Israel — Judea and Samaria
The “West Bank” will now be called “Judea and Samaria” by the United States.
By Laurence F. Sanford
American political leadership is changing its positions on the Middle East. President Donald Trump in 2018 moved the U.S. embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Now, Trump and Congress are redefining the “West Bank.” Representative Brian Mast (R-FL), chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, has instructed staff to use the term “Judea and Samaria” instead of “West Bank.”
Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR) said, “The Jewish people’s legal and historic rights to Judea and Samaria go back thousands of years. The US should stop using the politically charged term, West Bank, to refer to the biblical heartland of Israel.”
Senator Cotton has introduced legislation recognizing Judea and Samaria, but it is unlikely to pass in the Senate with Democrat opposition and the 60-vote threshold requirement. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee has said, “There is no such thing as a West Bank. It is Judea and Samaria and is legally part of Israel.”
The term “West Bank” is an invention of the Kingdom of Jordan that describes lands west of the Jordan River which the Kingdom occupied from 1947 until 1966. The Turkish Ottoman Empire ruled the area from 1517 until 1917, when the victorious Allies of World War I allocated the territory to the British Mandate of Palestine.
In 1947, Israel was established. Neighboring Arab states immediately attacked Israel with the intent to eliminate the Jewish state. Israel survived the onslaught but over 600,000 Palestinian Arabs fled primarily to Jordan, Egypt, and Syria. One million Jews fled Arab countries and settled in Israel. Jordan invaded Judea and Samaria and called them the West Bank. In the 1966 war, Israel seized the lands from Jordan and has controlled them since.
“West Bank” is a misnomer. The usual definition of “bank” along a river is a narrow strip of land, not an area of approximately 2,000 square miles. “West Bank” is, however, a useful polemical term to delegitimize Jewish historical connection to the land. Judea and Samaria are names of territories that go back to biblical times.
Judea and Samaria are names of ancient Israelite kingdoms — Judea in the south, Samaria in the north, and Jerusalem in the center. After two unsuccessful Israeli revolts against the Roman Empire, Emperor Hadrian (117-138 CE) named the provinces Syria Palaestina to root out Jewish nationalism.
The UN and International Court of Justice (ICC) view Israeli control of Judea and Samaria as an illegal “occupation” and the land as Palestinian territory.
Judea and Samaria are a hodgepodge of political entities either controlled by the Israeli military or Palestinian Authority. Pervasive security walls and outposts dot the landscape in an attempt to stop Islamic terror attacks on Jews. The Palestinians have waged two intifadas (an Arab word meaning “rebellion”) against Israeli occupation. The acts include suicide bombings against civilians and throwing of rocks and Molotov cocktails against Israeli military.
Approximately four million Palestinian Arabs live in Judea and Samaria, including East Jerusalem. Divided into the four areas:
- A & B — Administrative civil control by the Palestinian Authority and military control by the Israeli military. Arab population 2.5 million, Israeli population 0.
- C — Israeli control. Arab population 300,000, Israeli population 520,000.
- East Jerusalem — Annexed by Israel in 1980. Arab population 350,000, Israeli population 260,000.
Summary
The two-state concept of Israel and Palestine is dormant. The Palestinians want to eliminate Israel and kill Jews. There will be no Palestinian state as long as Israel has the power to prevent it.
The two million Palestinian Arabs living in Gaza on October 7, 2023, proved beyond a reasonable doubt that peace will not happen as long as Islamic ideology controls the Palestinian culture in Gaza, Judea, and Samaria.
Billions of U.S. dollars through USAID and the United Nations Relief Work Agency (UNRWA) since 1949 have supported the Muslim Brotherhood’s and Hamas’s teaching of hate against Israel and against the U.S. and Western Civilization.
Israel has been reluctant to incorporate Judea and Samaria into Israel for political reasons. They fear that by doing so, the Muslim population as citizens would harm Jewish democracy.
Action
- Declare the West Bank to be Judea and Samaria. This will restore the area to its historical name and show that the Jews’ historical roots to Israel go back thousands of years.
- Terminate all UNRWA funding and pay only the minimum dues to the UN. Recently, the U.S. voluntarily paid the UN $15 billion for a total contribution of $18 billion. China’s total contribution was less than $3 billion.
- Continue to support Israel in the struggle for Western Civilization against Islamic supremacy and domination.
- Recognize the Islamic terrorism threat in the U.S. The new director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, identified “radical Islamic terrorism” as the nation’s biggest security threat. The term “radical” is redundant.
Laurence F. Sanford is a senior analyst at the American Security Council Foundation.
