Ma'ale Adumim

It's right outside Jerusalem in the desert on your way sort of to the Dead Sea if you're traveling.

And it's called Maale Adumim.

It's a beautiful little settlement, but what it really is, it's a suburb of Jerusalem.

So you can see it there.

He's angry with the Israelis that they're taking it over.

Well, under Oslo II, that was given to the Israelis to monitor.

Why do the Israelis want it? A lot, a lot of people who live in Maale Adumim work in Jerusalem.

So every day they're on these roads.

unfortunately again the genocide will continue apartheid will continue occupation will continue settler attacks will continue and settlements will continue as well both sides have made it abundantly clear that they are opposed to the establishment of a palestinian state which again is a violation under international law and both sides have said that they are going to maintain if not expand the illegal settlements and outposts in the west bank In fact, even the most leftist Jewish Zionist party, which is HaDemokratim, which is the Democrats led by Yair Golan, have also said that they will continue to maintain the settlements in the West Bank.

They're saying that they might actually minimize some of the smaller settlements, but for larger settlement blocks like Maale Adumim, which is close to Jerusalem, still in the occupied West Bank, Yair Golan has said that he will maintain that one and will continue to fund it.

The only parties at the moment in the Israeli Knesset and the only parties that have run for re-elections which are opposed to settlement expansion and which are opposed to the apartheid system in Israel and in the West Bank are the two Palestinian-Israeli parties, which one of them is the Joint List, led by Yousef Jabarin, and the other one is Ra'am, the United Arab List, led by Mansour Abbas.

If we look at those two coalitions, how are they different, the Joint List and the United Arab List?

So last week, we will return to that topic.

What is the, how do you decide? I live in Maale Adumim.

Maale Adumim is very close to Yerushalayim, very close to even the old city.

From some parts, you can't quite see it.

The mountain blocks it, but you can see some of the tall stuff sticking up, not the old city.

Rabbi Yosef Zernigian was born and raised in the Iranian Jewish community of Great Neck, New York.

He studied Talmud and Jewish law under Rabbi Eliyahu Ben Chaim and later under Rabbi Nahum E. Rabinovitch of blessed memory at Yeshivat Birkat Moshe in Maale Adumim, Israel.

Rabbi Zernigian continued his education at Yeshiva University and Queens College graduating with a BA in economics.

Subsequent to his university studies, he completed his rabbinical ordination from Shehebar Sephardic Center in Jerusalem, Israel, after studying under Rabbi Yaakov Peretz, of blessed memory, and Rabbi Shlomo Kassin.

So another part of JCAP's, uh, geopolitical plan in Jerusalem is to greatly expand the municipal borders of Jerusalem and to create what we call a Greater Jerusalem Municipality, which would include areas and districts to the north, east, and south, and possibly even west of Jerusalem, to create a Greater Jerusalem Municipality.

That would mean including Ma'ale Adumim in the Greater Jerusalem, Givat Ze'ev to the north in the Greater Jerusalem.

Even the Gush Etzion block-

Wowee

And if you significantly build there, and there is space to build there, you could attract hundreds of thousands of Jews back to Jerusalem, and therefore, uh, win the demographic battle.

So some of these neighborhoods are technically in Yehuda v'Shomron.

For example, where I live in Gush Etzion in Ma'ale Adumim, these are areas where you don't even really have Israeli sovereignty yet, which is something we're pushing.

So this could be the first step into doing that, into, into taking that over.

Because several valleys meet in this area, where the waters of the Shiloh fall out, that area is called Ben Achamotayim, because it was probably a double wall on that part of the city.

So it looks like the king and all the men of the army ran away with the king at night to the southern part of the city, probably going through the area of Maale Adumim, on the way to Al-Aravah, trying to run away from the Babylonians.

It could be that the date, the ninth of the month, can also help us understand how they plan to get away, because on the ninth of the month, the moon is only a little more than half full, and it sets a little bit after midnight.

That would give them three or four hours of total darkness to run away, which would be enough time to get them outside of Yerushalayim and towards the Aravah.

And Tishrei marks the beginning of the agricultural year, because at the end of the month is when the rains start to come.

We haven't had any real-- We had a rain-- one major rainstorm during the summer here in Maale Adumim, in Yerushalayim, [clears throat] which is a rare occurrence.

That was, like, six weeks ago, eight weeks ago.

And we haven't had any real rain, other than a few drops since then, but it, it should be, God willing, coming.