Why Hezbollah is a Terrorist Organization

Nadene Goldfoot
Hezbollah is not a part of Lebanon's government.  They are supported by Iran and Syria.  After 1982 when Israel had to go into Lebanon to stop the PLO who were stationed there and had been blasting Northern Israel with rockets, the Iranian Revolutionary Guards stepped in and took these Shi'a Islamic militants that wanted to fight and trained them. Hezbollah has pretty much  taken over Lebanon, however.

In 2006, Hezbollah shot 4,000 rockets into Israel when they had a war that lasted for a month.  They had the range of 45 miles.  More than 24 cities were hit.  900 rockets landed in urban areas.  43 Israeli citizens were killed and 2,015 were injured.  Haifa suffered from 54 rockets that hit causing 16 deaths.  Karmiel, which is settled mainly by American Jews, suffered from 176 rockets. Kiryat Shmona, the city I drove to from Safed because they had a department store that reminded me of Meir & Frank, was hit by over 1,000 rockets.They were close to the border.   My city of Safed (Tzfat), which is on top of a mountain,  was hit by 471 rockets and Nitzan Rubin died from it.   July 13: Nitzan Rubin, 33, died from wounds sustained during the  Hezbollah rocket attack.  Tiberias, which is below the mountain,  was hit with 81 rockets.   The UN brought out a peacekeeping force, but it is thought that Hezbollah had stockpiled more, possibly 28,000 rockets since then.

By 2008 they were shooting Iranian rockets with the range of 185 miles, which would be able to hit Dimona.  This has all been done with the backing of Iran. By "early March, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon reported Israeli claims that Hezbollah's arsenal includes 10,000 long-range rockets and 20,000 short-range rockets in southern Lebanon."  At the same time, Hamas from Gaza was raining down rockets and by 2008 had killed 13 Israelis that way.  Hamas even then had strong ties with Iran.

The Lebanese army has been working against Hezbollah.  On December 11, 2011 a rocket was shot only 6 miles from the border towards Israel but hit a Lebanese home in Hula and injured the woman inside. The next year on November 20, 2012, "A Lebanese army patrol discovered two ready-to-launch 107mm Grad rockets between the villages of Halta and Mari, about 2 miles from the Israeli border. The forces defused the rockets. IDF official Brig. Gen. Yoav Mordechai said Palestinian factions in Lebanon were probably behind the plot."  It's figured they were Hezbollahs being they were in Lebanon.  The next day "Two rockets fired from Lebanon at Israel landed within Lebanon, according to Beirut officials." The terrorists didn't give up.  The very next day "The Lebanese army disarmed an additional rocket aimed at Israel, in Marjayoun, again, about 6 miles or 10 kilometers from the border."  

Last July,  5 Israeli tourists were killed in a bus that was bombed in Burgas, Bulgaria, a Black Sea resort.  It was Hezbollah who were the terrorists.  They had a suicide bomber planted on that bus.  The bus driver was also killed in the explosion.

Tel Aviv was threatened by Lebanon's Shiek Hassan Nasrallah in 2012's battle with Gaza after a cease fire was declared.   Hezbollah had fired a Fajr-5 rocket then, and the threat is of thousands of them landing on Tel Aviv.  He was speaking to a crowd of thousands "attending an annual Shiite commemoration of the 7th-century death of Imam Hussein, the Prophet Muhammad’s grandson." Lebanon is populated by half Sunni and half Shi'a Muslims..  Hezbollah also threatens to invade Israel's Galilee since they sit on the border. This would be the cities of  Haifa, Acre, Safed, Tiberias and Nazareth  while at other times have threatened cities from Kiryat Shimona to Eilat, which is the whole length of Israel.  The message is that if Israel hits Iran's site where they are making uranium for atomic weaponry, Hezbollah will hit Israel with about 60,000 missiles and rockets and can now reach the whole country.

Israel has repeatedly asked countries to brand Hezbollah a terror organization.  The US and Canada have agreed.  The European Union has not  and they have taken no action to do so.  Evidently it takes more for the Europeans to learn about the true character of Hezbollah.

 Israel is not going to attack Hezbollah for the Bulgarian bus attack of last summer.  "When Israel acts, it is in order to prevent a security threat, to prevent a concrete attack.  It is not in order to punish," said Boaz Ganor, Israel's counter-terrorism expert.

Resource: Oregonian newspaper, 2/6/13,  page A5, report blames Hezbollah for bombing.
 http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/world/2008-03-27-israel-hezbollah_N.htm
http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/israel-seen-unlikely-to-respond-militarily-after-bulgaria-implicates-hezbollah-in-attack/2013/02/05/0d7bce2e-6fd6-11e2-b3f3-b263d708ca37_story.html
http://www.theisraelproject.org/site/c.hsJPK0PIJpH/b.2905175/k.B69E/Background_Israeli_Cities_Affected_by_Rocket_Attacks.htm
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2012/11/25/thousands-of-rockets-will-fall-on-tel-aviv-hezbollah-issues-chilling-warning-to-israel/
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2012/10/02/hezbollah-threatens-to-invade-israel%e2%80%99s-galilee-and-offers-interactive-infographic-on-how-it-plans-to-do-it/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hezbollah

Keeping Score on Muslim Adversaries

Nadene Goldfoot
It's hard to keep up with what Muslim faction is either friendly or enemies with other Muslims.  One big player is the Muslim state of Iran who happens to follow the Shi'a -Jafari Muslim path. They happen to have the 6th largest Muslim population in the world with more than 98% of  their 76,923,300 people.

 Some people from Pakistan, Turkey, Afghanistan, Yemen, Syria,  Azerbaijan Lebanon, Kuwait and Bahrain have players that are either Shi'a or Sunni.  The rest of the states follow the Sunni traditions. The state religion of Egypt's 90% of a population of 79,089,650, the 5th largest Muslim population in the world, are Sunni following the Shafi'i teachings.

President Morsi went to Iran in August of last year for a summit of the Non-Aligned Movement.  So it's news that Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad just came to Cairo, Egypt on a visit.  It's a first since the 1979 revolution,when Iran's secular Shah was replaced by the religious Ayatollah Khomeini.   Morsi and Ahmadinejad smiled, shook hands and kissed, probably because of Egypt electing a Muslim Brotherhood leader.   Ahmadinejad will meet today with the Grand Sheikh of the al-Azhar Mosque which is 1,000 years old,. one of the oldest seats of Islamic learning in the Sunni world.  Last month, Iran's foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi met the sheikh and stressed the importance of Muslim unity.

 Iran and Iraq had a war from September 22, 1980 to August 20, 1988 called the First Persian Gulf War,  so peace is not always the mode between Shi'a and Sunni Muslims.  They had some hot and heavy disputes over their borders. The attacker that time was Iraq.  Syria's ruler is not hesitant to kill its own people and neither has Iraq who gassed its Kurdish citizens on March 16, 1988 when they gassed and killed from 3,200 to 5,000 people and injured from 7,000 to 10,000.  They used bombs with chemicals.  .The idea of Iran being able to manufacture atomic weapons is making Saudi Arabia very nervous.  They are the 14th largest Sunni population with 27,601,038 people that follow Sunni's Hanbali teachings.  .  

For the past 30 years Israel and Egypt have been at peace which was started by Sadat.  Now, it looks like the only thing holding it together is the $1.3 billion in aid each year from the USA for the Egyptian military.  Morsi's government stands for wiping out Israel being that's the Muslim Brotherhood charter's goal.  They've established close ties with Hamas which is backed by Iran.  Hamas also shares that goal.  Egypt is lacking money, so that might be their first priority.

Ahmadinejad came to Cairo for Wednesday's Islamic summit.  Besides wanting to be the first astronaut in Iran, Ahmadinejad wants to visit the Gaza Strip to visit with the people on this trip.  Iran is backing Hamas financially and with weapons.   In November of last year Iran was preparing a shipment of missiles for Gaza at the same time a cease fire took place.  Sudan has been a transit site for Iranian arms to get to Gaza. They've been aiding and abetting terrorism.

One thing that bothers Egypt is Iran's support for President Bashar Assad of Syria.  An uprising that crushed the former President Mubarak and put Morsi into power is being crushed by Assad to the tune of killing 60,000 revolutionaries..  Though Egypt's revolt caused Morsi to be elected, the people are now having a change of heart and have been rebelling against him after just realizing what Sharia law is all about.  Christians are under attack.

Morsi's Egypt also maintains good relations with Gulf Arab states that supplement Cairo's finances and they are not that friendly with Iran.  Morsi also wants to remain friends with the USA in order to continue receiving their financial aid.

Hamas and Egypt have established close ties with each other that makes Iran happy but not the West as Hamas had been shooting rockets, mortars and missiles at southern Israel since 2006 and only recently stopped when Israel finally retaliated but good.  It would be a bad move if Egypt restores full relations with Iran now, the state that calls Israelis descendants of monkeys and pigs.  You can laugh off children's name calling of each other, but when a Muslim adult does it, you take their threats quite seriously.

Shi'a and Sunni are followers of different leaders.  Muhammad had a daughter, Fatima, but no son to take his place when he died, so the Shi'a are followers of his son-in-law who also happened to be his nephew.  Sunnis are followers of  Muhammad's good friend, Abu Bakr. "The fundamentals of the Islamic faith are agreed upon by all Muslims. These fundamentals include the belief in the oneness of God, the role of the Prophet Muhammad as his final messenger, prayer, the requirement to perform Hajj once in one's lifetime, and the requirement to give to charity."

Resource: http://www.jpost.com/LandedPages/PrintArticle.aspx?id=302186# Iran's Ahmadinejad lands in Egypt on historic visit by  Reuters
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran%E2%80%93Iraq_War
http://www.beliefnet.com/Faiths/Islam/2001/02/Sunni-Shia-Differences.aspx
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iranian_Revolution
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halabja_poison_gas_attack
http://www.jpost.com/Defense/Article.aspx?id=293324 Satellites show Iran moving quickly to rearm Hamas

Syria, Israel's Nasty Neighbor Just Hasn't Changed a Bit

Nadene Goldfoot
In February of 1982, President Assad  mowed down a quarter of Hama to stop an uprising there.  Does that sound familiar today in 2012?  Nothing much has changed.  Then it was the Muslim Brotherhood that was doing the uprising.  Between 10,000 to 30,000 civilians were killed in that massacre.

Syria is made up of 22,505,000 people with 90% being Sunni and the rest Shi'a.  President Hafez Assad has absolute authority and his many security services have been responsible for severe human rights violations.  They use torture complete with reported equipped torture chambers where they gouge out eyes, extract fingernails and toenails and use electric shocks on sensitive parts of the body, arrests and detentions, lack of fair trials in security cases, and do not have freedom of speech, press, associations, or the right of citizens to change their governments nor workers' rights where they might have independent trade union.  It's autocratic and that's it.  No wonder Assad has been scared of a democratic state of Israel right next door.  People will get ideas!

Public criticism of Assad has been illegal.  He belongs to the Baath party who owns and operates all broadcast media and publishing houses.  How convenient for him.  Mail is censored, telephone conversations are often recorded and the security police are always listening in.  Demonstrations and public meetings are illegal unless the government gives permission and when has that been?  How have they stopped political opposition?  By mass murder, of course.

Quite frankly, all of Israel's neighbors are nasty people with  non democratic regimes that take advantage of their people but the world has preferred to charge Israel, the one democratic state,  with human rights violations, and it has been just such violators who have wielded the charges in the UN!

Jews living in Syria today number less than 80 as of 2005, but at one time had a large population living there, going back to King David's time when Damascus was at times even a friend to Israel.  In Herod's day it had a large Jewish population.  Many Jews found refuge here in 1492 from the Spanish Inquisition.  .  30,000 were living there in 1948.  by 1970 Israel held Operation Blanket, involving Israeli navel commandos and Mossad operatives to rescue young Jews  that had to leave because of persecution.  Many Jews from Syria are living in Brooklyn, NY today as well.

Today Assad has destroyed a Sunni-populated village, Haffa,  with his Syrian forces and militiamen who cleansed it from rebel fighters.  The population either were massacred or fled because other Sunni sites experienced mass killings.  The report is that they used Russian equipment like helicopter gunships.  Russia is Syria's main supplier.

Resource:  Myths and Facts-a concise record of the Arab-Israeli conflict by Mitchell Bard and Joel Himelfarb
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Jews_in_Syria
Oregonian newspaper, 6/15/2012 page A9, Monitors find village in ruins by Rick Gladstone, NY Times news service
New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
http://israel-nadene.blogspot.com/2012/06/syria-israels-northern-border-neighbor.html

Bringing in the Mashiach ( Messiah)

Nadene Goldfoot
When I moved to Israel in September 1980 I was met with the fact that many people were talking about the Mashiach who was soon to come.  Classes were going on that talked about it.  Students in schools were getting anxious to have it happen.  I was stunned!  Was that why I had the compulsion to move to Israel at this time?

Come to find out, the Christians are also expecting the Messiah to come again.  Something was going on, here.  Now that I'm not in Israel, I have had a chance to talk to more Christians and we can compare notes.  When is he coming, do you think, and is it right to figure out a time for the happening?  Actually, Judaism frowns on it.  This has led to false messiahs appearing at times of impending doom. 

The earliest I have found out is that it won't be for a couple hundred more years, according to Jewish thought.  However, it's sooner than that for the Christians.

Now I learn that the Muslims are also expecting their  Messiah as well.  What are we all doing to bring him here?

I look back in history to the caves where the "Dead Sea Scrolls" were found by a sheepherder in 1947,  7.5 miles from Jericho.  They disclosed that a group of males were living in these caves trying to live an exemplary life of abstinence and perfection who lived there until 68 CE.  Jerusalem fell 2 years later.  It was a time in Jewish history where there were many many different groups of Jews or different Jewish denominations, each with a variety of ideas as to how to behave, and they were thinking that things were so bad for them that surely it was time for the Messiah to arrive.  Each were doing what they thought was expected of them to bring the Messiah  to them.  One scroll spoke of the plan of the struggle of "the sons of light" against "the sons of darkness." which was to begin with the conquest of Palestine and to end 40 years later with the conquest of the whole world.  Israel has built "The Shrine of the Book" in the Israel Museum to house them. 

Today, again we see that things couldn't be worse.  We have  Israel threatened to be totally destroyed by atomic warfare coming from Iran, our old nemesis from the days of Purim with Queen Esther saving us.  The Muslim Brotherhood, with their doctrine to kill all Jews, has taken over Egypt's politics.  The Arabs called "Palestinians" are demanding their own state out of part of the tiniest state in the area, Israel, without any sign of wanting peace, and the whole world seems to be against Israel as shown in the politics of the UN.   It's time for the Mashiach!

The Muslims are teaching that their Hadith (Islamic tradition from Mohammad of sayings or acts) says that "the hour of Resurrection will not come until you fight the Jews.  The Jew will hide behind stones or trees and the stones or trees will call:  "Oh Muslim, servant of Allah, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him."  Their way of bringing in the Messiah is to kill all of us Jews.  With a fatwa stated by their "Pope" of Islamic thought, Qaradawi, who has called for the killing of all Jews, I am thinking that this is their idea today of bringing it on and why he is professing such a terrible act. 

Islam has two branches of thought; Sunni (Egypt, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia)  and Shi'a (Iran. some Iraqis,) Qaradawi is the Sunni leader but has been touted by Iran as well!  Their tradition has several Hadiths for their reference.  The Messiah or Mahdi is the redeemer of Israel who will rule for either 7, 9, or 19 years, depending, before the Day of Judgement.  He will rule alongside Jesus and will rid the world of wrong doing, injustice and tyranny. 

Shi'a Islam holds the central religious idea to the 12th Imam, Muhammad al-Mahal.  He will be an ordinary man.  The world will not come to an end until the Arabs are ruled by a man from his family and he will establish a moral system where all superstitious faiths are eliminated.  The Unbelieveers will believe. 

Revelations in the Christian tradition tells of times such as what we are starting to experience which is the start of the end of the world as we know it.  This will climax with most all Jews dying who are left on earth as you have to believe that Jesus is the Messiah while some stories tell about a rapture that will take up the blessed ones into a spaceship where they will find refuge while others just say they will meet the Messiah in the the heavens.  Since Christians believe that Jesus is the Messiah, they are waiting for his 2nd coming.  This is thought to happen instantaneously and will be known worldwide.  It will be visible to all with a sign in heaven as well as with audible trumpet sounds.   Before he comes, the antichrist will be ministring on earth.  Jesus's return on earth will usher in 1,000 years of peace bringing in the New Jerusalem through resurrection. 

Pastor John Hagee, Evangelical leader with Christians United For Israel or CUFI, certainly believes that Jesus is the Messiah and is also awaiting his 2nd coming. At the same time he supports Israel. He doesn't believe in a Replacement theology. He writes that scripture plainly indicates that the church (spiritual Israel) and national Israel exist side by side, and neither replaces the other-ever!" He goes on to explain to people that spiritual Israel is the church and has the blessings of a physical Israel, but it does not replace physical Israel . Replacement theologians in the USA are preaching "that if Christians will quit supporting Israel and will economically boycott the Christ-rejecting Jews, they will accept Jesus Christ. So this is where all the Christian groups boycotting Israel get their ideas from!

We Jews are not as imaginative.  To us the Messiah, the annointed one (what happened to become a king was to be annointed with oil) , the ultimate deliverer, is a living human, a king or leader who has received Divine sanction and "unique inviolability of status".  He is not a "savior."  He would be from the house of David (King David)  who would break" the alien yoke "and establish a golden age.  He would be a great political leader as discussed in Jeremiah 23-5.  He will be well versed in Jewish law, will be observant of its commandments and will be charismatic.  The Messiah will be a great military leader and will win battles for Israel as well as be a great judge.

Predictions as to when the Messiah would come have been based on the book of Daniel and other biblical passages.  Jews revolted in 115-117 CE , ending with a huge battle in 133-135 CE with Bar Kokhba, who some thought to be the Messiah.  We have found out since than that there have been many false messiahs during times of stress.  Of course many Jews had thought that Jesus of Nazareth was the Messiah and this started the movement of Christianity which has survived. 

It is said that in every generation there is someone who has the potential of being the Messiah, and he will come about in the Messianic Age.  The conduct of mankind will be the decisive factor of when he arrives.  It will be when he is most needed. 

Today I see that certain orthodox groups in Israel have become so over-zealous in their practice that they have had to be reprimanded by the Chief Sephardic Rabbi and the government of Israel.  They are striving for such perfection, possibly to bring the messiah, that they have overstepped logical bounds.  They have been practicing separation of sexes on buses.  This leads to behavior that is unacceptable as far as the rights of women are concerned, such as being most rude to women trying to sit among men, and so have had to be reminded that this is not an accepted practice in Judaism at all.  I see it as a fear that grows with the advent of such psychological pressure of being hated and the fear of being killed in an unwanted war.  They have been trying to be so good that this act can keep all their loved ones safe and secure.  It is for the reason of bringing the Messiah to them. 

Muslims have Qatarawi with his fatwa to kill Jews.  He even wants to do it himself, though he is in a wheel chair.  Following his advice is the PA's religious leader calling for the same thing, to kill the Jews.  The Palestinians show no signs of signing any peace agreement with Israel now. Could this be the reason why?  They expect the Mahdi to come?

To make matters more appalling, the Mayan Calendar ends on December 21, 2012. Since they were Indians in Central America, they had no such ideas as a messiah. It's just eerie that their calendar stops on this date. It has to do with a line-up of heavenly bodies for a first time. They were quite the astronomers. Nostradamus has made hard to decipher notations that the end will come about then as well, depending on the people interpreting his quatrains. The findings of mathematician Eliahu Ripps in Israel who has developed a "Bible Code" has led the journalist, Michael Drosnin to write about the results in that something is to also happen around this same time frame that might be a calamity as well, and here we are, in the year of 2012!

Reference:
http://www.jewfaq.org/mashiach.htm
 Michael Drosnins, "The Bible Code,; Bible Code II-The Countdown, and Bible Code III Saving the World
The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Coming_of_Christ
http://www.mfa.gov.il/PopeinIsrael/Background_Information/Image_of_Messiah_in_Judaism_and_Christianity.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahdi
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hadith
http://www.cufi.org/site/PageServer?pagename=learn_teachings#special_message
Book: In Defense of Israel by Pastor John Hagee
http://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/5h1cPdbdZfw?rel=0  Songs in Hebrew by Russians; note the song about the Moshiach.