RASHI's Troyes, France, and His Family's 1st Run-In With Crusaders

Nadene Goldfoot                                                                        

RASHI,  the acronym and the name Rabbi Solomon Yitzhaki (ben Isaac) was called, was born in Troyes, France in 1040-976 years ago.  How had Jews come to France from Jerusalem when the Temple fell in 70 from Rome's takeover?  They probably followed the Roman-made highway to another Roman center along Via Agrippa to Troyes.  RASHI also died here in 1105.  No doubt, Jews had been trading with Troyes before the fall of the Temple in the year, 70, so some Jews were familiar with it.
                                                                       

1st Crusaders 

  It was here that RASHI made his livelihood with his vineyard.  He had studied in the Rhineland next door, mainly in Worms. "He was a fantastic scholar and studied with the greatest student of Rabbenu Gershom of Mainz."  When he returned to Troyes, he established his own school, which achieved a wide reputation.  He was a writer of commentary on the Bible, mainly the Torah (Pentateuch) ,  and the Babylonian Talmud.  He survived massacres of Jews from the First Crusaders of Europe.
                                                                     
"Troyes (French pronunciation: ​[tʁwa]) is a commune and the capital of the department of Aube in north-central France. It is located on the Seine river about 150 km (93 mi) southeast of Paris. This area is known as the Champagne region of Northern France. . Troyes has been in existence since the Roman era, as Augustobona Tricassium, which stood at the hub of numerous highways, primarily the Via Agrippa.  "Before Julius Caesar’s conquest, Troyes was already a town of the Gauls; under the Roman emperor Augustus it became the capital of the Gallic tribe known as the Tricasses (hence its name)."  

"The city was converted to Christianity in the 3rd century, and then the town was threatened by the Huns in the 5th century and was defended against them by its bishop, St. Loup. 

Sacked by the Normans in 889, it soon came under the authority of the counts of Champagne, who founded a number of churches and almshouses there and established the great fairs which gained an international reputation and brought Troyes exceptional prosperity"

In the early cathedral on the present site, Louis the Stammerer in 878 received at Troyes the imperial crown from the hands of Pope John VIII.   At the end of the ninth century, following depredations to the city by Normans, the counts of Champagne chose Troyes as their capital; it remained the capital of the Province of Champagne until the Revolution.. During theMiddle Ages, it was an important trading town, and gave its name to troy weight. The Champagne cloth fairs and the revival of long-distance trade and new extension of coinage and credit were the real engines that drove the medieval economy of Troyes.

In 1285, when Philip the Fair united Champagne to the royal domain, the town kept a number of its traditional privileges. John the Fearless, Duke of Burgundy and ally of the English, aimed in 1417 at making Troyes the capital of France, and he came to an understanding with Isabeau of Bavaria, wife of Charles VI of France, that a court, council, and parlementwith comptroller's offices should be established at Troyes. It was at Troyes, then in the hands of the Burgundians, that on 21 May 1420, theTreaty of Troyes was signed by which Henry V of England was betrothed to Catherine, daughter of Charles VI, and by terms of which he was to succeed Charles, to the detriment of the Dauphin. The high-water mark of Plantagenet hegemony in France was reversed when the Dauphin, afterwards Charles VII, and Joan of Arc recovered the town of Troyes in 1429."

I notice that Wikipedia has not mentioned RASHI at all under Troyes, even though they list famous people born there, and he is the most famous and earliest of Jewish commentators of the Bible.  

                                                                      

2nd Crusaders of 1147 who almost killed RASHI's Grandson, a Tosaphist.
The Second Battle of Dorylaeum took place on October 25, 1147. Conrad III stopped in Dorylaeum with his 20,000 Germanic troops, to rest, but was badly defeated by the Seljuk Turks led by Mesud I. Unable to continue the Crusade, Conrad journeyed to Louis VII of France's army only to have the Crusade fail completely

Tosaphists were French and German scholars of the 12 to 14th century who criticized and modified with explanatory notes on the Talmud.  "The most famous of these Tosafists was Rashi's grandson, Rabbenu Tam (Jacob Ben Meir Tam-our perfect Master (1100-1171) , who frequently disagreed with his grandfather.  He was the brother of Samuel ben Meir (Rashbam) and lived at Ramerupt until his home was destroyed by Crusaders in 1147 and he himself narrowly escaped death.  " On May 8, 1147, on the second day of the Feast of Weeks, French crusaders broke into his home, robbed him of everything except his books, dragged him into a field, insulted him on account of his religion, and decided to kill him. They inflicted five wounds upon his head, in order, as they said, to take revenge upon the most prominent man in Israel for the five blows which the Jews had dealt to Jesus. At that moment a prince of high rank happened to pass, and Jacob called upon him for protection, promising him a horse worth five marks in return. The prince thereupon bade the crusaders give the rabbi into his keeping, promising that he would either persuade him to be baptized or place him in their power again on the following day (Ephraim bar Jacob, in Neubauer and Stern, "Hebr. Berichte über die Judenverfolgungen Während der Kreuzzüge," p. 64)".Then he also settled in Troyes where in 1160, the first conference of French rabbis met under his leadership.  He had become the outstanding rabbinical authority of his day.  To this day, some orthodox Jews alternately wear 2 pairs of tephillin, one according to Rashi and the other according to Rabenu Tam.  

                                                                               

And when the Philistine looked and saw David, he disdained him, for he was but a youth, ruddy and handsome in appearance." In 2015 a 10-year-old Russian volunteer at Jerusalem’s Temple Mount Sifting Project found a seal from the time of King David in the 10th century BCE

Our family is related to RASHI as we have found out through DNA testing with an autosomal test, and we are not alone.  Many others are, too.  Rashi's family tree traced back to a connection to King David of Israel (1010 BCE-970 BCE).  .  

Resource; The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia: RASHI

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troyes
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/rashi.html
http://www.britannica.com/place/Champagne-region-France
http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/8436-jacob-ben-meir-tam
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David

French Anti-Semitism Very Much Alive

Nadene Goldfoot                                                                   

                                         French General Unrest  in Court, January 24, 1789
The incident occurred on September 30, 2000.  It was the 2nd day of the 2nd Intifada.  "Jamal al-Durrah and his 12-year-old son, Muhammad, were filmed by Talal Abu Rahma, a Palestinian cameraman freelancing for France 2 as they sought cover behind a concrete cylinder after being caught in crossfire between Israeli soldiers and Palestinian security forces. The footage, which lasts just over a minute, shows the pair holding onto each other, the boy crying and the father waving, then a burst of gunfire and dust, after which the boy is seen slumped across his father's legs."

This trial about accusing Israel of killing a Palestinian boy and documenting it on a French TV station started on September 14, 2006.  An Israeli is accusing the TV station of doctoring the video.  "At no point in the footage is Mohammed shown being shot, and there was no blood on the boy or his injured father, the report says. France 2, the investigation concludes, edited out the last several seconds of Abu Rahma's footage, "in which the boy is seen moving his hand", it adds."

“More than a decade on and Karsenty is still embroiled in the controversy surrounding the Al-Dourah case. A modern day Emile Zola in some respects, he was one of the first to accuse the France 2 television network of airing staged video of the apparent death of a 12-year-old Palestinian boy. Whether in suing or being sued, Karsenty has made the case that some media outlets will go to great lengths to frame Israel as an aggressor and criminal state. Today, Karsenty continues to monitor the media as it errs through his Media-Ratings, which monitors the media in France for bias.”

A French TV station, Franc 2 was at the scene in Gaza and staged the killing of a Palestinian boy by the Israeli IDF.  Karsenty saw that it had been photo-shopped and sued the French government for slandering Israel with it.  He did not win his case in court.  In a turnaround, it was he, the  "French media analyst Phillipe Karsenty who was then convicted of defamation for accusing French state television of falsifying their video.

Today, there isn't much that video cannot do.  Superman can fly faster than the speed of sound and look real.  Photo-shop is used all the time for photos and video work.  The boy that was supposed to be shot was seen later very much alive.  This type of thing is not the first set up for visual appeal by the Palestinians.  There are many people working to expose just such situations.  Camera is one of them.

This is almost a repeat of the Dryfus affair when a French Lieutenant was accused of being a spy for Germany and it was a wrongful accusation, only Dryfus was sent to prison.  It was the straw that broke the camel's back in a string of anti-Semitism.  Because he was Jewish, it had to be him who was the spy.

Resource: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muhammad_al-Durrah_incident
http://israelmatzav.blogspot.com/2006/09/al-dura-trial-starts-today.html
http://www.sott.net/article/261998-The-killing-of-12-year-old-Mohammed-al-Durrah-in-Gaza-became-the-defining-image-of-the-second-intifada-Only-Israel-claims-it-was-all-a-fake
http://www.algemeiner.com/2013/06/26/philippe-karsenty-on-al-dura-verdict-a-dark-day-for-french-democracy-and-a-dark-day-for-the-truth-interview/
http://www.jta.org/2013/06/26/news-opinion/israel-middle-east/karsenty-convicted-fined-for-defamation-in-al-dura-case

Life Outside of Israel and Judea in Diaspora: Expulsions in an Intolerant World Society

Nadene Goldfoot                                                                         

                     The Life, Culture and Religion of the Byzantine Empire

 Jews faced expulsion from Rome in 139 BCE by the praetor, Hispanus.  Jews had migrated to Rome from Alexandria, Egypt.  They then made up a significant part of the population there.   This was during the Ptolemaic era.   They had then gone to Rome.  Josephus, the Jewish general who had been the historian for the Romans said that he himself had led 120,000 Jewish captives, probably from the fall of Jerusalem in 70 CE  to Egypt from Jerusalem and other parts of Judea, Samaria and Mt. Gerizim.  Soon after they were freed of their bondage  by Philadelphus.

The Roman Empire made Constantinople its capital by the 4th Century and this was called the Byzantine Empire.  This empire extended throughout the world and included "Palestine" even by the year 637.  The eastern emperors  had specific religious attitudes towards Jews.  Justinian (527-65) created anti-Jewish laws in his Code, and also issued a decree in 553 which affected the conduct of the synagogue services.  Heraclius around 614 to have issued an edict ordering the conversion of the Jews.  Judaism was continually forbidden by successive emperors; by Leo in 223, Basil I in 873-4, Romanus Lucapenus in 932-6, and so it went.  Each time Jewish life picked up and continued.  It was not about to be stomped out.

Benjamin of Tudela around 1170 found Jewish communities throughout the Byzantine Empire.  He discovered that Jews were treated with contempt in Constantinople.  The last remaining Jews there were conquered by the Turks in 1453.

The results of religious intolerance grew in the early Middle Ages.  Forced conversions to the dominant faith of Christianity without the alternative of exile was frequent during the days of the Byzantine Empire.  Jews faced expulsions when they refused to be converted to Christianity.  Today, the city of Constantinople is renamed as Istanbul.  The Eastern orthodox church grew out of it and separated from the Western Church with its headquarters in Rome in 1054.  Later it again divided into the Greek Orthodox and the Russian Orthodox with each group being independent.

  This is why the Pilgrims braved a journey in the Mayflower and sailed from Holland to the unknown land of America in 1620.  Though they were Christians, their outlook was a little different than the English viewpoint.  Thus, the USA became a country of religious tolerance; not quickly, but eventually.

We're still wondering if Christopher Columbus was Jewish by birth.  He wrote letters to his son in Hebrew.  His interpreter, Luis de Torres, a converted Jew, was the first European to set foot on American soil. His name was Yosef ben HaLevi Halvi.   Jews who were hiding the fact and pretending to be Catholics that had been converted were called Marranos.  Marranos had settled in both the Spanish and the Portuguese colonies because of the Inquisition of 1492.  The term, Marranos is not used today. Jews do not eat any meat from pigs.   It means "swine" in Spanish and was applied in Spain and Portugal to the descendants of baptized Jews who were suspected of secret adherence to Judaism.  Another word used today to replace the pejorative term of Marranos is Anussim, a Hebrew word.   Inquisitors would have people report on suspects who were thought to have evidence of them refusing to eat any pork products.  It is said that the Inquisition still exists in Portugal today!

 After the massacres in 1391 in Spain, more Jews in this position grew to appreciate their Jewish heritage.  All the Jews of Portugal for forcibly converted in 1497.  With the Inquisition in Portugal by 1540, the Marranos/Anussim were persecuted in Spain to the close of the 18th century and into Mexico into the 1800's.  Many escaped to Italy, North Africa and Turkey.  Anussim in Italy lived in Ancona, Ferrara, Venice and Leghorn.  Antwerp was another popular center in the 16th century.  Amerstadam, Holland was another as well as the Hague and Rotterdam.   When Brazil was under Dutch rule (1630-54) the first openly Jewish communities were founded by native Anussim and immigrants from Holland.

By 1880, the Jewish population in the USA had grown to 250,000 mostly from German Jews.  A small group settled in Canada then.   The pogroms of 1881 in Russia brought Russian Jews and immigration continuing into 1914, when it was lessened.  Jews went into Latin America such as Baron de Hirsch's agricultural colonies in Argentina.  1924's legislation in the USA  caused more Jews to immigrate to Canada and South America.  By 1933 those Jews in Germany were trying to immigrate to these places.  Spanish-speaking Sephardi immigrants were attracted to South America.  By 1989, Jews of the USA numbered 5,825,000.  47,000 lived in Central America and 390,000 lived in South America.

Religious intolerance continues in the USA but has taken on a new form.  By being intolerant to Israel, people  are venting their intolerance again towards Jews.  I notice many Protestant groups that are boycotting Israel's products as a religious body in trying to force them to think their way, not towards religion, necessarily but towards their attitude towards the Palestinians whom they know very little.  They side with a people trying to destroy Israel.  This is plain enough for me to see that they are not much different than the Byzantine Empire's attitude towards Jews.  On the other side of the coin are the Evangelical Christians who support Jews in order to carry forth their own religious concepts and that they support our right to live there as Jews.

139 BCE:  Jews expulsed from Rome

 19 CE        "        "                       "

 49/50        "        "                       "

115 CE     Jews expulsed from Cyprus

1182      Royal dominions of France-expulsed Jews who wouldn't convert

1290     All Jews expulsed from England

1306      Jews expulsed from France
1322       "                                "
1394      "                                "
1348/49  Jews expulsed from Germany  after Black Death Massacres
1349-60 Jews expulsed from Hungary
1421     Jews expulsed from Austria
1484     Jews  kept out of Andalusia, an autonomous community in Spain with Seville as capital
1492    Jews expulsed  from Spain and Spanish dominions including Sicily and Sardinia of 180,000
1495    Jews expulsed from Lithuania
1497    Jews expulsed from Portugal or fate was forced conversions, also Sicily and Sardinia
1498    Jews expulsed from  Navarre, now part of Spain and France
1502    All Jews expulsed from Rhodes, or forcibly converted or taken as slaves
1512   Jews expulsed from  Provence, a province of SE France
1541   Jews expulsed from kingdom of Naples, Italy
1569   Jews expulsed from smaller centers of papal dominions in Italy and France.
1727   Jews expulsed from Little Russia
1739    "                              "
1742   "                              "
1747  Jews expulsed from Russia again.
1891  Jews expulsed from Moscow and St. Petersburg
19th Century Jews expulsed periodically from areas outside of PALE OF SETTLEMENT (Russian land where Jews were allowed to live-Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Belorussia, Ukraine)
1930's during Nazi power people with Jewish ancestry, regardless of present religious affiliations, compelled their emigration by means of ferocious persecution before they even started to deport and exterminate Jews.

For the Jewish people today, the remnant of a people who brought to the world the 10 Commandments and laws of which acts are acceptable and which aren't,  as well as a vast history of the beginnings of man in the Middle East and even brought into the world Jesus according to their own history,  there has been nothing but intolerance and unacceptedness.  Because Jews refused to convert and let go of their beliefs, they have suffered mightily.  Here they are today in their own land once again.  They know what has happened to their people when they were forced to leave.  They hold on with all their might to land legally theirs once again.

One of the miracles of today are a few Christians who are actually studying the Torah and are finding it awesome.This is not through any Jewish proselyting but they are discovering this on their own.   I believe this has brought on new found respect for the Jewish people who have always found it awesome and worth saving.  Perhaps if such an attitude existed long ago, the world would be a much different society.  At least we can say that many Jewish lives wouldn't have been uprooted or wouldn't have suffered such horrible deaths.  .

Resource:  The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/10721a.htm on Navarre
http://sefarad.org/sefarad/sefarad.php/id/29/  "I am a Marrano"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marrano
http://www.jackwhite.net/iberia/portugal.html   excellent
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luis_de_Torres
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Jews_in_Egypt
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ptolemy_II_Philadelphus
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gnaeus_Cornelius_Scipio_Hispanus
Facts About Israel , divisionof Information, Ministry for foreign affairs, Jerusalem 

Eastern European Jews "Ashkenazis" and the Zionism Movement Leading to Prime Ministers

Nadene Goldfoot                                                                

Ashkenazi Jews include Karl Marx, Albert Einstein with an IQ of 180, Sigmund Freud, George Gershwin, Golda Meir, and Baal Shem Tov, the founder of Hasidism born in Podolia.  

We can thank the French for their anti-Semitism-(hostility to or discrimination against Jews) which brought on an Ashkenazi' movement to establish Israel after a 2,000 years wait.  In 1894, there was a young brilliant and efficient French Jewish captain named Alfred Dreyfus (1859-1935) who was on the French general staff and someone accused him of selling secret documents to Germany, which he was innocent of doing.  He was found guilty in the court system and faced life imprisonment. The verdict was influenced by invalid documents which had not been communicated to the defense.  The fact that he was Jewish made him a suspect.  He kept proclaiming his innocence both in the Paris trial and from his cell in Devil's Island.  Finally he was found innocent in 1906.  Anti-Semitism was flourishing in France at this time.  Not only in France, but Russia as well.  The movie, "Fiddler on the Roof" shows one incident of a pogrom, attacks on Jewish communities raiding and pillaging.  Golda Meir, former Prime Minister of Israel had been in such pogroms when young.  About 1,850 years of anti-Semitism met wherever Jews traveled was just about enough!  My own grandmother in Poland suffered from broken legs in such a pogrom.

Ashkenazi Jews had had it in Eastern Europe.  In 1893 the Zionism Movement started to secure the Jewish return to the Land of Israel.  Nathan Birnbaum coined the term Zionism in 1893 but aspirations of our return goes back as far ass the Babylonian Exile of 587 BCE.

The Hibbat Zion movement produced extensive literature besides encouraging the migration of Jews to Palestine and founding settlements there.  Theodore Herzl (1860-1904) from Budapest, Hungary and a student in Vienna, Austria, influenced by what had happened to Dryfus,  organized the first Zionist Congress in 1897.  He's called the father of political Zionism.  Their aspirations were to establish for the Jewish people a national home in Palestine guaranteed by public law.  From that grew the Basle Program of Zionism which took the assumption that the Jews are still a people or nation, many of whom cannot or will not assimilate themselves to other peoples, and wish to retain their identity as a national community.  They had lots of support except from the extreme religious factions that claimed that only Divine Providence could restore the Jews to their land.

 Herzl wrote "The Jewish State" published in 1896 where he defined Jews as a people whose assimilation was impracticable and whose plight would deteriorate owing to its social and economic position.  He concluded that the solution was the founding of a Jewish state by international agreement.   Many liberal Jews denied the nationhood of the Jews whom they maintained to be only a community united by religion. I believe WWII changed a few minds.

In the 1890's Baron Edmond de Rothschild supported Jewish colonies that were suffering financial difficulties and lack of technical experience.  Hertzl went on to create the World Zionist Organization and its institutions.  There was the Jewish Colonial Trust in 1898 and the Jewish National Fund in 1901 to purchase land in Palestine as the perpetual property of the Jewish people.

The presidents of the World Zionist Organization (WZO) have been notables such as Theodor Herzl, David Wolffsohn, Otto Warburg, Chaim Weizmann, Nahum Sokolow, Chaim Weizmann again, and Nahum Goldmann.  Chairmen of the Zionist Executive have been:  Nahum Sokolow, David Ben-Gurion, Berl Locker and Nahum Goldmann, Zalman Shazar and Rose Halprin, Moshe Sharett and Rose Halprin, A. Pincus, Rose Halprin, and Emanuel Neumann, Louis A. Pincus, Pinhas Sapir, Yoseph Almogi, Arye Leon Dulzin and Simcha Dinitzs.

Jews who migrated as far north as Russia found themselves barred from Russia proper by the edict of Catherine II.  They were only allowed to live in The Pale of Settlement, Czarist Russia which included Poland, Lithuania, White Russia (Belorussia) , Ukraine, Bessarabia (formerly Romanian, then Moldavian and Ukrainian Republics)  and Crimea (peninsula in Black Sea).  Permission to live outside its  confines was granted only to certain groups, that is members of the liberal professions with a high school diploma, big businessmen, skilled artisans and ex-Cantonists.  It existed from 1791 to 1917.

The prime ministers of Israel have been:
David Ben Gurion (David Gruen b: 1886 in Plonsk, Poland),
 Moshe Sharett Moses Shertok b: 1894 Kherson, Ukraine),
Levi Eshkol(Levi Shkolnik b: 1895 Oratovo, Ukraine),
Yigal Allon (b: Yigal Peikowitz, 1918 Kfar Tavor, Palestine, father-immigrated in 1890, probably from Poland) ,
Golda Meier (Golda Meyerson b: 1898 Kiev, Ukraine),
Yitzhak Rabin (b: 1922 Jerusalem, parents-Nehemiah and Rose Smidowitz of Ukraine and Belarus, part of 3rd Aliyah),
Menachem Begin (b: 1913 Brest-Litovsk, Poland),
Yitzhak Shamir (Icchak Yezernitsky/Jeziernicky b: 1915 Ruzhinoy, Poland),
Shimon Peres (b: 1923 Belorussia) ,
Benjamin Netanyahu (b: 1949 Tel Aviv, Israel said to have IQ 180-genius level-, father Benzion b: Warsaw, Poland, grandfather Nathan Mileikowsky, Zionist),
Ehud Barak (Ehud Brog, b: 1942 Kibbutz Mishmar Hasharon, Israel, father immigrated in 1930 from Pusalotas, Lithuania) ,
Ariel Sharon ( Ariel "Arik" Scheinermann, b: 1928 Kfar Malal, Palestine, parents of German- Polish and Russian)
Ehud Olmert (b:1945 Binyamina Giv'at Ada, Palestine, parents from Ukraine and Russia)

Resource: The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Prime_Ministers_of_Israehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benzion_Netanyahu
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Netanyahu
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3418778,00.html
http://www.eilatgordinlevitan.com/kurenets/k_pages/rabin.html

Kerry's Reviving 2002 Peace Plan-Deplorable

Nadene Goldfoot
 Back to the 1967 lines is all Kerry can come up with .  The long dormant plan of 2002 would be slightly modified by Kerry.  How has not been explained.   This is a plan which Saudi  Arabia introduced and the 22-member Arab League had endorsed.  It goes against everything that spells out security for Israel.  Israel never went for the plan and the Palestinians want nothing changed in it which most likely spells doom for Israel.  According to the Oregonian newspaper, the" basic parameters seem to be gaining traction as a framework for future talks between the Israelis and Palestinians."   This makes my heart sink as I think of watching and listening to Netanyahu explain to Obama just why going back to the 67 lines is unthinkable for Israel today.

 How can Kerry have the audacity to come up with this?  This includes providing Israel with recognition throughout the Arab world  This should be a given. It also asks for the pullout from territory taken in 1967.   If the Arabs can't accept Israel's creation through the UN as a legal state with rights, then they do not plan to follow any of the rules and regulations.  Obviously the explanation that Netanyahu gave on public TV went in and out of the Democratic party's ears without any understanding at all.

Let's look at what was going on in 1967.  The Arabs objectives were solidified after the war at the Khartoum Summit Conference in August 1967.  Arab leaders laid down 4 principles:
1. No peace with Israel
2. No negotiations with Israel
3. No recognition of Israel
4. Insistence on the rights of Palestinian people in their "own country." (which is fallacious).  There never was a country of Palestine.

Their main goal has been directed towards bringing about the withdrawal of Israel to the pre-1967 lines by every means other than negotiations with Israel.  What the Arab States have used since 1967 have not brought them any closer to their objective of forcing upon Israel a decision which is not acceptable to it until today with Kerry approaching with this impossible 11 year old plot that the Arabs like.  This would say, "It's okay to attack Israel as we will lose nothing by it as the world stands behind us."

As former Major-General, then President Chaim Herzog wrote, "Israel's belief that the war had come to an end and that peace would now reign along the borders was soon dispelled.".  It only took 3 weeks after the conclusion of hostilities, the first major incident happened on the Suez Canal.

 The Great Powers have pressured Israel but Israel insists that this should be solved directly between the 2 sides and that an imposed settlement is no solution of it.  #3 Recognition does not guarantee erasing numbers 1,2,and 4, either.  Israel wants and expects  "a just and lasting peace in which everyone can live in security.  Using 242  written on 22 November 1967 calls for the withdrawal of Israeli armed forces from territories occupied in the conflict.  So where's the protection for Israel if this comes about?  According to their word, they aim to destroy Israel.  The Arab Governments and their supporters interpret the resolution as requiring a complete Israeli withdrawal.  UN Mediator, Ambassador Jarring, submitted a proposal that Israel should withdraw to "the former international boundary between Egypt and the British Mandated territories of Palestine.  His mission came to a halt in February 1971 with this proposal.

In 1968, Israel's population was 2,841,100, so was a little less in 1967. Iraqi  President Abdur Rahman Aref stated:  "The existence of Israel is an error which must be rectified.  This is our opportunity to wipe out the ignominy which has been with us since 1948.  Our goal is clear:  to wipe Israel off the map."  June 4th was the day Israel faced down Iraq, Egypt, Jordan and Syria.   It faced in 1967 the Arab forces 250,000 troops (nearly half in Sinai), more than 2,000 tanks and 700 aircraft which formed a ring around Israel.  Jordan's Hussein was told that if he stayed out of the fight he would not be attacked unless he initiated hostilities, but he ordered the shelling of West Jerusalem.  Syrian and Iraqi troops attacked Israel's northern frontier.  In a week,  Israel was in a position to march on Cairo, Damascus and Amman.  A cease-fire was invoked on June 10th.

The United States could do nothing.  They couldn't stop Nasser or the other Arab states.  The war began on June 5th and the State Department announced:  "Our position is neutral in thought, word and deed."  To top it off, Johnson imposed an arms embargo on France, who was Israel's arms supplier.  At the same time, the Soviets were supplying massive amounts of arms to the Arabs.  The armies of Kuwait, Algeria, Saudi Arabia and Iraq were adding their troops and arms to the Egyptian-Syrian-Jordanian fronts.  When the war ended in 6 days, President Johnson said, "Certainly, troops must be withdrawn; but there must also be recognized rights of national life, progress in solving the refugee problem, freedom of innocent maritime passage, limitation of the arms race and respect for political independence and territorial integrity.  Who supplies the most weapons to Egypt today when it is under the government of the Muslim Brotherhood?  The USA.

Kerry is going along with 242 pretty much which requires Israel's total, unconditional withdrawal from the "occupied" territories", of which Israel isn't occupying Gaza or Judea and Samaria, unless withdrawal means to force Israelis to leave their cities and homes in Judea and Samaria.  I ask Kerry then, why is it that Israel  doesn't ask Arabs to leave Israel?  Why can't Jews stay in Judea and Samaria if they so wish?  What's fair for the goose is fair also for the gander.  Yet Arafat, in accepting 242 and 338, inserted his clarification of his 3 principals;
1. A Palestinian State
2. Self-determination
3. The right of return.

The Likud position at that time, with Benjamin Begin as speaker, said that by giving up the Sinai, they did withdraw from 91% of the territories and thereby fulfilled its obligation under 242.  The question asks if Israel has to give up territory it still holds and Begin thought a compromise was possible.  The position that Israel must withdraw from all the territories is inconsistent with resolution 242.  Since then, Israel withdrew from Gaza in the name of peace all its Israeli occupants much to the shock and awe of Israel since it has become a shooting center upon southern Israel.  Yet all the people who are pushing Israel to withdraw to the 67 lines did nothing about the attacks; no outcry, no complaining in the UN, no meetings or punishments.  The attacks  have been the heaviest since 2005 till today.

Resource:  Oregonian Newspaper page A5, News update:  Mideast peace efforts, by AP.
Myths and Facts, a concise record of the Arab-Israeli conflict by Mitchell G. Bard and Joel Himelfarb page 52-70 Six Day War
Facts About Israel, Division of Information, Ministry for foreign affairs, Jerusalem,  page 46-49

Jews, The Original Sons of the Land; from King Hussein of the Hejaz

Nadene Goldfoot
Jews came from Israel and Judea which they lost by 135 CE after being there with Moses and entering the land called Canaan in 1271 BCE.  That's almost a 1,500 year history of living there.  Since then, they've not had a homeland for 2,000 years and had lived in misery and suffered from anti-Semitism.  People have lived in America for only 413 years and we know how we feel about our land.

The Ottoman Empire ruled Palestine from 1517 to 1917.  They were on the side of the Germans in WWI which started on July 28, 1914 and ended on November 11, 1918.  Germany greatly influenced the Arabs throughout WWII as well.  Already in 1916 the Ottoman Empire's southern region was to be mandated by France and Great Britain under the Sykes-Picot Agreement.  France was given the mandate over the  land mass  that became Lebanon and Syria,  and Britain was given the mandate over the land mass that became Trans-Jordan, then Jordan, Israel and Judea-Samaria.

On November 2, 1917, the British Government issued the Balfour Declaration.  This document pledged support for the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people.  They were in sympathy with the Jewish Zionist aspirations and had met many times with the Jewish leaders.  All the allied governments were parties to the antecedent negotiations and approved the Declaration.

 So did some of the main leaders of the Arab national movement such was Emir Feisal, born May 20, 1885,  who is an ancestor of the present day King of Jordan.   He became King of the Arab Kingdom of Syria or Greater Syria in 1920, and was King  of Iraq from 23 August 1921 to 1933. He was a member of the Hashemite dynasty. On January 3, 1919 an agreement was reached between Emir Feisal, also the chief Arab delegate at the Paris Peace Conference and the son of King Hussein bin Ali, Sharif of  Mecca, the Grand Sharif of Mecca which means he was a descendant of Mohammad,  and Dr. Chaim Weizmann of the World Zionist Organization.  This is when he endorsed the  Balfour Declaration  and Palestine was recognized as a separate Jewish entity.  The Arab State would maintain diplomatic relations with them on condition  that Britain and France met the Arab demands in other territories.   The mandate the Britain held was to see to it that this was carried out.

The Mandate extended over both sides of the river Jordan.  Judea and Samaria had existed there.  As early as 1922 Britain divided the Mandated territory in half and established an Arab emirate in Trans-Jordan. Winston Churchill, then the British colonial secretary,  negotiated this in 1922.   This deprived the Jews of any rights to the land east of the river.  Then Britain made it forbidden to Jews to buy land or settle there as well, clearly against the Mandate rules.

At the same time, leaders of the Arab national movement were negotiating with Britain for the recognition of Arab national rights in the former territories of the Ottoman empire throughout the Middle East. Not only did Emir Feisal want to be king of a large piece of the empire but his brother, Abdullah did also.

 King Hussein of the Hejaz, Hussein bin Ali,  was born in 1853 in Istanbul as the eldest son of Sharif Ali ibn Muhammad and his wife, Salha Bani-Shahar. He was the last of the Hashemite rulers over the Hejaz to be appointed by the Ottoman Sultan. As a Hashemite, he was highly respected in the Islamic world. It was his "noble" lineage which granted him the status he maintained in the Hijaz. As a descendant of the Prophet Muhammad, even the British, during his period as Emir, recognized this special status. He wrote the following:

"We saw the Jews...streaming to Palestine from Russia, Germany, Austria, Spain, America...The cause of causes could not escape those who had the gift of deeper insight;  they knew that the country was for its original sons, for all their differences, a sacred and beloved homeland."  (Al Qibla, Mecca, #183, March 23, 1918;  George Antonius, Arab Awakening. p. 269)

The British were most ambivalent as to their policy.  At times they allowed Jewish immigration and at other times it was severely restricted and they prohibited Jews from even buying land at other times.  This was pre-holocaust era when European Jews needed to enter Palestine.  It meant life or death.

Today I see college history professors giving the Balfour Declaration a slight glance, telling students that it was not a serious document giving rights to the Jewish people which is completely incorrect.  All the nations, and they belonged to the League of Nations at that time, the precursor of the United Nations, had agreed that the Jews were to have this Homeland and to the land which was involved.  The Jews wound up with only 20% of the  original land promised because of the British finagling.

Chaim Weizmann, Zionist leader, had helped the British to win the war against the Ottoman empire in 1917-1918 with his organic chemical invention relating to the fermentation of acetone-butyl which improved the weaponry used by Britain.  Without it, no matter how many weapons were used, they could have lost the battle.

At any rate, Jewish political rights were restricted.  Arab objectors were often favored if not fostered.  Immigration of Jews were limited.  Jews went ahead anyway and founded new villages,  towns and cities, drained swamps, and planted forests.  Tel Aviv was expanded.  Arabs enjoyed the advantages they were receiving from all this.  However, by 1936 Arab rioting started in which was stimulated by the German and Italian Fascist governments who wanted to embarrass England in the Middle East.  Jews developing the country continued anyway without interruption.  The reaction of the British was to restrict immigration and the rights of Jews.  In the 1920s most of the Jews came from Eastern Europe.  In the 1930s, many Jews had escaped to Palestine from Nazi Germany.

By 1936 there were 384,000 Jews and 983,000 Arabs in Palestine. By 1948 the Yishuv numbered 650,000 Jews.  This was an awesome number as Moses had gone into Canaan with 600,000 men.   Had immigration been more open for Jews, the number would have been much higher.  Most of the Jews lived in the Tel Aviv area which is on the seacoast.  November 1947 was when Britain turned to the new United Nations who said to divide Palestine into independent Arab and Jewish states.  Jews said yes to their piece and Arabs said no and have been saying no ever since.  They won't settle for half; they want the whole piece.

Leaders of the Palestinians refused to recognize any Jewish national rights in the land and wanted complete Arab control over all.  They erupted into violence in 1920, 1921, 1929 and 1936-39 when 517 Jews were killed  in  terror attacks against Jewish villages and towns.  In 1929 they massacred 67 Jews in Hebron, destroyed their synagogues. Jews had lived there for 2,000 years.  The most influential Arab dissenter was the Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin al-Husseini.   During WWII, he joined up with the Nazis and spent the war years in Berlin.

Countries today created out of the Ottoman Empire include more than just all the Middle East countries.  Algeria, Bahrain, Cyprus, Djibouti, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Oman, Palestinian Territory, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkey, United Arab Republic and Yemen were part of the empire.  Arab countries occupy 640 times the land mass as does Israel.  The Arabs outnumber the Jewish state of Israel 50 to 1.  In the world of 6.7 billion people, 1.48 billion are Muslims.  That's 1/4 of the world population.  Jews number 12.9 million which is 0.2% of the world population.  Arabs aren't in any danger of being wiped out, except by each other.  Israel is a tiny but important state that must be recognized by the Arabs as having the right to exist in their ancient land.  

The Jews lived up to their part of the deal with the Balfour Declaration but the British did not.  Emir Feisal had also turned against the Jews, but not because of any action on their part.  Feisal Ibn Hussein  was the eldest son of Hussein, sherif of Mecca, Saudi Arabia.  He had led the uprising of Arabs against Turkey (Ottoman Empire) from 1916 to 1918.  He had been sympathetic to Zionism and hoped to receive help in building his future kingdom from the Jews this way.  Later, after meeting with Weizmann, he was expulsed in 1920 from Syria by the French, who also held the mandate on that part of the Ottoman Empire.  His brother, Abdullah, became King of Iraq on April 1,  1921, so he was rewarded right away by the British.  This Abdullah is the gggrandfather of the present day King of Jordan.  The other Palestinian leaders, influenced by the Germans, who the Ottoman Empire supported in WWI, then influenced Emir Feisal who turned against the Zionists.  Thanks to the French-British connection, all the good plans fell apart that had been reached by Weizmann and Feisal.

When Jordan attacked Israel in 1967, they kissed good-bye to their hold on Judea-Samaria and east Jerusalem.  They had lost that war along with all their Arab neighbors. Israel didn't kick out any Palestinians but Israelis felt freer to move to Judea and Samaria, holy places to Jews.  Since when do countries keep land when attacking another and losing?  Israel gained rights that they should have had in 1948 .  What would have happened to Israel if she had lost that war?  What was the purpose of the Arab's attack in 1967 if not to end Israel?  What is the purpose of the Palestinians not sitting down to make peace with Israel  for 65 years and establish their Palestine in an acceptable manner?

Resource: http://www.masada2000.org/historical.html excellent with maps
Facts About Israel 1973, division of information, Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Jerusalem
The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
http://www.kinghussein.gov.jo/his_transjordan.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_kings_of_Jordan
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ottoman_Empire
http://www.lookisrael.com/files/justbig.php
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hussein_bin_Ali,_Sharif_of_Mecca
http://www.jrtelegraph.com/2011/01/ruth-wisse-arabs-and-muslims-demand-6401-odds-over-jews.html by Ruth Wisse.  Ruth R. Wisse is Peretz Professor Yiddish Literature and Professor of Comparative Literature.

French Discount Murdering Jews to Receive Citizenship

Nadene Goldfoot                          Rechavam Zeevi, Minister of Tourism,, Assassinated  2001
                  
Majdi al-Rimawi of the village of Bani Zeid Al-Gharbiyya, received a life sentence plus 80 years for being in on the planning and murder of an Israeli Minister, Rechavam Zeevi in 2001.  He was part of a terrorist group called PFLP, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.

Originally, "Hamdi Qar’an, Bassel al-Asmar, Majdi al-Rimawi and ‘Aahed Abu Ghalma, together with Fuad Shobaki, and Ahmad Sa’adat were transferred by US and British security officers to a prison in Jericho and guarded there by US and British wardens."  Hamdi Quran was their leader.  "Quran was imprisoned by the Palestinian National Authority  in a Jericho prison guarded by American and European guards on May 9, 2002 and given an 18 year sentence." Majdi al-Rimawi was convicted of planning the killing and sentenced to 8 years in prison "

 In 2006, Israeli Defense Forces besieged the prison and took Quran to Israeli custody. He was sentenced to life imprisonment.  Israel does not have the death penalty.  Rimawi must have been taken then, too.  The idea of being sentenced to only 8 years for assassinating an important personage of Israel was unacceptable. He was given what he deserved.

The little city of Bezons, France has just honored him by granting him citizenship.  They have a plaque with an inscription on it from the city's municipality which refers to Al-Rimawi as a "political prisoner."  I guess to them all political prisoners can murder and it's acceptable.  The plaque was dated on February 13, 2013.  It sounds like it was created by the Palestinians themselves as on it is written, "a state for the Palestinians on the 1967 borders.  A city for peace and solidarity." Present receiving it were Rimawi's wife, son and daughter.

Benzons is a NW suburb of Paris, only 7.8 miles away or 12 minutes by tramway.

Bezons invited Rimawi's wife to the ceremony.  In her speech she spoke highly of all the prisoners in Israel.  To her the award shows the city's support of the issue of Palestinian prisoners in general and in particular the issue of prisoners sentenced to long prison terms.

The Mayor of the city was defensive in saying that Majdi is a direct victim of this occupation....as are the 4,500 Palestinian "resistance fighters" who were imprisoned for having dared to defend "their" country against an occupier whose military means are oversized and whose methods constantly violate UN resolutions and international law.

The man he helped to assassinate was the Tourism Minister of Israel,  a 75 year old general, politician and historian born in 1926 and founder of Moledet Party.  Zeevi was one of but few politicians that have been assassinated. He had served in the 12th, 13th, 14th and 15th Knessets.   He was a Sabra, born in Jerusalem.  He had been a member of Palmach in 1942 defending against Arab attacks on defenseless Jews at a time when Britain wouldn't let in Jews escaping from Europe's Holocaust.  "Ze'evi, known for his concern for Israel's captured or missing soldiers, wore a military identity disc with their names on his neck"..

"According to Bezons monthly newsletter, the honouring of Rimawi was the result of a unanimous decision by the Bezons local council, which described his crime as "defending his town and its inhabitants, calling for the application of international law for the establishment of Palestine to the 1967 borders as recognised by the United Nations, and Jerusalem as its capital." The decision and the newsletter made no mention of Ze'evi's killing."

This is all false information but one can see that the people of this French city have been completely brainwashed into believing such nonsense.  Of course the French did have their problems in defending their country and had to call in the Americans to do it for them, so they don't seem to understand Israel's strength and  zeal in wanting to stay alive and keep their country.  These "fighters" are terrorists who only know death and destruction as means to win what isn't rightfully theirs.   As for international law, Israel has the right to be where they are as proven by a number of international lawyers, but the UN and Europe have been ignoring these facts on purpose.  It doesn't suit their point of view or anti-Semitic tendencies.  Europe has gone from madly defending "The Holy Land" in the Crusades to bland disinterest today.  I think their attitude is to just let the Muslims have it all and be done with it and Jews can just go.

"Lesparre, the mayor,  was sharply criticized by Moshe Kantor, president of the European Jewish Congress,  who stated that “It is inconceivable that an elected official can be so ignorant as to call a cold-blooded murderer a victim.” Israeli Foreign Ministry also criticized the decision, stating that it was "humanly outrageous to honor a convicted murderer, no political view can justify it."

In the meantime, France is a leading country with acts of anti-Semitism.  One can understand why.

Resource: http://palwatch.org/main.aspx?fi=157&doc_id=8640 by itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rehavam_Ze'evi
http://electronicintifada.net/content/palestinian-high-court-demands-explanation/3846
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bezons

Islam's Influence in Holland

Nadene Goldfoot
"Fifty years ago, very few Muslims lived in the Netherlands, but Islam was the most widespread religion in the Kingdom of the Netherlands as a whole. Until 1949, the Kingdom included what is now the Republic of Indonesia, with its predominantly Muslim population, while Suriname, which has a Muslim minority of mainly Indian origin, did not gain its independence until 1975. The first Muslims to settle in the Netherlands itself were Moluccans who left Indonesia in 1951, after it had become an independent republic"  Today Indonesia is the most populated Muslim majority country with 228,582,000 people of which 86.1% are Sunni Muslims.
.
Holland has had Muslims living there since the 16th century, especially from Turkey and Morocco as part of the Ottoman Empire traders, but lately have received many more from other Muslim majority countries.  In 2011 the population of the Netherlands was 16,696,000.

By January 1,  2005 there were 108,728 Twelver Shiites living in the Netherlands. They had 43,525 Iraqis,  36,683 Afghanis and 28,522 Iranians.

By 2006 there were 850,000 Muslims living in Holland.  38% were Turkish .  40,000 were Pakistanis, 34,000 were Surinamese, and 31,000 Afghanis and 27,000 from Iraq.

The census on October 24, 2007 showed that Holland's population was 5% Muslim.  By 2009 they had 825,000 Muslims or 6% of the population.

Jews have lived in Holland since the Roman conquest of 70 CE.  In 1946 25,000 to 30,000 were living there.  By 1980 the population had grown to 41,000 to 45,000.

According to Holland's information from 2005, 48% of the Dutch population profess no religion, 27% are Roman Catholic,   17% are Protestants, 5% are Muslims, 2% are of other religions which Jews would be one of them, and 1% are Hindus.  Jews make up 0.02 of the world population, but about 2% of the USA population.

Having this background, we can now understand a little more that there are currently more people with neo-Nazi views in the Netherlands than the number of Dutch collaborators with the Nazis during WWII.  Dr. Gerstenfeld just wrote an article that was published in the major Dutch news site Dagelijkse Standaard  saying this.  He continued with the fact that about 5 million Dutch have a satanic view of Israel.  A study asked people if they believe that Israel is conducting an extermination plan against Palestinian Arab and 39% polled said yes.  He said that millions of Dutch are back in the Middle Ages of mentality.  What is happening is that verbal harassment and physical attacks are on the rise against Jews.  "Cancer-Jew, dirty Jew, Jews to the gas. All the vulgar words you can imagine are whispered and shouted at us as we pass people by,” Benzion Evers, son of a rabbi in Amsterdam said. "There are physical threats as well, ranging from pushing and shoving to fist fights."

Netherlands Chief Rabbi Binyomin Jacobs said, “People often insult me in public. It can happen almost anywhere, such as at the train station in Rotterdam or in the center of Amersfoort, the town where I live. For instance, someone may shout at me ‘Yehoud’ —  a negative term for a Jew in Arabic. When I walked home from our synagogue a few years ago, a child of about 10 years old shouted out ‘Dirty stinking Jew.’

Anti-Semitic incidents in 2010 amounted to 124, with 113 reported in 2011.  That was a drop of 9%, but vandalism and assaults rose.  

There have also been frequent attacks on circumcision of which both Muslims and Jews are affected.  People become anti-Israel they say, from their friends' opinions.  Left-wing groups held a Kristallnacht ceremony, which commemorates the night the Germans broke all the windows of Jewish shops.     A few days ago, a higher court fined a religious Jew who didn't carry his identity card on the Sabbath.  (They don't carry anything, no purse, etc.) A lower court had found him not guilty.

Geert Wilders is a young Dutch parliament member who is trying to stop the Islamisation of the Netherlands and stop the immigration of Muslims from Muslim countries.  He says he doesn't hate Muslims but hates Islam.  He is one who has traveled to both Islamic states and Israel.  He is known for telling about the dangers of jihad,  and has called for a hard line against what he called the "street terror" exerted by minorities in Dutch cities.   There is much widespread Muslim anti-Semitism going on.

I'd say that Muslims to Jews here is about 3:1, and Jews are easily identified if they are orthodox.  Muslims attacking orthodox Jews is also happening at an alarming rate in France.  Both countries seem to be losing the battle of fighting anti-Semitism.  Jews have 2 choices; move to Israel or wear non-distinctive clothing till they get into their synagogue.  They may have to go incognito.  They are living in a dangerous environment.  The protection of their life is important.  Keep pushing for government assistance in fighting anti-Semitism but be prepared to be without it.  .

If this seems improper to do, remember what happened in the Spanish Inquisition when it was the government who had the ruling that you either had to be Catholic or leave the country.  Those Jews that couldn't pick up and go chose to be hidden Jews, and went underground with it.  During time spent with others, they pretended to be Catholics but practiced Judaism in the privacy of their home with their Kosher laws, Friday night meals, and prayers in Hebrew.  They handed down their history to their children.  It seems ridiculous that in this day and age something similar is happening in these two countries, and that Jews have to accept verbal and physical abuse just to get to their house of worship.  That's why Israel is so important to us.  It is our Jewish home, a place of life in a world of intolerance.  Jews in the Inquisition didn't have this luxury.  They had to make very difficult and dangerous choices.

Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islam_in_the_Netherlands
http://quip.deds.nl/archief/culture/Islam%20in%20Nederland.html
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/vjw/netherlands.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Jews_in_the_Netherlands
http://www.holland.com/us/press/article/facts-figures-about-the-netherlands.htm
Arutz Sheva news@israelnationalnews.com
http://www.dw.de/anti-semitic-incidents-spark-public-debate-in-the-netherlands/a-15023408
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Articles/Article.aspx/11019
http://www.jta.org/news/article/2012/06/18/3098341/anti-semitic-incidents-drop-in-netherlands-report-finds
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geert_Wilders

Sealed Deal for Jewish Homeland from League of Nations

Nadene Goldfoot

Jews began immigrating (making aliyah) to Palestine in large numbers in 1882.  At the time fewer than 250,000 Arabs lived there.  Mark Twain visited earlier and saw very few.

WWI was fought from July 28, 1914 to November 11, 1918 and Woodrow Wilson and others said they had fought to make the world safe for democracy.  They had a Paris Peace Conference and later, in the League of Nations, France and England were given mandated powers over the region held by the Ottoman Empire to prepare it for self-government of the Middle East.

At the beginning of the war, part of Palestine's land was owned by absentee landlords who lived in Cairo, Damascus and Beirut.  Almost 80% of the Arabs were debt-ridden peasants, semi-nomads and Bedouins.  It was proposed that since the natives of the Fertile Crescent were not yet prepared to govern themselves, Britain and France would be given these mandatory powers over the region in order to get it ready for self-government.

We can see that today, Palestine is dependent on donations from their neighboring Arab states.  They cannot pay their electric bills to Israel.  They have no economy.  All their resources and talents have gone into bomb-making.

So back at the end of WWI, Jews did not care to purchase land in areas where Arabs might be displaced.  They bought land that was uncultivated, swampy, cheap and without tenants.

The Balfour Declaration of 1917 was written by Lord Balfour agreeing to a Jewish Homeland.  What he promised was eventually reduced to 20% of the original piece which the Jews accepted.  Palestinians did not.

The Sykes-Picot Agreement of September 1919 involved Britain and France.  It concerned "Palestine" which had been held by the loser, the Ottoman Empire which was Turkey.  The problem was settled in the San Remo Conference on April 24, 1920 when Britain was given the mandate over Palestine.  They implemented the Balfour Declaration declaring a Jewish Homeland.

Palestinian Arabs did not view themselves as having separate identity.  When the First Congress of Muslim-christian Associations met in Jerusalem in February 1919 to choose Palestinian representatives for the Paris Peace conference, they said, "We consider Palestine as part of Arab Syria, as it has never been separated from it at anytime.  We are connected with it by national, religious, linguistic, natural, economic and geographical bonds."

In 1920, Labor Zionist lead David Ben-Gurion was concerned about the Arab fellahin, someone he thought was the most important asset of the native population.  He said that under no circumstances must we touch land belonging to them or worked by them.  He wanted to liberate them from their oppressors.  "Only if a fellah leaves his place of settlement," he added, "should we offer to buy his land at an appropriate price." David became the first Prime Minister and Defense Minister.

Arabs wanted to sell to the Jews because of the migration to coastal towns and because they needed money to invest in the citrus industry.  By 1944, Jews paid from $1,000 and $1,100 per acre in Palestine or arid or semi-arid land when in Iowa land was selling for $110 per acre.  Transjordan's King Abdullah wrote that Arabs are as prodigal in selling their land as they are in useless wailing and weeping.  Jewish holdings in Palestine amounted to about 463,000 acres.  About 45,000 of these were from the mandatory government; 30,000 were bought from churches and 387,500 were bought from Arabs.  Many leaders of the Arab nationalist movement, including the Muslim Supreme Council, sold land to Jews.  Arabs entered the land from neighboring lands in the past 90 years in order to find work.  When the Jews came, they followed.

Eighty-five years later, in a 2002 interview with The New Statesman, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw observed "A lot of the problems we are having to deal with now, I have to deal with now, are a consequence of our colonial past. .. ..The Balfour Declaration and the contradictory assurances which were being given to Palestinians in private at the same time as they were being given to the Israelis – again, an interesting history for us but not an entirely honourable one.

It is now, today, that Arabs call Jews "transplants" among other ugly adjectives.  They didn't think of nationalism and state-building until 1967 when they lost a mass attack against Israel and they lost face as well as land.  They forget that the land has always had Jews in it living among the Arab villages.  Not everyone was taken away as slaves, transplanted by rulers or were driven out by 70 CE.  .  A remnant of our past remained for a reminder.  We cannot forget Jerusalem because of giving our word to the one G-d that we wouldn't.  Though international law clinches when we regained our land again, our religious law had us take the land with instructions from Moses as to just how much and where and why.

International lawyer Prof. Eugene Kontorovich on youtube below explains how law gave the Jews land legally if you missed my write-up on blog previoiusly.  .

Reference: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ub2x5UvjUs4 Internation Law
Textbook:  Middle East Past & Preseent by Yahya Armajani and Thomas M. Ricks
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sykes%E2%80%93Picot_Agreement
Book:  Myths and Facts: a concise record of the Arab-Israeli conflict by Mitchell G. Bard and Joel Himelfarb
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_I
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/ben_gurion.html
"The Legal Case for Israel Video by Professor Eugene Kontorovich-words copied from youtube.  

Another great International Lawyer who investigated this subject for over 20 years is Dr. Jaques Gautier who concludes that not only is Israel in accordance with International law but that the International community is in direct violation of it's own Agreements and Charters they have themselves formulated

Another great Attorney who came to the same conclusion is Howard Grief who wrote the book "The Legal Foundation and Borders of Israel under International Law"

The Conclusion is all the same: the Jewish people have been betrayed many times over by the Nations of the world who do not abide by their own agreements that they have themselves formulated while continuing to do so and them being the reason behind many baseless wars where so many innocent live were lost

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An Imam In France That Went Too Far

Nadene Goldfoot
France has been very lenient with the influx of Muslim immigrants.  From having 4.7 million in 2010, the Pew research feels there will be 6.9 million in 2030.  Unfortunately so many have been extremists and violent to the point of putting many Jewish citizens in jeopardy with their hatred for Jews.  A Jewish school was targeted in Toulouse on March 19, of this year  with the result of the deaths of 3 small children and their teacher and another injured. There has been 148 incidents in March and April with 43 being violent.  Last year there were 14 violent anti-Semitic attacks, so it has risen.

France has the highest Jewish population in Europe, but this was causing many to remove to Israel.  In 2004 the Jewish population was about 483,500.  They suffered 96 anti-Semitic incidents that year.

France did the unthinkable.  Wednesday they deported 77 year old Imam Mohammed Hammami back to Tunisia where he came from in the 1960's.  He has been a real trouble-maker by giving anti-Semitic speeches that called for a holy war against everyone not Muslim.  He called for corporal punishment of women who stepped out of line of the Sharia Law.  He has been preaching in the Omar Mosque in Paris. It is but one of 19 mosques in the capital.  

Since the massacre in Toulouse, anti-Semitism rose 45% this year alone.  Netanyahu arrived in France on Wednesday for conferences and was assured that the country is doing its best to halt this anti-Semitic criminal behavior.  He mentioned that  the French Jews would be welcomed in Israel.   The population is projected to be 482,000 of Jews in France by 2020.  

We only have 13.3 million Jews in the whole world today.  1.6 million live in Europe which is 12% of our population.  In 1939, on the cusp of World War II there were 17 million Jews.  France acted bravely by ousting an Imam, but they realized that he was a threat to the society and security of France.

Resource:  http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/france-expels-radical-tunisian-imam-17607899
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/161583
http://www.pewforum.org/future-of-the-global-muslim-population-regional-europe.aspx
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/vjw/France.html
http://www.simpletoremember.com/vitals/world-jewish-population.htm
http://judaism.about.com/od/jewishhumor/f/jewry_france.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mosques_in_France
http://www.americanthinker.com/2012/06/anti-jewish_attacks_in_france_reach_epidemic_proportions.html