Israel Facing Atomic Warfare

Israel Facing Atomic Warfare

By Nadene Goldfoot

Jeffrey Goldberg, in his article, "Israel is getting ready to bomb Iran" featured in The Atlantic magazine for September 2010, gives excellent reasons why it is almost imperative that she should do so. He feels there is a 50% chance it will happen by July of 2011. He mentions that Obama’s dream is of ending nuclear proliferation at a time when the prospect of a nuclearized Iran is happening. He asks who will stop Iran before it goes nuclear and how. Jeff covers the subject from page 56 to 69. He ends with the thought that Netanyahu would be putting Israel’s relationship with America in jeopardy if he does and would only do that if he thought that Iran is a threat to Israel like the Shoah.

Agreeing with him in his book, "The Case Against Israel’s Enemies: Exposing Jimmy Carter and others who stand in the way of peace’, Alan Dershowitz made the same point in 2008 when Bush was president. On page 222 he writes that Iranian leaders expect to be attacked from Israel when they get close to producing a nuclear weapon as they have already threatened to respond with nuclear weapons. On June 28, 2008, Iran’s Parliament speaker warned the West could lose face if it provokes Iran. Intelligence agencies believe that Iran could convert its dual-track nuclear developments into deliverable weapons.

In May of 2008, the International Atomic Energy Agency issued a warning about Iran's nuclear weapons ambitions. It was a matter of serious concern. Though Iran denies everything, a senior official said that "the Iranians lied, obfuscated and didn’t tell us for 20 years what they were doing."

Dershowitz comments that Iran may be provoking Israel on purpose to bring about an attack. They won’t mind losing 15 million Muslims if they can kill off 5 million Jews. To them it’s worth it. They want to make Iran the victim of" Zionist aggression" as it would unify them all against their enemies which would include the USA.

The sad thing is that not all of Iran is as looney as Ahmadinejad. His group has taken control of their govermental processes and is keeping out people who are saner. I’d hate to see them in the line of fire, but that is one thing that has been happening in Gaza with the Palestinians and Iran is also doing it. They put civilians in the line of fire on purpose and then have something to cry about afterwards. The atomic plants in Iran are built in populated areas; something Israel and other democracies with atomic power do not do.

All this worry about Israel bombing Iran’s sites may be moot. Right now a computer virus has been created that may put an end to Iran’s ambition of killing all the people in Israel. Everything today is computerized. Even shooting a missile with an atomic bomb warhead is computerized. How much more easy it is to foul up the system this way than to have to take a fleet of planes and try to bomb their sites which are in many buildings, probably deep underground and in populated centers. Now just who would be interested in creating such a bug. Who has the capabilities for doing this?

Reference: http://news.yahoo.com/s/csm/20100921/ts_csm/327178

http://israelmuse.blogspot.com/2010/09/news-possible-biblical-clue-embedded-in.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+israelmuse+%28Israel+Muse+Portal+%28News%29%29

Fidel Castro Backs Israel's Right to Exist

It's amazing that the leader of a communist party finds it obvious that Israel has the right to exist, but that the Muslim nations do not.

Fidel Castro told Jeffrey Goldberg, reporter for the Atlantic Magazine, that it is without a doubt that Israel has the right to exist, and he criticized Ahmadinejad for denying the Holocaust. He said Tehran should acknowledge Israel's fears for its own survival. Cuba doesn't have diplomatic ties with Israel which takes time, he said, but he's sticking up for her anyway.

Fidel understands the consequences of theological anti-Semitism and said Iran should understand this. He explained that this has gone on for about 2,000 years. No one has been slandered more than the Jews, he commented and added that this is more than the Muslims have experienced because they are blamed and slandered for everything. He sees that no one blames the Muslims for anything.

He called this "reverse selection", the persecution and then pogroms. People thought they would disappear but their culture and religion kept them together as a nation.

He admitted that nothing compares to the Holocaust, so he understands that we have lived a very hard existence for 2,000 years.

Usually it's the religious Christians who care for Israel and are aware of our history, but here is a man who probably doesn't believe in G-d, a communist, 84 years old, has been in poor health, and he's sticking up for Israel. He is aware of our history far more than most reporters in the USA as far as I can see, though Fox News is very well versed.

Fidel, you just won my heart in having redeeming qualities. I didn't realize you were so well informed. Good for you for still being the leader of y0ur Cuban Communist Party. I've read where you are making changes in your country for the better. Your honesty about Israel is like the child telling the emperor that he has no clothes on. Remember the Emperor's New Clothes? You have nothing to gain from your remark and cannot lose anything; it's just plain honesty from knowing the facts.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100922/wl_mideast_afp/uscubairanisraelcastropoliticsreligion_20100922225419

Bill Clinton Doesn't Understand Israel's Reason for Being

I am so disappointed in Bill Clinton. He made a very unpopular political statement today about Israel's Russian Jewish immigrants at his annual Clinton Global Initiative conference. He said, disparagingly, that the children of Russians and settlers are the hardest-core people against a division of the land. He's obviously referring to the division of Jerusalem and even the giving up of Judea and Samaria.

This shows to me that he has no understanding at all of the reasoning behind Israel's creation. He hasn't been following or caring about what has happened to the Jews of Russia and what they had to go through to get to Israel; that they could not practice their religion, that they had been discriminated-in other words, they had gone through hell. Little does he realize that a big majority of Jewish immigrants to Israel most likely had ancestors from Russia, like myself.

He's complaining about the settlers in Judea and Samaria wanting to hold onto the land. Sir, that's because they usually are students of Israel's history and practice their religion. They know how dear these places are and have made their homes there under the blessing of Israel's government. I had the opportunity to do the same while living in Israel from 1980-1985, but chose Safed instead. Several of our young friends from the Ulpan, coming from Cleveland, chose to go there. There are many American Jews living there.

This land means far more to us than it does to the Arabs. We've been pining for it for over 2,000 years. The Arabs just became conscious of it since 1965, and it holds no religious or national value to them. They want it because it fits their political goals; to cut off another piece of our land. Their main intention is to take it all.

Clinton even complained that 16% of Israelis speak Russian! Nu? It's a country of immigrants from all the lands on earth! They're learning Hebrew and will learn it faster than many in America learn English. That's because they will attend ulpans just for that purpose. As a matter of fact, Russians speak a lot of languages. I think that's what they study mostly in Russia; languages. I was in an ulpan for 10 months with Russian teachers and English speakers studying Hebrew. The Russians knew just how to study and were picking it up quickly. We Americans were lost as most of us never had to study another language.

Netanyahu regretted hearing this comment by telling him tersely that as a friend of Israel, surely he knows that immigrants from the former Soviet Union have contributed and continue to contribute greatly to the progress, development and strength of the Israel Defense forces and to the state of Israel. "Only a strong Israel can bring about a secure and stable peace," he continued.

Clinton is only interested in Israel's Jewish population as a matter of politics in getting the peace agreement, which I admit, is a big thing. I think he's only interested in it now to gain the accolades he would receive via his wife, Hillary, if she could pull this off. It's like getting something great to put on your resume.

He thinks that the peace-minded Israelis are the native-born Israelis who have lived in Israel for centuries. "They can imagine sharing a future" for they can see events in historical context, he added.

This I can't understand at all. I can truthfully say that all Israelis understand the historical context and their history. They're living in it. There's very few people who simply land in Israel and start working without a very good reason for being there. The practice is that all new immigrants live in a 3 month Ulpan and receive Hebrew and history lessons. Being a teacher, I was there for a 10 month period and received a ton of history lessons as well as everything necessary to receive an Israeli teaching certificate just like all the native born teachers.

Israel is there to take in all Jews who need a safe haven. This is the return, written about in our bible. We have suffered persecution and death for 2,000 years, culminating in the Holocaust. "Never again" is our motto. We've been praying for this time ever since 70 A.D. Gee, isn't it just too bad that none of us are ready to happily give up another part of our teeny country in the name of peace, which we want more than anyone in the world, but to people who keep taking our offerings and never give us peace! I'd like to know what Clinton thinks about them. What is keeping them from recognizing Israel if they want peace so badly. Why in the world does he think that we could give up land without a return in kind-recognition meaning there will be peace. How can you have peace with people who want you dead? How can you have peace with people who write such things in their charter and do not change it first?

Though we all came from different countries, we all learned Hebrew. That's the language of the land. You will also find that Arabs living in Israel learn Hebrew. Signs are all written in three languages; Hebrew, Arabic and English. We all came with a desire to help Israel's continuance. We all love the land and what it does for us. This is our inheritance. We know our history.

So now we know more about Bill's character. This is the man I had voted for. I defended this man when he had his problems. I had great respect for this man up until now. It hurts to be so disappointed. It also hurts more to think of what we might lose again without gaining a true peace.

Reference: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100923/wl_mideast_afp/israelpalestinianspeaceclinton

Listening to a Deranged Individual: Ahmadinejad

Why are we being so polite and listening to the madman, Ahamdinejad, who comes to our country, stays in the best hotel and rants and raves against us? I would think that the only people who should be interested in him would be psychologists or psychiatrists.

Here we see an interesting country like Iran taken over by religous zealots who mean harm to the world, starting off with Israel. Perhaps politicians are making nice with him because he is so mad; one doesn't know when he'll send a bomb your way.

First off, he remains in denial to the world about the Holocaust, a very well known part of history of WWII where Nazis ruled the side of the Axis and caused 6 million Jews plus other people to be slaughtered. Their aim was to kill off all 14 million Jews existing in the world at that time. Muslims were a part of that axis group and cheered them on, even helping to plan ways of killing Jews. Nice cousins, we have, I see. Ahmadinejad has the chutspa to ask, "Why is the world so sensitive about killing 6 million Jews?" Evidently to him it must be a very logical and wise thing to do. After all, that's what most of us know he's planning on doing once he has his atomic weaponry ready, which many think will happen in the next two years. Ahmadinejad thinks the Holocaust has been greatly exaggerated for a pretext for the next war. Yet it's he who is doing the threatening. Israel is his first target and he's been most vocal about it.

It has been discussed in the news that since Iran has verbally threatened Israel with destruction and cannot be stopped from manufacturing its deadly atomic weapons, Israel may bomb the facilities before they are in working progress. It's sort of like, let Israel do it, for I think most all countries would like to see their facilities destroyed before we all are blown up. Ahmadinejad knows, this. After all, Israel did put an end to a facility in Iraq very carefully. So he has threatened us all by saying that if it happens they would unleash a "war without end."

He must live in a bubble. He's also saying that the United States has never won a major war. He even mouthed off that we have never entered a serious war and have never been victorious. We don't understand what war looks like. He says war, real war knows no limits. Can you imagine what he is talking about? No rules of war. Slaughter anyway you can or want. Tell this to our veterans.

The United States and of course, Israel, were not the only ones attacked in his speech. The International Atomic Energy Agency was next. He said they were dominating other countries. Gosh! He doesn't like rules and regulations, does he? That tells me he has no intention of following them. He went on to blame capitalism for the world's ills.

On Thursday he will speak before the United Nations Security Council. I wonder what more he'll say to them. No doubt he'll first complain about the four rounds of sanctions they have tried to enforce to halt its nuclear weapons program. Even Barack Obama has said repeatedly that if sanctions do not succeed, all options remain on the table. What would that be, I wonder.

Resource: http://www.theisraelproject.org/site/apps/nlnet/content1.aspx?c=hsJPKOPIJpH&b=689705

Pride In Being Jewish: Nobel Prizes

There are 12 million Jews in the world. We make up 0.2% of the world’s population. That means 2 out of every 1,000 people are Jewish. We have earned 165 Nobel prizes.

There are 1.4 billion Muslims in the world They make up 20% of the world population. That means 2 out of every 10 people are Muslims. They have earned 6 Nobel prizes.

Whatever is causing this disparity, you have to admit that there must be something to Judaism.

Reference: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1456395/posts
http://www.jewishmag.co.il/99mag/nobel/nobel.htm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jSkKPH-bq88

Why Not Move to Africa? Why Israel?

As Chaim Weitzman replied to the Peel Commission, when asked why the Jews didn't simply accept land in Africa, which would be so much less fraught for the British to arrange - his answer was, "Sir, that would be like asking you why you drove 50 kilometers to see your mother last week when there are so many lovely old ladies on your street." The future of Jewish life around the world is dependent on a strong and dynamic Israel...from Rabbi Marvin Hier in his L'Shana Tova greeting today.

I can attest to this. When I moved to Israel in 1980, I studied and passed the Hebrew test which I thought was an impossibility after studying Hebrew earnestly for only 10 months.

We then moved to Safed where I wound up writing many plays. I helped to produce them as well as act in them in a theater that the city gave to us. I had gifts that I never knew about. There in that special air I was able to accomplish what I set out to do like at no other time. That feeling of "Yes, I can" has stayed with me. Here I am writing two blogs about Israel.

What floors me is the technology and inventions that continue to come out of Israelis living under very tense times in Israel. They're being threatened from Lebanon in the north, Gaza in the west, even the Judea/Samaria area on the east as well as very seriously from Iran further east and yet they continue to create. I think it's the power we get while living there that I experienced. We've been tested so much, and G-d has always played the important role in our lives and this belief has brought us back. That in itself is a miracle as no other ancient group of people have lasted for so long a time.

That experience with Moses receiving the 10 commandments must have been one traumatic event for all. We've been praying that we not forget Jerusalem for 2,000 years, and we never did. Though we've lived throughout the world, we wanted to go back home to Israel.  Let's not forget that G-d told us that this piece of land was to be our home.  He had his reasons.  We obeyed.  It was our land from 1271 BCE to 70 CE-that's 1,341 years.  The USA has only been in possible American hands in a sense since 1620 with the Pilgrims of the ship, Mayflower or a little sooner than that when the south received immigrants.  It was a country from 1776-which is 239 years of being the USA, starting off with only 13 colonies.  Israel started off with 12 colonies, the 12 tribes of Israel.

Here we are once again. As tiring as others may feel about it, we're aiming to stay. We've played musical chairs enough already.

Islam and Judaism

Islam, The Muslim Religion Today

by Nadene Goldfoot


Most Americans have been of the opinion that Islam is a religion of peace such as Judaism and Christianity and do not know what to make of the acts of jihadists who have become violent. They think that just because the twin towers were hit by a few odd balls who happened to believe in violence and were of the Muslim religion is no reason to think that all Muslims now have violence in their hearts and plan future actions of violence against us.


To understand Islam, one must study the history of this religion. Its leader and prophet was Mohammed who lived from 570 AD to 632 AD. He followed the Meccan trade caravans where he met Jews and Christians. He really felt bad that he wasn’t one of the people of the book, and started asking questions of them. He was an illiterate man and depended on his memory at this time. By age 40, he was always thinking about G-d, the hereafter, and the Day of Judgement.
Somehow he decided that he was chosen to be the Arab prophet and started proclaiming his revelations from the angel Gabriel, which finally became written down as the Koran. He said that his version was the corrected form of the Old and New Testaments.


His Koran reveals that it was copying Judaism. Both are purely monotheistic faiths. Islam allows that Jesus was a prophet, so makes that concession. Both religions have systems of religious law; both have daily prayers, only where Jews pray three times a day, Mohammed outdid us with five times a day. Both have dietary laws and do not eat anything from a pig. In the Koran, it is Abraham's son Ishmael that is to be sacrificed, not Isaac as Ishmael's line became the Arabs.


When Mohammed was 25 years old, he married a wealthy 40 year old woman,Khadijah, who set him up so that he didn’t have to worry about money. He wound up marrying either 11 or 13 women during his life, which was not uncommon at this period for his people. Many of these marriages were of convenience for the women. One of his wives, Safia, was said to be of Jewish origin.

He married a six-year-old girl named Aisha but allowed her to live with her parents until he consumated the marriage when she was about nine or ten. Virginity was important in those days.


He thought that Jews would accept his faith being so much of his was copied from the Jews, but they didn’t. They remained faithful to their own religion of Judaism, which angered him immensely. When he realized his attempts failed, he was most angry and changed some of his rites and became very hostile towards the Jews of Medina, who were either killed as a result or expelled. Hatred for Jews is peppered throughout the Koran. When I read the Koran, obtained through the public library while living in Eastern Oregon, I was totally shocked to find so many hateful references to Jews. If you see a Jew under a rock (hiding?) Kill him. I see the Palestinian jihadists referring to these lines in their hatred of us. They take this seriously and have embellished on it. His religion spread basically by conquering with the sword. He believed in beheading his opponents. Many Jewish tribes were wiped out this way or converted.


Even President Bush was under the opinion as most all Americans that Islam was a religion of peace. This belief continued even after seeing jihadist Muslims win elections in the Palestinian Authority and elsewhere. The new Iraqi and Afghan constitutions have included sharia, Islamic law which includes the death penalty for Christian converts as the highest law of the land. Sadly, the majority of peaceful Muslims are not showing signs of resisting or condemning a global Islamic jihad. They’re probably afraid of being killed if they do so.


There is Talaal Eid, 59 year old Lebanon born, a Boston Iman who is so moderate that he even visited the Pope and prayed for Bush. He says he is against jihadists, who are Wahhabi extremists. He received his degree from Harvard. He is not liked or respected by many Muslims in Boston. Today he is a chaplain in Brandeis.


Sheikh Omar Bakri Mohammed was an open supporter of Osama bin Laden who preached jihad in Britain for a long time and finally left during the jihad bombings in London of July 7, 2005. He said that Muhammad himself would want the cartoonists who made fun of Muhammad dead. Some Muslims point out how peaceful Muhammad was while others show otherwise. As for the cartoonist, they cite: "and the messenger Mohammed said, whoever insults a prophet, he must be punished and executed". "This man should be put on trial and if it is proven to be, executed".


Since there is to be a mosque very near the site of the twin towers promoted by Iman Feisal Rauf, New York is divided about its need to be in that one spot. Many cite the fact that this shows an Islam win of building mosques in places, such as the Cordoba mosque in Spain, built when Muslims took over the country and ruled there. . This proposed mosque will also be named "Cordoba House". Others see no reason to be sensitive and feel we are showing that we are different and better than they by our religions accepting theirs in our midst. They just don’t think about the meaning of the site picked.


Now more and more Americans have chewed over the idea of what Islam might stand for and are ready to burn Korans. This is angering the many Muslims in the world and we might find our remaining soldiers in the Middle East in danger for their lives because of this. Remember what happened to the Danish cartoonists and the threats to them.


There are 48 Muslim majority countries. The total world population of Muslims as of 2009 is 1.82 billion. Of Christians, there are about 2.1 billion, and of Jews, there are only 14 million of us. (There are about 6 million in Israel, 6 million in the states, and the others are scattered throughout the world.) Remember your math: it take 999 million plus one more to make one billion. That makes our possible 14 million look mighty small.


Reference: The Jewish Standard Encyclopedia
What Does Judaism Say About...? by Louis Jacobs
The Truth about Muhammad by Robert Spencer
http://www.islamicpopulation.com/
Islam, The Muslim Religion Today
http://bibelen.blogspot.com/

1936 Catholics and Protestants Stood Up For Us Concerning Judea and Samaria-British the Problem

British Manipulation of Palestine

The British received the duty of taking care of a good chunk of the Ottoman Empire after it fell at the end of World War I.

Jews had been promised to have their Jewish Homeland from it. Then the British came up with their White Papers and rescinded their offer, partitioning "Palestine" with a good half for the Arabs.

At the Conference of Protestant and Catholic Leaders in 1936 they said the following. "It is the profound conviction of Christian America that the British Government rescind its illegal, unjust, and indefensible partition of Palestine, to restore Trans-Jordania to its proper place as part of Palestine territory, and throw it open to Jewish Settlement.

The British encouraged Arab immigration into the country, and acted impatient at stepped-up "illegal" Jewish immigration. Talk about prejudice. Some 30,000 Arabs from the Hauran over a 3 month period in 1934 were unreported and unrecognized by the government at the time Adolf Hitler rose to power in Germany. It was a time when Jewish immigration had increased.

The British practiced some illegal mathematics. They deducted a number for illegal settlers who might enter the labour-market on a half-yearly basis from the Jewish quota. This was applied to the 1939 White Paper quota of Jewish immigrants to the Jewish-settled area of Western Palestine during and after WWII.

The British wee covering up and looking out for Arab illegals. From the beginning of the Mandate, Jewish immigration had been restricted by the British administration . They found so many excuses to keep from carrying out the law as it existed for Jews. In 1921, a large number of immigrants were refused admission to Palestine during the termporary suspension of immigrantion..according to Sir Wyndham Deedes, Chief Secretary to the Palestine Administration. Dr. Chaim Weizmann protested to Deedses, the wrong person.

John Gunther said in 1939 that from the beginning, Zionism faced not only political watering down of the Mandate but deep-seated antipathy from anti-Semitic British officials. The Jews were violently discriminated against--in what was presumably to be their own country.

Evidently no one listened to the religious group that at that time protested in favor of the Jews receiving the land they were promised. Now some of those Protestants , such as the Methodists, have forgotten all about that and engage in boycotts against Israel in favor of the Arabs. It's a weird world.

Reference: Book: "From Time Immemorial" by Joan Peters.

Bar Kokhba, Israel and Judea Becoming Palaestia

Bar Kokhba, Fighter for Israel and Judea

Died 135 CE

by Nadene Goldfoot

The Oregonian newspaper had an article in it on 9/4/2010 about more people of all faiths believing in reincarnation today. They are getting hypnotized in the hopes of gaining insights to their personality. According to recent data, 1/4 of the U.S. population believe it’s possible.
That being so, and I know an element of Judaism believes in reincarnation, I hope that Bar Kokhba has been reincarnated into some present day Israeli person. He died in 135 CE, the time that the Romans renamed Israel-Judea as Syria-Palaestia. This brave personality was reputed to be of Davidic descent.

Jerusalem had been attacked critically in 70 CE. By 130 CE it was going to be rebuilt as a Roman colony called Aelia Capitolina. Romans were prohibiting circumcision. Feelings against the Roman take-over had been fermenting for a considerable period until it was intolerble. Bar Kokhba then stood up against Hadrian, the Roman ruler who visited in 130 CE

He led a revolt against Hadrian in 132 CE. Rabbi Akiva was so impressed with him that he said he was the Messiah, though he was the only Rabbi to think that. He had great personal strength, was autocratic and irascible. Those are not all admirable qualities but perhaps necessary to become a leader in a revolt. They would not necessarily be good for being a wonderful husband except the personal strength part, especially in such times as what we are living in nowdays with Israel being threatened by not only Iran but Lebanan as well as Hamas in Gaza.

BarKokhba led his forces to Jerusalem and recaptured it. Supposedly it was a fierce battle. In 133 CE the Romans counterattacked with an army of 35,000 under Hadrian and Julius Severus, commander.

By 134-135 the Romans conquered Bar Kokhba’s last stronghold and killed him. They destroyed 50 fortresses and 985 villages. We had 580,000 Jewish casualities besides many dying of hunger and disease. This is when Judah fell into desolation. Jerusalem was turned into a heathen city, barred to Jews. A statue of Hadrian was erected on the site of the Holy of Holies.

Bar Kokhba was a man with a military ability to organize a revolt against the best Roman forces for over 3 years. I imagine he had been a young man, about 25 years old, full of a fighting spirit of justice, yet old enough to lead men of all ages. He could have been about 30 when he fell.
We just gained Jerusalem back in 1967 from Jordan occupation. Netanyahu is under pressure to allow it to be divided so that the Arabs can have half of it for their to be created Palestine. Will Netanyahu have the personal strength to deal with the pressures coming from Egypt, Jordan and Obama to give into these demands in the name of peace? I don’t see him as a reincarnated Bar Kokhba. He is not easily angered. Do we have a Bar Kokhba waiting in the wings to continue to defend Israel? Sharon could have been much like him. We don’t want to lose our country again.

Reference: The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
Oregonian Newspaper 9/4/2010

Peace Talks: Nearing Messianic Times by Nadene Goldfoot

Netanyahu has just started talking to Abbas face to face about peace after a two year recess. Abbas of the Fatah's PLO group has a lot of demands. We have one major one; to be recognized as a state. This should come first before any stoppage of building in Judea and Samaria on our part, I feel. Hamas, a terrorist political group in Gaza, refuses to do so. They even caused four Israelis living in Judea to be massacred in their car yesterday as well as instigating another attack on two Israelis in protest of this peace discussion.

I've been told that we are nearing the time of the Messiah's coming. Isaiah 11:6 has a metaphor for the peace of that Messianic time. It's when the wolf will live with the sheep and the leopard will lie down with the kid; and a calf, a lion whelp and a fatling will walk together, and a young child will lead them. A cow and bear will graze and their young will lie down together; and a lion, like cattle, will eat hay. A suckling will play by a viper's hole; and a newly weaned child will stretch his hand toward an adder's lair. They will neither injure nor destroy in all of My sacred mountain; for the earth will be as filled with knowledge of Hashem (G-d) as water covering the sea bed. It shall be on that day that the descendant of Jesse who stands as a banner for the peoples, nations will seek him, and his resting place will be glorious. Jesse lived in the 11th-10th century BCE and was the father of King David. David was the grandson of Ruth and Boaz. The royal house of David is known as the "stock or root of Jesse."

It goes on to talk about the Ingathering of the exiles to assemble the castaways of Israel and to gather in the dispersed ones of Judah from the four corners of the earth. The oppressors of Judah shall be cut off. Judah and Ephraim will fly in unison against the Philistine to the west. (Ephriam was the younger son of Joseph and the name of a tribe in Israel, and is a name applied to the more northern of the two Israelite kingdoms. Judah is the name of the southerly of the two kingdoms into which Palestine was divided in 933 BCE after the death of Solomon. The northerly kingdom had been known as the kingdom of Israel.

It seems to me that we have already had an ingathering of exiles and that I was a part of this when I lived in Israel from 1980-1985. Circumstances caused me to return to the states. Since then the ingathering has continued. It was an amazing experience to meet so many people from so many different places, and we all davened (prayed) together.

To me the wolf is a metaphor of the Palestinians and the sheep Israel. We're already living together in Israel as there are over a million Palestinians living there. How about the state of Palestinine that Abbas wants to bring about in Judea-Samaria? Palestine is to be Juden-free; no Israelis at all. To this American this is very narrow-minded. USA and Israel are made up of people from many countries who came for freedom and to live without persecution. The teeny state of Israel is made up of Jews and others from over 70 countries. It only has about 6 million people.

Jerusalem is the major city of contention. Palestine wants it and Israel has it. It's been a part of our history for over a thousand years, but as recently as 1967 was in Jordan's hands and was not being treated kindly. Palestinians are not willing to believe our historical claims to the land. They want East Jerusalem. I've read that Netanyahu may give in on this point. We'll see.

As for the knowledge of G-d, I'm afraid that our two groups have radical differences as well as a few similarities. I don't see how this will be bridged. So are we in pre-messianic times? Is peace near? When these two radically different peoples can do all of the above, I guess there truly will be peace all over the world.

I don't think this time will come until humans are involved with teaching and creating an environment causing animals to behave in such a manner. By then humans might catch on and want to copy them and live in peace, also. We're living in precipitous times.

Reference: The Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
The Stone Edition of the Tanach (Torah/Prophets/Writing/The 24 books of the Bible) from the ArtScroll Series of Mesorah Heritage Foundation.

Over a Millenium of Having Our Promised Land: Israel and Judea

by Nadene Goldfoot
The first king of Israel was King Saul in the 11th century BCE. He was the son of Kish of the tribe of Benjamin. King David was his successor. King Solomon was David's son. Samaria was its capital founded in 880 BCE by King Omri. There were others. We lost Judea in 135 CE to the Romans. We had had two states, and then the Romans renamed the whole area Palestine to wipe out our Jewish presence. That's 1,235 years of having our own country. No wonder we mourn every year for Jerusalem. That was a long time. The United States is only 234 years old.

In 1948 our newly reborn Israel came into being through the United Nations. It had been chopped up and we have accepted half of land that was to be Israel. After many short wars we came into land that was at one time ours anyway only to find that peace talks commencing once again are talking about taking Judea and Samaria away from us to be made into a Palestine.

There has never been a country of Palestine. It was the land that had been ours laid desolate after Romans attacked in 135 CE. They cleverly renamed it Palestine to erase our Jewish presence. Before 1948 "Palestine" was administered by Britain but made up of Jews and Arabs. The British accepted this position when the Ottoman Empire fell after WWI. Administering is not the same as having your own soverign country such as Israel is now.

In about 1938 Mimi Padrow and her husband immigrated here from Palestine. They were Palestinians, and they were Jewish from Tel Aviv. Mimi's family had a hotel there. Their son, Ben, was born here and became a professor at Portland State in Speech. He also was the editor of the Jewish Review. They were our neighbors in Ladd's Addition.

Moshe Dann of Israel in his essay, O, Palestine! points out that Palestinianism was defined first in 1964 in the PLO covenant, when Jordan occupied Judea and Samaria. They referred to it as "West Bank" to distinguish it from the East Bank of the Jordan River and when Egypt held the Gaza Strip. From there we find Arabs living there clamoring for their own state. They haven't been waiting for 2,000 years to regain a land they had once owned. it's a new idea because we are there. Dann points out that the world has bought into it, and now we find that "Palestinianism" is the greatest obstacle to peace. We're in a neighborhood that doesn't welcome us and wants us out. Arabs see the land as exclusively Arab homeland. it's a big problem.

September 2nd is the start of peace talks with Netanyahu and Abbas with many other Arab leaders invited to the meeting. Egypt's Mubarak, and Jordan's Abdullah will be there. They have signed a peace agreement with Israel. The first problem they will encounter is the recognition of the Palestinians of Israel. Without that, there can be no peace. Hamas in Gaza has said over and over that they never will. With four people just slaughtered in Hebron (Judea Samaria area near Kiryot Arba) . I see Hamas influencing events there among the Fatah people. It's going to be a sticky proposition.

Note: Joshua's conquest happened in 1320 BCE. He took over from Moses who died at the age of 120 years. Moses didn't make it into Canaan, but Joshua took over and did. Moses was the founder of the Jewish religion and father of monotheism.

 Reference O, Palestine! by Moshe Dann http://www.americanthinker.com/ 2010/09/
Israeli Concessions-A Zero Sum Game by Victor Sharpe http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/
Standard Jewish Encyclopedia