Wow! Never heard of this before. Thanks for sharing.
You're welcome.
The trip with Steve and Janet Ray was fabulous. I went with an Episcopalian old friend.
Steve, being a former Baptist minister, knew his Old and New Testament backwards and forwards and was able to tell us where all the sights we saw from from in the Bible, chapter and verse.
It was wonderful to watch him deal with the Israeli Jewish uniforms, guides and such. We weren't terribly welcomed by anyone but the Arab Israelis. THAT was weird city from the get go.
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As I said, every so often on the roads there was a Jewish Israeli settlement. They settle there to maximize the inconvenience to the plethora of working Israeli Arabs. The Israeli Arabs are used to it and deal with it. They have no choice.
One Israeli Arab still had the key to his grandmother's house just outside of Jerusalem. He still had hopes of being able to live there. There IS no hope for them, only coexistence with the OTHER Israelis, their Jewish cousins.
From the North American Jewish Data Bank, there are 13.4 million Jewish people or less than 0.2% of the total world population
Also from Google, Arabs have a population of around 422 million people, with over half under 25 years of age. The Arabs have more children too, I understand. That will always figure in the equation,
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The Jewish Israelis were MOSTLY Americans who have ALWAYS had the dual citizenship option, which the REST of Americans do not have, so they visit Israel a LOT. The US doesn't recognize dual citizenship generally but people have it by simply NOT telling the US they have citizenship from another country. In essence, the lie.
The Israeli Americans don't have to lie as they have de facto US citizenship. There are, naturally, a BUNCH of exceptions. No surprise there either.
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I have a cousin who won't give up her Mexican citizenship even though she has lived and worked in Texas for 25 years, for a Mexican company. She was allowed both US and Mexican citizenship and even voted once in the US elections. She is one of those "exceptions."
There are LOTS of exceptions along the Mexico-US border. Stands to reason. Mexico likes it because it gets rid of many of their poor people and the US likes it because they get super-cheap labor.
She will eventually retire to Mexico; that is where she belongs--her words. I wish her well but disapprove of her methodology. She came to visit me by TELLING me that she would be staying with me for six weeks. She had business here. I was too stunned to say NO. After that she went home and has never seen me, called me or contacted me.
I guess my FACE said what I felt. My husband said that I would be the world's WORST poker player, as my face is a mirror of my mind. :o)
I'm GLAD I don't hear from her anymore. I never did like her mother, a bitch first cousin of mine.