Terrific Lebanon Flash Mob Dancing

Nadene Goldfoot
Now I know why King Solomon was friendly with his northern neighbor, Lebanon, land of Cedar trees.  They also must have had wonderful dancers for entertainment.  I just watched the youtube presentation listed below of their dancing in an airport in flash mob dancing and was really enjoying it.  I loved the tempo and the steps of the dancers.  It was terrific!  King Solomon was known for his wisdom.  He had a good deal going with Lebanon.  He bought cedar wood and they had an income.  It was a great trade.  They also enjoyed peace! 

It's just so sad that terrorists have taken over so much of Lebanon and are threatening Israel all the time.  Gone are the days of Major Sa'd Haddad who used to patrol the border and help keep Israel safe.  He and his Christian Maronite Phalange militia were remarkable.  That is a tiny country where the ruling party had been Christian but were in the minority, and it didn't work out. Bachir Gemayel, 35 year old good looking member of the Christian Phalange Party  and  newly elected president on August 23, 1982 was assassinated  on September 14, 1982 in a bomb attack that also took out others in Beirut.  The PLO had taken over southern Lebanon and used it as they are Gaza today, a staging ground for attacks.  At the time I was living in Safed, very close to the border and saw some of his group in our restaurants on the R&R time and was so grateful to them for their protection.  I was there in 1982 when Israel went in to stop the PLO, but the job had been turned over to Haddad and it was botched and turned into something unworthy of them. 

We even used to have ancient Jewish communities living in Lebanon.  Beirut was a center, and even longer ago there were communities in Tripoli, Tyre and Sidon.  Their occupations were in commerce, as most of our past ancestors were engaged in this. 

In 1948 Lebanese forces invaded Israel and Jews living in Lebanon had some discriminatory regulations put on them which were later removed. after the fighting stopped.  In 1944 there were 6,261 Jews living in Lebanon.  In 1948 Jews fled to Lebanon from Syria and by 1964 there were 5 to 7,000 Jews there.  After 1967 the communities became almost extinct.  By 1975 there were 1,000 Jews there during their Civil War and by 1990 there were less than 100 remaining.  I'd be surprised if any lived there today. 

We can't forget that terrorism in Lebanon took the lives of 241 marines in Beirut on October 23, 2008, either.  They weren't there to assist Israel in any way, but the USA had a base there.  The Islamic Jihad terrorists, the same ones who attack Israel, were responsible for this attack.  Today's Lebanese terrorists are Hezbollah, supported financially and politically by Iran and Syria.  They took over Lebanon. after 1982.   

Gosh, it would be so nice if Lebanon and Israel would make peace.  I could see dance programs being shared between the two states.  Israel has been involved in the European Music Festival where all the countries compete for the best song, etc.  I'd love to see something like that in dancing where the Middle East could strut their stuff. 

There's so much culture being wasted.  I grew up practicing on the piano and remember one of my favorite pieces, 'In a Persian Market".  Persia, or Iran today has a lot to offer other than a madman at the helm who wants to destroy Israel and the United States.  This brings to mind the news today of another Atomic scientist being the object of a hit.  Israel is being blamed, but Ahmadinejad is forgetting that there were a lot of Iranians demonstrating outside against his regime.  Perhaps they don't want to be involved in an atomic battle.  Israel is only one of several that want to stop this madman from getting atomic weapons. 

Reference: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VEp29GS1VXI&feature=share  WATCH THIS ONE
The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
http://www.arlingtoncemetery.net/terror.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1983_Beirut_barracks_bombing
http://www.meforum.org/352/israels-south-lebanon-imbroglio  excellent
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bachir_Gemayel
Nathan Fendrich for heads up on the dance video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2lANtTxKYw  In a Persian Market-beautiful !

Apartheid Practiced by Arab States Against Palestinian Arabs

Nadene Goldfoot
Some 300,000 Palestinian refugees live in Lebanon in UNRWA camps.  They are there because their country wanted to keep them in this predicament in a chess game against Israel.  They've been there for over 60 years.  They live as a people without any citizenship in any country.  It started in 1948 when Israel was announced statehood and Arab leaders of surrounding countries told them to leave their homes since they all were going to attack Israel.  When the dust settled these Arabs could move into Jewish homes and upgrade themselves.  The dust settled but the Jews won and so the next advice was from these same leaders; go into camps.  It's their next ammunition against Jews. 

In 1959 the Arab League made a resolution of this to keep them in camps and how they were to be treated.  They realize too late that they have no rights, no citizenship, no chance for jobs.  They're on the dole from  UNRWA.  Their numbers have grown immensely though they can't get health insurance such as citizens in Lebanon have.  In 1950 there were 914,000 displaced persons.  By 2009 the number was 4.6 million.  There are 59 such camps found in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Judea and Samaria and even in Gaza, all run by UNWRA.   

This is the same story in how they are being treated in Syria and Egypt.  Those Palestinian Arabs that did not flee at the onset of the 1948 war but stayed are enjoying a democratic life as Israeli citizens.  There are 1.4 million of them.  In this group one finds Christian Arabs as well as Bedouins. 

Occasionally one hears about traitors against Israel who are working with Hamas, but not often.  One such group I've heard about in Portland has been the DAM hip-hop trio who came here singing about how bad Israel was.  Perhaps they'd like to trade places with the people on the video below living in a camp in Lebanon.  It was Qatar who sponsored an Arabic teacher who was the one who brought this group into Lincoln High for a little brain-washing.  Their repertoire did not include a lot of English sung songs; and Arabic wasn't understood, but some students left saying how they hated Israel after listening to them. 

"The UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East) defines a Palestine refugee as:   "Palestine refugees are persons whose normal place of residence was Palestine between June 1946 and May 1948, who lost both their homes and means of livelihood as a result of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War."  They neglected to be specific about how they came to lose their homes and that Jews had begged them to not leave.  It's quite a lesson for the greedy.  By coveting what belonged to their Jewish neighbors, they lost their own homes forever, for the people in the camps are most likely the descendants of the original population that left.  How long is going to go on? 

Many of the people living in Qatar are not native to the tiny state.  They have brought in many workers from surrounding states.  Wouldn't they like to take in some of these Arab Palestinians and let them become Qataris? 

It isn't Israel that is practicing Apartheid like the enemies of Israel keep telling people.  It's they themselves that do it on purpose to hold against Israel's head as something to complain about.  As PT Barnam always said, "There's a sucker born every minute," and only anti-Semitic suckers would believe such a thing in the first place. 

Resource: from Stand With Us: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TlrYVB8XzQQ&feature=youtu.be&mid=575494
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palestine_refugee_camps
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/There's_a_sucker_born_every_minute

My Favorite Heroine in Israel

Nadene Goldfoot
Brigette Gabriel is my heroine.  She is a Christian Lebanese woman who was a young girl in 1982, when Israel went into Lebanon.  I was there, having moved to Safed in 1981 after making aliyah in 1980.  Brigette explains fully what life was like for her in Lebanon prior to 1982, telling things I knew nothing about. 

What I knew was that Major Hadad of the Christian Lebanese Militia was guarding our border and that he and probably his soldiers came into Israel for R&R to our hospital.  I was so thankful at the time that there was a group in the Middle East who was supportive of Israel and we were working together.  I had no idea of the horror the Christians were going through prior to Sharon allowing his men to go into  the Palestinian camps there and do what they felt they had to do.  Sharon was in big trouble after that.  Maybe he of all people knew what they had been enduring.  Brigette was suffering terribly at that time.

She emphasises in her video below, that there are 1.2 billion Muslims in the world.  Only a minority are radical Islamists.  However, that minority makes up 15-25% of all Muslims which amounts to 180 to 300 million radicals.  That's a lot compared to the 6 million Israelis, of which 5 million are Jewish and over 1 million are Muslims. 

Lebanon was a jewel of a country in the Middle East.  It was made up of Christians and Muslims.  It didn't work.  Christians were slaughtered.  At a time now that Israel is again having to prove her right to her existence to the world and to keep the little bit of land which amounts to only half of what she had been promised and what she had to lose lives over, listening to Gabriel's words are most important.  If only all those who are boycotting Israel and her products and want to break into Gaza on ships on the upcoming flotilla would hear her out, maybe some facts would be understood. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2fnTHyyvzWg&feature=share 

Nakba Day Destructive for Israel and Arabs

Nadene Goldfoot
Israel knew that there would be demonstrations on the Arab "Nakba Day",  the Arab day of mourning because Israel had been created.  Arab demonstrations in and around Israel have historically been attended with some violence, so Israel thought they were prepared for anything.  Israel allows demonstrations being they are a democratic society but they do not allow rioting as this causes people to be hurt.  So they had the police and the army out for protection. 

This time the Palestinians also had with them Syrians and Hizballah, the anti-Israel terrorist party of God , making a force of monumental size, more like a Mongol invasion.  Hizballah are followers of the former Shiaa Imam Khomeini of Iran.  Three borders were breached by these invaders with a blood lust.  They crashed through the Golan and Lebanon borders and the Gaza Strip.  Dozens overran the Israeli Golan village of Majd al Shams and put up Syrian and Palestinian flags in the square.

Palestinians are being sponsored by Hizballah and they crashed through the Lebanese-Israeli border and damaged IDF installation.  Hundreds battered the Erez crossing from the Gaza Strip.

Israel had to defend themselves.   Many Israelis were injured.  On the Syrian border thousands were in the act of crossing the border but were finally halted. 

Debka File had reported that Damascus, Syria had planned trouble against Israel to divert people from the rebellion against the Assad regime.  Bashar Assad's cousin Ramy Makhlouf had threatened on the 10th that if Americans and Europeans didn't stop backing the Syrian anti-regime uprising, they would  go to war on Israel or Palestinians to harm Israel.  Israel needed more forces than they had along the Golan border as this turned out to be breached. 

The Lebanese army was on high alert on the Syrian border.  Syrian forces and anti-regime protesters have escalated in Syrian border villages.  At least 8 other places in Israel, including Tel Aviv and Jerusalem became problematic because of Nakba. 

The leaders are angry now that Israel dared to defend themselves and are threatening  because of it.  I suppose they think they can attack without any loss of life.  Such thinking is so convoluted.  Netanyahu reminded them that Israel would defend its borders. 

http://www.debka.com/
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110515/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_israel_palestinians
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20110515/wl_afp/israelpalestiniansconflictnakba