestinian Arab State, just as the UN had hoped for in 1947. If Israel were to leave Judea-Samaria ensuing the 1967 military victory, then a political vacuum would have existed in that territory, allowing Jordan to re-occupy, and exposing Israel again to greater military vulnerability.

If the Palestinian Arabs had been amenable to recognizing Israel's right to exist, there would have been a Palestinian Arab State then and there in Judea-Samaria. It is not Israel's fault that terror organizations such as Black September and the PLO of Yassir Arafat would not dance, instead choosing to wage decades of war and terror on Israel with an eye to the total destruction of the Jewish State. The world has no excuse for failing to remember this, and neither does Israel.

By now Israel should have annexed Judea-Samaria.

By now Israel should have freed Gilad Shalit.