Jewish Facts From Portland: 2016

Thursday, October 20, 2016

Governors Committing to Israel and Against BDS

Nadene Goldfoot

Portland, Oregon has been fighting against the BDS movement against Israel. This stands for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against Israel. The Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement works to end international support for Israel's oppression of Palestinians and pressure Israel to comply with international law.

The truth of the matter is that Israel is not oppressing the Palestinians. In fact, they have done the very opposite, only to be viciously attacked by them since 1948 when Israel announced their statehood, as complying with the League of Nations in 1920 as well as the United Nations in 1947.

This group of Arabs, whose grandparents used to call themselves Syrian Arabs, have been used as pawns by the leaders of other newly-formed and old Middle East Nations surrounding Israel. They've been led by the terrorist, Arafat of Egypt, and now Abbas who has taken over since his death. If anyone is oppressed it is these Arabs by Abbas, not by Israel, for he governs them, and does it very poorly.

Major wars broke out 5 minutes after Israel announced their independence from the mandate of Great Britain, whose 30 years of time was up. Without even uniforms or an army, Israelis defended themselves as it was life and death for them with the Arabs chanting to drive them into the sea. Following wars occurred in 1956 and then the big one in 1973.

Countries who couldn't whip Israel and drive her into the sea have come up with this act to cripple Israel financially, which would even hurt her ability to pay her debts back to the USA besides harming herself.

Israel has been a country that has been most creative in developing businesses in order to support themselves. Their biggest expense has been on defensive weapons bought from the USA. Their own people, men and women, serve in the army called the IDF (Israel Defense Force). The USA has not had to fight for them. Now half of our states, by ignoring a request to join the movement AGAINST this crippling force field are in truth denying them the right to support themselves and not be a burden on anyone, The money for defense, on the other hand, must all be spent in the USA in order to support their economy.

Anyone who has studied Israel's past and present history knows that this tiny country of only 6 million Jews and 1.7 million Arabs have not oppressed the Palestinian Arabs, but themselves have suffered and lost lives because of their histrionics used in the attempt to destroy Israel.

Oregon's governor is the 27th to sign on and be against BDS. She's also running again on her Democratic ticket.

This means that 28 states have signed on to be against BDS as of this writing. The District of Columbia where Washington DC sit has signed and is against BDS. There are 22 more that could sign and join them against this most unfair act. They are:

Alabama

Robert Bentley	Republican	January 17 2011	2019 (term limits)

Alaska

Bill Walker	Independent	December 1 2014	2018

California

Jerry Brown	Democratic	January 3 2011	2019 (term limits

Colorado

John Hickenlooper	Democratic	January 11 2011	2019 (term limits)

Delaware

Jack Markell	Democratic	January 20 2009	2017 (term limits)

Hawaii

David Ige	Democratic	December 1 2014	2018

Idaho

Butch Otter	Republican	January 1 2007	2019 (retiring)

Louisiana

John Bel Edwards	Democratic	January 11 2016	2020

Michigan

Rick Snyder	Republican	January 1 2011	2019 (term limits)

Mississippi

Phil Bryant	Republican	January 10 2012	2020 (term limits)

Montana

Steve Bullock	Democratic	January 7 2013	2017

New Mexico

Susana Martinez	Republican	January 1 2011	2019 (term limits)

North Dakota

Jack Dalrymple	Republican	December 7 2010	2017 (retiring)

Rhode Island

Gina Raimondo	Democratic	January 6 2015	2019

South Carolina

Nikki Haley	Republican	January 12 2011	2019 (term limits

South Dakota

Dennis Daugaard	Republican	January 8 2011	2019 (term limits)

Tennessee

Bill Haslam	Republican	January 15 2011	2019 (term limits)

Vermont

Peter Shumlin	Democratic	January 6 2011	2017 (retiring)

Virginia

Terry McAuliffe	Democratic	January 11 2014	2018 (term limits)

Washington

Jay Inslee	Democratic	January 16 2013	2017

West Virginia

Earl Ray Tomblin	Democratic	November 15 2010	2017 (term limits)

Wyoming

Matt Mead	Republican	January 3 2011	2019 (term limits)

10 Republicans and 12 Democrats have not signed as yet. Let's hope it's just an oversight. I'll be watching and praying that this letter gets into the mail, quickly.

Resource: https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?tab=wm#inbox/157df3b13202f5ca

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 Zoabi		Balad Joint List	18, 19, 20	Sunni 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 boycott, divestment 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 Africa, the 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