Monday, December 31, 2012

King Solomon's Temple Relics Show Up in Highway Construction

Nadene Goldfoot
In the process of building a highway this month, Israel Antiquities Authority was called in because the construction crew found artifacts that turned out to be relics from King Solomon's Temple, 3,000 years ago.  They uncovered pottery, chalices, pedestals, and figurines including harnessed animals and a man with a beard.  This was part of Tel Motza near Jerusalem "which acted as the Kingdom's main sacred center at the time."

This shows "archaeological evidence for the existence of temples and ritual enclosures in the Kingdom of Judah in general, and in the Jerusalem region in particular, prior to the religious reforms throughout the kingdom at the end of the monarchic period (at the time of Hezekiah and Isaiah), which abolished all ritual sites, concentrating ritual practices solely at the Temple in Jerusalem."  It is a rare find.  

Earlier in August at the same Tel Motza, stone age figurines were unearthed.  In fact, discoveries have continued all over Israel.  Two years ago, the main road of Jerusalem from 1,500 years ago was exposed.  

Prof. Haim Goldfus, archaeologist, reported in 1992 of finding the remains of a ceramics workshop of the 10th Roman Legion in Jerusalem, who were part of the Roman conquest in 70 CE.  

I know that when I lived in Israel from 1980-1985, people loved to go on hikes just to see what they could spot that would be something from our past.  Digging in Israel's soil can be quite exciting.  

Resource: http://www.jta.org/news/article/2012/12/26/3115431/3000-year-old-temple-and-sacred-vessels-unearthed-near-jerusalem
http://www.antiquities.org.il/about_eng.asp?modul_id=14
http://www.antiquities.org.il/article_Item_eng.asp?sec_id=25&subj_id=240&id=1282
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Archaeology/jeruceram.html
1/8/13 http://unitedwithisrael.org/3000-year-old-jewish-temple-unearthed-near-jerusalem/

Friday, December 28, 2012

Abbas-Stumbling Block to Peace Talks

Nadene Goldfoot
Arafat, the leader of Fatah terrorists, died and Mahmoud Abbas took over as Chairman of the Palestinian Authority..  Born ion March 26, 1935, he must be getting tired,as this PA leader's office expired in early 2009.  He will not hold new elections, saying that PA residents should vote for a new leader only after Hamas-led Gaza reunites with the Fatah leadership in Judea and Samaria.  That will be sooner than he thinks as Hamas is plotting a takeover and wants to oust Abbas once again, as they did when they ran him out of Gaza.

Abbas demands the impossible, while refusing  to discuss any peace plans with Netanyahu.  Instead he runs to confer with Hamas and countries supplying Gaza with arms. He demands conditions agreed to first before he sits down to talk.
1.  He demands a construction freeze including a ban on natural growth in Israeli towns previously assumed to be Israeli under a diplomatic agreement.  
2. He also requires that Israel free PA resident terrorists
3. Allow the PA to arm the police force more heavily
4. Agree in principle to his major territorial demands.  (He has wanted Israel to go back to 1967 lines.)
5. Abbas demands a complete building freeze east of the 1949 armistice line.

                    At the Same Time

1. Continue refusing to recognize Israel as a Jewish state
2 Belief in terrorism against Israel.
3.  He supports the "right of return" for millions of people descended from Arabs and more to Israel.

You don't have to be the wise King Solomon to see that these demands and unchangeable positions spell death for Israel, and that parties need to sit down and work out a peaceable solution.  Netanyahu has pleaded with Abbas, even at the UN in front of all the participants and TV cameras, but Abbas was unmovable.  Abbas has threatened to quit if negotiations do not resume with pre-conditions met first.  Now Lieberman said he anxiously awaits the official announcement from the Muqata regarding his retirement.  "There are many alternatives among the Palestinians with whom Israel can hold a diplomatic dialog."  Lieberman feels that it's Abbas remaining as the leader that will ultimately bring Hamas and other radicals to Judea and Samaria.

Avigdor Lieberman, ex foreign Minister of Israel said that Israel can't wait for Abbas to quit. Tens of thousands of Palestinian civil servants and security forces rely on the Palestinian Authority for their livelihood, and the Palestinian Authority is the keystone of a series of partial peace accords with Israel that benefit the Palestinian economy and influence other aspects of life. Abbas has threatened to disband the PA and place the area in Israel's hands.  Many believe this is just a threat.  

Hamas and Fatah have major differences, but have been holding rallies in each other's domains recently.  Still, it could only be Abbas's dream that they will get close to their political differences.  

Resource: Arutz Sheva news@israelnationalnews.com
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahmoud_Abbas
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/abbas-israel-reduced-security-cooperation-18081253#.UN3qP-RLXqE
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2012/12/2012122813822228539.html
http://www.americantaskforce.org/daily_news_article/2012/12/17/hamas_and_fatah_no_closer_settling_their_differences_0

Thursday, December 27, 2012

Egypt's New Republic of Sharia Law and Attitude

Nadene Goldfoot
Egypt's history with their neighbor, Israel, has been running hot and cold. They've been in wars before 1967, and then in 1972. Sadat came to visit and speak to Israelis in 1977, and became a well loved personage.   After being in the Camp David Accords, Egypt signed a peace treaty with Israel on March 26, 1979.   Finally, after the several wars in which Egypt attacked Israel and lost, they finally had a peace made by Sadat and carried on with Mubarak.  Now that Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood has imprisoned Mubarak, we see many changes for the worst for Israel.

Morsi spouts that he is bringing Democracy to Egypt, but has not a clue as to its meaning.  He uses this word to hide behind while he institutes Sharia Law that not everyone is willing to be ruled by in Egypt.

His opponents say that the constitution allows a dictatorship of the majority--which Islamists have won with repeated election victories in the past 2 years.  We know that they have not been fair elections, and people most likely have been advised, threatened and forced to vote for him and for good measure the voting boxes were most likely illegally stuffed with Morsi's name by his party.

The charter's provisions for greater implementation of Islamic law, or Shariah, will allow only Islamists who hold the presidency like Morsi, and not other viewpoints.  In other words, it's an Islamist takeover from a secular society. In Sadat and Mubakak's day the Muslim Brotherhood was outlawed and such people as Qaradawi were banned from Egypt. Qaradawi moved to Qatar where he is a great friend of the Emir.    They will now overwhelmingly dominate the temporary legislature to restrict civil rights and limit the freedoms of minorities and women.

The opponents, with the main one being the National Salvation Front,  say that the turnout was low in the referendum, so low that only 33% turned out.  This undermines the document's legitimacy.  They are going to study Morsi's speech and decide if his dialogue between himself and other Islamists was serious or just  "theater."

The changeover to a Muslim Brotherhood rule is detrimental for Israel and could affect their peace treaty.  The Muslim Brotherhood now is ruling the Arab world's largest and most important nation; Egypt.  Their moral guide, Mohammed Badie,  says that "The Jews have dominated the land, spread corruption on earth, spilled the blood of believers and in their actions profaned holy places.  Zionists only understand the language of force and will not relent without duress.  This will happen only through holy Jihad."

Al Nabi Mansour prayed at a nationally televised service at el-Tenaim Mosque which was  attended by Egyptian President Morsi.  Futouh Abd al-Nabi Mansour, Egyptian cleric who heads the religious endowment for the Matrouh Governate said, "Oh Allah, destroy the Jews and their supporters--Oh Allah, disperse them and rend them asunder, Oh Allah, demonstrate your might and greatness upon them."  Morsi was shown on TV fervently answering "Amin" (Amen).  October 19, 2012 from MEMRI

Resource: Oregonian newspaper, 12/27/12, page A9,  Egypt's president declares beginning of "new republic" by Sarah El Deeb AP
http://www.wiesenthal.com/2012 slurs
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egypt%E2%80%93Israel_Peace_Treaty

Monday, December 24, 2012

Lost Tribe of Israel Living in India Move to Israel

Nadene Goldfoot                                                          
 
December 19, 2020:  "The group of 250 which made aliyah earlier this week was the first to arrive in two-and-a-half years.  The arrival of the Bnei Menashe  was a Chanukah miracle.  Early that past Tuesday, a group of 250 Bnei Menashe from northeastern India touched down at Ben-Gurion Airport on a special charter flight arranged by Shavei Israel, the organization I founded and chair, in conjunction with the Aliyah and Absorption Ministry. After undergoing formal conversion by Israel’s Chief Rabbinate, the immigrants will move to Nof HaGalil, formerly known as Upper Nazareth." The Bnei Menashe are descendants of the tribe of Manasseh, one of the Ten Lost Tribes exiled from the Land of Israel more than 2,700 years ago by the Assyrian Empire.

Some of the Bnei Menashe (Sons of Menasseh-one of the sons of Joseph, who was the son of Rachel and Jacob)who say they are from the Lost Tribes of ancient Israel that were taken by the Assyrians in the 8h century BCE are returning to Israel.  As they tell it,  they were banished from Israel then, but in actuality they were kidnapped and taken as slaves when Assyria attacked Israel.  Dozens are now moving  to Israel after 5 years of trying to enter   The Israeli Chief Rabbi recognized them in 2005, and about 1,700  moved there over the next 2 years before the government had to stop giving them visas.  Now Israel is agreeing to let the remaining 7,2000 immigrate.

On Monday the 24th, 53 arrived on a flight.  Michael Freund, activist on their behalf, said nearly 300 others will arrive in the next few weeks.  One of the immigrants was Lhing Lenchonz, 26, who arrived with her husband and 8 month old daughter.  "We are now in our land,"  she said.

Some Israelis think they are simply people fleeing poverty in India. Their claim's origins comes from a dream in 1951 of a Christian Pentacostalist who learned their religion was Judaism and their homeland was Israel.   Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar has insisted that they undergo conversion to be recognized as Jews.  A rabbinical team had gone to India and converted 218 Bnei Menashe, and only stopped because the Indian authorities stepped in and stopped it.  DNA tests have been done and the feminine side (MTdna)  suggests a genetic profile with Middle Eastern people that may have arisen through inter-marriage". So far tests that have been done do not show a male connection to the Middle East, though it is possible that after thousands of years it is difficult to identify the traces of the common genetic origin. However, a positive answer can give a significant indication.  There are many new tests recently developed that may show more about their dna heritage.  It will be an exciting study.

"November 2006: In a Jerusalem Post article about an Indian historian's claims of finding a genetic link between his Northern Indian Pathan clan (Pashtuns  living in India, Pakistan and Afghanistan) and the Lost Tribe of Ephraim, Hillel Halkin says that "there's no such thing as Jewish DNA. There is a [genetic] pattern which is very common in the Middle East; 40% of Jews worldwide have it and 60% do not have it. But many non-Jews and people in the Middle East have it also."

They come from the states of Mizoram and Manipur near India's border with Myanmar (Burma) , where they say their ancestors landed after the Assyrians banished them.  They had become headhunters and animists, and in the 19th century many had been converted to Christianity.  However, they had continued to practice ancient Jewish rituals, such as animal sacrifices, which Jews in Israel stopped with the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem in 70 CE.  The breakaway Judaic group was named Bnei Menashe by Eliyahu Avichail  because they believe that the legendary Kuki-Mizo ancestor Manmasi was Menasseh, son of Joseph.  They sing a traditional song which tells a tale similar to the Exodus.  According to the Bnai Menashe, they had been believing in one G-d and were familiar with many biblical stories when the Christian Missionaries first came upon them.  One thing, though their connection is shaky, they are people who want to be Israelis.  That is remarkable.

Israel has already taken in about 120,000 Falashas from Ethiopia (Beta Israel- House of Israel)  Many were arriving when I was living in Safed (Tzfat).  They claim to be from the lost tribe of Dan, though I've also heard stories of stemming from the Queen of Sheba when she visited King Solomon.


Resource:  http://news.yahoo.com/indian-jews-lost-tribe-move-israel-121503473.html
 Huffington Post http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/24/bnei-menashe-move-to-israel-indian-jews-from-lost-tribe-arrive-in-holy-land-photos_n_2359086.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bnei_Menashe
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethiopian_Jews_in_Israel
http://jewishfactsfromportland.blogspot.com/2012/11/india-burmas-lost-menashe-tribe-of.html

A Christian Egyptian Dissident in Jerusalem Speaks Out

Nadene Goldfoot
Maikel Nahil was born in 1985, the year I left Israel to return to Portland, Oregon.  Who knew that such a baby would become such a political activist and blogger.  On the 4th of February, 2010 he was arrested by Egypt's military police and tortured, but luckily released 27 hours later.  It happened again on Mary 28, 2011 in his home in Cairo and he was sentenced to 3 years imprisonment on charges of "insulting the military" in his blog!   By December 14 of the same year his sentence was reduced by a year to serve 2 years.  He was finally pardoned on January 23, 2012.

Today he is known as one of Egypt's most famous human rights dissidents and democracy bloggers.  He's different in that he is Egypt's most outspoken supporter of peace with Israel.  Irwin Cotler was Mr. Nabil's international legal counsel, a Canadian MP, law professor and human rights advocate and  board member of UN Watch.

"After years of calling for peace,"  said Mr. Nabil, I have realized that practicing peace is more important than talking.  My visit is a message from the Egyptian peace community that we have had enough violence and confrontation and we want this to end."  Maikel was born into a Coptic Christian family but now is an atheist.  They make up 10% of Egypt's Muslim population.  He has finished his education for becoming a veterinarian but has also of late been studying law.  He could have taken his final tests but was in prison.

He has arrived in Jerusalem on a peace-building mission where he will speak at universities and meet with leading public figures and peace activists and visit the Palestinian territories.  He visited Yitzhak Rabin's grave on the 21st of December and has total respect for this Israeli Prime Minister who gave his life for Egyptians and Israelis to live in peace with his involvement in the Oslo Accords and even before.   He's an admirer of Israel and its accomplishments in such a short time.  One thing that had impressed him was when Sadat came to Jerusalem and was so warmly welcomed.  He wondered at the time if this could happen in Egypt.

This has been organized by UN Watch, a non-governmental organization that is Geneva based, works at the UN to promote universal human rights and Arab-Israeli peace.  It was founded in 1993 and is headed by Alfred H. Moses, attorney under Bill Clinton as ambassador to Romania and worked on the Cyprus Conflict.

This is all well and good, but 27 year old Nabil is not speaking for the majority party, the Muslim Brotherhood, who have a charter showing their goal is to destroy Israel.  The Christians of Egypt are in danger themselves.   Morsi's constitution disregards religious freedom.  The Copts are in deep trouble.  Maikel will be amazed to see how the 3 major religions are treated in Israel; the Jews, Muslims and Christians as well as others like the Baha'is located in Haifa.  Druze are active in the army but live in their own neighborhoods which is their choice.

Reference:  http://maikel-nabil-in-jail.blogspot.co.il/2011/11/why-am-i-pro-israel-old-article.html
http://www.unwatch.org/cms.asp?id=3674274&campaign_id=63111
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maikel_Nabil_Sanad
http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Middle-East/2012/0329/Atheist-and-pro-Israel-Maikel-Nabil-tests-free-speech-in-Egypt
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christianity_in_Egypt
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/dec/21/future-looks-bleak-for-egypts-coptic-christians/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassination_of_Yitzhak_Rabin
http://www.bahai.org/dir/bwc

Sunday, December 23, 2012

Prominent Americans Like John Kerry : Finding Jewish Ancestors

                                                                                          
Nadene Goldfoot                                               The Ancestors of John Kerry
Moravia was a former province of Bohemia which later fell into the hands of Austria, and then finally is known as Czechoslovakia.  Jews have lived there since the Middle Ages.  They  suffered in massacres in 1337, and again when the Black Death (Bubonic Plague) struck in 1349.  About half were expelled from the country in 1421 which was even before the mass expulsions in the Spanish Inquisition of 1492 which affected other countries as well.

In 1648 onward, they suffered from Polish persecution.  In the 17th century a General Council of  Moravian Jewry was formed which was given the job of taxation and enacting laws for communal self-government.  It's capital town was Brno (Brunn), an important center for rabbinic learning.

In 1824 Benedikt Kohn was born in the southern part of Moravia.  He was a successful master brewer of beer.  His first wife died, so he moved to Bennisch (Horni Benesov) in 1868 when he was 44.  There he married Mathilde Frankel.  There were only 27 Jews including them, enough for a minion,  living in their town of 4,200  according to the 1880 census.  However, Benedikt died in 1876, so Mathilde moved to Vienna with her children, Ida age 7 and Friedrich or Fritz, as he was called, born in 1873 and her newborn Otto.

Fritz and Otto were excellent students in Vienna.  At this time, all Jews were suffering greatly from anti-Semitism that prevailed in Europe. In 1894 Alfred Dreyfus, a young French Jewish captain on the French general staff was accused and imprisoned without a fair trial because he was Jewish. It took him 12 years to prove his innocence.    As a result of anti-Semitism and lack of paternal guidance, both boys later converted to Roman Catholicism.  In 1897 Otto, raised without a father, decided to abandon his Jewish name of Kohn and chose a new name by dropping his pencil on a map and where it landed became his name.  In 1901, Fritz joined him by taking his new chosen name.  They became the Kerry brothers as the pencil had  landed on Kerry, Ireland.  Fritz also changed his first name to Frederick and was called Fred.

Fred worked as an accountant at his uncle's shoe factory and married Ida Loewe, a Jewish musician from Budapest.  What's surprising is that he must have converted by then.  Ida was a descendant of Sinai Loew, a brother of Rabbi Judah Loew (Judah Low Ben Bezalel-1525-1609) who had been the chief rabbi of Moravia from 1533-73) .  He was the famous Kabbalist, philosopher and Talmudist known as the "Maharal of "Prague" who some say invented the character of the Golem.

Fred, Ida and their first son Erich were all baptized as Catholics.  In 1905 they immigrated to America, first living in Chicago and then settling down in Boston.  Two more children were born in the USA; Mildred in 1910 and Richard in 1915.  They lived in Brookline where Fred became a prominent shoe businessman, and they attended Sunday Catholic church services regularly.  Fred didn't dare tell a soul that he came from a Jewish family.  In 1921 at age 48 he got a room in a hotel in Boston and shot himself in the head.  It was before the crash of 29, so one can speculate that perhaps it was because of denying who he was.  He must have had a smattering of Judaism from his mother, and knew what a charade he was carrying on.  The burden was too much for him, also knowing what he had done to his wife and children.Ida died in 1960 in Sarasota, Florida at age 83.  

By 1938 the Jewish population was 45,000 in Moravia, and most died in the Holocaust.  Very few returned after WWII.

 Richard was only 6 years old when his father committed suicide.  He continued on with his life and attended Phillips Academy, Yale University and Harvard Law School.  He then served in the US Army Air Corps and worked in the US Dept. of State and later in the Foreign Service.  He married   Rosemary G. Forbes, the beneficiary of the Forbes family trusts.  The Forbes family had a huge fortune from trading in China.

They had 4 children; Margery (l941), John (1943), Diana (1947), and Cameron (1950).  John was a Massachusetts Senator, and in 2004 was the Democratic Nominee for President. Today he is the appointee by President Obama to be the next Secretary of State.   Cameron married a Jewish woman and converted to Judaism in 1983 and is a prominent Boston lawyer.  These children's  grandmother,  Ida, had  siblings, Otto and Jenni Loewe,  who were killed in Nazi concentration camps (1942-1945). Richard died in 2000 and Rosemary 2 years later.

John Kerry didn't know that he had a paternal set of  Jewish great grandparents.  Neither did he know that his paternal  grandfather and grandmother were born Jewish but converted to Catholicism.  Today we're finding through DNA and genealogical interests in ancestors that there are other Americans with Jewish heritage from the rampage of anti-Semitic attitudes that prevailed in Europe.

Madeleine Albright, born May 15, 1937, didn't know that 3 of her 4 grandparents were Jewish until 1997 when she became the first female Secretary of State.  She was born as Marie Jana Korbelova of Prague, Czechoslovakia.  Her Jewish parents were Josef Korel, a Czech diplomat and  Anna Spieglova.  They converted to Catholicism due to the Holocaust when in exile in 1938.  She  converted to Episcopalianism  at the time of her marriage in 1959. Her father later was dean of a school of international studies  and taught Condoleezza Rice.  Albright is fluent in English, French, Russian, and Czech; she speaks and reads Polish and Serbo-Croatian as well

Retired 4 star General Wesley Clark has announced that his father was Jewish. He was also going to  run for president in 2004 but didn't when he heard that Kerry was running.  His great grandfather was a Belarusian Jewish man who immigrated to the USA from the Pale of Settlement because of all the anti-Semitic violence from the Russian pogroms.  Wesley's grandfather was Jacob Kanne, who had been Kohen.  His father was Benjamin Jacob Kanne.  Wesley's mother was a Methodist.

Resource:  http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/US-Israel/kerryisrael.html.
http://judaism.about.com/od/jewishgenealogy/a/jewpas_kerry.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wesley_Clark
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madeleine_Albright
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Death
Oregonian newspaper 12/23/12 page A2, Kerry's "entire life has prepared him" for job as secretary of state by AP
added 12/24/12 http://news.yahoo.com/netanyahu-lauds-kerry-nomination-u-secretary-state-job-191806222.html










Thursday, December 20, 2012

Alfred de Zayas: UN Human Rights Blunder

Nadene Goldfoot
The UN must stay up nights trying to think up ways to gang up on Israel.  Yesterday they adopted a resolution ratifying 22 resolutions against Israel and only 4 against others in the world. they have also  appointed in March another special Rapporteur, Alfred de Zayas as the Independent Expert on the promotion of a democratic and equitable international order, which is an anti-West mandate written by Cuba's Communist regime.  Of course he's Cuban-born. This makes him eligible to be on a UN committee of Human Rights, comprising such countries  as" Congo, China, Cuba, and Saudi Arabia, and has as its Vice President a country, Mauritania, that is considered the world’s worst enabler of modern slavery."

Zayas, born May 31, 1947 in Havana, Cuba and a Roman Catholic, came to America with his family after the Cuban Revolution and grew up in Chicago,  and graduated from Harvard Law School.  He also has  a doctorate of philosophy in modern history from a Georg-August University of Gottingen, Germany.  He attended other schools in Germany, such as in Heidelberg, Braunschweig and Tubingen, Baden-Wurttemberg.  He was an American corporate lawyer with Simpson Thacher & Bartlett from 1970 to 1974, and a retired member of the Florida Bar, writer, historian and leading expert in human rights and international law as well as a retired high-ranking UN official from 1981-2003 in Human Rights..  This explains their stand against Israel which has become the rule rather than the exception.  He now lives in Geneva, Switzerland, teaching there at the Geneva School of Diplomacy and International Relations.

How does he feel about Jews and Israel and America?  He said that "Israel emerged out of terrorism against the indigenous population " and its representatives should be denied UN accreditation.  America bears "responsibility for the destabilization of...countries in the Middle East."  George W. Bush and Tony Blair are Pharisees."  Thoughts on the Bible and WWII are also shocking.  "He expounded that "The Old Testament is characterized by "cruelty" and "profound unreligiousity," its patriarchs equipped with divine legitimacy and justification to take our promised Lebensraum by force."  "Moses had such a rough time bringing the Jewish people across the Red Sea because half of them were busy picking up pretty shells." World War II shows what side he has been on with, "Churchill and Roosevelt connived at "a form of genocide" against the Germans.  World War II Allies who fought Nazi Germany should have been prosecuted for "barbarous" and "gruesome" crimes;  the Nuremberg court that judged Nazi war criminals had "hardly any legitimacy."  "Nurembuerg was an exercise in hypocrisy.  A continuation of hate and war...a corruption of legal norms and procedures, a pollution of philosophy, a truly Pharisee tribunal."   Doesn't he fit the seat at the Human Rights table, though, to judge others.

A German historian, Dr. Bernward Dorner who specializes in anti-Semitism said that Zayas ignores decades of research in his quest to absolve the Germans of having known about the Holocaust, and his evidence and reasoning are faulty.  Professor Frank M. Brucher said in the 1993 issue of German Studies Review article that Zayas "makes no attempt to integrate his work with that of existing historiography on WWII, Nazi Germany or war crimes in general."  Another article of September 17, 2011 by Willi Van Ooyen, "Main-Taunus-Kurier, said that "Controversial international law expert Alfred de Zayas operates in the discourse of the extreme right."  German historian Wolfgang Wipperman accused him of historical revisionism in the Frankfurter Rundschau, "Revanchismus an Schulen: Vertriebenen-Thesen fur Abendgymnasien."

"The Commission was also criticized for bias against Israel. In 2002 Anne Bayefsky, a professor of international law at York University in Toronto, wrote that "commission members seek to avoid directly criticizing states with human rights problems, frequently by focusing on Israel, a state that, according to analysis of summary records, has for over 30 years occupied 15 percent of commission time and has been the subject of a third of country-specific resolutions." On April 15, 2002, the Commission approved a resolution affirming the "legitimate right of the Palestinian people to resist the Israeli occupation in order to free its land and be able to exercise its right of self-determination.  In so doing, the Palestinian people was declared "fulfilling its mission, one of the goals and purposes of the United Nations".

Of the 53-member commission, 40 countries voted yes, five voted no, and seven abstained. Although widely reported that the resolution condoned resistance to Israel by "all available means, including armed struggle," the resolution itself does not contain those words.Alfred Moses, a former United States ambassador to the commission and now chairman of the monitoring group UN Watch, said that "A vote in favour of this resolution is a vote for Palestinian terrorism"In a letter to the UNHRC on November 15, 2002, following an attack by Palestinians on Israelis in the town of Hebron, Nabil Ramlawi, the permanent observer for Palestine at the U.N., appealed to the resolution as justification for the attack.

When Zayas, considered a Holocaust deniers' hero,  was confronted about his attitude, he expounded that he had only received positive comments from professors hitherto.Indeed, British Ambassador Peter Booderham was supposed to represent the interests and values of Western democracies, but failed to do so.  Britain, France, Germany and the USA are now in peril if they worry about this Human Rights committee. Israel already is the main scapegoat.

This appointment reflects the values of Human Rights of the UN's morality.

Resource: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred-Maurice_de_Zayas
UN watch  briefing@unwatch.org
http://blog.standforisrael.org/articles/u-n-again-bashes-israel-while-ignoring-the-rest-of-the-world
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_Commission_on_Human_Rights





Anti-Semitic Europe Driving Out Jews

Nadene Goldfoot
The Holocaust caused 6 million Jews to die who were living in Europe.  A few survived and remained there while some survivors moved to other lands to begin a new life, such as the Jews that moved into Malma, Sweden.  Today Jews make up only 0.2% of the whole world population.  That is because there are only 14 million Jews in a world of 6,804,200,000.

Filling that gap have been innumerable Muslims moving out of their Middle Eastern homeland, and there have been innumerable assaults happening on the Jews from them.  Attitudes of Europeans towards Jews are taking on the prevailing attitudes of the new Muslim citizens as a result.

Christians in Egypt are experiencing the same thing, since there are no more Jews left to pick on.  They are so intimidated that they are afraid to go to the polls to vote.  They are now worried about their future. A week before Election Day, 50,000 Islamists marched through Assiut chanting that Egypt will be "Islamic, Islamic, despite the Christians."  At the head of this parade were bearded men on horseback with swords in scabbards on their hips.  One had the picture of the early Muslims conquering Christian Egypt in the 7th Century.

Jews in Denmark are warned to not wear any Jewish symbols in public as it identifies them as being Jewish and thus an available target for hatred that has been taking place.  An old Jewish man was eating a kebab and assaulted by Arab who kicked him and tore his star of David necklace off.  Another wearing a kippah was attacked. Israelis touring are told not to speak Hebrew where others can hear them.   It has been happening all over Europe:  Germany, France, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Netherlands, Norway, UK, Rome, Spain, and Poland .  They  are all reporting anti-Semitic attacks.   Even the few Jews left in Russia are experiencing anti-Semitism again.  Yet there are such few Jews in each of these countries.  In 2010 the % of Jews was France: 0.77%; UK:0.47%; Netherlands: 0.18%; Sweden: 0.16%; Germany: 0.15%; Denmark: 0.12%; and the others with only 0.05%.

Amsterdam has been warning about their immigrant problem attacking Jews for some time, now.  Jews have been living there since the Spanish Inquisition of 1492.  One young man wrote a letter to the local newspaper, NRC Handelsblad, saying that he couldn't go to public events with any  Jewish jewelry on his body, and could not go out of the house on a Saturday night.  He was orthodox and usually wore his kippah all the time.

Living in the United States, my late husband had also decided to wear his kippah (little knitted beanie-type head covering) all the time.  Having been a conservative Jew, he had begun to study more of our history and ethics and wanted to do that.  He was a USA history high school teacher, so was well ingrained in American mores.  Lucky for him he was in America, as he wasn't hassled, and of course he didn't hassle anyone, either, but then we weren't  in an environment of hatred, either. His area of expertise was "Adolf Hitler" and the Holocaust era. However, one day he picked up a comic book left in his classroom, and it was all anti-Semitic.  He took it to his Kiwanis buddies who included several ministers of various Christian denomination who took immediate action in a meeting and put an end to that problem, but it was enough to make up consider moving to Israel to teach English, which we did.  That and the Nazi skinheads of Idaho meeting in our local restaurant caused the move.

 It was 80 years ago next January, that Adolf Hitler seized power in Germany.  Who joined the Axis powers?  The Ottoman Empire, Turkey, in the Middle East.  When the Allies, with the USA leading the charge, won, the Axis lost, and the Ottoman Empire's land was given to Britain with a mandate to decide its future.  The Muslims are still stinging from their goal to exterminate Jews, still reading Nazi literature as the #1 popular reading material like Mein Kampf, and still plotting to finish carrying out the Nazi goals to the fullest. As in the economic situation of Germany before WWII, we are again facing similar financial problems, and it is again Jews who become scapegoats.  But when Jews were attacked in Germany then, they could not blame Israel on their hatred as it wasn't declared a state until May 14, 1948, well after the war.

The 6 million people, including little 6 year-olds like the ones whose lives were snuffed out in Connecticut recently, and ones younger,  made up 2/3 of European Jewry.  Today we see  Jewish senior citizens living in Malma, Sweden, who had been survivors of the Holocaust,, run out of town by the new Muslim immigrants.  Some seek asylum in Israel, already crowded and living in high rise apartment buildings, but who have open arms.  After all, that's what Israel's creation was all about.  After leaving such an anti-Semitic atmosphere, they are probably frightened over the prevailing war with Muslims there in Gaza, Judea-Samaria, and all the surrounding neighbors far more than Jews who are Sabras (born in Israel) who, like the Sabra plant, are tough and hearty. The prospects of being gassed by Syria or hit with an atomic bomb by Iran are not come-ons.  However, the chance to inwardly and outwardly be proud of their religion is.  We're back to the days of the Inquisition again in being afraid to let anyone know we are Jewish.

Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antisemitism_in_Europe
Pamela@atlasshrugs.com
Oregonian Newspaper 12/20/12  page A7, Egypt's Christians fear polls
http://www.haaretz.com/jewish-world/jewish-world-news/polish-authorities-shrug-off-anti-semitism-1.466127
http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/2020/spain-anti-semitic
http://www.haaretz.com/jewish-world/jewish-world-news/german-jewish-leader-tells-haaretz-anti-semitism-mounting-in-my-country-1.467474
http://www.adl.org/russia/russian_political_antisemitism_3.asp
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Judaism/jewpop.html
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_percentage_of_the_world's_population_is_Jewish
Added  1/7/13 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvjw1oa3c1Y 
 

Wednesday, December 19, 2012

Los Angeles Synagogue Received Bomb Threats

                                                                                      
Nadene Goldfoot
The Wilshire Boulevard Temple in Los Angeles, California, the oldest synagogue in the city,  received two bomb threats yesterday morning from a pay phone saying that a device was near or inside a patrol car parked outside the Temple.  This brought out the police and all their gear to check such things out, but they didn't find anything.  They figure that it had nothing to do with the recent shooting in Connecticut.  The synagogue had to close for the day.

The Temple is open again as of today.  They had started as Congregation B'nai brith in 1862, and then in 1872 built a Temple on Broadway (was then Fort Street.)  Growth caused it to move again in 1895. to 9th and Hope Streets.

Resource: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/163337
http://laist.com/2012/12/18/las_oldest_synagogue_targeted.php
http://www.wilshireboulevardtemple.org/pages/about_wbt

Why Hamas Wants to Destroy Israel

Nadene Goldfoot
Daniel Greenfield points out as I have done that the Hamas Charter is not just aiming at Israelis either in Israel, Jerusalem or Judea/Samaria, but Jews all over the world.  The intro to their charter read:  "for our struggle against the Jews is extremely wide-ranging and grave,".  "Israel, by virtue of its being Jewish and of having a Jewish population, defies Islam and the Muslims," reads Article 28.  Our self-hating Jewish members think they are safe from radical Muslim hatred, Daniel points out, but the rest of us all  know better.  People like Thomas Friedman should realize that the Hamas Charter states that their ethics come from Islam and that their goal is to see to it that every inch of "Palestine" is to be Islamic.

The following is right out of the Hamas charter: "We cannot fail to remind every Muslim that when the Jews occupied Holy Jerusalem in 1967 and stood at the doorstep of the Blessed Aqsa Mosque, they shouted with joy: “Muhammad is dead, he left daughters behind.” Israel, by virtue of its being Jewish and of having a Jewish population, defies Islam and the Muslims. “Let the eyes of the cowards not fall asleep.”

Of course Israelis did not shout this out with joy.  They were joyful of finally being able to go to the Western Wall, formerly called the Wailing Wall that was the original wall surrounding the Temple, as Jordan would not allow them to enter East Jerusalem.  Jordan had illegally taken over Judea and Samaria, which they called the West Bank as it was west of the Jordan River, even though it was part of the package originally in the British Mandate for the creation of the Jewish Homeland.  Jews cried and wept, danced and sung at the wall, and then most likely put prayers inside the cracks of it, as we still do today.  

The Hamas charter's epilogue ends with saying that they are not against other Muslims, but will give "help to all associations and organizations which act against the Zionist enemy and those who revolve in its orbit.

A Muslim friend let his hair down with a statement showing his true feelings:  "You have seen Hitler, you have seen Laden but Mahdi said, "Go, oh Jew!  Hide somewhere as Mahdi is coming. He,  the last Khalifa of this time,  will have an IQ level more than of your Jewish Einstein and will also have the powers of many earlier prophets (peace be upon them). Mahdi is called the center of the heart of all prophets.  He will be able to understand animals and djins like of Solomon."  So underneath the slim appearance of friendship, this belief is just simmering, waiting to explode in those radicals.  

This Mahdi is Islam's redeemer who is to arrive before the day of judgement and will rule for either 7, 9 or 19 years, depending on the sect of Islam.  He is to rid the world of evil.   Shia Islam wait for the 12th Imam, Muhammad al-Mahdi.  Islam also believes that Jesus Christ will come and break the cross, kill pigs and abolish the Jizya Tax. According to Islam, non believers are either pagans or dhimmis, and Jews and Christians are the latter.  They have to pay this tax, though Abba's Palestine is not going to allow any Jews to live there."    I suppose also that this means that it will be abolished because Christians and Jews will be no more since they expect to take over with Islam for all.   Money will be so available that no one will want it.  This sounds like what happened to Germany when money was plentiful but meant nothing.  People took wheelbarrows full to the store to buy a loaf of bread.

The 21st of December is coming in 3 days.  The Mayan Calendar may end on this day, but I think ran out of steam to start a new 26,000 year long era  on another clay calendar.  This Islamic type of future had better not come about, either.   What a new era should bring is the enlightenment of Palestinian Muslims to realize that they could have a good life if they learned to accept Israel in their Muslim midst and live in peace. 

Resource: http://frontpagemag.com/2012/dgreenfield/hamas-nazis-and-their-american-supporters/print/
http://jewishfactsfromportland.blogspot.com/2012/06/palestinians-big-strategy-to-take.html
http://sultanknish.blogspot.com/
http://www.thejerusalemfund.org/www.thejerusalemfund.org/carryover/documents/charter.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahdi
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/304125/jizya

Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Third Intifada --Not Peace Planned By Abbas and Mashaal

Nadene Goldfoot
Palestinian leaders from Fatah and Hamas have decided to begin a "popular" uprising to further erode international support for Israel.  Abbas, of Fatah, who has taken over Arafat's position, and Hamas, a terrorist organization as listed in the USA, see things alike.  They feel that the latest war in the Gaza Strip  and the UN vote as their "historic achievements" and that they were military and political victories over Israel.

Mahmoud Abbas and Khaled Mashaal just recently reached a secret agreement in Ramallah to launch this popular intifada against Israel in the "West Bank" (Judea and Samaria)  and the Gaza Strip.

They think this would cause isolation of Israel and give them even more sympathy in the international arena. Just what is an intifada?  It is a shaking off, uprising, resistance or rebellion. The first intifada was  a Palestinian uprising against the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian Territories from December 1987 to 1993.    The so called 'Palestinian Territories" are the Judea-Samaria and East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip.  In 1993 the Oslo Accords put them under the Palestinian National Authority.  By 2007 Hamas and Fatah warred against each other with Hamas kicking Fatah out of Gaza.  These areas had been under Jordanian rule when they took them illegally, of course in 1922.  In 1967's war against Israel, Israel won in 6 days, gaining the land.  Their relationship since then has been on and off, dickering over who is the ruler and in recognizing Israel.

I'm beginning to think that the Palestinians just enjoy the fighting for land and the act of taking it away from someone else.  They really don't want peace with Israel and haven't abided being given any land for a state . The first thought of theirs in having a state was in 1948 when it was offered.  Then again in 1967 they were tasting it with all the other Arab states at their side.   The thrill is in the taking, as empires of old.  Their relationship with each other is like hot and cold water, on and off quickly.  That's the way of the Middle East.  Everyone covets what the other has.  Iran and Iraq had a bloody war.  Syria is fighting against its own citizens now.  Egypt is just about doing the same thing.

Never in all the world history has there ever been a state of Palestine.  It was simply under-occupied and under-used land belonging for the past 400 years to the Ottoman Empire containing Jews and Arabs.  It had the history of once being Israel.   The British with the mandate decided to give the land to Jews for a Jewish Homeland.

These Arab Palestinians for the most part were originally leading nomadic lives coming in  from the surrounding states who wanted jobs from the Jews that were there, building.  Arafat, born in Cairo, Egypt on August 24, 1929, as Mohammed Yasser Abdel Rahman Abdel Raouf Arafat al-Qudwa al-Husseini, was a terrorist.  He had no desire to become a state builder.

Khaled Mashaal was born on May 28, 1956 in Silwad, "West Bank", which is only a few miles away from Ramallah, part of  Judea.  It became a military camp before 1967's Six Day War by the Jordanians.  In 2002, during the 2nd Intifada, a sniper from Silwad, Thaer Hamad, killed 10 soldiers and one man living in Ofra, a Jewish village. Mashaal attended Kuwait U. and has lived in Doha, Qatar and Cairo, Egypt.

  Mahmoud Abbas was born in Safed on March 26, 1935 when Palestine was under British control.  Safed has always been a large Jewish city where I lived for 5 years in Israel.  It is the home of many important Jewish religious leaders.  Abbas graduated from Damascus U in Syria  and then went to Egypt to study law.

If they want peace, they must deal with Benjamin Netanyahu, born October 21, 1949 in Tel Aviv, Israel.  He graduated from MIT in architecture in Massachusetts, USA.  He was first educated in Jerusalem, and is the son of a professor Benzion Netanyahu.  They lived in Pennsylvania where he graduated from high school.   "Yonatan Netanyahu. Yonatan was serving as the commander of Benjamin's former unit, the Sayeret Matkal, and was killed in action during the counter-terrorism hostage-rescue mission Operation Entebbe in which his unit rescued more than 100 Israeli hostages hijacked by terrorists and flown to the Entebbe Airport in Uganda."
(1929-08-24)
Resource:  Khaled Abu Toameh, Palestinian journalist.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intifada
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palestinian_territories
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yasser_Arafat
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khaled_Mashal
http://mondoweiss.net/2010/09/the-legend-of-the-silwad-sniper.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahmoud_Abbas
Added 12/19/12 http://frontpagemag.com/2012/frontpagemag-com/video-to-kill-a-jew-allah-willing/?utm_source=FrontPage+Magazine&utm_medium=email& video; turn on under man in pink scarf

Chuck Hagel on Docket for Defense Secretary Quite Troubling

Nadene Goldfoot
High on the list to fill the opening for Defense Secretary is Chuck Hagel which is causing many in the American Jewish community to feel nervous.  Both Caroline Glick and Bret Stephens have written about this.
Charles Timothy Hagel, age 66 (born October 4, 1946) in North Platte, Nebraska is a former US Republican Senator from Nebraska.  He is now a professor at the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown U.  Since 2009 he has served as chairman of the Atlantic Council and co-chairman of the President's Intelligence Advisory Board.

You might think that because he is a former Republican senator that he is sympathetic towards Israel, but it doesn't seem to be the case.  He has a "Jewish problem."  He has this idea that the "Jewish Lobby" intimidates a lot of people in Washington.  Fact is, there is no "Jewish Lobby."  What there is that he must be accusing is AIPAC, which is the only group supporting Israel who bothers to educate people with accurate facts.  People involved in any "Jewish Lobby" or "Israel Lobby" includes non Jews like Christian Zionists.  Not all Jews are members of AIPAC.  To many people who are not in the "know", Zionist is a dirty word.  All it means is that they support the right of Israel's existence.

Nebraska is not a very heavily populated Jewish state.  I'm surprised to hear that there are about 6,100 Jews in the state of only 1.8 million people, so Hagal probably has not met many or knows much about Jews.  His family, stemming from Catholic Poland and Germany,  could have even raised him without hearing kind words about Jews. He is now Episcopalian, but attitudes often linger.   He might even have this in mind thinking that legislators who might be friendly with AIPAC are doing so out of fear and not out of political conviction.  He has been most emphatic in saying, "I'm a US Senator, not an Israeli Senator," as he stated to US diplomat Aaron David Miller in 2006.  He told him he supported Israel but...but his first interest isn't Israel."  One could feel that he is thinking that Jews all have dual loyalty and is questioning that.  I might add that Jews should be involved more in the current events and past history of the problems Israel is facing and be more informed than others, but this isn't always the case.  For those of us who are such students, we will be supportive of Israel.  This doesn't mean we will turn against our home country, the USA.  He shouldn't have to worry.  Israel and the USA are still allies having common beliefs and goals in life.

Hagel served in Vietnam in the army infantry and became Sergeant from 1967-68, the same period of Israel Six Day War in 1967.  He was highly decorated.  When he returned home he became a radio newscaster and talk show host in Omaha while attending college using the GI Bill.  Then he was hired as a staffer for a congressman in Nebraska for 4 years, and then -as a real lobbyist for Firestone Tire and Rubber Co.  The next job was as an organizer for Ronald Reagan.  Following positions got him into the Veteran's Administration and becoming involved with the Agent Orange issue.  He concludes that we should have never been involved in Iraq and was highly against the Bush administration for that.   "In July 2006, Hagel criticized the Bush administration on its handling of the Israel-Lebanon issue saying "The sickening slaughter on both sides must end and it must end now. President Bush must call for an immediate cease-fire. This madness must stop"  I always note that no one ever speaks out against the Palestinians for bombarding Israel since 2001 with mortars, missiles and rockets, but let Israel finally and belatedly turn about and defend themselves  after warnings after warnings, and it's all ..."stop Israel."

There are situations that give us lots of pause about Mr. Hagel.  In 2002, two years after Yasser Arafat was offered a state by PM Ehud Barak at Camp David, after 457 Israelis were killed in terrorist attacks, Hagel said that "Israel must take steps to show its commitment to peace."    Not the Palestinians?  There is no one more interested or deserving of peace than Israel.  No one is more under the microscope than this tiny state of almost 6 million Jews and 1.4 million Arabs.  No one has been more hated because of religious bias than Jews.  For 2,000 years Jews have been without their homeland living under other's laws and being scapegoats in every situation.  Hagel has the audacity to remind Israel that they should show that they want peace?  Perhaps that's because in past dealings with the Palestinians, it has always been Israel who has given in to ceding land for peace.  Not once have the Palestinians ever given into anything important to Israel.  They have refused the opportunities offered to them since 1948 to have their own state.

He did it again in 2006 in his senate speech where he said, "The US and Israel must understand that it is not in their long-term interests to allow themselves to become isolated in the Middle East and the world."  The world has never been pro-Jews, as far as I can see.  History speaks of this.  The Holocaust is a good example as well.  The Middle East is made up mostly of 48-49 Muslim majority countries whose Islam religion has become radically against Jews to the point of their head religious leaders having fatwas to kill all Jews due to their newly found political dogma.  They're all for apartheid, exclusion of Jews, which they then turn around and accuse Jews of being.  Since they dominate much of the UN, there is no sense thinking they'll be better friends than Jordan has been.   At least Mubarak of Egypt was keeping the peace, but we saw to that, didn't we,  in not supporting him even vocally?  Now the Muslim Brotherhood, with a charter to destroy Israel, is at the helm with Morsi.  So who tipped the scales in Egypt?  Not Israel.  At least the Egyptians were getting lots of tourism coming from Israel to help their economy.

Obama, who disagreed with Netanyahu on camera over the 1967 border,  seems to be intent on choosing people that are not friendly with Israel.  Hagel is one.  John Kerry, Democrat, possible next Secretary of State,  is another.

Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chuck_Hagel
WSJ.com Wall Street Journal, Stephens:  Chuck Hagel's Jewish Problem-"the would-be secretary of defense has some curious views" by Bret Stephens.
http://www.carolineglick.com/e/2012/12/chuck-hagel-for-defense-secret.php
Added 12/19/12 from Front Page: http://frontpagemag.com/2012/ari-lieberman/chuck-hagel-and-the-jewish-lobby/?utm_source=FrontPage+Magazine&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=6008a01641-Mailchimp_FrontPageMag










Monday, December 17, 2012

Richard Falk's Role in UN: Against Israel

Nadene Goldfoot
It's hard to understand where all the hatred for Israel comes from that 82 year old Jewish Richard Falk, UN  Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Palestinian Territories from 1967 member displays.  He declares himself to be a "proud, self-hating Jew," and writes with "contempt" of "the Jew in me," and describes himself as "a strong opponent" of "Jewish-ness."  Because of his own psychological mishugas, he is helping to turn most of the world against Jews and Israel.  Yet the USA hasn't pulled him out of the UN because of his one-sidedness.  Jews are not the only ones shaking their heads over his actions.

Prime Minister Cameron of Britain and Navi Pillay, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights condemned him for an antisemitic act of posting a cartoon on his own website "showing a dog wearing a Jewish head covering with the Mogen David on it, and with "USA" written on its body, urinating on a depiction of justice and devouring a bloody skeleton."

He is also accusing Israel of planning a Palestinian Holocaust with no facts supporting this.   He is one of the world's most high-profile 9/11 conspiracy theorists and lets his name be used to those accusing the US government of planning the Twin Towers to fall as a pretext to launch wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.  One of his close friends is David Ray Griffin who has written 12 books as the Twin Towers being an inside job.UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon issued an unprecedented condemnation of Falk's 9/11 remarks.  Moon said they were preposterous and an affront to the memory of the over 3,000 people who died in the attack.  So did Susan Rice, US Ambassador to the UN, and said Falk was despicable and deeply offensive with his one-sided and politicized approach with his noxious words and that he shouldn't continue in his position.  Good for Susan Rice!

 Especially noticeable is the fact that Falk supports Hamas, a terrorist organization recognized as such by the USA!  His personal mandate is to investigate only "Israel's violations."  He repeatedly appears on the "TruthJihad.com" show of Kevin Barrett, another 9/11 conspiracy theorist and Holocaust skeptic who is against the "ethnic Jews" who run Washington and the media.  Falk endorsed Barrett's "good work" while praising Iranian tyrant Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

There is a very anti-Semitic book called "The Wandering Who" by Gilad Atzmon, a study of Jewish Identity Politics.  Falk wrote in it that it is a transformative story told with unflinching integrity that all (especially Jews) who care about real peace, as well as their own identity, should not only read, but reflect upon and discuss widely.  Alan Dershowitz, Harvard law professor and lawyer, calls it a virulently anti-Semitic book in which the author boasts about drawing "insights from a man who...was an anti-Semite as well as a radical misogynist," a hater of "almost everything that fails to be Aryan masculinity," and this man is Richard Falk. The British Foreign Office even protested to the UN and had serious concerns over Falk's endorsement.

He's promoting the boycotting of Israel, and stopping the awarding of Israeli contracts.  He's trying to get world cooperation to defend Gazans from Israeli assaults.  He must think it perfectly fine for Israel to have been shelled with mortars, missiles and rockets since 20001 by Gazan terrorists and that Israel has no rights to counter such attacks.  Such an attitude is also that of a former friend who thinks any material defending Israel is Nazi material while Israelis are the Nazis because more Gazans are killed than Israelis in these attacks.  His attitude most likely comes from people like Falk.

We just finished celebrating Chanukah, a time of remembering the Macabees who fought for our freedom against the Syrian Greeks.   Richard Falk, Norman Finklestein, Noam Chomsky and 400 Reform Rabbis in America who, last year, signed a public letter demanding that Israel capitulate to Arab demands even though those Arabs have Charters that call for the destruction of Israel.  They have no concept of what our religion is all about or the holidays that teach about them.  They have in their little minds that Netanyahu is Antiochus and the Maccabees are the modern Muslims.  So to them Israel is the hated oppressor.

I think we have all met such a person; bright but not disciplined enough to read history or much of anything else seriously, but is quick to cough up their own opinions about events they really don't have a clue about to understand.  They learn to get negative attention from their outlandish ideas that can even harm their own parents.  I'm beginning to think this man was switched at birth. He is already biased against Jews and Israel and should have no role in deciding anything about Israel's future.  Why hasn't he been fired from the UN?

Resource: http://www.unwatch.org/cms.asp?id=3663648&campaign_id=63111
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_A._Falk
http://forward.com/articles/164986/richard-falk-calls-for-corporate-israel-boycott/
http://sabbah.biz/mt/archives/2012/11/20/richard-falk-calls-for-global-protection-of-gaza-civilians/
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Articles/Article.aspx/12577





Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Abba's Palestine Plan Excluding Israel


                                                      1917's Balfour Declaration of Jewish Homeland

Nadene Goldfoot
Two major goals of Fatah, formerly called the PLO which was led by Arafat, who now live in Judea and Samaria, so called The West Bank, are destructive to Israel.

Article (12) Complete liberation of Palestine, and eradication of Zionist economic, political, military and cultural existence.
Article (13) Establishing an independent democratic state with complete sovereignty on all Palestinian lands, and Jerusalem is its capital city, and protecting the citizens' legal and equal rights without any racial or religious discrimination.

The last statement does not include Jewish rights as this planned "Palestine" will not allow any Jews to live there.  The whole concept of Palestine as is seen today by the Arabs involved is a destruction of Israel.  Doesn't the UN realize their goals?  How can they have one state that was accepted in 1948 be the bunt of destruction by 2012?  Also note that their goal is not just East Jerusalem but "Jerusalem, ."   I believe that this is because the city has been the revered city of the Jews since King David's day from 1,000 BCE to 960 BCE, making it 3,000+ years of having Jerusalem recognized as THE Jewish capital.  Yet suddently, since 1967, Muslims want it.  That's probably only because it has some pretty wonderful hotels in it that they want to take over.  This is coveting what is not yours, by the way.  This is the 10th commandment from Ex. 20: 14, You shall not covet your neighbor's house.  You can see what it leads to:  War.

Since Abbas's Palestine was recognized somewhat at the UN, the PA published a picture of their logo celebrating their 48th anniversary, making 1964 their origin though wikipedia did not come through with information about it.  Palestinian Authority daily published a map of their state which includes ALL of Israel as Palestine.  Their slogan is "The state and the victory."  Of course they will not and show this in their map of not recognizing Israel's existence.

They have a key showing the Palestinian claim of ownership to houses within Israel.  A golden dome is the representation of Islam and the Palestinian claim to Jerusalem.

I can't stress enough of the gall they have to claim Jerusalem.  It is not mentioned once in the Koran.  It's only their 3rd holy city in line with Mecca and Medina, and that because of their belief that Mohammad rose on his horse toward heaven while in Jerusalem.  No, it has nothing to do with that lesser action in their Islam. It's because of politics in taking the city of the Jews, and which also is important to the Christians as well.

The fact I stress is that the Palestinians are open about their desires to erase Israel and take over Jerusalem.  Knowing this, the UN voted them in, recognizing their goals and approving them, into the UN body.

What do we have to look forward to?  Yahya Rabah, Fatah official in the Gaza Strip, which is rather unusual since Fatah and Hamas once had a fight and Hamas kicked out Fatah, said that there will be a big central rally in Gaza on the 48th anniversary date.  They are celebrating getting non member observer status recognition just like the Vatican has in the UN, "winning" the battle with Israel with their accomplishments and of Fatah and Hamas joining together again..  (Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, 12/10/12.   Now the UN can take pride in awarding two terrorist groups the status in the UN.

Remember when Obama pressed Netanyahu on TV that he must go back to the 67 borders?  Netanyahu almost lost it in explaining why that was absolutely impossible.  Obama was going along with the PLO demands, which includes taking over Jerusalem if that ever happened.

I find it amazing that the Arabs have only wanted a state of their own since 1967 when Fatah's plans were foiled by losing the war also with their cohorts, 8 nations and their armies.  .  To get even, they now are demanding their own state.  There never was a state of Palestine.  Today's so-called Palestinian's forefathers were citizens of other nations surrounding Israel or even, going back farther, nations that have disappeared well before 70 CE.  Whereas, the Jews lost their Judea in 70 CE, so have wanted their own state back again for the past 1,943 years and have waited patiently trying to live among other nations, most of the time in 2nd and 3rd class status.  Before the Holocaust, Jewish leaders were dealing with British mandate holders in receiving the mandated land as the "Jewish Homeland."  How short the UN memory is.  Yes, the Holocaust made us all realize how fragile our lives are but our lives were mostly made up of a lot of suffering since 70 CE as well.  Jews have been the bunt of everyone's hatred since they created monotheism with the circumcised male in sports of that day, and in not observing the many assorted gods of Rome.

We remember Chanukah, our 4th day today of our celebration this year when we rebelled at the Greek-Syrians taking over Jerusalem and putting idols in our temple.  We found oil for our eternal light and lit it after getting tough with these foreign soldiers and forcing them out.  Inner strength prevailed which is something called upon today to fight such repugnancy.  Our hero was Judah, the Maccabee who fought against Antiochus Epiphanes and his soldiers.  No, losing Jerusalem again is not in our plan.  1967 told us our faith is not neglected or dead.

Resource:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fatah
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_of_Palestine#endnote_capital
http://www.jewfaq.org/10.htm
http://palwatch.org/main.aspx?fi=157&doc_id=8164 by Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik
http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs//2012/ga11317.doc.htm



Tuesday, December 11, 2012

EU Finally Condemns Hamas Rhetoric

                                                                                   
Nadene Goldfoot
The Oregonian newspaper has an article, EU rips Israel on settlements along with one above it:  EU receives Peace Prize, plea for economic unity.  I pondered when they had ever bothered to say a positive thing about Israel and have never said anything in regards to the Palestinians doing the wrong thing by not recognizing Israel and threatening to drive Israel into the sea, destroy Israel, and so on.

I googled information and evidently Netanyahu's accusation about the international community of "deafening silence" got to somebody because I found in the Internet from 20 hours ago that the EU, with a bloc of 27 foreign ministers,  is now, finally, condemning Hamas's rhetoric and said that it was unacceptable that they deny Israel's right to exist.

They are still harping on the E1 corridor plans that Israel has been holding in abeyance since about 1994 of developing that with housing.  They think that if this comes about, would seriously undermine the prospects of a negotiated resolution.   Probably none of the 27 have visited Israel in person or looked at a map, for they'd have to have a large map of Israel and not a world map as you can hardly see the teeny country hugging the coast with a width from 4 miles to 9 miles.

I think the 27 foreign ministers can rest easy because as long as the Palestinians take the stance they have, which is not looking good to me right now with Fatah and Hamas in collusion, it will be a long time before they are ready to accept Israel.  Thus, there is no reason for Israel to wait for any peace talks and let this prime real-estate go to waste.  At any rate, it serves the Palestinians right to not have made peace.  The longer they wait each day they should lose any thought of gaining land.  I don't know what kind of international lawyers they have, but 3 prominent ones have stated that Israel has the right to build.  The Israeli government has stated over and over that "facts and history both prove that Jewish settlement never constituted an obstacle to peace.  The EU's focus on this issue is mistaken".

However, the EU warned Israel of unspecified consequences if it goes through with plans to build thousands of new homes in Jerusalem and in Judea and Samaria.  They're also deeply dismayed by Israeli plans to expand settlements in east Jerusalem."  Oh really.  It's only Israel's capital and had been during King David's reign and his son's reign and so on down to 70 CE when the Romans attacked in their greed to build a bigger empire.  Now Israel should hold it for the Palestinians who want to destroy them?  The Europeans do have weird logic.  That's not even logic like the Duke (John Wayne) would use.  Can you picture him saying oh sure, we were attacked by 8 countries and won, and sure, we won't touch the land you lost to us by attacking, but you can have it anytime you want cause we sure don't want what was ours, once upon a time, even though you hate us and say you'll never let us live in peace.

 Like Netanyahu said, the EU has double standards.  Why so harsh always against Israel and not on all the other countries in the Middle East?  For starters, Britain, who held the mandate, reneged on the deal with Chaim Weizmann on the Jewish Homeland by giving away 80% of the planned land to an Arab Sheiks' middle son.  They all wanted land and had helped in the war in WWI fight against the Ottoman Empire.  Weizmann was a chemist who invented something that made the British ammunition much better.  In fact, it's most likely they would have lost had it not been for Weizmann's invention.  That's the only reason they were going to reward him with land that he and his committee had been hoping to attain.  This is when Israel accepted the 20% and the Palestinians refused their huge piece.

Germany was one of the Axis, the main one, in fact.  They had become much more sympathetic or dutiful after the WWII towards Israel but since they are now head of the finances of the EU, are going along with the criticism of Israel.  With 26 others on the bandwagon to find fault without studying the map or talking to Netanyahu, they are not sticking out as before.

France caves in quickly no matter what.  They once were for liberty and freedom, but that was another day.  Italy?  That's a country that never has been one to back Israel.  The Pope has a lot to do with that.

Also, there's the little fact that these European countries now have sizable Muslim populations and are probably sensitive to political votes from them.  It's almost becoming like Israel trying to get sympathy from the Muslim countries.  They are trying to be so proper but are backing the real bullies in the world.  They see Israel with great weapons to fight against this terror and that's all they see.  Then again, these Muslim countries are still the only ones with so much oil that they all need.  It's probably killing them to deal with Iran like the USA is doing such as having sanctions.

Iran happens to be the big backer of terrorism and supplies the Palestinians with weapons.  Now Qatar's Emir himself has visited Gaza with a huge check, and Qatar is everyone's friend including the USA.  In the meantime, Abbas is out of money and is asking all his Muslim country friends to supply him with more as he would like to pay salaries.

Through it all, Israel stands quite alone, except for the USA.  My advice to the EU is to look at a map and see that their fears are definitely mistaken.  Whenever Palestine is created, they will not be cut off.  My question that they haven't considered is that the Palestine planned is to be free of Jews, for the Muslims are all for apartheid.  How is Israel to get to their Holy places?  Israel will be cut off!'

Update: 12/11/12; 2:34pm http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/01/world/middleeast/israel-moves-to-expand-settlements-in-east-jerusalem.html?hp&_r=1& correction on agreeing with Netanyahu; land not cut off.

Resource: http://www.jpost.com/DiplomacyAndPolitics/Article.aspx?id=295364
Oregonian newspaper page A7, EU rips Israel on settlements and Netanyahu speaks out, AP
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/talking/23_Iran.html

Monday, December 10, 2012

One Teeny State of Israel Amid All the Muslims Like Jordan

Nadene Goldfoot
                                                    Israel's birthday was May 14, 1948.

Jordan came about from Transjordan.  Sheik Abdullah I, born in Mecca, Saudi Arabia and the middle son of Sherif Hussein bin Ali had also wanted land and so the British gave away 80% of the mandated land scheduled to be the Jewish Homeland in 1921 to him instead. It became a state in 1922.  Abdullah's brother was Faisal who commanded the Arab Northern Army.  Lawrence of Arabia favored Faisal.   In 1948 Abdullah annexed illegally during the 1948 war with the Jews  the eastern part of "The West Bank" and proclaimed the Kingdom of Jordan with himself as king.. From 1952 the country was ruled by his grandson, Hussein.  In 1967 Hussein entered the Six Day War with other Arab nations but was defeated and Israel took over the West Bank (Judea and Samaria) which had originally  belonged to the Jews as Judah and Samaria.  It had once been the capital of Israel (Shomron) in 880 BCE.  Many of their population are the Palestinians who had fought against him.

Israel, this tiny state only 8,000 sq. miles of today, just a little more than twice  the size of Rhode Island,  is surrounded by 22 huge nations  together making  640 times Israel's size.  They are all states with the majority of the population being Muslims.   It's the only democratic state there.  Almost 6 million Jews live in Israel, while 1.4 million Arabs also live there.

It is only 3 miles to 60 miles wide.  Over half of the population  live along the coastline of this  narrow strip of land.  Gaza is also along this coastline.  The Jordan River acts as a boundary for Judea-Samaria and Jordan.

Hamas and Hizballah rockets can now target all of Israel.  8,000 rockets and mortars already have been fired into Israel since 2005.  A concern is now Egypt's border as attacks have also been coming from the Sinai.

Financial aid to Israel has been coming from the USA and also AIPAC, which is the American Israel Public Affairs committee.  They have been active for over the last 50 years.  The work they do is to help make Israel more secure.  Their nudging has helped bring about a bipartisan bill in Congress of getting US-Israel collaboration in missile defense, homeland security, energy and intelligence.  We also now have a US-Israel Free Trade Agreement, a first for the USA.

 The first package procured of aid helped Israel to absorb Holocaust survivors and Jewish refugees expelled from Arab nations that happened from 1948 on.  Everyone speaks about the Palestinians who were told by their Arab leaders to leave their homes and removed themselves as a war was about to start with guarantees that the Arabs would win and it didn't happen.  At the same time, Jews in about the same numbers were forced out of Arab countries as a result of Israel becoming a state.  At least they had a place to go to.  Naturally they found homes in Israel while the Palestinians were kept in camps by their leaders as fodder for the fight against the Jews.  Those Palestinians who didn't leave are the Arab citizens of Israel.


This is where the Jews were born starting with Abraham about 4,000 years ago and where their King David established Jerusalem as his capital in Judah.  This state came about in 933 BCE after David's son, King Solomon had died.  The northern state was Israel and the southern section had become Judah.  It also took in most of the tribe of Benjamin and absorbed the tribe of Simeon which was isolated in the extreme south.  Judah did not have access to the sea so had remained a poor kingdom.  Because of this it didn't get involved with international rivalries and led a more tranquil existence.  It was in Judah that Mosaic monotheism was in a purer form.

Reference: AIPAC
The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
Middle East Past and Present by Armajani Ricks 2nd edition
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdullah_I_of_Jordan


Friday, December 7, 2012

Map of West Bank With Ma'ale Adumim As Clinton Viewed It at Camp David


Nadene Goldfoot
"Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu caused a diplomatic stir last week when he announced Israel’s intention to build in E1 – a controversial plan that has been started and aborted since it was first announced in 1994"."There are Israeli plans for construction, frozen since at least 2009 under international pressure. Construction is controversial as it would create a continuous Jewish population between Jerusalem and Ma'ale Adumim.

This area of contension is called E1 or Mevaseret Adumim.  It is mostly an empty area 12 sq. km (4.6 sq. miles) near Ma'ale Adumim.  Some Bedouins live in there,  but Bedouins are nomadic desert dwellers and their stay is mostly temporary at best.  The E1 area is bordered by the  French Hill  neighborhood of Jerusalem  to the west, Abu Dis to the southwest, Kedar to the south, Ma'ale Adumim to the east, and Almon to the north. The area is mountainous and covers almost 3,000 acres. The E1 area borders the Jerusalem municipality and is administered by Ma'ale Adumim.


Camp David in 2000 was the scene of the Clinton Peace Proposal which Arafat, terrorist leader, rejected.  The map Dennis Ross drew for it is below.  You will see that Palestine can be contiguous (being in actual contact).  What the Palestinians are raving about along with other people is not true.  I feel everyone picks up the mantra they are evoking without checking on the facts. Note that shelling of Israel started in 2001 from Gaza.  That was Gaza's answer to any peace and geography discussions.

Such as what Jimmy Carter, former US President, says (see below) about Israel is also as false as Clinton's was correct.  .
"Israel’s plan to build in the E-1 area between Ma’aleh Adumim and Jerusalem “cuts the West Bank into two parts and permanently separates East Jerusalem from what would be left”; and

• Israel is “rapidly confiscating Palestinian territory for new Israeli settlements ….” Jimmy Carter


 My comment is that Israel isn't confiscating territory.   Israel has only waited for 64 going on 65 years now forPalestinians to get their act together, sit down and make peace and develop their state for the much awaited 2 state solution.  If Israel has decided to use land they feel is theirs by international law, so be it.  In 1948 Arafat would have had anything he asked for.  Now, much later, I'm sure that Netanyahu wants recognition along with land planning with a guarantee of stopping the rocket firing.  .  

"So although Thomas Friedman and Maureen Dowd in today's New York Times both repeat the mantra that Israeli building would (in Friedman's words) "sever any possibility of a contiguous Palestinian state," this is simply not true. The development of E-1 might impact Palestinian demands about the contours of a future state. It might impact the sides' conflicting claims on Jerusalem. But whatever the pros and cons, it does not prevent a contiguous Palestinian state, and it certainly does not prevent a viable Palestinian state."

If push came to shove, I believe I read that they could always built a ramp such as the types we have all over Portland to get quickly from one place to another.  
Reference: Map and quote above from Camera; http://blog.camera.org/archives/2012/12/another_map_disproving_e1_cont.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E1_(Jerusalem)
http://www.jta.org/news/article/2012/12/06/3113831/living-next-to-e1-maale-adumim-residents-reflect-israeli-consensus-on-settlements
dennis ross map.jpg

Thursday, December 6, 2012

An Italian Writer Compares Israel With Czechoslovakia


Giulio Meotti
On September 29, 1938, the Czechoslovak state was truncated and deprived of defensible borders by the “Munich Agreement”. Six months later, abandoned by its allies England and France, and bullied by Hitler, Czechoslovakia lay down and died. Like Israel today, the Czechs were accused of “intransigence” and of being “disturbers of the peace.” They were so disheartened that in the end they chose not to fight, but to surrender. “Peace” meant capitulation. The same situation exists today.
Czechoslovakia’s situation in 1938 is in fact similar to Israel’s in 2012.

Like Israel’s IDF, the Czechs had one of the strongest armies in Europe. Like Israel, Czechoslovakia was a very young and vibrant state.
And like the West in pressing Israel to give up its land to the Arabs, the Nazis demanded the annexation of the Sudeten, settled by three million Germans.
And the Sudeten mountains, like Israel’s “occupied territories,” were the only position from which the Bohemian plain, and the capital Prague, was defensible.

And does anyone remember how Lord Trenchard got up in the British parliament after Munich and declared that the Czechs didn’t need the Sudeten territories for security? “The best security border,” Trenchard said, “is peace.”
Sound familiar?

A Palestinian state, to not mention Hamas, is a mortal danger to Israel because it will immediately absorb 700,000 Palestinians who are living in Syria, another 750,000 Palestinians who live in Lebanon and hundreds of thousands of others who will flock to the new state from all over the world. They will settle in villages that overlook Jaffa, Haifa, Tel Aviv, Ben Gurion Airport, Kfar Saba and Jerusalem.

I am ashamed that my country adopted the same method used by the Sudeten Nazis in Czechoslovakia in the late 30s, destroying the country from within. Yesterday it was then the SS, today it's the PLO, which murdered at least 1,500 Jews (comparable to 82,000 American fatalities).

Who will guarantee that the moment a Palestinian state is declared, the rifles won't start shooting again? The Italian police?
Will bloody attacks be planned against Jews at the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem?
Will the Jewish holy sites – Rachel’s tomb in Bethlehem, Cave of Patriarchs in Hebron and Joseph’s tomb in Nablus – be destroyed by local mobs?
Will Jewish areas in eastern Jerusalem be subjected to Arab sniper fire?
Will Katyusha rockets start falling on runways at Ben-Gurion Airport or on the Tel Aviv-Jerusalem highway, so that Israel’s economy would simply cease to exist?
Will the Hebron Jews could be the victims of a new Jihadist pogrom like in 1929?

I am ashamed that my country would vote for a state that will conclude treaties with Arab countries and with Iran serving as a tripwire for a pan-Islamic attack to exterminate Israel.


I am ashamed that my country will vote for a state where the "Mein Kampf" is a best seller.


I am ashamed that my country will be remembered among those who legitimized Palestinian terrorists as "victims", that tacitly maligned Israel as the villains, letting off the true villains with a single objective: the "final solution" of the Jewish problem.


Seventy years ago, in what had become one of the opening acts of the greatest tragedy in European history, Italy betrayed its own Jews. Very few came back from Birkenau.

Today, Italy capitulated again in the battle against those who seek to finish the job started by the Nazis.

Now that we are approaching Israel's Stalingrad, where have all the "allies" gone?


This is only part of what Giulio wrote.  I was so impressed, since Italy has taken a hard stand against Israel, that someone understands things as Israel sees the situation.  The writer, an Italian journalist with Il Foglio, writes a twice-weekly column for Arutz Sheva. He is the author of the book "A New Shoah", that researched the personal stories of Israel's terror victims, published by Encounter. His writing has appeared in publications, such as the Wall Street Journal, Frontpage and Commentary. He is at work on a book about the Vatican and Israel.  Nadene