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Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Mosque Storehouse for Rockets in Gaza

Yesterday's Oregonian printed a letter to the editor from John Grosvenor who was irate because Israel had hit a mosque in Gaza. What people don't realize is that Israel found out that it was a storehouse for a large number of rockets and explosives to use against Israel.

The IDF certainly does not pinpoint mosques on purpose just for the sake of hitting them. The war is to wipe out the weaponry of the terrorist Hamas regime and bring an end to their constant 8 year bombardment on Israel. Hamas puts its guns, rockets, etc amid civilian areas, and evidently the civilians do very little to leave the sites. Again, they use this as ammunition against Israel. Israel is not indiscriminate in its attacks against their strongholds, but knows where weapons are kept.

Reference: http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1230456538553&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

Sunday, December 28, 2008

Missiles and Mortars Reach Ashkelon Area

Ashkelon, Portland's Sister City Today
Ashkelon, Portland, Oregon's sister city, home to 120,000 Israelis, has also been hit with missiles and mortars from the Gazan terrorists during the past six months of "cease-fire" that never really ceased.

The IDF told the citizens there to stay out of the open as the terrorists are continuing their barrage on Israel. Rockets continued to land near Ashkelon thoughout the day, with a 15 second warning siren preceeding them. One lady that was spotted was totally in shock, hovering in a corner outside and refusing help.

Ashkelon contains Barzelai Hospital, a big one that serves both Israelis and Palestinians when they feel the need. It has had to move their most essential sections underground to be protected from the missile bombardment. Though the Gaza Strip contains nine hospitals, many near the border have crossed over to use Barzeli.

See my blog on Israel for updates: http://israel-nadene.blogspot.com

Monday, December 22, 2008

First Aluf of Israel Since Joshua: Mickey Marcus

Nadene Goldfoot                                                                       
David "Mickey" Marcus (1902-1948)

Israel's birth in 1948 might be attributed to the assistance of  "Mickey" Marcus, American Jew and graduate of West Point.   He was a United States Army colonel who became Israel's first general since Joshua of the bible.

His parents were Mordechai "Max" Marcus and Leah Goldstein, born in 1864 and 1868 who immigrated from Romania in 1898 and settled on Hester Street in Manhattan on the Lower East side of New York. They had married at age 23. David Daniel Marcus "Mickey" was born on February 22, 1901, the same day as George Washington. He was destined for big things.

On the 20th of April 1910, I found the family in Manhattan, Ward 17 with Max age 46 as a fruit peddler. Lena was 42. Mickey had 6 siblings. Isadore, a stenographer for a hat factory was 18, Michael, a shipper, was 16. Jacob, an errand boy, was 15, Roy 12, David 9, Rebecca "Becca" 7, and Victoria was 5.

In 1920 David attended West Point and graduated in 1924. He attended Brooklyn Law School. By 1930 he was the Assistant U.S. Attorney in New York and dealt with people like Lucky Luciano under Mayor Fiorello H. LaGuardia. He was then Commissioner of Corrections in New York City by 1940. It was then that he reenlisted in the army.

Also, on 2 June 1930 at age 28 he and Emma, his new wife, left Hamilton, Bermuda on the ship "Bermuda" and sailed back to New York. It must have been their honeymoon. They lived at 2055 Ocean Avenue in Brooklyn, NY. Emma was 24, born in 1905 in New York. In 1931 he was appointed assistant US attorney in the southern district of New York.

By 1942, at the start of WWII, he was made Commissioner of the U.S. Army Ranger School. He parachuted into Normandy with the 101st Airborne Division. In 1945 Micky was helping to draw up the surrender terms for Italy and Germany and was stationed in Berlin in 1945. He was put in charge of planning to feed the millions in places liberated by the Allies and clearing out the Nazi concentartion camps.

With this background, Israel's Haganah approached Mickey and recruited him to be their military advisor. He had to have his name and rank disguised to avoid problems with the British Mandate of Palestine. He was made Aluf, which is like a Brigadier General in Israel. This made him the first general in the Israeli army.

Being an assimilated American Jew, he did not speak Hebrew, which had become the language of the Jews in Palestine. He was accidently killed by a Jewish sentry on June 10, 1948 because he did not understand the question the sentry asked. It was a tragic experience. Ben Gurion told Emma, his wife, that he was the best man they had. His body was brought back by Moshe Dayan to the USA for burial and is buried in the West Point Cemetery. His gravestone says, ""Colonel David Marcus-a Soldier for All Humanity". In the Temple in Brooklyn a memorial plaque says "Killed in action in the hills of Zion while leading Israeli forces as their supreme commander in the struggle for Israel's freedom.

Kibbutz Mishmar David and the neighborhood of Neve David in Tel Aviv and many streets are named after him.

A wonderul movie was made in 1966 about his story called "Cast a Giant Shadow". It starred Kirk Douglas as Mickey Marcus. Senta Berger was a love interest in Palestine. Angie Dickinson played Emma, his wife, Yul Brynner, John Wayne and Frank Sinatra played supporting roles. Yul Brynner played the part of an important Jewish person in Haganah. John played an American general friend and Frank actually helped out in the fighting against the Arab attackers. The movie is now in DVD form found at http://www.ancestry.com/ It runs 2 hrs 18 minutes and is in color, of course.

Not many people remember seeing Kirk Douglas in this movie, so memorable about the birth of Israel. I hope you all go out and order this to find out what Israel was up against in 1948. He came along just at the right time.

Reference: Cast a Giant Shadow, DVD
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mickey_Marcus
http://www.ancestry.com/ searches for Marcus family
Updated: 5/15/15 The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia- Marcus, David 

Saturday, December 20, 2008

Hadassah Bilked

Nadene Goldfoot
70 year old Madoff, the Wall Street scam artist, also bilked a lot of Jewish organizations. Hadassah lost $90 million dollars to him. Elie Wisel's Foundation was taken, along with Steven Spielberg's Charity, Mort Zuckerman and the Yeshiva University.

Anti-semites are probably having a hey day knocking Jews because of this one selfish and intolerable man. No one was safe from his charms and promises to make money. He took everyone who trusted him.

Reference:
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1048317.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/23/nyregion/23yeshiva.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

Sunday, December 7, 2008

2008 Hadassah Chanukah Fair











Today was the Hadassah Chanukah Fair which was held at Neveh Shalom Synagogue. The parking lot was full at 11:00am. There were lots of tables with wonderful items on display. I sat at the Jewish Genealogical Society of Oregon's table where we had a lot of people stop by to look up their surnames in some of our books.

Hadassah's table was selling some tasty desserts that I had to pass up, even though I'm also a Hadassah member. I'm dieting again for the zillionth time. Finally I bought a white T-shirt with Israel on it in blue along with a blue Nike swish. Then I accidently dropped my bag at the end of the stairs that led to the outer entrance. Carolyn Shain, Hadassah's Secretary, was manning the door as a greeter/guard and asked me if I had bought anything. I looked and saw I didn't have my bag. I went over to the stairs, ready to descend again and there was a teen-age boy near my bag. I yelled at him to please pick it up, and as he was commencing to climb the steps, did so and gave me my bag. It turned out to be Carolyn's son! Lucky me! Thanks to Carolyn and her helpful son!

Thursday, November 27, 2008

Religions and What They Stand For

The newspaper had an article about the terrorists in Mumbai today. I know that possibly a Chabad Rabbi and his wife are either kidnapped or might even be dead. The total people killed in India since 2005 , most blamed on Islamic terrorists, is 560 which I calculated from information on page A 11 in the Oregonian. These are attacks on innocent civilians going about their daily business, not looking for any fight. British and Americans were the ones attacked, but of course others were killed, too. Terrorists seem to turn out to be Muslims, though others have joined them in their terrorism.

Christians are known for their love. Jews are known for the love of life, as in our toast, L'Chaim! Extremist Muslims have become known for their death; that in bringing it to others and in not minding to die in order to reach those 72 virgins. I know that there are many Muslims who are not extremists and do not believe that terrorism is part of their religion, such as Ranya Idliby, one of three writers of "The Faith Club." Ranya was living her religion in New York and wasn't any different in her religious feelings as the other two writers, Suzanne Oliver and Priscilla Warner, a Christian and a Jew. I feel that it's going to have to be the decent Muslims of the world who will have to rebel against the extremists and bring a halt to their behavior and outlook on life. What are extremists standing for? Hate and death? That's all the world is seeing. There are other ways of dealing with problems today. That was the way of life centuries ago. Most of us have learned to behave otherwise.

Not only is Israel facing a daily torrent of hatred from Muslims that brings about attacking Israel with rockets, but there seems to be no end in sight. This all comes about from not recognizing Israel as a state in the neighborhood, created out of the United Nations, and trying to drive it into the sea. Europe has seen attacks. India is being attacked. The New York subways might be attacked over Thanksgiving vacation. The world is centered on terrorism and death instead of enlightenment. This is not what should be happening.

Everyone in the free world is bending over backwards not to point out that Muslims are producing terrorists. They try not to point them out in airport security lines, but the facts are, terrorists are Muslims. They could come from 22 Muslim countries or any other country where they now reside. The extremists are giving Muslims a bad rep.

Terrorists are cowards and bullies. They attack the innocent that have no beef with them. They attack women and children and hide behind masks. If they are allowed to succeed, this will be the way of the future. We cannot let them get away with such behaviors.

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Mumbai, India's Rabbi's Family Taken

Faraway Mumbai, India has a Jewish community. Terrorists attacked British and American citizens and have kidnapped 7 to 15 today. Rabbi and Mrs. Gavriel Holtzberg and their son Moshe's whereabouts are unknown. They may be among those kidnapped. Rabbi Holzberg is with Chabad, who notified us today and asked for prayers for all taken. Eighty-two people have been killed in the attack so far.

Update: Thanksgiving Day

While the Rabbi and his wife lie on the floor unconscious, the cook in the building, Sandra Samuel, escaped with their 2 year old son Moshe. One report is that the couple may be dead along with a 16 year old. Six people were in the quarters with the Rabbi's family. The dead found now is up to 130 persons in the city which is the capital of Maharashtra.

The terrorists are evidently Muslim extremists.

Update: 11/28/08 The young rabbi and his wife were slain. The baby was saved by the cook and is now with his grandparents.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081128/ap_on_re_as/as_india_shooting_176

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081127/ap_on_re_as/as_india_shooting_52
Chabad of Oregon

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Nov. 27, 2008
Contact:Marcus Sheff: 011-972-2-6236427, mailto:ma@marcuss@theisraelproject.orgLeah Soibel: 011-972-2-6236427, leahs@theisraelproject.orghttp://www.kintera.org/TR.asp?a=9nJIKSNtEfKKK1L&s=9eIMLYNBJeIDITOxGmE&m=ksJRI4NJLhK4E

Monday, November 24, 2008

Israel's Critics: Jews

Jews are leading the way for Goyish critics of Israel. They criticize first, showing the Gentiles how bad the Israelis are. Otherwise, G-d forbid, they might not notice!

I thought Noam Chomsky and Norman Finkelstein were bad enough, but now I read that they are but a few of many in our history. What they get out of it, I have no idea. Instead of doing their part in helping a fledgling new country made up of their mishpuka after a 2,000 year old hiatus, they criticize it.

Perhaps some of the blame can be on the Soviet Union where the Jewish communists received their education and philosophy. The Yevsektsia, or "Jew section" was made of people of Jewish descent and became an instrument of oppression of Jews. Evidently they weren't turned out as people with a "Yiddishkeit" attitude, but hated everything Jewish. Such self hatred is abominable.

There is a Nicholas Donin and Pable Christianis of our day and age. They have also been elevated as public pundits. They are sophisticated intelligent men receiving attention for turning against their own people. These are what is known as apostates.

Now the Israeli newspaper, Ha'aretz is joining the group of turncoats. Having been founded in 1919 and having a low circulation, they have now gone English and not only criticize, but report with lies. Whatever they publish that is against Israel is quickly picked up by other newspapers world-wide, as anything that shows how bad Israel is is newsworthy to the masses. Even John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt get information this way that is so distorted.

I'd like to tell Noam Chomsky and others that when I found out I might die of a diverticulosis situation that could become cancerous, I decided to go to Israel and help. It occurred to me that I was alive in a very important window of time, when Israel was reborn. That was a special time in history. So I investigated and found out that my husband and I could teach English there, and that would help. We did. We gave up our teaching positions in Oregon and made aliyah to Israel. We went through a 10 month retraining program and then taught in Safed, Israel. We were helping and seeing it first-hand. We hadn't even gone to Israel on a vacation. I read every book I could get my hands on first and then went over, sight unseen. I was a part of those trying to hold onto that piece of land. I had Arabs in my apartment. I learned not to pick up anything outside for fear of it turning out to be a bomb. I walked the walk and talked the talk.

I say that these apostates have a hole in their heads, or maybe their hearts. They may be brilliant people but only know how to hurt, not to heal. If you see a wrong, do what you can to lead to righting it. Learn about it. Study it. Know the history. I think they have a built-up hatred for Judaism, and are as tarnished in their minds as the Gentiles have been for so many years. Brilliant people can be foolish. Sometimes overly brilliant people are very foolish, and they just proved it to me. They could be causing the death of Israel. Is that was they want? Are they interested in Israel's welfare or their own? They're not using their saikhle.

Resource: Israel's Jewish Defamers: The Media dimension from Camera Conference, NY City, Oct 21, 2007. Booklet
Mythoughts about it.
My book: Letters From Israel

Sunday, November 16, 2008

USA Citizens Back Israel

A recent poll showed that 66% of the US feel that Israel deserves continued US backing. Of these people, 80% were from the GOP and only 59% were Democrats.

Only 6% supports Palestinians in the Middle East peace talks. I hope Robert Marley takes note of this.

66 2/3% of Americans are concerned about the nukes of Iran.
56% of Americans feel that Obama should put ending the war in Iraq at the top of his to-do list.
41% of Americans want Obama to work on restoring the global economic situation, and I assume ours, primarily.
19% of Americans are concerned about the Israel-Palestinians Peace as a top priority.

It is good to know that a good majority of Americans still are still feeling that Israel needs American backing. I do worry about the remainer of the Democrats who don't.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1037840.html

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Friends of Arafat at the Helm in Our Government

Simon Malley
Simon Malley's son, Robert, has been Obama's Chief advisor about Israel. All my hopes having Rahm Emanuel and David Axelrod as advisors just went kaput. Simon was Yassar Arafat's great friend and ally. His son follows in his father's footsteps in sympathizing with the Palestinians and turning against Israel.
Simon was born to a Syrian -Jewish family who lived in Egypt and was born in Cairo on May 25, 1923. He died at the age of 83 on September 7, 2006. His wife was Barbara Silverstein, a Jewish lady who worked for the UN, where Robert and she met. She was working for a leftist anti-American part of the National Liberation Front. Simon spoke Arabic, French and English. Simon was in the Egyptian Communist Party.
Simon became a famous journalist and in 1969 moved his family including children Nadia, Robert and Richard to Paris. At that time he was very much against Israel and all for the Palestinians taking over the country. He was finally expelled from Paris in 1980 for political activities that even they couldn't tolerate, like promoting the ideas of murdering foreign chiefs of state. Both he and his wife were anti-Israel.
Richard Malley
His son Richard, born in 1963, is following in his father's footsteps in being politically involved with Israel. He was the Special Assistant for Arab Israeli Affairs in 1998-2001 under Clinton. Now he has been the Director for an International Crisis Group for the Middle East-North Africa. He's a lawyer and political scientist, saying he is an expert on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, specializing in conflict resolution.
Also, he has been an important advisor to Obama. He has written many articles pushing to dialogue with Hamas and blasts Israel's policies that harm the Palestinian cause. Of course, their cause is to end Israel. How he can be in such a position with his slanted view is typical of the times.
Robert went to law school at Harvard with Barak Obama. Previously he had gone to Yale, was a Rhodes Scholar, and earned a PhD in Political Philosophy. He married Caroline Brown, whom he met at Harvard, another lawyer. They have three children; Miles, Blaise and Frances.
On May 10, 2008, the Times Online had an article about Obama sacking Robert Malley for his contacting Hamas while it is still listed as a terrorist organization. Oh thank you, Obama. Such a man should not be dealing as a square shooter with Israel. It would be like hiring a white man to be the leader of the NAACP who had a background of lynching Blacks. However, I read that he is back in Obama's good graces and is again at work. On November 10th the newpaper, Arutz Sheva reported that Robert has been sent to Egypt and Syria to outline Obama's policy in the Middle East. He is listed as Obama's Senior Foreign Policy Advisor.
Whatever we may lose in negotiations of Israel will be blamed on one of our own turning against us. How can such a hard-hearted man remain so sure of himself with his intelligence and not think for a moment about our need for this state of Israel. Has he not even contemplated our needs? Oh, that he should speak with Alan Dershowitz.
The horror of it all is that Simon and Robert Malley join the legion of Noam Chomsky and Norman Finklestein.
References
Front Page Magazine 11/11/08 by John Perazzo

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Insidious Law of Shariah

Saudi Arabia has lots of oil and very few people. They have tons of money. President Bush has been friends with the head of state. The United States is in the hole as far as money is concerned. We've overspent. We're borrowing from China and most likely Saudi Arabia.

They do have strings on their money. I hope our government starts to be aware of the happenings in Europe and how The Law of Shariah is affecting them, as it could happen here. We can't continue to walk around wearing blinders.

What Saudi Arabia wants is: "to embrace Shariah-Compliant Finance (SCF). A Treasury Department seminar convened last week depicted SCF as nothing more than a kind of socially responsible investing vehicle that respects Muslim religious beliefs by eschewing interest-bearing transactions and those involving pork and "sin" stocks."



They are " pursuing a global theocracy". Their methods are indeed insidious. It could be that they expect more out of their investment than interest. They want control, control of the United States and its people. We are fore-warned.

http://www.jewishworldreview.com/cols/gaffney111108.php3

Friday, November 7, 2008

Raining Rockets in Sderot Again

Anav Silverman in Israel informs us that 62 rockets have been falling in Israel in the last 24 hours from Gaza terrorists, mostly hitting the town of Sderot. He recalls Obama visiting Sderot and exclaiming that if he lived there with his wife and two girls, he wouldn't want it to happen to him at all. He said he expected Israel to do everything in their power to stop it. Pinchas Amar, a resident of Sderot remembers that Obama wants the Qassams to stop. The residents were awakened at 4am in the morning at the sound of sirens telling of the impending rocket attack. They only have a minute or two to take cover. It looks like this is going to be a daily occurence again. Amar's kitchen was hit in 2007 by a Qassam rocket. My friend, David Bedein's son Noam, is pictured in the reference below.

Reference: http://sderotmedia.com/bin/content.cgi?ID=177&q=3

Thursday, November 6, 2008

David Axelrod Joins White House: Senior Adviser

David Axelrod has just accepted the position of Senior Adviser in the White House. He is 53 years old and also lives in Chicago. He has been Obama's top adviser in the 2004 campaign for the US Senate and later as chief strategist for the 2008 presidential campaign.

David was born on New York's Lower East side in Stuyvesant Town in Manhattan, and grew up in a middle-class Jewish household. His father was a psychologist and avid baseball fan. His mother was a journalist at a left-wing 1940s newspaper. When he was 8 years old, his parents separated.

He got into politics when he was very young because he believes in idealism. At age 13 he was selling campaign buttons for Robert F. Kennedy. He attended the U. of Chicago where he majored in political science. There he met a business student, Susan Landau, his future wife whom he married in 1979. Axelrod has helped many black candidates win support from white voters -- for mayoral candidates in Chicago, Philadelphia and Detroit -- and has been one of Obama's closest advisers for years.

To have two top men on Obama's staff who are Jewish after worrying all this time that there would be no one to defend Israel is another miracle to me. David Axelrod and Rahm Emanuel will be good buffers against all the slander from Israel's pugnacious neighbors who can't seem to stop fighting.

Reference: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/11/06/david-axelrod-obamas-seni_n)141860.html
http://3n.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Axelrod_(political_consultant)
http://blogs.forbes.com/trailwatch/2008/05/image-and-conse.html

Obama Picks Rahm Emanuel for Chief of Staff

Nadene Goldfoot
Obama picked a Jewish Chicagoan, 49 years old, Rahm Emanuel for Chief of Staff. Now somebody can speak up for Israel who has Obama's ear. This certainly was a surprise to me as I've read all sorts of evidence of Obama's distain for Israel in preference of the Palestinians.

After telling AIPAC that he would never divide Jerusalem, and then rescinding in less than 24 hours, mumbling that he meant he wouldn't divide it with barbed wire, he had told Abbas, head of the Fatah ex-terrorist group residing in the West Bank, that he supports dividing Jerusalem. He would include East Jerusalem. He said this only this summer.

Abbas and Nimar Hamad, PA spokesman, and Fayyad feel that Obama will fulfill his commitment towards the Palestinians and pressure Israel. They hoped for an Obama victory.

With Obama's victory, Palestinians celebrated in the streets waving Hamas flags while they fishished digging tunnels to kidnap Israeli soldiers. Then from Gaza they shot 35 Qassam rockets into Southern Israel, hitting Ashkelon with two. Two women and a 13 year old girl were treated for shock in Israel.
Emanuel has deep Jewish roots. Emanuel volunteered in Israel when it was under attack from Saddam Hussein's missiles in the first gulf War. Emanuel belongs to an orthodox Jewish congregation in Chicago. His father was a pediatrician who grew up in Israel and worked for the Israeli underground before independence. Emanuel has consistantly supported Israel. He has condemned Palestinian leaders and the violence in the Gaza Strip. At a 2003 pro-Israel rally in Chicago, he told marchers that Israel was ready for peace but would not get there until Palestinians turn away from the path of terror.

Hopefully, Emanuel will be able to keep Obama centered and not see Israel as the bad state and can fill him in on the state of affairs in Israel truthfully.

Reference: Daily News: Unity Coalition for Israel: Obama Tells Abbas: I support dividing Jerusalem

Monday, October 27, 2008

Jimmy Carter's Views on Israel Being Apartheid by Nadene Goldfoot

Jimmy Carter, Democrat, believed in talking to USA's enemies. He wanted to talk to the Ayatollah Khomeini, who was against the Shah of Iran, a pro-American ally. Carter thought that talking would make the world a better place and probably still feels that way. Carter saw things differently than I do. He considers Israel an apartheid state. He thinks that Hamas and Hezbollah are human rights movements instead of terrorist organizations. He thinks the only problem they feel is that they need economic support and understanding.

Jimmy Carter writes books but doesn't do much research. If he did, he would know that Israel already is made of 20% Arabs and has Arabs in the Knesset. He would know of the trials and tribulations that went into creating Israel in the first place, and of being attacked immediately in 1948 after being declared a state. He would be able to count the times Israel has been attacked by its neighbors. Calling it an apartheid state really shows his ignorance, and it is an affront. Apartheid means practicing racial segregation. Arabs are a Semitic race just as Jews are. We don't have the same DNA, but are very close. We can't be classified as different races. We have a difference in religion. They are Muslims, while a few are Christians. Those we have had no problems with. There are many Christian Arabs living in Haifa. It wasn't Israel's idea that the Arabs living in Israel in 1948 should run away. Israel has offered peace with a Palestine next door but that has been refused by their own leaders. Put blame where it should be: on the leaders like Arafat of the Arabs.

Carter should admit that Israel has been butchered into a tiny piece of what was originally to be Israel, and that each time Israel has given land in the name of Peace that has never happened, except perhaps with Egypt. Perhaps that is the problem. We have been too pliable. We bend. We are peaceful and mean it. We don't like being shot at and shoot back. Sorry, but that's the only way we have kept from being overrun. 6 million of us went to gas chambers and lost our lives, and we've vowed not to let that happen again. We actually had turned the cheek and very few fought back, not believing the horror that was to be. We are quick learners.

How can he possibly think that people who attack women and children are not terrorists? They do not fight like "men", but like to wear face coverings and attack schools and buses. It's not money that they need, as they are the longest lived displaced persons on the planet and are supplied with money. They have been fed with lies and hatred by their handlers, and gobble up these farces greedily. Carter is an enabler just as a person who gives alcohol to an alcoholic is an enabler.

Jimmy Carter's campaign rhetoric in the 70's was similar to Barack Obama's call of "change." He turned on the Shah of Iran, who was our ally. My fear is if Obama will follow suit and sell Israel, the only Democratic ally in the Middle East, down the drain. My reasoning is that Obama chose Carter's advisor, Zbigniew Brzezinski as his own advisor. Brzezinski was all for Obama meeting with Iran and Syria, our deemed enemies. It's so comforting to know that Obama is anxious to talk to the Iranian president who denies the Holocaust and calls Israel a "stinking corpse," and has vowed to wipe it off the map. You can't say that Ahmadinejad has been beating around the bush about how his country feels about Israel. I think Oprah would advise him to get rid of all that hatred he has for Israel, and maybe he wouldn't be having these sick attacks of exhaustion and the strain of his job, or something more serious. On second thought, if anyone is going to talk to him, it should be Oprah and not Obama.

Instead of aiding and abetting the terrorists, how nice it would have been if Carter and Obama would be forceful about the advantages of supporting Israel and its right to exist and tell Iran in no uncertain terms how despicable they are behaving and that this is not acceptable behavior to the world. Can't one be a Democrat and yet feel justification in supporting Israel's right to be in the Middle East?

I ask, what is it hurting for Israel to be there? The surrounding countries can only benefit from its existence. The whole world can benefit. It's not even sitting on a pile of oil! That's what these presidents should be pounding into these anti-Semitic neighbors. Get real, future president. Do something right. Learn about Israel and defend it rightfully. Israel is not the enemy. It just wants its right to exist and for its citizens to live.

What makes me angry is that there hasn't been a time in history that a race of people, like the Jews, have been exterminated like vermin. 6 million Jews, killed because of who they were. That the survivors of that people are tying to reestablish themselves into a safe haven that the world looks down on at this point in time is just astounding. Hopefully, the support Israel has been given will continue with the USA, and hopefully, its neighbors will have a change of heart and bring out a welcome wagon instead of a get out of town barrage of missiles. The audacity of Carter to call Israel apartheid is just simply galling!

Reference: Dr. Michael D. Evans: Will Barack Obama Support Israel? Jerusalem Prayer Team

Israel; Like Rodney Dangerfield: Lack of Respect For

Rodney Dangerfield, comedian, aka Jacob Cohen, had the same problem that Israel has. Israel "don't get no respect."

This was apparent in December of 2001 in Britain when the French Ambassador to Britain, Daniel Bernard, was at the dinner party of Lord Black of Crossharbour, owner of The Daily Telegraph.

Bernard spoke about a security crisis that came up and said that "Israel, that shitty little country," was at fault. Of course the newspaper owner told his reporter wife about the shocking phrase that the ambassador used, and she used it in her column. Of course, Bernard then did not remember using the phrase, but Black had remembered as it was shocking!

The French Embassy uttered that this was not the official view but was said in a personal way. Here his country is claiming that Israel is a friend, and their ambassador is showing no respect for that little country. I call this a Freudian slip, and shows just how he really feels about Israel.

Somebody has listed all the things that this little country has accomplished in 60 short years while being attacked by nations many times and is still being attacked. What country can claim these accomplishments under such adverse conditions?

"ISRAEL IS NOTHING BUT A SHITTY LITTLE COUNTRY"
SO THE FRENCH AMBASSADOR SAYS

The Middle East has been growing date palms for centuries. The average tree is about 18-20 feet tall and yields about 38 pounds of dates a year.

Israeli date trees are now yielding 400 pounds/year and are short enough to be harvested from the ground or a short ladder.

Israel the 100th smallest country, with less than 1/1000th of the world's population, can lay claim to the following :

The cell phone was developed in Israel by Israelis working in the Israeli branch of Motorola, which has its largest development center in Israel

Most of the Windows NT and XP operating systems were developed by Microsoft-Israel.

The Pentium MMX Chip technology was designed in Israel at Intel

Both the Pentium-4 microprocessor and the Centrino processor were entirely designed, developed and produced in Israel.

The Pentium microprocessor in your computer was most likely made in Israel.

Voice mail technology was developed in Israel.

Both Microsoft and Cisco built their only R&D facilities outside the US in Israel.

The technology for the AOL Instant Messenger ICQ was developed in 1996 by four young Israelis.

Israel has the fourth largest air force in the world (after the U.S, Russia and China). In addition to a large variety of other aircraft,

Israel's air force has an aerial arsenal of over 250 F-16's. This is the largest fleet of F-16 aircraft outside of the U. S.

Israel's $100 billion economy is larger than all of its immediate neighbors combined.

Israel has the highest percentage in the world of home computers per capita.

According to industry officials, Israel designed the airline industry's most impenetrable flight security. US officials now look (finally) to Israel for advice on how to handle airborne security threats.

Israel has the highest ratio of university degrees to the population in the world.

Israel produces more scientific papers per capita than any other nation by a large margin - 109 per 10,000 people --as well as one of the highest per capita rates of patents filed.

In proportion to its population, Israel has the largest number of startup companies in the world. In absolute terms, Israel has the largest number of startup companies than any other country in the world, except the U.S. (3,500 companies mostly in hi-tech).

With more than 3,000 high-tech companies and startups, Israel has the highest concentration of hi-tech companies in the world -- apart from the Silicon Valley, U.S.

Israel is ranked #2 in the world for venture capital funds right behind the U.S.

Outside the United States and Canada, Israel has the largest number of NASDAQ listed companies.

Israel has the highest average living standards in the Middle East.

The per capita income in 2000 was over $17,500, exceeding that of the UK.

On a per capita basis, Israel has the largest number of biotech startups.

Twenty-four per cent of Israel's workforce holds university degrees, ranking third in the industrialized world, after the United States and Holland and 12 per cent hold advanced degrees.

Israel is the only liberal democracy in the Middle East.

In 1984 and 1991, Israel airlifted a total of 22,000 Ethiopian Jews

(Operation Solomon) at Risk in Ethiopia, to safety in Israel.

When Golda Meir was elected Prime Minister of Israel in 1969, she became the world's second elected female leader in modern times.

When the U. S. Embassy in Nairobi, Kenya was bombed in 1998, Israeli rescue teams were on the scene within a day -- and saved three victims from the rubble.

Israel has the third highest rate of entrepreneurship -- and the highest rate among women and among people over 55 - in the world.

Relative to its population, Israel is the largest immigrant-absorbing nation on earth. Immigrants come in search of democracy, religious freedom, and economic opportunity. (Hundreds of thousands from the former Soviet Union)

Israel was the first nation in the world to adopt the Kimberly process, an international standard that certifies diamonds as "conflict free."

Israel has the world's second highest per capita of new books.

Israel is the only country in the world that entered the 21st century with a net gain in its number of trees, made more remarkable because this was achieved in an area considered mainly desert.

Israel has more museums per capita than any other country.

Medicine... Israeli scientists developed the first fully computerized, no-radiation, diagnostic instrumentation for breast cancer.

An Israeli company developed a computerized system for ensuring proper administration of medications, thus removing human error from medical treatment. Every year in U. S. hospitals 7,000 patients die from treatment mistakes.

Israel's Given Imaging developed the first ingestible video camera, so small it fits inside a pill. Used to view the small intestine from the inside, cancer and digestive disorders

Researchers in Israel developed a new device that directly helps the heart pump blood, an innovation with the potential to save lives among those with heart failure. The new device is synchronized with the camera helps doctors diagnose heart¹s mechanical operations through a sophisticated system of sensors.

Israel leads the world in the number of scientists and technicians in the workforce, with 145 per 10,000, as opposed to 85 in the U. S., over 70 in Japan, and less than 60 in Germany. With over 25% of its work force employed in technical professions. Israel places first in this category as well.

A new acne treatment developed in Israel, the Clear Light device, produces a high-intensity, ultraviolet-light-free, narrow-band blue light that causes acne bacteria to self-destruct -- all without damaging surrounding skin or tissue.

An Israeli company was the first to develop and install a large-scale solar-powered and fully functional electricity generating plant, in southern California's Mojave desert.

All the above while engaged in regular wars with an implacable enemy that seeks its destruction, and an economy continuously under strain by having to spend more per capita on its own protection than any other county on earth.

AND THE FRENCH AMBASSADOR IN ENGLAND SAYS:

"ISRAEL IS NOTHING BUT A SHITTY LITTLE COUNTRY"


Reference: http://www.themodernreligion.com/hijah/french-ambassador.html by Andrew Pierce, The Times, 19 December 2001
Thanks to whoever sent me the list of accomplishments. I hope they will be read.

Sunday, October 26, 2008

Alan Dershowitz's Answer to Presidential Pick

Alan Dershowitz, my favorite lawyer and author of "The Case For Israel" in which he has done an outstanding job of defending Israel's right to exist, is juggling reasons in promoting Obama as president.

He feels that we should elect a liberal president who strongly supports Israel because the worry is that "radical academics" on university campuses are trying to present Israel as the darling of the right and an anathema to the left. I feel that Noam Chomsky and Norman Finkelstein are good examples of this. It is true that Arab organizations on campuses are very forceful and outnumber Jewish students on many campuses. They are speaking out against Israel. I took a class in Middle -East History here in Portland several years ago, and the textbook we were using was written in an Arab country. I had to disagree with many parts of it.

My worry is: does Obama strongly support Israel as he says he does. One can only hope and pray. The fact that he has been associated and surrounded by academics and politicians and religious people who do not bothers me. Actions speak louder than words. When I heard that Obama spoke so eloquently at an AIPAC meeting about Jerusalem and that it must remain undivided, I had high hopes, but less than 24 hours later, after being confronted by a Palestinian, he changed his statement to having used the wrong words. Really! He mumbled that he meant that it wouldn't be divided by barbed wire!

On the other hand, it took untold beatings and breaking of bones to get McCain to say anything that his enemies wanted to hear. He, being the most stubborn man, could not be made to weaken until his life was more than ready to part from this world in the five and a half years he spent as a prisoner during Viet Nam. McCain has been a friend of Israel for many years and has supported pro-Israel votes in Congress. He is a defender of Israel to have the right to defend itself.

I've seen in this election period that words are cheap. Candidates say anything in order to get elected. I don't think the very young have learned that fact, yet. In a very short time we will learn what course will be taken on the subject of Israel. We should have learned long ago in history that appeasement never works. I see that Israel was not even a subject listed by the Oregonian this morning in showing the differences between our two candidates of McCain and Obama.

I only hope that Dershowitz is right about Obama this time in that he will continue the American support of an Israel, and not have Israel to be a part of his "Change". I hope he is not going to be as wrong as Greenspan has been about the state of our economy and say that he didn't see it coming.

Resource: The Jerusalem Post: Joel Pollak's McCain and Obama: compare records, not rhetoric
http://support.tjci.org/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=5445&JServSessionIdr--1=0s5

Friday, October 24, 2008

Paul Shapiro Spoke at Genealogy Meeting on Opening the Archives of the International Tracing Service

On Wednesday, October 22, I went to the Mittleman Jewish Community Center for our genealogy program of the Jewish Genealogical Society of Oregon to hear Paul Shapiro from Washington DC speak, a man who fought to open the archives holding 23 miles of records of holocaust victims. The program was co-sponsored by the MJCC who gave us the Chapel for our meeting.

In the program Paul Shapiro talked about a boy born in 1930. This kid's name was Mickie Schwartz, a Hungarian Jew who at age 14 was arrested on April 16, 1944 and taken to Auschwitz, then later to Buchenwald. Young boys had small hands, and they were labor used in underground building places making some kind of weapons. Elie Weizel was one of the boys. They were saved by communist prisoners who wanted to rescue these boys. The reason he lived to tell the tale is because this was so close to the end of the war, and they were used for their labor at this point. His mother was captured and gassed as soon as she had come to the camp. Mickie was all alone.

The record-keeping of the Germans was just amazing. They wanted the world to know how they did it all. You wouldn't believe the records they kept. They even kept records of the lice in the scalps of some prisoners and how big the lice was: small, medium or large.

You could tell by the last names as to if prisoners were Jewish or not. At least Paul and the audience could. There were other people that were prisoners and murdered also. One guy was a Mongolian from Russia (?) who was an engineer and knew how to build bridges. He died in the camps because many countries (including the USA) would not accept him because of his race. He was not Jewish. Of course Jews couldn't get out at all.

In the audience was Portland's youngest holocaust survivor. She was 71 years old and looked very very good. She's never known what has happened to her family. I saw her being interviewed afterwards by my friend from the Jewish Review, who took pictures. Paulina Olson had a tape recorder and had the lady speak into it for the interview. I was sure lucky that I was born here, or I would have been one of those unlucky ones in the gas chambers. Most survivors are around 80 or more years old today, and there's very few left. All this time, ever since 1945, they've never known what happened or when or where their family died. Through this archive place, they found out for one survivor that his dad didn't die in the gas chambers. He lived to see the Americans liberate his camp, then died 10 days later from starvation. Now his son saw a card with the date of his dad's death on it, which was important to him to be able to say kaddish. ONLY, the man is now old and in a wheelchair and his son was afraid to tell his father that they found out about the grandfather, as the shock might kill him.

Well, this was one program that I didn't fall asleep in. It was worth the hour's drive there to attend. I must say, that this Paul Shapiro fought about 13 countries including our own USA practically to get the archives to be opened. He fought ever since 1991. They just got them about 2 years ago. It took Greece, home of democracy, to say that they had to vote to open them up. What a story. It seems that Germany really didn't want them to be opened.

The ITS archives are located in Bad Arolsen, Germany. It was started by the Allied powers after WWII to help trace missing family memebers and reunite families. The sad thing is that only now are the archives opened. This means that family members had never really found missing members. The archive now holds about 50 million digital images on 17.5 million people arrested, deported, killed, forced into slave labor or displaced from homes to where they could never return.

Paul spends most of his time traveling and speaking about the center now. He has a BA degree from Harvard U in government, a Master of International Affairs and Master of Philosophy in History from Columbia U. He was a Fulbright scholar, and IREX scholar, and a visiting Fellow at the Institute for Eurasian Studies at George Washington U. We were lucky to have him speak to us. I believe that it took all those degrees, and his ability to talk to all the different involved nations in the process of opening these files, to have success. Without him, they never would have been opened.

CBS's "60 Minutes" had a story about it that was updated in 2007 that can be viewed at http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/12/14/60minutes/main2267927.shtml.

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Iran's New Threat; It's Nuclear Program and Obama

Iran is having presidential elections in June 2009 and is suffering in the dire economic world situation, including inflation. There's a possibility that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad might not be reelected. His one possible competition is the former president Mohammad Khatami who isn't in the race as yet. Their current government uses oil revenues to help the poor, so things are not as bad as before the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Iran heard that Israel might attack Iran's nuclear reactors. Israel might do this preemptive strike because Iran has threatened Israel's existence. Though Iran has said that its nuclear project is for peaceful purposes from one side of their mouth, the other side has called for the end of Israel in no uncertain terms, so of course both Israel and the USA feel Iran has ulterior motives in progressing with these reactors.

Iran said they were planning on a preemptive strike against Israel to prevent an Israeli attack. They're going to preempt a preempt. If USA decided on a preemptive strike, Israel alone would be blamed and hit, according to Dr. Seyed G. Safavi, VIP and adviser to Ali Khamenei.

If Obama wins the USA elections, they know they will have dialogue in Washington. They feel that US sanctions on Iran are coming to an end. Tehran is ready to demand "firm and significant" US measures in return for stopping uranium enrichment.

Could this be what Joe Biden just referred to that Obama will soon be tested if he wins? Very possibly. I can imagine what Iran wants from Obama in their "firm and significant" demands if they are involving Israel.

Reference: http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1030279.html

Living With Terrorisms: A Personal Experience

Nadene Goldfoot                                                     
Israeli robot to pick up packages left on ground-
may have a bomb in them  

I lived in Israel from 1980 to the very end of 1985. My first lesson was how to live with terrorism. The first time I saw a loaf of bread outside on the patio of the building I was living in was a surprise. It wasn't wrapped; just a loaf of bread sitting there. I wanted to pick it up and put it in the garbage can, but nearby friends screamed at me not to pick it up, but to leave it. It could contain a bomb! Was I ever surprised. Then my friends went in and called the bomb squad. People have to be extremely careful of everything.

I went shopping in the Hadar area of Haifa. There was a bakery box on the ground, possibly containing cookies. Again, I saw the bomb squad come with a robot that shot the box when the crowd was far enough away. That was to do away with any possible bomb inside the box.

When we went into any store, there was always someone at the door that had to search our bags and purses, just in case. At the door of the junior high that I taught at sat several students whose job it was to search all people entering.

What a surprise I had when I moved into my apartment building in Safed. I had the ground floor apartment, and it had black bars on the windows to prevent terrorists from entering! It was a small window in our living room, too. I was thankful to get this apartment as I had easy access to the patio outside where I had clothes lines. There were many nights that I had nightmares of terrorists breaking in, breaking those bars.

At the school we had bomb drills, and a bomb shelter. In fact, all apartment buldings had bomb shelters. Safed was in the Northern Galilee and very close to Lebanon, as all of Israel is very close to someplace dangerous, so the country has to be protective. Just a few years ago Safed was shelled in the Lebanon-Israel War and many building were damaged. My neighbors wrote to me about their experience. Nearby was a school and a graveyard filled with students from a terrorist attack on the school! It seems that terrorists like to attack women and children especially. I remember a day when the school showed the community all of the containers that are used to conceal bombs of some sort or other. Big or small, every manufactured container was used. As soon as children start toddling around, they have to be taught not to pick a thing up outside.

Not only stores and schools have to check out people, but Israel's borders have checkpoints where people are entering. On November 2, 2002, a van with boxes of jeans wanted to go through. Soldiers found that one of the men inside was wanted. Soldiers found in the last searched box an explosive belt being delivered to a suicide bomber.

Two weeks later, a taxi was found two very heavy computers and inside again were explosive belts, plus a bag with a gun.

On June 8, 2008, an 18 year old Palestinian was arrested at the Hawara checkkpoint near Nablus because he was carrying 6 pipe bombs, an ammunition cartridge and bullets, and a bag of gunpowder. The military police said that it was routine for them to find bombs every day. They also find knives and other weapons. Three weeks earlier they arrested a Palestinians carrying 5 pipe bombs that he had on his chest to act as an explosives belt.

As recently as October 5, 2008, two pipe bombs were found in a package that a Palestinian man at the Hawara checkpoint near Nablus was carrying.

Anti-Israel propaganda is trying to make a case that Israeli soldiers are harassing Palestinians at checkpoints. Soldiers are not trying to harass, only trying to do their job. At one checkpoint north of Jerusalem, a Palestinian woman pushing a baby stroller was found to have concealed in it a pistol, 2 ammunition clips and a knife. On another occasion a woman was hiding her brother's gun in her underpants. Another woman hid a hand grenade under her baby!

Everytime our soldiers relax their policy and leave checkpoints, terrorists take advantage to launch more attacks on Israeli citizens, so it's necessary. The campaign of violence and terror that the Palestinians continue against Israelis causes checkpoints to exist. The goal is protection, not humiliation of Palestinians.

Reference: Mitchell Bard M&F #310 Does Israeli Use Checkpoints to Deny Palestinians Their Rights?
My experiences in Israel

Sunday, October 19, 2008

Brzezinski Says

Nadene Goldfoot
Zbigniew Brzezinski has been a foreign-policy adviser to world leaders for the past 50 years, and advises our presidential candidate, Obama, being he is also a Democrat. He was interviewed and the results were in our Oregonian this morning in the Parade section under Intelligence Report.

He said the next president "must energetically push the Israeli-peace process." I feel that the one always being pushed is Israel. Israel has been pushed into a corner by our friends. They want peace, and have offered land ever since its inception, but that isn't the goal of the Palestinians who are in command. Israel is enduring constant shelling into its southern section, in Sderot and even as north as Ashkelon from Gazan terrorists. I haven't heard Brzezinski do anything to push the Palestinians into restraint, and concede to a few concessions like recognizing Israel's existence as a legal entity and be accepting of it. When Israel has "pushed back" against deadly assaults, the press comes down on it as the aggressor.

Condoleeza Rice has been in Israel constantly energetically pushing and pushing Israel. How much more pushing is Brzezinski suggesting? Why don't they try pushing to Palestinians for a change? Why is it always Israel? Israel had started with the Balfour Doctrine of a parcel of land that was about six times larger than what they now inhabit. That was cut immediately to calm the Arabs down. Every time peace is offered, Israel has had to give up more and more land. Most Israelis must live in tall apartment buildings as there is hardly any land left for them to build houses. The goal of the Arabs has been to drive Israel into the sea. If Israel gives up any more land, that's where they'll be.

It will be interesting to see what our next president will do to show support for Israel. Israel will have a new leader soon, also. I hope that that person will have strength to not be pushed continually against its own survival.

Reference: Oregonian Newspaper, page 22, Parade section

Thursday, October 16, 2008

Concerns About Environment Outweigh Concerns About Israel with Democratic Jews

American Jews' History of Being Democrats Can't Be Broken
Nadene Goldfoot
It seems that many American Jews cannot break the habit of voting democratically. Though research shows that our one Democratic contender is not exactly friendly towards Israel, most are ignoring this fact among the many others that are being ignored. Some use the argument that eight years of Republicans have been too much, and other use the excuse of "Can you picture McCain dead and Palin in his place?" McCain's skin cancer is scaring many away as possibly being fatal. Some are even having nightmares about Palin." Others feel that since the USA has always been supportive of Israel as their only democratic partner in the Middle East, nothing will change.

Well, Obama is the man who has been preaching "change" for some time, now, and I fear that change may just be the attitude towards Israel.

Ted Belman has listed some statements of Obama has made which the press does not gleam onto, except for people sensitive towards any comments that are negative about Israel.

1. Obama feels Palestinians are suffering more than anyone.
2. Foreign Policy team: McPeak, Hamilton, Kurtzer, Brezezinski: all anti-Israel and anti AIPAC. (I have written several articles in my blogs about these people). McPeak lives right here in Lake Oswego, Oregon.
3. 20 years with Reverend Wright who doesn't like Jews, and is influenced by his association with Louis Farrakhan who is very strongly against Jews. Wright's church posted a Hamas manifesto, and the Islamic world favors Obama. Wright's church reprinted the claim that Israel planned an "ethnic bomb" to kill Blacks and Arabs.
4. Obama is endorsed by Hamas. This is the terrorist group who are ruling in Gaza, shelling Israel daily! That should be the kiss of death, only no one comments.
5. Other endorsements: William Ayers, USA terrorist, Tony Rezko, Louis Farrakhan, Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades (more terrorists), Raila Odinga of Kenya and Obama's cousin who is a fundamental Islamic candidate, Daniel Ortega, Raul Castro, Communist Party of Illinois and Socialist Party of USA, The New Black Panther Party , and Mosques in the USA., Ali Abunimah at The Electronic Intifadah.
6. Ralph Nader mentions that Obama was pro-Palestinian when he was in Illinois before he ran for the state Senate. I can't forget Acorn, a group signing up Democratic voters, who have stuffed the ballot boxes with non-existant people or people voting dozens of times, and all, of course, for Obama.
7. Referred to "cycle of violence" in Middle East, equating Arab violence of shelling, killing Israelis with legitimate Israeli self-defense. It's like comparing apples with oranges.
8. Finally,Obama  was a paid director on a board that granted funding to Arab group that mourns the establishment of Israel. They call it a catastrophe. Has spoken at fundraisers for Palestinians living in refugee camps.


Rashid Khalidi is co-founder of group, and worked for PLO when it was a terror group. Khalidi held a fundraiser in 2000 for Obama to get into US House of Representatives. Ayers also held a fundraiser for Obama, and Obama, as intelligent and inquisitive as he must be, either did not know of his background, or it didn't matter to him which says more. Surely he could have found a more reputable person when he is involved with voting in America. He knew lots of people at U. of Chicago. Somebody else could have loaned him a living room and felt honored to do so.

No matter what Obama's history is or what his history lacks, Jewish Democrats are not giving it a thought. The old adage, "If ever I forget thee, Oh Jerusalem, may I lose my right hand" is not a part of the souls of the new Jewish American Democrats. Obama calms their fears with, "of course I am concerned about Israel, " and they trust in him. Perhaps the time has come when American Jews are more concerned with our immediate environment than they are with Israel's environment. Who is left to be Israel's spokesman, now?
This comes at a time when the UN spoke about Israel on October 8, 2008 in Geneva, Switzerland in the Durban Review Conference. They have a "demonize Israel" agenda. This is a group of 53 states in the Asian region listing their demands. They are contending that Palestinians are victims of Israeli racism. The whole thing is about the Palestinians. History and facts do not exist with this group. This is the time when we need a strong leader who has been involved with Israel and can speak up on a positive note.

Three Obama Advisors Who Promote PLO as Israel's Peace Partners

Nadene Goldfoot
Martin Indyk, Dennis Ross and Daniel Kurtzer are advising Obama to again promote the PLO as peace partners though they haven't done a thing themselves to promote peace. As David Bedein wrote, "This is the threesome that defined the PLO as a peace partner even after the PLO would not ratify the Oslo "declaration of principles" in October 1993.This is the threeesome that attested to the fact that, in 1996, the PLO had cancelled its covenant to destroy Israel, when it had not done so.

By mentioning PLO, I take it that my old friend David means the newly called Fatah, who have taken over the West Bank. Hamas terrorists in Gaza are also part of the old PLO, but have broken off as the extreme right wing terrorist group unwilling to negotiate any type of peace with Israel. In fact, they have been shelling Israel for many years, now.


These three men have outstanding reputations and much experience in the Middle East. Martin Indyk wrote speeches for former Secretary of State James Baker, who pressured Israel to relent in the peace process. Martin is Jewish and a former ambassador to Israel. He is also a lobbyist and worked in the Clinton administration from 1995 to 1997, and from 2000 to 2001 he worked for Bush. Dennis Ross is also Jewish, though non religious. He was the director of policy planning in the state department under George Bush and a Middle East coordinator under Clinton. Some call him a self-hating Jew. Dan Kurtzer is an Orthodox Jew who was also a US Ambassador to Israel. He is a Democrat and an Obama supporter and is called by some as a man that is part of the Israeli lobby. He was an advisor to Obama in the address to AIPAC, Israel's only American lobby group.



They are all thinking inside the box as believing that PLO terrorists can become peace partners with Israel. I feel that's it's fairly easy living in the United States and advising Israel what to do. They're not living under the same circumstances that Israelis are like David Bedein. I suggest that these threesome move to Israel and do their research from there.

I met David when I lived in Safed (TZFAT) after being in Israel for about a year in Haifa. We had moved there and were teaching in the city school system. David was a community organizer and helped us to start a Yiddish Theater in English group. We started by doing a 3 man shtik of humor about being new immigrants in Israel, and we traveled around doing our thing in several hotels. From there we were able to use the Safed city theater and put on plays, several of which I had written. Keeping busy kept us from worrying too much.

Obama visited Sderot, a city in the south, very close to Gaza, Israel a few months ago and told the Israelis there that he would not forget their fears. They were being shelled regularly from Gazan Hamas terrorists and could not enjoy a moment away from fear. Right after that he visited Berlin, and mentioned other country's fears, but neglected to add Israel to the list, or even Sderot.

He and his three advisors seem to think that such killers are adequate peace partners for Israel. Even Bush has stated that you can't make peace with such people. I remember hearing that once.

Reference: David Bedein: Philadelphia Bulletin:http://www.thebulletin.us/site/index.cfm?newsid=20164538&brd=2737&pag=461&dept_id=623508
Martin Indyk: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/14/AR2007061401738.html
http://www.foreignaffairs.org/20030501faessay11219/martin-indyk/a-trusteeship-for-palestine.html
Dennis Ross: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dennis_Ross

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

The Debate Dance Over Education: Obama and McCain

Education Got My Goat
Nadene Goldfoot
I watched the debate tonight between Obama and McCain, the last chance for them to speak before the public and share their differing views before we vote, and I'm frustrated with both of them over their inept background about education.

I've been a teacher in the school system in the states for over 22 years, mainly teaching in Oregon, but I've taught in Idaho, Alaska and Israel as well. Your students are like cards you are dealt in a card game. You don't always get a good hand. Today you receive children that have either both parents working or are children of a working mother. Very few have the benefit of a loving mother at home seeing to all their needs, including education. As the children get older, they seem to have less respect for teachers and are harder to handle. Learning for many is not their goal at school; social connections are more important. Unless they know their parent's feelings about their education and what is expected of them, and what is not acceptable as far as their behavior goes, they are just attending aimlessly.

I've never known any of my peers that haven't given 100% of their abilities to be an excellent teacher. It's a matter of pride. We helped each other to improve. We have wanted our students to do as well as possible. We haven't been of the same ilk as some teachers I remember in high school who simply wrote something on the board for us to copy and then scooted out of the room. I had excellent elementary school teachers and sought for excellence, also. I'm not for any special monetary rewards for some teachers. It's up to a good principal to weed out poor teachers, and they have a chance to do that in the teacher's first 3 years. Experience and education should remain the reason for upgrades in pay, such as our system is working under now. So, gentlemen; take heed.

I get so mad hearing both McCain and Obama saying things like they would get people in to teach that don't have to bother with certification to teach! That is so ridiculous! In fact, I've seen people at very high levels in their field not being able to get across one fact in a school setting! Teaching is part acting, part entertaining, part being a policeman and part being a person full of all sorts of information. McCain would get soldiers into the classroom to teach after their service, without any training. Sorry, but that simply is a waste of our money. I believe I heard Obama say he wasn't very popular with the educators, and I have to agree with them.

The one thing I liked that Obama mentioned was that parents had to take on responsiblity to improve their children's education. I wondered at the time how he would put that across. It hasn't been working so far, unless there's a substantial reward system in the works that I don't know about, as he didn't elaborate on that. It should be a given that families that excell in reading and learning in the home would produce like children. What do we do about families that never read a thing, that spend their time with 6 packs as their intellectual outlet?

I taught in Alaska in a very posh neighborhood, where parents had quite a social life. They couldn't manage to always be on time in the morning to help their children get ready for school, being they were partying the night before, so I wound up combing little girls' hair to help them feel presentable. Neglected children aren't always in the poorest schools. These children were equally neglected, and almost for the very same reasons. In Oregon I taught children who also had a parent or two who imbibed too much. Their breakfast consisted of a coke, a bottle, that is. Often we had a police car at our school for reasons I never learned, but someone was in trouble.

Times had changed from when I was a little girl with a mother at home full time only worrying about cleaning the house and putting meals on the table. She joined the PTA and was there for all the meetings, and that became a social outlet for her. Besides that, she became a Brownie leader, so there she was in my school again, keeping an eye on me as well. She and my teachers talked to each other, and both knew what was going on.

So, Barak, you have said a mouthful with getting parents involved. I wish you well and wonder how it can be done. Perhaps children who receive a GPA in Elementary School can be rewarded somehow with points towards a scholarship for college. It would have to be tangible. Perhaps good GPA's could receive a morning at a movie theater as a reward; something the children would like, or a time at the roller rinks or ice rinks.

Other than education, I didn't go bananas over anything else that was debated. Each person had his turn to perform his dance, and it did seem to go better than previously. They seem to be informed about other issues quite well. The question remains if all of the voters have done their homework on the issues.

Reference October 15, 2008 Debate: Obama and McCain 6pm. TV

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Did Reverend Jackson Let the Cat Out of the Bag?

Nadene Goldfoot
Reverend Jackson just announced that if Obama wins the attitude towards Israel will change completely. The "Zionists" will no longer be in charge. Obama retorted that he is not a spokesman for him and has no business speaking that way. However, Jackson stated that he is a friend of the family. His son is good friends with Obama. He also said that Obama is about change, change in the way America looks at the world and it's place in it. It looks like Israel will not be treated in the same way that it has been by our administration if Obama is in power.

This is exactly what I have been wondering about. What will Obama's attitude towards Israel really be like? Now I am wondering what Jackson knows, or why he said this. I fear that Reverend Wright did not have warm feelings towards Israel. Now I'm also wondering about Jackson. Wright's close association with Farakhan certainly would help in that respect. Farakhan is no friend of Jews in particular or Israel.

Of course, at a time when Obama is trying to convince Jews to vote for him, this statement of Jackson's was bad timing as far as the election goes.

10/15/08 The last reference below is today's answer to the original news yesterday from Obama. He denies saying this.
10/15/08 2:51 Fox News TV had Professor Mark....and James Harris, both Black commentators, speaking about remarks that Dick Morris, former Clinton Advisor and now for McCain just made reiterating the news about Reverend Jesse Jackson's remarks. James Harris believes that Reverend Jackson probably said it. He has been at odds with Obama at various times.
Reference: Fox News: 3:30pm Britt Hume
New York Post: http://www.nypost.com/seven/10142008/postopinion/opedcolumnists/the_o_jesse_knows_133450.htm?page=0
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081015/ap_on_el_pr/jackson_israel_2

Monday, October 6, 2008

Choosing a President of the USA:

Nadene Goldfoot
It's too bad that we can't go back to the days of having a prophet select the next king, like David was selected. Somehow, a prophet knew what to look for. Perhaps it was how David treated his sheep. Something like G-d guided the selection.

Nowdays, the contenders have to have lots of money behind them to run a campaign. They wouldn't get away with coming from a log cabin and going through the agony of walking miles to a school.

We are faced today with two flawed candidates who have decided to fling mud at each other like schoolchildren and who are vying to see who can tell the best lies about each other. Obama has been treated like the coming savior of the world, and has had the bad fortune to somehow be associated with such shocking people as his pastor who hates America, Alinsky's books ( a radical socialist) which helped to prepare him to do a job of community organizing, and now William Ayers who not only invited him to use his living room for a "Meet the Candidate", but is reported to have been the one who handed Obama money that was to be used for some sort of shady education to be spread among the poor students of Chicago, and it wasn't used for reading or math. Evidently there's more of a connection between the two men than just neighbors. They both were professors at the same university, so did have a chance to tip their hat to each other and exchange views possibly in teacher's meetings. Neither Obama or Ayers will say anything about it, which doesn't help to clear up matters. Ayers had an extremely vile past, being a Weatherman who spent his time trying to bomb important places in America. He escaped being in prison on a technicality, and is now acting like a good person except on 9/11 when he stated that he had participated in bombing and wasn't sorry, or some such thing. It seems that Obama's male friends have been questionable and on the radical side. The one good choice he has made is his wife, Michelle and Joe Biden. Obama is very liberal and wants to tax the rich big time and give the money to the poor, like Robin Hood. The rich are not in favor of this idea at all and say it will halt business growth. Not only is he extremely liberal with ideas and money, but he's only been a senator for only two years, and is younger than my own son, so many feel that they don't know him or trust him. Yet he's such a great orator that he has the majority in his pocket at this point. He's cool and collected and very well educated.

McCain's claim to fame is that he was a poor student in the academy and on the wild side like his father, an Admiral in the Navy. His grandfather was also an admiral. We could hope that genetics would play a role in his ability to lead, if not his grades. He was in prison enduring pain for many years while serving his country. I'm not surpised that he went a little wild when he got out, divorcing his wife and marrying a much younger and richer woman. At this point his life is like some movie I've seen. Everyone is worrying about McCain dying while in office. He's two years younger than me, and two years ago I felt quite well. If he survives this campaign, I think he has a good chance to make it through the next four years. It'll take stamina to continue this pace for another month. That's because he made a radical move of selecting Sarah Palin for the Vice position. She's an ex beauty contender, and a maverick like himself. At a time when Obama refused to pick Hillary for a running mate, it was a slick move on McCain's part to choose this young and pretty governor who is the epitamy of the liberated woman who works while having a huge family of five children, too. The problem is that she's kind of hokey in a countrified way, and doesn't seem to know as much as Joe Biden. Women are up in arms with the dreaded thought that she could become president. I don't know. Harry Truman was just a hat salesman, and he turned out to be a great president with great values, like "The Buck Stops Here." She has values, too, but they're not popular ones, like, she's against abortions. That's very unpopular with many. McCain has been in the senate for years and years, so he's old and experienced, but a Republican, a maverick Republican. He doesn't go along with his party on everything, and since the Republicans got us in quite a mess with the Iraq War, and are being blamed for the recession we seem to be in right now, McCain is up against all of this. I've heard that he has never taken any entitlements while Obama has gone silly with them, so he's very careful with money. I've heard that our recession started with Clinton signing off some restrictions on our money, but each are blaming the other for the pickle we're in.

This is a fight, and both are stooping to lying about the other. It's tragic. There should be a referee in the middle at all times to declare what is truth and what is fiction. People's decisions are being formed by a press who already knew who they wanted, and TV stations who also form thoughts in people's minds. We have mostly very liberal stations, except Fox News which is the anathama of a station you wouldn't turn on, as they're Republican. Little do most know that Fox airs both sides and tries to be very fair, but when people refuse to learn both sides, they'll never know this. They're one station against many. Luckily, we have a few brave radio stations that air that other side as well, so people like me can get both sides and hear what they are saying and doing.

We're supposed to have free reign on our decisions, a freedom of choice. On the other hand, G-d is said to already know our decisions even before we do. I hope next month that we make the right decisions for our land of the free and home of the brave, and for little Israel, also land of the free and home of the brave. I hope Israel will also be guided to another president who knows what is best for its people. We could all use a prophet to make the selection for us. This is getting ridiculous.

Resource: Fox News, CNN, MSNBC, http://www.votesmart.org/voting_category.php?can_id=9490&type=category&category=1
http://sayanythingblog.com/;entry/obama-had-a-pattern-of-contacts-with-weathermen-te..

Friday, October 3, 2008

Both Support Israel: What Are Differences?

Yoram Ettinger has some important views on how McCain and Obama view Israel. Yoram is a former Deputy Ambassador to the USA from Israel. He's a Middle East and American Affairs expert.

Both McCain and Obama support Israel and a Two-State Solution, but in opposing ways. There are arguments among the religious Jews against this idea of Palestine being created in Judea and Samaria "West Bank" and so much of Jerusalem, but it seems to be the only solution offered so far.

McCain feels the war is already in progress between Western democracy and Islamic terror. He says the US should lead the way against terror.He supports Israel's battle against terrorism. The root cause of the Arab-Israel conflict is not the size but the existence of Israel. McCain feels that terrorists are driven by ideology against our values and that they are a most lethal threat and must be demolished. From all evidence so far, his worldview is that an Israeli retreat would turn Israel from a deterring power to a "punching bag." Israel would no longer be able to secure itself and would then become a burden to society.

Obama, on the other hand, has different views, and is much more laid back. He feels the conflict is with a radical Islamic minority to be dealt with by diplomacy, foreign aid, cultural exchanges and less US soldiers around. He feels we need to adopt the Dept. of State bureaucracy. "This is Israel's staunchest critic in Washington." meaning Rice and her declarations. He intends to pacify the UN who is anti-Israel. Like Chamberlain, he wants peace at any price like Western Europe and will appease the 3rd World which blames the West and Israel for terrorism. Obama would turn terrorism over to international law enforcement agencies and bring terrorists to justice. Obama's concerns are much like Tony Blair. They both think that the Palestinian issue is the only cause of problems in the Middle East and need our involvement including exerting more pressure on Israel. He would eventually get back the 1949 ceasefire lines and repartition Jerusalem and look into the Return of Refugees for Palestinians regardless of a population that would overwhelm Israel.

Reference: The Jerusalem Connection International Obama, McCain and Israel http://support.tjci.org/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=5437&JservSessionIdr001=m86
My input.
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Articles/Article.aspx/7270 from Yoram Ettinger

Thursday, October 2, 2008

Sarah Palin's Attitude Towards Israel

In about two hours, the country will be watching Sarah Palin debate Joe Biden. How will she react about a question concerning Israel? What are her feelings about Israel?

Sarah Louise Heath, born February 11, 1964 in Sandpoint, Idaho, moved to Alaska shortly after her birth with her family; father Charles "Chuck" R. Heath, a science teacher and track coach, and mother Sarah "Sally" Sheeran, a school secretary. Sarah was baptised as a Catholic, but the family decided to attend Wasilla, Alaska's Assembly of God Church. At age 12 Sarah was re-baptised in the same church in nearby Beaver Lake with her mother. This is an Evangelical church, and its faith shapes her social views, such as abortion and support for Israel.

In her governor's office in Juneau, Sarah has a small Israeli flag. Her church considers the preservation of the state of Israel a biblical imperative. There are supporters of Israel in the Republican Party. Tucker Eskew is the counselor to Mrs. Palin in the McCain-Palin campaign, and said that she would describe herself as a strong supporter of Israel, and understands Israel's fear of an Iran with nuclear weapons. Merrill Matthews, an Evangelical Christian and a Dallas-based health-policy specialist said that her brand of Evangelical Protestantism is supportive of Israel for biblical reasons. Sarah's home church is the Church of the Rock, which is an independent congregation.

Historically, the Assemblies of God believe in "the rapture" of Christians . They have a very strong support for Israel. It's a part of their prophecy and politics. Sarah is getting good marks from Jewish Republicans.

There is a very small population of Jews in Anchorage, Alaska. I taught 2nd grade at Rabbit Creek Grade School and attended a dinner function there that the synagogue put on. I believe originally they went to Alaska for the fur business. I lasted for one year and a summer as a teacher in Alaska. Those recess supervising days in 30 degree below 0 weather really got to me. I moved back to Oregon, though the pay was far better than any in the lower 48 states.

I did some genealogy on Sarah, and prophetically, on the 1930 Federal census of April 2nd in Alameda, Bannock, Idaho, her father was listed at age 6, being born in 1923. Charles R. Heath's father was Arthur LeRoy Heath, born in Utah on June 3, 1896 in Thurber, Wayne County, Utah. He was a foreman on a railroad, and died August 1, 1938 in Pocatello, Bannock, Idaho. On the same census sheet was listed a Frank W. McCain, age 35 and born in Wisconsin with his wife Florence 36, born in Utah. Forence 13 and Frank R 6 were both born in Idaho.

Little did the Palins know that someday their decendant, Sarah Heath Palin would be running as Vice President with John McCain. Now that would be something if Frank W is connected to John.

Resource: The Washington times; http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2008/sep/04/palins-evangelical-faith-drives-pro-israel
Wikipedia on Sarah Palin
Oregonian Newspaper October 2, 2008 Thursday on The running mates debate page A6

Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Obsession: Radical Islam's War Against the West

Sunday’s Oregonian found inserted in the pages, the DVD "Obsession," sponsored by the non-profit Clarion Fund of New York.

I had a chance to see this film at our Temple in Portland, but missed it as it involved a long drive. I was very sorry I hadn’t had a chance to see it. I knew it was exposing radical Islam and its practices. I had already seen a program at Portland State University along the same lines which also involved a question and answer period. The large room was packed. I have a blog article about it.

Having lived in Israel from 1980 to 1985, I had had many experiences with radical Islam, far more than my friends in Oregon. In my book, ‘Letters From Israel," I wrote on November 23, 1983 the following from page 310 to my mother. "First, I know about the television program about the Syrians eating snake’s blood, puppies, etc. It’s terrible. It was shown on Israeli television news and I missed it that night, but read about it here. It really made the papers. You might call here and ask about it. I’m glad it finally came out in your newspaper. It shows what the Syrians are like. I didn’t send you the article because I didn’t want you to be upset."

After writing that, I did catch the incident on the news that came from Jordan. It was done by the soldiers standing at attention in a field, showing how brave and scary they were. They took turns doing these vile acts. It was meant to bolster their courage and also to scare us, and it did. To my Portland shaped mind, these people needed to be locked up in an institution. It was unreal!

These people were getting ready for fanaticism.

As San Francisco inhabitants differ from New York City inhabitants, so must New York’s Ranya Idliby of "The Faith Club" differ from radical Islamists.. I loved Ranya and her religious outlook and hope she hasn’t changed, but has only added to her knowledge. I’m finding that most Portlanders are in complete denial of what’s happening to our world.

It is my opinion that we are now in a bloody clash of cultures between the Muslims and the rest of the world. In order to educate the public, the Clarion Fund produced the DVD called Obsession with Sir Martin Gilbert, Professors Robert Wistrich, Dr. Khaleel Mohammed, Daniel Pipes, Alan Dershowitz, a former PLO terrorist and a former Hitler Youth Commander along with others.

It was an excellent presentation, and how could it not be with such prominent names behind it?
However, the people who subscribed to the Oregonian and had it delivered to their door did not find joy in receiving it. They reacted with alarm. Many threw it away quickly. Even many Jews reacted this way. They took it as some kind of propaganda against the "nice" Arabs. I’d say they hadn’t reached a readiness level to want such an education. It was the wrong way to expose the public to such findings. Now these people have gone the other way, more protecting of radical Islam. The Letters to the Editor page was filled with their hostile reactions. After distributing the paper on Sunday, there were television ads from the newspaper saying they were just offering freedom of speech, and they were innocent. Today saw an article about it in the paper. Evidently there were protesters outside the Oregonian building complaining about the distribution of this hour long DVD. They said, probably without viewing, that it was Muslim-bashing propaganda promoting fear, hate and division. At least 500 people called the paper complaining. A few even dropped their subscription to the paper.

The world contains about 6.6 billion people. Christians and Muslims are almost equal in number.
Out of those, about 2.1 billion, or 33% of the population are Christian.
The 2nd largest world religion are Muslims with 1,902,095,000, or 1 billion, 902 million, 95 thousand.or about 20% of the world population.
Jews are 13,296,100 or about 13 million plus in the world. This is about 0.3% of the world. Sadly, some of these Muslims have become radical and are bent on doing harm to others. We saw the beginnings of it on 9/11.
No, in this rainy much to the left city, people are not mentally prepared for what could lie ahead. Then again, how could such terrorists dare to harm anyone in our rose gardened Portland?

Reference: Oregonian newspaper Tuesday, Sept 30, 2008 page C2 Protesters denounce DVD in newspaper
DVD Obsession from Clarion Fund, New York
Letters From Israel by Nadene Goldfoot
This blog: jewishfactsfromportland: November 15, 2007 Muslim Palestinians Expectations with Itamar Marcus