Baghdad: One Day Away From Jerusalem

                  The Cradle of Humanity

Nadene Goldfoot                                      Babylon-Babylonia 

                                                                                       

                             ISIS Terrorists Ready to Attack Baghdad

You know what's happening to Baghdad, capital of Iraq right now.  ISIS Sunni terrorists are approaching like a hoard of locusts, killing everyone in their path brutally.  CNN just showed them forcing a father and his two sons to dig their own graves, and the father pleaded for their lives, but they were all shot while in or near their graves.  They do a lot of beheading.  The aim of ISIS is to create an Islamic state across Sunni areas of Iraq and in Syria and they are doing it as brutally as possible.  It's causing soldiers to run and leave their weapons, weapons that were given to them by the USA.  

If we go back far enough, the land was also known in the bible as the land of Shinar or of the Kasdim (Chaldees).  It's the cradle of humanity and the scene of the Tower of Babel.  Abraham was born in Ur of the Chaldeans.  To the prophets, Babylon was the symbol of insolent pagan tyranny.  It was home to Nebuchadnezzar II (604-561 BCE) who attacked the Jewish kingdom of Judah. We read in the Torah, "By.the waters, Of Babylon. We lay down and wept, And wept, For thee Zion. We remember, Thee ..."    Zion was another name for Jerusalem.  They had been captured and taken to Babylon for slave labor.

Babylon became Iraq which became independent in 1932 when they then turned on the Jews and persecuted them. From 1932 to 1934 there were 5 governments. In 1939 there were 80,000 Jews living in Baghdad.    In 1941 when Nazi thought permeated the Middle East , there were violent acts against Jews in Baghdad.  A pogrom against Jews was from the Muslims there.  This was called the Farhud, a riot, and they killed about 180 Jews and is attributed to the hateful attitude Arabs kept towards Jews from then on.  This was during the revolt of Rashid Ali.  The population was led by Haj Amin al-Husseini, the Sharif of Jerusalem, called the Grand Mufti.  About 1/3 of Baghdad at that time was populated by Jews.  There are probably Muslims who carry genes of their Jewish ancestors today.

Iraq soldiers attacked Israel in 1948 a few minutes after Israel announced its statehood.  Iraqis lost but refused to signed an armistice agreement with Israel.  So 123,500 Jews left Iraq then for Israel in Operation Ezra and Nehemiah.  Their property was confiscated by Iraq.  For those that didn't leave, they were given severe restrictions, especially after the Six Day War of 1967 when they had attacked Israel again with Syria, Egypt and Jordan.  Their treatment was so bad that it aroused international protests.  By 1991, the Jewish population was 150 living in Baghdad where one synagogue still continued to operate.

In 1981 Israel bombed the Osirak  nuclear reactor the French had built for Iraq.  It is the world's first air strike against a nuclear plant. The reactor was 18 miles south of Baghdad.  "The 70-megawatt uranium-powered reactor was near completion but had not been stocked with nuclear fuel so there was no danger of a leak, according to sources in the French atomic industry."  The atomic bombs from this "would be of the Hiroshima size. Thus a mortal danger to the people of Israel progressively arose."

It acted then because it believed the reactor would be completed shortly - either at the beginning of July or the beginning of September 1981."

 Jews had been living in Babylon way before Islam ever came into existence in 637.    The Babylonians had attacked Jerusalem in 597 BCE and had carted off all the best Jewish men and again in 586 BCE.  They took them to their home and made them slaves, so sold them to neighbors for a high price.

Speaking of neighbors, Aleppo, Lebanon had an ancient Jewish community also.  Jews had been praying there in their Great Synagogue since the 400s CE.  Jews had been in that city since 300 BCE and were the oldest native sect in the city.  They were there first.  If a car leaves Jerusalem in the morning they will arrive in Aleppo by mid-afternoon today.  Baghdad is only a day's drive from Jerusalem, but the borders will cause it to take a little longer.

Iraq used to be called Mesopotamia.  When the Muslims conquered the city in 637 and converted everyone, the Jews were happy, hoping they would be delivered from the cruelty of the Sassanid persecution.  Jews had come there from Kufa who had been expelled from Saudi Arabia a few years before.  It was a famous Jewish center where the Exilarch, head of the Jewish community and the Gaon were thought of as the most knowledgeable Jews in the land and who came to them for matters that needed to be decided upon.  Benjamin of Tudela in 1170 said that 40,000 Jews were living in Baghdad when he visited there.  Many were distinguished scholars. Among the Jews were poets, physicians and talmudists.    Under Mongol rule from 1258, Jews fared well.  Some even reached high administrative positions.  A massacre happened in 1291.  Then Tamerland captured Babylon in 1300 and the Jews fled.  The Ottoman Empire counted Baghdad as a conquest in 1534 and held it until 1917 when they lost WWI to the Western Allies.

Today Iraq is the 11th largest Muslim majority country with 31,234,000 population before fighting.  97% are Muslims, who are both 27% Shi'a and 70% Sunni.  The state is listed as secular.  As a state, they have 254,418 active troops.  "Mainstream Sunnism has been said to be "about" Sharia, sacred law.   In contrast, the Shia also follow Islamic law with great "vigilance", but their belief is added with Ijtihad "Research" in the light of teachings of the Quran."

So this was the cradle of civilization.  It has been working on  becoming  the cemetery of civilization at this rate.  The leader of ISIS, a PhD, is Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi.   He even served four years in a U.S. prison camp for insurgents, at Bucca in southern Iraq -- a time in which he almost certainly developed a network of contacts and honed his ideology.   He was released in 2009 and went to work.

Resource:http://mosaicmagazine.com/essay/2014/06/mizrahi-nation/
 The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/293631/Iraq/22903/Independence-1932-39
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islam_in_Iraq
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shia%E2%80%93Sunni_relations
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ijtihad
http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/june/7/newsid_3014000/3014623.stm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six-Day_War
http://www.cnn.com/2014/06/12/world/meast/who-is-the-isis/

Messages From A Syrian Jew Trapped In Egypt: Authorhouse, Publishers

Nadene Goldfoot                                                                      

The novel, Messages From A Syrian Jew Trapped In Egypt, is hot off the press.  Use the publisher's page below to  read the overview and have a free preview of the book.    If you're interested in how the Syrian Civil War started, this book explains it with the fight between the Muslim Brotherhood and Assad, an Alawite.  It also tells about the Muslim Brotherhood and how they have affected Syria and Egypt.

The book is up to date telling about the plight of the Syrian refugees and one particular one, young tall, dark and handsome Vick, who is different from the rest.  He has a Jewish mother, making him by definition Jewish as well. This he must keep a secret as he lives in a Muslim world.    While he tries to find his mother,  he finds beautiful women who are  attracted to him.  All the while he works on defending Israel among his Muslim friends, a very dangerous step to take.

http://bookstore.authorhouse.com/Products/SKU-000905812/Messages-From-a-Syrian-Jew-Trapped-in-Egypt.aspx
Also found at amazon.com and Barnes and Noble online.
Update 4/20/14

Where Can Syrians Find Refuge From Civil War?

Nadene Goldfoot                                                                          

                                                              Fighting on streets in Syria

Syrians came into Egypt in 2011 at the beckoning of Morsi, who thought they would add votes to his Muslim Brotherhood.  When he was deposed, the Egyptians were ready to send the Syrian refugees back to Syria, but could not according to the UN.  Only some were registered as refugees at that point in time, then the deposed Morsi changed all that.  Now, the government has reason to have them leave since they've been there past the original time allowed.  Egypt has more than enough of their own poor to care for let alone refugees for they have a population of about 79,089,650.

The American embassy is closed in Egypt so that Syrians cannot go there  to get the needed visas to the USA.  The embassies are situated in a war zone anyway where so much rioting has been taking place. There are curfews at night needed for protection.   Egypt has not been the safe refuge they thought they were fleeing to.  The American embassy was not even answering the phone to help these people when people were still there.
                                                                       

Sweden has opened its doors to Syrian refugees, but the catch is that anyone with a Syrian passport has to have a visa to Sweden, and visas are going for around $5,000 or more. Even a visa to the USA for other people can go for as high as $2,000 for certain ones.   After two years of being away from jobs, most Syrians have gone through their savings and are now penniless.  They can't afford to get to Sweden.  These people burdened with Syrian passports could go to many Muslim countries, like Turkey, but the problem again is the high costs of living.  To go there they need money for rent and food, and jobs are not available, so they can't exist there unless they have family, which most all don't have.

Obama said that the USA would take in about 2,000 refugees, but so far have only taken in 90 people since the start of the Civil War.  More than 2 million Syrians have left their homes in Syria.  Syria's population before the war was about 22,505,000.  Well over 100,000 have died in the war, more like 150,000 today.

If one is an American friend of a Syrian wanting to come to the USA, he cannot sponsor the person.  Even a mother cannot sponsor her children, especially a son.  I found this out at the Lutheran Community Services, who seem to be the only ones who know about visas to the USA in our city.  It would be easier today for the child to sponsor the parent.    Political asylum isn't offered to Syrians, evidently.   Only if the Syrian is a famous scientist or a former security guard at the US Embassy in Syria, can they have reason to get to immigrate to the USA.

50 people were granted refuge in 2013 to the USA and an embassy guard was one of them.  In 2012 only 31 were allowed into the USA.  He reported that he had been arrested many times  and tortured for 10 days  in Syria with the accusation that he was an agent of the USA.  He's now living in Texas.  Syria didn't need many reasons to imprison and torture someone who stepped over the line of acceptable behavior.  Another reason was if you were even interested in joining the Masons, or if you were Jewish.

The only recourse for Syrian refugees turns out to be Jordan's refugee camps with the UN sponsored  Zaatari near the Syrian border in Mafrq, Jordan the most likely.  There are camps sponsored by Jordan only that are far more dismal and in need of sponsors.  People are not allowed to look for jobs if refugees in Jordan.  It's a pretty dismal life.  This is atrocious for people who have been industrious workers and not people used to being on the dole.  It would be like expecting all of Portland, Oregon to suddenly live in a camp in tents  or small boxlike structures in all sorts of weather and do nothing.  Can you see problems arising?  Of course.

Most all Jews in Syria had left in 1992 and 1994 with the assistance of Judith Feld Carr.  She is a Canadian that managed to take them out.  That was quite a feat considering Jews were not allowed to go abroad and had been kept in a ghetto since 1948 living under unimaginable restrictions.  Judith has been given awards from Canada and Israel for her bravery, determination  and chutzpa.

These are problems both Muslim and Christian Syrians and a few Jews are facing.  Most of the refugee camps are full of women and children.  The men are in smaller numbers.  Men don't want to return to Syria because they will be forced to fight for either the state or the various terrorist groups.  They truly have the reason to ask for political asylum, but are not being listened to or given this right.  Not all the Syrian men want to join up with some group and fight.

Who would want to stand by Assad?  What kind of person would back him?  Syrians had free education and free health care.  As a president who is a dictator in reality, he did give his Muslim constituents that much.  He was an evil man when it came to the Jews, however, who had lived in the Jewish Quarter in Damascus and in Aleppo, the hub of the business district.  He had taken all their rights and they were actually locked up in a ghetto-like existence.  The fear was that they would join Israel and fight against him, so the story goes.

Resource: Oregonian Newspaper page A7:  12/27/13 Few Syrian refugees resettling in the US by Anne Gearan, Washington Post
My book yet to be published, compiled references
Update: 1/4/14 http://www.economist.com/blogs/graphicdetail/2012/10/daily-chart-3

Hezbollah in Syria's Slaughter and Israel's Acts of Kindness

Nadene Goldfoot                                                                            

Shiite Hezbollah fighters are supporting President Bashar Assad's forces.   In the north of Syria is Aleppo, a former center of Jewish life.  Today, one of two main alliances who emerged in September is the Islamic Alliance.   In the south is the 2nd group, carrying the black flag of jihad,  which includes the Damascus suburbs. Both groups  are  Salafist organizations.   "Salafism is deemed a hybrid of Wahhabism and other movements since the 1960s.  Salafism has become associated with literalist, strict and puritanical approaches to Islam and, particularly in the West, with the Salafi Jihadis who espouse violent jihad against civilians as a legitimate expression of Islam,   though leading Salafi scholars have condemned attacks on civilians,  and Salafi who support such attacks are in a minority.
                                                                         

 Damascus was the home of the Jewish Quarter, whose Jewish population  were removed in 1994 when Israel managed a dangerous airlift to rescue them out of a severe situation of having been quartered there somewhat like what happened in the Warsaw Ghetto.  The other Salafist organization is The Army of Islam who has taken over this part of Syria.  These two groups want Shariah law.     They have denounced the Syrian National Coalition who has lost its power and is backed by the USA.

The in-politicians  of Assad and the rebels themselves  have no thought of their morality in how they treat their own people.  The paper reports about Marwan, a 35 year old Syrian refugee and former  clothing salesman from Homs, Syria, now living in the refugee camp in Mafraq, Jordan.  He was on his way to the grocery store and picked on as a possible opposition rebel and shot by a policeman in the knee and elbow  and then tortured.  So this was Assad's people who did this.   Officers hung him from the ceiling by his wrists and then beat him with sticks for a month and a half.  They wanted him to confess to fighting for the opposition.  He was then blindfolded and taken to Damascus where they put him in a 3 foot square cell for over 3 months with 4 others.  He was hung by his wrists again during the night every 3rd day, so I suppose this was better treatment  than before.  Finally he was released but without any documents saying he was innocent.

What this story leaves out has been filled in by a contact of mine.  People can be picked up who are innocent  and possibly more affluent and held for ransom.  $10,000 will get you out of jail.  Before someone coughs up the money, though, you will be tortured.  Often, the person is actually killed if the money doesn't come through.  Bodies of deceased will be visible for those alive and undergoing the torture.  This is how these rebels get money to proceed.
                                                                         

The rebels are mostly Sunnis.   What is happening is that rebel factions are fighting each other.   A thousand militias are trying to merge into a few big coalitions.  Do they even know what they are fighting for or have they just allowed themselves to become fighters without any forethought.  It seems as if the whole of Syria has turned into gangs fighting each other for turf and that's it and any sort of behavior goes as long as the outcome is success.  The civilians are just in the way of their actions.

This is why the United Nations thinks that another 2 million or more refugees will be added onto the already 2 million in 2014, which isn't that far away.  2.25 million might be displaced within the country before they get to a refugee center.  They are building a 2nd giant refugee camp in Jordan to hold 130,000 called Al Azraq.  Jordan can only take 300 per day into their country.  This is hard on their water supply and food.  Syria was at the start of the Civil War a country with a population of 22,505,000 with 90% Sunni/Shi'a following the Hanafi/Alevi  fiqh.  It was a state of Islamic people  that was neither  religious nor state controlled.  Their military power consisted of about 296,000 soldiers.  Now, about 10,000 foreign jihadists have joined the fight.

Speaking of food, you can imagine that this is running out in Syria. All the fighters should have realized by now that wheat growing in the fields has to get to the bakeries.  There are many steps that have to be taken before it gets there.    They have to provide food, water, electricity and schools besides defense.  Farming under these conditions has almost stopped as they're running out of fertilizer and money to operate.  Diesel prices are soaring even though they are living in an oil producing country. With bombs falling everywhere, I doubt if many people are out in fields working. People can't get food.  They'll be leaving on that reason alone.

 Some have resorted to eating bark off trees in Homs, Syria reports Batool, a 15 year old in the 9th grade in a refugee camp in Mafraq, Jordan.  They would like to go to France or Sweden but have had no replies to their applications.  She had 3 cousins shot and killed in Homs.  They still have family living there.  They're running out of savings.

Though Israelis are the hated and terrible "Jews, " there are  Jews who have been helping the refugees with medical aid  and food all along at the border who organized themselves.  Their comment is that nobody asked permission to kill, so we aren't asking permission to save lives. They've been helping out since 2000.  "Seventy tons of sanitation items, 670 tons of food, 120 tons of basic home items and 20 tons of medication are just a sample of the aid one Israeli NGO has delivered to Syrian refugees amid the current crisis."   Some wounded Syrians have even been taken into Israeli hospitals.   Such terrible people we are.

A mysterious website at www.stop910.com has a mission to bring attention to Hezbollah's "Unit 910" which is Hezbollah's international operations unit.  The mysterious website is offering a reward for information about this  international wing.  It's not known who is offering this or who is responsible for this website which is fighting against Hezbollah, the Shiite Muslim movement in Lebanon and is against Israel.  Shiites are mostly found in Iran, which is 98% Shi'a following the Jafari fiqh.  They have a lot of fighters to spare with a population of 76,923,300.  Supposedly they have an army of 545,000.

Resource:  Oregonian newspaper 10/26/13 page Frontpage and A13,, WAve of refugees heightens fears of spreading violence by Richard Read reporting from Baalbek, Lebanon,  Syria
http://www.jpost.com/National-News/Israeli-organization-delivers-hundreds-of-tons-of-food-medicine-to-Syrian-refugees-325579
http://www.npr.org/blogs/parallels/2013/09/13/221991236/an-unlikely-refuge-some-wounded-syrians-get-treated-in-israel
Batool, 15 year old, Oregonian, 10/26/13 page A14 report about Homs, Syria
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/09/25/do-you-know-the-history-behind-the-black-flags-of-jihad-theblazes-buck-sexton-breaks-it-down/
Oregonian 10/26/13 page A12, The Buzz on anti-Hezbollah website
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salafi_movement

Aleppo, Syria's Most Dashing Israeli Spy, Eli Cohen

Nadene Goldfoot                                                                          

Eli Cohen was a Mizrachi Jew.  That means he is a Jew from the Middle East.  Mizrah means East, and that's the name of Egypt, Mitzrayim. Often they are classed together with Sephardi Jews of Spain and Portugal.   He was born in Alexandria, Egypt  December 16,  1924 to an orthodox as well as Zionistic family.  His father sought refuge there from Aleppo in 1914 when Jews were being treated so terribly in Syria.  Aleppo had been the largest city and province where Jews lived.  Damascus also had a large population of Jews as well.  The original people had been there from the time of King David.  Later they were joined by Spanish Jews who needed refuge from the Spanish Inquisition of 1492 when Jews had to either leave the country or convert to Christianity.

He tried to enlist  in the Egyptian Army in January 1947.  Otherwise, being Jews, they  were treated as dhimmis all over the Middle East, meaning that they were penalized for being Jewish and were 2nd class citizens, and  would have had to pay a high poll tax.  They turned him down because they questioned his loyalty.  He had been studying at the university, so later that year he left and had to study  at home after facing harassment by the Muslim Brotherhood for being Jewish.

Israel was created on May 14, 1948.  After that, many Jewish families left Egypt to live there as the Muslim countries reacted to this by throwing out their Jewish populations.  His parents emigrated with his  brothers, Abraham and Maurice in 1949, but he remained in Egypt to finish a degree in electronics and to work on activities that would aid Israel.

By 1951, Egypt had a military coup and they were against any Jews in the country involved in any activity that was Zionistic.  He was arrested and questioned by the police.  In Syria the methods of interrogation are brutal, and they are known to have used electric shock treatments.  Egypt was probably practicing similar brutal methods which even Brooklyn police used in early days, such as the rubber hose  treatment in the 20's and 30's.  Luckily, the Egyptians could find no proof of his actions in Operation Goshen when Israel smuggled out Egyptian Jews and resettled them in Israel because of Egypt's hostility towards Jews then..  There have been several follow up rescues taking out Jews in groups that had been virtually imprisoned in their own neighborhoods with no freedoms at all.

I taught with a young  Egyptian Jewish lady in 1981in Safed at the junior high  and she told me she was one of the last to leave Egypt.  Only a few older ladies remained.

Eli emigrated to Israel, arriving in Haifa in a ship from Naples Italy in December 1956 after the Suez Crisis which had caused more persecution of Jews.  Many were expelled from Egypt then.  In 1957 he was recruited by the Israel Defense forces and placed in military intelligence where he became a counterintelligence analyst.  This was boring for him so he tried to join the Mossad who rejected him.  He left in a huff and worked as a filing clerk in an insurance office in Tel Aviv, quite a humble position for this talented young man.

There he met and married Nadia Majald, an Iraqi-Jewish immigrant in 1959.  They had 3 children, Sophie, Irit and Shai and settled in Bat Yam.  Now he was recruited by Mossad after someone re-visited lists of rejected candidates.  They watched him for 2 weeks and it was decided he was perfect for the job.  This was followed up with a 6 month course in their training school.  He was then a field agent and was given a false identity.

Finally Eli Cohen was caught as a spy and hung  in Al-Marjeh Square, Damascus on May 18, 1965 at the age of 40 years.   With him was 80 year old Chief Rabbi of Syria, Nissim Andabo.  Nadia sent a letter to President Hafez al-Assad and asked his forgiveness for Eli's actions in November.  She hoped to receive his remains but the Syrians refused.  Syria buried him 3  times so no one could find him.

A film about him is "The Impossible Spy" a story about his life.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQEyTlaLOR4
Resource:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eli_Cohen
The Jews of Aleppo  http://www.jewishgen.org/sefardsig/aleppojews.htm 

Syria's Position Today

Nadene Goldfoot                                                                          

After over 100,00 people have been killed in the Syrian Civil War and 2 million have been forced from their homes out of a population of 22,505,000,  the fighting may be coming to a halt.  The Syrian opposition group against Assad  is the Syrian National Coalition, backed by the West.   These rebels are outgunned by the regime forces who have gained speed since Assad agreed to give up his chemical weapons stocks and has thrown off the threat of of imminent US military action from jet planes. Deadly battles have been taking place, however.

The Sunni town al-Mitras of 8,000  lies in an area dominated by Assad's Alawite Shi'a sect where a lot of shelling has taken place.  Assad's soldiers want the surrender of dozens of fighters in there.  The town's officials persuaded defectors and rebels to surrender to the authorities with the promise of being freed after "repenting."  This ploy has often been used in stalemates in Syria such as the recent one in Talkalakh.  Bayda and Banias, nearby Sunni towns,  is where troops killed 248 people after days of shelling.

Syria is 13% Shia like Iran and the Alawites are a Shia group which is why Iran backs Assad.  The Twelvers and Ismailis follow that sect.  This is a Civil War of religion more than it is about politics with the 2 intertwined.

With either group, the worst thing to be was Jewish even though both Sunnis and Shia could be carrying some Jewish genes since Jews lived in the area since King David of Israel  who lived from 1010 BCE to 970 BCE. Syria was part of Israel-Judah which the Bible called Aram.  The coast had been settled in those days by the Phoenicians.  In the 8th century BCE, Syria had been overrun by the Assyrians who had  also attacked Israel in 721 BCE.  Assyria itself was an ancient state in western Asia whose people were also Semites and had established an aggressive kingdom in the 20th century BCE.  I think a lot of the present day Syrians must have inherited some of that aggressiveness.

Sunni Muslims are the majority and dominate the revolt  which started in March 2011, inspired by the Arab Spring in Egypt.  Christians and other Muslim sects have been on the side of the regime, which is surprising because the regime was so terrible to the Jews of Syria that they finally were forced find ways to escape. In the end, a Canadian woman helped to get them to Israel and the USA in 1994.

After the creation of Israel in 1948 the Jews in Syria were terribly persecuted.  This was far worse than the Jews of the Middle East being treated as dhimmis or 2nd class citizens which was bad enough where they had no rights as real citizens.  Instead, they had restrictions and had to pay a poll tax others did not have to pay.   Rights were taken away such as owning their property, travel or even to practice their occupations.  If they tried to leave the country they were persecuted.  If they were Jews who needed to travel for business purposes they had to travel alone for fear they would flee to a free country.  The big fear of the government was that the men would join the Israeli forces and fight against them in the Israeli army.   Here in Aleppo, the 3,000 year old Jewish history went back to King David.  Damascus's Jewish community also went back to that period and  both went back to Jews entering the country after the 1492 expulsion of Jews from Spain's Spanish Inquisition.  Why the Christians stand with Assad seems artificial if they are for freedom.

Beautiful neighborhoods of modern homes have been bombed away. New homes have been flattened in communities that were modern with all the amenities of a Florida home.  Cemeteries guarding genealogy for families have been destroyed.   Assad has been reported to have secretly moved chemically tipped missiles over to Lebanon, now.  That's what happened most likely to the same chemicals that started in Iraq.

 The last I read was that Assad may not seek another term.  How sad.  He's finally getting the message that he no longer is finding favor with his people.  He'll probably take his money and hide out in South America.

Update: 10/9/13  Since 1,400 people were killed by Sarin gas attacks on 8/21/13 in Syria, 100  experts will arrive in Damascus today to expand on work by the first team that came on 10/1/13 to find and see to the destruction of these chemicals.  They have to identify, sequester and oversee about 1,000 tons of the chemical arsenal and have about 8 months to do the job.  The actual work of it is to be done by Syrian forces.  Their job is to verify that Syria has destroyed the entire arsenal which is to be done by mid 2014.

Resource:  Oregonian newspaper 10/6/13 page A11, Bloodshed precedes cease-fire agreement by Bassem Mrous, AP.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islam_in_Syria
http://middleeast.about.com/od/syria/tp/The-Difference-Between-Alawites-And-Sunnis-In-Syria.htm
Picture by Ahmed Jadallah/Reuters, lone fighter in Alawite district surveying damage
The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
Oregonian newspaper, 10/9/13, page A9, 2nd chemical team going to Syria by Ben Hubbard, NY Times

  

Chemical Attack in Syria Already,: Israel Prepares for Worst

Nadene Goldfoot                                                                  

It seems that terrorism is the only known skill in Syria by everyone who lives there today.  Syria practices state-sponsored terrorism.  It has aided and abetted if not initially produced  Hezbollah, Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine General Command, The Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Abu Musa Organization, and Popular Struggle Front.  The insurgents have been identified by Assad as members of the Muslim Brotherhood.

The northern border of Israel is Syria.  Twice, every citizen of Israel has been issued gas masks due to Syria's known stash of chemical weapons that they have used against their own people.  Being that Syria is in a civil war, the fear is that they will either be used again to gain the upper hand or that these weapons would fall into the hands of terrorists that would use them against Israel.

Brigadier General Itai Brun, the Israeli military intelligence head of their research and analysis, told a security conference in Tel Aviv that President Bashar Assad has already used chemical weapons many times.  He has documented facts of visual evidence from the French and British that it has happened near Damascus only last month.  "CW was used in a Syrian Army attack in Aleppo on March 19. At the time, the Syrian opposition said 31 people were killed by CW munitions."  The report included the fact that the CW was used in a reduced form so as not to create vast casualties.  I doubt if they would do that on an attack on Israel.

In my estimation, Syria has resorted to using these non-conventional weapons because the rebels-insurgents  have been provided for in ways other than weapons by the USA and NATO.  .

Also, John Kerry, US Secretary of State,  urged NATO in Brussels to make ready for this fact on the very day of Brun's conference in Israel.

Now this development will cause pressure on the USA and other Western countries to intervene.  President Obama had said before that using chemical weaponry is a "game changer".  NATO is still saying that the alliance will not intervene in the civil war.

Knowing of the possibility of Israel facing such an attack again, 4.7 million gas masks have been distributed in Israel.  4,000 of them were distributed since January.  They manage to get about 1,400 every week to the population which has grown.  Israel has 6 million Jews and about 1.7 million Arab citizens today.  Christians and others make up the total.

"In the 1980s, Syria acquired chemical warheads for aerial bombardment and for its SS-21 and Scud-B missiles."  "By the end of the decade, Libya also began to produce large quantities of mustard and nerve gas, and acquired Soviet Su-24 long-range bombers."

Then again in 1991 with Saddam Hussein leading, Iraq had threatened with  chemical weapons in the 1991 gulf War.  40 surface to surface missiles were launched at Israel and each one could have had chemicals.  Israelis were educated about defensive actions to take and had sealed rooms in their homes for refuge.

It seems that terrorism is the only known skill in Syria by everyone who lives there.  Syria practices state-sponsored terrorism.  It has aided and abetted if not initially produced  Hezbollah, Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine General Command, The Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Abu Musa Organization, and Popular Struggle Front.  The insurgents have been identified by Assad as members of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Resource:  Oregonian newspaper, 4/24/13 page A4, Urgency rises over chemical weapons
http://www.algemeiner.com/2013/01/30/demand-for-gas-masks-in-israel-rises-as-fears-of-chemical-weapons-falling-into-terrorist-hands-increase/
http://faculty.biu.ac.il/~steing/arms/chem.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terrorism_in_Syria
http://www.worldtribune.com/2013/04/24/israeli-intel-chemical-weapons-apparently-sarin-used-by-syria-in-aleppo-attack/

What Had Happened to Jewish Syrians?

Nadene Goldfoot
Aleppo, Syria has been taking a pounding from Syria's own army because they are in a Civil War, having started with the Arab Spring  in March 2011.  So far, 19,000 people have been killed in this uprising.  Russia is backing the regime who controls the country's army, but the USA is backing the rebel fighters.  The war is now centered in Salaheddiin, a neighborhood in Aleppo, Syria's largest city and its commercial center.  Syria has about 22,505,000 minus the deaths of which 90% are Sunni/Shi'a Muslims.  Jews have lived there, as they have lived in all the states in the Middle East.  In 1948 there were 30,000 living in Syria.

Then Israel was created on May 14, 1948.  Syria was one of the Arab states that had attacked the new state.  Syrian Jews were not expelled but weren't allowed to leave, either.  They had severe restrictions placed on them which lasted for over 20 years.

In the 1967 Six-Day War where Israel won against all odds having been attacked by all the Arab nations, restrictions on Jews in Syria were even tougher. and 57 Jews in Qamishli may have been killed in a pogrom. The communities of Damascus, Aleppo and Qamishli were under house arrest for 8 months.  Jews lost their freedom of movement.  They weren't allowed to work for the government or banks, couldn't get telephone or drivers' licenses and were banned from buying property.  Many Jewish workers were laid off following the Six-Day War.  Generally, they all were banned from leaving, but were sometimes allowed aboard for commercial or medical reasons, but if they did leave they had to put up a bond of $300-$1,000 and members of their family were used as hostages.  Bank accounts were frozen.  An airport road was paved over the Jewish cemetery in Damascus.  Jewish schools were closed and handed over to Muslims.  The Jewish Quarter of Damascus was watched by the secret police who were into their synagogue services, weddings, bar mitzvahs and other Jewish gatherings.  They monitored contacts between Jewish and foreigners and kept files on all Jews.  Jews had their phones tapped and mail read.

When I lived in Israel from 1980 to the end of 1985, I remember watching our TV which received programs from Egypt, Jordan, and Lebanon, and most likely Syria.  I believe it was from Syria that I remember seeing rows of soldiers standing at attention outside showing how brave they were by doing the most ghastly act I've ever seen:  They were biting snakes and puppies in unison on command.  I know this sounds unbelievable, but it was so shocking to me that I've never forgotten it.  At the time my thoughts were that I hated to see anyone who had to tangle with them!

It wasn't until November 1989 that Syria started letting out Jews through pressure from the USA, but it was done on condition that they didn't emigrate to Israel!  In 1992, 4,000 remaining Jews were granted exit permits and left for the USA, France or Turkey.  About 300 mostly elderly Jews stayed.  By 2001 there were still about 200 Jews living in Syria of which 30 lived in Aleppo.  In 2003 there were fewer than 100 Jews living, and in 2005 the USA estimated that there were about 80.

The ban remains on Jews keeping them from politics and government employment.  They are the one minority that has their religion marked on their passports and ID cards.  Occasionally they have been attacked by Palestinian protesters, but the Syrian government supposedly took measure to protect them.  Two synagogues remain open in Damascus, and every 2 or 3 months a rabbi from Istanbul, Turkey visits to take care of koshering meat, which they freeze and use until his next visit.  Somehow, 41 Syrian Jews moved to Israel between 2000 and 2010.  That was quite an achievement from this country.

This is also a war of Sunni Muslims that are against Shi'a Muslims. " This clash pits the "Sunni front," led by Arab states and Turkey, which support the Sunni rebels, against the “Shiite front,” led by Iran and Hezbollah, which support Syria’s Alawite regime"  .Civilians are not being used as human shields, something we see in Gaza, but as cannon fodder.  This is even a higher level of brutality and cruelty that they are capable of.  

After reading about what has really been going on in Syria for Jews, I believe that Jack Avital's comments that he believe in the future of Bashar Assad are the bunk.  He told the Algemeiner that "everything is good, you can bet on it-Assad will be there another 20 years...he is an honest guy and 95% of the population supports him and will protect him."  If he said anything different, he most likely would have been killed.

Jews had lived in Syria since the beginning of times of their history with Abraham.  Another wave of Jews entered the country in 1492 when they were kicked out of Spain and had to go someplace.  Today, the largest Jewish Syrian community is right in Brooklyn, New York with a population of 75,000.

Reference: Oregonian newspaper, Sunday, July 29, 2012 page A9, Syrian tanks, artillery intensity attack on Aleppo
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Jews_in_Syria
http:/www.sfgate.com/news/article/Jews-in-Syria-say-life-easier-but-f  (problems with viewing)
http;//algemeiner.com/2011/06/14/what-happening-to-syrias-jews/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Jews_in_Syria
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4236855,00.html