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Showing posts with label Assad. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Assad. Show all posts

Wednesday, June 11, 2014

Syrian Injured Find Aid in Israel

Nadene Goldfoot                                                                    

When Syria's Civil War started, their government  of Bashar Hafez al-Assad made it illegal for their doctors to give medical care to anyone suspected of supporting the opposition.  Many of their doctors have been targeted for death and have been attacked.

Reports estimate that more than 15,000 Syrian doctors, which is half of their profession there, have fled Syria.  60% of their hospitals have been destroyed.

In Aleppo, which used to be the major Jewish city, there used to be 1,171 doctors in their government hospitals, part of a very good medical care system that was cheap for the citizens.  Today these same doctors are in rebel hands with only 292 left.  Jews left in 1992-94, helped by Judith Feld Carr. Jews were not a part of the population at large but were confined in a Jewish quarter.  They probably weren't allowed into the medical profession of Aleppo.

In eastern Ghota outside of Damascus,  30 doctors of 1,000 are left.  All other medical personnel have fled.  Their medical facilities have been targeted for attacks by both the government and the rebels.
                                                                             
Word was out that Israel was giving medical care to Syrians,  and hundreds of injured have gotten to their border for treatment, and are never turned away.  The war has been going on for 3 years and Israel not only has been providing medical aid but go into refugee camps in Jordan where 600,000 Syrians are held which has put a great strain on Jordan, who haven't recouped from their previous Iraqi refugees, and give aid.

 Combatants and civilians streamed over in IDF ambulances to get to the Western Galilee Hospital and Ziv Medical Center in Safed and even further to Haifa for help at Rambam Hospital, which is the army hospital there.  They also have taken in the injured near Tiberias at the smaller Poriya Hospital.

Doctor makes claim after UN report shows child casualty rates in Syria are the highest recorded in any recent conflict in the region


Israel opened a new neuro-surgical department, the only one in northern Israel a year ago. A few months after opening, they saw that 20% of their patients were Syrians.  250 were war wounded with horrendous trauma like head injuries showing attempted execution-type shootings and attempted machete beheadings.  One patient had his whole lower jaw missing and couldn't talk of course and couldn't   write to communicate because he was illiterate.  His jaw took 17 hours of surgery with medical experts from all over Israel to rebuild his jaw from a part of his leg bone.  They have also treated women and children, civilians injured in the war.  Doctors have found that snipers deliberately shoot children in the spine.
                                                                               
The Syrians are Israel's enemies.  They have been told that Jews are the devil, Satan.  They are taught to hate them, but they must have been desperate and realized it was their own people who had harmed them, so how much more could the Israeli's show harm to them?  When they opened their eyes after surgery, they looked like they were in shock, but it only took a few days before they felt comfortable and were at ease.  Israel makes sure that there is an Arabic speaker available for them at all times.

It was the chief military medical officer of the IDF Northern Command that requested the Israeli doctors to treat Syrians at this particular hospital, but the head man, Dr. Masad Barhoum, a Christian Arab, said it was natural for him to accept the request.  "We have to do this," he told the reporters.  "It is our professional privilege and it is our moral obligation.  They've had to see 120,000 die in Syria already and know that people   are homeless being their homes have been bombed and crushed that are now suffering from disease and injuries without being able to get treatment.  "What we are doing is a drop in the ocean.  I thank G-d I have the opportunity to treat these injured."

All Israelis are reflecting the morality of the Jewish people.  The surprise is that Assad, president of Syria, is also a doctor, an eye doctor.  His value system for life is quite different, however.  His values center on punishing people who disobey him.  He is most vindictive.

This was brought out being he is an Alawite, a branch of Islam that is not accepted by the Muslim Brotherhood whose headquarters were in Homa.   Assad's family are a minority group.  This is the way Lebanon also rules, with the Christian minority.  When Assad took over on November 16, 1970, the Brotherhood began to plan for his overthrow.  The guerilla war started in the late 70's and bombs went off outside of Syrian government building.  Soviet advisers and members of Assad's ruling Baath Party were shot in attacks or taken hostage.  Assad responded with the same style, abductions and assassinations.

He was the main target and on June 26, 1980, the Muslim Brotherhood members threw 2 grenades at him and then opened fire.  He survived with a foot injury when he kicked away one of the grenades.  So he has no heart for rebels.  An election was held last week and of course he won.  He'll be reigning until 2021 now.
                                                                         
1980-85: My Safed apartment came with bars on the living room windows as we were on ground floor.    That was to deter terrorists from entering and attacking.  

During the 1982 Lebanon-Israel War, I was living in Safed in the northern Galilee and was teaching English right across the street from the Ziv Hospital/Medical Center where I sought treatment a few times.  My 9th grade boy students were asked to help out in the hospital with their skills of speaking Arabic and English, languages of the enemy that were also patients there from the war. We could hear the helicopters land on the hospital roof, and the children would hover in corners fearing they were bringing in their fathers or brothers who were called into the IDF during this period.   They came back after their shift and told me that they had seen things kids their age should never have to see, in telling about the injuries they witnessed.  They learned the hard way what war was all about.

Israel's religious learning is that of feeling that life is precious, valuable, and that means all life.  The toast is L'Chaim, to Life.  Many many Jews seek to become doctors, and indeed there are many among our people.  Here they are, threatened by Arabs who had a nuclear facility ready to use against them in Iraq, and even now have missiles pointing at them from Lebanon and Syria with threats to take over the Golan recently coming from Assad, and they are caring for their  unwanted, their injured, and making them whole again.  All this has to be done quietly so that their patients will not be murdered for having sought treatment when they return to Syria.

The estimate is that about 1,000 Syrians have entered Israel for medical treatment.  About 450 were treated at the army field hospital.   At the same time, Israel has been hit by Katyusha rockets fired into northern Israel from Lebanon by Hezbollah, and they wind up protecting these patients along with everyone else.

Resource:  Magazine: The Jerusalem Report, June 16, 2014, Treating the Enemy by Judith Sudilovsky
Book:  Messages From a Syrian Jew Trapped in Egypt, p. 4,5., by Nadene Goldfoot
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/syria/10697943/Israeli-doctor-treating-Syrians-says-snipers-deliberately-shoot-children-in-the-spine.html
Book: Letters From Israel, by Nadene Goldfoot

Wednesday, March 5, 2014

Netanyahu's Fantastic Offer to Arabs Will Be Squashed and Why

Nadene Goldfoot                                                                      
   
The New York Times reporters, Mark Landler and Jodi Rudoren reported on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's speech to the American Israel Public Affairs committee.( AIPAC) yesterday.

Netanyahu  gave a pitch for peace with the Palestinians by saying that it would enable Israel to tighten ties with its Arab neighbors and "catapult the region forward" on issues like health, energy and education.  "We could better the lives of hundred of millions,"  he said.  "We all have so much to gain from peace."

We know that Netanyahu and Israel want peace with their neighbors.  They've wanted it before Israel became a state in 1948.  They worked and planned to create Israel but at the same time to have peace with their neighbors.

 He said that after his big meeting with Obama, where they discussed some very tough issues for Israel in this peace process.  Evidently he's trying to convince the Arabs what they would gain instead of the perpetual war, blood and guts and their stand to never ever accept Israel as a Jewish state. However, the Palestinian Arabs  follow the Muslim Brotherhood Creed on this which is to never have peace with Israel.
                                                                             
Netanyahu is also locking horns with Obama,  Kerry and the Arabs over Jews living in Judea and Samaria, which is land originally set aside as being part of the Jewish Homeland by the League of Nations in the 1920's.  The big world powers call them "Jewish settlements," and probably call Tel Aviv a settlement as well.  1967  was when Israel won back Judea and Samaria and east Jerusalem after being attacked by all the surrounding Arabs and then some more beyond the perimeter.  It has been 47 years, and Jews that moved there are still being hit with the "settlement" word.  They settled  long ago already in 1968, after the war was won with the latest established in 1984 except for one which was established in 1998-16 years ago.  In all, there are 321,179 Jews living in Judea-Samaria. Israel had stopped building for one whole year and the Palestinians didn't come around.  It was a waste of time.
                                                                             
  Netanyahu praised Kerry as the man who never sleeps.  Kerry had warned Israel that they could be ostracized if they failed to make peace with the Palestinians but as far as we know has said absolutely nothing like that to the Arabs.  Kerry didn't make himself popular with that comment with Israel.  Besides that issue, he has shown that he sides with the Palestinians by making all sorts of incredible demands on Israel and nothing for the Arabs.

Obama wants the Palestinians and Israelis to sign a framework accord which Kerry is drafting and expects it to be signed by the end of April.  This is  evidently written out in general terms only about Israel's security and the borders of a future Palestinian state which is already a done deal in the UN as far as accepting a Palestine as an observer state.  It is to allow the 8 month old negotiations that have been going on with Kerry to be extended.  An unofficial statement from an official said that the agreement would have enough in it that was good for Israel.  That is the official's opinion, not Netanyahu's.  Like we say, "Is it good for the Jews"?  The answer for the past 8 months has been, "NO."  

Obama is now taking over in the talks from Kerry.  He's meeting on March 17th, St. Patrick's Day, with Abbas to urge him to sign.

Netanyahu told Obama that they were pressing up against very tough issues for Israel.

Netanyahu also brought up the growing boycott movement that hits on Israel.  He said that "this links it to the darkest chapters of anti-Semitism in history. "   The Arabs and their siders took his comment as showing how well the boycott is working.  He's just disgusted by being singled out when so many other nations are doing so many destructive things in this world, such as Assad in Syria or the Ayatollah in Iran and the nuclear bombs they are creating.  Being singled out for something others find an excuse to fault Israel for is anti-Semitism, pure and simple.
 We've had over 2,000 years of it and can spot it easily.  Israel has every legal right in the world to allow people to move into Judea and Samaria, but being Jews-are being given a bad time about it.  Legal, shmegal, the powers to be don't give a hoot evidently about legalities.  Jews, who believe in Judaism which has been faulted by other religions as being too full of laws that people don't need to follow, has international law on their side about living on the land, and THAT is now the worst evil of the century.  How about that for logic today?    So the Arabs are using boycotting as another form of their rockets, mortars and missiles that Hamas uses almost every day against the civilians of southern Israel, a teeny land of only 8,000 sq. miles.  Hit southern Israel and the wind from it hits the rest of Israel. So does the pain and anguish making its citizens more determined than ever not to be driven out of their country.  .
                                                                       
                                     Hezbolla terrorists fighting in Syria

Sorry, Syrians.  Abbas can kill as many of his 22,505,000 Syrian citizens as he wants.  ISRAEL is continuing to live and love and worship G-d in their own land and that's what's arousing the world to pounce on Israel instead of Assad.  What's good and what's bad today has taken a new direction.  What Netanyahu has  pitched to the Arabs is too logical.  That's not what their Palestinian charters  of the PA or Hamas or the Muslim Brotherhood stand for.  It's not what they want at all!  When someone convinces them to change their goals, then you can talk about peace.  The war ain't over till the fat lady sings and the fat lady ain't sung yet.

Resource:  http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/05/world/middleeast/netanyahu-promotes-efforts-toward-a-peace-deal.html?_r=0
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Peace/wbsettle.html
http://www.algemeiner.com/2014/03/05/report-state-department-sources-say-obama-sabotaged-peace-Update: 3/5/14 talks-with-goldberg-interview-conducted-behind-kerrys-back/  Read this one!  

Monday, March 3, 2014

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

Wednesday, January 1, 2014

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

Sunday, December 1, 2013

Breaking USA Rules: Hezbollah and USA in Secret Talks

Nadene Goldfoot                                                                    

Hezbollah is an Iranian sponsored terrorist organization originating from Lebanon made up of Shiites who are fighting to destroy Israel.  They have 50,000 to 70,000 Iranian-supplied missiles sitting in civilian areas in southern Lebanon that are all aimed at Israel.  Their troops are fighting on the side of Assad in Syria and have helped to killed over 120,000 Syrian civilians and other rebel terrorist groups.
                                                                             


The USA has a law that prohibits the Administration from speaking with a group like Hezbollah who have political and military wings, but that isn't stopping our administration. 

 They are involved in secret indirect talks through London.  The talks supposedly are about fighting against the other main terror group, al Qaida.  What the USA is doing, they say, is hearing the views of this party and warming up to a direct relationship in the future.    Iran backs Hezbollah.  It's interesting that Rouhani, the Iranian president, spoke to David Cameron, the British Prime Minister, last week and then placed the talks in the context of the ongoing negotiations between the West and Tehran.  This makes Washington seem very willing to have diplomatic relations with the Islamic Republic.  Britain and Iran's relations fell after the Iranians stormed the British embassy in Tehran in November 2011.  The odd thing is that a month before this happened, in October, Britain and Iran had renewed diplomatic relations and Britain named a new charge d'affaires to Iran. " The British Embassy in Tehran is closed following an attack on the Embassy on 29th November 2011. Sweden now represents British interests in Iran through a British interests section at the Swedish Embassy in Tehran. The UK has not cut diplomatic ties with Iran, although they remain at the lowest level consistent with the maintenance of diplomatic relations."  
                                                                       
Obama's administration is that of the Democratic party.  The Republicans are about a 180 reversal of what they are trying to do.  Senator Marco Rubio, Republican from Florida is opposed to the nuclear deal with Iran.  He calls Iran a "rogue state," and has pointed out that Iran's Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei will oversee implementation of the agreement and was calling Israel a "rabid dog" and accusing the USA of war crimes.   It must be remembered that Khamenei is their supreme leader and the country's head of state and holds more power than the President does.  It is Khamenei who is in charge of Iran's foreign policy which includes the nuclear agreement.  Some of the things Khamenei is throwing into the face of the USA are crimes in Iraq, drones in Pakistan, more drone crimes, Afghanistan's bombing, torture, killing, the Guantanamo prison, etc.  So he doesn't like the USA much less than he hates Israel.
                                                             
The USA most likely is talking with Hassan Nasrallah, the head of Hezbollah which started in 1985.  Hezbollah is in the government of Lebanon, and is called a state within a state.  They call Israel the Zionist Entity when they are feeling nice.  He has said many quoted statements, but one was that "if Israel attacks Lebanon, Iran, Syria or Gaza, they will be met with a fierce response. "   Israel doesn't initiate attacks, only engages in defensive attacks after being hit or to squelch an oncoming attack.  He also refuses to believe that there is a legal state of Israel.  I guess news hasn't gotten to Iran in the past 65 years.

Al Qaeda is the terrorist group that Osama Ben Laden formed which is a global Sunni group out for all to follow the Sharia Law.  It came from Peshawar, Pakistan.  So we have Sunni against Shi'a terrorists, both all for Sharia Law but obvious competitors where both have been trying to take over Syria.  .

Resource:  http://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/Report-London-is-mediating-indirect-secret-talks-between-US-and-Hezbollah-333245 by Ariel Ben Solomon
Oregonian newspaper, December 1, 2013, page A2, politiFact.com Rubio calls out Iranian leader for referring to Israel as a "rabid dog".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hezbollah
http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/h/hassan_nasrallah.html
http://abcnews.go.com/International/hezbollah-al-qaeda-fighters-edging-closer-confrontation/story?id=19144119
http://abcnews.go.com/International/hezbollah-al-qaeda-fighters-edging-closer-confrontation/story?id=19144119
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/iran/10471509/Iran-and-the-US-learned-the-lessons-of-failure.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_diplomats_of_the_United_Kingdom_to_Iran

Monday, October 7, 2013

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

  

Thursday, August 29, 2013

Russian Intervention in Syria Signals A Big Fight

Nadene Goldfoot                                                                       

                       Russian warships gather in the Mediterranean

Russia is sending several ships that will arrive in a few days in the Mediterranean to protect their interests in Syria.  Two Russian warships and a missile cruiser are coming to strengthen their fleet.  Russia is one of the big FIVE who would not vote for an  intervention attack against Syria since they are Syria's main backer.

In the meantime, talk is discussing back and forth about  a date for the USA to punish Assad and tell him he can't use chemicals while Britain has had second thoughts and is still bantering the matter in their parliament.  Actually, so is the USA, but Obama has already spoken and has said that the USA would take action even without the backing of allies or the UN.  What he had chastised Bush about, he  is now facing a very similar situation.

Obama has meetings in Sweden and Russia to attend.  He's leaving on Tuesday, so it is thought that something might happen before then.  Are we going to hit and then have our Commander in Chief leave when all fireworks can start?

If anyone attacks Syria, their promise is to attack Israel, who is prepared for that.  They of course will immediately answer an attack, and they have been trying to stay out of the Syrian devastation.   Syria's Civil War has been so close that some missiles had even landed in The Golan, which looks down on Syria.  When you live among lions, it's difficult at best to get into the middle of a roaring and fighting  pride.   Assad has threatened Israel with a deadly attack  from Lebanon, Iraq, Iran and what is left of their military and a surprise element of devastation.  What?  Atomic rockets from Iran?  More chemicals, no doubt.  Meanwhile, Assad has had time to leave Damascus and is safely hid out in Iran.

Israel is ready with gas masks for any surprise in Assad's retaliation against their tiny nation.  Psalms 108: 13-14 says it all.  "Give us help against the adversary:  for vain is the help of man.  Through G-d we shall do valiantly:  for He it is that will tread down our adversaries."   Israeli's warriors know they cannot run and hide anywhere.  They have nowhere to go.  This is a fight of the likes of the 300 Spartans,  only Israel feels they have help from their outer space guardian.

Thousands of Syrians have already fled to nearby Lebanon to get out of the way of the West's attack.  Not only did they have to worry about a crazed government with chemicals to use on them willy nilly, but now the West's answer to this use of chemicals which is not in the book of allowed war weapons.  The signal these people had of their eventual fate was in how their government treated the Jewish population in their country.  Confined on "Jew Street" and held as captives in a worse condition of any of the other dhimmis of the Middle East, the last remaining ones  were finally rescued by Israel in 1994.  As a country treats its Jewish population, so will the rest eventually wind up as the next scapegoat.  The Christians of Egypt have found that out already with the Muslim Brotherhood's first reprisal being their churches and people.

The Mediterranean will be full of Israeli, American, and Russian ships ready to fire missiles somewhere.  The British might be in the mix as well. At this point, the USA is not sure what the target is to be as the Syrians have been busy moving their arms to high ground surrounding Damascus.

Starting September 4th in the evening and going on into September 5th is the Birthday of the World, Rosh Hashanna, the start of a 10 day period of Jewish High Holidays ending with Yom Kippur, a day they were attacked on October 6, 1973 when everyone was in a synagogue asking for forgiveness from G-d of any sins they might be guilty of.  It is a day of fasting and is the most serious day of the year.  Unfortunately, the whole beginning of this  New Year is now colored with threats from a neighbor of all their lives once again.

On the sidelines of this stage are many Middle Easterners who are chomping on their bits at the thought of taking over Jerusalem.  I say that G-d has been on Israel's side through thick and thin for 65 years since May 14, 1948.  Israelis have been threatened when the odds were completely against them.  What makes the haters of Zionism  think that G-d's protection and direction has evaporated?  It is even miraculous that as a people Jews have continued to exist from the days when Judah, 4th son of  Jacob  and Leah, was born.  King David was from this tribe.  Of all the ancient people, it is only the Jews who have been able to survive, even with Hitler's determination to do Jews in.  The creation of their state once again has been prophesied to the amazement of all people. Just look into the "Old Testament.,"  It takes a lot more than plain luck to live that long in  a world  constantly against them.

Resource:  http://www.breakingisraelnews.com/israel-continues-to-prepare-for-worst-as-russian-warships-set-to-move-in/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=israel-continues-to-prepare-for-worst-as-russian-warships-set-to-move-in
Oregonian newspaper, 8/29/13/ Front page, Evidence, allies slow for strike on Syria, by Deb Riechmann and Kimberly dozier, AP, also page A5

Thursday, March 14, 2013

Insane UN Follows Syria's Lead


Nadene Goldfoot                                                                         
Just when I thought there was hope for the UN, they've gone crazy again with their harping hatred against Israel.  They are demanding that Israel hand over control of the Golan to the merciless Syrian army.  We must realize now that they have flipped their lid!  This is at a time when wild rockets have landed in the Golan as a spillover from their constant barrages on their populace.  Golan  is under Israel's control and has been peaceful and a content area.  .  

"At the UN Human Rights Council on Friday, March 8th, Syria accused Israel of violating human rights of children in the Golan, while diplomats met in another chamber on the same day to discuss a Syrian-drafted resolution to be adopted next week, entitled "Human Rights in the Occupied Syrian Golan." There will be five other resolutions targeting Israel, and about the same number on the rest of the world combined.  This is the most ridiculous ploy ever tried by Man.  At a time when the Syrian government has killed 70,000 of its own people who are rebellious and dissatisfied with their government, Syria has the audacity to turn around and put the floodlight on everyone's pet scapegoat, the Jews of Israel to get world attention off their own backs.  Pathetic!

The surreal UN text ignores mass atrocities of Assad's regime.  Instead of Syria doing the presentation, a "Pakistani colleague who chaired the session on behalf of the Islamic group presented the UN text.  .

Note that "not a single diplomat called out the sheer lunacy of the exercise. Rather, the EU commented that it was "committed to the protection of all, including those in the occupied Golan." It was willing to "constructively engage on the text," even as it noted that its proposals last year were not implemented.  Egypt, Israel's neighbor who was just awarded millions of dollars, pretty much as a bribe to stay peaceful with Israel, double-crossed the USA by  saying that  it aligned itself with the Islamic group. Of course they are a part of the Islamic group and were former leaders of it, so...what do people expect from them?  Whoever  is surprised is really quite naive.  

And what kind of human rights does Saudi Arabia exhibit as an example for the world to follow?  "As we heard this week from Amnesty International, Saudi Arabia was preparing imminently to execute seven alleged child offenders including Sarhan Al Mashayekh—who was also sentenced to be crucified over three days. Why is the Council refusing to address this in any resolution, urgent session, or even debate?  The Saudis have executed them by firing squad.

The UN is either so afraid of Syria or so enamored with them that they "elected Syria as  Rapporteur of the decolonization committee dealing with human rights."  

The Golan Heights was occupied by Israel after the 1967 War in which Israel was attacked by all Arab countries and won out.  Later in 1981 Israel annexed the Golan.  It is part of Israel.  Israel, led by Joshua, took the Golan from the Amorites.  The Israelite tribes of Dan and Manasseh had lived here.  It's back in Israel's domain again.  

What is happening is that 21 UN peacekeepers that were Filipinos had been captured.  They were released after 3 days.  (Force made up of Philippines, India, Croatia, Austria.)   They were between Syria and Israel.  Then the UNDOF legal advisor was kidnapped and held for ransom.  Japan had already pulled out its men.Croatia and Canada have joined them.    "Israel warned 10 days ago that it could not be expected to stand idle as Syria's civil war, in which 70,000 people have been killed, spilled over into the Golan Heights."   "UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in a December report to the Security Council that fighting between Syrian armed forces and rebels inside the area of separation has "the potential to ignite a larger conflict between Israel and the Syrian Arab Republic, with grave consequences."  Now the UN have pulled out their peacekeeping patrols.  1,000 Syrian rebels are fighting only 25 km or about 15 miles  from the Golan.  Then again, Syria is still ticked off because in January Israel bombed a fleet carrying chemical weapons bound to be used on Israel, and also hit the center they were being manufactured in.  Now they're getting even with this preposterous claim.  Of course Russia and Iran stood with Syria.

Netanyahu plans to build a border fence between Syria and Israel in the Golan.


Resource:  UN Watch
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/un-curbs-golan-heights-patrols-after-peacekeepers-
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/166205
http://www.jpost.com/MiddleEast/Article.aspx?id=306280
http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2013-01-31/world/36646164_1_israeli-airstrike-israeli-strike-southern-israeli-cities
http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/1214.html
http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2013-01-31/world/36646164_1_israeli-airstrike-israeli-strike-southern-israeli-cities
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golan_Heights
http://israel-nadene.blogspot.com/2013/02/golan-heights-gets-hit-with-second.html

Saturday, October 6, 2012

The Golan Heights: Chip to be Bartered Away or Kept?

Nadene Goldfoot
How is the Golan Heights important to Israel?  I'm talking about a place that shares 80 kilometers (49.709 miles) with Syria which is an area in the mountainous northern Israel of 250,000 acres.  14,000 Jews live there in 32 towns and 1 city.  It's pretty much a rural area with 9 moshavim.  It is a place of strategic life-giving importance to Israel.  As recently as the 25th of September mortar shells were shot near their border  with Syria at 7am.  Israel thought that it was the result of the clashing rebel forces with Asad's army.  Read Victor Sharpe's new article, "The Golan Heights:  its biblical and post-biblical history."  (website address below).

In order to have peace, former Prime Minister Barak 12 years ago offered Hafez al Assad the Golan in exchange for peace except for a thin strip 500 meters wide along Lake Tiberias.  He did this through President Clinton.  Assad refused the offer. An article about it came out in Reuters through the Arab press on April 24, 2008 about Olmert making an offer.  "Israel wants Syria’s ties with Lebanon’s Hezbollah and the Palestinian group Hamas to be on the agenda."  Of course they just want the Golan back without any conditions of safety for Israel.  That's a bad bad deal.

It is said that Netanyahu secretly offered Assad the same deal in 2001 and again the answer was no. Now, our government through Bruce Riedel, former longtime CIA officer and former senior fellow in the Saban Center at the Brookings Institution at President Obama's request chaired the strategic review of policy toward Afghanistan and Pakistan in 2009.  He has also come up with this solution to problems. He thinks Israel should give away the Golan to Syria.

Is that all the solutionists can come with, to give away parts of Israel?  I know our enemies want all of teeny Israel. Iran will have an A bomb very soon.  Hizbullah,  terrorists against Israel that also spread Islam, who get their money from Iran and Syria,  has 50,000 rockets aimed at Haifa, Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. Syria has hundreds of SCUD missles tipped with chemical warheads that could get into Hizbullah hands.  The way Syria has been slaughtering its own people today, does one think that they would keep a peace treaty with Israel in return for most of the Golan Heights?  They had their chance and blew it.  I hope that Netanyahu has thrown that idea back into the wastebasket.

Resource: http://www.renewamerica.com/columns/sharpe/121005  Victor Sharpe's article
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraq_Study_Group_Report
Bruce Reidel of Saban Center of Brookings Institution through The Daily Beast
http://www.google.com/images?
q=Golan+heights&rlz=1B3RNFA_en___US482&hl=en&sa=X&oi=image_result_group
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Peace/golanstats.html
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4285819,00.htmlhttp://www.arabnews.com/node/311291
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hezbollah

Monday, July 30, 2012

Assad Blames Israel For His Problems

Nadene Goldfoot
Syrian foreign minister Walid al-Moallem commented in a visit to Iran that "Israel is the mastermind of all in this crisis."  Iran is backing Assad's  Syrian regime against the Free Syrian Army so would love to blame Israel as well.  Whatever bad happens around the globe, they all blame Israel.

I'm sure that Israel would not be helping the Syrians, whatever side here.  Both have been terrible towards Jews and Israel.  Shoshana, Jewish,  escaped from Syria in 1974 at the age of about 25.  She had left her family there and felt so guilty about it because she remembers "the fright in the eyes of the younger children in her family, expecting some support from her.  They wanted to know why people shouted at them, "Jews, Jews!" and why they were different from the others.  The fear was that any time of day or night the security people might knock at the door and take either their father or one of the elder brothers--and they really didn't know what was happening.  The family lived in constant fear.  Teachers treated Jews differently.  They had to live in a ghetto, but this ghetto didn't have just Jews.  It included Palestinians and other Arabs who beat Jews.

Shoshana said she couldn't beat them back because they would then bring their whole family to fight.  The Arabs lived differently.  Shoshana was put in prison because she participated in a demonstration, which was illegal for all Syrians. First, 3 sisters, members of her family, and a girlfriend were murdered because they had tried to cross the border.  They couldn't bear life in Syria any longer and had tried to cross without a boy escorting them.  The girls were killed in a cave and burned.  There was a special office that "takes care of the Jews", called the "Palestinian Bureau," and they had a free hand where Jews were concerned.  The bodies of the girls, burned beyond recognition, were brought back in sacks and thrown on the doorsteps of their families' homes.

A report from 60 Minutes with Mike Wallace in the USA did not get the story right according to Shoshana.  Jews may have given good remarks verbally about Syria on the program but had no choice because the security people were there.  They had to say they lived well, so the "happy" families have since tried to escape.  "It's only when the Syrians are free can they tell the truth about their lives in Syria.".

Right now the Jihadists are taking over from the Free Syrian Army being they are being assisted with funding.  There are more religious chants than secular ones being heard.

They claim to new men joining them that "those whose intentions are not for God, they had better stay home, whereas if your intention is for God, then you go for jihad and you gain an afterlife and heaven".  Israel will not be backing people who are into jihad.  Religious donors come from Saudi Arabia, Qatar and possibly Turkey, countries the USA has also aligned with in this fight.

The Syria situation is not only an Arab Spring against Assad's immovable hand but is also religious within Islam.  The ruling house of Assad are minorities, the Alawites, which dominate Syria but are viewed by many orthodox Muslims as a heretical offshoot of Islam.  The trend right now is a more Salafi, jihadi group taking over the rebellion.  Isn't this what happened in Egypt?  These jihadists consider the entire world the Muslim homeland, so they are refusing any national, Syrian name for their fighters in Syria.

Resource:  Oregonian newspaper: Monday July 30, 2012 Front Page -Jihadists join ranks of Syria's resistance , A3-Developments in the Syrian uprising NYTimes news service
Book:  From Time Immemorial by Joan Peters p: 109-110 

Friday, June 15, 2012

Syria, Israel's Nasty Neighbor Just Hasn't Changed a Bit

Nadene Goldfoot
In February of 1982, President Assad  mowed down a quarter of Hama to stop an uprising there.  Does that sound familiar today in 2012?  Nothing much has changed.  Then it was the Muslim Brotherhood that was doing the uprising.  Between 10,000 to 30,000 civilians were killed in that massacre.

Syria is made up of 22,505,000 people with 90% being Sunni and the rest Shi'a.  President Hafez Assad has absolute authority and his many security services have been responsible for severe human rights violations.  They use torture complete with reported equipped torture chambers where they gouge out eyes, extract fingernails and toenails and use electric shocks on sensitive parts of the body, arrests and detentions, lack of fair trials in security cases, and do not have freedom of speech, press, associations, or the right of citizens to change their governments nor workers' rights where they might have independent trade union.  It's autocratic and that's it.  No wonder Assad has been scared of a democratic state of Israel right next door.  People will get ideas!

Public criticism of Assad has been illegal.  He belongs to the Baath party who owns and operates all broadcast media and publishing houses.  How convenient for him.  Mail is censored, telephone conversations are often recorded and the security police are always listening in.  Demonstrations and public meetings are illegal unless the government gives permission and when has that been?  How have they stopped political opposition?  By mass murder, of course.

Quite frankly, all of Israel's neighbors are nasty people with  non democratic regimes that take advantage of their people but the world has preferred to charge Israel, the one democratic state,  with human rights violations, and it has been just such violators who have wielded the charges in the UN!

Jews living in Syria today number less than 80 as of 2005, but at one time had a large population living there, going back to King David's time when Damascus was at times even a friend to Israel.  In Herod's day it had a large Jewish population.  Many Jews found refuge here in 1492 from the Spanish Inquisition.  .  30,000 were living there in 1948.  by 1970 Israel held Operation Blanket, involving Israeli navel commandos and Mossad operatives to rescue young Jews  that had to leave because of persecution.  Many Jews from Syria are living in Brooklyn, NY today as well.

Today Assad has destroyed a Sunni-populated village, Haffa,  with his Syrian forces and militiamen who cleansed it from rebel fighters.  The population either were massacred or fled because other Sunni sites experienced mass killings.  The report is that they used Russian equipment like helicopter gunships.  Russia is Syria's main supplier.

Resource:  Myths and Facts-a concise record of the Arab-Israeli conflict by Mitchell Bard and Joel Himelfarb
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Jews_in_Syria
Oregonian newspaper, 6/15/2012 page A9, Monitors find village in ruins by Rick Gladstone, NY Times news service
New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
http://israel-nadene.blogspot.com/2012/06/syria-israels-northern-border-neighbor.html