Saturday, May 28, 2016

Incomprehensible Moves Against Israel Including BDS Movement

Nadene Goldfoot                                              
Holding inaccurate facts that Israel is Apartheid. 
Any idea seems to go to Boycott, Divest and hold
Sanctions against Israel. Racist? 
 Israelis are made up from a multiple of nations, and include Blacks, 
Muslims, Jews, Christians, Sephardics, Ashkenazis, Mizrachis,
 lost tribes, 
 with Muslims in Knesset. It's a little melting pot 
made up of 8,000 sq. miles.  

Haneen ZoabiHaneen ZouabiBalad
Joint List
181920Sunni Muslim.[3] First Arab woman elected to the Knesset on an Arab party's list.


  
The BDS movement against Israel, started by Palestinians, as explained next,  by a few United States groups is incomprehensible.  Israel is their only ally and only democratic state in the Middle East.  That these groups think only they know what Israel's leaders should be acting on to best serve their population is ludicrous.  So far, Israel has managed to protect their people and advance enough to help other nations, especially the United States, in their defense against jihadic terrorists that attack to kill .  

"The campaign is organised and coordinated by the Palestinian BDS National Committee.  The campaign was started on 9 July 2005 by over 170 Palestinian non-governmental organizations in support of the Palestinian cause for boycottdivestment and international sanctions against Israel. Citing a body of UN resolutions and specifically echoing the anti-apartheid campaigns against white minority rule in apartheid era South Africathe BDS campaign called for "various forms of boycott against Israel until it meets its obligations under international law"" and they should have said THEIR law, as international law says otherwise.  

Since the end of WWI, Israel has been treated as rotten as mankind can get.  " The Balfour Declaration was a letter dated 2 November 1917 from the United Kingdom's Foreign Secretary Arthur James Balfour to Walter Rothschild, 2nd Baron Rothschild, a leader of the British Jewish community, for transmission to the Zionist Federation of Great Britain and Ireland."  In it they promised that they would be for and would help create the Jewish Homeland, something much needed after 2,000 years of persecution and at best, inhospitable acts  by Christian nations.   Chaim Weizmann, chemist, had helped England by his creation of a better ammunition of which without it, they may have lost the war to the Axis of the German group.  The "Balfour Declaration" was later incorporated into both the Sèvres peace treaty with the Ottoman Empire, and the Mandate for Palestine. The original document is kept at the British Library.  The shocking fact is that the Jewish National Home was to be created within the first 10 years. Jews had to wait out the 30 mandatory years, instead.    
                                                                           
Allenby and Emir Feisal
Damascus, October 3, 1918
Feisal became king of Iraq
until 1933 at death.
Yasser Arafat, leader of PLO.  It was the Arab League who created the Palestine
Liberation Organization in Cairo in 1964 as a weapon against Israel.

The PLO Covenant against Israel, Article 20, says the Balfour Declaration and everything based upon them are deemed null and void.  The claim of historical or religious ties between Jews and Palestine does not tally with historical realities, nor with the constituents of statehood in their true sense.  Judaism, in its character as a religion, is not a nationality with an independent existence.  Likewise, the Jews are not one people with an independent identity.  They are rather citizens of the states to which they belong"  

Very black and white in their  lopsided thinking, is how I see them.  The Palestinians, backed by all the Arab nations, have never been willing to make peace.  Now, we do have peace with Jordan and Egypt.  All 3 countries  face an even worse enemy, ISIS, and need to stand together against this evil force.  


The British issued their WHITE PAPER in 1939.  It rejected the idea of the creation of a Jewish state and the idea of partitioning Palestine. It also limited Jewish immigration to 75,000 for 5 years, and ruled that further immigration was to be determined by the Arab majority (section II). Restrictions were put on the rights of Jews to buy land from Arabs (section III). Further, it promised that only with Palestinian support would Britain allow a Jewish state. This greatly upset Zionists because of the increasing persecution of Jews in Europe at the onset of World War II, particularly in Germany. (See Persecution of Jews)[citation needed]
                                         
Husseini and Hitler 1941
                                                        
Husseini and other head  Nazis 


The policy was accepted by Amin al-Husseini of the Arab Higher Committee.  He was the worst enemy Israel has had.  He's the one who started all the riots in Jerusalem, called the Sherif of Jerusalem.  He was the antagonist against Emir Feisal, who was for Jews re-entering their own land.    Zionist groups in Palestine immediately rejected the White Paper
                                                                                 
Exodus, 1947, kept from unloading Jewish refugees into Palestine,
their Promised Land.

So what happened? The English mandated personnel kept out Jews from entering Palestine during the uprising of the Nazis in Germany and at a time Jews needed a Jewish Homeland like never before, were turned away, the beginnings of WWII.    Those who managed to enter had to do it secretly like thieves in the night, a land that their forefathers had for over 3,000 years, filled with the bones of their forefathers.  "Exodus 1947 was a ship that carried Jewish emigrants from France to British Mandatory Palestine on July 11, 1947. Most of the emigrants were Holocaust survivors who had no legal immigration certificates for Palestine. Following wide media coverage, the British Royal Navy seized the ship and deported all its passengers back to Europe." Their future ended with their murder there.  

After the 30 years of waiting through the British mandate, Jews finally announced their state's birth of May 14, 1948, and were met with shooting, the war of Independence that lasted from  November 29, 1947, started by the Arabs who refused to accept the UN partition resolution, to 1949.  This started with Israel's population of 650,000, and the armies of Egypt, Transjordan, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and a Saudi-Arabian contingent invaded their 5 minute old country.  
                       
Moshe Dayan, The Sinai War of 1956
                                                       
Moshe Dayan, 1973 Yom Kippur War

1967 War, finally can visit
Western "Wailing" Wall
since 1947


Let's not forget the follow-up wars that showed there was no kindness or peace in the hearts of Israel's neighbors: The Sinai War from 29 October to 5 November 1956; The Six-Day War from 5 to 11 June 1967; The War of Attrition from 1968 to 7-8 August 1970, The War of 1973 Yom Kippur War, attacking on the day the population was in synagogues,  praying  to G-d for forgiveness of their sins against HIM,  the attacks of the PLO which brought on the 1982 war in Lebanon of which I was involved in; the following Intifadas, riots, and Hamas sniping at southern Israel for years.  
                                                                                      
During Israel's total of 67 years of existence now, they have never known real peace, and to everyone's consternation, have managed to be most successful in developing their land and offering their creations to the world.  Yet, we now see a slipping back into history that is more like the horrid 1930s in Germany, a despising of Jews again, with the development of BDS.
                                                                        
al-Qaida
Hezbollah

Now, which sounds like a page out of the bible, a description of the END OF DAYS, in the
North:  Hezbollah terrorists backed by Iran sit in Lebanon with 150,000 rockets and missiles. They're 2nd to al-Qaida in killing more Americans than other terrorists, and have their artillery placed in civilian towns with human shields; which is the way Palestinians also attacked and defended themselves.  

                                                                                 
Tunnels to use in terror attacks
Hamas hides behind masks

South:  Hamas and other terrorists in Gaza  have re-armed weapons caches and have rebuilt terror tunnels.  Hamas hires more than 1,000 diggers and has diverted cement and lumber coming in for civilian reconstruction to fortify their attack tunnels.  This is what we thought they would do with the materials and why they had to stop fleets of ships for inspections who are part of the BDS intelligencia.  
                                                                                  

East:  Iran, country who has threatened all of Israel and its people, who is getting ready for the one and only needed atomic bomb on Israel with their testing of long-range missiles that will carry nuclear warheads.  They have flown over US naval vessels in the Persian Gulf.  They awarded medals of conquest to naval commanders  who illegally detained 10 US soldiers.  They are supporting terrorism for the end result of destabilizing the whole region of the Middle East, and most likely will use their $100 billion in sanctions relief for the nuclear deal to this end.  
Tell me what other country on this planet faces the dangers that Israel faces daily on its borders.  Then Israel has to cope with BDS from their allies;  SOME ALLIES!  

One of the propositions that BDS people hold against Israel is the Rachel Corrie incident on March 16, 2003  of a young American  from Washington  who went over to Israel with the purpose of interfering with the army bull-dozing terrorist homes as a punishment in Gaza.  She was from the International Solidarity Movement., a pro-Palestinian group from the get-go.  She was a willing pawn, used in the attacks against Israel.  She had decided in her heart that Israel was bad and the Arabs were good, shown by her actions.   "According to the Israeli authorities the demolitions were carried out to eliminate weapons smuggling tunnels."   It was a horrible accident and not the soldier's fault that an American stood in front of him while he was doing his job.  None of the Palestinians were as foolish to do such a thing as stand in front of a bulldozer in use.  It's like standing in front of a train.  It's suicide, and that's what happened.  Israel had reason to be doing the razing of homes as an act against terrorists.  She was not even an Israeli-yet her group from which she came thought they had all the answers.  Such naivety!  You know that the Arab nations would just shoot to kill anyone breaking their laws both of terrorizing them and interfering with their punishment.   
                                                                                   
Israel population density

All this is said to be the future for Israel, and some people can't abide the Jews they have replaced  in G-d's world and have instead, put Jews in  a 2nd class distinction along with many Muslim's view of Jews.   So they have taken up arms against Israel by the BDS movement.  I must say that this is very nice of them not to use live ammunition out of rifles or missiles, but they are fighting against Israel for reasons that are completely misconstrued.  If they had any heart and love as they profess to be the only ones with such souls, they would have the minds to understand what's been going on and against Israel.  All their energy is coming from pre-conceived ideas and false information and the inability to add 2 + 2.  In an international meeting of Presbyterians, they vote to use BDS, and this is taken up as the lead move by the rest of the world, including Portland State U, who are hell bent on doing this, an act that could be calling on a suit in the courts.  However, the Methodists were much wiser and are not joining in.  
                                                                                 
This outrageous movement against Jews, as Israel is a Jewish refuge is dangerous to both the USA and Israel.  This is an economic warfare against the only Jewish state in the world as well as being an economic deficit to the American businesses being withheld from their buyers.  It harms both.  Europe is in the act by forming new labeling guidelines for some Israeli products.  Of course the aim is to pressure Israel into "unilateral concessions" outside any boundary on any peace negotiation.  
                                                                                     
The actors want to punish Israel by delegitimizing and isolating her which makes Israel more vulnerable to her every-day security challenges.  They help to create a false belief and give impetus to the idea that Palestinian authority leaders can get what they want while avoiding direct talks with Israel.  This makes peace almost impossible to achieve.   

Resource: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balfour_Declaration
AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee, letter from Washington, DC., Brian Shankman, Director
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rachel_Corrie
http://jewishfactsfromportland.blogspot.com/2012/08/olympia-washington-activist-in-gaza.html
http://www.pbs.org/lawrenceofarabia/players/feisal.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Arab_members_of_the_Knesset

Saturday, May 14, 2016

RASHI's Troyes, France, and His Family's 1st Run-In With Crusaders

Nadene Goldfoot                                                                        

RASHI,  the acronym and the name Rabbi Solomon Yitzhaki (ben Isaac) was called, was born in Troyes, France in 1040-976 years ago.  How had Jews come to France from Jerusalem when the Temple fell in 70 from Rome's takeover?  They probably followed the Roman-made highway to another Roman center along Via Agrippa to Troyes.  RASHI also died here in 1105.  No doubt, Jews had been trading with Troyes before the fall of the Temple in the year, 70, so some Jews were familiar with it.
                                                                       
1st Crusaders 
  It was here that RASHI made his livelihood with his vineyard.  He had studied in the Rhineland next door, mainly in Worms. "He was a fantastic scholar and studied with the greatest student of Rabbenu Gershom of Mainz."  When he returned to Troyes, he established his own school, which achieved a wide reputation.  He was a writer of commentary on the Bible, mainly the Torah (Pentateuch) ,  and the Babylonian Talmud.  He survived massacres of Jews from the First Crusaders of Europe.
                                                                     
"Troyes (French pronunciation: ​[tʁwa]) is a commune and the capital of the department of Aube in north-central France. It is located on the Seine river about 150 km (93 mi) southeast of Paris. This area is known as the Champagne region of Northern France. . Troyes has been in existence since the Roman era, as Augustobona Tricassium, which stood at the hub of numerous highways, primarily the Via Agrippa.  "Before Julius Caesar’s conquest, Troyes was already a town of the Gauls; under the Roman emperor Augustus it became the capital of the Gallic tribe known as the Tricasses (hence its name)."  

"The city was converted to Christianity in the 3rd century, and then the town was threatened by the Huns in the 5th century and was defended against them by its bishop, St. Loup. 

Sacked by the Normans in 889, it soon came under the authority of the counts of Champagne, who founded a number of churches and almshouses there and established the great fairs which gained an international reputation and brought Troyes exceptional prosperity"
In the early cathedral on the present site, Louis the Stammerer in 878 received at Troyes the imperial crown from the hands of Pope John VIII.   At the end of the ninth century, following depredations to the city by Normans, the counts of Champagne chose Troyes as their capital; it remained the capital of the Province of Champagne until the Revolution.. During theMiddle Ages, it was an important trading town, and gave its name to troy weight. The Champagne cloth fairs and the revival of long-distance trade and new extension of coinage and credit were the real engines that drove the medieval economy of Troyes.
In 1285, when Philip the Fair united Champagne to the royal domain, the town kept a number of its traditional privileges. John the Fearless, Duke of Burgundy and ally of the English, aimed in 1417 at making Troyes the capital of France, and he came to an understanding with Isabeau of Bavaria, wife of Charles VI of France, that a court, council, and parlementwith comptroller's offices should be established at Troyes. It was at Troyes, then in the hands of the Burgundians, that on 21 May 1420, theTreaty of Troyes was signed by which Henry V of England was betrothed to Catherine, daughter of Charles VI, and by terms of which he was to succeed Charles, to the detriment of the Dauphin. The high-water mark of Plantagenet hegemony in France was reversed when the Dauphin, afterwards Charles VII, and Joan of Arc recovered the town of Troyes in 1429."
I notice that Wikipedia has not mentioned RASHI at all under Troyes, even though they list famous people born there, and he is the most famous and earliest of Jewish commentators of the Bible.  
                                                                      
2nd Crusaders of 1147 who almost killed RASHI's Grandson, a Tosaphist.
The Second Battle of Dorylaeum took place on October 25, 1147. Conrad III stopped in Dorylaeum with his 20,000 Germanic troops, to rest, but was badly defeated by the Seljuk Turks led by Mesud I. Unable to continue the Crusade, Conrad journeyed to Louis VII of France's army only to have the Crusade fail completely
Tosaphists were French and German scholars of the 12 to 14th century who criticized and modified with explanatory notes on the Talmud.  "The most famous of these Tosafists was Rashi's grandson, Rabbenu Tam (Jacob Ben Meir Tam-our perfect Master (1100-1171) , who frequently disagreed with his grandfather.  He was the brother of Samuel ben Meir (Rashbam) and lived at Ramerupt until his home was destroyed by Crusaders in 1147 and he himself narrowly escaped death.  " On May 8, 1147, on the second day of the Feast of Weeks, French crusaders broke into his home, robbed him of everything except his books, dragged him into a field, insulted him on account of his religion, and decided to kill him. They inflicted five wounds upon his head, in order, as they said, to take revenge upon the most prominent man in Israel for the five blows which the Jews had dealt to Jesus. At that moment a prince of high rank happened to pass, and Jacob called upon him for protection, promising him a horse worth five marks in return. The prince thereupon bade the crusaders give the rabbi into his keeping, promising that he would either persuade him to be baptized or place him in their power again on the following day (Ephraim bar Jacob, in Neubauer and Stern, "Hebr. Berichte über die Judenverfolgungen Während der Kreuzzüge," p. 64)".Then he also settled in Troyes where in 1160, the first conference of French rabbis met under his leadership.  He had become the outstanding rabbinical authority of his day.  To this day, some orthodox Jews alternately wear 2 pairs of tephillin, one according to Rashi and the other according to Rabenu Tam.  
                                                                               
And when the Philistine looked and saw David, he disdained him, for he was but a youth, ruddy and handsome in appearance." In 2015 a 10-year-old Russian volunteer at Jerusalem’s Temple Mount Sifting Project found a seal from the time of King David in the 10th century BCE
Our family is related to RASHI as we have found out through DNA testing with an autosomal test, and we are not alone.  Many others are, too.  Rashi's family tree traced back to a connection to King David of Israel (1010 BCE-970 BCE).  .  

Resource; The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia: RASHI
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troyes
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/rashi.html
http://www.britannica.com/place/Champagne-region-France
http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/8436-jacob-ben-meir-tam
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David

Monday, May 9, 2016

Protestants Against Israel Now For BDS

Nadene Goldfoot                                                               
Portland, Oregon's Mt. Hood

Portland, Oregon's City Hall has chosen some volunteer committee to decide on a big issue, and that is whether or not to back BDS (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions ) against Israel.  They have chosen to do so.  The Oregonian newspaper  published an opinion article on Sunday written by Alice Rothchild, who is well known enough back East to have her own page in wikipedia online.  She is one of those Jews who is backing the Palestinians and not her fellow brothers and sisters who live there.  She said, "As a Jewish American, I am proud to stand with my Christian brothers and sisters in the US and Palestine, to support boycott and divestment as peaceful tools to bring occupation to an end." 
                                                                             
Christians of Jerusalem live without fear because Israel protects them.
This is not true in other Middle Eastern countries.  
 Peaceful for her, maybe, but not for the people who live there.  She about gave me a heart attack after reading her article.  I found I made several spelling errors when typing my response.  I was shaking!  I thought she had to be a fellow Oregonian and see now that she lives in Massachusetts.  This is a tool for our volunteer city council group to prove they made the right decision which some of us have been fighting against.
                                                                         
Fatah and Hamas, unified for this picture 
 There is no real state of Palestine yet, but she addresses it as if it exists already.  They do have a committee, but not a country-yet, even though so many groups have recognized them.  The so called Palestinians have yet to recognize Israel and agree to live in peace.

You can read her article with this website.  http://www.oregonlive.com/opinion/index.ssf/2016/05/divestment_an_appropriate_respo.html

My response to the Oregonian is below.  It will not be published.  I could not write a short note to answer such an attack.
                                                                          
Taking advantage of negative publicity against Israel like BDS, this is what happens on
the Temple Mount in Jerusalem; rock throwing Palestinians hitting Jews who are

now using knives and cars, ramming them into crowds. .  
In response to Alice Rothchild's opinion article from page A21, Divestment is an appropriate response to Israel's treatment of Palestinians, I think this is the worst bit of anti-Semitism  written by a Jew I've read that is not based on any sort of research, only self-hatred feelings and heresay.                                                                                      
King David  of Israel (1010 BCE to 970 BCE) 
                                                                           
Moses, who led us to the Promised
Land b: 1391 BCE-d: 1271 BCE
As 


opinionated as Alice Rothchild  is, I am holding dual citizenship and make research about Israel my life work.  Let's look at some facts.  Israel was a real empire, and the first king was Saul of the 11th Century BCE  in about 1030 BCE.  Our settlement of the land had started in the 13th century BCE.  Israel-Judea (Samaria was the surrounding land of Jerusalem)  was taken by the Romans in 70 CE-so had been an empire and country for 1100 years.  There never ever has been a country of Palestine, so there aren't Palestinian people that need to reclaim land to rebuild  their old state like the Jews are doing.  They are a conglomeration of neighboring people from all the other Middle East states who came there looking for jobs  Most  came after Russian Jews returned in the late 1800's   when the Ottoman Empire (Turks) held the land.  Jews have been homeless for over 2,000 years, and have suffered from a lot of anti-Semitism.  Not the Arabs called Palestinians today;   they were Syrians and also others who came  from every other Middle Eastern country since created after WWI by the allies.
                                                                         
Emir Feisal
Emir Feisal was the Arab leader of the day, and he accepted the return of the Jews, hoping his people would learn something from them.  He was a leader, educated and intelligent who was from Saudi Arabia originally.  He was of royal blood looking for land to rule, and got it from the British who held the WWI mandate.     Another Arab, Haj Amin al-Husseini, the "Sharif of Jerusalem, the Grand Mufti, was against the idea and was able to turn his very excitable and ill -educated followers against the Jewish return.    He was a big fish in a little pond and didn't want to lose his status.  His attitude led to the Khartoum Conference where all the Arab leaders met after 1967's failing attack on Israel and declared their THREE NO's.  They said NO peace, NO negotiations, NO recognition, and then insisted on rights of the Palestinians people in their own country which was a down right lie.   They've been saying NO to every offer since.  They didn't want the return of these people, evidently, and they weren't about to have Jews moving into the Middle East since they were looked upon as Dhimmis (2nd class citizens in their countries.).                                                                                       
Wailing Wall in Herod's day (73 BCE-4 BCE)
                                                                             
Western Wall "Wailing wall" in Jerusalem
 1967 was the first time that Jews could pray there since 1948
It had been 
under Jordanian rule until Jordan and
other Arabs  lost the war.

 
Israel held off building for over a year with no results except NO.  It didn't help.  The so called West Bank, which we call Judea and Samaria, are the foundations of ancient Israel and include Jerusalem, of course.  Jews have been praying 3 times a day for a return to Jerusalem in every synagogue around the world for the past 2,000 years, and now it's been happening. 
                                                                         
At a time when we could use the love Christians offer to everyone else, we're not getting it from the Protestants; only reprimands.  Israel happens to be a country making their own decisions on how to handle people who keep attacking them, which the Palestinians have been doing.  Our American Senators respect this little country and have done their own research as well, so feel it is beneficial to American interests as well as to Israel's to help them out financially.  They help everyone else.  For the Protestants to feel they can force issues they see or hear about upon Israel  without knowing why Israel takes certain positions is ludicrous.  How would they like it if China  decided not to do certain things that would jeopardize our economy unless we go along with China's wishes?  Hm???  Who knows what is best for the USA?  Others?  The same goes for Israel, who will be 68 years old on May 14th.  Israel has been attacked in 1948, 1956, 1967, 1973, and all because of these Palestinian non-existent rights other than all the rights Israel has given them. 
                                                                     
All of Israel's high school students go into the army upon graduation unless
they are doing studies in the Yeshivote, but that may soon be abolished.  They
will then need to serve every year for a month until age 50.  They live in a
very dangerous neighborhood.  Even now, ISIS is trying to get in.    
Gaza Palestinians  have  been raining missiles, mortars and rockets on their southern  cities for years.  It's like being asked to have Nazis as neighbors of the Jews.  Palestinians speak Arabic.  Israelis speak Hebrew.  Arabs are Muslims, a contrary religion to Judaism.  Jews are Jewish.  There's some similarities, but even education is of different levels between the two.  What we're trying to do is mix oil with vinegar and they're not mixing.
                                                                                                                             
Druse Arab Israeli soldier
Christian Arab Israeli soldier
                     
Israeli soldier from
Ethiopia
Everything Israel, a country of 6 million Jews and 1.7 million Arabs, has been doing is for their own protection and the need to stay alive.  Arabs are doing everything they can to destroy Israel.  Since 1948, people like the Secretary-General of the Arab League, Azzam Pasha,  said in Cairo,  

"This will be a war of extermination and a momentous massacre which will be spoken of like the Mongolian massacres and  Crusades."  Every leader of Arabs and Iran have followed suit saying equally nasty things aloud to their people.  Now we even have the Protestants and Alice. 

BDS with their  B for Boycotting, D for Divestment, S for Sanctions is not right at all.  It's trying to do an arm-twisting  of Israel into complying with their own wishes which amounts to destroying Israel.  I have news for these glorious city leaders.  It's not working.   Facts are showing that it's not working.    What they are doing is trying to interfere with Israel's ability to pay back loans to the USA as well.  What I feel is that Alice and her buddies in Portland's City Hall are control freaks  as well as followers of other anti-Semitic groups who have no background as to  the current or past events pertaining to Israel and have no business mixing in in this manner.  

Update: 5/9/16 3:55pm  Clinton: 'The BDS campaign is
by Jacob Kornbluh, Jewish Insider