Spanish Inquisition of 1492 and Jews of Spain and Portugal

                                                                           

 Nadene Goldfoot                                  Synagogue in Lisbon, Portugal 

Today is the sad anniversary of the edict for Jews to leave Spain on March 31, 1492 known as the Alhambra Decree to the Jews living there. If  they converted to Catholicism, they could stay.  They were given 3 months.   Jews had inhabited Spain ever since  the destruction of the First Temple in Jerusalem  in 586 BCE.  More came in the 1st century CE.  Jews were treated well by the Visigoths after the fall of the Roman Empire as long as the Visigoths followed the Arian form of Christianity.  In 589 they switched over to Catholicism and changed their attitude.  From 612 on there was persecution of Jews under the councils of Toledo and they prohibited the practice of Judaism over a great part of the period.

In 711 the Muslims invaded Spain and did not leave until 1250.  

Living under Muslim rule and thought of as "people of the book" allowed Jews to thrive considering they were also dhimmis or 2nd class citizens.   The Ottoman Empire actually started on February 31, 1299 with Osman I. We know it lasted 400+ years, ending in 1917 at the end of WWI.    Medival Inquistions started in 1184 and lasted until the 16th century.  The first was called the Episcopal Inquisition of 1184 that lasted until 1230.  Then the Papal Inquisition followed from 1230 following Christian Inquisitions.  

In the 13th century, the Dominican order initiated constant anti-Jewish propaganda which was involved in the Disputation of Barcelona, including conversionist sermons and the implementation of the persecutory code of the 4th Lateran Council.  In 1391 there were waves of massacres, actual pogroms, beginning at Seville which were very bloody, that swept through the whole Peninsula causing hundreds of Jews to be killed and the rest to become baptised in order to live.  The synagogue was completely destroyed   These Jews were then called the"New Christians" and later referred to as "the Marranos," a derogatory term, or Conversos.  The Spaniards became jealous of them as they progressed in social and economic circles. and those jealous of them caused problems, thus the outbreaks against them.

What had happened long ago after the fall of Jerusalem in 70 CE was that the great centers of Jewish life became areas under Christian rule.  The expanding Christian kingdoms had a  more tolerant policy towards Jews and had found them useful as diplomats, financiers and agricultural colonists.  Samuel Abulafia in the 14th century and Isaac  Abravanel in the 15th century were court financiers and held in important place in the Spanish public life.

The Spanish Inquisition started in 1478.  Then  an edict came out written by King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella due to the Spanish Inquisition's main leader, Torquemada,  expelling the Jews from Spain in 1492.  "Ferdinand and Isabella took seriously the reports that some crypto-Jews were not only privately practicing their former faith, but were secretly trying to draw other conversos back into the Jewish fold."  About 150,000 Jews were expelled who found refuge mainly in North Africa and the Turkish Empire where their descendants (Sephardim) have continued to keep the Spanish traditions and language.  Others who could not leave remained hidden in their religion.

Many died in ships while trying to sail to another land.  The captains would charge them huge amounts of money and then throw them overboard in the middle of the waters to drown..  Before Jews left a rumor went about that they had swallowed large sums of money so that people had attacked many with knives to get the money out of their bodies.

It is questioned  if Christopher Columbus was Jewish.  He was an Italian who sailed with the help of the royalty of Spain in 1492 in the ships Nina, Pinta and Santa Maria..  He wrote letters to his son in Hebrew.  Obviously he must have had some sailors on board who were escaping the Inquisition, and he had to know about it.  He spent his time sailing on the seas.  By 1542 the Roman Inquisition would commence in Italy and last until 1860.

Those who remained kept their Jewish practices a secret.  They even went through baptism  of Catholicism in order to cover their identity, but in their hearts they were very Jewish.  In 1497 due to the stresses of the Inquisition,  many of those who had remained moved to Portugal, the neighboring country.  Some went to Navarre in 1498.  The Jews who settled in Portugal were probably there while it was still under Arab rule.  When it became a Christian state there were Jewish communities in Lisbon, Beja and Santarem.  Little is known about them until the 13th century.  Things were pretty peaceful till riots in Lisbon in 1373.  To enter Portugal the Jews had to pay a poll-tax but many were then held in the country and sold as slaves.

 Among the most unfortunate refugees were those who fled to neighboring Portugal. In 1496, King Manuel of Portugal concluded an agreement to marry Isabella, the daughter of Spain's monarchs. As a condition of the marriage, the Spanish royal family insisted that Portugal expel her Jews. King Manuel agreed, although he was reluctant to lose his affluent and accomplished Jewish community. He had almost the entire community converted by force in 1497 by pain of death if they refused.  .  This means that many Jews were converted unwillingly in Portugal.  Only 8 were found that were expelled.  "The chief rabbi, Simon Maimi, was one of those who refused to convert. He was kept buried in earth up to his neck for seven days until he died." The actual Portuguese Inquisition is said to have officially started in 1536 and lasted until 1821.

The refugees of Portugal who escaped formed the Portuguese synagogues in London, Amsterdam, and New York in the 16th and 17th centuries.  At the end of the 18th century, Jews from Gibraltar and N. Africa moved to Lisbon.  Freedom of worship was permitted only after the Revolution of 1910.  Ashkenazi immigrants from Central and E. Europe arrived there in recent years, probably escaping the Nazis of WWII.    A tiny community at Faro existed.  A movement to rescue Jews was started in 1925 and in 1938,(the beginning of the end for Ashkenazi Jews in Germany)  a synagogue was built as their religious center in Oporto.  A large group was found in Belmonte.  Though most never left Judaism and have practiced secretly for this whole time,  many are starting to study Judaism more as they wouldn't have had the guidance of any rabbis.  In 1990 the Jewish population in Lisbon was only 300.

The Spanish Inquisition even chased Conversos to Mexico between 1571 to 1700's.  They executed  29 Judiazers and prosecuted 324 practicing Judaism there.  .

 A limited Jewish immigration into Spain took place in the 19th century.  The law prohibiting building of any synagogues was finally abolished in 1909.  There are some small congregations in Madrid and Barcelona now.  The expulsion was officially revoked in 1931.  That means they kept Jews out of their country for a good 439 years.  The Jewish population in Spain in 1990 was 12,000. with more than half living in Madrid and Barcelona.  Many had come from North Africa and Latin America, where times were probably bad for Jews there.  The hidden Jews have endured at least 25 generations of keeping their faith a secret.  Now they are just starting to come out.

Resource: The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Judaism/expulsion.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_Inquisition
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mexican_Inquisition
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inquisition
My friend, who sent me knowledge and this picture
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_the_Ottoman_Empire
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/jews-to-be-expelled-from-spain
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1992-03-31/news/9201290549_1_house-arrest-six-month-period-clemency-program
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alhambra_Decree

USA Suppliers of Much Weaponry to Egypt

Nadene Goldfoot
Egyptian president Mohammed Morsi  continues to embark on his quest of harming Israel, being he has been the head of the Muslim Brotherhood.  This was said in a public speech:

"Dear brothers, we must not forget to nurse our children and grandchildren on hatred towards those Zionists and Jews, all those who support them.  They must be nursed on hatred.  The hatred must continue."  

The next speech he made was during a TV interview:

"These occupiers (Israelis) of the land of Palestine...these blood-suckers, who attack the Palestinians, these warmongers, the descendants of apes and pigs...{he got this idea from Ahmadinejad} We should employ all forms of resistance against them.  There should be military resistance within the land of Palestine against those criminal Zionists."  

Knowing how they feel now that the Arab Spring has rid itself of their former president Mubarak who kept the peace with Israel, the United States has already started transferring advanced weaponry, including 16  F-16 fighter jets,  America's most sophisticated fighter planes, and 200 sophisticated Abrams tanks to the Muslim-Brotherhood controlled  Egypt, whose charter says they are out to destroy Israel.  These were part of a foreign aid package.  Good grief, and why so very many?  Are they going to take on the whole Middle East of other Muslims perchance?

Why does Egypt need such deadly offensive weapons?  Does the USA think it is to be used only against Syria?  The people they have announced publicly that they want to desist and die is Israel, and there is little doubt that this is who they will use these weapons on.  The fighter Falcon can fly twice the speed of sound above 50,000 feet.  It is equipped with 20mm multi-barrel cannons and up to 6 air-to-air missiles and air-to-surface munitions.  The M1A1 is one of the heaviest tanks in the world and is the principal battle tank of the US marine corps that provides armor-protection firepower in support of ground forces.  Given these, does anyone think that Egypt will follow the advice of the USA and not attack Israel?

The dangers abound by giving such a country these weapons.  A US Senator proposed an amendment to H.R.325 (the debt limit bill) to stop the US government from sending F-16 military aircraft, M1tanks and other weapons to Egypt, but the amendment didn't pass.  Efforts to stop this sale continue.  This will put the 7 million of Israeli  lives in danger.   It's bad enough to have Iran threatening Israel.  Egypt is right next door."For Israeli officials, the toppling of Hosni Mubarak has led to the rise of Islamist forces hostile to Israel and an increasing security vacuum along its southern border, which casts doubt on the long-term durability of the 1979 Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty."

Nonie Darwish has commented that "today the Copts of Egypt are departing in large numbers. It’s reminiscent of the time when close to 900,000 Jews were driven from Arab countries, a terrible loss. I know from personal experience that the culture of Egypt was never the same.  The Copts were the Christians living in Egypt.  The Muslim Brotherhood is driving them out.

It would be a terrible fate for the USA to be supplying such weaponry for a past enemy of Israel just to make money for its empty coffers.  Such a way to fix one's economy is only going to reap havoc on herself.  Is this to cause Israel to purchase even more weapons from the USA?  Is the excuse going to be, "well, if we don't give these to Egypt, they'll just purchase them from Russia?

I remember when I lived in Israel in the 80's that the USA was supplying weapons for Jordan, and I had my junior high students all write to President Reagan on May 22, 1982 to tell them what they thought about about and how it made them feel less safe. Prime Minister Begin also wrote a letter.  As I told my mother in my letter, "We are very close to the enemy borders, and Israel is so unbelievably tine.  We were living in Safed then in the Galilee and I explained that it would only take us about 3 1/2 hours to drive to Jerusalem.  We were 1/2 hour away from Kiriat Shimona which is near the border of Lebanon.  I was very happy to see that Kennedy was also protesting the arms sales.   I suppose it didn't do any good at all.  Well, Jordan was run by a king, and his son is king now.  Egypt is a different story now that it is in the hands of the Muslim Brotherhood with a charter full of hatred for Jews.

Here is the American reasoning for doing this as Anthony H. Cordesman puts it.  "If you were to suddenly end this partnership with Egypt -- if you were to make Egypt feel that somehow it were not trusted or second-best, what would the security implications be? It certainly would justify or encourage all of the extremist elements that are trying to push Egypt away from both the peace process and the security partnership with the U.S.," he told FoxNews.com.  To me, this is totally insane reasoning. I'm not alone in my thinking as  Egypt is now demonstrating "instability, [and the] anti-American and anti-Israel atmosphere," Rep. Louie Gohmert, (R-Texas), told FoxNews.com.

Just to let you know about the terrible state that lies next to Egypt, a few months ago, "“A person from the inner circle of the Hamas terrorist leadership, Ismail Haniyeh's brother in law,  did receive treatment at Beilinson Hospital,” an Israeli government source confirmed to FoxNews.com. “Although there are no diplomatic relations between Israel and Hamas, there are many occasions when requests for help based on purely medical decisions taken in Gaza are granted by Israel for humanitarian reasons.” He received heart surgery.  

Egypt recalled their ambassador to "protest its strikes in the Gaza Strip after coming under mounting domestic criticism for not taking a strong enough stance against Israel.This was written about November 114, 2012.  He hasn't been sent back or replaced yet, so that tells you that the situation is strained.  Egypt's ambassador to Israel Atef Sayid al-Ahl told the semi-official Al-Akhbar newspaper he would arrive to Cairo on Thursday afternoon. Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said Israel had not received word of the recall and would not comment until it did.

Reference:  Zionist Organization of America, ZOA
http://unitedwithisrael.org/egyptian-president-says-nurse-children-on-hatred-of-jews/
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2013/01/22/gift-us-f-16-fighter-jets-en-route-to-egypt-amid-criticism/
Letters From Israel by Nadene Goldfoot page 182
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2012/11/14/egypt-president-recalls-ambassador-to-israel-after-gaza-strike-kills-hamas/
http://www.aucegypt.edu/gapp/cairoreview/pages/articleDetails.aspx?aid=221

Settlements A Poor Excuse for Not Talking Peace

Nadene Goldfoot                                                                 

This will be the 5th night of Passover.  Something we learned back in about 1310 BCE from Moses was not to cheer when our enemies are being killed as they are the children of G-d as well as we are.  This happened when the Pharaoh's soldiers were trapped in the sea that was engulfing them in their chase after the Israelites.   That was almost 4,000 years ago.  So ever since then we haven't cheered at the news of the deaths of our enemies.

Our Palestinian cousins are not so inclined to think this way.  The most appreciated parent in Gaza is Mariam Farhat  whose 3 sons died trying to kill Israelis.  One was in a suicide attacker who shot up and hurled grenades in a classroom of Jewish students.  "She basked in her son's attempts wishing that she had 100 boys like this one to sacrifice for the sake of Allah".  News got out of her feelings so  she is venerated as "Mother of the Struggle".  She was even elected to parliament for this.  Now the community is mourning her as she has passed away.

So when Obama mentioned that he thought any Israeli parent would want Palestinian children to succeed in life and went to Israeli students encouraging peace, did he do the same with the Palestinians?  Going to the Israelis is a given as far as them wanting peace. They do not need any appeal.  They're the ones who have either already been in the IDF or soon will be. Peace is part of Jewish teaching.    Israelis have wanted peace before they even became a state.  The original plans of our Jewish leaders were for peace for both the Jews and the Arabs.  Theodor Herzl, (1860-1904) founder of Zionism, the reporter from Paris who saw that Jews needed their state, wrote about what he wanted in a Utopian state in his Der Judenstaat (The Jewish State) in 1896 which included the Arabs, but it was still a Jewish state.

                                                                     Theodore Herzl
The Palestinians have been refusing peace ever since it was offered to them when the Jews got their offer in 1947   The offer has continued to be made over and over.  Today the Palestinians are using the excuse of the settlements.  At the same time they have announced that their Palestine will be Judenrein.  There are to be no Jews living in their land even though there are 1.4 million Arabs that are citizens of Israel.   They have a different attitude about people.

Obama told Abbas to quit using the settlements as an excuse for sitting down to talk peace.  Everyone knows they can easily demolish any settlement on their land.  What's the big deal?  "Palestinian sovereignty and Israeli security are the "core issue," he told Abbas.  Obama has been very sympathetic to the Palestinian cause of creating a "much needed"  49th Muslim majority state and has been quite lukewarm towards the people in the world's only Jewish state, so this was quite a breakthrough from him.  Obama himself had imposed this precondition 4 years ago of a settlement freeze.  Israel did for 10 months but Abbas wasn't moved.  He just walked out of the talks and hasn't been back, even when Netanyahu begged him to from the UN meeting.

It's going to be very interesting to see what will  transpire.  Abbas of "West Bank" is straining to keep a hold on his section of land against Hamas's stronghold in Gaza.  They have a constant power-struggle.  How can there ever be one Palestine when the people involved are divided?  No one has addressed this issue.  Gaza has already broken the truce with 2 rockets out of 5 shot into southern Israel for some imagined  retribution.

Israel has said that they must be recognized and accepted as the Jewish state.  This means pretty much that Hamas and Fatah will have to change their charter which says to wipe out Israel.  There can't be any form of peace when one side is determined to kill off the other.  Thinking otherwise is just insanity.  As it is, the population of Gaza and West Bank are teaching their children to hate Israelis right in their own schools.  They are not preparing their people for peace in any way, shape or form.

Resource: http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/charles-krauthammer-what-really-happened-in-jerusalem/2013/03/28/5b018070-97d2-11e2-b68f-dc5c4b47e519_story.html
Also in Oregonian 3/29/13 page C5 What happened in Jerusalem by Charles Krauthammer
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/palestinianauthority/9936615/Palestines-mother-of-martyrs-Mariam-Farhat-dies-in-Gaza.html
http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/2442/united-nations-palestine
http://blogs.jpost.com/content/%E2%80%98judenrein%E2%80%99-state-palestine
http://www.jpost.com/Diplomacy-and-Politics/No-compromise-on-Jewish-state-say-Israeli-officials
Exodus 15: 30 "when the Egyptian hosts were drowning in the Red Sea, say the Rabbis, the angels in heaven were about to break forth into songs of jubilation.  But the Holy One, blessed be He, silenced them with the words, "My creatures are perishing, and ye are ready to sing!    At the seder when we put a drop of wine on our plate and mention the plague inflicted on the Egyptians, our cup cannot be full if Israel's triumph involves suffering even to its enemies.  Pentateuch and Haftorahs edited by Dr. JH Hertz, Chief Rabbi of the British Empire Volume I., 1941  in comments.  

Accept Israel, the Jewish State or No Dice

Nadene Goldfoot
Obama brought a very important message about Israel to the Palestinians on his visit last week.  The Palestinians must recognize Israel as the Jewish State.  Our original documents such as the Balfour Declaration in 1917  says so.

The UN General Assembly Resolution 181 written in 1947 that partitioned Palestine into half mentions the term "Jewish state"  30 times.  The whole world understood this diplomatic recognition of an Israel meant accepting it as a Jewish state.

In 2007 Prime Minister Ehud Olmert of Israel said that unless the Palestinians accepted Israel as the Jewish state, diplomacy would be aborted.  Benjamin Netanyahu said in 2009 as the succeeding Prime Minister that Israel expects the Palestinians to first recognize Israel as a Jewish state before talks about 2 states for 2 peoples.  It's something the Arab have been refusing to do.

Obama said in his speech that "Palestinians must recognize Israel as a Jewish state."

Daniel Pipes, President of the Middle East Forum,  feels that this expectation from the Arabs is the most lasting and most constructive contribution to Arab-Israeli diplomacy.

I believe they should also be well aware that Israel lost 80% of the Jewish Homeland by the act of Britain not in the plan which was to give away this much of it to create TransJordan.

Resource: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/mar/26/obama-to-palestinians-accept-the-jewish-state/ by Daniel Pipes

WHY ISRAEL HAS TO IGNORE UN; Stacked Against Israel By The Misinformed

Nadene Goldfoot
Only about 20 years old and the UN became permeated with anti-Semitic and anti-Zionist reasoning.  The atmosphere in the early 1970's  became ugly by the outlandish statements from some of the influential and wealthy UN membership about Jews.  After all, they just won a Six Day War when all the Arab nations attacked her to wipe her off the map, and they turned around and won the war.  They could not understand how all the attacks that had been thrown at these Jews could be thwarted.  Other tactics were then used, and used in the UN.  This still continues.

In 1974 the General Assembly invited Yasir Arafat to speak.  He did with a holster on his hip.  He spoke of carrying a gun and an olive branch.  His gun was just outside the hall.  The PLO cited a 1974 UN resolution condemning Israel as justification for setting off a bomb in Jerusalem.

Late 1974 Soviet and Arab states  had Assembly approve Resolution 3379, slandering Zionism by branding it as a form of racism.  US Ambassador Daniell Moynihan called this resolution an obscene act.  Israeli Ambassador Chaim Herzog said "it was based on hatred of Jews, falsehood and arrogance".  It was as if Hitler was enforcing this resolution.


1975 was when the Assembly gave the PLO permanent representative status.  this meant they could open an office in midtown Manhattan.  The PLO established "Committee on the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People.  The panel was part of the PLO propaganda apparatus and issued stamps, organized meetings, prepared films and drafted resolutions in support of Palestinian "rights."

1976 The committee wanted "full implementation of the inalienable rights of the Palestinians including their return to the Israeli part of Palestine (western where Tel Aviv is).  It also said that November 29th be declared an International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People which the UN has observed with anti-Israel speeches, films, exhibits.  A special unit on Palestine was established as part of the UN Secretariat.


Libyan UN Representative Ali Treiki said, " Is it not the Jews who are exploiting the American people and trying to debase them?"  " On  December 8,  1983, Treki was rebuked by the Secretary  General of the United Nations after a speech before the global body in which he urged its members to
Look around New York. He had declared,  "Who are the owners of pornographic film operations and houses?  Is it not the Jews who are exploiting the American people and trying to debase them? If we succeed in eliminating that entity, we shall by the same token save the American and European peoples." .  

Whatever gave him such a crazy idea as this?   Now he wants to eliminate all Jews?  Again, this is the holdover of Nazi beliefs.   The barely Jewish 2% of American population could exploit the other 98%?  For all these years, Jews in America suffered from a lot of anti-Semitism, especially before WWII.  There were limits on Jews accepted into colleges, and there was a non-acceptance into country clubs, organizations, etc.  Jews were turned down in job hiring.  We were at the other end of the spectrum as far as having rights.  That's why we understood the trials the Blacks were going through and hooked up to help them in the 60's when they were having a struggle for rights.

Saudi Arabian delegate Marouf al Dawalibi said in 1984 to the UN Human Rights commission conference on religious tolerance, "The Talmud (discussions of Jewish Law) says that if a Jew does not drink every year the blood of a non-Jewish man, he will be damned for eternity."   Not only is this an out and out rotten lie, one knows that this Muslim never read the Jewish book, the Talmud by his very utterance.  This stems from a medieval  slanderous accusation from European peasants about Jews.  Muslims should know that Jews do not eat blood.  This means they don't even want a rare steak or rare hamburger.  Part of koshering meat is to remove all blood.  G-d forbid if we injest any blood!  People who keep saying this are idiots who know nothing about Jews.  This kosher law comes from Moses who gave us this law in about 1300 BCE.

The UN has come out with more anti-Israel resolutions than for any other country.  It gets all the attention, but it's all negative.  Once on December 16,  1991 they did something for Israel, and that was to repeal the resolution 3379 libelling Zionism. No Arab state voted with the majority.   (There were 13 abstentions and 17 delegations absent or not voting) .  Then they sped up their biases after that.  In less than a week before repealing the measure, the General Assembly approved 4 new one-sided resolutions.

1. December 11, 1991, voted 104-2 calling for a UN sponsored peace conference including the PLO.
2. December 11, 1991, voted 142-2 to condemn Israeli behavior toward Palestinian in the territories.
3. December 16, 1991, repealed Zionism measure-voted 152-1, USA abstained, force Israel to rescind a Knesset resolution declaring Jerusalem was its capital.
4. December 16, 1991, demanding Israel's withdrawal from "occupied territories" including Jerusalem, the right of return for Palestinians, denounced Israeli administration of the Golan Heights.

The repeal in 1991 was a marred one.  13 of the 19 Arab countries, including those involved in negotiations with Israel, which were Syria, Lebanon and Jordan, voted to retain the resolution of course, along with Saudi Arabia.  6 others, including Egypt, were absent from the voting.  No Arab country voted for the repeal.  The PLO denounced the vote and the US role.

The Arabs voted again to impugn the very birthright of Israel, the New York Times wrote.  "That even now most Arab states cling to a demeaning and vicious doctrine mars an otherwise belated triumph for sense and conscience." 

1991 UN sponsored the 8th "North American NGO "non governmental organization" Symposium on the Question of Palestine."  They brought out a parade of luminaries who were all anti-Semitic causing ad nauseam for any people in the audience who felt differently.  The program  brought up every anti-Israel cannard imaginable.  This was written description  by an observer who attended.  

Note that never, not once, has the Security Council ever expressed concern over the murder of Jews.  This "august group" spends their time and the USA money mugging Jews instead of having any political debate or put out any effort to solve problems said former UN Ambassador Jeane Kirpatrick, though I'm paraphrasing.  

"Secretaries General Kofi Annan and Ban Ki Moon, former president of the council Doru Costea,  the European Union,  Canada and the United States have accused the council of focusing disproportionately on the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict.  The United States boycotted the Council during the George W. Bush administration, but reversed its position on it during the Obama administration.  Beginning in 2009 however, with the United States taking a leading role in the organization, American commentators began to argue that the HRC (Human Rights Council) was becoming increasingly relevant."


Today's Security Council has 15 members.  5 are permanent and are: China, France, Russia, UK and USA.      

The 10 others, who must be elected for a 2 year term,  include Azerbaijan, 26th largest Shi'a Muslim state; Morocco, 10th largest Sunni/Sufi Muslim state, and Pakistan, 2nd largest Sunni/Shi'a Muslim state.  There are 48 Muslim states in the world and 1 Jewish state.  This is not counting Palestine, which will make 49.  Israel has never been elected to the Security Council.


2013  The UN is not playing the role it should to solve the Arab-Israeli dispute because of the bias of the members involved.  They can't see the trees for the forest.  Nothing has changed in the Arab viewpoint.  It's only become worse as the Muslim Brotherhood has gained in power in Egypt  along with Qatar who houses Qaradowi, proponent of killing all Jews and Al-Jazeera, station broadcasting hatred for Jews.

  The latest HRC meeting on March 22, 2013 came up with more Arab-backed resolutions against Israel.  That's all they can think of, evidently.  47 nations voted against Israel not including the USA.  They brought up criticism against Israel's construction in Judea-Samaria, and east Jerusalem that has been in Israel's hands since 1967.  They also threw in libel of abuses against citizens, which is as weird a slander as the blood libels of the Middle Ages.  Israel takes such pride in caring for its citizens, and look how the Arab countries treat theirs.  The whole Middle East is in an uproar with blood flowing from how they have treated their citizens.    It's pathetic.  Israel didn't bother to attend such an exhibit of anti-Semitism/anti-Israelism.  They are well aware of a bias that the Muslims all keep and their attitude of G-d forbid that they ever learn anything real about the Jews.  Oh no.  Israel has brought Democracy into their world which means freedom for its citizens; something these leaders are not about to approve.

Resource: Myths and Facts-a concise record of the Arab-Israeli conflict by Dr. Mitchell G. Bard, Joel Himelfarb p. 111-115
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ali_Treki
http://www.un.org/en/sc/members/
http://www.un.org/en/sc/members/notelected.shtml
http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Peace/2013/03/23/U-N-Human-Rights-Council-Passes-Five-More-Resolutions-Against-Israel?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

Iraq the American's Mistake? Couldn't Have Happened to a More Evil Empire

Nadene Goldfoot
The USA may have erred in invading Iraq  thinking they were the lone instigators of 9/11,an attack on America,  but it couldn't have happened to a more evil state.  Iraq was about as close to a Nazi regime as you can get and was truly an evil empire.  When you get right down to it, none of the states in the Middle East except Israel were practicing what we call Human Rights, but Iraq was cruel beyond measure.

Almost every type of human rights was severely restricted or nonexistent.  Was this ever brought up in the United Nations?  Freedom of speech and press and of assembly and association were virtually nonexistent.  Iraqis couldn't do a thing to change their non-democratic government.

Their intelligence service conducted extensive surveillance and used extra-legal means, including extreme torture of all forms and even executed children as well as adults to suppress anti-regime activity.  Execution was an established Iraqi method for dealing with perceived political and military opponents of Saddam's government.  There was also no due process along with arbitrary detentions.  People would just disappear.

Their secret service was known to kill family members of dissidents that were inside or outside the country.  The public education system was government-controlled and encouraged children to inform on their parents for suspected anti-regime activities, just like the Nazis did.

As for the 150,000 Jews who had lived in Iraq with a history going back to Assyria when they invaded Israel in 721 BCE, followed up by the Babylonian invasion in 597 BCE.  This 2,700 year old Iraqi Jewish community had suffered horrible persecution in modern days.

In June 1941 when Germany was rounding up Jews, Rashid Ali, a Mufti-inspired pro Nazi   started rioting and a pogrom in Baghdad. All of the Ottoman Empire had been on the side of the Germans in WWI, and Arabs still clung to Nazi views about Jews.   Armed Iraqi mobs, with the help of the police and the army murdered 180 Jews and wounded almost 1,000.  More outbreaks of anti-Jewish rioting occurred between 1946-1949.  Of course Israel was born in a barrage of bullets or rockets May 14, 1948.

By 1950 Iraqi Jews were permitted to leave the country within a year IF they forfeited their citizenship.  One year went by giving Iraq time to freeze the property of the Jews who left and then economic restrictions were placed on Jews who decided to remain.  In May 1950, 113,000 Iraq Jews fled to Israel in Israel's "Operation Ali Baba."

By 1952 Iraq's government would not allow any Jews from emigrating and hung 2 Jews in public.  They had lied with a false charge  saying that they had thrown a bomb at the Baghdad office of the US Information Agency.

Ba'ath factions in 1963 were in competition for the government position (Saddam Hussein's party) so more restrictions were placed on the Iraqi Jews.  They couldn't sell their property as it was against the law now and all Jews were forced to carry yellow ID cards, from shades of Nazis.

After the Six Day War of 1967, more horrid measure were imposed.
1. Jewish property was expropriated
2. Jewish bank accounts were frozen
3. Jews were dismissed from public posts
4. Jewish business were shut down
5. Jewish trading permits were cancelled
6. Jewish telephones were disconnected
7. Jews were placed under house arrest for long periods of time or restricted to the cities.

By the end of 1968, the worst was happening to the Iraq Jews.  Many were jailed because the government said they discovered a local spy ring made up of Jewish businessmen.  14 men-eleven of them Jewish, were sentenced to death in pretend trials and hung in the public squares of Baghdad.  Others died from torture.

On January 27, 1969, Baghdad Radio called all Iraqis to "come and enjoy the feast."  Some 500,000 men, women and children as a mob paraded and danced past the scaffolds where the bodies of the hung Jews swung while chanting "Death to Israel" and "Death to all traitors."

This disgusting display brought a world-wide public outcry that radio Baghdad dismissed by saying, "We hanged spies, but the Jews crucified Christ."   Jews were under constant surveillance by the Iraqi government.  One Jew wrote in his diary in February 1970:

  "Ulcers, heart attacks, and breakdowns are increasingly prevalent among the Jews...The dehumanization of the Jewish personality resulting from continuous humiliation and torment...have dragged us down to the lowest level of our physical and mental faculties, and deprived us of the power to recover."  

International pressure forced the Baghdad government to allow the Jews to emigrate in the early 1970's.  The old folk that was left were forced to turn over title, without compensation to more than $200 million dollars worth of Jewish community property.  One synagogue was left in Baghdad.  The restrictions remained.  The Iraqi government was run by President Saddam Hussein by July 16, 1979.  

By 1991 there were 150 Jews that remained.  Travel was restricted, so that they could not go to Israel and could not contacts Jewish groups abroad.  This is true also of 1992.  Saddam remained in power until hung on December 30, 2006 by the Iraqis at the American-Iraqi military base, Camp Justice.    

Most likely, nothing was ever brought up in the UN to improve human rights in Iraq.  Just the past year of 2012 there were 1,346 civilians killed with 3,660 injured in their violence among each other.  "Many Iraqis still have limited access to basic services, including healthcare, education, and employment..They seem still unable to govern themselves, even though they've had almost a 10 year  trial run.  .

Though taking Iraq and Saddam Hussein was quick, ( USA and UK invading in March 2003 and capturing him on December 13, 2003) we stayed too long, long enough to lose in battle 4,486 good men from May 1, 2003 to 2012. We also have 32,000 wounded warriors.  It cost us $1 trillion dollars. " The Iraq war has changed America. We now have a $17 trillion debt. And obviously Iraq contributed to that."  Iraq, being who they are, are still fighting each other to this day. 

 I would say that the Iraqis, treated cruelly, taught to treat others cruelly, brainwashed and beaten down, will take a very long time in being able to understand what human rights are and learn to defend themselves in order to have such a precious thing.  

Resource:  Myths and Facts-a concise record of the Arab-Israeli conflict by Dr. Mitchell G. Bard, Joel Himelfarb 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saddam_Hussein
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casualties_of_the_Iraq_War
http://www.foxnews.com/on-air/oreilly/2013/03/21/bill-oreilly-america-today-and-iraq-war
http://www.ohchr.org/en/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=12901&LangID=E
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Execution_of_Saddam_Hussein

Israel Stopping the Osirak Nuclear Reactor in Iraq

Nadene Goldfoot
Netanyahu warned the world on Thursday, September 27, 2012 from the UN General Assembly about Iran obtaining enough uranium to make nuclear weapons. He explained with a visual that there is a red line, a point at which Iran's nuclear program would reach at which it could no longer be stopped.  Netanyahu reiterated that sanctions were good but hadn't stopped Iran from speeding up their nuclear program.  The time to prevent their nuclear building was getting very late.

  It's been six months since Netanyahu's warning.  During Obama's recent trip to Israel on March 20, 2013, he said that he feels that  danger is at least a year away.  Netanyahu said on TV while with Obama that this is about right.  However, the red line he had warned against is closer in his view, from indications than Obama believes.  Obama feels there is still time to solve this diplomatically.  He pledged to keep Iran from nuclear weapons.  Obama spoke about the need to make the weapon itself now which will take a lot of time.

Israel is the target of such a weapon as Iran has called Israel every disgusting name in the book, and is so much closer to Iran than the USA happens to be, so she has far more reason to be wary. Iran's President  Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has repeatedly called for the destruction of Israel and to eliminate the Zionist regime.  He says the Holocaust never happened and has protested in such programs as "A world Without Zionism."  The man has derided Israel on many occasions. "Ahmadinejad said most Jews in Israel "have no roots in "Palestine"  but they are holding the destiny of Palestine in their hands and allow themselves to kill the Palestinian people."  He then came out with the idea that if the Europeans feel that the Holocaust existed and they feel guilty, they should create a home there for the Jews.  He does nothing but spout fanatic religious thoughts about Jews and wants to be in complete denial about Jews as to their history.
 

Israel has gone through this before.  In 1981, she became convinced that Iraq was approaching the capability to produce a nuclear weapon.  At this time, Israel was also widely criticized.  Critics minimized the importance of Iraq's nuclear program, claiming that because Baghdad had signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and permitted its facilities to be inspected, Israeli fears were baseless.

Israel knew that such a weapon was to be used on them, so they preempted the building of the weapon and launched their surprise attack and destroyed the Osirak nuclear complex in Iraq on June 7, 1981 in Operation Opera.   Iraq had bought a plutonium production reactor from France.  France had also built a research reactor and laboratories for them.     There had been a lot of diplomatic talk between Israel and Iraq.  "Israeli diplomacy engaged France, Italy (the main suppliers to the reactor) and the United States.  But it hadn't helped.  Even, internally, there was opposition from Peres, but Begin insisted that he “will not be the man in whose time there will be a second Holocaust."  Had they not done so, "American and coalition forces may have faced a nuclear-armed Iraq during the Persian Gulf War in 1991, and again during the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, had Israel not destroyed Iraq’s nuclear reactor in 1981.

  On June 19, 1981, the UN Security Council unanimously condemned the raid.  After the allied forced had announced the destruction of Iraq's nuclear facilities, the UN inspectors found Saddam's program to develop weapons was far more extensive than even the Israelis had believed.  Analysts had thought Iraq was unable to enrich uranium for bombs.  Saddam's Iraqi researchers used several methods, even an obsolete one, that were believed to have made it possible for Iraq to have built at least one bomb.  That's all it would take to wipe out Israel.

We were living in Israel at the time, attending classes in Haifa at the Ulpan where we lived in order to obtain our teaching degrees.  I wrote back to my family the following on July 26, 1981.  "We thought it was okay for Israel to bomb the atomic plant in Iraq.  Everyone should know what they've been up to.  It's too bad that now that it's out in the open, France or someone else will rebuild it for them..  At least the world will know what can happen with a country like Iraq."    

Then Iraq invaded oil rich Kuwait on August 2, 1990."Saddam Hussein declared that the nation of Kuwait no longer existed; Iraqi forces held the country for seven months, until U.S. and coalition forces liberated the occupied country in the first Gulf War from this date on to February 28, 1991.".  Iraq had a population of 31,234,000 and Kuwait only had 3,399,637 people.  This caused US officials to finally  acknowledge to everyone that Baghdad had been developing nuclear weapons and that it was far closer to reaching its goal than they had thought.  This brought out people who said that the Administration was only trying to justify having a war with Iraq for their oil after the USA went in again in 2003!  

Resource:  Myths and Facts by Dr. Mitchell G. Bard, Joel Himelfarb p. 278-279
Letters From Israel, page 120
http://www.policymic.com/articles/15438/israel-red-line-netanyahu-un-speech-gets-tough-on-iran-nuclear-program
http://www.courierpress.com/news/2013/mar/20/on-israel-visit-obama-pledges-to-keep-iran-from/It's
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/History/Osirak.html
http://www.thetakeaway.org/2010/aug/02/iraqs-invasion-kuwait-remembered-20-years-later/#13640571780151&%7B%22ready%22%3Atrue%7D
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulf_War
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahmoud_Ahmadinejad_and_Israel

What The Colonies Are That Palestinians Complain About

Nadene Goldfoot
A gang of Palestinian Arabs protested when Obama came to visit Judea-Samaria, or as they call it, the West Bank.  They are angry because Obama didn't bring change.  They are living in colonies, they say, not their Palestine. They'd better have a talk with Abbas.

These young Arabs forget that where they are living was originally Jewish Homeland.  In fact, after WWI the British took back their promise to the Jews of their Jewish Homeland and gave away 80% of it to Jordan.  Right now Israel is about 80% Jewish and 20% Muslim with 1.4 million Arabs as citizens.  Judea-Samaria is made up of about 75% Muslims and 17% Jews and 8% Christians.  But Palestine is to be Judenrein, so they're planning  to kick out all but the Muslims.

 Where they are living and calling colonies are such cities as Ramallah  which is 6 miles from Jerusalem.  "Modern Ramallah was founded in the mid-16th century by the Haddadins, a Jordanian tribe of brothers descended from Ghassanid Christian Arabs. The Haddadins, led by Rashid Haddadin, arrived from east of the Jordan River near the Jordanian town of Shoubak. The Haddadin migration is attributed to fighting and unrest among clans in that area."

It is the capital of the Palestinian Authority.  27,092 live in this historically Christian city where the Christians are now a minority.  The British army lived here in December 1917.  It came into Jordan's hands when they attacked in 1948 until 1967.  Jordan had jailed many Palestinains.  In Israel's hands they could for the first time visit Israel and the Gaza Strip and deal in commerce.  However, they were leaders of the Intifada that started in December 1987.

 Headlines today say, " PA to impose a curfew on Ramallah during (Obama) visit;  Palestinian lawyers demand Obama's arrest for crimes US army committed. " Hundreds of Palestinians gathered in the center of Ramallah on Wednesday to protest against US President Barack Obama’s planned visit to the city. "The protest was organized by the radical Islamist group Hizb ut Tahrir, which seeks the establishment of an Islamic caliphate." "

  Hebron was called Kiriath-Arba in the "Old Testament", or our Torah.  It is only 18 miles from Jerusalem.  Abraham bought a plot of land from the Hittites, the Cave of Machpelah so that he could bury his wife,  Sarah.   This is history both Jews and Muslims share.  That's where it ends.  

This ancient city was once a part of the Jewish state of Judah, a state created by the followers of King David.  It was one of the cities of refuge.  David reigned here for 7 1/2 years before moving his capital to Jerusalem. A Jewish community continued here through the Byzantine Period and under Arab rule.   It is one of 4 sacred Jewish towns;   Hebron, Tiberias, Safed and Jerusalem.  Jews lived here continuously.  By 1890 there were 1,500 Jews living there with established yeshivot and religious schools.  In 1925 the great Lithuanian yeshivah of Slobodka was brought there.

In 1929, when stocks fell in the USA, Arabs were all in an uproar and massacred many Jews of Hebron.  Survivors were forced to leave.  30 Jewish families returned in 1931.  The Arabs rioted again in 1936, when things were bad for Jews in Germany.

After the Six Day War of 1967, some Jews came back to Hebron, descendants of those who had to leave or die, and they established Kiryat Arba which is east of the main city.  3,700 lived there in 1988.

Bethlehem has been taken over by the Muslims.  It is only 5.25 miles away from Jerusalem.  This was the birthplace of King David where "the Book of Ruth" occurred.  Christians say this is where Jesus was born.  The Roman Emperor, Constantine and his mother Helena built the Church of the Nativity here in 330 CE. From 1948 to 1967 it was under Jordanian rule and came into Israel's hands from the Six Day 1967 War.  In 1948 there were 7,500 Christians living here and 2,500 Muslims.  By 1968  there were 32,000 people.

Nablus, originally called Shechem is one of today's  Palestinian "colonies".  It's so old its origins go back to the Canaanites with walls that date from about 2,000 BCE, and like others, was in Jordanian territory from 48-67 and now controlled by Israel.  It was under Egyptian control  back in their 12th dynasty.  Our biblical patriarchs camped under its walls and it was taken by Simeon and Levi (Gen. 34), 2 of the 12 sons of Jacob.  It became the territory for Ephraim, another of the 12 sons and their desendants.  It was a Levitical city and a city of refuge as well as the center of the House of Joseph.  Joseph is buried here. The Assyrians had attacked in 721 BCE and took many of the 12 tribal members, leaving Judah, Levi and some of Benjamin's descendants.   In 1967 it had 44,000 people, mostly all Muslims with a tiny Samaritan community and has for decades been a center of fanatical Arab nationalism.  A small Jewish community formerly existed here.

Jericho lies in the Jordan valley 825 ' below sea level, sort of like Death Valley in California. When we drove from Tsfat to Jerusalem we went through Jericho.   It is one of the oldest settlements in the world and its first city wall goes back to the Neolithic Period of 5,000 BCE and then destroyed by Joshua (Josh.6).  It was revived only during the reign of the Jewish King Ahab of 870 BCE by Hiel the Bethelite.  (I Kings 16:34).  When King Herod of Judea (appointed by Romans) ruled and built himself a palace there where he died.  The Romans then destroyed Jericho in 68 CE and it was later rebuilt where it is now.  It is now surrounded by orange groves and banana plantations.  3,000 lived there in 1946 and Arab refugees moved there in 1948, numbering 61,000 in 1961.  Most fled over the Jordan before Israel troops arrived during the Six Day War. and some 8,500 lived in Jericho and another 2,000 in its vicinity at the time of the 1967 census.

Jenin is mentioned as Gina in the Tel el Amarna tablets and is probably the biblical En Gannim (Joshua 19:21) , called Ginaea in Roman times and had a small Jewish community in the 17th century CE.  It was a center of Arab nationalist fanaticism in the 1930's and was part of Jordan from 1948-1967.  In 1967 there were 8,346 apart from 5,019 Arab refugees in the vicinity.

During the Six Day War, Jordan had attacked Israel despite a message sent to Hussein by PM Levi Eshkol that if she remained out of the attack she would not be attacked.  Israel's Jerusalem and border towns were heavily shelled by the Jordanians.  Later on June 5, Israeli troops began their moves against the Jordanian positions and cut off Jordanian "east"Jerusalem (including the Old City) which fell on June 7th.  The entire area west of the Jordan river, including Bethlehem, Hebron and Nablus fell to the Israeli army.

"King Hussein of Jordan signed on with Egypt to attack Israel.  He wrote:  The armies of Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon are poised on the borders of Israel...to face the challenge, while standing behind us are the armies of Iraq, Algeria, Kuwait, Sudan and the whole Arab nation."  They had 465,000 soldiers against Israel who won against them all in 6 days.  

According to the UN statistics of 2010, The West Bank population is 2,568,555 and East Jerusalem has 192,800.  Ramallah and al-Bireh Governorate claim 57,000.

Resource: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramallah
The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Bank
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_the_Palestinian_territories
http://wikitravel.org/en/Ramallah
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/History/67_War.html

Little Interest in a Palestine in 1948: Why the Change?

Nadene Goldfoot
While the Palestinians are angry with Obama because he did not demand and insist that Israel stop building either in East Jerusalem  or Judea and Samaria (original land of the Israelites),  they lobbed 2 Qassam rockets from Gaza into Sderot on Obama's 2nd day of visiting Israel. They had originally fired 5 rockets, but 3 must have been duds as they didn't reach their target.  Possibly they fell into Palestinian territory in Gaza.  It was enough of a trek to make 5 alarms go off in southern Israel, though.

He had another chilly reception in Fatah's area of Judea-Samaria (West Bank).  A gang of Palestinians held an anti-Obama protest on a hillside east of Jerusalem Wednesday and unfurled a banner saying, "Obama:  You promised hope and change, you gave us colonies and apartheid". 

What did they get, "colonies"?  Is that the only word they could find for a translation from Arabic to English? They can only blame their rulers from Arafat to Abbas for that.   Apartheid?  Arabs plan on taking over all of Judea-Samaria and kicking out all the Jews.  Now, that's apartheid.  Israel has 1.4 million Arab citizens that they did not kick out at the creation of Israel.  Those that stayed with them became citizens.  Friends get rewarded, enemies get bubkes.  These "young men" had the audacity to call the A word, apartheid,  at a time when Obama had just met Miss Israel, a beautiful Ethiopian former sergeant in the IDF.  

Has it always been the desire of the Arabs to have their own state?  Would this satisfy them to live peacefully with Israel?

In the summer of 1948, the UN sent Count Folke Bernadotte to Palestine to mediate a truce as war existed since 1947 between the Arabs and Jews.  Bernadotte was from Sweden.  His plan called for the Jewish State to relinquish the Negev and Jerusalem to Transjordan and to get the western Galilee in its place.  This plan had been rejected on both sides.

The proposal was offered AFTER  the Arabs had gone to war to stop the partition plan and a Jewish state had already been declared.  It was again rejected by both sides.  You have to have some knowledge of "the Old Testament" to understand the relevance of Jerusalem to Jews, I suppose, but it was a no brainer to keep Jerusalem for Israel.  To take it off the table was showing Folke's lack of historical value that  it held.  Could he find the word "Jerusalem" in the Koran?  The answer is "NO."

Bernadotte was surprised to find little enthusiasm among the Arabs for independence in having their own state.  This is something that Great Britain thought was only fair between the two contestants for the land they held a mandate for.  Bernadotte then wrote in his diary the following:  Great Britain had already given away 80% of the Jewish Homeland to make Transjordan.

"The Palestinian Arabs had at present no will of their own.  Neither have they ever developed any specifically Palestinian nationalism.  The demand for a separate Arab state in Palestine is consequently relatively weak.  It would seem as though in existing circumstances most of the Palestinian Arabs would be quite content to be incorporated in Transjordan."

Obama spoke to the college students in Israel as if we can forget our long history and importance of Judea and Samaria and Jerusalem.  It's like asking us to forget our grandparents and the struggles they went through. It is our very history that causes us to live in Israel.   He expects the young people to just consider the Palestinians, the people who have been attacking Israel for 66 years.  

He doesn't have to tell Jews to think of them as they already do anyway.  Otherwise Israelis might be acting like the Syrians of today.  I would hope he could see that ethics of Israel is quite different from their neighbors.  That's something that Golda Meier spoke of so often.  Our religion  teaches us to do so, but not to lie down and die.  We were also taught that this land was to be ours by a much higher power than presidents of any country.  Yet the Arabs pronounce to the world over and over their intentions to end Israel,  and where are the reprisals to such pronouncements?  Where is the uproar?  

Like Golda had said, "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."  or, "We don't thrive on military acts. We do them because we have to, and thank God we are efficient.".  She also said, "We Jews have a secret weapon in our struggle with the Arabs; we have no place to go."  " We do not rejoice in victories. We rejoice when a new kind of cotton is grown and when strawberries bloom in Israel."  and "One cannot and must not try to erase the past merely because it does not fit the present.."  and what she is most famous for saying, "“We can forgive the Arabs for killing our children. We cannot forgive them for forcing us to kill their children. We will only have peace with the Arabs when they love their children more than they hate us.”

I hate to get preachy, but this is Friday and Shabbat starts this evening.  When the Palestinians get wise and follow the Golden Rule like a lot of the world tries to follow, and that is to not treat others as you wouldn't want to be treated, then maybe peace will be spoken of from the heart.  Following the rule of killing Jews that are hiding behind trees and rocks will get you nowhere.  We're not asking you to become Jewish or Christian, just act like human beings with a heart.  All Israel has been getting are a lot of people who have been taught hatred and the desire to kill Israelis and Jews.  With such an outlook, peace will always be elusive to us all.  You know, I think Obama was trying to say this as well.  

It is hatred that drives the Palestinian Arabs, but it is love of their original homeland that drives the Israelis. 

Resource:  http://www.jpost.com/Diplomacy-and-Politics/Palestinians-disappointed-with-Obama-307375
Oregonian newspaper 3/23, 13 page A5. Obama calls for Mideast talks to resume.
http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/g/golda_meir.html

FIRST; MIRACLE OF ISRAEL; And Why There Hasn't Been a Peace Between Arabs and Jews

Nadene Goldfoot
Back in November 29, 1947, when another uncle of mine was able to finally buy a new Ford in Oregon, Jews in Palestine were  being attacked by Arabs.  May 14, 1948 finally came along at which the regular Arab armies invaded and attacked the Jews within the hour. They came from Syria, Lebanon, Transjordon, Iraq, a Saudi-Arabian contingent. and Egypt to reinforce local Arabs.  This was going to be a war of extermination and a momentous massacre of Jews that was to be spoken of like the Mongolian massacres and the Crusades according to Azzam Pasha, Secretary-General of the Arab League who proclaimed this in Cairo.

 Civilian villagers faced each other armed with just rifles, grenades and homemade Stens.  Teen-aged Jewish girls along with other children aged 10 and 11 fought side by side with the men.  The Jews had later received arms shipments from abroad but only in the midst of the battle that went on till March 1949.  They owed many of their victories to their unyielding spirit than to any military equipment or proficiency.  Their religious thanked G-d for being on their side.

 The Arab peasants got in on the act, too with hardly a day's military training and blindly stormed Jewish settlements.  Jordan had the advantage of the British-commanded Arab Legion who knew how to fight.   These invaders came with artillery, tanks and  planes but didn't know how to use them well.  There is an old movie showing Frank Sinatra as an American pilot in a little plane helping out the Jews. It's "Cast a Giant Shadow", also with Kirk Douglas which is part fact and part fiction about Israel's 1947-48 struggle for Independence.

The Jews, who became Israelis on May 14, 1948 in the midst of the battle,  wound up with from 7,000 to 10,000 dead.  Of the 600,000 Jewish population, this meant one out of every 100 Jews living in Israel then died in battle.  The Arab toll was higher.

Jews had to fight again over the Suez in 1956.  By the time 1967's war came around,  Israel lost 800 out of a population of 2.5 million in the Six Day War.  These wars were manifestations of the original belligerence of non-acceptance of Israel.  To Arabs, Jews were despicable.  Their Nazi peers had said so.  In their country they had always been dhimmis, 2nd class citizens.  They couldn't have a state of their own so near Muslims!

Arafat -leader of PLO, now Fatah, had adopted a worldwide program of terror activities aimed at Israelis, Zionists and Jewish targets.  Palestinians were ousted from Jordan in 1970 by King Hussein, and ousted from Lebanon in 1982 by the Israel army.  Arafat supported Saddam Hussein in the 1991 Gulf War.  Finally Arafat became president of the Palestine that wasn't created as yet in 1998.  .

The Palestinian question is not the core of the Arab-Israeli conflict.  It is the result of the conflict.  It comes from the Arab unwillingness to accept a Jewish State in the Middle East.  After 65 years, are we any closer to the Arab's change of heart?  This is the question that Obama should be asking Fatah's Abbas and his unruly other half, Hamas.

Had the Arabs not fought the Jews in 47-49 and block the UN partition plan, a Palestinian state in Judea-Samaria, Galilee and the Negev would be celebrating their anniversary of its independence.  Had the Arab states not supported terrorism directed at Israeli civilians like Hamas is today, this would have happened.  Had they not provoked 6 subsequent Arab-Israeli wars, the conflict could have been settled long ago.  There would be no Palestinian problem.

Long ago the Palestinian refugees could have been resettled among their people in Arab lands, which happens to extend over 5 million square miles, so don't say there wasn't any room for them.  They came from these lands in the first place.  Arabs had entered Palestine to find jobs.  Their numbers increased due to economic prosperity brought about by Jewish immigration which brought about rapid development.  Within 30 years the Arab population nearly doubled.

Israel, with 8,000 sq miles and a fraction of Arab wealth, absorbed 820,000 Jews driven from Arab countries in the 1950's.  Their refusal shows they are more interested in using their refugees as political weapons against Israel than they are in truly solving this problem.

The feisty Arab countries who are in on destroying Israel have their own personal fights.  Iraq's rape of Kuwait and Syria's brutal subjugation of Lebanon and now its own people have nothing to do with Palestine and Israel.  This is what has been characterizing the Middle East.  How about when Iraq and Iran warred against each other in the 80's?   Since 1991, what has been going on?
1.  The 1991 Gulf War
2. Iran-Iraq War-Sunni and Shi'as
3. Lebanese Civil War-Christians and Muslims
4. Libya's interference in Chad
5. Sudanese Civil War
6. Syria-Iraq conflict
7. Polisario Front and Morocco War
8. Syria and Rebels and 70,000 dead and now possible chemical warfare
9. Iran making uranium to be be used in weapons on USA and Israel

Borders in the Middle East, from Libya to Pakistan, from Turkey to Yemen, are either ill-defined or in dispute.  If suddenly we did have Palestine created and everybody was happy, which will not be the realistic case since they insist all Jews are to move out of their state, so we cannot start singing Kum Bi-ya, if this happened, it would have no impact on the many inter-Arab rivalries that start wars in the Middle East.  It would not stop Arab opposition to Israel, who still will not accept Israel.  Luckily President Hafez Assad of Syria has more than he can handle with his own rebellious people, as he has long advocated a "Greater Syria" as he eyes Israel.  Israel has already had several stray missiles land in the Golan Heights from Assad

Right now Obama is in Israel on his first visit and has talked with Abbas.  Is he and the Palestinian Arabs going to be happy and contented with parts of Judea, Samaria and Gaza?  Abu Iyad, who was the #2 man of the PLO, Fatah's original name, died in 1991 but had said of their plans:

"There should be no illusion as to the solutions, whether through the US or through an international conference.  According to the phased plan, we will establish a Palestinian state on any part of Palestine the enemy (Israel) will retreat from.  The Palestinian state will be a stage in our prolonged struggle for the liberation of Palestine and the establishment of a democratic state on all of its territory.  

We cannot achieve the strategic goal of a Palestine state in all of Palestine without first establishing a Palestinian state on part of its territory.  "

Obama thinks that Abbas is going to be a great partner.  Arafat spoke in Geneva and supposedly recognized Israel's right to exist, but the prominent PLO officials continued to reiterate their support for the strategy of stages.  So one must recognize what their goal is to be.  Hamas's goal is to eliminate Israel.  It's in their charter.  Yet Obama took delight in speaking to the Israeli college students on this trip and urged them to think of the Palestinians and to forget about the older leaders of Israel.  I don't think that President Shimon Peres of Kadima appreciated that remark.  I just pray the college students have more sense.  Most all of them have already served in the IDF before starting college.  They should understand why they have been protecting Israel .  For that matter, all Jews, not just college students, already think about the Palestinians and want to be fair  However, it can't always be one-sided, can it.

Resource:  Genesis 1948 by Dan Kurzman  The first Arab-Israeli War
Myths and Facts, a concise record of the Arab-Israeli conflict by Mitchell G. Bard, Joel Himelfarb
Facts About Israel 1973, Division of Information, Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Jerusalem
The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
http://www.algemeiner.com/2013/03/21/obama-to-israelis-peace-is-necessary-urges-youth-to-claim-the-future/

Obama's Song to Israel

Nadene Goldfoot
Obama is singing the same old song he did at the beginning of his presidency. He reiterates that "Peace is the only path to true security.  The American president calls for negotiations with the Palestinians, saying Israel has a true partner with Abbas and Fayyad;  at the same time, Obama insisted continued settlement construction is "counterproductive."

Mr. President, If I were the Prime Minister of Israel I would have built a home for every rocket, missile or mortar that the Palestinians attacked Israel with.  I would also have taken a mile of land for each and every one as well.  Peace is not made with weapons of death.

Let the building that is going on show the Palestinians that Israel is staying where they are and cannot be driven out.
 Let them see that it has not paid to be unwilling to make peace for these past 65 years.
 Let them see that Israel belongs in the Middle East.
This is what the building should be telling them visually.

Counterproductive?  Did it bring about peace to leave Gaza?  Quite the contrary, Mr. President.

Does Obama not understand that Israel is the proponent of peace between the two people?  Does he not understand who refuses to make peace?  Israel is the one that needs true security and is more than aware of false security measures.

Resource: Jerusalem Post

How German Jews Became Stateless and Tattooed, in Holocaust of 6 Million Jews

Nadene Goldfoot
Chaim  Weizmann was quoted in The Manchester Guardian as saying: "The world seemed to be divided into two parts – those places where the Jews could not live and those where they could not enter."

German Jews were being persecuted by Hitler who called Jews "criminals" when the Nuremburg Laws of 1935  came out making Jewish stateless refugees in their own country.  No one thought they weren't at home in Germany.  German Jews had been soldiers and had fought for Germany.  My uncle's father put on his uniform when he was forced to clean the streets, he, a Jewish sausage maker.  I've traced his family back to 1830 and they were probably there sooner than that.  Jews were in Germany as early as 321 CE in Cologne and elsewhere on the Rhineland.  There had even been Jewish soldiers in the Roman garrisons in Germany.  In the 8th and 9th century the Carolingian royal house had a pro-Jewish policy encouraging the settlement of Jews with the object of developing trade.  So Jews never expected to suddenly be expelled one day.  

By 1938, 450,000 of the 900,000 German Jews had fled to Palestine, held by the British who had the mandate.  Then the White Paper of May 23, 1939  by Neville Chamberlain came out barring most Jews from entering all during WWII.  Only 75,000 were allowed to enter from 1940-1944, the major part of the war.  They had it fixed so only 10,000 could come each year and the extra 25,000 was only for emergencies.  Jews already there were kept from buying land in Palestine.  

March 1938 was when Germany annexed Austria and 200,000 more Jews became stateless.
September 1938 was when Britain and France let Germany occupy Czechoslovakia and by the next year, March 1939, 200,000 more Jews found themselves stateless.  

Doesn't this sound familiar?  "In February 1939, the British held a conference  in London to negotiate an agreement between the Arabs and the Zionists. The Palestinian Arab delegates would only attend on condition that there were no direct meetings with Zionist representatives since this would be recognition of the legitimacy of Zionists claims over Palestine. So the British government held separate meetings with the two sides. The conference ended in failure on March 17, 1939.

"According to David Wyman, "The United States and its Allies were willing to attempt almost nothing to save the Jews."  Anti-Semitism was rampant in the 1920's and even worse in the 1930's.  By 1940 Jews were 3.7% of the national population.  Today there are about 5 to 6 million Jews in the USA making Jews under 2% of the USA population.  About 100,000 German Jews arrived in the 30's.  My uncle was one of the last who arrived  about May 12, 1939 from Boppard Germany through Hamburg's port.  These Jews had strings attached.  They had to be backed by someone in the states who took economic responsibility for them and had to get them jobs first before they could come here.

"The Holocaust was largely ignored by America media as it was happening  We didn't have internet then.  Newspapers didn't report on it.  Our government knew and didn't tell us.  Sulzberger, publisher of the New York Times, a Reform Jew himself, "kept issues of concern regarding Jews off the editorial page and burying stories about Nazi atrocities against Jews in short items deep inside the paper. In time he grew increasingly out of step with the American Jewish community by his persistent refusal to recognize Jews as a people and despite obvious flaws in his view of American democracy.  Hollywood films and radio with few exceptions avoided questioning Nazi persecution of Europe's Jews prior to Pearl Harbor. Jewish studio executives did not want to be accused of advocating Jewish propaganda by making films with overtly antifascist themes."  Oh, the webs we weave.  By deceiving themselves and not caring for their Jewish brothers they helped Hitler to kill off 6 million by their over-zeal at being an American.

Resource:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89vian_Conference
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/nurlaws.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Paper_of_1939
The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia: Germany

Arabs Preach Nazi Hate of Jews in PA Newspaper

Nadene Goldfoot
"Churchill and Roosevelt were alcoholics, and in their youth were questioned more than once about brawls they started in bars, while Hitler hated alcohol and was not addicted to it. He used to go to sleep early and wake up early, and was very organized. 

These facts have been turned upside down as well, and Satan has been dressed with angels' wings."  

  This was published in the  Al-Hayat al-Jadida, March 18, 2013, the official daily newspaper of the Palestinian National Authority.  In other words, it is a Fatah newspaper.  

This shows the mentality of our Arab neighbors.  He goes on to say that had the Nazis won, we would not be thinking highly of these two men.  He is praising Hitler because he didn't drink.  The man was a madman and yet the Arab writer is praising him.  

We know Hitler " for his insatiable greed for power, his ruthlessness, cruelty and utter lack-of feeling, his contempt for established institutions and his lack of moral restraints. "  The fact was that "he secretly admired  Roosevelt to a considerable degree, regardless of what he publicly said about him. Underneath he probably feared him inasmuch as he was unable to predict his actions.

Arabs leaders have been using Nazi propaganda on their people ever since Israel was created on May 14, 1948.   "Nazi propaganda was greatly facilitated by several Arab exiles, prominent among them Hajj Amin al-Husayni and Rashid Ali al-Kaylani, who were not tried after WorldWar II due to British concerns for their position in the Arab world in the post-war period.  Mein Kampf is popular with this population as well as Protocals of the Elder Zion" which is an antisemitic hoax purporting to describe a Jewish plan for taking over the world..

It was the huge Ottoman Empire who had sided with the Germans in WWI, and so many of the Arabs continued and kept siding with them in WWII as well.  Churchill didn't do the Jews any favors by writing off 80% of the Jewish National Homeland, but he did fight the Empire with the Arabs during WWI.  By WWII Churchill was Prime Minister and fighting Germans and won with the USA who had Roosevelt as President.  Thus, the rub about their drinking.  "Churchill  consumed alcoholic drinks on a near-daily basis for long periods in his life, and frequently imbibed before, after, and during mealtimes, although he is not generally considered by historians to have been an alcoholic."  It evidently did not keep him from performing his job well during WWII.   In 1953 he suffered a stroke and resigned in 1955.


Rumors were that  "Franklin D. Roosevelt, victim of infantile paralysis and confined to a wheelchair,   was a big drinker. He always just seemed to find his way around alcohol. One good example was when his doctor put FDR on a low-fat diet, to try to help his hypertension and heart problems. But FDR became underweight, so the doctor told him he'd have to put on weight again. FDR's plan to gain it back? Drinking mass quantities of egg nog.  Yet he was voted in as our President 3 times. He wasn't considered an alcoholic.  


Hitler's father and Stalin have been  described as the "supreme alcoholic",  Both illustrate what happens when addiction is not overcome - particularly, it seems, when the sufferers wield great power.  Most likely Hitler's father played a big part in shaping his mental problems.  He fought constantly with the mother, who was Catholic.  His father spent much time in bars.   Hitler managed to use Jews as his personal scapegoat for all is personal problems, thus had the power to kill 6 million.  This is what these Arab leaders are using as an idol  to follow.

Resource: http://palwatch.org/main.aspx?fi=157&doc_id=8684 by Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Hayat_al-Jadida
http://www.jewishbookcouncil.org/book/nazi-propaganda-for-the-arab-world
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Later_life_of_Winston_Churchill
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/hitlerpsychtoc.html

Daily newspaper Founder Nabil Amro
Hafeth Al Barghouti Editor-in-chief Arif Hijjawi Language Arabic Headquarters Ramallah  Official website http://www.alhayat-j.com

Netanyahu's New Coalition Will Meet Obama

Nadene Goldfoot
Netanyahu has formed his new coalition with Likud and Yisrael Beiteinu.  For the first time the ultra orthodox are left out.  He also has Yesh Atid, a centrist party and Jewish Home Party which is far right.

About the last thing done was on Sunday when Netanyahu  appointed the former military chief, Moshe Ya'alon, as the defense minister.  He's a hard-liner on the Palestinian peace process.
"In 2005, Ya’alon opposed Israel’s plan unilaterally to withdraw from the Gaza Strip. That disagreement with then-Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz and the government of Ariel Sharon led to the end of his tenure as IDF Chief. "Netanyahu gave cabinet posts to his Likud Party colleagues the day after telling President Shimon Peres that he finally succeeded in forming a coalition.  It took 6 weeks of work to accomplish this.

The new 4-party coalition government most likely will be presented to the Knesset and sworn in Monday.  Tomorrow Obama leaves for Israel and will arrive on the 20th.  "The coalition is expected to focus its energies on domestic issues—especially new laws that would scale back draft exemptions and other government perks for the ultra-orthodox."  A big complaint is that students in Yeshivas that are ultra-orthodox have not had to serve in the armed forces like everyone else including women.  They are needed, and as a result will also retain a better resume that is more attractive to employers if they are not in the rabbinate.  .

As to the Palestinian peace process, a Palestinian lawmaker, Mariam Farhat, 64 years old, a mother of 10 had said that she wished she had 100 sons to die while attacking Israelis.  As it was only 3 have died who were killed while carrying out deadly attacks against Israelis that she was able to praise and support.  She just passed away of health complications.  This gives me an idea of the ideology and mind-set of the people who oppose Israel's existence.  Golda Meir of the Labor party and 4th Prime Minister of Israel had said in 1957 that peace would come when the Arabs loved their children more than they hated Jews.  It hasn't happened yet.  That's been 56 years of waiting.

 President Obama will be in Israel on the 20th.  He plans a listening tour of Israel.  Obama doesn't have a demonstratively warm relationship with the public of Israel so hopes to improve on this . A poll showed that 90% of Israelis viewed Obama as indifferent, unfavorable or even hateful.  Obama and Netanyahu have had a notoriously poor relationship last year especially.  What hurt Obama in the eyes of the Israelis was his trip to Cairo, Egypt in 2009 where he called for a "new beginning" in America's relations with the Muslim world.  Things have become worse for Egypt since then which also affects Israel's security since the Muslim Brotherhood is now in power and they have major plans to get rid of Israel.  Now Obama even refuses to speak to the Knesset in Jerusalem, Israel's capital, which Clinton and Bush did.   Instead, he will speak in the International Convention Center.  He prefers to speak to college students.  (My thought is that at that age I was young, impressionable and believed anything an older adult might say.  I didn't have a background in history at all yet except a smattering  of US history.  Yes, my high school history classes except for one was terrible.)  

"Palestinian chefs have reacted with indignation upon hearing that Obama’s dinner at President Shimon Peres’s residence on Thursday will feature hummus and falafel, presented to the American president as “Israeli cuisine.”  Well, when I lived in Israel from 1980 to 1985 I lived mainly on these two items.  After all, we're back in the Middle East.  This is healthy food.  I couldn't find bagels and almost decided to open my own bagel shop, but I did find bagelas, something similar.  "The main course will include lamb chops and zucchini flowers stuffed with mushrooms. Fruit and Israeli chocolate will be served for dessert."  Lucky Obama, lamb is so expensive here in Oregon.

"“We, a group of Palestinian chefs, are prepared to counter this flagrant Israeli attack on our culture by preparing the official dinner for presidents Obama and Abbas,” Abdul Khaleq told al-Ayyam. “[Our dinner] will reveal the fallacious claims of the occupation and its continuous attempts to rob our folklore, this time in the presence of the president of the biggest country in the world.”

And so, we have another fight on our hands, a food fight.

Resource: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324077704578362271485971056.html
http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Golda_Meir
Oregonian newspaper 3/18/13 page A5.
http://www.timesofisrael.com/chefs-clash-over-obamas-menu/

Jews, The Original Sons of the Land; from King Hussein of the Hejaz

Nadene Goldfoot
Jews came from Israel and Judea which they lost by 135 CE after being there with Moses and entering the land called Canaan in 1271 BCE.  That's almost a 1,500 year history of living there.  Since then, they've not had a homeland for 2,000 years and had lived in misery and suffered from anti-Semitism.  People have lived in America for only 413 years and we know how we feel about our land.

The Ottoman Empire ruled Palestine from 1517 to 1917.  They were on the side of the Germans in WWI which started on July 28, 1914 and ended on November 11, 1918.  Germany greatly influenced the Arabs throughout WWII as well.  Already in 1916 the Ottoman Empire's southern region was to be mandated by France and Great Britain under the Sykes-Picot Agreement.  France was given the mandate over the  land mass  that became Lebanon and Syria,  and Britain was given the mandate over the land mass that became Trans-Jordan, then Jordan, Israel and Judea-Samaria.

On November 2, 1917, the British Government issued the Balfour Declaration.  This document pledged support for the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people.  They were in sympathy with the Jewish Zionist aspirations and had met many times with the Jewish leaders.  All the allied governments were parties to the antecedent negotiations and approved the Declaration.

 So did some of the main leaders of the Arab national movement such was Emir Feisal, born May 20, 1885,  who is an ancestor of the present day King of Jordan.   He became King of the Arab Kingdom of Syria or Greater Syria in 1920, and was King  of Iraq from 23 August 1921 to 1933. He was a member of the Hashemite dynasty. On January 3, 1919 an agreement was reached between Emir Feisal, also the chief Arab delegate at the Paris Peace Conference and the son of King Hussein bin Ali, Sharif of  Mecca, the Grand Sharif of Mecca which means he was a descendant of Mohammad,  and Dr. Chaim Weizmann of the World Zionist Organization.  This is when he endorsed the  Balfour Declaration  and Palestine was recognized as a separate Jewish entity.  The Arab State would maintain diplomatic relations with them on condition  that Britain and France met the Arab demands in other territories.   The mandate the Britain held was to see to it that this was carried out.

The Mandate extended over both sides of the river Jordan.  Judea and Samaria had existed there.  As early as 1922 Britain divided the Mandated territory in half and established an Arab emirate in Trans-Jordan. Winston Churchill, then the British colonial secretary,  negotiated this in 1922.   This deprived the Jews of any rights to the land east of the river.  Then Britain made it forbidden to Jews to buy land or settle there as well, clearly against the Mandate rules.

At the same time, leaders of the Arab national movement were negotiating with Britain for the recognition of Arab national rights in the former territories of the Ottoman empire throughout the Middle East. Not only did Emir Feisal want to be king of a large piece of the empire but his brother, Abdullah did also.

 King Hussein of the Hejaz, Hussein bin Ali,  was born in 1853 in Istanbul as the eldest son of Sharif Ali ibn Muhammad and his wife, Salha Bani-Shahar. He was the last of the Hashemite rulers over the Hejaz to be appointed by the Ottoman Sultan. As a Hashemite, he was highly respected in the Islamic world. It was his "noble" lineage which granted him the status he maintained in the Hijaz. As a descendant of the Prophet Muhammad, even the British, during his period as Emir, recognized this special status. He wrote the following:

"We saw the Jews...streaming to Palestine from Russia, Germany, Austria, Spain, America...The cause of causes could not escape those who had the gift of deeper insight;  they knew that the country was for its original sons, for all their differences, a sacred and beloved homeland."  (Al Qibla, Mecca, #183, March 23, 1918;  George Antonius, Arab Awakening. p. 269)

The British were most ambivalent as to their policy.  At times they allowed Jewish immigration and at other times it was severely restricted and they prohibited Jews from even buying land at other times.  This was pre-holocaust era when European Jews needed to enter Palestine.  It meant life or death.

Today I see college history professors giving the Balfour Declaration a slight glance, telling students that it was not a serious document giving rights to the Jewish people which is completely incorrect.  All the nations, and they belonged to the League of Nations at that time, the precursor of the United Nations, had agreed that the Jews were to have this Homeland and to the land which was involved.  The Jews wound up with only 20% of the  original land promised because of the British finagling.

Chaim Weizmann, Zionist leader, had helped the British to win the war against the Ottoman empire in 1917-1918 with his organic chemical invention relating to the fermentation of acetone-butyl which improved the weaponry used by Britain.  Without it, no matter how many weapons were used, they could have lost the battle.

At any rate, Jewish political rights were restricted.  Arab objectors were often favored if not fostered.  Immigration of Jews were limited.  Jews went ahead anyway and founded new villages,  towns and cities, drained swamps, and planted forests.  Tel Aviv was expanded.  Arabs enjoyed the advantages they were receiving from all this.  However, by 1936 Arab rioting started in which was stimulated by the German and Italian Fascist governments who wanted to embarrass England in the Middle East.  Jews developing the country continued anyway without interruption.  The reaction of the British was to restrict immigration and the rights of Jews.  In the 1920s most of the Jews came from Eastern Europe.  In the 1930s, many Jews had escaped to Palestine from Nazi Germany.

By 1936 there were 384,000 Jews and 983,000 Arabs in Palestine. By 1948 the Yishuv numbered 650,000 Jews.  This was an awesome number as Moses had gone into Canaan with 600,000 men.   Had immigration been more open for Jews, the number would have been much higher.  Most of the Jews lived in the Tel Aviv area which is on the seacoast.  November 1947 was when Britain turned to the new United Nations who said to divide Palestine into independent Arab and Jewish states.  Jews said yes to their piece and Arabs said no and have been saying no ever since.  They won't settle for half; they want the whole piece.

Leaders of the Palestinians refused to recognize any Jewish national rights in the land and wanted complete Arab control over all.  They erupted into violence in 1920, 1921, 1929 and 1936-39 when 517 Jews were killed  in  terror attacks against Jewish villages and towns.  In 1929 they massacred 67 Jews in Hebron, destroyed their synagogues. Jews had lived there for 2,000 years.  The most influential Arab dissenter was the Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin al-Husseini.   During WWII, he joined up with the Nazis and spent the war years in Berlin.

Countries today created out of the Ottoman Empire include more than just all the Middle East countries.  Algeria, Bahrain, Cyprus, Djibouti, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Oman, Palestinian Territory, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkey, United Arab Republic and Yemen were part of the empire.  Arab countries occupy 640 times the land mass as does Israel.  The Arabs outnumber the Jewish state of Israel 50 to 1.  In the world of 6.7 billion people, 1.48 billion are Muslims.  That's 1/4 of the world population.  Jews number 12.9 million which is 0.2% of the world population.  Arabs aren't in any danger of being wiped out, except by each other.  Israel is a tiny but important state that must be recognized by the Arabs as having the right to exist in their ancient land.  

The Jews lived up to their part of the deal with the Balfour Declaration but the British did not.  Emir Feisal had also turned against the Jews, but not because of any action on their part.  Feisal Ibn Hussein  was the eldest son of Hussein, sherif of Mecca, Saudi Arabia.  He had led the uprising of Arabs against Turkey (Ottoman Empire) from 1916 to 1918.  He had been sympathetic to Zionism and hoped to receive help in building his future kingdom from the Jews this way.  Later, after meeting with Weizmann, he was expulsed in 1920 from Syria by the French, who also held the mandate on that part of the Ottoman Empire.  His brother, Abdullah, became King of Iraq on April 1,  1921, so he was rewarded right away by the British.  This Abdullah is the gggrandfather of the present day King of Jordan.  The other Palestinian leaders, influenced by the Germans, who the Ottoman Empire supported in WWI, then influenced Emir Feisal who turned against the Zionists.  Thanks to the French-British connection, all the good plans fell apart that had been reached by Weizmann and Feisal.

When Jordan attacked Israel in 1967, they kissed good-bye to their hold on Judea-Samaria and east Jerusalem.  They had lost that war along with all their Arab neighbors. Israel didn't kick out any Palestinians but Israelis felt freer to move to Judea and Samaria, holy places to Jews.  Since when do countries keep land when attacking another and losing?  Israel gained rights that they should have had in 1948 .  What would have happened to Israel if she had lost that war?  What was the purpose of the Arab's attack in 1967 if not to end Israel?  What is the purpose of the Palestinians not sitting down to make peace with Israel  for 65 years and establish their Palestine in an acceptable manner?

Resource: http://www.masada2000.org/historical.html excellent with maps
Facts About Israel 1973, division of information, Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Jerusalem
The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
http://www.kinghussein.gov.jo/his_transjordan.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_kings_of_Jordan
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ottoman_Empire
http://www.lookisrael.com/files/justbig.php
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hussein_bin_Ali,_Sharif_of_Mecca
http://www.jrtelegraph.com/2011/01/ruth-wisse-arabs-and-muslims-demand-6401-odds-over-jews.html by Ruth Wisse.  Ruth R. Wisse is Peretz Professor Yiddish Literature and Professor of Comparative Literature.