Our Country's Security System

What kind of security system do we have that allows someone to board a plane with explosive material strapped to his body and this is not detected? I'm sure we all expected that such a situation would have been detected by our terrific security system. It isn't happening.

Without that amazing young passenger who dove toward this terrorist, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, and stopped him while putting himself in harm's way, even burning his own hands, that plane of some 270 passengers would have been blown up. It wasn't our security system that saved them all.

We can't count on a super hero every time we fly. We need a serious security system. I don't even know the name of this young man, but thank him for all he has done. He's one in a million.

Reference: http://www.oregonlive.com/newsflash/

12/29/09 : The superhero's name is Jasper Scheringa, a Dutch passenger on the Northwest airline heading for Detroit. I can find nothing on him, other than Dutch news. He was certainly brave and acted quickly. I saw him interviewed on Fox News, and that's all I've seen or read. I did read a translation from Dutch inferring that the al Quaida may try to harm him possibly for rescuing the plane. Perhaps that's why all has been silent about him.

Croatia and Jews-Touching Portland

I have a distant relative in Croatia who just contacted me about a horrible situation happening to his family just because his grandfather had been Jewish. His family is being discriminated against and is facing eviction from their palatial home on the 12th of January at 9:00am.

The story is that his grandfather, Alfred Krupa, was a Polish Jew living there when the 2nd World War broke out unlike my grandfather who had left and had come to Oregon. Alfred Krupa could be a possible relative to Gene Krupa, the drummer. His family found themselves caught in the holocaust and had been moved from one Nazi death camp to another. His sister was burned alive by the Germans. He survived the gas chamber by a fortuitous act of G-d. Just as the guard was about to close the chamber door, a Russian air force squadron dive-bombed the camp and blew it into oblivion, but not where he was standing.

Alfred escaped amidst all the terror and mayhem but later found himself recruited into the Afrika Korps who, of all things, trained him for desert combat by sending him to a barracks nestled in the Tirolean Mountains. Once he had finished his induction, he was whisked off to the Balkans where his regiment was supposed to quell partisan insurgency and connected with the Ustazi and the Hungarians to assist with the extermination of the Jewish population!

A couple of days into his tour of duty his company was annihilated by a platoon of Croatian partisans. Again, Alfred managed to cheat death by hurling himself over a large rock only to find himself staring down the barrel of a partisan's rifle.

Alfred tried to explain to the lad that he was Polish but to no avail. Just as the chap was about to pull the trigger, a little old lady from the Red Cross suddenly jumped up, punched the partisan, and the gun discharged in mid-air. Discussions ensued and Alfred began his career as a Croatian partisan in charge of heavy gun batteries.

During this latest stage in his military vocation, Alfred assisted in the rescue of Winston Churchill's son, who had been shot down by German anti-aircraft guns, and he loyally served his adopted nation with honor and distinction. When he retired after the war he was feted as a highly decorated Croatian national hero.

Alfred Krupa moved to Karlovac, Croatia, married a local ethnic Croatian girl and spent the rest of his remaining years as a celebrated artist, considered to be one of the best watercolourists of the 20th century.

What happened to his growing family in Croatia, a country who had allied itsself with Hitler and had established a Nazi state? The Croatians had exterminated hundreds of thousands of Serbs and tens of thousands of Jews. If you visit the Yasenovatz death camp in Croatia, you will find Jews and Serbs buried there together in mass graves.

Alfred Krupa's family had converted to Catholicism. His son, Mladen continued the family's loyal military tradition. During their Balkan conflict of the early 1990's Major Mladen Krupa co-founded the Karlovac County regiment of the Croatian Army of Liberation and organized their engineering units. As the war continued, Mladen's son, Alfred Krupa Jr. managed to defect from the Yugoslavian forces and join his father as a non-commissioned officer. Both men served the Croatian Republic with loyalty and distinction as their sire, Alfred Sr. had done before them.

For the past three generations this Tarnawa-Krupa family have been lauded as prominent Croatian intellectuals and artists. Alfred is a leading professor of fine art, his works are displayed in Karlovac Museum and are a part of many private collections both in Croatia and across the world. He is a member of the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufacturers and Commerce in London, the Croatian Society of Arts and the Croatian Society of Art Historians in Zagreb. His work has been exhibited in 16 single-artist exhibitions across Croatia and have formed part of many other exhibitions in Croatia and Germaniy.

Though they were once Jewish, they are now baptised Catholics who descended from an ancient Polish noble and royal family. Alfred Krupa Jr. introduced and established the Western European Catholic Order of Knights Templars in Croatia. He held the office of Grand Prior, assisted by his father. He was bestowed the title of Imperial Chevalier by HIH Crown Prince Jacobe Wossen, received a titular Duchy of Jerusalem and later served in the Knights Templars as Chief of Protocol in the Grand Preceptory of La Rochelle. All this hasn't prevented them from also receiving a terrible punishment for this past Jewish connection.

They had established a successful business, AutoKrupa Ltd. They had a beautiful home in the beautiful Palace of Karlovac. They had a perfect record of being excellent business men, paying its overheads, being financially sound and debt free. The family was financially well off and owned desirable property, were well liked and respected.

Their bankers, Zagrebacka Banka d.d. Of Zagreb invented a debt of 30,000 euros and charged it to their business, the guarantors being Major and Mrs. Mladen Tarnaawa-Krupa. Their home, worth some 250,,000 Euros was offered to their bank as surety.

On April 14, 2003, the bank filed a suit against them and have been trying to get their business and home. Now they face eviction on January 12, 2010. They have been fighting this ever since then.

They feel that even though they are baptised Catholics and having been excellent citizens of the Republic, they are known to be ultimately of Hebrew descent and this fact seems to have been enough of an excuse for racial hatred fueled by greed, jealousy and envy of the Croatian Mafia. The judges in the case are low paid who use their powers to do the bidding of their mob masters who use the police as their own private militia.

At the same time, Croatia hopes for absorbtion into Pan Europa and is to negotiate membership of the European Union. Are Europeans going to go along with this oppressive bankrupt regime that is governed by such a mafia-operating government?

This family faces complete anniliation and do not want to leave. They now fear for their very safety and physical existence. They may have to seek refugee status in Europe. Three generations away from being Jewish, and they they still may be paying the price for this country's anti-semitism. This is why to me Israel is so important a haven for Jews. There seems to be no end to anti-semitism in the world. Germany reacted the same way. If a person had one ancestor that was found to be Jewish, they were thrown into the concentration camps. It didn't matter what religion they were professing to be.

Until Croatia shapes up, tourists should think twice before contributing to their tourist industry by visiting there. We don't want to let them think that their behavior is acceptable and condoned.

Anyone interested in helping this family can write to the following:
European Commission on anti-racism : combat.racism@coe.int

Just to let America know what Croatia is like, write to the following:
United States congress at: www.house.gov/writerep/

Reference: writing from Mladen Krupa, Croatia
Victor Sharpe, author of Politicide Volume 2 dealing with Croatia.

Obama Backing Ousted Honduran Zelaya, Anti-Semitic Guy

Obama has taken sides in Honduras's governing party. He is backing someone that was thrown out of office, Zelaya. Zelaya is very anti-semitic.

"The Law Library of Congress review that shows that Mr. Zelaya's removal from office was legal, and the clear evidence that he is Mr. Chávez's man in Tegucigalpa. On Thursday, Mr. Kerry took the unprecedented step of trying to block a fact-finding mission to Honduras by Republican Sen. Jim DeMint, who is resisting Mr. Obama's efforts to restore Mr. Zelaya to power.Mr. Zelaya, recall, was arrested, deposed and deported on June 28 because he violated the Honduran Constitution."-from Mary Anastasia O'Grady's article in Wall Street Journal.

One of the backers of this man, David Romero Ellner, Executive director of Radio Globo, Honduras, said Sept. 25, 2009, is a radio personality. Here is how he identifies with Manuel Zelaya.
Sometimes I ask myself if Hitler wasn't right when he wanted to finish with that race, through the famous holocaust, because if there are people that are harmful to this country, they are the Jews, the Israelites.

He is one of Honduras's most vocal advocates for the return of deposed president Manuel Zelaya to office.

Zelaya has joined Hugo Chavez in attacking Jews. They are both connecting with Iran in their hatred. In fact, Hondurasn Foreign Minister Patricia Rodas met with Iran in meetings in Mexico City just recently.

"President Barack Obama and Democratic Sen. John Kerry—despite the Law Library of Congress review that shows that Mr. Zelaya's removal from office was legal, and the clear evidence that he is Mr. Chávez's man in Tegucigalpa," are backing this anti-semite.

From New York and the Anti-Defamation League: NEW YORK -- The tense political stalemate in Honduras has given rise to expressions of anti-Semitism and disturbing anti-Israel conspiracy theories, according to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL). "Some political leaders, pundits and others in Honduras and Venezuela are saying that Israel and Jews played a role in the ouster and intimidation of President Manuel Zelaya and are in cahoots with the de facto president, Robert Micheletti," said the ADL.
TEGUCIGALPA -- It's been 89 days since Manuel Zelaya was booted from power. He's sleeping on chairs, and he claims his throat is sore from toxic gases and "Israeli mercenaries'' are torturing him with high-frequency radiation.
Our president has joined the club made up of other anti-semitics. Manuel Zelaya, the ousted leftist leader of Honduras, is backed by Latin American Marxists Raul Castro, Evo Morales, Daniel Ortega and Hugo Chavez. Who is he trying to impress? Is this reflecting who he really sides with?
Resource: http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB10001424052748704471504574451341698592458-lMyQjAxMDA5MDAwNTEwNDUyWj.html#printMode
http://insidecostarica.com/dailynews/2009/october/05/centralamerica-091005-01.htm
http://tim.2wgroup.com/blog/archives/002067.html

Jewish Women's DNA: K, H, J2, N1b, Others?

Testing the mtDNA of Jewish women have found that we trace back to four women who lived about within the last 2,000 years but not in the same place or time. They could have been from the Near East or even Europe. This is from Dr. Doron Behar in Haifa, Israel. My thinking is that they are not referring to our four matriarchs but to another set of four women much later. Again, our life was dependant on four such women becoming mothers.

Those of us with ancestors from central and eastern Europe are called Ashkenazi Jews. We can be traced back to Jews who migrated from Israel to Italy in the 1st and 2nd centuries. That's where the term "Ghetto" came from. Jews were locked up behind fences at night. We then moved into Eastern Europe in the 12th and 13th centuries and moved about there. There were about 10 million of us Jews just before WWII. This is from history and the study of mtDNA from more than 11,000 samples from 67 populations.

Our haplogroups are K-32%, H-21%, n1b-10%, J1-7%, and others.

Practically no other groups have K except for the Druze who have 16%. That shows to me that Jewish women married men who were or became Druze. Of the K there are four main groups in Jewish women. They are all unique in Jews, except the group which is 33% of the total K's is very similar to a type found at low to moderate frequency amongst gentile women in both Europe and the Near East. K is a subbranch of U that is believed to have appeared in early stages of the Holocene Epoch. This is when populations expanded into Europe after the last glacial period. About 1/3 of people with Ashkenazi ancestry carry a subclade of this haplogroup.

H-standing for Helena, though it is very common in Europe among gentiles, has unique characteristics in Jews My mother, whose mother was from Sweden who converted, is an H. So is her gentile sister-in-law with roots possibly from Germany. About half of Europe's women are H. This is connected to a population expansion about 20,000 years ago originating in the Caucasus or in Europe and now in 50% of those of European ancestry, and common in N. Africa and the Middle East.

J, J1, J2 originated about 45,000 years ago in central Asia. Connected with the spread of farming and herding in Europe during the Neolithic Period beginning 10,000 years ago, which would be about 8,000 BCE. Common in the Near East, Europe, the Caucasus, N. Africa and the Middle East and among Jews. J2 is more localized in the Mediterranean.

N1b-is present in low frequencies in Europe, the Caucasus, the Near East, Egypt and Arabia. It spread around 39,000 to 52,000 years ago, creating at least 4 ancestral clusters including haplogroup B.

What happened about 1,000 years ago is that our Jewish population had declined to such a small group that the wipe-out is referred to as a BOTTLENECK. It was followed by a large growth. Therefore, almost half of Europe's Jews were from just four women who lived 1,000 years ago.

Ashkenazi mtDNA is close to Moroccan Jewish mtDNA.

Now I'm so curious about my father's mother that I'm going to have a female cousin tested to find out what dna we have. It's not enough to know who my parents are and where they came from anymore. I want to know the whole megilla. Our history is pretty exciting.

My grandmother "Bubbi" was from Suwalki, Poland/Lithuania. I'm betting our mtDNA will be K. That seems popular in women from that area. I've sent for the kit today to test my cousin.

1/8/10: I was wrong. It turned out to be a rare W. It is listed as W1h, an Ashkenazi branch.  She had come from Suwalki, Poland/Lithuania.

Reference: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10827385/ns/technology_and_science-science/
http://www.britam.org/Questions/mtDNA.html
http://www.nature.com/ejhg/journal/v15/n4/full/5201764a.html
Book: Tracing Your Jewish DNA for Family History & Ancestry by Anne Hart -haven't read it yet but want to, http://books.google.com/books?id=Z2-FHdT_bPkC&pg=PA3&lpg=PA3&dq=Jewish+mtDNA+in+Poland&source=bl&ots=IFUqFzl2Eu&sig=cr_h-HKeCZgu64frVEeEDOGwPe4&hl=en&ei=hWzCSsykE5G8sgO8jpzqAg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3#v=onepage&q=Jewish%20mtDNA%20in%20Poland&f=false

Why Did American Jews Risk Israel in Their Voting? Nadene's Opinion

There have been more than two very interesting articles about why Jews are Democrats. They both give the history of why most Jews voted Democratically. Since World War II when President Roosevelt was in power, we have been grateful to find America a haven from the killing fields in Europe that took the lives of six million Jews. Thank goodness we were here.

We've been very loyal to Roosevelt's party. Now we've had 65 years of living peacefully in the United States, which is quite a stretch for us Jews. We've come from being kept out of organizations because of our religion to being accepted. We were kept out of jobs and schools and now find ourselves just one of the guys. Life has become good. That's almost three generations from Europe and pogroms and the holocaust. Our present generation knows very little about our past unless the parents were directly involved with past events. Our school systems do not dwell on this part of history, so our children just have not become impacted by it. How many attend Sunday School and even listen to the history portion in class? Being a past teacher and Sunday School teacher in Oregon, I know that very little has reached our young citizens.

I was on the Democratic Party's inner circle in Eastern Oregon, and even had a a party after an election before 1980 when our man won. I graciously invited my mother to the party even though she was a rebel and had voted Republican. I never considered ever voting Republican. She said she was more interested in what they stood for and not the party. She really investigated them. Her vote cancelled out my father's vote, but they learned to live with it.

When it came to voting again in this election, I found Democrats to be so engrossed in the identification of being a Democrat that they did not consider Israel's life at all. They were appalled at being questioned about it. The fact that the Bush Era had been such a mess determined their judgements. Anything to get away from the Republicans was their thinking in my opinion. Their thoughts were the same as most Americans. Stop the war. Save the soldiers. Obama was such an artful speaker. Who could argue against him? The world loved him. He was good for America and would be the first black president. Voters were more interested in saving the planet and going green than rescuing Israel.

I am an American with dual citizenship with Israel. I lived there for over five years teaching English as a Foreign Language in Safed. It was amazing to check with my mother back home in Oregon to find that what was happening in Israel was not reported in her papers. Obviously, the reporters were only interested in anything that showed how bad Israel was instead of all the horrid things happening to her or mention the good things it was creating and sharing with the world. It was depressing to find that prejudice existed again after our revival of support in 1967.

There were so many indications that Obama would not be supportive of Israel if elected, but most Democratic Jews that I knew would not read or consider the findings and possibilities. Israel was outweighed in their decisions. I suppose they quickly thought that Israel could overcome any obstacle it met regardless of Obama's leanings. After all, look how many wars it had come through since 1948. Some even may have thought that Ha-Shem would protect. The outcome was that most Jews voted Democratically in the last election. Israel is having one heck of a time being pressured to lose Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria. It has already lost Gaza which it really didn't want in the first place but found it placed in their lap. The goal of the surrounding Arabs and especially the Palestinians is to get rid of Israel, and they are closer now than ever with Iran threatening Israel with an atomic missile. Most of the world is of course not assisting Israel. They really didn't want its creation in the first place, except the Evangelical Christians who are most supportive.

My sincere thoughts are this. Israel was created in my lifetime after 2,000 years of lying dormant. This is a time spoken of in the past. It's a revival period of our ancestor's home and our history. We are the ones that are responsible for its continuation. This heavy responsibility is ours now. We were the leaders of conscience being the mother religion with Christianity and Muslims as the children. What are we doing about its life?

Resource: Why Are Jews Liberals by Norman Podhoretz-opinion: Wall Street Journal http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203440104574402591116901498.html

Why Are Jews Liberals-A Symposium: Commentary Magazine- look for Jeff Jacoby's article-also David Wolpe, Jonathan D. Sarna, Michael Medved, William Kristol wrote articles there. http://www.commentarymagazine.com/viewarticle.cfm/why-are-jews-liberals-a-symposium-15223

How Jews Are Saved

by Nadene Goldfoot

Why do people populate the earth? What is the meaning of our lives? Our religion, Judaism, tells us that we are here to appreciate G-d. What does that mean to me? I don’t just eat, sleep and play and call that a life. I appreciate the world I live in, the majesty of mountains and the wonder of space. I think about how everthing came to be and try to figure out who created G-d or how this great he, she,or a blend of both forces came to be. Our bible starts with such wonderment with Genesis, telling how the world was created. Granted, it is in a short and simple description, but probably pretty awesome for people to read in its time of writing. First of all, it’s a wonder that people created writing in the first place.

As many Christians have found out, Jews do not believe that Jesus is G-d’s son. I see that most of the time Christians even pray to Jesus and do not use the term G-d, so that it seems like Jesus is G-d to them. Jesus saves Christians and does not save anyone that does not believe in him. To Jews, he was a teacher and exceptional, but not G-d or G-d’s son anymore than we all are. Some of us doubt that he even existed, but was just a myth like the other Roman myths.

Jesus was born, so the story goes, to a Jewish woman. This was in the days of the Roman Empire, and Romans believed in many gods and even gods who were born to a human woman and a man-god. They were half gods. Their religion follows this line in that this is how Jesus came to be.

As we all face that horrid bit of knowledge that we will die, we have great fears. Jesus’s role is to save Christians and give eternal life. Jews took on this responsibility for themselves to do. We are to live a good life and do good deeds for each other. The more good deeds, the higher a level we reach. Whatever happens to the dead is a part of G-d’s plan of creation, and we trust that He knows best in what to do with us. We do not dwell on afterlife but on the here and now when we have a chance to live the exemplary life.

Each year we have time at a holiday called Yom Kippur to confess our faults and ask G-d directly for forgiveness with the goal of not repeating our actions. This act reminds us of who we are and why we are here. It relieves our minds in that we are planning a better course of action for our future and gets rid of that gnawing guilt we may have. We have bothered to go to the synagogue with our peers and pray together for forgiveness, a great feat, whatever the year may be. This group dynamic is profound and memorable with the ram’s horn playing as part of the
memories.

We believe that after we die at some time we will again be revived and exist. I’m beginning to wonder if our dna will be used by G-d to recreate us like in the movies. Then I think of time, and how according to certain physicists time has a different meaning to them than to us, and that things have already happened in time.

The book "The Bible Code" is a good example. Some mathemetician in Israel found out that by skipping every five words and taking the next word consecutively, a message appears and is most profound, most often dealing with a part of the bible’s message that is obvious in its original
message. Usually it is prophesizing something. It’s pretty amazing. Many intelligent people were of course scoffers and tried out the same method using Moby Dick. It worked. That contained codes, also.

No one bothered to realize that this in itself is absolutely amazing. I wondered about this fact and concluded that this is a part of the plan of G-d. It’s already decided in that realm of time what’s to be written, using words in an order that will reveal things like this. No one pondered that what was found in the bible was far more important as far as the future or prophecy than what was found in Moby Dick. That the method works for other books is just as amazing! Here, mathematics is pertinent in understanding life.

To me, if I am to find favor in G-d eyes, I am to honor him by my actions and even thoughts. It’s not easy to live without stepping on anyone’s toes, but being very human, I have tried.. Jews took on this task and made a covenant with G-d long ago. It’s mindblowing to realize that we have lasted as long as we have with all the pressures of others to give up our religion. Enough of us have managed to survive each generation to keep us going to the present when other religions and cultures have died on the wayside. That is a miracle, too.

It’s not in the scope of things that we should depend on someone to save us. We alone can save ourselves. We’re intelligent beings on the highest level of life and know right from wrong. It’s already in G-d's plans that we stick with our contract. It's up to us to save ourselves.

Jew and Arab: Why We Think So Differently

Jew and Arab: Why We May Think So Differently

by Nadene Goldfoot

From the beginning in the land of Ur Kasdim, which lies in the new country called Iraq, Abraham, whose name originally was Abram, , father of Judaism and of Arabs, made some decisions that formed the essence of his family’s future. He had taken his wife’s Egyptian maid Hagar and had a child that he named Ishmael with her because his wife, whose name was Sarai at the time, had been barren. That was the start of trouble. Ishmael turned out to be a "wild-ass of a man with his hands against everyone and everyone’s hand was against him and it was said that he would rule over all his brothers". Abram was 86 years old when Ishmael was born.

Abram was 99 years old when he circumcised himself, and had Ishmael, who then was 13 years old, circumcised also.

When Abram was 100 years old his 90 year old wife Sarai finally conceived and bore Isaac, much to both people’s astonishment. Their names were now changed to Abraham and Sarah.

There came the day when Isaac was of the age to marry. Abraham didn’t want him to marry a Canaanite woman, but wanted him to marry someone from his own family who were residing in Aram Naharaim in the city of Nahor. They were called Arameans. Abraham’s servant came across Rebecca, whose line was from Nahor, brother of Abraham, and was very impressed with her. He selected her to be 40 year old Isaac’s wife and took her back to him.

By the age of 60 Rebecca also had been having trouble conceiving and finally was expecting twins, again as different in personality as Ishmael and Isaac were. Esau was born first. He was all red with lots of hair. Jacob was born with his hand holding onto the heel of Esau and was smooth-skinned. Esau became a hunter while Jacob stayed in the tents. The father favored the hunter while the mother favored his brother. Jacob did cooking and was very intelligent. He managed to get a very important birthright given to himself instead of his brother, for one thing. Essau finally married two Hittite women at the age of 40. They weren’t monogomous in those days. They were Judith and Basemath. The threesome with their children didn’t have the same reverence of spirituality that Rebecca and Jacob had. When Isaac was dying, Jacob managed to trick his father into giving him the very important blessing which was better than today’s inheritance left in wills instead of giving it to the first-born Esau. When a blessing was given, it was something that could not be changed. It was legally binding to the people involved. Esau was furious! He knew that it was important to Isaac to not marry the women of Canaan as he considered them to be evil, so what did he do to get even? He went over to Ishmael, now one of them, and married Mahalath, his daughter!

The two brothers never could make up. Esau refused to accept Jacob’s try at becoming friends. After all, he had been tricked twice by this younger brother. Jacob had brought Esau gifts at a meeting , but it was of no use. The die was cast that caused the chasm between the two peoples.

In 1947, Abba Eban along with a few other leaders held a secret meeting with Abdul Rahman Azzam Pasha, an Egyptian. They held a very revealing conversation. A Jewish fellow by the name of Horowitz had a plan for a joint political development of the Middle East.

Pasha said, "The Arab world is not in a compromising mood." He felt that though Horowitz’s plan was rational and logical, the fate of nations was not decided by rational logic. He said that nations never concede; they fight. He continued saying that Israel wouldn’t get anything by peaceful means or compromise. Only by force of arms will you get something. The Arabs will try to defeat the Jews. He didn’t know if they would win, but they would try. They had been successful in driving out the Crusaders but knew they lost Spain and Persia (now called Iran). He related that Arabs may lose Palestine also, but it was too late to talk about peaceful solutions.

He would only concede that an agreement had to be on their terms to be acceptable. They regarded the Jews as invaders and were ready to fight. Fighting is in the nature of peoples, he continued. They aspire to expansion and fight for what they think is important.
He didn’t think he was a representative of this new spirit. His son was one ready amd wanting to fight.

All this time, Azzam had no hatred in his voice and referred to the Jews many times as "cousins". Abba Eban and the group shivered at the thought that blind fatalism and not logic ruled the Arab mind. We do have a different mentality. Perhaps it's all due to something that happened thousands of years ago.

Reference: Book: Genesis 1948 by Dan Kurzman
Book: Tanach, the Stone Edition: Torah, Prophets/Writings.

Attacking Israel: Amnesty International

Amnesty International says it's a group that is a defender of human rights. To them it's all right that the Palestinians have been hitting Israel for the past eight years with missiles, but not all right for Israel to defend itself in anyway, even though homes and civilians have been in the line of fire of the hateful Palestinians.

Israel just happens to be the only democracy in the Middle East, and it's getting a bum rap. Amnesty International has now put it on the list for an arms embargo along with such lovely countries as:
1. Democratic Republic of Congo
2. Sudan: government against people of Darfur
3. Myanmar: tortures political prisoners
4. Somalia: practice rape and murder and affect 3.25 million people

Amnesty intends to prevent Israel from their right of self-defense and they don't intend to interfere with Hamas, a terrorist organization, at all. They must think it's all right to rain down the thousands of rockets they have been doing. With them, you can attack innocent civilians but not defend yourself against attacks. Hamas has a network to receive arms and they will continue to get arms, even though Amnesty is saying that it has called for an arms embargo on them, too. Amnesty realizes their embargo would not stop Hamas. Israel relies on lawful transactions between real states. Yet they have the audacity to go ahead and call for a U.N. arms embargo on Israel.

Guess what part of the world they must be a part of? I would say they definitely are not a defender of human rights. Their selection of the word, amnesty, confuses me. Amnesty refers to a government who grants pardons to a large group of people. Does that mean that they believe in saying that it's okay for the Palestinians to attack Israel? They are pardoning them? That's what they are doing.

Reference: B'nai B'rith International

Jewish Genealogical Society of Oregon Brunch Meeting

Pam is speaking with her power point program.

Today was our annual Brunch meeting of JGSO. Pamela Weisberger, the program chairman for the Jewish Genealogical Society of Los Angeles, came up from California to be our speaker.

She spoke about finding people in the newspaper in such articles as marriages, divorces and items of deception and murder in the 1890's. She has visited and researched her ancestral towns and villages in the Polish, Ukrainian and Hungarian archives. She has also found much information in 19th to early 20th century city directories, newspapers and court records. Most of her examples were from work on her own families presented in a power point program.

We enjoyed the bagels, cream cheese and lox with tomatoes and onions. Along with that we had hard boiled eggs, a variety of fresh fruits and pastries for dessert.

Everyone left hoping to find some juicy tidbit recorded in some historical newspaper that would reveal more about the ancestor they were researching. ProQuest, here we come.

Yom HaShoah Today by Nadene Goldfoot

Nadene Goldfoot
The Holocaust killed 6 million Jews in Europe. On April 12, 1951, we started a universal remembrance establishing and starting on that day, Yom HaShoah, or Holocaust Day, a day to remember these people who died.

We've been observing this day ever since then. This year it falls on this day, the 27th of Nisan. This occurs 8 days before Yom HaAtzmaut, or Israeli Independence Day. We do a lot of remembering. That makes us good historians.

It's good we do this. Iran has been trying to white-wash these facts by denying the Holocaust. So have other anti-semites. The fact is that Hitler and his followers tried to eradicate all the Jews in the world and that's a horrendous thing. It's a traumatic lesson to us. After living in Germany since the Middle Ages and being good citizens, Jews were then the scapegoats for whatever problems the country had. Suddenly they became less than human to the average German through Hitler's rantings and ravings. The whole country except for a very small few turned against them, and they were led to slaughter.

Yes, we did realize at that point the necessity of having and living in our own country where we could control our destiny. It became of the utmost importance to establish Israel after the war when the opportunity finally arose after 2,000 years of praying daily for our return to our homeland.

It's shocking to me that Iran is calling Israel a racist state when Muslims have 23 countries that are Muslim and we are trying to hold onto Israel, the only Jewish state in the world. We have a million Muslim Arabs living in our state while they have no Jews. Who is the racist?

It's even more shocking to me that the world seems to be going along with their warped logic and is accepting their charges. When will people wake up? I guess they are true followers of Hitler. If you say a lie long enough, people will believe it. I think that's the true evil in the world; the lack of reason.

Reporters Start With Opinions

Russell Crowe spoke on TV in an interview today about his 2009 movie, State of Play where he plays the part of a reporter. He said that he felt reporters started with opinions. They might change that opinion if they gain new facts.

I feel this is true. Russell said it was human nature to have an opinion about something. I see this with reporters dealing with Israel. So many seem to start with negative opinions about Israel and do not dig to find the truths. When important people like Noam Chomsky and Norman Finklestein knock Israel, the rest of America follows suit without thought. They are being led like sheep.

One uplifting item is that very recently CNN broadcast information about Israel's accomplishements that are excellent. I felt a miracle was happening.

Remember that every reporter has an agenda and his reporting reflects it. One reporter that changed her opinion about Israel that I know of is Joan Peters who wrote the book, "From Time Immemorial." She was acclaimed and consulted by American presidents for many years and her book was most accepted. She wrote about who the Palestinians really were and where they came from and when. Thanks to her delving into finding actual facts, these revelations turned up in print. It's a tome to wade through but worth every effort. The question is: are American reading levels up to it? There are no pictures. Finklestein and Chomsky have spent much time knocking her great revelations. That's all they do; knock.

Resource: http://www.israel21c.org/bin/en.jsp?enPage=HomePage shown on CNN

1930's Values Popular Again: Hatred For Jews

Stuart H. Schwartz, Ph.D., is alarmed that the world is turning against us and tells it like it is in his article in American Thinker, "We are all anti-Semites now". He points this out in many ways.

1. Young higher educated people have shown signs of being against older American values: the free economic market. They are more socialistic now.
a. Campuses demonstrating anti-semitism: Boston College "Palestinian terrorists demonstrating courage and wisdom."
b. Columbia U, financial support from Arab States
c. Harvard: new Middle Eastern studies, using Israel as codeword for Jew, cheer Hamas terrorists/destruction of Jews

2. It's Israel's fault that there is terrorism, like Jimmy Carter's writings in his book.
a. Joining the Human Rights Council who denounce Israel.
b. Feelings: Jews and Israel out of step with the world.
c. Feelings: Israelis/Jews morally and politically inferior to the worst terrorist groups in world.
d. World accepting persecution of Jews and maybe 2nd genocide.
e. Golden Globe award winner: Paradise Now-exploring human side of terrorists recruited to kill Jews.

3. Our government now embracing militant Arab positions (anti-Jewish)
a. Exterminating Jews:
1. Southern Israel rocket attacks: 8 years of rockets
2. Beheading of Reporter Pearl because was Jewish

4. Newspaper Coverage
a. Davis Cup match in Sweden: Islamists screamed for death of Israeli players/all Jews
b. Cartoons; Jews as Nazis eating Palestinians
c. Positioning such cartoons: under newspaper banner "The New York Times."

Be prepared. The tide has turned against us in many ways. Being 1 % of the world's population is a dangerous position. We're still the scapegoats of the world and people are constantly ready to sacrifice us in the name of obtaining their selfish happiness. This is how WWII started and we were on the altar. I never thought it would happen again, but here it is. Take your heads out of the sand and look.

http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/04/we_are_all_antisemites_now.html

Hadassah and Portland's Purim Carnival

Today was the Purim Carnival at the MJCC. Hadassah took part by manning a table with Hadassah information and selling pink cotton candy for the Kollel. Everyone was delighted with the spun perfection. At the table were Carolyn Shain and Michelle Suffian Chilton. I helped take in the money and made change. We were there from one o'clock till four.

Gaza's Jewish History- from Victor Sharpe

Jews have had an association of life in Gaza for the past 4,000 years. Samson with his long hair was blinded by the Philistines, and he brought down the temple they had to their gods in Gaza. The Philistines are now extinct.

In the 4th century Gaza was the primary port of commerce for the Jews of the Holy Land.

In 1967, archaelogists discovered the mosaic floor of a 6th century synagogue on the Gaza seashore. Though we've been thrown out of Gaza many times, we have managed to return. The Crusaders killed many Gazan Jews, leaving few surivors. In 1929 Arab rioters threatened to slaughter Gaza's Jews like they did in Hebron, but the Jews left before they had a chance to kill them. The British must have found out their plan and had the Jews leave. In June of 1967 in another war, Israel liberated Gaza from Egyptian occupation, making it possible for Jews to live there again. Now that we have left, we just receive shelling from terrorists.

Reference: Portland's own Victor Sharpe: http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/02/gazas_rich_jewish_history.html Gaza's Rich Jewish History

Jewish Concept of Heaven

Jewish Concept of Heaven

from What Does Judaism Say About.?" Louis Jacobs

We have all heard about the Islam concept of heaven, especially for martyrs. They go to a heaven with 72 virgins, one of the motivating forces for people to become suicide bombers.

We Jews, on the other hand, have no such notions. When we die, we believe in "the world to come," or Olam ha-Ba.) There are two theories that rabbis have had. One is the resurrection of the dead and second, the immortality of the soul. The original doctrine was that when a man dies, he is truly dead. His "soul," is also "dead," until after the Messianic Age when it is reunited with his body after being raised from the grave. When the man died his soul lived on in Heaven until they are to be reunited. Orthodox Judaism accepts the combined beliefs. "The world to come" refers to the immortality of the soul or the resurrection of the dead.

Reform Judaism accepts only the doctrine of the immortality of the soul. Maimonides said that the resurrection will be only a temporal one and that eventually they will return to dust and the soul will remain immortal. Some modern people feel that the immortality of the soul is a Greek belief, and that what survives is the whole personality of man. Some therefore reject the beliefs in bodily resurrection and in Hell and Paradise as places for everlasting punishment and reward.
Maimonides said in his code that "there are no bodies or bodily forms, but only souls of the righteous who are like the ministering angels. There is no eating or drinking or anything which the human body needs in the world. There is no need for sitting, standing, sleep, death, distress, laughter, or procreation. The righteous sit with their crowns on their heads and bask in the radiance of the Divine Presence."

For others, being good and accepting this kind of reward is just not rewarding enough to motivate them. They want to hear that they will eat and drink and have beautiful women and wear garments of fine linen and embroidery and live in marble palaces and have vessels of silver and gold. Our sages felt that this is vain and nonsensical and has no value and are only great for people who are alive. All that has to do with the needs of the body, but we won’t have a body. Since all we know now is material pleasures, it is that that we desire now. It’s difficult to imagine the great goodness which the soul experiences in the world to come. That good is great beyond all our understanding and incomparable beyond all our imagination.

Man has questioned how humans survive after death since our mind is dependent on his brain. In this life, we need a brain. There may be other ways that the mind or soul function in the Hereafter.

Update: Portland-Ashkelon Sister City Ass. from Tamar

Subject: Ashkelon under fire. Date: Thu, 8 Jan 2009 23:08:01 +0000 from Tamar Boussi in Israel

GENERAL
Ashkelon under fireBy Marty Davis January 07, 2009
As the sirens go off and we wait in our shelter to hear the boom of the missiles, we wonder when this will end. For the past eight years there has been constant bombardment of Sderot and the surrounding settlements. This is not about political issues; it is about civilians under extended fire.

In Ashkelon, 122,000 residents have been under fire with little protection. Most homes do not have shelters as they were built in the 1950s and 1960s. The neighborhood shelters are underground and impossible to reach in 30 seconds. Today alone, we have suffered 14 rocket attacks with accompanying physical, psychological and personal damage. The resolve of our people to stand strong against this onslaught is a direct desire to end a situation where we have to live in fear. Our children are climbing the walls as they cannot leave their homes. There is no school, and no shopping centers are open. These children are terrorized to the point where even at the ages of six and seven they are wetting their beds. They demand that the light stay on all night, and even then tell of their nightmares the next morning - all this on a daily basis. Our children will need psychological help to overcome their fears of loud noises and sirens.

"I'm not running anymore." Our elderly are unable to reach their shelters, even if they have one. They suffer from the ongoing missiles and cannot leave their homes to buy food, get their medicine, or see their doctors. A good friend, who survived five death camps during the holocaust, TB resulting in the loss of a lung, a quadruple bypass, and cancer, sits in his chair and waits for the sirens. He is not moving as it is too difficult. His answer is: "I'm not running anymore". The Municipality and the Home Front are doing a great job as far as immediate response to every emergency; however, we are ill prepared in terms of safe rooms and public buildings with secure rooms.

A number of years ago I was involved in building programs and projects on Israel's northern border (known as the confrontation line). I would watch katyusha rockets hitting the road in front and behind my car. I was fulfilling a Zionist ideological imperative by assisting those in need. Who would have thought that today I would be living in the "new" confrontation line in the south? The real desire is that this current war comes to an end that provides a strong beginning.

We pray for a true peace that can allow us to reach our potential as a people that are involved in developing new medicines, new science and technology. A country that can assist our neighbors in developing their potential as true partners. Can this dream ever become a reality? Herzl said: "If you will it, it need not be a dream". I think we can sum it up in one word, "tikva" - hope.


© 2001-2008 ISRAEL21c.org. All rights reserved.
Resource: Tamar Boussi, President Portland-Ashkelon Sister City Ass.

KBOO's Debate About Israel-Gaza

Debate With Palestinian Professsor From Bethlehem University

by Nadene Goldfoot


The Palestinian Hamas representatives are so good at relating false facts that are so contrary to reality or of their purpose or history. Today a Palestinian professor from Bethlehem University was on KBOO, a Portland radio station, and was debating in some fashion a representative of our Portland Community who is supportive of Israel, Bob Horenstein. I heard such a distortion of history from this professor that it was appalling to me to listen to him . I might add that Bob was not given hardly any time for rebuttal of facts, and in one case none. Under these conditions, he did a terrific job.

In the end of this "debate", the professor commented that the Palestinian resistance (meaning bombing Israel with rockets) will not stop in order to seek peace. We say that when they stop shelling us we can sit down and talk. The professor wants the world to boycott Israel and is also against the United States for supporting us. He is looking for Obama to say, get out of their land. He has a distorted view of the land that is Israel, thinking it still belongs to the Palestinians, who were not even in the area in any large numbers, but mostly came into the area to seek jobs from the Jews. He naturally forgets these little facts. So to start with, we are never to be on the same page of reality. He continually said to go to the United Nations site for facts.

I was most distressed to hear a W. Seaman being interviewed afterwards as a spokesman for Jews for Palestinians, or some such group here in Portland. Doesn't he realize that we all bewail the death of the enemy but that we realize that a country cannot live under such conditions as being bombed, and for 8 years at that? Believe me, he would be the first to scream if his neighborhood was bombed once! He would run immediately for the states! To me Jews like this are cowards in that they cannot fathom the history or conditions that our brothers are living through in Israel. They pontificate about what is right, thinking that there is no rightousness for Jews. How obscene. True to form, this is the USA and we all have our right to speak. We Jews range from the extreme left to the extreme right, but most of Israel and Portland Jews are backing Israel's decision to stop the attacks once and for all, hopefully. My fear is that Olmert's faction wouldn't go through with it as they are led by such an eager leader of obtaining peace at all costs, costing Israel the most.

We know that the United Nations has become a different mix than what it was in 1948. Today it is topheavy with Arab nations, who stick together, being many are actually related to each other. Since they have this power, they have been issuing absurd statements that we cannot take seriously. For instance, in their cease fire resolution, they did not even mention Hamas and their terrorism against Israel. If you want to look at a good cease fire resolution, look at what Oregon just voted on and passed. Saner people realize that a country cannot put up with 8 years of shelling upon its citizens and not have the right to protect itself. Israel must prevail. Once it goes down the drain, the rest of the Western world will follow as if caught in a whirlpool of death and destruction. It's already happening in some parts of Europe as emphasized by Holland's president.

Resource: KBOO 9:30am 1/15/09

Year 2012-Predictions of Cataclysm and the Moshiah

I had Shabbat dinner with relatives this past Friday night. The conversation turned to the coming of the Messiah "Moshiach". I know that both we Jews and many Christians expect the Messiah to come very shortly. Throughout history people have been expecting a Messiah's coming. This is the first time that I know of that both Christians and Jews are expecting him to come at the same time.

With this knowledge known to me, I have read the Bible Code I and II with great interest. The year 2012 was mentioned as something happening that was very important. This is a code found from the Hebrew writings of the 5 Books of Moses laid out in rows without spaces, and finding that at intersections of letters, facts have been found. I can read Hebrew and saw the charts and could read them. It's mindblowing. Isaac Newton was trying to find such a code, but with computers of our age, it has now been accomplished. Many disregard this finding as they can do the same thing with the book, Moby Dick. I doubt if they can find the very facts that the mathematician, Eliahu Rips of Israel has discovered and continues to discover. What is hard is that they predicted a few times what would happen, but can't do it all the time.

Today I watched a TV program on the History channel that was titled, Nostradamus-2012 on from 5pm to 7pm. It discussed the Bible Code and other resources that are saying similar things. The information was taken from "The Lost Book of Nostradamus" made up of many pictures that have been interpreted. The gist of it is that there may be a galactical realignment in the heavens causing an upheaval. Our choices in our lives determines the earth's fate.

This also sounds familiar. It's a part of Judaism. Doing good deeds is very important. The program mentioned that our Torah spoke of the end of days. Evidently we are in the 7th milinnium now, and our calendar soon ends. On the Jewish calendar this is the year 5769. The Christian "Revelations" discusses the end of days. My cousin was talking about the Chafetz Chaim having a dream and needing to tell everyone that the Messiah was coming soon. We talked about what "soon" meant.

The TV program today started with speaking of the Mason's calendar coinciding with 2012. The Hopi Indians also feel that this date is important and that we are moving into the 5th world now. The Mayan Indians are famous for their calendar which is more accurate than what the world uses today. They have December 21, 2012 as the last day of the calendar.

All the events that have been happening lately are prophesized in one way or another to happen at the end of days. Mesopatamia is actually the old name for Iraq and was spoken of 1500 years ago as being a part of the end of days. . That's mentioned. The economic crisis we're facing, with the stock market falling is part of events along with all the environmental occurrances, earthquakes and tsunamis. Atomic energy and Iran developing possible weapons is certainly pointing to something out of the end of days. Terrorism and Israel's rebirth are also things described in the end of days.

We are warned. The book of Nostradamus is a wake up call. We could be within three years of something huge happening. Our choices dertermine our fate.

This program is or will be for sale on the website of the History Channel. I have bought other program from them. It's replaying right now.

Ashkelon-Update

90 rockets and mortars, the 122 millimeter grads, have landed in Ashkelon since the start of Operation Lead. 6 had hit Ashkelon just before the start. by Wednesday evening, 4 had hit Ashkelon. One of them had hit a three story building causing a lady to have an asthma attack and be taken to Barzelai Hospital. A soldier in one of the hospital beds said he had been hit by sniper fire, and his hand was bandaged. We haven't heard about that possiblity happening.

Ashkelon's mayor voiced that the Operation Lead must go on and achieve its goals of stopping the artillary from hitting Israel. He feels that Hamas is in shock. (To get away with such shelling for 8 years and now feel the retaliation would come as a shock, I imagine.)


http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1231167303762&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

Day of Rage

Palestinian terrorists are vowing attacks on Jews worldwide now that we have finally decided that enough is enough of being shot at for the past 9 years. A Lebanese Arab has shot at a group of Israelis shopping at a mall in Odense, Denmark.

Suicide attacks have been promised by irate Arabs that are Hamas, Al-Qaeda and Hizbullah. It's been typical in the past to kill innocent civilians, especially Jewish women and children. Any known Jewish establishment might be targeted. This isn't news to us, but we'll just have to be more wary.

When I lived in Israel from 1980 to 1985, we had to be careful all the time of planted bombs. Children at the jr. high in Safed checked people's packages that were entering the school. They had put on a display of all the containers that had been found to carry some sort of bombs. Bombs were found in loaves of bread that they would leave on a sidewalk. Schools had been attacked as well as buses and trains. At least I didn't have to worry about suicide bombers then, but citizens do now. We must be aware.

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/129193

The Power of Journalists

Attacking Israel Through Journalism

The reporting about the situation for the past eight years has been from negligible to nil in the matter of reporting the ongoing rocket attacks on Israel from Gaza. Yet anything that can be misconscrewed as Israel's misbehaving is blasted in large letters in the papers and other media.

Why they can't report situations honestly is because most of them have their own agenda to emphasize, and their own friends to support. Instead of being true journalists, they have become some sort of politicians.

Honest Reporting is working on revealing what papers are so biased. One paper they found to have slanted journalism is the Huffington Post, and internet newspaper founded by Ariania Huffington. I noted that they do get articles from Al Jazeera, an Arab newspaper.

I've found this to be the case on our own Oregonian newspaper right in the editorial section, where the editor writes his opinion. I can't remember reading at any time a headline or article that has told of Israel being attacked by rockets from Gaza after Israel pulled out of Gaza. This was to be a time of peace, but Israel has suffered for 8 years shelling from the terrorists, yet the world did not react in any outcry or seem to care one bit, except the Southern Israelis around Sderot. Let Israel react finally to the bombings they have endured and suddently there is such an outcry and rage. How dare Israel not play the part of the sitting ducks! That is their role in life!

I was outraged reading the editorial's paragraph that stated: "hundreds and hundreds of rockets launched from Gaza into Israel-with the support and often the direct involvement of the Hamas regime-have provoked Israel powerfully.

Not hundreds and hundreds of rockets were launched. In this year alone, over 3,000 rockets, missile and mortars have hit southern Israel. Since the 19th of December to the 29th, 10 days, 200 missiles hit Israel including grad missiles that have hit deeper into Israel. Why did the writer only say hundreds? To make the history appear less important or less serious than it really was, no doubt. It's either that or he certainly did not research very well. Then again, this was a writing of his opinion, in which he throws in what seems to be a fact but in truth is not. This is how propaganda is written.

The second part, "with the support and often the direct involvement of the Hamas regime" really offended me. Why did the author hedge about who is doing the firing of rockets, missiles and mortars? Hamas is ruling the region. Hamas are the known terrorists who have struck at women and children in schools and buses. Hamas is the group who was voted for in Gaza by its citizens. Hamas are the fighters. There may be splinter groups, but they're all part of Hamas. With the support? Who does the editor think is doing the fighting? To me the journalism of the article is aiding and abetting terrorism against Israel by downplaying the role of Hamas. That's not true journalism. It's opinion colored by predudice.

This should be a warning to all that rely only on news from newspapers. We don't know the feelings of the journalists or how they really receive the news. In this case, are they relying on Palestinians for information only so that they can go back to a comfortable bar and write their "scoop" or are they seriously trying to get background and knowledge about the conditions and writing honest reports. One cannot rely on one source only for information.

I am in shock at the lies written in letters to the editor that people are reading as the gospel because it is in the newspaper. Have people not been educated in this city to realize that writers may not be educated in the situation but are showing their sympathy towards certain groups which means prejudices towards the other group?

One journalist that I truly admire is Joan Peters, a Christian who sympathized with Palestinians, and decided to do some of her own investigating. In her searching, she came upon written information that changed her whole attitude, and she realized who the Palestinians really were, where they had come from, when they had come, and that Israel had the right to be there in their homeland. She is a true historian and did not cover or diminish facts that she had found.

In culmination, she wrote her book, "From Time Immemorial", which tells of the origins of the Arab-Jewish conflict over Palestine. I only wish that some of these terribly opinionated people would read it.

Reed College in Portland, Oregon always emphasized the question, "What's your source?" I ask that when I hear outlandish statements about Israel's situation. I would hope that more people would become wiser and find out the truth by checking out their sources.

Resource: http://www.honestreporting.com/articles/45884734/critiques/new/Israel_at_War_-_Day_6.asp

Mitchell Bard Fact Sheet #64

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/talking/63_Sanctions.html