March, 2014/Adar II, 5774

 

Four Total Lunar Eclipses 1949-1950
April 13, 1949 Erev Pesach
October 7, 1949 Erev Sukkot
April 2, 1950 Pesach
September 26, 1940 Sukkot

Partial Restoration of the Land of Israel

 

1949 Armistice Agreements
The 1949 Armistice Agreements are a set of agreements signed during 1949 between Israel and neighboring Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan, and Syria. The agreements ended the official hostilities of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, and established Armistice Demarcation Lines between Israeli forces and the forces in Jordanian-held West Bank, also known as the Green Line. The United Nations established supervising and reporting agencies to monitor the established armistice lines. In addition, discussions related to the armistice enforcement, led to the signing of the separate Tripartite Declaration of 1950 between the United States, Britain, and France. In it, they pledged to take action within and outside the United Nations to prevent violations of the frontiers or armistice lines. It also outlined their commitment to peace and stability in the area, their opposition to the use or threat of force, and reiterated their opposition to the development of an arms race. These lines held until the 1967 Six-Day War.

Egypt - On 24 February the Israel–Egypt Armistice Agreement was signed in Rhodes.
Lebanon - The agreement with Lebanon was signed on 23 March 1949.
Jordan - The agreement with Jordan was signed on 3 April 1949.
Syria - The agreement with Syria was signed on July 20, 1949.
Iraq - Iraq, whose forces took an active part in the war (although it has no common border with Israel), withdrew its forces from the region in March 1949. The front occupied by Iraqi forces was covered by the armistice agreement between Israel and Jordan, and there was no separate agreement with Iraq.

 

April 14, 1949 International Military Tribunal at Neurenberg's last judgment

238.4 RECORDS OF THE OFFICE OF THE CHIEF OF COUNSEL FOR WAR CRIMES (OCCWC)
1933-40, 1945-49

History: Established in the Office of Military Government for Germany (U.S.) [OMGUS], by General Order 301, Headquarters U.S. Forces in Europe (USFET), October 24, 1946, as successor to the Subsequent Proceedings Division of the Office of the U.S. Chief of Counsel for the Prosecution of Axis Criminality (OUSCCPAC). OCCWC prosecuted 185 defendants, grouped in 12 cases according to sphere of activity, November 21, 1946-April 14, 1949, before 11 U.S. military tribunals. Of 177 defendants ultimately judged (4 of the original defendants having committed suicide and 4 having been deemed incompetent to stand trial), 35 were acquitted and 142 were convicted, with 25 given the death penalty. OCCWC formally abolished, June 20, 1949.

April 15, 1949 Pope Pius XII publishes encyclical Redemptoris nostri - "Good Friday"

Redemptoris Nostri Cruciatus is a peace encyclical of Pope Pius XII focusing on the war in Palestine. It was given at St. Peter's Good Friday, April 15, 1949.

On Good Friday, the pope recalls the passion of Jesus Christ, and the land in which he lived, shed His blood and died. Although the fighting has ended, these holy places are now faced with difficulties and uncertainty, so Pope Pius XII. The Pope mentioned the numerous refugees who live in exile and even in concentration camps. He asks for more systematic efforts to allow those people a life in peace. He repeats his call for internationalization of the holy Places:

We have already insisted in Our Encyclical letter In Multiplicibus, that the time has come when Jerusalem and its vicinity, where the previous memorials of the Life and Death of the Divine Redeemer are preserved, should be accorded and legally guaranteed an "international" status, which in the present circumstances seems to offer the best and most satisfactory protection for these sacred monuments.

This would provide immunity and protection guaranteed to all the Holy Places of Palestine not only in Jerusalem but also in the other cities and villages as well. Religious sanctuaries, many of which suffered war damages, should be protected by definite statute guaranteed by an "international" agreement. The Pope instructs the many Catholic institutions in Palestine to help the poor, to educate youth and give hospitality to visitors. They should carry out unimpeded the work they did in the past. The Holy Places, which Catholics during many centuries have acquired and time and again defended, should be preserved inviolate.

October 6, 1949 Pres Harry Truman signs Mutual Defense Assistance Act (for NATO)

October 7, 1949 German Democratic Republic formed from Russian occupation zone (National Day).

September 24, 1950 "Operation Magic Carpet" - all Jews from Yemen move to Israel

September 27, 1950 Dr Ralph Bunche receives Nobel Peace Prize

Ralph Johnson Bunche was an American political scientist, academic, and diplomat who received the 1950 Nobel Peace Prize for his late 1940s mediation in Palestine. He was the first African American and person of color to be so honored in the history of the prize He was involved in the formation and administration of the United Nations. In 1963, he was awarded the Medal of Freedom by President John F. Kennedy.

World War II years
During World War II, Bunche worked in the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the predecessor of the CIA, as a senior social analyst on Colonial Affairs. In 1943, he joined the State Department. He was appointed Associate Chief of the Division of Dependent Area Affairs under Alger Hiss. With Hiss, Bunche became one of the leaders of the Institute of Pacific Relations (IPR). He participated in the preliminary planning for the United Nations at the San Francisco Conference of 1945.

Work with the United Nations
Near the close of World War II in 1944, Bunche took part in planning for the United Nations at the Dumbarton Oaks Conference, held in Washington, D.C. He was an adviser to the U.S. delegation for the "Charter Conference" of the United Nations held in 1945, when the governing document was drafted. Ralph Bunche, along with Eleanor Roosevelt, was considered instrumental in the creation and adoption of the UN Declaration of Human Rights.

According to the United Nations document, "Ralph Bunche: Visionary for Peace", during his 25 years of service to the United Nations, he

"...championed the principle of equal rights for everyone, regardless of race or creed. He believed in "the essential goodness of all people, and that no problem in human relations is insoluble." Through the UN Trusteeship Council, Bunche readied the international stage for a period of rapid transformation, dismantling the old colonial systems in Africa and Asia, and guiding scores of emerging nations through the transition to independence in the post-war era."

Arab-Israeli conflict and Nobel Peace Prize
Beginning in 1947, Bunche was involved with trying to resolve the Arab-Israeli conflict. He served as assistant to the United Nations Special Committee on Palestine, and thereafter as the principal secretary of the UN Palestine Commission. In 1948, he traveled to the Middle East as the chief aide to Sweden's Count Folke Bernadotte, who had been appointed by the UN to mediate the conflict. These men chose the island of Rhodes for their base and working headquarters. In September 1948, Bernadotte was assassinated in Jerusalem by members of the underground Jewish Lehi group .

Following the assassination, Bunche became the UN's chief mediator; he conducted all future negotiations on Rhodes. The representative for Israel was Moshe Dayan; he reported in memoirs that much of his delicate negotiation with Bunche was conducted over a billiard table while the two were shooting pool. Optimistically, Bunche commissioned a local potter to create unique memorial plates bearing the name of each negotiator. When the agreement was signed, Bunche awarded these gifts. After unwrapping his, Dayan asked Bunche what might have happened if no agreement had been reached. "I'd have broken the plates over your damn heads," Bunche answered. For achieving the 1949 Armistice Agreements, Dr. Bunche received the Nobel Peace Prize, in 1950. He continued to work for the United Nations, mediating in other strife-torn regions, including the Congo, Yemen, Kashmir, and Cyprus. Bunche was appointed as undersecretary-general in 1968.

 

Four Total Lunar Eclipses 1967-1968
April 24, 1967 Erev Pesach
October 18, 1967 Erev Sukkot
April 13, 1968 Pesach
October 6, 1968 Sukkot

Partial Restoration of the Holy City of Jerusalem

 

Six Day War (June 5-10, 1967)
Six-Day War, also called June War or Third Arab-Israeli War, brief war that took place June 5–10, 1967, and was the third of the Arab-Israeli wars. Israel’s decisive victory included the capture of the Sinai Peninsula, Gaza Strip, West Bank, Old City of Jerusalem, and the Golan Heights; the status of these territories subsequently became a major point of contention in the Arab-Israeli conflict.

April 7 – Israeli fighters shoot down 7 Syrian MIG-21s.
May 17 - Syria mobilizes against Israel.
May 17 - President Gamal Abdal Nasser of Egypt demands withdrawal of the peacekeeping UN Emergency Force in the Sinai. U.N. Secretary-General U Thant complies (May 18).
May 23 – Egypt closes the Straits of Tiran to Israeli shipping, blockading Israel's southern port of Eilat, and Israel's entire Red Sea coastline.
June – Moshe Dayan becomes Israel's Minister of Defense.
June 10 - The Soviet Union severs diplomatic relations with Israel.
June 28 – Israel declares the annexation of East Jerusalem.
October 21 - An Egyptian surface-to-surface missile sinks the Israeli destroyer Eilat, killing 47 Israeli sailors. Israel retaliates by shelling Egyptian refineries along the Suez Canal.
Benjamin Netanyahu joins the Israeli Army.
November 22 – UN Security Council Resolution 242 is adopted by the UN Security Council, establishing a set of principles aimed at guiding negotiations for an Arab–Israeli peace settlement.

United Nations Security Council Resolution 242 (S/RES/242) was adopted unanimously by the UN Security Council on November 22, 1967, in the aftermath of the Six-Day War. It was adopted under Chapter VI of the UN Charter. The resolution was sponsored by British ambassador Lord Caradon and was one of five drafts under consideration.

The preamble refers to the "inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by war and the need to work for a just and lasting peace in the Middle East in which every State in the area can live in security."

Operative Paragraph One "Affirms that the fulfillment of Charter principles requires the establishment of a just and lasting peace in the Middle East which should include the application of both the following principles:

(i) Withdrawal of Israel armed forces from territories occupied in the recent conflict;

(ii) Termination of all claims or states of belligerency and respect for and acknowledgment of the sovereignty, territorial integrity and political independence of every State in the area and their right to live in peace within secure and recognized boundaries free from threats or acts of force."

Egypt, Jordan, Israel and Lebanon entered into consultations with the UN Special representative over the implementation of 242. After denouncing it in 1967, Syria "conditionally" accepted the resolution in March 1972. Syria formally accepted UN Security Council Resolution 338, the cease-fire at the end of the Yom Kippur War (in 1973), which embraced resolution 242.

On 1 May 1968, the Israeli ambassador to the UN expressed Israel's position to the Security Council: "My government has indicated its acceptance of the Security Council resolution for the promotion of agreement on the establishment of a just and lasting peace. I am also authorized to reaffirm that we are willing to seek agreement with each Arab State on all matters included in that resolution."

In a statement to the General Assembly on 15 October 1968, the PLO rejected Resolution 242, saying "the implementation of said resolution will lead to the loss of every hope for the establishment of peace and security in Palestine and the Middle East region." In September 1993, the PLO agreed that Resolutions 242 and 338 should be the basis for negotiations with Israel when it signed the Declaration of Principles.

Resolution 242 is one of the most widely affirmed resolutions on the Arab–Israeli conflict and formed the basis for later negotiations between the parties. These led to Peace Treaties between Israel and Egypt (1979) and Jordan (1994), as well as the 1993 and 1995 agreements with the Palestinians.

 

Four Total Lunar Eclipses 2014-2015
April 15, 2014 Pesach
October 8, 2014 Erev Sukkot
April 4, 2015 Pesach
September 28, 2015 Sukkot

Solar Eclipses 2015
Total: March 20, 2015/Adar 29 last day of holy year
Partial: September 13, 2015 Erev Rosh Hashanah

 

Partial Restoration of the Temple Mount?