Found Lost Tribe of Israel Right in Israel Since 1950-52: Jewish Kurds

Nadene Goldfoot                                                                 

Beginning , in about 740 BCE, the Northern Kingdom of Israel was conquered by the Neo-Assyrian monarchs, Tiglath-Pileser III (Pul) and Shalmaneser V. 

By 722-721 BCE, nearly twenty years after the initial deportations, the ruling city of the Northern Kingdom of Israel, Samaria, was finally taken by Sargon II after a three-year siege started by Shalmaneser V.  The Assyrian Empire attacked Israel in 721 BCE and led most of the best of the 10 tribes of Israel off into captivity. Assyrian cuneiform states that 27,290 captives were taken from Samaria,  the capital of the Northern Kingdom of Israel, by the hand of Sargon II.

Some of them  wound up in Kurdistan long ago.  The Jews of Kurdistan migrated to Palestine during the past centuries, but the majority  fled to Israel together with the Iraqi Jewish in Operation Ezra and Operation Nehemiah during 1950 to 1952.  "It has been estimated that before the establishment of the State of Israel there were between 20,000 and 30,000 Jews living in Kurdistan."

The Jews had formed the Kingdom of Adiabene in northern Mesopotamia in the 1st century BCE.  It became an independent kingdom.  Their queen was Helena who was converted to Judaism in 30 CE with her sons, Kings Monobaz II and Izates, who supported the Jews during the war against the Romans from 66 to 70 CE.  The tombs of the Kings in Jerusalem was their burial place.

Later they just faded into obscurity only to reappear in the Middle Ages.  One of many accounts of the period about them was the story of David Alroy, a Jewish leader from Amadiyah in the 12th century who revolted against the Persian rulers and tried to recapture Jerusalem.
                                                                               

Many centuries later they were found to have lived as protected subjects of the Kurdish tribal chieftains called aghas and survived in the urban centers and villages in which they lived.
                                                                         

 Kurds are known to be the closest match to Jews by DNA.  "Scientists who participated in the research said the findings seem to indicate both peoples had common ancestors who lived in the northern half of the fertile crescent, where northern Iraq and Turkey are today. Some of them, it is assumed, wandered south in pre-historic times and settled on the eastern shores of the Mediterranean.--Professor Ariella Oppenheim and Dr. Marina Feirman, who carried out the research at the Hebrew University, said they were surprised to find a closer genetic connection between the Jews and the populations of the fertile crescent than between the Jews and their Arab neighbors.  "In the article by Nebel et al.  the authors show that Kurdish and Sephardi Jews have paternal genetic heritage indistinguishable. The study shows that mixtures between Kurdish Jews and their Muslim hosts are negligible and that Kurdish Jews are closer to other Jewish groups than to their long term host population. Mr. Hammer had already shown the strong correlation between the genetic heritage of Jews from North Africa with Kurdish Jews

According to Mordechai Zaken, Kurdistani Jews survived by supporting their tribal chieftains and village aghas in times of need the through financial contributions, occasional gifts, many services as well as taxes and dues in the form of commissions of their commercial and agricultural transactions.

For they  got protection and grant them patronage in the tribal arena.  Some wealthy Jewish merchants and leaders had to deal at times with the aghas who coveted their vineyards or other things and who took what they wanted.  It became a tribal tradition to live that way; protect the Jews who provided them with treats.

These Jews spoke a different language from the main Kurdish populace, and they knew that their ancestors came from Israel, but they still thought of themselves as Kurdish Jews.  That's why they finally returned home.

One interesting note:  According to 2nd Chronicles, Chapter 30, there is evidence that at least some people of the Northern Kingdom of Israel were not exiled. These were invited by king Hezekiah (720-692 BCE) to keep the Passover in a feast at Jerusalem with the Judean population.

However, Assyria had been conquered by Babylon, and Babylon had been conquered by the Medo-Persians.

"According to the Books of Chronicles chapter 9 line 3, the Israelites, who took part in The Return to Zion, are stated to be from the Tribe of Judah alongside the Tribe of Simeon that was absorbed into it, the Tribe of Benjamin, theTribe of Levi (Levites and Priests) alongside the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh, which according to the Book of Kings2 Chapter 7 were supposedly exiled by the Assyrians. (The Biblical scholars Umberto Cassuto and Elia Samuele Artom claimed these two tribes' names to be a reference to the remnant of all Ten Tribes that was not exiled and absorbed into the Judean population)."  Therefore, in Judah were the remnant of some of the other lost tribes.  Not all had been taken and lost.  

"There are not many female rabbis in the Jewish history. The first known female rabbi in the history is Asenath Barzanî, a Kurdish woman from South Kurdistan."

Asenath Barzanî was born in 1590. She was the daughter of the Rabbi of the Jews in the south Kurdistan Samuel Barzanî, who trained his daughter and taught her the mystic secrets of Judaism which he never revealed to anyone.	File photo
According to the historians, Asenath Barzanî wrote in his biography: “During my entire life I did not step out of the house. I was the daughter of the King of Israel. I was educated by rabbis. My father was focusing too much on me that he did not teach me any art or handicraft but divinity.”

Resource: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurds
The Standard  Jewish Encyclopedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assyrian_captivity_of_Israel
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/study-finds-close-genetic-connection-between-jews-kurds-1.75273
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetic_studies_on_Jews
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0012_0_11698.html
http://www.ekurd.net/mismas/articles/misc2010/9/state4196.htm

The Assyrians Who Carried Away the 10 Tribes of Israel

                                                                         

The Assyrians attacked Israel and took away 10 of the 12 tribes of Jacob in 721 BCE.  Who were they?  Where did they come from?  Are they the Syrians of today?   That was 2,734 years ago.

They were also a Semitic people, just like the Jews who lived in Israel.   They were from the northern area of Mesopotamia (Iraq) , which was the land between the  Tigris and Euphrates Rivers and were centered at the city-state of Ashur, which is now the Saladin Province of Iraq.  Nineveh was also one of their major cities.  It was originally one of a number of Akkadian city states in Mesopotamia.  Once it had been a great power.  .   The Assyrians tried to create their own empire. They lasted for about 15 centuries.    They were stopped by the Babylonian king, Hammurabi, who ruled from Babylon from 1728 to 1686 BCE.  So we can say that Assyria was Iraq.

The Asiatic Hurrians (Mitanni) invaded Assyria, but they were overcome by the Hittite Empire that had been growing in strength.  However, the Hittites gave up control of Ashur because it was far away from their center, so gave the Assyrians their  independence in c 1400. BCE.

The successes of King David (1010-970 BCE) and his son, King Solomon (961-920 BCE) against the Aramean states in Mesopotamia and Syria probably helped Assyria's recovery.    Damascus was taken in 806 BCE which freed Israel from Damascus' control. Damascus was the capital of Syria and still is.  It had a Jewish connection since the days of King David  in whose realm it was comprised.  It was the capital of Aram-Dammesek which was important in the days of the kings of Israel and was either a friend or a foe of Israel in different periods. A lot of Jews lived in Damascus during King Herod's reign.  He had built a theater and a gymnasium there.  When the Jews revolted against Rome starting in 67 CE, many Jews were killed in Damascus.  

By 745-727 BCE, a leader named Tiglath-Pileser III tried to renew another period of Assyrian expansion.  At least 13 states came under their domination:  Uratu, Persia, Media, Mannea, Babylonia, Arabia, Phoenicia,  Nabateaa, Chaldea, Cyprus, Moab, Edom and the Neo-Hittites.

He became king of Babylon and the Assyrian empire now stretched from the Caucasus Mountains to Arabia and from the Caspian Sea to Cyprus.  Tiglath-Pileser III had organized the Assyrian army into a first rate professional fighting force.  He also improved the administration of his empire and set the example for others that followed him.  He introduced Eastern Aramaic is their own language.

Shalmaneser V (726-723 BCE) ruled after him for a short while and consolidated their power and stopped the Egyptian attempts to get a foothold in the Middle East by defeating and driving out Pharaoh Piye from the area.  He is even mentioned in the Biblical sources as having conquered the Samaritans and being responsible for deporting the 10 Lost Tribes of Israel to Assyria. His attack on Samaria, the capital of Israel, was a siege.   He took 27,290 Israelites to Assyria and Media and replaced them with  Syrian and Babylonian prisoners.  

Sargon II (722-705 BCE) kept the empire going.  He also drove out the Cimmerians and Scythians from Iran as they had invaded and attacked the Persians and Medes, which were now vassals of Assyria.   Israel fell to them in 721 BCE.  Mannea, Cilicia Cappadocia and Commagene were also conquered.  They ravaged the Uratuwas, and Babylon, Aram, Phoenicia, Israel, and Arabia.  Cyprus and Midas (King of Phygia) were all  forced to pay tribute.

Sargon's stele (pillar)  has been found as far west as Lamaca in Cyprus (found in 1845  It was their way to brag about their accomplishments.  

• "Introduction of Sargon, with royal titles and as the protégé of the gods"—paragraph 2.
• "Summary of the military successes: the subjugation of the Babylonian cities; the rule over all people between the Upper Sea and the Lower Sea; the victories against Elam, in Iran and inHatti; the humiliation of Urzana of Musasir and Rusa of Urartu; the defeat of Hamath"—paragraph 3.

 He conquered Gurgum, Milid, the Georgian state of Tabal, and all the Hittite kingdoms of the Taurus Mountains.

Egypt tried again to gain a foothold by supporting Israel's rebellion against the empire, but Sargon II crushed the uprising, and Piye was routed and driven back over the Sinai.  Sargon II was killed in 705 BCE while on a punitive raid against the Cimmerians, and Sennacherib succeeded him.

Sennacherib, king of Assyria from 705-681 BCE, Sargon's son,  was marching south and took the Phoenician cities one by one, defeated the Egyptians at Eltekeh in 701, took Ascalon and Joppa and 44 other cities and many prisoners, sacked Lachish and Jerusalem in 700 and ravaged Judah but didn't take it.  King Hezekiah of Judah was able to hold out and got some moderate terms of agreement by paying tribute and ceding some territory.  Sennacherib had to then leave as a plague hit his army.

Babylonia took  Judah finally in 597 and 586 BCE which was 100 years later.  This land is the scene of the Tower of Babel, also known as the land of Shinar or the Kasdim (Chaldees.).  Abraham was born in Ur of the Chaldeans but migrated to Canaan to live.  It was the symbol of insolent pagan tyranny.  The Babylonian Nebuchadnezzar II (604-561 BCE) inherited the Assyrian empire and took Judah in 597 BCE and again in 586 BCE.  He also exiled many Jews to Babylon,  for slavery,  most likely.   They probably came in contact with their previous Jewish tribal cousins of the captured 10 tribes.    Cyrus II (d: 529 BCE) king of Persia, had overrun the Babylonian Empire and took what had been Israel and Judah.  He  told the Jews when he conquered the land in 538 BCE  that they could return to their homes and even told them to rebuild their temple when they got there.   The Jews thought he was Divine!

What are these Semites that are Jews and Assyrians?  Our story is that Shem was one of the 3 sons of Noah, and the nations of Elam, Asshur, Arpachshad and Aram came from Shem.  Arpachshad was  father of Eber and ancestor of Abraham.  People that speak languages similar to Hebrew are called Semitic people and their languages are Semitic languages.  For example, Arabic is very similar to Hebrew.  It is called a cognate (related by descent from the same ancestral language) to Hebrew and is a branch of the Semitic languages.  There are many words that are exactly alike, and many that are almost exactly alike.  Shalom and Salaam are good examples, meaning hello, good-by and peace.  Since Ishmael and Esau were descendants of Abraham and forerunners of the Arabs, and Jews are also from Abraham and we both have Semitic languages, we say we are distant cousins.  We even share DNA that is very similar in that there is the haplogroup called the Cohen gene of J1c3d found in many Jews who are actually Cohens in the synagogue.  It's also found in some Arabs with a slight difference in it's title at the end showing it is a branch, but also labeled as J1c3d.   This should be the genes going back to Abraham and Noah.

Resource:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assyria
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sargon_Stele

Who Were the Samaritans of the "West Bank?"

Nablus, 2007 in the shuk and its candy display

Whatever Happened to Israel=Kingdom of Samaria?

Nadene Goldfoot
We know that the West Bank is really the ancient site of Judea and Samaria.  What were they?
Israel was the first and only state created by King Saul in the 11th century BCE, and after him governed by King David and then his son, King Solomon.

The empire of Judah split off from the empire of Israel and was the southerly of the two kingdoms in 933 BCE. after the death of King Solomon.  It was made up of the tribe of Judah, most of Benjamin and it is thought to also had absorbed the tribe of Simeon which was isolated in the extreme south.  Judah was the poor state as they had no access to the sea which was the trade route.  It never got involved with international problems and people there led a more tranquil life.  It included the city of Jerusalem and the Temple, so preserved Mosaic monotheism in a purer form.

Israel, the northern state,  was sometimes called the kingdom of Samaria after the city which became its capital in about 890 BCE.  The tribes left there were from Manasseh, Issachar, Zebulun, Naphtali, Asser, Dan, and living in what is now known as Transjordan were the tribes of Reuben, Gad and part of Manasseh.  Israel was much larger than Judah.  In its 210 years it had 19 kings of 9 dynasties.  10 died in violence and 7 ruled for less than 2 years.

When Israel and Judah separated, the ancient city of Shechem, today renamed Nablus,  which was connected to Israel, became the religious center of the Northern Kingdom.  The political capital was transferred by King Omri to his newly built city of Samaria about 883 BCE.  The Israelite kingdom continued to exist until it fell before Assyria.

Samaria, the former Israel and also the city,  was attacked by the Assyrians in 722 BCE.  The King of Assyria, Shalmaneser besieged it and at the end of 3 years they were able to take it. He died one year before it was taken in 723 BCE, so the city actually fell to Sargon who carried away 27,290 people.  The people taken away were the more prominent and dangerous, the rich, the priests, and the ruling class.   The people were deported to various parts of Assyria and to the cities of the Medes.  Colonists, which were Cutheans (a member of a group of people of ancient Babylonia who were sent as colonists to Samaria),  were sent to take their place.  The colonists were soon troubled by lions in the district which they thought were divine visitations due to their ignorance of the manner of the god of the land.  They sent for an Israelite priest and settled at Beth-el, with the result that a mixed form of religion was established, partly Israeli (Jewish) and partly idolatrous brought in by the colonists.  In 720 Syria again united against the common enemy and a fresh campaign began.  The political existence of Samaria came to an end.  Only Hosea and Amos, biblical prophets, worked in the Northern kingdom of Samaria.  Elijah and Elisha tried to check idolatry and social injustice when they saw it.

Today, the name only refers to a small group of people living in Nablus (Shechem) and they called themselves “Bene Ysirael” or “Shomreem.”  The people of Samaria were thought of as the remnant of Israel.

A man named Josiah kept the people away from high places and collected money to repair the Temple from the tribes of Manasseh and Ephraim and of the remnant of Israel.  Later, their claim to participate in the building of the Temple was rejected by Zerubbabel because of their mixed origin.

Sargon sent colonists to Samaria from many cities of Babylonia as a precautionary measure.  There happened to be 3 importations of foreigners by Sargon, Esar-haddon, and by Assurbanipal.  They occupied the site of the defunet kingdom of Israel, then called Samaritan, consisting of the poorer Israelites and other aliens ruled over by an Assyrian governor.  It was deprived of its priestly caste so had to ask for the services of a priest.

Samaria later found itself governed by a Persian strap.  It became the natural refuge for all who were dissatisfied with the reforms taking place in Jerusalem.  The priest, Manasseh, was a malcontent.  the governor of Samaria under Darius was Sanballat.  His daughter was married to Manasseh, the son of the high priest at Jerusalem.  Because he had married a foreigner, Manasseh was expelled by Nehemiah and so settled in Samaria in about 430 BCE.  It must have been Manasseh who fixed the Israelite character of the Samaritan's religion.

A century later in 332 BCE, Alexander the Great gave permission to build a Temple on the holy hill of Gerizim, near Shechem.  This became the center of Samaritan worship.  The Temple was in existence for about 200 years when it was destroyed.  Samaria was then occupied by John Hyrcanus.  Mt. Gerizim was sacred to the Samaritans because the idols of Laban were buried there.  The Samaritans used to light beacon-fires to deceive the Jews as to the appearance of the new moon.  Usually they sided against the Jews and with their enemies.  The country passed into the hands of the Romans around 135 BCE and Samaria was rebuilt and embellished by Herod.  His wife, Mariamne was a Samaritan.  The city of Shechem was occupied by the Romans, who called it Flavia Neapolis, where the name of Nablus comes from.

Judea of the south, the newer state, and Samaria , the older state, in reality, Israel of the north, were the Jewish homeland.  This is where Jacob's 12 sons, who created the 12 tribes of Israel had lived.  This is where Moses had led the 600,000  Jews on the exodus.  This is what the Arabs are depriving us of, our own homeland in their zeal to create their  Palestine that they have talked about for the past 65 years. Israel or Samaria had Shechem/Nablus and Judea had Jerusalem as their religious centers.  The Samaritans were not considered true Jews as they had created such a mixed religion.

Http:///.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=110&letter=S     From 2009
The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia

Jews: What Happened to Them After King Saul of Israel

Nadene Goldfoot
Saul,  of the Tribe of Benjamin,  was chosen  to be the first  king of Israel (about 1020-1004 BCE..  David, from the tribe of Judah,  was the next king and founded a dynasty of  4 hundred years until the Babylonian conquest.  He had created a kingdom and made Jerusalem its capital (abt 1,000 BCE).  Solomon, his son,  (965-928 BCE) caused the kingdom to become an important power in the Middle East.  He built the First Temple (960 BCE).  During his reign Hazor, Megiddo and Gezer were founded.

Solomon died and the kingdom split into two:  Judah with the capital in Jerusalem under King David's descendants and Israel which continued with the original name and its half with a new capital in Samaria, ruled by a series of dynasties. Their first king was Jeroboam, from the tribe of Ephraim (933-912 BCE).

Israel came to an end in 722 BCE when Assyria conquered it and part of the population was exiled.  Sargon II was the conqueror who resettled it with Cutheans (idolaters, possibly of Assyrian people)  who intermingled with the remnants of the Israelites.  They had converted but retained their idol worship and finally Jews were not allowed to marry them.  The capital, Samaria, became a center in the Persian period and became a Macedonian colony in 331 BCE.  It became a village in the Arab period.

The Samaritans are probably the descendants of the remnant of Ephraim or Manasseh tribes and the non-Israelite colonists brought in and live today as a small ethnic group and separate religious sect in Nablus and in Israel. Their religion is a primitive form of Judaism but their bible is only the Pentateuch with variations.  To them, the sanctuary is Mt. Gerizim.

Judah was conquered in 586 BCE by the Babylonians who destroyed the First Temple.  A large part of the population was exiled to Babylon (Iraq today) and others fled to Egypt.  Large Jewish communities had existed since that time in both Israel and Judah until before 1917 when they dwindled.
The prophets existed during this 500 year period.  Their message basically was the struggle for social justice.
_______________________________________________________________________________
The Babylonian Empire was finally overthrown by the Persians (Iran) so the land of Israel was also under Persian rule.  King Cyrus of Persia allowed the Jews to return to the Land and rebuild the Temple (538 BCE).  Jews then lived in their land autonomously for 400 years under the Persians.

After 332 BCE Jews were under Hellanistic rule.  In 168 BCE the Hellenistic ruler of Syria, Antiochus Epiphanes IV tried to limit Jewish autonomy and replace monotheistic belief with idolatry.  The Jews revolted under the leadership of a Hasmonaean family and regained their independence.  It's thought that the Hasmonaeans were of the tribe of Levi.  They ruled Judah.  Herodian then ruled after that.

By 63 BCE the kingdom was part of the Roman Empire.  Herod  ruled and he was responsible for the reconstruction of the Temple. Herod was the son of Antipater the Idumean  and his wife, a Nabatean named Cypros.  He had been appointed by his father to be the governor of Galilee.  He was appointed king of Judea by the Roman senate and had captured Jerusalem in 37 CE with the help of the Romans.  Idumean or Edom was a country in SE Eretz Israel, also called Mount Seir.  It lay south of the Dead Sea and bordered the Red Sea at Elat.  The people were of Semitic origin, descendants of Esau and lived by  hunting.  They were traditional enemies of Israelites.  They fought Saul but were defeated by David.  They were conquered by John Hyreanus who forcibly converted them to Judaism, and then they became a part of the Jewish people.  Herod was one of their descendants.  John Hyreanus was the son of Simon the Hasmonean (135-104 BCE)  who beat Ptolemy in taking Jerusalem.

Jerusalem became an important metropolis with about 200,000 people.  Herod died in 4 BCE.  Romans tightened their rule.  In 66 CE Jews revolted against the Romans until 70 CE when the Romans destroyed Jerusalem and the 2nd Temple.  In 73 CE, Masada, the last Jewish fortress was taken by the Romans.   At this time the Jewish population was about 3 million.

Bar Kokhba was a leader who revolted against the Roman Empire and died in 135 CE in the revolt against Hadrian.  He was a descendant of King David.  Letters written by him were discovered near the Dead Sea.  The Romans had been rebuilding Jerusalem as a Roman colony and they were prohibiting circumcision.  There were 580,000 Jewish casualties in this revolt.  Many others died of hunger and disease.  Judah fell into desolation.  Jerusalem was then barred to Jews.  The revolt lasted over 3 years involving the best of the Roman forces.

Then many Jews were driven into exile and large Jewish communities emerged in other Middle East countries and beyond. They wandered as far as Saudi Arabia where whole Jewish tribes were forced to convert to Islam or be killed.  Jewish communities were founded all over the Middle East.and came to be known as the Sephardi Jews as contrasted by the Ashkenazi Jews who wandered farther into Europe.

 Jews had originally entered the land of Canaan with Moses (1391-1271 BCE) and consisted of the children of the 12 sons of Jacob, his 2 wives who were sisters (Leah and Rachel) and their 2 handmaids (Zilpah and Bilhah)  who had founded their own tribes.  Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Zebulun, Joseph, Benjamin, Gad, Asher, Dan and Naphtali.  Judah was always the largest of the tribes.  Jews think of themselves as being either Cohens, Levites or Israelites.  Today with the development of DNA studies, the Cohen gene (haplogroup J1)  has been found. The interesting factor is that most of these people are also functioning as the Cohen in their synagogue, showing why this is called the Cohen gene.  This is an inherited position in the synagogue that comes with certain responsibilities, namely being called as the first reader from the Torah on Saturday (Shabbat).  It shows that oral history has passed down correctly for 2,000 years.  Another J1 line is the J1c3d which is is thought to come from Arabs and originating from Esau, Isaac's half brother.  This branch does not reflect many Jews but is a Semitic line.

We must remember that Abraham and his father, Terah, left Ur (Iraq) to establish a monotheistic religion. If Abraham and his father were J1....they left ancestors and relatives in Ur who also went on to establish more individuals who would have spread J1...  Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were the 3 who would have continued the Jewish or Cohen J1  Y haplogroup.  Branches of families have been found, such as the Cohen J1c, J2a1b, J2a4 and the other Semitic J1 such as J1c3d who today are Muslims. Also, Jews have been scattered all over the earth, especially in the Middle East.  No wonder we are finding similar Ydna among Jewish and non-Jews.

Resource:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tribe_of_Benjamin.
Facts About Israel from division of information ministry for foreign affairs, Jerusalem
The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeroboam
http://www.myjewishlearning.com/texts/Bible/Origins_of_the_Bible/Other_Ancient_Texts/Books_of_Maccabees/First_Maccabees.shtml
http://www.schechter.edu/AskTheRabbi.aspx?ID=477 Cutheans
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Victar/Haplogroup_J1c3d_(Y-DNA)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk%3AHaplogroup_J1c3d_(Y-DNA)
http://kahana.hubpages.com/hub/More-on-the-Kohanim-DNA-Question

JEWISH YEAR OF 5772-5773: Our History Back There With Persia (Iran)

Nadene Goldfoot                                                              

Update:
I wrote this article in 2012 for our Jewish New Year, and the leading problem then for Israel was IRAN.  Today, June 7, 2018, it is still the same problem, only this time Iran is in control of Syria and the Hamas terrorists of Gaza causing rockets to be fired into the Golan and the fields of Israel to be burned by kites on fire floating across the fence between Gaza and Israel.  

Ahmadinejad is no Cyrus the Great.  He's the big bully in the schoolyard that pokes fun at the little kid with glasses, calls him every name under the sun including throwing rocks at him, then runs home to Mama to say that the skinny little kid started it all.

In 2005 Ahmadinejad called Israel a tumor and a cancer, and now a vampire, just three of hundreds of derogatory names.  He has threatened Israel verbally and physically with an atomic wipe-out by building  secretive atomic facilities  and the threats to go with it like-"we'll wipe you out". He supplies the very people who attack Israel with weapons.   On Yom Kippur he told the whole General Assembly how bad Israel was and how they deserve such an end, which will come very soon.  It's as plain as day; Iran has been threatening Israel with total destruction while all along continues to build atomic facilities to manufacture such weapons.  He is using the UN to "spout paranoid theories and repulsive slurs against Israel"
                                                                           

Blowing the Shofar on Yom Kippur
During the synagogue service and at the end of this Day of Atonement

At least the USA had the good sense to not attend and listen today, on Yom Kippur, the most  solemn holy day for Jews when they ask G-d for forgiveness of their sins and are repenting. The USA didn't listen to his rhetoric along with Israel.  Others walked out on him.  Most of Europe sat and listened to Mr. A say that Israel would soon be eliminated.
                                                                               

Netanyahu reminded people that history shows that those who wanted to wipe us off the map failed and that the Jewish people overcame all obstacles.  Israel's goal is to prevent Iran from achieving nuclear weaponry.  Netanyahu's role is not to let the Holocaust happen again and have the 6 million Jews of Israel incinerated a second time.  You see, we've been burned once, and are not about to stick our finger into the fire again.  We know what can happen.  

Ahmadinejad, a man who just might have a few segments of Jewish genes himself, seems to know very little history of his own country, thinking it's been around since the mammoths 10,000 years ago.  Jews have been in existence right along with them since it was Abraham, (2nd millinium BCE)  a citizen of Ur "Iraq"  who created monotheism and is father of the Jewish people. Yet Mr. A tells his people that Jews have only been in the Middle East for the past 60 years.  We're like the swallows of Capistrano, Mr. A.  We're returned home to those who never left.  I doubt if history books are allowed in Iran, so it's possible his people wind up swallowing his lies.
                     

David

                                                             

Solomon

We'll skip to about a thousand years later to the Jewish King Solomon (961-920 BCE)  who built the first Temple in Jerusalem. His father was King David who developed Jerusalem.

Along Came the Assyrians

Hoshea of Israel in 726 BCE, last ruler of Israel,  tried to throw off the yoke  that led  to Assyria's King Shalmaneser V's siege of Samaria and his imprisonment and its capture in 721 BCE by his successor, Sargon, king of Assyria (721-712 BCE).  .  Sargon annexed the country and deported 27,290 Israelites to Assyria and Media who cooperated with the Babylonians in the 6th century BCE and replaced them with Syrian and Babylonian prisoners.  Manasseh of Judah was exiled to Assyria in 652 BCE.  Then Assyria declined quickly and was succeeded by Babylon.  Sargon was assassinated.  Sennacherib took over.
                                                                           

Then Came the Babylonians

  Nebuchadnezzar (634-562 BCE) exiled the Jews of the ancient kingdom of Judah to Babylon in the 6th century BCE.  The first time was in 597 BCE when they sacked the Temple and took many of the leading men.  Babylon was dependent on Assyria.  Nebuchadnezzar had attacked Egypt in 601 BCE which led to rebellions, including Judah and that's how he captured Jerusalem and kicked out King Jehoiakim, afterwards destroying the city and temple and deporting not only the best of the men but other prominent citizens and parts of the Jewish population of Judea to Babylon.
                                                                     

Persians in the Act                

Cyrus II of Persia (Iran) lived around 600 BCE to 530 BCE and was the founder of the Achaemenid Empire, creating the largest empire the world had yet seen.  He only reigned for 29 to 31 years, but respected the customs and religions of the lands he conquered.  He set the model for centralized administration and a working government to the advantage and profit of its subjects.  The Jews called him the "anointed of the lord" or the Messiah".

He is remembered for his achievements in human rights, politics, military strategy, and his influence on both Eastern and Western civilizations.  He came from Persis, which would be the modern day Iranian province of Fars.  His influence even went as far as to Athens, where they enjoyed a reciprocal cultural exchange.

Cyrus overthrew Babylonia in 537 BCE.  He allowed the Jews to return to their native land.  More than 40,000 returned.  Previous Assyrian and Babylonian rulers had not allowed the monotheistic Judaism to exist, but he did.  He even ordered the rebuilding of the 2nd Temple in the same place as the first, but died before it was finished.  Darius the Great, his replacement, saw that it was finished.  It was ready for consecration in the spring of 515 BCE, more than 20 years after the Jews' return to Jerusalem.
                                                                               

We know from the book of Esther that Haman, the forerunner of Hitler and Ahmadinejad,  was an Agagite noble and vizier under the Persian King Ahassurerus, known to the general public as Xerxes the Great (son of Darius the Great) in the 6th century BCE.  Haman and his wife, Zeresh, instigated a plot to kill all the Jews of Persia, and it was a huge empire then.  They might have well said the whole world.  The plan was stopped by the beautiful Queen Esther, who was married to the king. She and her uncle Mordecai were Benjamites.   Haman and his 10 sons were hung as a result.  Jews have celebrated every year since then with their happy holiday of Purim.  At that time, there were lots of Jews living right in the capital of Shushan.

But today there are very few left.  Many have immigrated to Israel, the USA and abroad.  About 30 some years ago a group of Jewish lads escaped out of the country on camels.  A few were shot.  It had become irrepressible to be a Jew and live in freedom in Iran.  In 1989 there were only 20,000 remaining there.

Ahmadinejad seems to love to stick it to Israel as to what horrors will happen to them, definitely mental cruelty.    He should be told about what happened in Queen Esther's day.  He wants to be the big shot and get rid of all the Jews and Israel so that Israel can become a totally  Islamic land.  Then he'll be the big savior to all the Middle Eastern Muslims and have the Western powers at his knees as dhminnis states.  They just might be next on his list.  Well, Haman probably had the same scheme.  He didn't get very far. Since Israel has combated his threats with warnings of taking out their atomic plant, he is sure yelling about it, just like the bully on the playground in the UN today.
                                                                               

Queen Esther and her son, King Darius

It's interesting that the 50-60 million Pashtuns of Afghanistan,  Pakistan and India claim descent from the tribe of Benjamin, Queen Esther's tribe and the other lost 10 tribes,  and that their respected countries are very close to Iran.  In fact, the Pashtun language has some Persian qualities in it as it belongs to an eastern Iranian language group from Avestan, the oldest preserved Iranian group, maybe from Queen Esther's day.    Their people are  fair-skinned and the men are outstanding fighters known for their good looks and height.  It could be that they were right there in the city of Shushan right along with Queen Esther and Mordecai, but had become  the Lost 10 Tribes of Israel later.

Book:  The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nebuchadnezzar_II
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyrus_the_great
httP://news.yahoo.com/netanyahu-promises-tough-response-ahmadinejad-181532401.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahmoud_Ahmadinejad_and_Israel
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/ahmadinejad-tells-un-uncivilized-zionists-are-threat-to-iran-us-boycotts-address/2012/09/26/738d12a6-0800-11e2-a10c-fa5a255a9258_story.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pashto_language
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FhaUVmYBXD0  Netanyahu's speech today at General Assembly