Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Our Jewish History: All the Events Before Israel's Rebirth of May 14, 1948


Nadene Goldfoot
By the Jewish calendar, Moses was born on the 7th of Adar 2368, or 1400 BCE.  Moses was led by G-d to the Promised Land, Canaan or Eretz Israel, with his people, who had been slaves in Egypt for 400 years. They did not have an easy trip, but were forced to fight for their lives against the Amorites, Moabites, Midianites and Bashan while on the east side of the Jordan River.   Moses was 120 at the time the 600,000 arrived there, but could not enter.  He died in an unknown spot on purpose, as he was not to be worshipped, but his next in line, Joshua, led the people in. 

More than 3,000 years ago, the 12 Tribes of Israelites formed the first constitutional monarchy in what came to be called "The Promised Land" about 1,000 BCE.  King David, the 2nd Jewish King, made Jerusalem the nation's capital.  The nation of Israel was split after the death of Solomon, David's son, and the Southern  half became Judah.  The tribes living in Judah were  3 of the 12; Judah, most of Benjamin and Simeon.

Jewish independence lasted 212 years.  The USA's age is only 236 years. 

In the 2nd century CE, the Romans crushed the last Jewish revolt in 135.  they used the name Palaestina instead of Judea (what is Judea and Samaria and today referred to as "West Bank."  in order to delete Jewish identification with the land of Israel.  "Filastin" is an Arabic word which came from this Latin name.  Originally, the term "Palestine" is thought to be from "Philistines," an Aegean people who settled along the Mediterranean coastal plain of what is now Israel and the Gaza Strip in the 12th Century BCE. 

When the Jews' 2nd Temple was destroyed in 70 CE, many were dispersed, but also many stayed and maintained ties to their homeland for more than 3,700 years.  They maintained their national language of Hebrew and maintained their own distinct civilization.  Jewish life continued and often flourished.  Communities were reestablished in Jerusalem and Tiberias by the 9th century.  By the 11th century, Jewish communities were growing in Rafah, Gaza, Ashkelon, Jaffa and Caesarea. 

Along came the Crusaders who massacred many Jews during the 12th century, but in two centuries communities again rebounded.  Large numbers of rabbis and Jewish pilgrims immigrated to Jerusalem and the Galilee.  Well known rabbis settled into communities in Safed, Jerusalem and other places during the next 300 years.  Read "The Source" by James Mitchener.  It has a lovely chapter about Safed.  Mitchener lived there while he was writing. 

So we never left.  We've always had a population living in our homeland.  By the early 19th century, more than 10,000 Jews lived throughout our modern Israel. 

Israel is unique and has an international "birth certificate" validated by the promise of the Bible, Jewish settlement from the time of Joshua onward.  This is why Jews chose to return when they came to the conclusion that they desperately needed their own homeland.  No other place was in their heart. 

By the 1870's many Jews from Russia and the rest of Europe immigrated back to Palestine as refugees from pogroms there. Tsar Alexander III issued the May Laws in 1882 which caused 2 million Jews to emigrate. from 1881 to 1884.  Many went to the USA while others made aliyah to Eretz Israel.   They had the idea of creating a perfect land, a Utopia of peace and good will.  They and their descendants worked for 78 years of nation-building which finally was realized with the reestablishment of the Jewish State.  By 1897 Theodor Herzl, reporter and lawyer who was appalled by the Dryfus Affair in France,  was on the scene trying to secure the land as the Jewish Homeland.  The land was then part of the Ottoman Empire and still lay in waste, untouched since 135 CE.   

When the WWI ended, their time came and they approached the British who held the mandate over the area.  That was November 11, 1918.  The world had seen 4 years of terrible fighting and the allies took over the Ottoman Empire who had been on the axis side.  Our ancestors had the Balfour Declaration of 1917, went through the League of Nations Mandate which incorporated the Balfour Declaration for the Jewish Homeland, and then the UN partition resolution of 1947. The Balfour Declaration referred to "the historical connections of the Jewish people with Palestine and to the moral validity of reconstituting their National Home in that country.  It was to be the whole of historic Palestine, including Transjordan (today's Jordan). .   Finally, Israel was admitted to the UN in 1948 after their birthday of May 14, 1948.

Israel has long had the right to exist.  There can be no discussion about it.  Saudi Arabia has a right to exist and so does the USA and 151 other states.  Israel is a legitimate state in this world.  Now is not the time to decide to back the people who want to destroy it and who have been trying for the past 64 years.  If they're not shooting missiles at Israel they're trying to erase the fact that Jews ever had a history in the land.  Their people remain ignorant of the facts.   

Reference: http://www.jewfaq.org/moshe.htm
Myths and Facts by Mitchell G. Bard and Joel Himelfarb
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hovevei_Zion
http://www.jewishmag.com/9mag/herzl/herzl.htm
The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia


Ma'Alot Massacre of 22 Israeli Children


Nadene Goldfoot
On May 15, 1974, 3 armed Palestinian terrorists belonging to the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine but dressed in Israeli uniforms  snuck into Israel at night from Lebanon and  attacked Ma'alot, located in the Western Galilee of Israel, only 6 miles away from the Lebanese border.  It was quite close to Safed, where I lived from 1980-1985.  Terrorists had taken 115 people hostage which ended with 25 dying. 

First they had attacked a van and killed two Israeli Arab women.  Then they entered an apartment building in the town and killed a 4 year old, Eliahu,  and his parents, Fortuna, 7 months pregnant  and Yosef Cohen. Their 5 year old daughter, Miriam, was wounded.  (This is why my apartment in Safed had bars on our living room windows as we were at ground level).  Several more people were killed along the route. 

After this slaughter they headed for the Netiv Meir Elementary School, where high school students from Safed were boarded who were on a field trip,  to take 105 children and 10 adults there as hostage.  This was to demand the release of 23 Palestinian militants from prisons in Israel and 3 other prisoners of which the Japanese Kozo Okamoto was one.  He was a part of the 1972 Lod airport Massacre.   Otherwise,  they would kill the students.  6:00 pm that same day was the deadline.   Students were forced to sit on the floor at gunpoint, looking at explosive charges near them. 

 The deadline could not be met, so the decision was made for the Golani Brigade to storm the school.  The terrorists had killed 22 children and 3 adults with grenades and automatic weapons during the takeover.  68 were injured in the melee.  In the end the 3 terrorists were killed.  The children were buried in Safed.  10,000 mourners attended.  Seven years later I taught English at the junior high in Safed while my husband taught in the high school.  Some of the teachers had been students in the massacre.  No one forgot as the cemetery is a reminder.

Last week the Palestine Authority (PA) TV broadcast tributes to these same terrorists (DFLP).  They glorified the terrorists as "Martyrs,".  They have been doing such things all along with honoring these same terrorist group last year as well.  They actually glorify the ma'alot massacre of murdering 22 children when they were in school!  This happens to be the anniversary of DFLP's founding, so broadcast such vileness 10 times just last week.  These "Heros" were in a collage which showed the 16 pictures of the men with their weapons.  What they called "Operations in northern Palestine" is in truth "terror attacks in northern Israel."

This is the type of morality these terrorists exhibit.  Knowing where their minds are, how can there be any Americans or Europeans, for that matter, that side with them and praise them?  Does this mean that most of the world thinks as they do? 

Ilana Turgeman, Rachel Aputa, Yocheved Mazoz, Sarah Ben-Shim'on, Yona Sabag, Yafa Cohen, Shoshana Cohen, Michal Sitrok, Malka Amrosy, Aviva Saada, Yocheved Diyi, Yaakov Levi, Yaakov Kabla, Rina Cohen, Ilana Ne'eman, Sarah Madar, Tamar Dahan, Sarah Sofer, Lili Morad, David Madar and Yehudit Madar and one unknown were high schools students killed in this attack.

Resource: http://palwatch.org/main.aspx?fi=157&doc_id=6520
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ma'alot_massacre

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Christians of England Practicing anti-Semitism Again

Nadene Goldfoot
The  United Kingdom has the Episcopalian Protestant Church (Anglican) as their official religion which is headed by the Queen. A vicar or senior priest, Stephen Sizer, promotes Holocaust denial of all things.  Being raised in England where people suffered in WWII, one would find this shocking to be so in the dark as to what was happening those days.  This attitude shows his mettle right off the bat. 

He's really showing his true colors, not the colors of the Christianity practiced by my friends, about which he says he became a Christian in 1973, but of that demonstrated in some bygone day of the Crusades, maybe.  He studied at Trinity College from 1980-1983 to be a pastor.  He's even called Israel's IDF (Israel Defense Forces)  Herod's soldiers operating in Bethlehem today.  Herod was the king appointed by the Romans that ordered troops to kill all Jewish babies in and around Bethlehem.  Sizer should only know the great lengths the 10% of IDF troops who have actually be engaged in battle go through to protect innocent civilians.  But then, this man is a member of the Friends of Sabeel UK, and also a member of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign.  He even has press credentials from the Holy Land Trust.   He's immersed himself in hatred for Israel in every way. I have an article about Sabeel in this website.  http://jewishfactsfromportland.blogspot.com/2011/08/desmond-tutu-patron-of-sabeel.html

How he has been practicing his anti-Israel/anti-Semitism has been through the internet.  He promoted a website of Holocaust denial and warns of a Zionist conspiracy controlling the world.  There goes that old refrain again.  Jews numbering less than 1% of the world are out to control it, so he maliciously spreads this lying rumor.    Isn't this against all religions to do such a thing?  Sizer is actually breaking the 9th commandment, the prohibition of harming a person through speech or bearing false witness against your neighbor.  He's so anti-semitic he can't think straight. 

He also used his Facebook page to link to "The Ugly Truth", which claims Zionism, Jewish extremism and more make our world uninhabitable today.  This is where they run cartoons created by  Holocaust deniers and support Ahmadinejad. 

Sizer promotes boycotts of companies if they have profits going to the "Zionist agenda."  He wrote a book, "Christian Zionism:  Road-map to Armageddon?" endorsed by leading British and American bishops, which goes against what Pastor John Hagee of the USA preaches.  Pastor Hagee also wrote a book, "In Defense of Israel".  His group is where our true friends are.  Sizer believes in a different theology known as "supersessionism"  or replacement theology.  They feel that since Jews don't believe that Jesus is G-d/or son of G-d, they are no longer the chosen people.  They have been replaced by the Christians.  I'm happy to report that not all Christians believe this.  They are preaching that Israel is an illegal regime and a "crime against humanity" and promotes international boycott, which is so familiar to what the terrorists, Hamas, preach in order to take over all of Israel.  Incidently, Jews believe that we all are children of G-d.  We're all very special and therefore life is special.  Our favorite saying at a happy occasion is "To Life" or L'Chayim. 

Tevia in "Fiddler on the Roof" tells it like many of us have thought many times.  "G-d can't you choose someone else for a change?  Why us?"  He was questioning why Jews are always the scapegoats of the world.  I guess since Judaism has lasted this past 4,000 years, G-d was right to call us a "stiff-necked people."  We're very stubborn and don't forget about our heritage and promise.  That's why we were chosen.  Who else would put up with the trials and tribulations that we have had to endure to keep the faith? 

If that isn't all Stephen Sizer  has been up to, he is one of the major movers of the "Christ at the Checkpoint 2012 Conference."  The Bible College of Bethlehem will host this one in March.  Many pastors from the USA will be attending.  Of course they will speak against Israel as they're enjoying the protection of the country they hate. 

Melanie Phillips, UK columnist, says that these people are "Christians who hate the Jews."  Way back in 1190 CE, British Christians slaughtered York's Jews after calling them "serpens antiquus qui vocatur diabolo et Satans,"   which was calling Jews devils and Satans like the serpent of old.  What they are doing is more like believing in demonology and banning Israel from the family of nations. 

Every year we Jews become introspective about our behavior and have a day of fasting on Yom Kippur where we are told that our names are entered into the book of Life and of course we ask forgiveness and promise to do better. What we do is recorded.  I hope Ha Shem takes note of this behavior.  I'm sure it will be recorded. 

The sad point of this story is that there are Christians taught to believe all sorts of lies about Israel, thereby hating Israelis and Jews, for 80% of Israel is populated by Jews. In a perfect world, they would turn to Pastor Hagee and ask why he defends them.  Maybe then they would learn a few honest facts. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vicar
http://www.stephensizer.com/about/
Book:  In Defense of Israel by John Hagee
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4191509,00.html by Giulio Meotti, journalist and author, "The Untold Story of Israel's Victims of Terrorism", from Italy
http://www.theopedia.com/Supersessionism
http://www.jewfaq.org/10.htm

How Many Democrats Have Turned Against Israel: Through TV

Nadene Goldfoot
Behind the scenes of Television Land is a Democratic sponsored organization, called Media Matters, a liberal media watchdog, which is known for its harsh and biased coverage of Israel.  They slam Fox News continually, a channel that in my opinion, covers news about Israel without bashing it.  When I've wanted to know what was happening in Israel during tense times, I could find information on Fox.  Most Democrats I know never watch Fox News.  It's as if they'll turn into stone if they do.  So they never hear true facts about Israel but instead watch some other very biased program.  In this way, in my opinion, many uninvolved souls knowing little about Israel  are being brainwashed. 

Media Matters  even have given out awards called the "Misinformer of the Year" who had, in their estimation, many factual errors and claims.  (Ha!) Fox's Bill O'Reilly got it in 2004, Chris Matthews of MSNBC in 2005, ABC in 2006, and again Fox's Sean Hannity 2008, Glenn Beck 2009, Sarah Palin 2010, Rupert Murdoch and News Corp 2011.  Of course this is all done in their opinion and what they are trying to accomplish. 

I was highly impressed with Glenn Beck who did an outstanding job on his program actually teaching facts about Israel with charts, blackboard, and his great way of imparting facts that agreed with mine.  In fact, I thought that if he ever lost his program, he'd be a great history teacher.  In fact, the whole crew at Fox was very positive about Israel's right to exist. 

This group was started by donations from liberals in the Democratic party, and more came in from MoveOn.org and New Democrat Network.  An endorsement came from Democracy Alliance, and finally George Soros with one million dollars in 2010. 

All this politicking has been going on without viewers knowing it.  They are being led by the nose to view certain channels only by their slandering. 

Alan Dershowitz, Democrat and a Harvard law professosr is a strong supporter of Israel.  He has now declared a personal war on this group for its harsh and biased coverage of Israel.  They have not just been countering conservative bias in the media but themselves are practicing extreme anti-Israel turning into anti-Semitic views. 

The U. of Pennsylvania has been a hotbed of anti-Israel activity and is involved with the boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement on campuses in the USA.  Dershowitz spoke there and said that "Media Matters will be responsible for Obama losing this election.  The Democrats cannot win the election and keep this affiliation with them." This is because it is becoming an election matter, and he will make it so. 

He said to the Aaron Klein Investigative Radio program on New York's WABC Radio on Sunday that  he doesn't know if President Obama knows that Media Matters has shown itself to be against Israel.  He will know shortly because he's going to campaign about this. 

As David Brock, founder of Media Matters started this watchdog  over conservatives in 2004,  Alan Dershowitz is stepping up to the plate to speak about  the liberals.  Maybe someday all of us will receive better news reports. 
Re: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Media_Matters_for_America
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/153238

Monday, February 27, 2012

To Build or Not to Build; Decision Made For Shiloh


Nadene Goldfoot
Shiloh is a very important modern Israeli community in Judea-Samaria's mountain ridge which covers several miles of the densely populated coastal plain.  This mountain ridge is indispensable to Israel's defensibility according to American military studies.  In 1967 a study said that in Judea and Samaria Israel should "control the high ground running north and south."  A study done in 1974 by the US Army's Command and Staff College said the same thing.  Therefore, to defend itself in attack, this ridge must stay in Israel's hands.

An attack happened, but from the US State Department's spokesman, Mark Toner.  He's complaining that Israel is planning to build in Shiloh by putting up 500 housing units and said-it's not constructive.  Of course, just like he's speaking for the Palestinians instead of the USA's friend, the Palestinians want this land so don't want Israel to build.  I personally don't see the Palestinians making any effort to come to peace terms, and until such time, I see Israel going ahead with life.   Leave it to the State Dept to get all in a dither with Israel's building plans instead of zoning in on problems with Iran, Iraq, Syria and Egypt, real hot-spots.  Instead, it's always Israel who gets the pressure.

If peace ever does come, which isn't likely, such a place as Shiloh must stay in Israel's hands.  It's a living viable community and people from there serve in the Israeli army.  67.1% of the draftees from such communities serve in combat roles, of which only 10% of the population does. 16% of the residents are officers compared to the average of 8.3%.  It doesn't help the USA to make Israel a weak army.  In fact, Israel's army helps the USA a great deal.  The USA has never had to come with its army to fight for or with us as they have in other countries. 

The orginal Shiloh lay where the tribe of Ephraim (of the 12 tribes) lived in Judea-Samaria.  It was the religious capital of the Jews for 300 years before Jerusalem was built by King David when Israelites came into the land with Joshua.  .  It's even mentioned in "Judges" in the Bible.  So it was south of the ancient city of Tirzah, which was the capital of Samaria before the time of King Omri, and now is said to be where Khirbet Seilun is today in Judea-Samaria, or 10 miles north of Beth El. Bethel was also an ancient Israelite city, 10 miles north of Jerusalem and called Luz formerly.  This is where Abraham erected an altar and later was where Jacob had his dream.  It was after the dream that it was named Bethel.  (House of G-d).   It was a temporary capital of Israel before the First Temple was built.  We had an amazing history right in Judea-Samaria.  The town and the Tabernacle were destroyed by the Philistines after the battle of Aphek in 1050 BCE when the Ark was captured.

Life goes on.  People in Shiloh are marrying and having children.  The city is growing.  Hillary Clinton had once complained about "natural growth" in Israel's cities.  That is quite a shunda to tell people who lost 6 million of their ancestors in the Holocaust to not allow their cities to grow and be repaired.  At least Jews only have one wife, unlike Muslims who have 4 or more and dozens of children. 

The "Palestinians," already inhabiting Gaza, plan to take all of Judea and Samaria as their "Palestine" as well and will have no Jews living there as they will have no enclave of Jews.  That's not acceptable to Israel and hasn't been in any past negotiations.  The more they plan their greedy takeover, the more Israel builds.  Why is the USA making such extreme demands on a friend? They're not looking at the whole picture.  They want a quick fix to a problem to get the Palestinians off their back.  It's like having a check list and wanting to check this problem off.  It's not showing that they care about Israel's welfare or future. 

Resource: http://frontpagemag.com/2012/02/24/israel-builds-obama-administration-squirms/?utm_source=FrontPage+Magazine&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=22058884c6-Mailchimp_FrontPageMag
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shiloh_(biblical_city)
The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia

Harvard's Debate on Israel Being One State Only

Nadene Goldfoot
The Kennedy School of Government at Harvard U will host a conference "One state Conference:  Israel/Palestine-a One State Solution" on Saturday and Sunday, March 3rd and 4th. 

Are they going to discuss this in a form of debate to "expand the range of academic thought" on this issue?
Are they going to have leaders of Hamas/Fatah at this conference, because their goal is not living peacefully with Jews but eliminating them completely?  Whether it be one state or two, the results would be the same; a continuous attack on Jews and the complete take-over of Israel by Muslims. 

I hope they remind themselves that Israel is the only Jewish state in the world while the world has at least 48 Muslim majority states with 22 of them right in the Middle East.  There is nothing inherently wrong with being a Jewish state or a Jewish majority state, since 20% of Israel's citizens are not Jewish, but Muslim and Christian. 

They should also remember to bring up the fact that Israel was created as a haven for Jews in this crazy world that continues to harbor anti-semitic hatred for them.  Pretty silly of the world, as I see it, when Jews, even though have been so terribly treated by others, have given so much to the world, especiallly in the fields of science.  Yet, when Jews needed sheltering the most at the advent of WWII, they couldn't even get into "Palestine".  The British turned them away.  This is imperative that we have our ancient homeland back.  After all, the British did make provisions for the land to be the Jewish Homeland. 

The problem lies in the Muslim aim to wipe Israel out.  If the state were to be somehow created as one state, this would bring in untold numbers of Muslims from all the 4 corners of the world just to swamp the Jewish numbers and take over.  It would be an end to Israel.  Promises, shlomises, they mean nothing when coming from an opposing side that means to do Israel in. 

A Gazan-born Palestinian graduate student at the Kennedy School of Government, Ahmed Moor,  is one of the organizers of this conference.  He's also a journalist. 

Who's talking at this conference? 19 Professors?  And of what?  Noam Chomsky is a professor of Linguistics but all he does is write slander against Israel, and he himself is Jewish.   He gets lots of accolades that way.   " Caroline Glick comments that the academic elite is now leading the charge of Jew-hatred." Elitist Universities are being brainwashed by so called "Palestinians" who constantly badmouth Israel.  It's become fashionable to knock Israel and be an anti-Zionist where people just don't knock gays, women or Muslims, which now may even be against the law, but knock Israelis and you're in the IN crowd.  They're back to the "Use Jews/Israelis as scapegoats because their numbers are too small to fight back."

There will be 10 panels containing the 19 speakers.  The outline is at http://onestateconference.org/  Chomsky is not a speaker, but the list does not include any on the side of Israel.  Stephen Walt, writer, is an antagonist and was the partner of John Mearsheimer who together wrote "The Israel Lobby", which is disgusting coming from men of their education.   Ali Abunimah is the creator of the Electronic Intifada, and even Rabbi Brant Rosen, co chair of Jewish Voice of Peace, is so far out of reality that it's just sad,  and they are not going to say anything in defense of Israel's position.  Abraham Foxman, Director of ADL, is deeply concerned about the results of this conference. There's nothing like constantly hearing only one side of an issue. 

Right now Israel is managing in the Knesset to be the most democratic state in the Middle East.  It would be more than helpful if the UN or someone would convince Hamas/Fatah to live peacefully as outlined by Israel; either that or take their leave and move to one of the other 22 states if they don't like it.  After all, they came from the ones close by in the late 1880's in the first place.  Hoever, stay away from Jordan.  They have more "Palestinians" than they want, and have already said they want no more.  Perhaps Syria will need some citizens to replace the ones they have killed.  Egypt has an overflow of population, but now Libya may have lots of room.   

It is rather laughable to think that the Arabs against Israel and Israelis could ever live as one state.  Hamas can't even get along with Fatah and even they have had their blow-ups with Hamas kicking out Fatah.  Right now they're having their problems as it is.  There're always the power struggle. 

If the outcome of this debate or conference is for the one state solution using Israel, which has been discussed many times by many Jews, and non Jews,  I will feel that they are living on a different planet and not in this real world.  Not everyone's heads are in the clouds where so many acadamias reside.  The proper noun, Lufmentch, is fitting for them. 

Resource: http://www.worldjewishdaily.com/harvard-conference-israel.php
http://mondoweiss.net/2012/02/one-state-conference-at-harvard-march-3-4-2012.html
http://www.jta.org/news/article/2012/02/26/3091851/harvard-to-host-one-state-solution-confab
http://www.forward.com/articles/152023/







Sunday, February 26, 2012

Israeli Arab MKs Attending "Jerusalem"Conference For "Palestinians"

Nadene Goldfoot
Leave it to Qatar to be in the news again.  The Arab League and the Qatari Ministry of Foreign Affairs are holding a conference in Doha, Qatar right now, Sunday,  pertaining to Jerusalem.  They want it for the capital of "Palestine."  There was not even a mention of it being East Jerusalem; just Jerusalem.

This is in reference to the International Conference for Defense of Jerusalem.  More to the point would be how to wheedle away all of Jerusalem from Israel.

And who is attending and why?  Two Israeli Arab MK's; Ahmed Tibi and Taleb El-Sana.  They are members of Israel's Knesset but are listed as representatives of "Palestine."  .  The subjects covered are to be their relationship to Jerusalem, international law and the "Israeli Occupation."  Of course they think that all of Israel is "occupied land.", occupied by the wrong people, the Israelis.
They're trying to see how they can reinforce their belief of establishing Jerusalem as the capital of an Arab state within Israel's existing borders, which some call "Palestine." 

This bothers me that two Israeli lawmakers are representing the Palestinian Authority at this conference.  MK's are elected by their own people in Israel, not by the so called Palestinians living in Gaza or in towns in Judea and Samaria, Syria, Lebanon or Jordan. 

Tibi has more chutpah than smarts by claiming that Israel is withholding the Palestinian people's freedom of religion.  If their religion is calling for killing Jews, that would be true.  Is this all there is to Islam?  He  has the double chutzpah of saying that the   "Judaization of Jerusalem is a blatant violation of international law."  That raises my ire immensely.  Jerusalem is, was, and foremost will always be a Jewish city, created by King David way back in 1010 BCE. 

El-Sana wants to protect the Al-Aqsa Mosque, the mosque that was built over the First Temple of King Solomon, from an imagined harm.  He's spreading the rumor that it may come to harm from Israelis.  So far, from facts I learn, is that Israel is doing a marvelous job of protecting it all the time.  When they've wanted to repair steps to it, the Muslims have fits.  Of course they don't repair anything themselves.  What Jews worry about is artifacts that may be under the mosque in the temple that have been destroyed by Muslims.  So the shoe is on the other foot, fellows.  I guess he doesn't know about Moshe Dyan and all he did to secure their safety for the mosque. 

Fifty-four year old Dr. Ahmed Tibi is the leader of the Arab party, Ta'al, (The Arab Movement for Change)  and also has served as the Deputy Speaker of the Knesset!  He helped to secure 4 of the 120 seats in the Knesset.  The viewpoint he takes shows the Democracy in action in young Israel, an act I take  being treason against Israel.  He is a physician, educated in Israel.

Fifty-two year old Taleb El-Sana is a Beduin lawyer from the Negev.  He criticizes Israel's government  so much that one Jerusalem Post reporter thought he should be deported to an Arab province.  There he is, still an MK in the Knesset.  . 
12:15 noon-It was just reported on TV's Fox Channel that Abbas, the PA's hopeful president to be, is also busy spreading rumors at this conference that the mosque might be destroyed or harmed.  What a way to start a riot, Abbas.  Netanyahu has told him to stop these vicious lies.   He probably heard it from el-Sana. 

Resource: Arutz Sheva; http://www.israelnationalnews.com/ Arab MKs Represent "Palestine" at Doha conference.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arab_citizens_of_Israel
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ahmad-tibi
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ta%27al
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taleb_el-Sana

US Presbyterian Church Taken Over by Arabs With Agenda: IPMN-PCUSA

Nadene Goldfoot
It's shocking, but the Presbyterian Church has been into anti-Zionist and anti-Semitic activities for a long time, now.  Their IPMN-PCUSA (International Public Management Network of the Presbyterian Church-USA) a political arm-have accused Jews of controlling Hollywood, the media, and American politics as well as blame Israel for the American housing and economic crisis.  This is going over the top of being anti-Semitic.  Do they realize that Jews are far less than 1% of the world's population?  For about the smallest group in the world, we are accused of doing everything bad in the world.  This is still using us as the scapegoats of the world. 

This same group's  IPMN leader, Noushin Framke, likes the Obama cartoon with the Jewish stars and another website that says that Hamas should keep Israeli Gilad Shalit hostage until Palestinians are granted a right of return.  The information coming from  IPMN-PCUSA posted her opposition to a 2-state solution and the existence of a Jewish state, which shows she goes along with Hamas-Fatah and the Muslim Brotherhood. 

This group, speaking in the name of the Presbyterians, is actually speaking for Palestinians led by Hamas and now Fatah whose charter is the destruction of Israel.  They have disregarded any peace agreements.  The Israel/Palestine Mission Network of PCUSA has produced a booklet "Steadfast Hope", the Palestinian Quest for Just Peace.  It's actually the plan of taking over Israel and driving the inhabitants into the sea. 

Friday the group passed a resolution calling for voting on divestment in multi-national companies making a profit.  Any activity Israel is doing is called non-peaceful and they refer to Isarel as Israel-Palestine, also an untruth.  Their Christian Post reported this.  They want their church's US General Assembly to pull out of investments in Caterpillar, Motorola Solutions and Hewlett-Packard until the church gets their way of destroying Israel.

Why these 3 companies?  They say that they had participated in Israel's "occupation of the "West Bank,"
built the security barrier (wall-protecting Israelis from Palestinian attacks which is saving many lives) and destroyed Arab homes, road and fields to make way for towns in the West Bank-according to them as illegal acts.

First off, let's look at the facts.  Israel was attacked by many Arab states in 1967 and as if by a miracle, little Israel, surrounded by enemies, won.  By winning, they gained back Judea and Samaria-ancient homelands of the Jewish people who most people now call the Jordanian term of "West Bank", meaning the west side of the Jordan River.  By winning, they were able to unite East Jerusalem with the rest of Jerusalem as East Jerusalem had still been in Jordanian hands, and they lost the battle.  . 

Israel was legally created May 1948 through the UN as well as owning outright most of the land they finally got.  Arab leaders have not been able to accept this fact that there is a teeny Jewish state in the midst of 22 Muslim states of which there exists 48 Muslim majority states in the whole world.  Israel was there long before Muslims were ever created by Mohammed, as a matter of fact.  Jews are the natives in this case. 

The Presbyterians also have thrown Israel's history to the wind, which is what so many people in the USA have also done with their own US history.  Some people questioned even think Israel is a Muslim country.  They couldn't even find the USA on a map, let alone Israel.  Knowing this, I doubt very much if many Presbyterians are well educated about the history of Israel, the wars they have had to fight since 1948, the peace offers since 1948, or even the history of the people who call themselves "Palestinians".  I bet they've never heard of the book written by Joan Peters, who was advisor to several USA Presidents, called "From Time Immemorial", which tells exactly where these Arabs had come from and why.  They came into Jewish towns and cities looking for work, which they got.  Evidently things weren't that good in their own home towns.   It's a sad state of affairs to realize that Americans don't know a hoot about their own country let alone Israel way out in the Middle East. 

Well, not all of these voting in the Presbyterian Church were negligent of facts.  A few Council members opposed the decision, so it wasn't 100%.  They told the others that "divestment is "inneffective and unproductive and actually goes against peacemaking."   That's for sure, as what they have done is side with the pack that wants to destroy Israel entirely.  Jews and Presbyterians have been friends, as Rabbi Steve Gutow, president of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs said he was "profoundly disappointed.  Neither peace nor the long friendship between our two communities is served by this action." 

Look who the leader is in this divestment action.  Their agenda is to destroy  Israel.  They're not trying to bring about any peace.  They are being led by biased people with an agenda of their own that has nothing to do with the Christian religion.  Rev. Brian Ellison, Kansas City pastor and chair of their Mission Responsibility has just allowed himself to be sucked into this anti-Semitic attitude of being against Jews.  Such latent feelings prove to be fruitful to people wishing to destroy Israel. 

No wonder it's been so hard to approach some churches in trying to present a power point of history and facts about Israel lately.  They accept Muslim speakers but not Jews.  They don't want to be confused with facts.  It might upset their prejudice.   

Resource: http://vimeo.com/9237161
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Controls/SendFriend.ashx?print=1&Itype=0&item=152 ,
Arutz Sheva: Anti-Semitism in Presbyterian Church, Again.  by Rachel Hirshfeld
Oregonian Newspaper Commentary page B8: The answer is no, our children isn't learning by Jaime O'Neill
http://jewishfactsfromportland.blogspot.com/2007/06/entertainment-industry-controlled-by.html Entertainment Industry Controlled by Who? 

Saturday, February 25, 2012

Israel Busy This Weekend From Rocket Attacks to Rocks and Shoes

There was lots of rioting going on in Jerusalem at the site of Al Aqsa Mosque this weekend.  This was the site of King Solomon's Temple built in 950BCE to 587BCE.  It was attacked and the 2nd Temple was rebuilt in 517 BCE and stood until 70 CE when the Romans attacked and sacked Jerusalem.

The Muslims built their Mosque over it in 705 CE.  On Friday 100 Muslims were rioting over the rumor that the Mosque might be divided into a Jewish and a Muslim section, as if Jews would need to enter a Mosque.  The Cave of the Patriarchs was recently divided this way, but this is something both religions share; Abraham.  That's family, not religion.   They don't want anyone but Muslims into their Mosque.  Even on Thursday 7 Arabs were rioting, throwing stones and shoes at the police.

While all this was going on in Jerusalem, Gaza terrorists fired a rampage of rockets at Western Negev towns trying evidently to escalate Israel's anger so they would attack in  full scale.  Hamas must be trying to attract more sympathetic media attention for themselves. 

Israel did respond when they caught terrorists in the act of starting to fire at Southern Israel.  They got two trargets. 

Resource: Artuz Sheva http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Subscribe/

Sunday, February 19, 2012

Pay Up, America ! You Owe It To Egypt!

Nadene Goldfoot
The Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood must be regarding the USA as their dminni 2nd class people who must pay the tax, as they have come up with rejecting US threats to cut aid.  How can they reject our telling them this?  It's us who is rejecting them for acts they have done.  We're not the money tree in the world and are trying to put our budget in better order as it is.

The USA is disputing about nonprofit groups (civil society groups) operating in the country with Egypt saying that they are out of line and could imperil the peace deal with Israel.  Egypt has charged 43 activists, including 19 Americans who have been prohibited from leaving the country.  Egypt has rejected a demand for their release by General Marin Dempsey who met with Egyptian leaders last week.  This campaign against the groups is led by Fayza Aboul Naga, a Mubarak era leader who must have done an about face. 

Yes, Egypt does have a peace pact with Israel.  However, the Muslim Brotherhood has taken the reins of office in Egypt now, and they are not showing signs of continuing that peace pact.  In fact, they've made  threats  that they not.  Also, we know their charter calls for the end of Israel and now they're the ones in the driver's seat. 

The USA has been paying an annual $1.3 billion US aid as part of their commitment to Egypt's 1979 treaty with Israel and this, said Mohammed Morse, leader of Egypt's largest party of the Muslim Brotherhood, and should not be risked (or stopped?) because of a dispute over the nonprofit groups.  They don't like us "brandishing threats to stop this aid and say it's out of place."  Otherwise, he also threatens, the peace deal would be reconsidered (they've already been doing this as it is) or it could flounder, he said.  Yet the Brotherhood has already come out saying that they are putting the peace pact to referendum. 

Khairat el-Shater, their deputy chairman, told Al-Jazeera (TV out of Qatar) that US aid should not be conditional!  What?  We should just keep paying this "tax"?  He went on to say that it should continue to flow as "compensation" for years of supporting Mubarak's autocratic regime!  Yet they are not considering keeping the peace treaty as a conditional expectation! 

Israel fought Egypt in 1967 when Sadat was their leader. He went to Israel in peace and signed up for peace with Israel.  He was admired and loved by the Israelis and the world for this.  The blessed fact was he was not a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, and probably worked to keep them out of politics.  The mantel went to Mubarak, who though wasn't as keen as Sadat in his feelings towards Jews, did manage to keep the peace between the two.  He may not have been as good a leader as Sadat, but was keeping the peace then. He kept the word of his nation despite his own feelings.  For this, he is to be admired, not demonized.  Sure, the Muslim Brotherhood sees things completely from the viewpoint of Sharia Law, and this is a completely different matter.  According to Sharia Law, anyone not Muslim is a dminni or 2nd class citizen and does wind up paying taxes Muslims are not expected to pay.  . 

So the USA should pay this compensation just because they were helping to keep the peace in the Middle East with an annual payoff, eh?  That puts us right in the seat of dminnitude! Egypt is actually biting the hand that feeds them; not a smart move if they like that flow of money coming in.

Update: Sam LaHood, son of US Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, has sought refuge at the US Embassy. 

Resource: Feb 17-Daily Alert-daillyalert!@list-dailyalert.org from AP-Washington Post
http://www.globalpost.com/print/5692283
Muslim Brotherhood facebook page. by Mohammed Morsi to Egyptian state news agency 2/16/12
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/representative-says-muslim-brotherhood-plans-to-put-israelegypt-peace-pact-to-referendum/
Oregonian Newspaper 2/19/12  Egypt to put Americans on trial soon page A12

Saturday, February 18, 2012

How Spreading Propaganda Has Affected a Portland Public School

Nadene Goldfoot
"When peace comes, we will perhaps in time be able to forgive the Arabs for killing our sons, but it will be harder for us to forgive them for having forced us to kill their sons. " Golda Meier, former Prime Minister, Israel, 1969-1974; Foreign Minister 1956-1966

Israelis, which is meant indirectly to be Jews as it was created to be a Jewish state by Jews, and whose population is 80% Jewish,  are being crucified for defending themselves in the 64 year old attack of trying to destroy Israel and  now, all Jews everywhere are under attack.

Popular mob-like thinking in the USA is becoming the denial of Israel's right to exist.  The BDS movement judges against Israel just for this defending itself in the face of constant attacks. 

The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Campaign is the new form of an old attitude.  They try to make Israel conform to their way of thinking by not buying products from Israel, which is to allow Hamas and Fatah terrorists living in Gaza, Judea and Samaria to put an end to Israel.  This  is what their doctrine calls for. 

One window to this growing attitude is what happened in Portland's Lincoln High on November 4, 2011.  Director Paul Beran, promoting this BDS campaign,  managed to be the person who had vetted the DAM hip-hoppers that came to Lincoln High who in their chanting and video  performance were calling for the end to Israel.  A student was heard by others calling out, "Oh, how I hate Israel!  It so sucks!"  I feel  this reflects the lack of preparation some students had in the history of the conflict.  I know that other teachers managed to get in a little background.  Take it from me; this is a complex situation and takes  quite a bit of background for understanding, even for adults.   This student was sucked into the powerful negative presentation in which Jewish students at the school felt frightened and upset by as some even had parents born in Israel. 

Of course the schools's excuse in doing so is that they had been vetted.  Of course, the director gave his thumbs up on the trio.  The school staff felt it was all a matter of freedom of speech.  This freedom of speech was calling for the destruction of a state and its people, however.  The principal also said they take on some difficult issues and talk about them.  After requesting,  a Jewish instructor in the community was allowed to make a postive presentation to a few classes much later in the next month, after all the damage had been done.  The Jewish students and families felt it was an educational issue as the lyrics of the songs promoted terrorism which in their eyes was inappropriate to bring to the high school. They presented an extreme and mendacious portrait in which Israelis were shown to be like Nazis, and that murdering Israelis "is the Israelis' just desserts and that Israel is a racist and criminal enterprise.   Feeling oppressed is not a license to strap on a bomb.  Whatever, there's no excuse for terrorism.  Their lyrics condoned or justified violence.   The Arabic studies teacher who invited the hip hoppers in retorted that they had used art to non-violently express their views."  On her website she wrote that DAM is critical of actions taken by the Israeli government; however, they do not criticize or insult Jewish people as a people."  No-they were just calling for the destruction of Israel, which is a Jewish state, what was to be the Jewish Homeland, that's all.  Some of us took that rather personally. 

I had received an email from one of the Arabic language students who had made no connection to Jews with Israel.  Since the Christian "Palestinian" students at Lincoln were not upset, he didn't understand why the Jewish students were.  Does this go for several of the staff as well?  That tells me he hasn't been educated as to why Jews had the need for Israel in the first place.
The problem is compounded by the fact that the $70,000 and teacher of the Arab language program is a bequest from the foreign government of Qatar out of Qatar Foundation International and not a part of the regular curriculum.  The chief religious personage of the Muslim Brotherhood, Qaradawi,  lives in Qatar, and  has called a fatwa to kill all Jews everywhere.  For that matter, so has Ayatollah Kohmeini of Iran. 

The relationship of Israelis and "Palestinians" (there has been no such nation, but they bought the tag) is complex and takes lots of studying to understand.  DAM is either just expressing grievances about the social and political climate in which they live according to Lincoln's staff or they are spreading negative messages of untruths and hatred according to the Jewish students, parents and many friends."  One Jewish student feels like they hate Jews and hate Israelis and now does not feel emotionally safe knowing that these people-who hate her without even knowing her, were allowed to come into her public school spreading their message instigating her friends to possibly hate her as well.. 

It looks like some non-Jewish staffers at Lincoln have no idea of what the conflict is about.  They  brought in a very one sided group and even gave extra credit to students who attended an evening rap concert  and documentary screening at the Salmon Street Studio on  the same night of the school's performance if they wrote a 300 word essay about the experience.  I wonder if students were given extra credit along with a 300 word essay about the positive Israel  presentation.

Here's the biggest problem.  The Israeli-Palestinian conflict seems to have become a central part of the Portland Public School curriculum, at least at Lincoln, and that the Jewish community and parents of schoolchildren have only a vague idea of how it is being taught, by whom, and for what purpose, especially with a person and materials provided through the Qatar Foundation International and their viewpoints. 

My thoughts went to the Arabic language program itself with textbooks printed in Egypt, even though written by the Arabic language instructor at American University in Cairo.  Who knows what slant he is taking?  Not many adults here read Arabic.  Portland State U has access to al-Jazeera TV of which is used by Qaradawi in his weekly sermons where he has ranted against Jews and Israel.  Are these programs making their way into the high school classroom ?  My hopes are that even with most classrooms having TV sets, this program would take a special hookup to be received. But this remains only a hope.

 The principal assures me 100% that there are absolutely no anti-Semitic materials in the curriculum or classroom,  yet DAM walked in without anyone identifying them as being anti-semitic.  What is taken as anti-semitic to many Jews is not seen as such by many others as this case in point.  People, including many Jews themselves, can complain about Israel, but surely they're not calling for its destruction.   I think they stepped over the line into the anti-semitic realm when they saw no problem bringing in DAM. 

The principal and the language teacher are both too busy for a 20 minute visit by concerned citizens to see the materials used after classroom hours.  A too-busy reply was given to a Jewish parent with children attending the school.   Two retired retired teachers were stonewalled.    It only makes them even more alarmed as to the contents that might be involved. 

If there is no Jewish state, then that means there will be no Jews in the Middle East at all, as they are not allowed in other countries. Hamas-Fatah will have a state without Jews, whereas there are 1.4 million Arabs citizens of Israel.   We have always said that in our war with the Arabs we had a secret weapon — no alternative. The Egyptians could run to Egypt, the Syrians into Syria. The only place we could run was into the sea, and before we did that we might as well fight.-Golda Meier.  The staff must have let this fact go over their heads in their defensiveness about their actions and beliefs.  There are 48 Muslim majority states in our world of which 22 are right in the Middle East.  There is only 1 teeny tiny Jewish state struggling against all odds to survive in their midst.   Besides being surrounded by terrorists, Israelis now see just how hatred has seeped into America as well. 

So here we are: on a high state of security with a fatwa to kill us all, and an Israeli issue with Hamas/Fatah at an American  high school that has not been resolved and has not been brought to closure.  But we can rest assured:  "there's no anti-semitism at Lincoln". 

Resource: Jewish Review-November 15, 2011 Lincoln students react to Palestinian music; Panel: Feelings of oppression valid, but lyrics cross line to hate,
http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/Facts+About+Israel/State/Golda+Meir.htm
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Controls/Sendfriend.ashx?print=1&type=0&item=152 Anti-Semitism in Presbyterian Church, Again from Arutz Sheva

Thursday, February 16, 2012

Why Iran Is So Antagonistic Towards Israel

Nadene Goldfoot

In view of the fact that there has been 3 attacks in India, Georgia and Thailand on Israelis this week by Iranians, Janet Napolitano has said that Jewish communities should be vigilant and step up security.  You never know.

Ever since the days of Queen Esther in 330 BCE, who was married to the Persian (today Iran) king Ahasuerus, when she had to deal with the blood-thirsty Haman who wanted to kill all the Jews, Jews have been the target of this country's hatred.  Haman just didn't like Jews, so plotted for their extermination and almost got away with it.   

This Shiite branch of Islam as been most harsh towards their attitude towards the Jewish people.  Their clerics taught that Jews were not "clean", (najis) even way back in the 16th century.  Sharia law (Islamic) was imposed on non-Muslims.  Mohammad Baqer al-Majisi, the Ayatollah Khomeini of the 16-17th century put  humiliating demands and restrictions on Jews .  By 1970 a professor of anthropology, Laurence Loeb, saw that the Muslims had such a fear of being polluted by Jews that it led to peculiar behavior in the Muslims.  An example was that if a Jew went into a pool where a Muslim was bathing at a public bath, the Muslim's clothing had to be rinsed out in case it had become polluted by the Jew. 

The continued acts to try to dehumanize the character of Jews, resulted in anti-Jewish violence with pogroms and forced conversions from the 17th to 19th centuries.   In 1834-48 under Shah Mahmud, the Jews in Meshed were forcibly converted. This is how whole areas of Persia became Judenrein (free of Jews). 

When Shah Pahlavi was deposed in 1979 in the "Khomeini revolution", the Sharia Law returned.  20,000 Jews left the country before Khomeini's return on February 1st.  By the 16th of March, the head of the Jewish community, Habib Elghanian, was arrested and charged by an Islamic revolutionary tribunal with "corruption" and "contacts with Israel and Zionism".  He was shot on May 8th. 

One of the teachers I taught with in Safed, Israel was from Iran.  His uncle had been hung during this period for being Jewish.  They most likely trumped up stupid charges, just like the Nazis did to my uncle in Germany when they grabbed him and put him in jail in 1938 for taking his cow to market.  My cousin's husband was an escapee from Iran.  He had to leave secretly at night on a camel as did his friends.  I believe some of the others were shot in this escape out of the country.  Luckily her husband made it and is a doctor now in the USA. 

Dhimmis (non Muslims) are considered to be on a lower level of belief and conviction, so if a Muslim kills a dhimmi, his punishment is not serious.  We are part of the unclean list: urine, excrement, sperm, blood, a dog, a pig, bones, Jewish men and women, other dhminnis,  wine, beer, and perspiration of a camel that eats filth. 

Sunnis and Shiites share one thing; at the dawning of messianic times the Jews must all suffer a violent death, to the last one.  In this belief they quote the famous hadith (Sahih Muslim, Book 40, Number 6985 which is attributed to Muhammad. 

Remember in 2009 there was a revolution in Iran that we all watched on TV and cried when Nadia was killed.  This "green Revolution" in the streets was a fight between the Rafsanjani/Mousavi faction and their mullahs against the Ahmadinejad/Khameini faction and their mullas.  Both groups favor Iranian nukes and the jihad genocide of the Jewish state of Israel.  It looks like Iran will remain an oppressive Shiite theocracy that it became in  1502 with the exception of the period from 1925 to 1979 under the Pahlavis.

Ayatollah Khomeini's 1942 speech, "Islam Is Not a Religion of Pacifists" plainly stated that all the countries conquered by Islam will be marked for everlasting salvation, for they shall live under Allah's law-the Sharia.  Those who know nothing of Islam pretend that Islam counsels against war.  They are witless.  Islam says:  Kill all the unbelievers just as they would kill you all!    I spit upon those foolish souls who make such a claim. 

And among non-believers, they have a special hatred for Jews, of course.  Khomeini's Iran has a campaign of vilification and proxy violence against the "Zionist entity," Israel.  For Ahmadinejad, the destruction of Israel is an open policy.  Khomenei added, "the Jew is the most obstinate enemy (Koran 5:82) of the devout.  The main war will determine the destiny of mankind.  The reappearance of the Twelfth Imam will lead to a war between Israel and the Shia. 

Jews are described as adherents of the Dajjal or Antichrist.  Some traditions say the Dajjal is Jewish and that when he appears he will be with 70,000 Jews from Isfahan (town in Persia where Jews were settled by Queen Esther) dressed in robes and armed with sabers and their head will be covered by some veil.  When he is defeated, his 70,000 men will be slaughtered.  According to Sahih Muslim, book 40, #6985, if a Jew is under a tree or stone, they will tattle on them and warn the Muslim.  On the day of resurrection, the vanquished Jews will be in hellfire which will atone for Muslims who have sinned, sparing them from this fate. 

Ahmadinejad  believes in  the coming of the hidden iman-mahdi with divine power followed by thousands of warriors.  He will conquer the world and estabish Shiism as the supreme religion and rule.  When he comes there will be a terrible war and lots of bloodshed.  Ahmadinejad has even built a special boulevard for him to enter Teheran.  He thinks he is the herald of this mahdi. 

All this, I feel, explains why Ahmadinejad is so defiant towards the USA and Israel.  He wants to bring it all on.  He can't wait.   He has nothing to lose.  His conception of life is much different than ours.  So he continues to tell us his atomic plant is only for medical purposes.  We have good reason to doubt this.  He's after the A bomb.  The European Union has said they are cutting off imports of oil as of July 1.  I hope that won't be too late to stop their production of nuclear fuel.

Resource: National Review Online http://www.nationalreview.com/  Iran's final solution for Israel by Andrew Bostom from Willie Paterson.  
Oregonian Newspaper, 2/16/12  page A9, Iran's science "achievements" downplayed as hype in West on their nuclear program.
http://www.worldofjudaica.com/jewish-news/international/jews-around-the-world-beef-up-security-in-wake-of-asia-attacks/1215/16

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Iran: Israel's Nemesis and Their Nuclear Advancement

Nadene Goldfoot
Wednesday brought news about Iran's advancements in technology in producing nuclear energy.  They said they'd talk about their nuclear program with officicals but would continue their drive toward nuclear self sufficiency.  In the past Iran has just angered the West by appearing to buy time with opening talks and weighing proposals while all the time they were hurrying along with their nuclear program.

The big news was that they just inserted their first homemade fuel rods into their research reactor in northern Tehran.  A new generation of centrifuges were installed and are in operation at Natanz, which is in central Iran.  They are producing nuclear fuel on their own.  On February 10th, they advanced their methods and produced almost 20% enriched uranium up from the 5% they were at,  showing they are getting around sanctions. 

Israel is most concerned because of the threats made to them.  Back on October 26, 2005, Iran's Broadcasting told of Ahmadinejad's speech to a conference in Asia: Ahmadinejad: Israel must be wiped off the map.  The speech was to the "World Without Zionism" conference.   He announced that the Ayatollah Khomeini said Israel must be wiped off the map and this was wise.  They are backing Arabs wanting to create a Palestine without coming to terms with Israel.  To do so would be a defeat in their eyes and it would mean a defeat of the Islamic world. 

Ahmadinejad continued saying that the issue with Palestine would be over "the day that all refugees return to their homes and they come into power".  Therefore, they are against normal relations with Israel and condemn all Muslim leaders who accept the existence of Israel.  To them this is a surrender and defeat of the Islamic world. 

Israel withdrew from Gaza on August 15, 2005 with its completion by September, and Ahmadinejad thought this was a trick to gain recognition or acknowledgment from Islamic states.  Two days later he held a rally and said that he spoke for his people and what the West thought didn't matter. 

Hamas, who took over Gaza and kicked out Fatah's Abbas, reflects the Iranian philosophy, but Abbas seemed to want to make peace.  However, he's now in cahoots with Hamas, perhaps with the theory that if you can't beat them you join them. 

It's no wonder that Israel has said that if sanctions and all other forms of stopping Iran's wiping Israel off the map with nuclear power doesn't work, they will feel they will have to try to stop their attempts, even alone if necessary.  Computer viruses managed to attack Iran's computers that were working on the nuclear program, but must have been cleared out.  It helped to stall their progress for awhile, and naturally the first people Iran blamed was Israel. Mostafa Ahmadi Rashun, 32, nuclear scientist was killed and Israel, CIA and the opposition faction in Iran, the People's Mujahedeen of Iran (MEK) have been blamed. 

In 1981 Israel hit the Osiraq nuclear reactor in Iraq to squelch their nuclear goals of making a bomb to use on them.  It's thought that they also attacked a similar site in Syria in 2007.  Both had reactors above ground, and it was much easier than any attack on Iran's facilities, which are now spread across Iran and are underground.  Israel is very creative, but this may be an impossible task if they wait past the window of opportunity.  At any rate, they will need a miracle to accomplish this, and they have the USA telling them to keep holding off.     

On Monday Iranians planted bombs to harm Israelis, injuring an Israeli diplomat's wife in India who was in their minivan.  Another attempt was foiled in Georgia on the same day, and one in Thailand on Tuesday.  Israel is not retaliating over this.

Resource: http://old.news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120215/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iran_nuclear
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahmoud_Ahmadinejad_and_Israel
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel's_unilateral_disengagement_plan
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2106855,00.html
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/story/2012-02-13/israel-iran-attack/53083160/1http://www.jpost.com/International/Article.aspx?id=257168
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/caught-in-his-own-blast-an-iranian-targeting-israel-6917547.html

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

The Real Issue Between Israel and Palestine: Wanting Peace, Not Israel Building a Few Homes

Nadene Goldfoot
Get this, folks.  Israel's length, from north to south, is only 263 miles.  The width of Oregon is just under 400 miles.  In width, Israel at the widest is 71 miles and the narrowest section is only 9.3 miles.  Just to get from Gresham, Oregon to Ladds Addition in Portland is 12 miles and takes me about 1/2 hour of slow driving.  Israel is not very big and is made of only 7,992 square miles.  Texas has 268,820 square miles and is about 33 times larger than  Israel. or still 26 times larger than a "Greater Israel."  Nobody was more shocked at the size than President Bush when he visited Israel.  He commented that his ranch was larger. 

Judea and Samaria have 2,270 square miles.  East Jerusalem has 27 square miles and is now united with the rest of the city. The Palestinians are demanding it as their capital.  Being they still refuse to recognize Israel and have a charter that calls for Israel's destruction, it won't be long until they try to take over all of Jerusalem.  The Golan Heights have 444 square miles.  Gaza has 140 square miles. Israel has already departed from Gaza but with its close proximity to Israel and the attacks from there, must guard it from gaining more weapons.  It has proven itself to be a most deadly neighbor.   

The League of Nations, the original United Nations, voted for a National Home for Jews and set aside 45,560 square miles on both sides of the Jordan River for this in 1922.  The USA voted yes for this on September 21, 1922 in both houses, and President Warren Harding signed it.

Yet, Britain, given the mandate over the land,had also  lopped off 3/4 of the area; 34,745 miles, which turned out to be the entire East Bank of the river Jordan and gave it to the Emir Abdullah, son of the Sherif of Mecca who called it Transjordan on April 11, 1921.  The population living there were 300,000 Beduins.  They were part of the population of the province of Syria which was part of the Ottoman Empire.  Thus, Britain perfidiously betrayed their mandate and despoiled the Jewish nation of 77% of its territory.

Abdullah was the Hashemite Emir and came to "Palestine" from the Arabian desert in November 1920.  He took the lands in 1921 and called it Transjordan, leaving the Arabs on the Western Bank nothing more than the name-Palestine.  He and his grandson, Hussein, erased the name "Palestine" and changed the name to Jordan in 1946 -"The Hashemite kingdom of Jordan."  In 1948 the people became "Jordanians."   Jordan is made of  35,637 square miles. 

It was only after 1967 that the people of Jordan started calling themselves Palestinians again, possibly because so many had moved there and the King Hussein married a Palestinian, in reality Lisa Najeeb Halaby who was born and raised in the USA and had had a paternal grandfather who was Syrian.  They married on June 15, 1978 and she converted to Islam and was called Queen Noor, becoming his 3rd or 4th wife. Jordan signed a peace treaty with Israel on October 26, 1994 to end an $18.3 billion dollar conflict, becoming the 2nd Arab state to do so after Egypt.   Jordanians had gone daily into Israel to work there.  Jordan has said that they do not want any more Palestinians to come into their country. 

Is a Palestinian state a solution for peace or is it a recipe for a most cruel war?

A Palestinian state would be 2,500 square miles in area, or 1/4 of the original 1/4 of Palestine.  Like Gaza has done, it will be a Muslim Brotherhood type state, with the goal to extinguish Israel, especially with Egypt's new government led by the Muslim Brotherhood.  They already honor those who have fought against Israel by naming things and places after them.  Right now Gaza is practicing a campaign of attrition by shooting rockets, missiles and mortars into southern Israel.  Stockpiles of weapons are known to be in Lebanon.  Hamas and Fatah have united with Hamas holding to the Muslim Brotherhood Charter calling for the destruction of Israel. 

A Palestine would become the 49th Muslim majority state.  22 of these states belong to the Arab League of which Syria is suspended right now for their actions. A Palestine might then be the 22nd or 23rd.  The 22 states now cover an area of 5,290,888 square miles.  Iraq, Libya and Syria are not treated as a serious problem such as Israel and the Palestinians are.  I don't see any organizations having BDS movements against Syria today. 

Britain's chopping off part of the Jewish Homeland for a "Palestine" left the future Israel with 10,891 square miles and less now on the West Bank of the river.  They were to have only 1/4 of what had been agreed to and voted upon. 

To top this off, the British did their best to keep Jewish immigrants from entering the country while Arabs and other Muslims entered freely from all parts of the Middle East.  Why did they want to move to this "Falastin"?  They could find jobs with the Jewish settlements already there.  Look at their surnames:  Masri (Egyptian), Mugrabi (Moroccan), Turki (Turkish), Ajami (Persian), Haurani (Syrian), Halabi (Aleppan), Kurdi (Kurdish), Hindi (Indian) and others.  There were even Circassian Muslims and Armenian Christians who weren't a part of the Palestinian society that moved to the area. 

WWII started with the Holocaust killing 6 million Jews who had no way of leaving Eastern Europe, but who couldn't have entered into the Jewish Homeland at any rate because all Jewish immigration had been stopped and land couldn't be sold to Jews as the British banned that.  Nobody spoke up for the Jews.  The leftists had no demonstrations.  Nobody cared.

Today, Israel and its Judea and Samaria make up 10,891 square miles.  The Arab League has 5,290,888 square miles.  Are the Arabs short of territory?  Texas is 26 times larger than "Greater Israel."  2,500 square miles of Israel's 1/4th are to become a state called "Palestine." 

There are the 22 Muslim-Arab countries that the 1.5 million Muslim residents of Judea, Samaria and Gaza's "Palestinians" came from that they could return to.  What about the 24 million people who do not have a single country to call their own?  There are 1 million Dr use living in Syria, Lebanon and Israel that would like their own state.  13 million Kurds in Iraq, Turkey, Syria and Iran also need their own.  10 million Christian Arabs in the Middle East live in other lands without being warlike. 

"Territories" and building are not the real issue.  There is ample space for the "Palestinians."  Peace is the issue, and Abbas has just gone over to the Hamas side which stands for Israel's obliteration, not peace.  Who thinks that peace can ever be obtained by squeezing two populations into one single bed that have been at odds with each other for 4,000 years in some form or other?  Perhaps the Bible was right in that everyone needs his own home and under the shade of his own vine.  Jews and Arabs do share the same grandfather,  Abraham.  Only a heart with a goal of peace in it will find that the Middle East can become a Garden of Eden.  The Hamas-Fatah marriage will not do the trick.  Israel wants peace.  It can't create it all by themselves.  It's a two-way street. 

Resource: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arab_League
Eliyahu 'Amiqam of Tel Aviv 7 April 1991 in pamphlet to Mr. George Bush. 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen_Noor_of_Jordan
http://www.answers.com/topic/abdullah-ii-of-jordan
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jordan
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transjordan
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geography_of_Israel
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/227456/Gaza-Strip
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel%E2%80%93Jordan_Treaty_of_Peace
Jerusalem Teknolam Foundation-1991, Jerusalem Post
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas

Monday, February 13, 2012

Iran's Suspicions About Their Neighbor, Azerbaijan

Nadene Goldfoot
Iran is now on Azerbaijan's back about the possibility that Israel's Mossad is making arrangements in their country to have a base.  Azerbaijan is the world's 26th largest country with a majority population of 93.4%  of 8,676,000 people being Shi'a Muslims. They say Azerbaijan is made up of 9 million Turks.  Their government is secular.  Iran happens to be the 6th largest with 98% Shi'a Muslims numbering 76,923,300 with an Islamic state government. 

Michael Lotam, the Ambassador of Israel had been there, and terrorists were arrested for planning to attack Israelis in the country.  That certainly got Iran's attention.  I guess they don't trust their friends. 

The Caucasian Mountain Jews or Persian Jews have been living in Azerbaijan since before the 5th Century CE.  25,000 Jews live there today.  They have more than a 2,000 year history there.  They are said to be descendants of the Lost Tribes that left Jerusalem after the destruction of the First Temple in 587 BCE.  They speak Judeo-Tat or Judeo-Persian.  Azerbaijan was part of the Russian Empire which broke up in 1991.  It's located in the Caucasus region of Eurasia and is by the Caspian Sea, Russia, Georgia, Armenia, Turkey and Iran. 

Resource: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/152671#.TzlTkw6X39A.blogger
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Azerbaijan
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/vjw/Azerbaijan.html

Saturday, February 11, 2012

What's This Qaradawi's Dawning of a New Islamic Caliphate?

Nadene Goldfoot
Qaradawi, 86, the Muslim Brotherhood's mentor, is crowing that thanks to the Arab Spring, they are all about to have a new Islamic Caliphate again.  This is the ultimate Muslim dream.  He is out to conquer America and Europe as well through immigration and proselytizing, he says.  He has used his "IslamOnline" website, Al-Jazeera TV station, program,  "Sharia and Life" for the past 15 years and personal engagements to spew his theories, as well as the 120 books he has written.   He's even on Facebook.    President Obama just reported on TV that there is a Mosque in every state in our union today.  How many keep in touch with him?  60 million people worldwide listen. 

Qaradawi is the religious leader that Mubarak kicked out of Egypt who has been living in Qatar.  The Emir of Qatar is his best friend and protector.  This religious leader is labeled  a terrorist and is not allowed into the USA. Despite this fact, he has been the USA's secret mediator for talks with the Taliban terrorists.   He calls for the death of all Jews everywhere, the takeover of Jerusalem, and like all Muslim Brotherhood adherants, the destruction of Israel. 

An Islamic Caliphate is sort of like a United States of Islamic countries who are ruled by Sharia Law and a constitution.  The last caliphate came to an end in 1924 with the end of the Ottoman Empire at the end of WWI.  They were on the German side and lost.  Shi'a Islam differs from Sunni in that they are ruled by an Iman chosen by Allah from Muhammad's chosen descendants. 

There was the Umayyad Dynasty Caliphate that existed in the 7th and 8th century.  Abbasid historians wrote that they had been  just pleasure-loving, hard-drinking usurpers of the caliphate.  Not all were, though.  They had a vast empire with different religious levels  and problems to administer.  Spain was a part of their empire.  Palestine was not. 

The Christians waged 8 Holy wars against the Moslems from 1095 to 1291 CE in the "Crusades."  They tried to take back sites they considered a part of Christianity, and in doing so also killed Jews in Jerusalem as they couldn't tell a Moslem from a Jew. 

The Abbasids ruled through the 8th to 13th century. They preached Arab supremacy, which made Iranians and Syrians resentful.   Now their society went international.  A group of Turks, the Saljuqs, ruled Palestine around 1000-1500  CE. The Abbasids  had some pretty decent rulings like caring for strangers in hostels, except  women were segregated and were kept in the home  rearing children except for the slave girls who amused men with singing and dancing.  Polygamy was permitted with men allowed to have 4 wives.  It was a slave society.  Men also kept about 6 slave concubines.  There were many who had not converted at this period, most still being Zorroastrians, Nestorians, Orthodox and Coptic Christians.  The Jews were a very small number. 

They persecuted all non-Muslims.  The dhimmi (non Muslim) could not build places of worship and if any were around were demolished. They had to wear special clothing, and some were even branded on their foreheads.  Homes could not be higher than Muslims, and in court were not heard from as their testimony was not admissable.  Dhimmis had to pay a head tax away from the capital and bow down when paying it.  It was in these days that many conversions occurred to escape the hardships.  The only Christians and Jews treated well were those that attained a higher level of education and skill, like some businessmen, court physicians, philosophers and  vazirs. The poor cried out: "Oh, that the tyranny of the Umayyads would return, Oh, that the justice of the Abbasids would go to hell!"

I think that the 48 Muslim majority states of the world, and there will be 49 if Palestine becomes another state,  should be aware of what Qaradawi is proposing.  The Ottoman Caliphate that we refer to as the Ottoman Empire was also just as bad.  All was not a bed of roses.  There have been so many attacks on Christians of late in Egypt that even they won't stand a chance of having a life.

Americans have a problem in viewing this danger as we are used to religious liberty and in not criticizing one another's religion.  It's hard for us to accept that the religion of Islam  has "Takia", the act of allowing lying to infidels about their religion.  Yet they are very brazen in announcing their intentions, like it's braggadocio.  .  It's time to think outside the box and see danger when it announces itself as such. 

Resource: http://blogs.cbn.com/stakelbeckonterror/archive/2012/02/10/muslim-brotherhoods-spiritual-leader-tells-hamas-victory-is-near.aspx
http://counterjihadreport.com/category/sheikh-yusuf-al-qaradawi/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caliphate
Textbook:  Middle East Past & Present by Yahya Armajani and Thomas M. Ricks
http://www.middle-ages.org.uk/the-crusades.htm
http://www.jihadwatch.org/2011/12/genocidal-sheikh-qaradawi-mediator-in-secret-us-taliban-talks.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yusuf_al-Qaradawi
http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/newsbytes-islam2/
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Yusuf-Al-Qaradawi/24024767384?v=info
http://dotsub.com/media/b5ee5ada-5b37-4b0b-9916-e0896337ec4b/embed/eng Video: Bedbugs in the UN.

Friday, February 10, 2012

Are Jews Trying to Take Over the World?

Nadene Goldfoot
For a long time anti-semites were saying that Jews were taking over the world.  People think we own all the banks because a few Jews have been bankers.  They don't realize that we are only much less than 1% of the entire world population.  Most of us reside either in Israel today or the USA.  It's almost 50-50.
Sammy Davis, Jr., the American black comedian and fantastic dancer actually converted to Judaism.  After he decided to become a Jew, only then did he learn that Jews don't really have all the money.  When he found out Rockerfeller and Ford were goyim (non-Jews), he almost resigned.  Ha!  In fact, Ford was quite the anti-semite. 

Whatever we do, we like to do the best we can.  We can blame our mothers.  They, along with Chaim Ginot, child psychologist, have figured out how to get the most out of their children and make them proud, for Jewish parents are the proudest of their children; not their home or car or fur coats, but their children's successes.

Take my father.  He was born to immigrant parents in 1908 who couldn't read, write or speak English.  They conversed in Yiddish.  My grandfather died in 1912 in a horse and wagon accident leaving his pregnant wife and 3 teeny children.  His money, if there was any, was not in a bank.  Russian Jews typically didn't trust banks.  He had it hidden in the horse stall, so Bubba thought, though she didn't find a penny.  So there she was with only a Jewish Neighborhood House around the corner that was able to help her a little.  My dad had to go out with his 2 year older brother at the age of 5 and sell newspapers on the street corner to help support the family, and she had to get a job plucking chickens.    He quickly learned how to make change before starting the 1st grade, where he learned to speak English. 

Dad was doing so well in high school baseball, but had to quit school to again support everyone.  To make this short, his occupation started off as a Kosher butcher which led to being the owner of Silver Falls Meat Packing Co in Portland with several cattle trucks.  He never took off a day to have a vacation.  He worked hard, died at age 59 but left his widow and children well protected. 

I find that if you are Jewish, you are expected to be at the top of your class, and you usually are.  Why?  Genetics?  I think it helps. Jews have always been merchants.  When they were taken from Jerusalem, some wandered in the Silk Route as merchants.  They even went into Africa.  Many countries in Europe didn't allow Jews to own land and farm, so selling was all they were allowed to do, and that led to loaning people like Royalty money which led to financing at times. 

 By the age of 13 a boy is bar mitzvahed which means he is a full member of the congregation in the synagogue and is expected to take a turn reading the Torah in Hebrew, so he has to be fairly intelligent to manage a 2nd language which is not a part of public school.  Jewish women prefer intelligent men, so that is something that is attractive to them.  Thus, we belong to a pretty intelligent group.

There has been so much anti-semitism which caused people to have a terrible image of Jews and called them disgusting names.  "Kike" was their 4 letter word for a Jew. Anti-semitism has been endemic in America since the early settlers had restrictions against Jews. It ran rampant in the 1920's here in America. 

The Six Day War in Israel knocked the socks off of most people when they saw Jews destroy 300 Egyptian planes and 19 airbases.  At the end of 24 hours on June 5th 1967, the air forces of 4 Arab nations lay on the ground, all charred like burnt chickens.  "They had altered the whole picture of modern warfare." said Anthony Sampson, author.  Military analysts found it hard to believe because Britain and France had tried to do something similar against Egypt in 1956, but the results weren't the same.  How could Israelis do this in a few hours?  They were so outnumbered and the Arab defeat was overwhelming. 

The pilots were outstanding.  They didn't waste any ammunition.  The Egyptian MIGs had had it.  What had happened was that the Israeli Air Force was made up of highly skilled well trained men and they had good plans.  They did their usual best.  Besides that, they used their innate courage, unlike the stereotype Jew the world had created.  They had to be courageous with all the neighboring nations attacking at once like a pack of dogs.  It wasn't that unusual for Jews of today to be good fighters, as they had been in biblical days as well.  Those abilities were still there. 

What about that stereotype? Israel itself, has surprised everyone by having their own economic problems and an unbalanced budget, especially being they have had to spend so much money on protection and wars.   Harry Golden wrote that people might now say, "Them Jews are great fighters, but they are certainly poor businessmen!" 

Unfortunately, people still get excited when they talk about people taking over the world and find a few Jewish men at the helm of a business or bank.  There was a time that Jewish students with high capabilities couldn't even get in medical schools when they had the highest scores much like SATs.  Why?  There was a limit of how many Jews were allowed in their schools.  So they had to go into other fields, though they had their hearts set on becoming doctors. 

Anti-Semitism was nourished on a paranoic delusion that the world is controlled by, and that its many problems were caused by, a secret and massively powerful Jewish conspiracy.  Where Jews lack power but are condemned for possessing and misusing it, this is anti-semitism.

  And we said to Sammy Davis, "YOU want to become Jewish?  Are you crazy?  Don't you have enough problems with being black?"  He knew and he did and G-d bless him. 

Resource: book: Just Because They're Jewish by M. Hirsh Goldberg
Book: Kike! by Selzer


My Dad and Myself

Differences Between Judaism and Islam

Nadene Goldfoot
Judaism, with 4,000 years of history,  is the first form of monotheism founded by Abraham in the 2nd millenium BCE who is called "The Father of Judaism."  Islam is one of the forms of monotheism brought to the Arabs by Mohammed in the 7th Century CE.  It became a world religion through Arab conquests. Judaism did try at one time to convert people but soon dropped the idea.  One becomes Jewish by being born to a Jewish mother or by requesting a desire to become Jewish and going through conversion.  Today  Reform Jews may be Jewish by birth with only a father  who is Jewish. 

Mohammad thought that there was no real difference between Judaism and Islam, and mistakedly thought that Jews would quickly convert and accept him as their prophet.   He thought that all holy books were copies of one in heaven and that all revelations were one, just distorted by different people.  He was just there to correct things.  Judaism  is a living faith with a destiny to benefit not only Jews but the whole human race.  There is a variety of thought from strict Orthodoxy, guardians of the unabridged tradition to radical Reform.  They share the same belief in one G-d.  and in following the 10 Commandments. 

Islam's religion and its law are woven together, just like in Judaism.  Islam also has a written Law (Koran) which has been explained more in the Oral Law (Hadith).  Judaism also has the written law (Torah) and the Oral law (codified in Mishna and Talmud)
Originally, Mohammed's creation was similar to Jewish halakhah.  The Jews of Medina would not accept him or his Koran and mission, so he created laws to emphasize the differences between Islam and Judaism, which became quite harsh.

The Koran has plenty of biblical people from the Five Books of Moses in it that he accepted.  Mohammed has Abraham, who lived in the 2nd millennium BCE,  as the founder of monotheism, but also makes him the builder of the Ka'ba, which Judaism does not.  He includes Noah, Moses, David and Solomon as well as Jesus among prophets who were long before Mohammed's time.  Mohammed was born 570 CE and died 632 CE.  His interests in G-d started around the age of 40.  When he was young, he often traveled with Meccan trade caravans and met Jews and Christians to whom he would ask religious questions.  He came to believe that he also was a chosen prophet after his experience with an angel, Gabriel. 

He introduced a day of fast that is very similar to the Jewish Day of Atonement.  He chose Friday as the public day of prayer after the Jewish Shabbat which falls from Friday night to Saturday night.  Jews pray towards Jerusalem, and Muslims did likewise till he saw that Jews would not convert.  Then he changed some of the new rites and became very hostile towards the Jews.  Somehow he overcame his hostility and took Safia, a Jewish girl, as his wife. 

Tombs revered to Jews in Israel, like the Cave of Machpelah in Hebron are also revered by Muslims.  The Moslem tradition has the mosque on the Jewish Temple mount site in Jerusalem as the "farthest mosque" that Mohammed reached on his famous night journey; now regarded as a Holy Place.  When the Romans took Jerusalem in 70CE they razed the Temple and it served as a center of military activity, but later they built a Roman Temple over it.  Then when Islam came into being the mosque "of Omar" was built over the site.  We see much material borrowed from the Midrash of the Jews. 

Many religious laws are common to both Islam and Judaism, like not eating anything from pigs, not having images of G-d, fixed times for prayers.  One difference is that religious Jews pray 3 times a day and Muslims do it 5 times a day. 

Originally, Muslims regarded Jews and Christians as "people of the Book" who should enjoy religious freedom in Moslem countries in return for payment of a poll tax.  Sects of Islam such as Shi'a, predominently found in Iran, were more stern in their attitude towards Jews. (It's good that Queen Esther and the Jewish people lived in Persia way before Islam was created).   The clashes with Mohammed and the Jews of Arabia, who would not convert to this new religion, resulted in the Jews' expulsion and often times extermination of whole Jewish tribes. 

Jews created a Jewish Creed after the way they were treated in Arabia by Muslims.  The persecution of Jews by Moslems for religious reasons was rare and even discriminatory legislation was often unenforced, but today things have changed.  We see religious leaders of Islam putting a fatwa out saying that all Jews should be killed everywhere.  Qaradawi of Qatar, a major Muslim Brotherhood religious leader, is quite bloodthirsty about it.  Though he's an elderly man confined to a wheelchair, he wants to kill any Jew with his bare hands. 

Why do Muslims revere Abraham like the Jews do?  Ishmael was Abraham's first son by Abraham's wife's Egyptian handmaid, Hagar.  He was circumcised at age 13, whereas Jews are circumcised at age 8 days.  He and his mother had been asked to leave permanently at the request of Sarah, Abraham's wife as he was not treating her younger son, Isaac,  well at all.  Ishmael was removed to Paran, but did join Isaac when Abraham died, so they both buried him.

 Ishmael's daughter married Esau. Esau was the 1st twin born to Isaac, and according to tradition was a  a violent person to the point of being quite a villain.  His twin brother was Jacob.  Jacob received the birthright from their father and so got the blessing that was to be given to the first born.  Esau was so mad that Jacob tricked him into giving his birthright to him that he tried to kill him, causing Jacob to escape from his wrath and go to Haran.  He returned 20 years later with gifts for Esau, but it didn't heal Esau's feelings.  Jacob later is given the name, Israel.   Traditionally, Ishmael is the ancestor of the Arab people.  Thus was born the original hostilities between Arabs and Jews.  The birthright was an oral pronouncement from Isaac on his deathbed. 

Definitions: Muslim: noun, adjective, one who surrenders to G-d- Allah, an adherent of Islam
 Moslem: variation of Muslim
Islam  noun,  submission to the will of G-d, the religious faith of Muslims including belief in Allah as the sole deity and in Muhammad as his prophet; the civilization erected upon Islamic faith, the group of modern nations in which Islam is the dominanat religion. 

Resource: http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Judaism/Oral_Law.html
The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia page 667, Mohammed, "He held that all Holy Books were copies of a aheavenly model"...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conversion_to_Judaism
http://blog.becomingjewish.org/?p=2173
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Who_is_a_Jew%3F