Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Portland's Terrorist from Somalia


19 year old Mohamed Osman Mohamud, Somali born Portland terrorist could have blown up Pioneer Square's Christmas Tree lighting ceremony with 12,000 in attendance, including my only grandson. I wondered why someone who has been in schools in Portland would get the idea to do such a thing. He has been desirous of committing a jihad against the community he lives in. Portland has about 1,000 people living here from Somali. They have a mosque that was attacked after Mohamud's arrest with arson, no doubt as retribution for the possible slaughter of thousands.

Somalia is the 25th largest Muslim country in the world. It has a population of 9,558,666 with 99.9% being Sunni Muslims, which is the state religion. Their coalition government has a standing army of 10,000. The country's GDP is 600, very low considering The United Arab Emirates GDP is 37,293. The GDP (PPP) per capita is the data for the economy of the Muslim countries which can be used to compare rich to poor countries or compare the economies. We can take it that Somalia is a poor country and that Mohamud was very lucky that his parents were able to come here. Not only is it poor, but has seen its share of war. In 1982 they had the Ethiopian Somali Border War. In 1991, the year of his birth, rebels attacked Mogadishu, the city where he was born. Now he feels that it was the wrong move for his family to come here.

He was about 10 when he arrived in our country. His parents were able to see him go to school and even attend Oregon State for a year. They were so proud that he was attending college. I don't think we can blame poverty on his attitude.

Mosque officials said that Mohamud had visited there only once or twice a month since he came to USU in the fall of 2009. Smoking and drinking are not allowed in Islam, but Mohamud did these things in Corvallis. He withdrew from classes on Oct 6th. He was even accused of rape. He was in the fall 2009 and this year's winter classes only. To Amina Vora, 19 yr old Muslim lady from London, he didn't seem to be even moderately religious. But Mohamud was bent on jihad nevertheless and felt his parents would have to answer for living in the United States to Allah.

2009 is also when he started sending violent jihad emails and was discovered by the FBI. Another Muslim in the community, possibly a parent, tipped off the Bureau because they were concerned about Mohamud's increasing radicalism. The FBI then monitored his email.

Somehow, Mohamud became engrossed in jihad and felt determined to carry out the act against us.
http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=40505 as of 12/13/10
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Somalia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Muslim_majority_countries
Oregonian p. A6. 11/29/2010

Monday, November 29, 2010

Cordoba Mosque of 9/11 Wants Federal Funding

This is a picture of the Cordoba Mosque in Spain. What does the Cordoba Mosque and the Dome of the Rock have in common?




This picture is of New York's St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church, now destroyed.
by Nadene Goldfoot


Approximately 70% of New Yorkers oppose building a huge $100 million dollar mosque two blocks from the 9/11 site where the Twin Towers fell from the ramming of planes with Saudi Arabian Muslims filled with jihad against America. By August 18th, CNN poll showed that 68% of New Yorkers were against building the proposed mosque so close to the site of disaster. Then, on August 19th, The Siena Research found 63% opposed with 27% supportive of building. The Jewish Defense League is against it because it will cause pain for those who lost friends and family in the disaster, not comfort.

It's called the Cordoba Initiative and Park51, title of the Cordoba Mosque project at Ground Zero. One reason it stings is that it is named after "The Great Mosque" in Cordoba, Spain. In the 700's around the time Islam was born, the Christian church of Saint Vincent sat on the foundation of a Roman temple. The Moors (Arabs) attacked and tore it down. It was replaced with The Great Mosque which became the 2nd most important mosque after Mecca.

Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf should have called it by a different name. This is inflamatory. His wife, Daisy Khan explains that it will be modeled after a Jewish Community Center and sounds absolutely delicious. They both refuse to build in a different spot. It is to be opened on the 10th anniversary of the Twin Towers attack.

Now they are asking for federal funding of around $5,000,000 whereas in the beginning they assured everyone that they would have all the necessary funding.

St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church was destroyed on 9/11. They have been asking ever since the incident for funds to rebuild but without any success. Shouldn't the Iman do the generous thing and offer money to this church to rebuild instead of glorifying his religion with a a grand mosque?

Many people read history and feel that Islam has shown dominance over the West in insidious ways. For instance, the Dome of the Rock in East Jerusalem, next door to the Western Wall, was actually built on the ruins of Judaism's holiest site, the Temple Mount. That's why it's so close. Now the Muslims are tying to proclaim that Jews have no connection to Jerusalem at all and want to take over all of East Jerusalem for their capital saying that they own the Western Wall.

Another example is the Al-Aqsa Mosque built on the southern end of the Temple Mount and over the Basilica of St. Mary of Justinian. The Grand Mosque of Damascus was erected over the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist. These are but a few examples.

At a time of austerity in spending, I doubt very much if our leaders are going to fund this mosque. I do hope that the mayor of New York takes pity on the destroyed Greek Church and does something to allow them to rebuild on their own site. They have been rebuffed enough times. Shouldn't a destroyed church take precedent over a new grandiose mosque?
12/9/10: Pamela Geller's website has that the 95 yr old St. Nicholas Church at ground zero is suing for rights to rebuild. Good for them. I hope they win.

Reference: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/danielle-parker/cordoba-mosque-the-conque_b_691583.h
http://www.prlog.org/10869856-new-york-people-against-building-mosque-on-911-site.html
actforamerica Ground Zero Mosque seeks tax dollars!
http://www.pi-news.org/2010/08/jewish-lobby-against-cordoba-mosque/ ADL

Amish Stand With Israel


Amish from the United States and Switzerland broke their tradition for the important task of getting to Israel. They flew in order to go to the Western Wall in Jerusalem where they asked the Jewish people's forgiveness for their group's silence during the Holocaust when Jews were being exterminated.

Amish are a sect of the Mennonite Church which rejects modern transportation. Their goal was so important to them that they flew. They met with Rabbi Shmuel Rabinovitch. "They also declared their unreserved support of the Jewish people and the State of Israel." The Amish representative gave Rabinovitch a parchment with a request for forgiveness in the name of the entire Amish community and a commitment that from now on, they would loudly voice its support of the Jewish people.

It appears that Ahmadinejad's hateful comments of Israel and the Jewish people have helped to bring about this decision.

Resource: http://www.jpost.com/LandedPages/PrintArticle.aspx?id=1997087








Sunday, November 28, 2010

Jerusalem's Western Wall; Jewish or Muslim?


"To Jerusalem, thy city, shall we return with joy!" from Psalms, found in Old Testament

Muslims are trying to erase all things of our Jewish heritage and claim that we never existed in Jerusalem or the surrounding countryside. The latest attack is on our Western Wall located in the old city of Jerusalem.

King David would have loved to build the Temple but was not allowed to as he had blood on his hands, being a warrior king. His son, Solomon received this honor and built the magnificant temple of which we have the last remnant of wall remaining that has become the holiest site in Judaism. It is a place where all Jewish tourists come to and insert little papers with prayers in between the rocks. I did that upon visiting for the first time. I prayed for the return of good health for my son who was struck with an unknown disease and am happy to report that he is well now. "If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning." is another prayer said of Jerusalem daily by observant Jews.

400 years later, in 586 BCE, the Temple was destroyed by the Babylonians. 70 years later a second temple was built by the Jews on the same site.

The first century BCE found King Herod, placed in this position by the Romans, enlarging and expanding the temple. Then in 70 CE, the Romans destroyed the temple and almost all of Jerusalem with the wall section still standing. It happens to be adjacent to the Temple Mount, home to al-Aqsa mosque and the Dome of the Rock.

Coming from the lovely people that we are trying to make peace with, Fatah's Al-Mutawakil Taha, deputy information minister in the Palestinian Authority, published a 5 page study on Wednesday disputing Jews' reverence of the shrine as a retaining wall of the compound of Biblical Jewish Temples destroyed so long ago. Netanyahu stated that "this denial of the connection between the Jewish peoople and the Western Wall is baseless and scandalous. " Needless to say, this report has angered Israel.

The Palestinian's verbal attack probably came as a retaliation to Israel's 5 year renovation plan for the Wall area. US-brokered peace talks are supposed to address the issue of Jerusalem which would include the Western Wall, but Abbas refuses to come to the table because Netanyahu refuses to extend another 3 month freeze on top of the 10 month freeze that had expired without any fruitful peace talks. We have an expression during Passover: Dayenu (enough already). I believe that's how Netanyahu was thinking.

Now the wheels are turning in the minds of Netanyahu and others. the Palestinian position paper on the Western Wall "raises a very serious question." Do they truly intend to reach a peace agreement with Israel based on co-existence and mutual recognition? Frankly, I have thought not for a long time, now. This episode is just the piece de-resistance.

"The Israeli government expects the leaders of the Palestinian Authority to renounce the document and condemn it, and to stop twisting historical facts," declared Netanyahu.

The Palestinians have not recognized Israel's annexation of East Jerusalem, where the Western Wall is located. Palestinians want East Jerusalem to be the capital of "Palestine" which will take in Judea and Samaria and the Gaza Strip. Including the Gaza Strip is the most earth-shaking goal that I can think of. It is run by Hamas terrorists and only desire the total destruction of Israel.
12/1/10 Today the proclamation was taken down. "In the report, Deputy Information Minister Al-Mutawakil Taha claimed the Western Wall was not connected to the biblical Jewish Temples — contradicting centuries of archaeological evidence and one of Judaism's most fundamental Prrinciples."
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/vie/Jerusalem1.html
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20101125/wl_nm/us_palestinians_israel_wall

Saturday, November 27, 2010

Jews and Christians Facing Same Threat


Islam Killing Christians

by Nadene Goldfoot

Jews have been under the attack of Muslims ever since they came back to "Palestine." By the time they created Israel, they found themselves attacked within hours after the declaration. This has been going on for the past 62 years. Intermittedly, Christians are being attacked by Muslims in various parts of the world, also.

In the beginning of Islam in about 700 AD, the Muslims saw a difference between Christians and Jews and other non-Muslims. Jews were "people of the book," and gained a little respect because the leaders of the Muslims saw them as an incomplete but corrupted revelation recorded in the bible. They had to pay special taxes and wear identifying clothing, not build their homes too high and endure other "special treatments." They were called dhimmi. Life under the Ottoman Empire turned out to be a better deal in many ways than living in Russia and facing pogroms and having to live in a restricted area, The Pale of Settlement.

Today, Christians and Jews are called Kuffr, or infidels. Islam is the leading religion in about 46 countries and varies a little in each. Some practice strict sharia where apostasy is a capital crime, and infidels deserve death. In just about all of these countries, Christianity is not respected at all.

The violence that is erupting today is aimed not simply at the political and economic leadership of the West, or just at Israel's presence, but at its Judea-Christian tradition. While Islam continues to call Christians and Jews as Kuffr, we know we're still targets under the judgement of death.

On September 25, 2002, militant Muslims killed 7 Christian Pakistanis execution style by shooting in Karachi. By October 17, bombs killed 6 Christians and wounded 143 in Zamboanga, the Philippines. They were killed by Muslim extremists because of their religion. It was the 5th bloody attack on Christians in Pakistan in the last 12 months.

Ethiopia's Christians have been killed by Muslims for the past 30 years. It was indeed a religious war between Muslim Eritrea and Christian Ethiopia. Tens of thousands have died. The people of East Timor, Christians, were savaged by the Muslim Indonesian militants. Thousands of Christians died in riots in the Moluccan Islands in 2000.

A bloody war in Sudan has raged with the Muslim government in the North against the Christian and animist South. In Nigeria, Muslims have tried to impose a strict version of Sharia in provinces causing armed conflicts between the Muslims and Christians to erupt ending with thousands dying. Along the Ivory Coast, Muslims in the North have attacked Christians in the South. Many Coptic Christians were killed in Egypt in January 2000. Several churches were burned in Kenya the following year.

All these attacks have been going on and it looks like our presses have been reticent to come out and print the facts that these deaths have been caused by Muslims. It has become politically correct not to blame Muslims for any problems. Even when on 9/11, Saudi Muslims rammed into the Twin Towers and killed over 3,000 people, the United States cannot come to grips that we may also be in for more attacks by Muslims, even though they are still happening. It's easier to say that they just happened to be Muslims, and that is all there is to it. Just today in Portland, Oregon came news that the FBI foiled a plot by a 19 year old naturalized Corvallis man , Mohamed Osman Mohamud, born in Somali. He was attempting to bomb and kill as many people as possible who were attending a Christmas tree lighting ceremony downtown , attended by about 12,000 including my grandson. The FBI had been following him since August 2009. In his words, "I want whoever is attending that event to leave, to leave either dead or injured." TV news coverage mentioned that it may have been his parents who became alarmed and turned him in. Here is a case of the younger generation being violent with moderate parents. Mohamud had connections in Pakistan and wanted to participate in violent jihad. This is the 2nd case in Portland. From August to December of 2003, six of seven members of a Portland based terrorist cell pled guilty of terrorism related charges.

It's time to take our heads out of the sand and look at the evidence of what is happening to Islam and to the rest of the Christians in the world. Everyone has sat back nonchalantly while Jews have been attacked over Israel and have figured that Jews are just bad people. So go the Jews, then so go the Christians. This appears to be another bloody war with religious dominational aspirations.

Our White House keeps stating that our fight is only with terrorists, not Muslims. Terrorists do command great sympathy in the Islamic world. Islamic populations are anti-American or anti-western and they are attacking infidels. An Afghan gentleman freed from detention at Guantanamo in November 2002 told a Washington Post reporter: "the Americans treated me well, but they were not Muslims, so I didn't like them."

It's too bad that Islam has not learned to think outside the box with the minds of most Americans, but that has not happened except in a few cases. At a conference held by Iraninian reformers in Isfahan, Ebrahim Moosa, iman from South Africa teaching at Duke University, urged that Islam be recast in order to accommodate liberal attitudes and wanted three changes: recognition of women's equality with men; toleration of capitalism; and recognition of the full dignity and humanity of nonbelievers. This was quite a revelation. It has not been accepted by the others.

One group of Christians, the Evangelicals, have been most supportive of the Jewish Israel, while other groups have blindly joined the bandwagon to destroy this 62 year old state by promoting ways of bringing it down to total destruction like boycotting products from Israel. This is a time when we need to join hands to assist Israel in its valiant efforts to remain a state, not to offer uncalled for condemnation. John Hagee, leader of Evangelical Christianity, has studied the issues well concerning Israel and the Palestinians and has written the book, "In Defense of Israel. His members have joined Jews in working on educational materials as well as being in committees to help combat propaganda against Israel.

So far since 1980, America has experienced 318 terrorist incidents. Out of these, only 6% were executed by Islamic terrorists. The problem remains where the Koran teaches jihad. Whether or not Muslims will accept moderate interpretations of Islam or are tending to accept a strict Sharia gives us the indication of their attitude towards the non-Muslim.

Author and commentator Daniel Pipes says that there are no less than 130 million Islamic jihadists but Prof. Sharma of India on November 8, 2006 has come to the number of on more than one in one hundred of the 180 million young fundamentalist Muslim men are prepared mentally, morally and spiritually to be terrorists. This means that there are 1.8 million actual Islamic jihadists on the planet as of November 2006. He did say that this number could jump 100 fold almost instantaneously should the opportunity arise. While only 15% of Muslims are potential jihadists today, that % is growing rapidly. Because of OPEC funding and clerical indoctrination, the Islamic world is growing more fundamentalist. In twenty years most Muslims could be terrorists. When America invaded Iraq, Professor Sharma felt his analysis was validated. Acts of terrorism increased over 1 million %; from one every several months to 100's per day. Needless to say, Sharma was very much against invading Iraq.

Polling data from Turkey, Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, Lebanon, and the recent Palestinian elections show 60 to 70 % of Muslims worldwide are Salafists, meaning they are fundamentalist Islam, the Islam of all terrorists and it's not a fringe movement. Turkey's president, Ahmet Necdet Sezar is a fundamentalist Muslim. Where they had been friendly with Israel, they have recently turned against her. The 9/11 suicide bombers were Salafi Muslims. 99.99% of Islamic terrorists are of this ilk. Shia mullahs are also Salafists. They rule Iran, as we have seen with the poisonous anti-Semitic words that pour out of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's mouth. Polls indicate that a high percent of Pakistan and Saudi Arabia support Osama Bin Laden. Baby boys born in Muslim nations are being named for him.

The pool of terrorists comes from a possible 300 million males from age 15-30. Recognize reality. Threats exist-even in Portland.

Reference: Amital Etzioni aka Werner Falk, German-Israeli American Sociologist http://www.sullivan-county.com/id3/kill_christ.htm November 12, 2002
Oregonian 11/27/10 Front page and page A8
http://www.thereligionofpeace.com/Quran/009-friends-with-christians-jews.htm
The Murderers of Christianity by Patrick J. Buchanan
http://www.danielpipes.org/comments/65537
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islam
FBI Databasehttp://www.fbi.gov/stats-services/publications/terrorism-2002-2005/terror02_05
http://forums.hannity.com/showthread.php?t=2129271&page=3 Discussing % of potential terrorists
http://www.islamreview.com/articles/islamicterrorism.shtml
http://www.palwatch.org/main.aspx?fi=455 Palestinians promoting terrorism
http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/atlas_shrugs/2010/11/egypt-muslims-halt-church-construction-pelt-coptic-christians-with-stones.html
Oregonian 11/28/2010 Steve Duin's "Committed to 'violent jihad on a spectacular scale'" p. B

Monday, November 22, 2010

US Speaking With Forked Tongue Again

Nadene Goldfoot's take on situation.
First, the forked tongue spoke to the Indians and gave them a raw deal. Now it has been happening to Israel, over and over from the US.

Obama and Clinton both promised in AIPAC meetings to people concerned about Israel that Jerusalem would remain whole.

Last week they offered Netanyahu such a deal that he couldn't hardly resist; 20 Jet fighters free if he would only stop building in Judea and Samaria for three months in order to get the Palestinians to the peace table and talk turkey.

Now, suddenly, all the newspapers in Israel and the US seem to have reported this wrongly.

Obama officials are denying the November 11th pledged package deal. They were just misleading. Oh my. Now they say they agreed to nothing beyond US political support and diplomatic guarantees. Netanyahu had to remind Obama again that Jerusalem is a city and not a settlement and was never part of any deal. How can such smart people forget such things?

The translation of Clinton and Obama's words were simply wrong. Basically it was Clinton whose words were not exactly like those of Obama.

So really, verbal meetings just don't amount to a hill of beans. Everything must be in writing and gone over with a fine tooth comb with lawyers to be understood. Then again, there's the language barrier, even though Netanyahu speaks excellent English. Somehow, what is said and what is meant afterwards just don't match up.

Knowing this, Netanyahu was smart enough to ask for the promises in written form, which have never arrived. Netanyahu asked for 3 conditions;

1. Guarantee that this would be the last freeze asked of Israel (this would be the 2nd one)

2. Veto a demand of the Palestinians to become independent in the UN without peace talks with Israel.

3. Not to pressure Israel during the 3 month freeze

Israel had never asked for any freebies. They had already put in an order of 20 jets to the US before this had come up.

The US still demands that the building freeze must cover Jerusalem and Israel will not be rewarded with warplanes for free. Such a deal. My bet is that this understanding came about after the Palestinians announced they were sitting tight and not moving till Israel gave up East Jerusalem to them. Or would it have been when Clinton and Obama were reminded that they couldn't spend so much money anymore? Maybe both? Promises, promises....

http://www.israelnewsdaily.com/
http://israelbehindthenews.com/bin/content.cgi?ID=4205&q=1 by David Bedein
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/140827

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Portland's Hadassah Chanukah Fair







Our Hadassah Chanukah Fair took place at Neveh Shalom Synagogue again on Sunday, November 14th. Hadassah had a table full of Chanukah goodies for sale. We also had a baked goods table with breads, including lovely Challot, brownies of all types, cookies and other breads. All these were home made. The first top picture shows some of the baked goods.
In walking around the fair and chatting with vendors, I found a lady who was actually connected to my family that I had never met. She's in the middle picture. She was selling crayons of many shapes that were fun to use. That shows that it pays to come to the Hadassah Chanukah Fair which helped me to work on my family tree. Oh yes, Jewish Genealogical Society of Oregon was there as well with a table.
In the last picture you can see our hard worker, Diana Lindeman, having fun as she sold all our brownies by walking around the fair with a basket of them. First there and last to leave, she was having a good time.

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

The Honey Trap: Vote on Sunday


I'm going to take the premise that I have always had and see that a speaker at MJCC on Monday, Mr. Halevy, also shares this with me. It's that the problem between the Palestinians and Israelis stem from 1948 with the creation of Israel, not the war of 1967. The Arabs were not willing to accept a Jewish state in the neighborhood and I feel that the world has not helped to change their minds. In fact, like an alcoholic, the world has remained enabling the Arabs in their hatred of Israel; thus, empowering them in their unwillingness to come to terms with peace.

The Oregonian today has an article titled: Israeli defense officials back U.S. settlement freeze deal. The United States has offered Israel a deal to again, after a 10 month freeze where Israel did not allow building to occur in Judea and Samaria that didn't lure the Arabs to the peace table, to do it again and not build there for another three months to give the Palestinians another go at coming to a peace table.

The deal is much better than the first offer as far as that goes which three former army defense officials want to take. Israel had ordered 20 F-35 stealth fighter jets which they would buy. The deal is to give them as a gift to Israel. These jets are capable of traveling long distances and not be detected by radar. This makes them an important asset in Israel's defense system. Right now the main concern of Israel is the threat of nuclear bombing from Iran, so this would be a most welcome asset for Israel to have.

Besides that, the US would support Israel in the United Nations and would block recognition of Palestinians to declare independence. They want Jerusalem, or part of it, as their capital, plus a return of all Palestinians as they count them, and they are saying that they intend to go the UN and declare themselves a state without having signed any peace agreement with Israel.

Palestinians have not been appraised of the deal as yet. What they have wanted is a "real change in Israeli settlement policy, not a quick fix", said an official in Ramallah, though the Palestinian government hasn't considered the proposal as yet. Palestinians have turned down peace proposals and the chance to have their own state since 1948, always holding out for more, like having Israelis leave. Giving Palestinians land has not changed their attitude, so this has been a tried and true experiment that has not given positive results.

This is why the Israeli cabinet is not whole-heartedly enthused with the deal like their defense officials. Netanyahu will take the offer to them for approval, and it may pass with a majority of one vote, as far as it looks at this moment. Moshe Yaalon, Vice Prime Minister, already rejected the deal as a "honey trap." Other said they would work on dismantling the government if the proposal was approved. I'm sure they feel "been there-done that" and do not want to deny their citizens anymore. The Palestinians have been setting preconditions that have been unreasonable, so meetings have not resulted. For one thing, their idea of an Israeli change of policy is for Israel to move out of Judea and Samaria, lock, stock and barrel. They expect it to be rid of Jews and to have their population 100% Muslim. This, a possible future neighbor tells us, while our population contains over 1 million Palestinians is a hard pill to swallow.

Sunday, the cabinet will vote. I'm going to say that Netanyahu has counted the votes in his head and it will pass by one. The aftermath will be pressuring him to leave the government. Building will be stopped for three months. At the end Israel will be in the same place as now. The Palestinians will not come to the table to talk about peace. They never have made any concessions. It's always Israel that is pressured to do so, as the situation is right now. In the meantime, Jews living in Judea and Samaria will be hung up with their plans of adding on a merepeset (porch) or whatever builders are trying to do.

I'm going to say that the trade of waiting for three months to build is worth the gift of the 20 jet fighters. The thing I worry about the most is Iran and their continued threats of killing Israelis. Go for it, Israel, and then forget doing it again. This is the last opportunity for Palestinians to sit down and get real and talk about peace and the future. Let the world see how far we bend in the name of peace, even though they have had innumerable times in the past to see it. Then, we say, "Dayenu." Enough already. It's past time for Europe and others to pressure the Palestinians to stop being so anti-Israel and to be thankful they're getting a chance to have their own state. Otherwise, they should move on and live in one of the 47 Muslim majority countries in the world. How about Saudi Arabia?

I do feel guiltythough, of saying one more chance. As a mother and a teacher, we are told to set limits and to stick to what we say, not cave in and keep allowing bad behavior to happen without appropriate outcomes. A child doesn't believe his parents when he keeps getting around the punishment for having broken the rules. Adults aren't that much different. Has the US the where-with-all to convince the Palestinians to take this last time opportunity and make the right choices in this three month term?

Which reminds me; why didn't Hillary wait till the Palestinians come to the peace table and come to logical conclusions good for all and then reward them with the millions of dollars for the future Palestine? She gave them this money without having any way of checking on how it will be spent. It could very well go to arms against Israel. It could fall into Hamas's hands. It could go into Abbas's bank account. Didn't that happen with Arafat's money?

19:19am Five minutes after this piece was written, I get this news from the Jerusalem Post.
Sources say PA refusing to return to negotiating table even if new 90-day freeze implemented; opposition is responsible for delay in Israel receiving letter outlining terms of deal. Also, Israel is asking for confirmation of the offer in writing. The Jet fighter offer has not been confirmed. I'm not surprised and have a feeling that the US Congress will not back that one up at this time.
Arutz Sheva Newspaper tells us: "an American gift "reward" of 10 advanced stealth fighters in addition to those Israel already has agreed to buy."
Yedioth Ahronoth Newspaper reveals that Erekat of the Palestinians also wants the release of all prisoners.
Resource: Oregonian Newspaper, 11/16/10 page A 11
Yossi Klein Halevi of Israel, speaker on Sunday, 11/14/10 MJCC
Jerusalem Post Newspaperhttp://www.jpost.com/MiddleEast/Article.aspx?id=195589

Friday, November 12, 2010

Facts About Muslims in World


The Pew Research Center did a demographic study in October 2009 and found that there are 1.57 billion Muslims around the world. This means that about 1 in 4 people are Muslim. There are between 47-50 Muslim-majority countries that have over 50% Muslim population. I count 47. Some, such as President Obama, have counted 57 Muslim majority states. Some have already added the Palestinians as a country which will be 100% Muslim as they do not want any Jews in their state. Also, some have counted a country called Sahara, but this was taken over by Morocco in 1979, so should be counted as a part of that state. It's not listed in the CIA records of countries. Snopes tells me there are 57 Muslim states. There is one Jewish state; Israel.



Islam is the 2nd largest religion in the world. It is mainly found in the Middle East, northern Africa and some places in Asia. They also have communities in China, the Balkans and Russia.



Most of India's Muslims left and formed their own state of Pakistan which is the 2nd largest state of Muslims with a population of 172,800,000. However, India still has about 13.4% of their population as Muslims which means 160,945,000 Muslims still live there. The Muslim countries cover over 12 million square miles. Israel has only about 12,000 square miles. In fractions that is one one-thousandth of the Muslim-Arab land.



What I'm leading up to is that Israel is our only Jewish state, created in 1948. We now have about 6 million Jews living there as well as over a million Muslims. Our population is about 7.2 million people. We had to wait 2,000 years to regain a piece of land that had originally been ours. We were attacked in 70 AD by the Romans and some of us were able to continue living there until it was again declared a state in 48, but many of us had been hauled off as slaves or had been killed by the Romans. It took some pressing events such as the Dryfuss Affair to wake many of us up and decide that it was time to make the attempt to go back to our roots. That and numerous Pogroms in Russia set many thinking that we needed our own country as we just weren't welcome in the ones we had settled in. The Holocaust certainly told is it was past time to have our own state.



Surpisingly, the Ottoman Empire had invited many of us back after we had traversed to Eastern Europe from the Middle East. They found need for our skills and sent out invitations. We were treated better there than we had been in Europe, though we found we were dminnis, or 2nd class citizens.



When Israel was declared a state in 1948, the Middle Eastern Muslim communities turned against us, and many of these people left for Israel as they had no other choice at that point. So we had a migration of Jews to Israel from Muslim countries while Muslims that were living in Israel left to camp out in temporary quarters due to the directions of their leaders. Of course Israel took the displaced Middle Eastern Jews in but the Muslim countries did not take in the Palestinians. What happened was that some wound up in Jordan and they had a huge battle about it. Jordan fought it. Now many are settled there with the king marrying a very lovely American-Muslim lady.



We have about 6 million Jews living in the United States and a few scattered in other parts of the world. Israel and the USA have the bulk of the Jews in the world. We are less than 1% of the world population.



We have surprised the world by surviving all the wars since our birth in 48, surmounting horrible odds, but am yisrael chai, Israel lives. This hasn't made the Muslims very happy, to say the least. I was 14 years old when Israel was created and have seen more wars than I care to say. After the attack in 67 we gained back Jerusalem, the City of David. It had been occupied by Jordan who had taken it over illegally. Before religions other than Muslim could not enter. Jewish cemeteries were desecrated with filth and excrement. With Israel's miracle of regaining it, it has been open to all. for the first time our people could pray at the Wall. Tourists love to come to Jerusalem, whatever the religion. The Bahai Center is a lovely spot in Haifa.

Israelis believe they have the right to build in their own capital if they find they need to do this. Would they tell any state in the USA that they couldn't repair, fix, or even replace something in their capital? What Chutzpa that would be. There has been no peace treaty signed with Palestinians who want our little sliver of land for their state though they have had 62 years to think it over.

Except for a few Arabs, most of the Palestinian population had entered the Holy Land from other countries in the Middle East to gain employment from Jews returning to the land in the 1800's in what we call Aliyahs. Joan Peters aptly points this out in her book, "From Time Immemorial." What the present day Arab leadership now wants is for the right of return for their people, which would swamp Israel completely. Israel would then have millions right on their doorstep. This is why it is necessary for the Arabs to come to the table and talk peace if they mean it. They are even denying our past history in the land, which is hard to fathom.

Israel seems to have a hard time reminding people that Israel is not the 51st state of the United States. It is its own state and has its interests at heart and hopes that the USA can understand this. So many are trying to deligitimize Israel, which I feel is disgraceful. It's the only democratic state in the Middle East and has been fighting for survival only. It's never practiced ethnic cleansing . Israel itself is made up of the Jews from all the countries in the world . It has been experiencing the return of the diaspora as predicted in the Bible. There are probably more diverse people here in this little melting pot than in any other country. It's like truly living in a little United Nations.

There can come a day when the Arabs will tire of hating us and decide to live in peace, even allowing us our legitimate piece. It will come about when Europe and the United States stand firm and back us up in our determination to stay alive and to keep our teeny state whole, not to do things like boycott Israeli products.

http://www.oic-oci.org/member_states.asp
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Muslim_majority_countries
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_Muslim_population
http://www.jewishindy.com/mudules/php?name=News&file=print&sid=13491 page 5.

Thursday, November 11, 2010

The Contraversial George Soros, Multimillionaire


I've been watching the Glenn Beck show which has been running a 3 day program about George Soros because Beck is very concerned about the motives of this powerful financier. I had heard of Mr. Soros as the backer of J Street, an organization stepping on the toes of AIPAC, saying they are concerned with Israel but showing it in their way and not supportive of the present government, necessarily. Knowing that they were being supplied with money from Soros was quite a revelation. Then I heard of Soros's activities during WWII.

"Throughout three programs this week, Mr. Beck has portrayed Mr. Soros, a billionaire investor and philanthropist, as a “puppet master” who is “notorious for collapsing economies and regimes all around the world” and whose “next target” is the United States. Citing Mr. Soros’s statements about the decline of the dollar, Mr. Beck said, “Not only does he want to bring America to her knees, financially, he wants to reap obscene profits off us as well.”




Today Abraham Foxman of the ADL criticized Beck for mentioning that at age 14 Soros was helping an anti-semite confiscate property from Jews who were being sent to prison camps. I might mention that Beck is very supportive of Jews and of Israel as I have watched programs of his where he was one of the few people backing Israel.

Soros was born as Schwartz Gyorgy on August 12, 1930 in Budapest, Hungary. When age 13, which was then March 1944, the Germans occupied Hungary. He found work at the Jewish Council who were elected to carry out anti-Jewish measures. Soros had the job of handing out deportation notices to people. When interviewed about it, I saw that he did not have any remorse about doing what he had to do then. This was a very hard-hearted statement to say in an interview that would be seen by many people. Today he is an atheist but says that he is G-d. I'm not sure if he is saying this tongue in cheek or if he is coming to actually believe it. He certainly has money to use to control people today so must be feeling like a puppeteer at least.

In 1936 his family changed their names to Soros because of the anti-semitism of the day.

He immigrated to New York city in 1956 and is an American citizen now. He's known as the man who broke the bank of England. He made one billion dollars during their 1992 financial crisis.

Beck gave his audience a terrific amount of information about Soros. I would think that Foxman did not see all three programs about him. Beck continually tells his audience not to take his word for anything but to do their own research. However, Beck has help doing this and comes up with facts not readily available to me in many cases. I admire him for digging so well for facts. I think it takes a company of people to dig up the facts Beck has and to be able to piece them together in a time line like he has done and then prepare a talk about it with visual aids. It is most alarming to find out how many many organizations he controls with his money. His political aura is not that of the tea party, I can tell you that much. He is more of the Alinsky type of thinking. I did tape his 2nd program which is loaded with this information.

George supports legalizing marijuana. He says that China has to fix the global currency crisis.
Whatever happens in our economy now, Mr. Soros may have been behind the scenes controlling the acts. I believe after watching Beck's three programs that Soros may be the playwright as well.

PS 11/13/2010 9:34PM Evidently Simon Greer, Jewish, is another George Soros groupie and is head of the Jewish Funds for Justice, another group against Israel as much as Glenn Beck is for it. He is raising quite the ruckus over Glenn pinpointing him. It's most disapppointing to find out about this meshugana Soros being anti-Israel with all the where-with-all to talk other Jews into following his lead. How can they be so gullible? It looks like money can buy common sense and then bury it in some cases. How sad.

Reference: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/12/us/12beck.html
http://www.georgesoros.com/articles-essays/entry/china_must_fix_the_global_currency_crisis/
http://bigjournalism.com/klarrey/2010/11/13/groups-funded-by-soros-network-back-soros/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Soros

Monday, November 8, 2010

Global Day of Jewish Learnings




Yesterday, November 7th, Portland took part of the Global Day of Jewish Learnings at Shaarie Torah Synagogue. This was in celebration of Rabbi Aden Steinsaltz's translation of the Talmud from it's original Aramaic and ancient Hebrew that he started doing in 1965 and just now completed.

We studied from 11:15am to 4pm, taking time out for lunch only. This experience was happening all over the world at the same time. We were all studying the same subjects. It was exhilarating. We were taught by Rabbi Brodkin, Rabbi Cahana, Rabbi Dunsker, Jonathan Emanuel, Rabbi Fisher, Rabbi Greenstein, Dorice Horenstein, Rabbi Isaak, Charles Schiffman, Rabbi Stone, Rebitzen Wilhelm, and Rabbi Zuckerman.

This day of study was a first of its kind, so it was exciting to be a part of it and be able to participate. It wasn't just lecturing; the audience did their part by participating and coming up with many answers to questions, and the subjects were quite heavy.

We discussed subjects connected with Ha Shem: Arguing with G-d, Testing G-d, To whom does G-d listen?, Hannah prayer and what makes it work? and other things such as leadership and humility, models of leadership, love and marriage, beauty and romance, examples of empathy, normal or disasterous, and ideas such as the world is a human responsibility.

All these ideas came from Genesis, the Midrash, Maimonides, Rambam, Ecclesiates, Numbers, Samuel, and of course, the Talmud.

Monday, November 1, 2010

Jerusalem Needing Solomon's Wisdom Right Now


Our Israeli government states that Jerusalem is our eternal and indivisible capital of Israel.
The Palestinians want the Eastern sector of Jerusalem as their state capital. The middle East conflict is centering on this issue.

This difference has caused PM Netanyahu to ban all political events by the Palestinians in Eastern Jerusalem. He has received reports that the PM Salam Fayyad is opening two schools there and wants to have ceremonies for it. I imagine that the fear is that there will be demonstrations involved against Israel and they hope to prevent this.

I see this situation as problematic . The problem causing it is that the Palestinians are supposed to get permission before they do things in Jerusalem and they haven't. It's like the fact that we would have to get building permits to renovate or build in our city in the USA. the schools they have renovated needed it. Israel couldn't afford to do it right now and the PA had the money. Israel couldn't afford to do it because so much money has to be spent on security.

Of course, besides this fact, when you get down to it, Israel is not willing to divide Jerusalem.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20101101/wl_mideast_afp/israelpalestiniansconflictjerusalem
http://www.jpost.com/Israel/Article.aspx?id=193574

Bombs Destined for Chicago Synagogue


The last few days have seen numerous newspaper and TV accounts of bombs placed in computer cartridge printers in cargo planes that were destined for a synagogue in Chicago. The planes happened to have to go through Britain and Dubai before getting to Chicago.

This caused a cargo plane to be searched and interrupted the schedule. Cell phones could have caused the bombs to go off, so the thought is that they may have wanted to blow up the planes in the air. The bombs were loaded in Yemen. Most likely, an al Qaida man, Ibrahim Hassan al Asiri was the creator of these bombs.

Our government found out about the bombs through a tip from Saudi Arabia, who has been infiltrating spies in Yemen.

"Hanan al-Samawi, 22, a student at the University of Sana'a, was arrested after police surrounded a house in the Yemeni capital. Her 45-year-old mother was arrested with her, according to Yemeni human rights activist Abdel-Rahman Barman." Hanan was thought to the the person who mailed the bombs.

Coming at a time just before the mid term elections caused many to wonder just what the bomber had in mind. Was this timing just a coincidence? If on purpose, for what ends?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101101/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/mail_bombs
http://www.u.tv/News/Cargo-plane-bomb-plot-tip-off-came-from-ex-Guant%C3%A1namo-Bay-detainee/85ee7d43-03ed-4ab7-ae90-6876ee99df46
http://www.nowpublic.com/world/seeds-terrorism-planted-yemen-university

High School Game: Kidnapping "Jews" to be Pursued by Nazis


On May 20th La Quinta High School students created a game of pretending to be a kidnapped and blindfolded Jew, taken in a car to some unknown spot on the highway and dumped, and then be pursued by "Nazis." This game started right on the school grounds of this school which is part of the Desert Sands Unified School District in Palm Springs, California. What were they looking for, a thrill of danger? Computer games aren't enough today; they want the real thing. Gamers were called on through Facebook where 40 friends signed up. Luckily, only 7 played the game. If they had found this game fun, I'm sure they would have attracted the others. It probably was dependent on the number of cars involved and how many playing would be the Nazis.

The Jewish Federation of Palm Springs is helping the school district with some anti-bias education created from the ADL called "A World of Difference, " said Bruce Landgarten.

What happened to week end dances? What happened to scavenger hunts? What happened to football games? Is reality TV the cause of this game? These kids certainly do need some empathy education, for what they're getting is creating some monsters. I'm just glad that the school will be taught a lesson through ADL. Perhaps the parents and teachers need to join their children on this learning situation, too.

http://www.jta.org/news/article/2010/10/31/2741510/beat-the-jew-high-school-to-get-tolerance-education

http://israelmuse.blogspot.com/2010/10/news-beat-jew-game-prompts-high-schools.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+israelmuse+%28Israel+Muse+Portal+%28News%29%29