Operation Nickel Grass and US AID

Nickel Grass was a massive, month-long strategic airlift, delivering 22,325 tons of supplies. It highlighted the crucial role of Portugal and the cowardice/neutrality of European allies and commercial carriers.

In the days leading up to the Yom Kippur War, Israeli intelligence could not conclusively determine that an attack was imminent. However, on 5 October 1973, Meir received information that Syrian forces were massing on the Golan Heights. She was alarmed by the reports, and believed that the situation was similar to what preceded the Six-Day War. 

However, her advisers counseled her not to worry, saying they would have adequate notice before any war broke out. This made sense at the time; after the Six Day War, most in the Israeli intelligence community considered the Arabs unprepared to launch another attack.

Consequently, although the Knesset passed a resolution granting her power to demand a full-scale call-up of the military (instead of the typical cabinet decision), Meir did not mobilize Israel's forces early. Soon, though, the threat of war became very clear. Six hours before the outbreak of hostilities, Meir met with Minister of Defense Moshe Dayan and General David Elazar. While Dayan continued to argue that war was unlikely and favored calling up the air force and only two divisions, Elazar advocated full-scale army mobilization and the launch of a full-scale preemptive strike on Syrian forces. "

Seeing the preparations by Egypt and Syria for war in 1973; specifically the supply of over 600 advanced surface-to-air missiles (SAMs), 300 MiG-21 fighters, 1,200 T-72 tanks and hundreds of thousands of tons of war material supplied by the Soviet Union prior to the Yom Kippur. 

On October 6, Meir approved full-scale mobilizing but rejected a preemptive strike, citing concerns that Israel might be perceived as initiating hostilities, which would hurt Israel's access to crucial foreign aid and military support, in particular from the United States, in the resulting conflict. 

The US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger urged Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir z"l to NOT mobilize Israeli forces nor take ANY "preemptive Strike", to "not antagonise the Arabs" so that "war will NOT breakout".

Once the full truth of the American "miscalculation" and the full "brunt" of the massive Egyptian and Syrian successes and the tragically high loss human lives, tanks, and aircraft was felt by Israel. Golda ordered the readying of IAF A-4s and Jericho rockets with nuclear warheads. The outfitting was purposely made visible to US Spy satalites. 

The NSA informed United States Secretary of State Henry Kissinger who then urged then President Richard M. Nixon to initiate an strategic airlift resupply operation to Israel, codenamed Nickel Grass, beginning on October 14th through November 14th, 1973.  

Kissinger swiftly made arrangements for the Israeli national airline, El Al to pick up some items, including ammunition, "high technology products" and AIM-9 Sidewinder missiles at a U.S. naval base in Virginia. 

The Military Airlift Command of the United States Air Force shipped approximately 22,325 tons of supplies, including M60 Patton tanks were among the heavy equipment delivered, M109 howitzers and 175mm artillery, and ammunition, in multiple flights of C-141 Starlifters and C-5 Galaxys. 

During the beginnings of the resupply operation El Al's limited supply of ill-configured passenger aircraft were insufficient. Still wanting to avoid direct U.S. involvement, starting 10 October, the use of commercial carriers was explored to provide 10–20 flights a day.

None of these were willing to accept the job for fear of being refused entry to Arab nations after the war. Only Portugal seemed willing to help though, so aircraft were dispatched to Lajes Field in the Azores Islands and Lajes became a key staging point for the rest of the airlift. 

To comply with the demands of the cowardly European nations, even supplies already stored on US Bases in Europe were routed through Lajes. Soon over thirty aircraft per day were moving through Lajes.

So on 12 October, Nixon decided that no more delays could be allowed, and ordered the USAF to "send everything that can fly." Within nine hours, C-141s and C-5s were en route to Israel. 

In the opening days of the war, Arab forces destroyed significant numbers of IAF aircraft, surprising the Israelis with aggressive use of the new Soviet SA-6 Gainful SAMs. Consequently, at least 36 F-4 Phantom II fighters were sent to Israel under Nickel Grass.

The cowardly European nations continued to hamper the efforts of the USAF as traditional European allies refused to allow re-supply aircraft to land for refueling or even overfly their territory. Because of this cowardice Boeing KC-135 Stratotankers of the Strategic Air Command (SAC) were the first to arrive at Lajes Air Base. 

The KC-135 Stratotankers had left Pease AFB, New Hampshire, the night of Saturday, 13 October (one of the bases El Al was using to re-supply the war effort); the tankers were ferrying factory-fresh Douglas A-4 Skyhawk and F-4 Phantom II aircraft flying non-stop from the factory in St. Louis, Missouri to Ben Gurion Airport where American pilots were swapped for their Israeli counterparts. 

After the replacement of USAF insignia with IAF insignia if needed, the planes were refueled and ordered to the front, often taking to the air within hours of having arrived. 

At least 36 (and potentially more than 100) F-4 Phantoms were sent, some directly from U.S. Air Force squadrons, replacing significant Israeli losses to Soviet-supplied surface-to-air missiles.

Some aircraft came directly from European bases and operated in USAF camouflage, but with Israeli insignia, thus earning the Israeli nickname "Frog". 

Thirty-six A-4 Skyhawks from U.S. stocks, staging from Lajes were refueled by SAC KC-135A tankers from Pease Air Force Base, New Hampshire and U.S. Navy tankers from the USS John F. Kennedy west of the Straits of Gibraltar. 

They then flew on to the USS Franklin D. Roosevelt southeast of Sicily where they stayed overnight, then continued on to Israel refueling once more from tankers launched from the USS Independence south of Crete.

Additionally, twelve C-130E Hercules transports were also transferred to Israel, the first of the type to be delivered to the IAF.

Operation Nickel Grass had immediate and far-reaching effects. Arab members of OPEC had declared they would limit or stop oil shipments to the U.S. and other countries if they supported Israel in the conflict. Holding to their threats, the Arab states declared a complete oil embargo on the U.S.. Oil prices skyrocketed, fuel became scarce and the U.S. was soon embroiled in the 1973 oil crisis. 

Nickel Grass also revealed a severe deficiency in American airlift capabilities: the need for staging bases overseas. Without Portugal's assistance, the airlift might not even have been possible. As a result, the U.S. greatly expanded its aerial refueling capabilities and made long-distance flight operations the standard rather than the exception. 

A GAO study of the operation discussed the shortcomings of the C-141A. As a result, the C-141B was conceived. The A models were sent back to Georgia where they were cut fore and aft of the wing, extended in length by three pallet positions, and refitted for in-flight refueling. 

Nickel Grass vindicated the USAF decision to purchase the C-5 Galaxy. Since its introduction in 1970, the C-5 had been plagued by problems. The USAF claimed to have rectified the problems, but the C-5 was still viewed by the press as an expensive failure. During Nickel Grass, C-5s carried 48% of the total cargo in only 145 of the 567 total missions. The C-5 also carried "outsize" cargo such as M60 Patton tanks, M109 howitzers, ground radar systems, mobile tractor units, CH-53 Sea Stallion helicopters and A-4 Skyhawk components, cargo that could not fit in smaller aircraft. This performance justified the C-5's existence

Truth and President Trump's plan

Regarding the motion of President Donald J Trump that "moving out the "residents of Gaza" is "Ethnic Cleansing".....Immediately those of the "Orangeman Bad" profound suffers leaped together with the apologists for the "Palestinians" to immediate scream down and belittle the plan as Trump's plant to convert Gaza into "Mar-a-Lago" 

I as a historian who writes according to DOCUMENTED HISTORICAL FACTs the REAL TRUTH DOES MATTER wish to state the TRUTH.

So in light of the "widespread destruction" in Gaza, together with the utterly hate filled villainy of the barbaric terrorist organization Hamas. Together with the dire need to "reeducate from the lie of the false "Nachba" narrative  and "DeHamasify".

Here is a reminder of HISTORICAL precedence worth noting:

In the immediate end of World War II millions were "Displaced Persons" lving in camps. Whole areas of Europe were laid waste ...

"The post World War II Marshall Plan (officially the European Recovery Program, ERP) was an American initiative enacted in 1948 to provide foreign aid to Western Europe. The goals of the United States were to rebuild war-torn regions, remove trade barriers, modernize industry, improve European prosperity and prevent the spread of communism."

Documented FACTs: 

1) The Gaza Strip is 41 km (25 mi) long, from 6 to 12 km (3.7 to 7.5 mi) wide, and has a total area of 365 km2 (141 sq mi).[27][8] It has a 51 km (32 mi) border with Israel, and an 11 km (7 mi) border with Egypt, near the city of Rafah. Most of the original "Arab" inhabitants were from Egypt.

2) MOST of the refugees, residing in Gaza post 1948 were Bedouin from clans related to the "Al-Tirabin" clan which is considered the largest Bedouin tribe in the Negev and Sinai Peninsula and all Egypt, with over 500,000 people.

The Sinai Tarabin Bedouin migrated or settled down in Palestine, Egypt and Syria during Ottomon rule some around 300 years ago.

 3) The coastal area was INVADED, CONQUERED and OCCUPIED by the Arab League Member State of Egypt from 1947-1967, in open violation of the Mandate given by the League of Nations to the British Empire. 

2) Egypt created the All-Palestine government which was little more than a façade for Egyptian control, on 22 September 1948, during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, to govern the Egyptian-controlled territory in Gaza, which Egypt had on the same day declared as the All-Palestine Protectorate.

The President of the protectorate was: 

Haj Amin al-Husseini (The notorious Grand Mufti and "best bud" of Alois Schicklgruber (Adolph Hitler) and Reichsführer of the Schutzstaffel (Head of the SS) Heinrich Himmler), 

former chairman of the Arab Higher Committee, and the Prime Minister was Ahmed Hilmi Pasha

With negligible independent funding or influence, the All-Palestine government subsequently moved to Cairo and dissolved in 1959 by decree of Egyptian President Gamal Abdul Nasser.

 3) "Arabs of the Mandated Areas" living in Gaza were issued All-Palestine passports. Egypt did not offer them citizenship and from the end of 1949, received aid directly from UNRWA. 

4) After the cessation of hostilities and the ratification of the Rhodes Armistice Agreement of 24 February 1949 a "Green Line" (Ceasefire Line) of separation between Egyptian and Israeli forces was created. 

This "Green Line" became the modern boundary between Gaza and Israel, which BOTH signatories declared not to be an international border. 

5) The area was part of the Mandated Area ‎to be ‎incorporated into the "Homeland of the Jews" and it was recognized as "Cestui sue trust" of the political rights to them in 1922 by 52 ‎countries at the San Remo conference in the Treaty of Sèvres and later ratified in the Treaty of Lausanne signed in the Palais de Rumine, Lausanne, Switzerland July 24th 1923. 

6) As such the "Mandated Area" that was offered to and never claimed by the "Arabs of the ‎‎Mandated Areas" in the partition plan to be the "State for the Arabs of the Mandated ‎‎Areas" or as they refer to themselves since 1964 as "Falestinians" became what is termed by International Law as "Terra Nullis" (land belonging to NO ONE)

‎7) With the negotiated peace treaty between Egypt and Israel in 1979. The Mandated area for ‎‎the Jewish Homeland (Article 8 Mandate for Palestine) was returned and therefore the ‎‎‎"Gaza Strip" officially became Israeli territory as per International Law termed; Uti ‎possidetis juris or uti possidetis iuris (Latin for "as you possess under law") which is a principle ‎of international law that states that; "newly formed sovereign states should have the same ‎borders that their preceding dependent area had before their independence". 

A "Historical Note" 

Since the visitation of the Palestine Exploration Fund Survey of Palestine led at different times by four senior Royal Engineers: 

a) Captain Wilson (later Col. Sir Charles Wilson, who in 1885 led the final stage of the Nile Expedition);

b) Captain Warren (later General Sir Charles Warren, who in 1888 was the Commissioner of the London Police Force during the Jack the Ripper murder investigation); 

c) Lieutenant Conder (later Colonel Conder, who became a prolific author on Ancient Middle Eastern history, and almost a century after his death was accused of being Jack the Ripper); 

d) Lieutenant Kitchener (later Field Marshal Lord Kitchener, and the British Secretary of State for War at the beginning of World War I)

Nothing has changed...the "Arabs" have never improved the area known as the "Holy Land" cree Eretz Yisrael!

Historical perspective:

"' It is no idle dream to suppose that Palestine might, in a few years, become a land flowing with milk and honey ; even with the present inhabitants, under an upright Government, the land would in a short time change its appearance, and, as it is, the country has changed in parts to a small extent, due to the alteration in the Government, brought about by the influence of public opinion of the West asserting itself even in Syria. Look how those villages have begun to thrive which have been mortgaged to the Greek converts; and watch the cloud resting over the Christian village of Beit Jala in the autumn sun, with its groves of olives, while all around is the brazen sky."

' At present, however, Palestine — Philistia in particular — has not a tithe of the population that it would support ; its fruit trees are left to take care of themselves, its waters allowed to run underground instead of on the surface.

 The fact is, the bulk of the water reaches the ocean underground ; on coming into the plain it forms marshes and pools, and quietly sinks away, while the bed of the stream itself in the plain is merely a narrow ditch some 6 feet wide and 4 feet deep. You may leave the water at the commencement of the wady mouth, ride over the plain without seeing anything of it, and meet it again welling out of the ground close to the seashore, forming wide lagoons there. Now, if proper precautions were taken, were the people industrious, and the country cultivated and clothed again with trees, the waters, flowing in the ravines, might be conducted over the plains in the early summer months, and induce the rich soil to yield a second crop.

' The encroachment of sand is one of the most serious evils now to be dreaded on the coast of Palestine. Already Gaza and Ashdod are threatened, and nothing is done to arrest the enemy, though there is little doubt but that the danger might be averted by obliging the landed proprietors to take common action against their silent foe."

falestinian dezinformatsiya and Jesus

As Christmas time approaches so do the lies of the Haters of Israel and Zionism.

So to clarify here are the documented facts.

First Main Falestinian Lie #1

So… was Jesus a Jew or was he a Palestinian?-(Excerpt fron Article in Honest Reporting) by Emmanuel Miller 5th September 2019
For the benefit of anyone exposed to this false claim, a brief recap of history is in order:

Jesus was born in Judea, a client kingdom of the Roman Empire, and identified as a Jew. Jews living there at the time would most likely have described themselves as living in the Land of Israel. Anyone referring to “Palestine” in the first century C.E. would have earned themselves strange look, especially from the indigenous Aramaic-speaking Jews. The land was subject to all the religious laws in Judaism that apply in Land of Israel.

A century later, the area was renamed. After a Jewish revolt was crushed in the 2nd Century CE, the vast majority of Jews were exiled and the Roman emperor Hadrian subsequently had the region entitled “Syria Palestina” after the Jews’ ancient enemies, the Philistines, in an antagonistic move designed to demonstrate that the Jews were no longer owners of the land.

Put simply, an Aramaic-speaking Jew living a century before this change of name would never have called himself Palestinian.

Indeed, while the New Testament mentions Israel and the Jews repeatedly, Palestine is not mentioned even once. Take for example the second chapter of Matthew, which begins thus:

“Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the reign of King Herod. About that time some wise men from eastern lands arrived in Jerusalem, asking, ‘Where is the newborn king of the Jews?’” “Indeed, it is believed that the cross above Jesus’ head bore the sign ‘INRI’ – ‘Iesvs Nazarenvs Rex Ivdaeorvm,’ which means Jesus of Nazareth King of the Jews in Latin.

As for Jesus’ appearance, while it’s hard to determine for certain how any specific individual would have appeared, some documentation does exist on what Jesus’ contemporaries would have looked like. The Jewish Mishna (Negaim 2:1) records one rabbi describing “The children of Israel – [may] I atone for them – are like cedar wood, neither black, nor white, but in between.”

The entrance of Arabs to the Holy Land occurred only some 700 years after Jesus was crucified, when Arab conquerors took the area. The people identifying as Palestinian today are Arab, and hence it is clear that Jesus, quite simply, was not a Palestinian or an Arab, but a Jew.

And NO!! Jesus was not a Philistine, either…
A variation of this claim, that Jesus was actually a Philistine, also features as a staple of anti-Israel propaganda, including the roundly debunked notion that Palestinians are actually Canaanites.

The idea that Palestinians are Philistines is equally false.

Unlike modern day Jews and Palestinians, the Philistines were an ancient, non-Semitic, sea-faring people, whose form of worship was unconnected to the Abrahamic religions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

In other words, the Philistine ethnicity, culture and religion are all entirely different from that of modern day Palestinians.

The Philistine connection to the Israelites began when the former invaded and occupied a portion of the Kingdom of Israel in about 1000 BCE, but were later defeated by ancient Israel’s King David.

In roughly the seventh century BCE, the Philistines were conquered by the Kingdom of Babylonia and subsequently wiped out as a distinct culture.

In other words, in addition to being culturally, ethnically and religiously unrelated to Jews or Palestinians, the Philistines no longer exist.

Falestinian Lie #2

Linda Sarsour, once tweeted that Jesus is described in the Quran.
"Jesus was Palestinian of Nazareth and is described in the Quran as being brown copper skinned with wooly hair."

Yet, in truth, there is no description of the appearance of Jesus in the Quran.
However, in the Hadith Volume 4 Book 55 Number 648:

"The prophet said, "I saw Moses, Jesus and Abraham (on the night of my Ascension to the heavens).
Jesus was of red complexion, curly hair and a broad chest.
Moses was of brown complexion, straight hair and tall stature as if he was from the people of Az-Zutt."
(Az-Zutt-Arabicised form of Jat. - Originally inhabitants of lower Indus Valley (Pakistan), Jats were present in Mesopotamia from the 5th century AD since the times of the Sasanian Empire, although their main migration occurred after the establishment of Umayyad Caliphate.)

So according to Hadith Jesus was:
•Moderate height, he's not tall nor short
•Brown skinned with a white/red hue (especially his cheeks)
•Straight hair that reaches the shoulders
•Broad chest, thick muscled

Does the Torah mention Jesus?
Jesus as such, is not mentioned in the Torah. Postum factum and with a lot of grease, some passages are forcefully interpreted as if he is mentioned like many other “prophecies” that are made to fit later events. Foretelling the future in any shape or form is a practical impossibility as the future did not happen yet.

What is the quote from the Quran about Jesus?
Surat al-Imran (The Family of Imran) 3, verse 55 says, (And remember) when Allah said:
"O Jesus! Lo! I am gathering thee and causing thee to ascend unto Me, and am cleansing thee of those who disbelieve and am setting those who follow thee above those who disbelieve."

Does Jesus appear in Islam?
Jesus, Mary, and the angel Gabriel are all prominent characters in the Qur'an (as are Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, and a bunch of other Bible characters). Muslims believe that Jesus (called “Isa” in Arabic) was a prophet of God and was born to a virgin (Mary).

And why was this? Well when one attempts -like Mohammed did - to make people believe in him he rewrote the Bible just as modern day falestinian dezinformatsiya.

The “art” of ex-Soviet brand dezinformatsiya presents known forged documents as genuine; invent ingenious but implausible reasons for distrusting genuine documents; attribute false conclusions to books and sources that report the opposite; manipulate statistics to support their given point of view; and deliberately mis-translate texts.

So know the truth and see through the falsehoods in accordance with fact or reality.