I Love Jewish DNA's History: Ammon

Nadene Goldfoot                                              

I am made of 2.9% Neanderthal genes.  I know this from a DNA test through 23&Me.  It's amazing what geneticists can find out today.
                                                                       

Last of Neanderthals

They know this from finding bones belonging to Neanderthals about 50,000-80,000  years old.
                                                                           

Denisovans, 40,000 ago, thought to be darker skinned than pale Neanderthals

Some people have Denisovan genes, and some might have both.  This is because of bones already found and labeled as such.  It has been found that there were about 4 early types of humans that interbred with early Homo Sapiens and carry these ancient genes now a part of us.  I know that Neanderthal genes gives me some natural immunity from certain diseases.  "It is estimated that between 1.5 and 2.1 percent of the genomes of modern non-Africans can be traced to Neanderthals". Neanderthals were not found in Africa.
                                                               
When Israelites were on the Exodus,  started in 1579-1578 BCE, and  went into Canaan, they found little city states made up of many types of people.  Our 12 tribes eventually married into some of these as records state.  Those Canaanites who weren't killed in battle,  eventually intermarried with the Israelites.

 One ancient people and country in what is today's Jordan were the Ammonites of Ammon.   "The Bible says several kings arose there  in what is now Jordan and opposed Israel. Can the Bible be trusted?"  Archaeology is finding a lot of the answers that agree in that there were these places.  
                                                                             

The people living in Jordan today were not natives of the land.  They arrived there recently with king Abdullah from Saudi Arabia (Hejaz)  who wanted a country to be king of.  He was from the Hashemite tribe and arrived in Transjordan with his tribe in 1921. Abdullah is a direct descendant of Mohammad.

 There are no longer such people as Ammonites,   though digs should be able to find bones and do some DNA testing.  This would probably only find the MTdna carried and passed on by females as the Y DNA carried and passed on only by males is harder to harvest.
                                                                             

These Ammonites were a Semitic tribe according to the Bible.  They were related to the Israelites.  (Gen. 19:38).  Lot, Abraham's nephew, was the progenitor of the Ammonites, but they were enemies of the Israelites more than friends.  Their main time of existence was from the 13th to the 8th centuries BCE.  After that they declined in numbers and were eventually absorbed into the Arab tribes. They were a group most likely who did not intermarry with the Israelites.
                                                                             

Israelites entered Caanan

The Israelites were led by G-d back to Canaan where Jacob and his family of 70 had been living before finding refuge in Egypt.  After they occupied Canaan, they were attacked many times by the Ammonites who were defeated at the hands of Jephthah and King Saul.  King David annexed their kingdom but they regained their independence and attacked Judah after King Solomon had died and Judah became a state.  This is recorded in (II Chron. 20:27:5;  II Kings 24:2).

After  the destruction of the First Temple, Baalis, king of Ammon,  had Gedaliah, the Governor of Judah, murdered, supposedly to weaken Judah further.  Gedaliah was from a noble Jewish family and had been appointed by the Babylonians as governor of the population which remained in Judah after the destruction of the 1st Temple in 586 BCE.  He had set up the seat of his administration at Mizpah only to be murdered by the commander, Ishmael ben Nethaniah and his followers who were planning a revolt against Babylon.  They were in concert with their neighbors in doing this.  After he was murdered, Gedaliah's supporters fled to Egypt (II Kings, 25:25-26;  Jer.. 41) (Jer. 40:14).

  On the Jews' return from Babylon, Ammon joined Judah's enemies and Tobiah the Ammonite supported Sanballat in his opposition to Nehemiah (Neh. 2:10).  Tobiah was an estate-owner and evidently a petty prince of Ammon  in the mid-3rd century BCE who married the sister of the high priest, Onias II.  Onias was the name of several high priests during the 2nd Temple Period.  
1.  Son of Simon the Just, high priest about 230 BCE who refused to pay the 20 talents of silver given yearly to Ptolemy III of Egypt thereby endangering Judea's safety.
2. Son of Simon II, grandson of the first Onias. He was later assassinated by his brother, Menelaus who then became high priest.
3. son or grandson of the 2nd Onias.  Fled to Egypt to join other Jews suffering from religious persecutions of Antiochus Epiphanes and lived in Heliopolis, built a temple at Leontopolis.

 Tobiah's son, Joseph (died in about 181 BCE) leased the taxes of Coele-Syria.  Joseph's younger son, Hyrcanus, was a dynast (hereditary ruler) in Ammon, building himself a stronghold (Arak al-Amir, near Amman) which still survive as remains.

 Notice that Baalis's  name starts with Baal, which among the Canaanite peoples was the proper name of the one god of the sky and fertility originating in Babylonian lore.  Baal is a Hebrew word for husband, owner, lord used by the Caananites.  It was also a term used for various local gods, generally in the form of a bull or a man worshipped as gods of fertility, both found in the field and the womb.  After the Israelites entered Canaan, they tended to adopt these deities (Bealim) of the local inhabitants though the prophets protested loud and clear.  This was probably because it was so close to what passed as religion in Egypt that seeped into the culture of the Israelite slaves as well being it was in their environment.  No wonder Aaron couldn't stop the Israelites from making the golden calf when Moses went up the mountain and was gone for so long.
During the Hasmonean rising, the Ammonites aided the Syrian forces and were defeated by Judah the Maccabee (163 BCE).

Not much is known about the lives of the Ammonites as no literary remains survive, but there have been digs in Transjordan/Jordan that indicate a developed kingdom with fortified frontiers, artistic tastes, and advanced agriculture.  Their religion was that of worshipping fertility gods, the chief being Milkom.

Rabbath Ammon was a Hellenistic city in Ammon.  A cistern and water system were found there.  Also of course, pottery and coins were also found in digs. " Discoveries over the past 150 years have forced archaeologists to acknowledge that the Ammonites, Moabites, and Edomites existed."

We will not be able to see who is carrying any % of Ammonite genes until bones can be identified as being strictly of Ammon.  Unless they conformed to cremation as a way of burying, it shouldn't be long to find this information.  

In looking for pictures, I discovered that the people of Ammon are now a part of the story of the Mormons (LDS)  who have the Lamanites killing them.  Lamanites (who they call the North American Indians) are not a part of Jewish history, so are not in our Tanakh (Old Testament).  

Resource: The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
http://www.sci-news.com/othersciences/anthropology/science-neanderthal-genome-fourth-lineage-01624.html
https://books.google.com/books?id=qQNlslA72SkC&pg=PA43&lpg=PA43&dq=Ammon,+excavations,+digs&source=bl&ots=r4PfHWeYUK&sig=Wu-jkfSuR42nptMDCofW8H1Gl3Y&hl=en&sa=X&ei=mrE_VZyeJNicygSonIHgCg&ved=0CDYQ6AEwBA#v=onepage&q=Ammon%2C%20excavations%2C%20digs&f=false
https://answersingenesis.org/archaeology/the-forgotten-kingdoms-of-jordan/
http://news.discovery.com/human/evolution/are-you-related-to-neanderthals-photos-131218.htm
https://www.google.com/search?q=Denisovans,+pictures&biw=1024&bih=634&noj=1&site=webhp&tbm=isch&imgil=3G4QaIyl6OapRM%253A%253BP07_SitkHgr0aM%253Bhttp%25253A%25252F%25252Fwww.sci-news.com%25252Fothersciences%25252Fanthropology%25252Fscience-denisovans-homo-species-interbred-modern-humans-01476.html&source=iu&pf=m&fir=3G4QaIyl6OapRM%253A%252CP07_SitkHgr0aM%252C_&usg=__jydrhfR3RVusKXIU6G1ZcOadVfM%3D&ved=0CDMQyjc&ei=RLY_VfybNISjyQTq64CoBA#imgrc=3G4QaIyl6OapRM%253A%3BP07_SitkHgr0aM%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fcdn4.sci-news.com%252Fimages%252Fenlarge%252Fimage_1476e-Denisovan.jpg%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.sci-news.com%252Fothersciences%252Fanthropology%252Fscience-denisovans-homo-species-interbred-modern-humans-01476.html%3B1280%3B1344
http://www.gotquestions.org/Ammonites.html
http://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/3194/jewish/What-is-a-Soul.htm
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/11/131122084405.htm   immunity in Neanderthal genes
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdullah_I_of_Jordan

Could Saeb Erekat be a Canaanite and Not a Palestinian?

Nadene Goldfoot                                                                  

Playing "Can you top this,"  Saeb Erekat, the chief Palestinian negotiator with Kerry and Israel, asserted over the weekend at a Munich conference while on a panel discussion,  that  his ancestors lived in the region 5,500 years before Joshua had his battle with Jericho. Is he assuming that his ancestry has been there without any change for the past 5,500 years to its beginnings as a Neolithic settlement?   Jericho is a unique city.  It lies 825 feet below sea level and is one of the oldest settlements in the world.  It goes back to its beginnings to 5000 BCE.  People did live there through the Chalcolithic and Canaanite times until it was destroyed by Joshua.  It was revived during the reign of King Ahab of Israel (876-853), about 870 BCE by Hiel, the Bethelite (I Kings: 16:34).  In the times of Herod, the city was transferred from its former position near the spring to another, further south.  Jericho was destroyed by the Romans in 68 CE and later rebuilt in its present location.  3,000 people lived there in 1946.  Arab refugees moved there in 1948, of which Erekat's parents or grandparents  could have been among them.  61,000 people lived there in 1961.  Most fled to Jordan before Israel's IDF arrived in 1967 so that 8,500 lived in Jericho then.

Erekat was born in Jericho in 1955 when it was under Jordanian rule since 1948 illegally.   The Palestinians are having a hard time accepting who they are and that there never was a state of Palestine. In 2012 he had a heart attack and was hospitalized in Ramallah.
                                                                         

                                             Archaeologist studying areas of Jericho.

He lacks knowledge of history.  Canaan,  a group of city states, was overtaken by the Israelites.  There is documentation of this in the book of Joshua, Joshua 6:  1-27.  Joshua took the city in his first battle during their conquest of the land.  According to the story, the walls of Jericho fell after Joshua's Israelite army marched around the city blowing their trumpets.  The vibration caused by the noise was enough to bring those walls tumbling down.

Canaanites were all killed or assimilated into the Israelite population.  There were none left.  This took place after Moses died, which was in about 1271 BCE.  Moses knew he wasn't going to enter the land at age 120 but was dying, so made Joshua the leader to take his place.

Therefore, Saeb cannot claim that Palestinians are Canaanites or that he, specifically, had ancestors from Canaan, thus Jericho.  The 2nd reason is that they are not all native to the land.  Most all came from surrounding countries in the 1880's looking for jobs from the Jews that came from Russia at that time and were building.  They were able to get jobs that they couldn't find in their own native countries at that time.  Most all Palestinians said they were Syrians.

Archaeologists have had a field day working in and around Jericho, the city my husband and I  used to drive through on our way from Safed to Jerusalem.  The first scientific investigation of the site of Jericho was done by Charles Warren in 1868 which was just a site-survey.  In 1907-1909 and again in 1911, digging was done by 2 German archaeologists, Carl Watzinger and Ernest Sellin.  They believed that they would be able to prove the Biblical story of Jericho's destruction by Joshua and the Israelites but came to a different conclusion in that they said it was unoccupied at the time of Joshua, which they calculated to be 1400 BCE.

Their results were tested in 1930-1936 by John Garstang at the suggestion of William F. Albright, who was the main archaeologist at that time.  Garstang discovered the remains of a network of collapsed walls which he dated to be from about 1400 BCE, the time he thought the Israelites were on their conquest and thought that the walls had really fallen from some dramatic cause.   So his findings reversed the previous findings.

Albright asked Kathleen Kenyon to excavate at Jericho once more and she dug from 1952 to 1958 and traced the entire history of the city from its earliest Neolithic settlement.  She claimed that Garstang was wrong and the Germans were right.  Jericho had been deserted at the date of conquest.  Now I see we have a discrepancy in dates.  My Jewish encyclopedia differs from the Christian dating that they are going by.

In 1990, another archaeologist whose forte was Canaanite pottery and others thought that the pottery recovered pointed to a destruction date of the city to be 1400 BCE rather than 1550 BCE as concluded by Kenyon.  In 1995, Kenyon's result was corroborated by radiocarbon tests which dated test samples to 1562 BCE plus or minus 38 years with a certainty of 95% from a piece of charcoal sample.  Then it was corrected to 1590 or 1527 plus or minus 110 BCE.

My point is that there was a Jericho back in the time when Joshua was the leader and took Canaan a very long time ago.  If Erekat would take a DNA test to find his haplogroup and do another autosomal test to see who matches up with segments of his chromosomes which hold his genes, it would be most interesting.  The Canaanites, according to biblical genealogy recorded, descended from Canaan, son of Ham.  They were divided into 11 different peoples who lived in the area between the Nile and the Euphrates (Gen. 10: 15-19).  The people of Syria applied Canaanites to themselves.  By origin, the Canaanites seem to have been a mixture of Horites, Hittites, and Hebrews, dating back to the Hyksos period of the 17th century BCE.  They were almost entirely obliterated or assimilated by the Israelites in about the 13th century BCE, and the Philistines along the coast in the 12th century BCE and the Arameans in the north in the 11th century BCE.  The remnants were subjected by Kings David and his son, King Solomon and absorbed this way.  Later, the name Canaanites, was remembered only among the Sidonians and Phoenicians.

My ancestors do not go back 3, 285 years to have lived on the same land of the home my parents lived in in Portland, Oregon, USA.  There is a whole unique history of Indians and  pioneers who may have lived there before us, as well as becoming farmland.  So Erekat really knows nothing of his past heritage until he takes a DNA test, and then he'll have a glimmer,  which is better than a lie.  Already we know that the Canaanites were wiped out and or a few were assimilated.

At best, the Muslims interested in their genealogy try to trace their trees back to the time of Mohammad who was born in 570 CE and died in 632 CE, and some claim descent from him.  Before that, there was no reason to keep track of one's family tree.

Rulers way back then transported people from one place to another. Right off, Jews were enslaved in Egypt and kept there for 400 years working on building.   Other slaves were part of the work force as well.  When Moses left with the 600,000, he took with him the descendents of Jacob and a multitude of others.  Later,  Jews were taken to Babylon from Jerusalem.  Rulers would rather do this than mass murdering people.  People were useful.  They would pay taxes and work for you in many ways.  So the whole population in the Middle East at times were traded about.  Who knows where Erekat's most distant ancestor came from without a DNA test?

Reference:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Jericho
http://www.israellycool.com/2014/02/06/saeb-erekat-caught-with-his-pants-on-fire-again/
The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saeb_Erekat

Archaeology Proves Israel's Past History

Nadene Goldfoot                                                                      

Archaeology has helped to uncover facts about the Jewish past in Eretz Yisrael over the last 3,000 years.  Archaeologists are uncovering the whole story which goes back to Canaan, and Christianity.  Found has been the head of a clay statue from the Neolithic period that was found in Jericho.  A pitcher with a Greek decoration was found at Taanach.  Representation of a menorah was found in the ruins of Gadera.
                                                                             

Israel's Department of Antiquities and Museums is responsible for safeguarding the sites of archaeological excavations and their antiquities which are protected by law.  It carries out  country-wide surveys and prevents damage to sites from development and building, looks after the mapping and registration of new finds and supervises the archaeological work of local and foreign expeditions.

2013's February started off with a dig finding an ancient wine press in Jaffa from the Byzantine period.  In April was discovered a ritual bath from the 2nd Temple period.  May uncovered a dig of a 2,000 year old stone quarry in Jerusalem and a 1,500 year old Mosaic in southern Israel.  This month of June uncovered 2,000 year old cooking pots in Jerusalem.  "

• "Three complete cooking pots and a small ceramic oil lamp were uncovered inside a small cistern in a drainage channel that runs from the Shiloah Pool in the City of David to Robinson’s Arch near the Western Wall..  A distant cousin, Chaim Goldfus, PhD  was involved in this recent find."  

What they are not in control of is the Muslim site in Jerusalem of the Mosque of Omar or Dome of the Rock which was purposely built in the center of the Jews' 2nd Temple area by the Caliph Abed al Malik in about 738 CE to replace the temporary structure set up by the Caliph Omar a century earlier.  It is situated on the traditional site of Mt. Moriah, where the Torah says is the site where Abraham offered up Isaac as a sacrifice.    This seemed to start a Muslim tradition of putting their stamp on an area saying they were taking over with their Muslim religion.  In this way they thought they were burying the older religion by building theirs over it.  Moshe Dayan (1915-1981) Israel's Minister of Defense, allowed the Muslims to have authority over a very precious Jewish site, so what is going on under it is unknown.
                                                                         

                                         Carmel's Caves in Israel, Neanderthal Findings
Archaeological digs began in the 19th Century CE and had a boost after Israel's birth in 1948.  In the Jordan Valley, Galilee and the Carmel Range, bones of early man, the Neanderthals,  were found with tools and the remains of animals that he hunted.  The oldest discovered date back to over one million years ago and was named Tabun.who lived 103,000 to 80,000 years ago.    The next oldest found was Amud who lived from 55,000 to 47,000 years ago, and the earliest was Kebara who lived 60,000 years ago.  Neanderthals were found to have lived from 130,000 to 28,000 years ago.  The company, 23&Me can find the % of Neanderthal genes in people who take their dna test, for most of us do carry some of those genes. Since Neanderthals were not found in Africa, the average European will have about 2.5% Neanderthal genes, which would include Jews since 3 digs have discovered their bones in caves in Israel.    

Bits of Canaanite settlements in the 3rd and 2nd millennia BCE were found in the biblical sites of Hazor, Megiddo, Ashdod, Jerusalem and Shechem.  These have proved to be the settlements of the Israelites on their return from Egypt towards the end of the 2nd millennium BCE and especially after the establishment of the kingdoms of Israel and Judah.  The digs provide many details about the daily life, architecture, arts and forms of religious worship that went on in that period.

Remains form the 2nd Temple days, especially the Hasmonaean period through the Jewish revolt against the Romans in the 1st century CE were unearthed in Jerusalem, Caesarea, Beit-Sha'an, Tiberias and Jaffa.  The most impressive relics of fortresses in the Judaean Desert were the Masada and Herodion, which were bases for the revolt which ended in 70 CE with the devastation of the land and its conversion into a Roman province.

Archaeologists couldn't get into Jerusalem until 1967.  Since then they have uncovered detailed evidence of the city's fortification and the magnificent public and religious edifices.  They also saw how its burning and capture by the Roman legions left its evidence.  Traces of the camp of the Roman 10th Legion and remains of the Roman Jerusalem where found.  They had named the city "Aelia Capitolina" in the 2nd and 3rd centuries and this evidence was found.
                                                                     

In the Judaean desert are caves which were explored that led to the discovery of the "Letters of Shimon Bar-Kochba, the commander of the 2nd Jewish revolt against the Romans in the 2nd century (135 CE).  This event is comparable in historical importance to the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls.

The unbroken presence of the Jewish community throughout the Byzantine period of the 4th to 7th centuries was uncovered by finding beautiful synagogues in the Galilee, Judaea and in the south.  Evidence of the new Christian community that developed at that time was also discovered.

Great edifices built by the Moslem conquerors in the 7th century and after had  been uncovered in the early 70's.  .Found were the palaces of the Omayyad rulers in Jerusalem and the antiquities of Ramla.

The Christian Crusaders' period of knights who came and conquered and held the Holy Land between the 11th and 13th centuries is now better known and understood as their fortresses at Akko (Acre), Caesarea, Jerusalem and Kochav Hayarden have been cleared and reconstructed.

Mamluk and Turkish remains from the Middle Ages at the beginning of the 20th century have been investigated.  Archaeological activity has been expanded and sites are connected with neighboring cultures.  The Phoenicians on the northern seashore, or the Roman period Nabatean settlements in the Negev were receiving closer treatment in the early 70's.
                                                                   

This is a mural of the Jews brought into Egypt as slaves found in Egypt and taken by my cousin, Denise on her vacation there.  This backs up the Exodus story in the Torah.

Outside of Israel has also been found evidence of the Jewish civilization.  Discoveries in Egypt of the 5th to 4th centuries BCE of Aramaic Papri at Elephantine (Yeb), numerous Greek and a few Hebrew papyri of hellenistic and Roman times, the Edfu ostraca, and the Jewish temple at Leontopolis.  Jewish inscriptions of the hellenistic or Roman periods exist in most Mediterranean lands.  The Jewish catacombs in Rome and Carthage and tombstones in the Crimea exist.  Synagogues of the classical period have been found in Greece, Yugoslavia, Italy, Asia Minor and Syria, especially Dur-Europos, remarkable for its biblical frescoes are proof of existence.

The Palestinians have refused to accept the fact that Jews were in the land long before they were.  This is part of their political brain washing of their people, that only they have the right to the land and that Jews are foreigners.  However, they cannot dispute these findings that show we were here long, long ago and have come home to roost.  .  

Resource:  Facts About Israel: Division of Information, Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Jerusalem
http://anthro.palomar.edu/homo2/mod_homo_2.htm Neanderthals, great site.
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Society_&_Culture/geo/Mount.html  Excellent information
The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
http://www.mfa.gov.il/mfa/israelexperience/history/pages/archaeological%20excavations%20in%20israel%202003.aspx

Abbas Not negotiating Yet But Wanting All of Jerusalem

Nadene Goldfoot
Abbas at first only wanted East Jerusalem as the capital of their future state of Palestine.  Israel is not adverse to the Palestinians having a state next door to them, and of course taking part of their city which is one again with the other 3 parts is more than being next door.

Except on August 21, 2012 Mahmoud Abbas made a speech saying that there would be no peace, security or stability in Jerusalem.  That's what they have right now under Israel's authority.  It's a happy and very beautiful city.  His threat went on.  Unless the occupation, settlements and settlers are evacuated from "0UR HOLY CITY".   Now that's a threat.  He's saying he wants Israel to disappear out of Jerusalem and suddenly it's their holy city?  Now he's talking about the whole city of Jerusalem.

Wait a minute.  Islam didn't come along until about 620 CE with Mohammed (570-632 CE)  .  Jews were in Jerusalem with King David of Israel in 1,000 BCE.  In fact, Saul, son of Kish of the tribe of Benjamin,  was the first king of Israel in the 11th century BCE,   Preceding Saul we had Judges like Deborah.  Before settling in Canaan, the elders of the community acted as judges.  Samuel was a judge.  David appointed 6,000 Levites as offices and judges.  Jehoshaphat set up a special court in Jerusalem, where the judges were taken from among the priests, the Levites, and heads of fathers' houses.  Abbas is denying that we have history here a good 1,500 years before Mohammad came along.  So where does he get the bit about "our holy city"?

As for the people who call themselves "Palestinians,"  I suggest that Abbas become familiar with his own history by reading "From  Time Immemorial-the origins of the Arab-Jewish conflict over Palestine" by Joan Peters.  Peters was a reporter who felt sympathy for the Palestinians and set out to do research to prove their case.  Instead, what she found showed where they came from and  how this problem all started.  There were very few actually living in "Palestine."  Most came along looking for work when the aliyah of returning Jews from Russia started in around 1880 CE by Arab men looking for work with these newcomers who were building up cities.  They came in from all the surrounding lands.  Peters was so respected for her work that she became an advisor with presidents.  Besides that, there were always a certain number of Jews living in Palestine.  They didn't all leave after 70 CE when Jerusalem fell to the Romans.

When a man has to lie and create such a cover to convince his people that he is doing the right thing, he is pretty desperate.  So let me be clear on this point.  Jerusalem is a Jewish city.  The whole city is the capital of Israel.  The land was Canaan before the Israelites conquered it with Joshua.  It wasn't a state then but made up of little city-states, somewhat like Greece had been.  The people who had lived there were the Jebus.  They worshipped the Semitic god Shalem among others. When Canaan was taken, most all the Canaanites were killed and those few left alive were assimilated into the Israelite population.  These Israelites were Jewish.

There are no more Canaanites left.    The earliest evidence of man in the Jerusalem area was in the Paleolithic (Old Stone) Age.  However, the actual foundation of the city goes back to the Early Bronze Age of 3,500 BCE to 2,000 BCE to the period when the Canaanites first moved into the land.  In the Middle Bronze Age (2,000 to 1,550 BCE, Jerusalem seemed to be the capital of a Canaanite city state.  Archaeologists think it was the Salem ruled by Melchi-zedek "priest of the most high god" who was honored by Abraham as written in Genesis 14:18-19).

There was a Hyksos revolution where some Hittite and Hurrite people were left behind.  In the Tel 3l Amarna Period of the 15th century BCE the city was ruled by a king who was having problems with the HABIRU.  These invaders appealed to his suzerain, the pharaoh, for help.  The Egyptians had maintained a Cushite garrison in Jeruslaem.  At the time of Joshua's conquest in about 1,320 BCE, Adoni-zedek, king of Jerusalem, was defeated at Aijalon.  His city remained as an independent enclave between the tribal land belonging to Benjamin and Judah.  In the 12th century, Jebus-Jerusalem kept its independence with Philistine help until its capture by David in about 1,010 BCE.  Now it became the capital of a united Israel.

King David was lenient with the JEBUSITES, but took over the city and added the fortress of Zion and also a House of Heroes for his guard.  He built a tomb inside the city for himself and his dynasty.  He had the Ark of the Covenant there.  Jerusalem was made the religious center of Israel.  It was the capital of his empire reaching from the Red Sea to the Euphrates River.

His son, King Solomon,  (970-930 BCE) brought in riches from his commercial ventures and heavy taxation.   He added a Palace and the Temple.  The Temple made it definitely the center of Judaism.  When Solomon died,, the northern tribes broke off and formed the state of Judah. which included Jerusalem.  They maintained the Davidic dynasty.  This lasted until 586 BCE.  Even with Jews living in the Diaspora (outside of Israel and Judah) Jerusalem was the center of Judaism.  

Abbas may not have ever read the Torah, which is the first part of what the Christians call "The Old Testament," but there it all is, the whole history of this land and the Jews. The rest of our history is there, too, found in the Hebrew word for Testament, "Tanach."   which are the Prophets and writings or the 24 books of the Bible.  The only time "Jerusalem" is mentioned in the Koran is one time where it tells of Mohammad going from Mecca to Jerusalem on his flying horse and then going to heaven on him as well. Jerusalem is mentioned 881 times in the Old Testament.  It is mentioned 144 times in the Christian's New Testament.  No descendants of Ishmael ever claimed any part of the land for themselves.  Therefore Jerusalem is not a holy city for the Muslims.  Their holy cities are Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia where Mohammad was from.

Yes, Judah fell in 70 CE and in 135 CE there was a final battle by the brave Bar Kokhba and his men, but no country ever became rulers.  Muslims built their Mosque over the temple, something they seem to do when they conquer a people.  The Ottoman Empire held the title for 400 years but did not create a state or do anything with the land.  It lay in ruin until the Jews returned, as if it were just waiting for them to bring it back to life again.

Resource:  http://jcpa.org/article/is-jerusalem-really-negotiable-an-analysis-of-jerusalems-place-in-the-peace-process/ by Alan Baker: Is Jerusalem Really Negotiable?  Jerusalem's Place in the Peace Process
The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20110116004858AAI2Gg7

East of Euphrates River Came the Hebrews

TimeLine: Jewish History: Hebrews came from other side of Euphrates River's- Garden of Eden

Nadene Goldfoot

The Jewish Calendar shows that this is year 5772 from Creation: So, Starting about 4,000 years ago:  

2nd millennium BCE 1900- Abraham From Ur of the Chaldees (Iraq) son of Terah, father of Isaac by wife Sarah and Ishmael by her handmaid, Hagar.  Migrated to Canaan to live among the Canaanites and the Philistines of that land.  Took a trip to Egypt, came back to live in Hebron.  Founder of Monotheism.  Where did his ancestors come from?

1740 BCE Sumerian Records about Habiru. Other referrals are Apiru, Ivrim, Hebrews.  Could be Ivrim descending from Eber, grandson of Shem or one who comes from the other side of the Euphrates River.  Abraham is called the Hebrew (Gen. 14:13).  It's not for sure that Habiru and Hebrews are the same.  Hebrew is the origin of ebreo and Yevrei, the Italian and Russian words for Jew.  

15-17th Centuries BCE Canaan was the name for Syria, applied to coast of today's Israel.   Before conquest by Joshua, was made up of small city-states.  Israelites called land “Eretz Yisrael -the land of Israel”  and still do.  They referred to the northern part as Aram (Syria).

The name "Palestine" was given to Eretz Yisrael's Judea  by the Romans who took the land in 135 CE after Jerusalem was taken in 70 CE.  It was done to erase the presence of the Jews, something they often did to land they took.  It was the name of the Philistines, and first used actually by the Greeks.  Long ago they referred to the land as Palestinian Syria. Now, Arabs in Eretz Israel call themselves "Palestinians."  

Canaanites:  a mixture of 11 peoples descended from Canaan, son of Ham, son of Noah,  living between Nile and Euphrates of Horites, Hittites and Hebrews dating back to 17th century.  Almost all destroyed or assimilated by Israelites in 13th century, Philistines on coast in 12th century, and Arameans in the north in 11th century.  Rest lived under Kings David and Solomon and absorbed.

Euphrates River is the westerly of 2 rivers, the Tigris and the Euphrates.  They enclose Mesopotamia (Iraq) The source was said to be the Garden of Eden.  The Euphrates was to be the ultimate boundary of the Israelites.  Many Jewish communities lay along the Euphrates in talmudic times and after.  On the lower part were the centers of Babylonian scholarship, ie  Sura, Nehardea and Mahozsa.

18th Century-16th Century BCE Semitic Hyksos dynasty


1720 BCE Entered Egypt during famine, joined brother Joseph, stayed, became slaves, lived there 400 years.
1700 BCE Joseph, 11th son of Jacob kidnapped, taken to Egypt, became viceroy there.  Father Jacob and   brothers join him. 12th brother was Benjamin.  Rachel  then died in childbirth.
15th-14th Century BCE  (Habiru (Ivri) (Hebrews) invaders conquest of Canaan
1320-1200 BCE EXODUS; Moses entered Canaan with 12 Tribes, 600,000 people from Egypt, Joshua’s conquest
1010 BCE Jebusites in Jerusalem, allowed to remain
10?? BCE (11th Century BCE) King Saul, king of Israel of tribe of Benjamin
1000-960 BCE King David of Israel
  961-920 BCE  King Solomon,  Built first Temple to hold ark,
 933-912 BCE King Solomon died, land divided into 2 kingdoms,  King Jeroboam, revolt, became northly kingdom of Israel and (King Rehoboam and kingdom of Judah), the southerly kingdom
730-721 BCE   King Hoshea, last king; Assyrian King Shalmaneser V takes Samaria
721 Sargon of Assyria takes 27,290 Israelites, 10 tribes,  to Assyria and Media, the Lost Ten Tribes 
634-562 BCE Babylonian period with Nebuchadnezzar, 70 years of exile
597 -586 king Zedekiah of Judah, King Jehoiachin18 years old, king  3 months, 1st and 2nd Babylonian captivity, thousands Jews deported-chief men of the land, of tribe of Judah
July 9, 586 BCE Jerusalem’s destruction by Nebuchadnezzar, 1st Temple destroyed
582 BCE 3rd deportation of Jews by Nebuchadnezzar
538-515 2nd Temple in Jerusalem built including “Western Wall.”
537 BCE: Persians: Cyrus II 600 BCE-530 BCE- Sent 40,000 Jews back to native land
519 BCE Exiles returned after the 50 years of exile

312-198 BCE Ptolemaic rule in Jerusalem
300 BCE Jews in exile in Mesopotamia (Iraq pre-Moslem history was Babylonia) and in homeland in Israel/Judah were under Persian rule now.  Book of Esther show Jews living in 127 provinces of the Persian Empire, numerous in capital of Shusha (Shushan).
250 BCE Parthia ruled

70 CE Fall of Temple in Jerusalem
135 BCE Bar Kokhba’s Stand for Jerusalem

570-632 Mohammad born, died in Arabia
641/2 CE Arab Conquest of Persia

1. Reference: Tanakh, Stone Edition, page 2035, tribal census Appendix B, charts 10-11
  Jacob’s family, 70 people who descended to Egypt page 2030, charts 4-5
Babylonian Exile page 2027 timeline 5 Appendix A
2. The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia page 483 Kings of Israel
3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Habiru
4.http://www.bible-history.com/map_babylonian_captivity/map_of_the_deportation_of_judah_jewish_encyclopedia.html
http://jewishfactsfromportland.blogspot.com/2012/09/jewish-year-of-5772-5773-our-history.html

Our Jewish History: All the Events Before Israel's Rebirth of May 14, 1948

Nadene Goldfoot
By the Jewish calendar, Moses was born on the 7th of Adar 2368, or 1400 BCE.  Moses was led by G-d to the Promised Land, Canaan or Eretz Israel, with his people, who had been slaves in Egypt for 400 years. They did not have an easy trip, but were forced to fight for their lives against the Amorites, Moabites, Midianites and Bashan while on the east side of the Jordan River.   Moses was 120 at the time the 600,000 arrived there, but could not enter.  He died in an unknown spot on purpose, as he was not to be worshipped, but his next in line, Joshua, led the people in. 

More than 3,000 years ago, the 12 Tribes of Israelites formed the first constitutional monarchy in what came to be called "The Promised Land" about 1,000 BCE.  King David, the 2nd Jewish King, made Jerusalem the nation's capital.  The nation of Israel was split after the death of Solomon, David's son, and the Southern  half became Judah.  The tribes living in Judah were  3 of the 12; Judah, most of Benjamin and Simeon.

Jewish independence lasted 212 years.  The USA's age is only 236 years. 

In the 2nd century CE, the Romans crushed the last Jewish revolt in 135.  they used the name Palaestina instead of Judea (what is Judea and Samaria and today referred to as "West Bank."  in order to delete Jewish identification with the land of Israel.  "Filastin" is an Arabic word which came from this Latin name.  Originally, the term "Palestine" is thought to be from "Philistines," an Aegean people who settled along the Mediterranean coastal plain of what is now Israel and the Gaza Strip in the 12th Century BCE. 

When the Jews' 2nd Temple was destroyed in 70 CE, many were dispersed, but also many stayed and maintained ties to their homeland for more than 3,700 years.  They maintained their national language of Hebrew and maintained their own distinct civilization.  Jewish life continued and often flourished.  Communities were reestablished in Jerusalem and Tiberias by the 9th century.  By the 11th century, Jewish communities were growing in Rafah, Gaza, Ashkelon, Jaffa and Caesarea. 

Along came the Crusaders who massacred many Jews during the 12th century, but in two centuries communities again rebounded.  Large numbers of rabbis and Jewish pilgrims immigrated to Jerusalem and the Galilee.  Well known rabbis settled into communities in Safed, Jerusalem and other places during the next 300 years.  Read "The Source" by James Mitchener.  It has a lovely chapter about Safed.  Mitchener lived there while he was writing. 

So we never left.  We've always had a population living in our homeland.  By the early 19th century, more than 10,000 Jews lived throughout our modern Israel. 

Israel is unique and has an international "birth certificate" validated by the promise of the Bible, Jewish settlement from the time of Joshua onward.  This is why Jews chose to return when they came to the conclusion that they desperately needed their own homeland.  No other place was in their heart. 

By the 1870's many Jews from Russia and the rest of Europe immigrated back to Palestine as refugees from pogroms there. Tsar Alexander III issued the May Laws in 1882 which caused 2 million Jews to emigrate. from 1881 to 1884.  Many went to the USA while others made aliyah to Eretz Israel.   They had the idea of creating a perfect land, a Utopia of peace and good will.  They and their descendants worked for 78 years of nation-building which finally was realized with the reestablishment of the Jewish State.  By 1897 Theodor Herzl, reporter and lawyer who was appalled by the Dryfus Affair in France,  was on the scene trying to secure the land as the Jewish Homeland.  The land was then part of the Ottoman Empire and still lay in waste, untouched since 135 CE.   

When the WWI ended, their time came and they approached the British who held the mandate over the area.  That was November 11, 1918.  The world had seen 4 years of terrible fighting and the allies took over the Ottoman Empire who had been on the axis side.  Our ancestors had the Balfour Declaration of 1917, went through the League of Nations Mandate which incorporated the Balfour Declaration for the Jewish Homeland, and then the UN partition resolution of 1947. The Balfour Declaration referred to "the historical connections of the Jewish people with Palestine and to the moral validity of reconstituting their National Home in that country.  It was to be the whole of historic Palestine, including Transjordan (today's Jordan). .   Finally, Israel was admitted to the UN in 1948 after their birthday of May 14, 1948.

Israel has long had the right to exist.  There can be no discussion about it.  Saudi Arabia has a right to exist and so does the USA and 151 other states.  Israel is a legitimate state in this world.  Now is not the time to decide to back the people who want to destroy it and who have been trying for the past 64 years.  If they're not shooting missiles at Israel they're trying to erase the fact that Jews ever had a history in the land.  Their people remain ignorant of the facts.   

Reference: http://www.jewfaq.org/moshe.htm
Myths and Facts by Mitchell G. Bard and Joel Himelfarb
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hovevei_Zion
http://www.jewishmag.com/9mag/herzl/herzl.htm
The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia

Abbas's Fairy Tale He's Spinning to Netanyahu

Nadene Goldfoot
Nakba, the Palestinian Arab's day of mourning when Israel was born on May 1948 held festivities in Ramallah and Gaza.  Mahmoud Abbas gave a speech through his advisor and representative, Abdallah Al-Ifranji. 

In it he denies the Jewish history in what had been called Palestine and instead wove a fairy-tale Arabian Nights type story claiming their history of going back to 7,000 BCE and called themselves the "owners of history."

Like a child, the speech taunted PM Benjamin Netanyahu with "Oh, Netanyahu, you are incidental in history; we are the people of history.  We are the owners of history." 

Evidently Abbas doesn't like history books as they deliver things he doesn't want to admit.  Jewish history is written in the bible in what at times seems to be tedious description as well as in Josephus's writings, ancient and non-Jewish sources, archeological excavations, Hebrew coins and Jewish ritual baths that have been found there.  Even the Kurkh Monolith, an Assyrian document from the reign of King Shalmaneser III (859-824 BCE) said, "King Ahab of Israel sent 2,000 chariots and 10,000 soldiers."  The Koran "refers to the people of Israel and even the destruction of the Temple in (Sura 17), but not to Palestinians. 

Jewish history tells of not only being in the land when they left Ur in what is today Iraq but having had a real country.  In fact, Jews had two countries, Judea and Israel.

What is an embarrassing  try is that Abbas is trying to say that the present day Arabs of Palestine were the original Canaanites which the Jews conquered.  "According to the Book of Jubilees, the Israelite conquest of Canaan, and the curse, are attributed to Canaan's steadfast refusal to join his elder brothers in Ham's allotment beyond the Nile, and instead "squatting" on the eastern shores of the Mediterranean, within the inheritance delineated for Shem."  Canaan was the son of Ham.  Ham was the son of Noah who built the ark.  Noah was angry with his son Ham for uncovering him while he was sleeping which caused him to be naked before his family and he said, "Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren. And he said, Blessed be the Lord God of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant. God shall enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant.  So if Abbas takes on the cloak of being a Canaanite, he has to take on the curse as well. 

30% of Israeli Jews and from 16.8% to 25% of Palestinian  Arabs have been found to have the J2 Ydna haplogroup. This only proves that the two groups have a slight genetic connection, like very distant cousins. Supposedly according to the bible, we Arabs and Jews are said to be cousins, but certainly haven't turned out to be kissing cousins. Our arguments go back to bible days to the days of Abraham and his two sons; one by Sarah's Egyptian handmaid and one by Sarah. From there on we have had disagreements.

Probably there were only a few Arabs living in Palestine at the time of 70 AD, and some may have  stayed after the Romans conquered the land..  When Jews returned in the late 1800's to develop the land there were a few there.  Mark Twain wrote about them in his book, "Innocents Abroad."

However, these Arabs who entered the land after the Jews' First Aliyah back in the 1800's came from surrounding Arab nations who were looking for work.  They weren't  natives of the land.  Their people weren't taken by the Romans as captives.  There just weren't any living there.
Palestinia was the name of the land named by the Romans which only meant to erase the Jewish presence.  It was not a nation. 

Abbas's speech stated that Hamas and Fatah reconciled in order to face Israel and Netanyahu.  This is the twosome that Netanyahu is admonished to talk with about a peace settlement yet Abbas refused to come to the table.  This tango pair again needs a greater ratio to even face a Jew now, except both have refused to come and Hamas only wants to destroy Israel. 

Israel is not trying to transport the Arabs to Alaska.  They're trying to live in peace in this ancient land.  It's the Arabs who have not wanted peace with the Jews.  This direction of making peace with an entity who is calling for their destruction does have its problems.  Perhaps tonight's speech by Netanyahu to the USA Congress will have an answer. 

Resource:  Book: "From Time Immemorial" by Joan Peters
pmw@palwatch.org by Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archaeogenetics_of_the_Near_East telling about dna
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20091015090909AAHOpHD
http://www.hymns.me.uk/05-noah-cursing-ham-bible-story.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canaan