The Al-Aqsa Mosque Imam Declares War on Israel

                                               Al-Aqsa Mosque on Temple Mount
                                                                                                          

Nadene Goldfoot                                                                

Mosque of Omar or Dome of the Rock

War has been declared last week  by Imam Raed al Danna against Israel.  He's an Imam from East Jerusalem at the Al Aqsa Mosque.  He called all the surrounding Muslim nations to destroy Israel.  This Imam announced this while visiting in Milan, Italy at a Muslim conference.  He emphasized Egypt and Jordan, nations that have peace pacts with Israel to liberate the land from the Jews.  He is waiting for a legion of conquerors to take over Israel.   The leadership of this mosque had been in the hands of Muhammad Ahmad Hussein,  who was expected to avoid controversy and self-aggrandizement.  Now he serves as the 7th and current Grand Mufti of Jerusalem.The appointment came from Abbas.  

  

On January 9, 2011, while addressing a crowd at an event marking the 47th anniversary of the founding of Fatah, Hussein quoted a controversial hadith (saying attributed to the Prophet Muhammad), stating: "The Hour will not come until you fight the Jews. The Jews will hide behind stones or trees. Then the stones or trees will call: O Muslim, servant of Allah, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him."  Hadiths supposedly have been written by people after Mohammad's death.  That could be why this is controversial.  This one makes very good anti-Semitic propaganda used to instigate war.  

The site has been a place of unrest lately. Just before Passover on Monday April 14th,   the Israeli police had to limit  attendance at Al-Aqsa because of the fear of more violence after clashes happening over the weekend.  Security measures taken are that the men under 50 couldn't attend.  Neither could any women until a security assessment of the possibility  of more disturbances had been taken.  What can they expect after this announcement by the head Imam?  5 people were arrested on Sunday during a clash.  Muslim rioters threw stones and many Molotov cocktails.  Police officers responded with stun grenades.  Members of Hamas were were in the crowd, probably leading the protesters.  They had to pick Passover to riot!  During major Jewish holidays, when Muslims prefer to attack, the military blocks the road to Israel from Judea-Samaria for 48 hours from midnight.  Entry would be permitted only to medical, humanitarian and exceptional cases.  

Jews are getting anxious to be able to pray at the holy site where the Temple once stood, but cannot get near it or be seen moving their body back and forth while standing in prayer by the Muslim guards.  Moshe Dayan in 1967 gave permission to rule on the site to the Muslim Imam.

"“We have returned to all that is holy in our land. We have returned never to be parted from it again.” 

–Defense Minister Moshe Dayan, upon reaching the Western Wall  

However, "Chief Rabbinate Council reminded the public that "in view of the fact that the holiness of the area never ceases, it is forbidden to ascend the Temple Mount until the Temple is built.  So the Muslims don't allow Jews there and our rabbis say it's not for us at this time as a place to pray.  That should keep things peaceful, but many Jews are not aware of this fact and try to get close, and the Muslims lie in wait for it to happen.  

The Muslims consider the Al-Aqsa Mosque as the "Farthest Mosque" mentioned in the Koran.  It infers this is in Jerusalem, but never mentions the word, Jerusalem.  This couldn't be since Mohammad, who was the author of the Koran, died in 632 and the mosque was built in the year 705 CE by the Umayyads who ruled in Palestine.  The mosque lies along the southern wall of Haram al-Sharif.  It has become the 3rd holiest site in Islam and is in the Old City of Jerusalem. This has a silver dome.   It sits on the same site with the Dome of the Rock or "Noble Sanctuary."

Muslims believe that Muhammad was transported from their Sacred Mosque in Mecca to al-Aqsa during the Night Journey on a flying horse named Buraq.

 Their tradition is that Muhammad led prayers towards this site until the 17th month after the emigration, when Allah directed him to turn towards the Kaaba.  Our Jewish tradition suggests that the change was due to his frustration with Arabian Jews who refused his attempts to convert them to Islam, his new religion.

 This site is called the Temple Mount on Mount Moriah, the holiest site in Jerusalem, the place where the Jewish Temple stood before being destroyed by the Romans in  70 CE, which was the 2nd time the original Temple had been restored.  The First Temple was built by King Solomon, ruler of Israel, who lived from 961 to 920 BCE, dedicated to G-d and as a place to keep the Ark-10 Commandments.  The Assyrians attacked and carted away Jews by 722 BCE after destroying the Temple in 721 BCE.  The Babylonians then attacked Judah in 597 and 586.  Cyrus of Persia (today's Iran)  freed them and told them to go back home and rebuild their Temple which they did.  Herod was appointed king of Judah by the Romans  after he attacked and captured Jerusalem in 37 with the Roman army and he renovated the Temple, but the Romans destroyed it when they seized Jerusalem in 70 CE.

It seems to be the custom of Islamists to build mosques over others' religious sites as a show of ownership.  The Dome of the Rock, otherwise called the Mosque of Omar, is the one with the beautiful golden dome that stands out in Jerusalem.  It was also built in the center of the Jewish Temple area called al-Harim ash Sherif by Caliph Abd al-Malik in about 738.  He had it built to replace the temporary building set up by Caliph Omar 100 years earlier.  It is situated on the traditional site of Mt. Moriah, too.

So Israel has many mosques.  There is freedom of religion for the 1.7 million Muslim citizens of Israel.  One of these days the 3rd Temple will be built.  The location is not known.

Update: 5/8/14:  The Muslim Waqf members saw a 16 yr old Jew's lips move and arrested him for praying.  http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/180358#.U2uclIFdU8o

Resource:  http://www.memritv.org/embedded_player/index.php?clip_id=4252 declaring war on Israel
http://midnightwatcher.wordpress.com/2014/05/02/imam-from-jerusalems-al-aqsa-mosque-calls-upon-surrounding-muslim-nations-to-destroy-israel/
The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Aqsa_Mosque
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muhammad_Ahmad_Hussein
http://www.thesundaily.my/news/1016102
http://www.sixdaywar.org/content/ReunificationJerusalem.asp
http://my.telegraph.co.uk/abdulmuhd/amuhd/563/muhammad-claims-to-jerusalem-is-a-myth/

  

How Democracy Is Not Created Easily in Middle East-Or From Pharaoh to President in One Easy Step

Nadene Goldfoot                                                                      

Can you make a silk purse out of a sow's ear?  Hardly.  You can only make a pigskin purse. Perhaps democratic principals come to people slowly.   Democracy came to the USA out of rare circumstances that have only been replicated by Israel in the Middle East, and is very hard to come by in Iraq or Egypt.  Egypt had been ruled by pharaohs for thousands of years.  A pharaoh is a permanent title of the king of Egypt in ancient times.  It meant "Great House." and originally referred to the royal palace, somewhat like we Americans refer to the "White House."

It took at least a 1,000 years for Englishmen to want something better than English law.  A group of religious zealots went to Holland out of their frustration with the Episcopalian state religion in England but became frustrated there as they watched their children speak Dutch instead of their language, English, which they wanted to perpetuate.  They didn't want their religious goals to be lost by their children, so braved the idea of sailing to a new world, much as we would think of taking a spaceship destined for some just found planet with oxygen.  Luckily, further ships brought to America's shores some very intelligent men who were able to write up a "Mayflower Compact", named for their first ship, that set the standards for their budding democracy.  Look at all the steps we've gone through to arrive where we are today in our politics of ruling over a vast territory made up of 50 states which has 3.79 million square miles with about 315 million people. Out of the population are about 6 million Jews or 3% of the population.  We went from 1620 to 1776 with our constitution which continues to be embellished.

Suddenly,  our marvelous country, which is the 3rd largest in the world,  made up of all the ethnic people of this planet expects Egypt to suddenly follow suit and have a democratic way of ruling in their first encounter with democracy with Mohammed  Morsi, head of the Muslim Brotherhood.  He didn't have the heart for it.

The USA is the first country on earth to give Jews a chance of survival.  After living here since the beginnings of the budding USA, Jews have been able to meld  USA democracy with the Torah's expectations of Democracy for Israel.  Israel is a miniature USA made up of Jews from all over the world as well as including other religions in its fold with equal rights while still being a Jewish country.  The USA is a Christian country established by Christians.  It follows customs of Sunday being a day of rest and all the national Christian holidays meaning they are days of vacation for students and federal workers.  Egyptians tried it for a year and that was enough with the man they had elected.  They were losing their rights with him.

 Egyptians are facing about 6,000 years at least of a strong type of a one-dictator  leadership, from Pharaohs to Shah rulers of the Ottoman Empire to being under British rule.  President Anwar Sadat (1918-1981) was their last most reasonable ruler as President from 1970 to 1981, but even he saw that he was under the thumb of the Arab League when Egypt was banned from its membership because of his November 1977 trip to Jerusalem and made peace with Israel. This was even followed up with the Camp David Accords which shattered the fragile unity of the Arabs.

 However, Sadat signed a peace treaty with Israel in 1979 before he was assassinated by Muslim Brotherhood, a group of Islamic fundamentalists, in the midst of the October War celebration  in 1981 while reviewing a military parade in Cairo.  Vice-President Husni Mubarak, who took over, kept the peace, even though he was a tough dictator with his people.  In due time he himself had been elected as President of Egypt.  He punished Sadat's murderers, the Muslim Brotherhood after a noisy public trial and released Sadat's political prisoners and invited them to the presidential palace for discussions.  He continued Sadat's Open Door policy and stressed the need for greater productions.  He continued relations with Israel and presided over Egypt's repossession of the last section of the Sinai.

Mubarak wasn't enlightened like Sadat was, but  tried to cultivate the friendship of the Soviet Union and the Arab states.  Egypt got back into the Arab fold when the Israel-Lebanon war occurred in 1982 which Egypt had protested about and recalled its ambassador from Tel Aviv.   Getting back into the Arab world, evidently  wasn't good enough to solve Egypt's problems more  than Sadat or Nasser had done.  Whereas Sadat had outlawed the Muslim Brotherhood, of which Morsi was the head of, suddenly we find him "democratically voted in" and in power, and with this power turned the tables and had Mubarak up for charges and jailed.

Islamists feel that Sadat should never have signed a separate peace treaty with Israel.  From their viewpoint, Sadat was a practicing Muslim and should have known the close connection of Islam with Arabism and the emotional attachment of all Muslims to "Jerusalem", if not to Palestine.  This is how the Arab world sees it today.  This is where Morsi was in his thinking.  Only the money coming in from the USA probably kept him from attacking Israel with promised American jet fighters on the way to become a part of Egypt's arsenal.
                                                                           

                                              Muslim Brotherhood Party Fighters
After a year of the Muslim Brotherhood's main man, Morsi, Egypt has had it and the Military took over on July 3rd, a little better than a week ago.   Our White House and Turkey are pushing for the "democratic steps" of waiting and voting in another and not taking over with a coup or even a soft coup, as the military calls it.  The USA cannot legally give money to a country that has had a coup.

 It's like a school who has a first year teacher hired on a trial basis.  If he or she receives a lot of bad reports from the principal, she is not re-hired.  However, Egypt and other countries have the ruling of a country that is stuck with a lemon for 4 years and then they can have another to rule the country.  Egypt found the Muslim Brotherhood to be intolerable and decided they couldn't wait for 4 years.  They had made a mistake and are bound to do the job over again.  Which makes me wonder about the validity of the democratic election in the first place.  How was it that they did not know of the dangers of a Muslim Brotherhood rule?  They had gone from a very secular state to Sharia Law with the Brotherhood.  It was too much.

Former UN ambassador John Bolton just wrote an article in which he lamented the downfall  of former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, who he said "understood his country better than the Western know-it-alls."  To have pushed for democracy in Egypt during this Arab Spring was stretching a country who was peaceful with its neighbor, Israel.  Uncorking the Muslim Brotherhood out of  the genie bottle was their error.  To make matters worse,  by backing  this group, whose charter calls for the destruction of Jews and Israel and the taking over of the United States is absolutely shocking.

Morsi (b: August 8, 1951) was the chairman of the Freedom and Justice Party which was founded in 2011 during Egypt's Revolution by the Muslim Brotherhood.  On the 24th of June 2012, he became Egypt's first "democratically elected" but 5th president of Egypt.  Supposedly he had 51.7% of the votes against Shafik's 48.3% in the election.  Shafik was the prime minister  of the Mubarak government.  It was "after Morsi temporarily granted himself unlimited powers to "protect" the nation in late November 2012' people began to immediately protest.  The whole idea of a democracy is to get away from a one-man rule and clever Morsi just brought it on to himself.

Now that the Muslim Brotherhood has lost face by being ousted, their followers are taking it out on the Christians who live in Egypt. " The attacks have hit across the country, in the northern Sinai Peninsula, in a resort town on the Mediterranean coast, in Port Said along the Suez Canal and in isolated villages in upper Egypt.  A new wave of violence has been unleashed.  The Brotherhood blames them for having supported the calls to overthrow Morsi.  Brotherhood members have shot dead a priest in the street and have painted black X's on Christian shops to mark them for arson.  Angry mobs have attacked churches and seized Christians in their homes.  4 Christians were slaughtered with knives and machetes in one village last week after the Military coup.

The 2011 revolution alarmed many Christians that overthrew Mubarak.  Coptic Christians are a small minority of the country and did not foresee what could happen to them. Egypt is made up of about 80,000,000 people of which 90% are Sunni Muslims.  Islam is a state religion.   Most all Jews have moved next door to Israel.

The scuttlebutt now is that Morsi escaped from prison during the 2011 revolution with help from Hamas.  I wouldn't be surprised being they both share the same charter in dealing about Israel and Jews.  Egypt's prosecutors are now investigating these allegations.  Chief prosecutor Hesham Barakat has testimonies from a court in Ismailia who are looking into the jailbreak by Mohammed Morsi and 30 other Muslim Brotherhood leaders.  If this proves to be true, legally it can lead to showing proof of foreign intervention on Egyptian soil that leads to treason charges.  Morsi is now kept  in an unknown place, and no charges have been filed as yet.  Hamas is denying the allegation of January 29, 2011 jailbreak at the Wadi-el-Natrun prison NW of Cairo.

What our USA is finding fault with now is of the Egyptian military and interim government's arrests of Morsi's supporters.  The continued detentions are inconsistent with pledges of inclusivity made by authorities and may affect  future monies from the USA.  Ongoing arrests of the Muslim Brotherhood members are troubling to democracies.  The neighbor most affected and seriously watching is Israel.

Resource: http://israel-nadene.blogspot.com/2009/01/what-is-hamas-anyway-hamas-charter.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohamed_Morsi
Oregonian newspaper, 7/12/13, Egypt or elsewhere, "neocon" label pasted willy-nilly by Washington Post, and on same page, Morsi-Hamas allegations get official probe.
The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
Textbook: Middle East, past & Present by Yahya Armajani and Thomas M. Ricks, 2nd Edition by Prentice-Hall, Inc. of N.J. 

Some Facts About "Occupation"; The Subject That Norway Holds As Reason to Support Terrorists

Nadene Goldfoot
Here are some facts that most people are not aware of in their zeal to discredit Israel as being those "terrible occupiers" of Palestinian Land."

Lets start with the fact that Canaan, or Eretz (land of)  Canaan, as the Jews called it originally, almost 4,000 years ago, was named Israel as it was the Israelites who entered and took it and then later the land was Israel and Judea.  These were Jewish states.  Israel was created first with King Saul in the 11th century BCE, then King David and  King Solomon.  When Solomon died in 920 BCE, the Jews divided up as if they were Republicans and Democrats and created Judea  with the southern half with the remainder of the tribe of Judah which included Jerusalem.  They were the more religious of the two by then.   There was never a country or state called Palestine.  It was the Romans who simply renamed the land as "Palestine, out of nastiness in order to minimize the Jewish association with it, which they then called it Palestine Syria."  After 70 CE it was no-man's land except for the remaining Jews that lived there as well as nomadic Arabs that wandered through on their way to better places.

True, our case rests on land held 4,000 years ago, but no one has really wanted it or lived there besides Jews who hadn't left and some nomadic Arabs wandering through.  The few Arab landowners lived elsewhere, not in the swamp and desert, and weed-filled barren land it had become from neglect after 70 CE.  Many rulers have held title, but none lived there.  It was only after many  Jews returned in the 1880's CE as pioneers fleeing from pogroms that Arabs tagged along to get jobs from them. If Arabs wanted their own state, which the British assumed that they would, wouldn't they also have accepted their offer in 1948?    No, their goal was just to oust the returned Jews.

By 1948 CE we find Egypt occupying Gaza and Jordan occupying Judea and Samaria, the original Jewish land.  Jews had congregated in Western Palestine and had built Tel Aviv and other cities along the coast.  That's one reason why England gave away 80% of the Jewish Homeland after WWI to Transjordan.  Yes, the Jewish Homeland had included Jordan's site as well.  Take out your Old Testament and read about the land G-d had allotted to Moses and the freed slaves.  It's there in detail.

Palestinian terrorism began before any occupation in 1929 when the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem ordered terrorist attacks against Jewish residents of Hebron.  The Jews had lived there since Abraham bought a cave to bury Sarah.  Hebron, because of that, is a Jewish holy city and has been for generations.  Today it's taken over by the Arabs.

After 1967's war whereupon the Arab countries attacked Israel in the attempt to drive her into the sea and destroy her, Israel, with guts, determination and the will of G-d won, defying all odds.  That's when she inherited Gaza and Judea-Samaria and they became "occupied" by her. Did Israel attack these places to take them to occupy?  Indeed not.  It had enough problems to deal with.  This was almost the straw that broke the camel's  back.  However, it did allow Jews to go to the sacred Western Wall for the first time in Jerusalem since before 1948 to pray, which the soldiers all did.  Now Jerusalem, Israel's capital, is a unified city. It was our capital between 1,000 BCE and 586 BCE and again between 516 BCE to 70 CE.   I must say thanks to Ha Shem (G-d) , who works in wondrous ways.  Had the Arab countries not attacked in 1967, this would not have happened.  "The armies of Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon are poised on the borders of Israel...to face the challenge, while standing behind us are the armies of Iraq, Algeria, Kuwait, Sudan and the whole Arab nation." So said the King of Jordan.   It was over in 6 days.

Terrorism grew worse after Israel ended its occupation of southern Lebanon and Gaza around 2005.  These unoccupied lands  became launching pads for rockets and missiles and mortars and the Palestinians started kidnapping soldiers.

No matter how kind Israelis reacted to Palestinians and no matter how many good programs they set up to help them attain a normalized life, the Palestinians had a set mind of attack and kill, shown by voting in Hamas, terrorists and ousting Fatah's Abbas-Yasser Arafat's replacement.

Islamic terrorists have sworn to continue terrorism even if Israel were to end its occupation of the Judea-Samaria area , and Israel has about 3/4 of the way already by allowing the PA to govern themselves.  Israel just keeps minimum rights there for their own security.  The sad fact is that Terrorists regard all of Israel as occupied.  They do not recognize the UN decision of their legal statehood of May 14, 1948.  If there were no Israel, terrorism would continue as long as any part of the world is not under Islamic control.  Just check out and see where Shaaria law is to supersede USA law lately.  It's already happening.

Countries have occupied others in the past.  For instance, the Tibetans have never resorted to terrorism against innocent Chinese civilians, though they have never been offered independence, and their occupation has been longer and more brutal than anything experienced by the Palestinians.  From 1911 to 1949 Tibet was an independent country till the Chinese invasion and occupation.  The difference is in the temperament between Tibetans and Palestinians, of course, helped along  by their different religious goals in life.   After WWI England occupied "Palestine" which had been part of the holdings of the Ottoman Empire.  France occupied Syria and Lebanon.  The British were terrible towards the Jews but allowed Arabs into the country illegally.  Britain also occupied India since the 1800's  and other places, but they've never been occupied, themselves.

The United States "occupied" Germany and Japan after WWII.  How would Americans like it if they continued to attack the USA from there or other areas closer.  Israel is in a far more precarious position of having Gaza and Judea-Samaria on the left and right borders of tiny Israel.

Occupation doesn't cause terrorism unless the occupiers are very cruel, and Israel has bent over backwards to help the Palestinians but were "slapped in the face" for doing so.  After all, Israel was occupied by the Romans in the first century and suffered greatly from it.  These Arabs were treated terribly by their Arab occupiers and Israel mistakenly thought they were actually freeing them.

Terrorism causes occupation and the measures taken to bring safety to the citizens.  Israel would have left Gaza and much of Judea and Samaria if not for the fear of terrorism from those areas.  Would Israel have gone into southern Lebanon in 1982 if it had not become a base for terrorism?  No.  Israel had to repeat this again in 2006 to stop rocket attacks and retrieve kidnapped soldiers out of Lebanon.

The international community did nothing to protect Israeli citizens from cross-border rocket attacks, kidnappings and suicide bombers.  If occupation is the only resource for Israel for protection, they may need to do it.  Israel has given land for peace, while the Palestinians have ventured nothing but more attacks.  Israel will not give land again which will be used for terrorism.

Israel left Gaza after a 2 day occupation in July 2006 and what happened?  A rocket from there hit an Israeli kindergarten causing children to go to the hospital.  Israel had left leaflets when they departed warning of dire consequences if rockets were fired again.  Our enemy feels that their deaths are worth the trouble if they can kill Israelis.  They put Arab mothers on pedestals who have given many sons to the cause.   Where we toast a l'chaim to life, they must be praying for death where they will be rewarded.

People who are notorious for not having human rights in their countries are Syria, Zimbabwe, China, Venezuela, Cuba, Cambodia and the former Soviet Union.  They always blame everything on their revolutions.  Islam has allowed extremists to bubble up in their religion such as Hezbollah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other groups.  They are oppressors of women, gays, racial minorities, religious dissidents and real human rights advocates.  Saudi women can only ride a motorcycle while covered completely and if accompanied by a male family member in designated areas. This wouldn't be so terrible but their counties can get up to 130 degrees F.   They torture and murder civilians, use human shields in their zeal to attack Israel with propaganda.  That's probably how they conducted their past year's voting in of Hamas once again.  How is it that all these groups come down on Israel and every other country is following suit?  Can they not see the Pied Piper of Hamelin through the haze?  They're following the wrong ideals!  There are Muslim states such as Syria that follow Iran who advocates nuclear proliferation and  environmental destruction.  There are 49 Muslim majority states, so there are others as well.

Jews are extremely  sensitive in calling to attention the bad points about Islam as they have put up with people doing this to them for the past 2,000 years.  But I must point out that the Muslims were on the side of the Nazis in WWII so are also a political group as well as a religious one, even going to Hitler in Germany and were so desirous of seeing Jews destroyed that they are still reading Nazi literature for their recreational time.  It amazes me since they are also Semites, but they see a great distinction.

Yet we have weak-minded professors from Columbia U. that planned to travel to Iran to apologize to Ahmadinejad   for Columbia U.'s president Lee Bollinger who gave a critical introduction of him on September 24, 2008.  .  It's like apologizing to Hitler, and I imagine we have Americans today that would have done just that back in 1939.  Ahmadinejad, who must be the #1 worst person in the world today,  is a bigoted tyrant who has incited genocide and whose government has murdered innocent Jewish children, women and other civilians in Argentina.  It is his country who wants to wipe Israel off the map with an atomic bomb and right after that dump a few on the USA as well for good measure. It is he who is helping Assad's regime in Syria who have killed over 60,000 people already.  This past week alone they killed 6,000 or better.

In our letters to the editor of the Oregonian of March 30th were 2 letters complaining that Israel was now calling the shots to attack Iran's nuclear facilities because Obama promised that he had Israel's back.  They didn't like allowing Israel to call the timing of this should it ever happen.  It is a huge responsibility to protect one's own land from harm.  If irrational Iran  cannot be stopped by all that Obama is doing, there is only one alternative left before being incinerated, folks, and this includes the USA in the wake of all this as well. Israel is not suffering from paranoia as it's not an imagined fear.

 Iran has announced publicly over and over of their sense of purpose in destroying Israel.  You must be a student of Islam to understand that they don't make rash threats.  They first warn, and then they do the deed.  Even some Arabs such as the Saudis are counting on the Israelis to stop Iran for they're in dire danger as well.  It wasn't too long ago that Iran fought Iraq, a Sunni state against a Shi'a state.  Christians have had their Catholic-Protestant battles and the Islamists have this difference that makes them fighting mad. To allow a 4th religion in the area is beyond their comprehension.   Look at what's happened to the Christians in Egypt lately.

Israel isn't occupying Gaza at all.  That's why the Palestinian Arabs have shot at southern Israel citizens. They try to  make sure that weapons do not get to them since they use them all against Israel, though.  Wouldn't you?   So tell me, what's all the to-do about "occupation" being the reason that people have been supplying terrorists with finances to continue with?

Resource: The Case Against Israel's Enemies by Alan Dershowitz page 182-185, Copyright 2008
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/History/67_War.html
Oregonian newspaper March 30, 2013 letters to the editor.
http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2008/01/columbia_university_professors.html
Facts About Israel 1973 published by Division of information,  Ministry for foreign affairs, Jerusalem
The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
From Time Immemorial by Joan Peters -a book all Norwegians should read.
http://www.savetibet.org/resource-center/all-about-tibet/china-tibet-a-brutal-occupation
http://www.san.beck.org/20-1-BritishIndia1800-48.html

90,000 Syrian Deaths But Not Alarming to Newsmen

Nadene Goldfoot
On the 12th of February 2013 at least 70,000 Syrians had been killed in their uprising. Syria has been the 17th largest Muslim majority country in the world with a population of 22,505,000 of which 90% are Sunni/Shi'a following Hanafi/Alevi  fiqhs.   Kerry reports that now 90,000 people have been killed in Syria since the uprising began.  It has been a wholesale slaughter but the world just isn't reacting very strongly.  They're just ho-humming about it.   Is it that when an Arab kills an Arab it is not news?  Reporters don't get excited until it is a Jew that kills an Arab.  1.2 million Syrians have been displaced.  Many have found refuge in Jordan who has had to create camps to hold them.  The fighting is even spilling into Israel's Golan Heights.

Jews don't have any laws going on to kill Arabs.  There is no enmity on the part of the Jews towards Arabs, but there has been on the part of the Arabs towards Jews starting at the beginning of time.  Abraham lived in the beginning of the 2nd millennium BCE.  Our problems started about 4,000 years ago. Ishmael, first son of Abraham with Hagar, the maid of Sarah,  had reason to be angry with his half brother, Isaac.  He was cast out of Abraham's house along with his mother by Sarah's frustration over his behavior around the baby, Isaac.  Ishmael became the father of the Arab people.

 Joktan, , the 2nd son of Eber (Gen. 10:25)  is thought to be the ancestor of the southern Arab tribes. Joktan's sons in the order provided in Gen. 10:26-29, were: Almodad, Sheleph, Hazarmaveth, Jerah, Hadoram, Uzal, Diklah, Obal, Abimael, Sheba, Ophir, Havilah, and Jobab. Joktan means small, smallness.

 Problems between the two parties continued  with Esau and Jacob, twin sons of Abraham's son, Isaac when Isaac took the birthright due to go to  Esau who was the elder brother by a few minutes. Esau had sold it to Jacob in a deal to get a meal quckly.   Esau wanted to kill Jacob for his own negligence of giving his birthright away which caused Jacob to leave home in Haran.  Jacob returned 20 years later and was greeted affectionately by Esau, who is identified with Edom.  Jacob's name was later changed to Israel, denoting a change in status.  This became the point of reference telling about the 2 nations.   First Isaac had problems and then his son Jacob had problems.

However, with Islam and Mohammad's anger with Jews not converting to his new religion, anger has sprung up again from the Muslims for Jews and along with it an intoleration of Jews living  in the Middle East.  Qaradawi, religious leader from Egypt who lives in Qatar, has a fatwa out for all Jews to be killed.  Enmity has been  shown by the Gazan Arabs who have shelled Israel with mortars, missiles and rockets since 2001 until just recently.

When Israel announced its birth on May 14, 1948, it was attacked immediately by the Arabs which marks Israel's "War of Independence" which cost around 20,000 casualties in total for both sides.  That's the highest amount of deaths that Israel has suffered so far.  Casualty estimates of the wars of 1967  was 20,000 and 1973 was 15,000.

All wars involving Israel have been less that Syria's deaths of the last few years by about 30,000.  The fight from Gaza led to deaths that are but a fraction of Syria's numbers of Arab on Arab.  How has the press reacted?  With protest movements against Israel by bigots.  Israel was attacked.  Israel responded eventually  but with as much diligence as humanely possible.  Then the press reacted by calling Operation Cast Lead a "Holocaust", muddying the word that exemplifies the Jews losing 6 million people in a Holocaust of having become the scapegoats of a warrior nation that tried to exterminate the whole Jewish people.   The Gazans fought among their own populated areas hiding behind women and children, making sure they would be targeted first to play the sympathy card whereas Israel does the best job of teaching soldiers techniques to save lives.

Gazans claim to have lost 1,385 in Israel's Operation Cast Lead action but uniformed soldiers count was 200-300.  "Difficulties in ascertaining an accurate Palestinian casualty count have been attributed to a number of factors. It was reported that Hamas fighters had been ordered not to wear military uniforms during the fighting..  Israeli-Arab journalist Khalad  Abu  Toameh wrote in The Jerusalem Post that this practice led to the over-counting of civilian casualties and under-counting Hamas military casualties, as Palestinian casualties arrived at hospitals without weapons or any other signs revealing they were actually fighters."

Why did the Arabs attack southern Israel from 2001 on?  "Rationales given by the Palestinian groups responsible for the attacks vary, but often include the argument that the rockets are a method of protest and of calling attention to perceived injustices. According to other explanations, the attacks constitute revenge for – or defense against – perceived Israeli aggression."  The Israel aggression hasn't been anything other than defensive strikes when deemed absolutely necessary to stop constant hits.

Israel, being such a small nation of people who make up only  half of 0.02% of the world population, is under the magnifying glass constantly.  Every death is investigated by the press as well as having been investigated by Israel itself.  It's a good thing Jews have tended to follow the profession of law, as they must be ready constantly to defend themselves against anti-Semites.  Every movement Jews in Israel make finds protesters of some sort.

The Syrians are just passed up as stale, uninteresting news.  Fighting goes on among Arabs on a regular basis in the Middle East.  Lebanon and Syria, Palestinians and Jordan, Iraq and Iran, all have had their to the death battles.

When Ha-Shem told the Jews that they were to be the light among nations, I'm sure he didn't mean to have the flood lights or stage lights on them constantly whenever they had to protect themselves, but that's the case.   So Israel tries to be the light of ethics,  even when they are in horrible situations such as war.  The fact that they have shown restraint and care for life as found by fellow soldiers of battle from other countries, puts them in a good light.

Reference:  dailyalert@list-dailyalert.org  from Gatestone Institute, by  Douglas Murray
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syrian_civil_war
http://www.timesofisrael.com/kerry-says-90000-killed-in-syria/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casualties_of_the_Gaza_War
Tanach, the Stone Edition

John Brennan and Al Qaeda Regarding Israel

Nadene Goldfoot                                                                  

Osama Bin Laden-former leader of Al-Qaeda

What's happening to fight terrorism is causing questions about our government and how they believe in protecting our country.  My eyebrows are arching when I read that "it isn't unusual for our military and intelligence officials to visit Saudi Arabia and then leave it repeating the classic Saudi talking points about Islam." Our important officials and other American citizens are also spending more time in Qatar.  The same thing can be happening there as well.  Both places are small but wealthy Sunni countries with more than average influence on our government.  For instance, Qaradawi, a most important  religious Sunni leader,  lives in Qatar and has a death wish for all Jews and Israel.

1. Islam is a stable influence on the region.
2. Israel is a destabilizing influence.
                                                                                     

Muslims of Israel have rights 

My thought on this is that Israel is showing the other Muslims a democratic society and that the 1.4 million Arabs living in Israel are most likely better off than the ones in their country being it's the only democratic country in the region.  They even serve in the Knesset and have their own political parties.   But are our USA  government workers becoming brainwashed?  Are they swallowing this tripe of negativism towards Israel?
                                                                         

Take John Brennan, for instance.  He has developed links with the Muslim Brotherhood who I think is the cause of Egypt's downfall in the Arab Spring.  They had been outlawed by Sadat,  and now look at the trouble they've caused the whole neighborhood. They also have the charter with the top goals of destroying Israel.  I don't take this lightly.  Brennan has brought known leaders of Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood into the government in advisory positions.  Hamas's charter is the same as the Brotherhood in that they also have as goal #1 to destroy Israel. Hamas and Fatah are at each other's throats constantly in fighting over power and leadership.  Hamas has been a terrible influence over Fatah in causing them to be terrorists.   These Muslims are advising our government on counter-terrorism strategy  in the War on Terror program.  Is that all?  To John, this War on Terror means only Al Qaeda.

There is even reliable evidence that Brennan has converted to Islam. Snopes says NO.    Would a man do that just to have an in with Muslims to gain information?  Is this expected in the CIA?  Or, if true, is it from the heart?  Does he now believe the hard line of wanting to get rid of Israel?  It used to be that Islam thought of Judaism in better terms than Christianity did but the tables have turned.  Muslim Reactionaries  are only concerned with fighting Israel.  They don't need a pat on the back for doing so which their religious leaders dole out. .  They need to see condemnation for doing so in order to become civil-minded. I  don't care what religion Brennan is, except I want to know where he stands concerning Israel, as what he would be in charge of concerns Israel's very life.  If he's been leading such a double life it's going to be hard to trust what he says, anyway.

Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda started up from reacting to the Soviet War in Afghanistan in August of 1988.  The group is Sunni Muslim and believe in global jihad and the strict Sharia Law.  They deal in suicide attacks and bombings.  This is the group responsible for our 9/11 attack on the Twin Towers, killing 3,000.  They also had done the 1998 US Embassy bombings and the 2002 Bali bombings.  They are listed as terrorists by everybody.   There have been allegations that the CIA had helped al Qaeda in their fight against the Russians.  Now these terrorists are  fighting us.

"Also, al-Qaeda is possibly using aircraft to transport drugs and weapons from South America to various unstable countries in West Africa. A Boeing 727 can carry up to 10 tons of cargo. The drugs eventually are smuggled to Europe for distribution and sale, and the weapons are used in conflicts in Africa and possibly elsewhere. Gunmen with links to al-Qaeda have been increasingly kidnapping some Europeans for ransom. The profits from the drug and weapon sales, and kidnappings can, in turn, fund more militant activities."

Resource: http://frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/john-brennan-from-mecca-to-washington/print/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Qaeda

Keeping Score on Muslim Adversaries

Nadene Goldfoot
It's hard to keep up with what Muslim faction is either friendly or enemies with other Muslims.  One big player is the Muslim state of Iran who happens to follow the Shi'a -Jafari Muslim path. They happen to have the 6th largest Muslim population in the world with more than 98% of  their 76,923,300 people.

 Some people from Pakistan, Turkey, Afghanistan, Yemen, Syria,  Azerbaijan Lebanon, Kuwait and Bahrain have players that are either Shi'a or Sunni.  The rest of the states follow the Sunni traditions. The state religion of Egypt's 90% of a population of 79,089,650, the 5th largest Muslim population in the world, are Sunni following the Shafi'i teachings.

President Morsi went to Iran in August of last year for a summit of the Non-Aligned Movement.  So it's news that Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad just came to Cairo, Egypt on a visit.  It's a first since the 1979 revolution,when Iran's secular Shah was replaced by the religious Ayatollah Khomeini.   Morsi and Ahmadinejad smiled, shook hands and kissed, probably because of Egypt electing a Muslim Brotherhood leader.   Ahmadinejad will meet today with the Grand Sheikh of the al-Azhar Mosque which is 1,000 years old,. one of the oldest seats of Islamic learning in the Sunni world.  Last month, Iran's foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi met the sheikh and stressed the importance of Muslim unity.

 Iran and Iraq had a war from September 22, 1980 to August 20, 1988 called the First Persian Gulf War,  so peace is not always the mode between Shi'a and Sunni Muslims.  They had some hot and heavy disputes over their borders. The attacker that time was Iraq.  Syria's ruler is not hesitant to kill its own people and neither has Iraq who gassed its Kurdish citizens on March 16, 1988 when they gassed and killed from 3,200 to 5,000 people and injured from 7,000 to 10,000.  They used bombs with chemicals.  .The idea of Iran being able to manufacture atomic weapons is making Saudi Arabia very nervous.  They are the 14th largest Sunni population with 27,601,038 people that follow Sunni's Hanbali teachings.  .  

For the past 30 years Israel and Egypt have been at peace which was started by Sadat.  Now, it looks like the only thing holding it together is the $1.3 billion in aid each year from the USA for the Egyptian military.  Morsi's government stands for wiping out Israel being that's the Muslim Brotherhood charter's goal.  They've established close ties with Hamas which is backed by Iran.  Hamas also shares that goal.  Egypt is lacking money, so that might be their first priority.

Ahmadinejad came to Cairo for Wednesday's Islamic summit.  Besides wanting to be the first astronaut in Iran, Ahmadinejad wants to visit the Gaza Strip to visit with the people on this trip.  Iran is backing Hamas financially and with weapons.   In November of last year Iran was preparing a shipment of missiles for Gaza at the same time a cease fire took place.  Sudan has been a transit site for Iranian arms to get to Gaza. They've been aiding and abetting terrorism.

One thing that bothers Egypt is Iran's support for President Bashar Assad of Syria.  An uprising that crushed the former President Mubarak and put Morsi into power is being crushed by Assad to the tune of killing 60,000 revolutionaries..  Though Egypt's revolt caused Morsi to be elected, the people are now having a change of heart and have been rebelling against him after just realizing what Sharia law is all about.  Christians are under attack.

Morsi's Egypt also maintains good relations with Gulf Arab states that supplement Cairo's finances and they are not that friendly with Iran.  Morsi also wants to remain friends with the USA in order to continue receiving their financial aid.

Hamas and Egypt have established close ties with each other that makes Iran happy but not the West as Hamas had been shooting rockets, mortars and missiles at southern Israel since 2006 and only recently stopped when Israel finally retaliated but good.  It would be a bad move if Egypt restores full relations with Iran now, the state that calls Israelis descendants of monkeys and pigs.  You can laugh off children's name calling of each other, but when a Muslim adult does it, you take their threats quite seriously.

Shi'a and Sunni are followers of different leaders.  Muhammad had a daughter, Fatima, but no son to take his place when he died, so the Shi'a are followers of his son-in-law who also happened to be his nephew.  Sunnis are followers of  Muhammad's good friend, Abu Bakr. "The fundamentals of the Islamic faith are agreed upon by all Muslims. These fundamentals include the belief in the oneness of God, the role of the Prophet Muhammad as his final messenger, prayer, the requirement to perform Hajj once in one's lifetime, and the requirement to give to charity."

Resource: http://www.jpost.com/LandedPages/PrintArticle.aspx?id=302186# Iran's Ahmadinejad lands in Egypt on historic visit by  Reuters
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran%E2%80%93Iraq_War
http://www.beliefnet.com/Faiths/Islam/2001/02/Sunni-Shia-Differences.aspx
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iranian_Revolution
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halabja_poison_gas_attack
http://www.jpost.com/Defense/Article.aspx?id=293324 Satellites show Iran moving quickly to rearm Hamas

Watch Out For Mossad, Folks: No Telling What They're Capable Of

Nadene Goldfoot

Mossad can do anything.   The funniest thing Mossad has been accused of is when the Saudis arrested a vulture for spying because it was tagged by an Israeli university with Hebrew writing on the tag.  By arresting a bird for being a spy is the level of their thinking.  They could get jobs writing for Jay  Leno.  How about the Egyptian cabinet minister who thought that a spate of shark attacks in the Red Sea was the work of Mossad-trained sharks to attack non-Israeli tourists in Egyptian waters.

Yasser Arafat's body has been dug up for testing to see if he was poisoned.  The Palestinians think Israel poisoned him.  In fact, they blame anything bad that happens on the Israelis.  Rumors were that Arafat was bisexual and probably picked up some social disease, such as aids, but they are looking for a different narrative. "His own personal doctor, Dr. Ashraf Al-Kurdi, said Arafat suffered from AIDS. "  Israel says that they had nothing to do with his death.  He was a terrorist, responsible for hundreds of deaths. This blaming Israel for poisoning him  could just be a diversion from the embarrassing truth.   Whoops, but the doctor is saying that Israel injected the HIV into his body.  He certainly didn't get it the natural way, the doc is saying.  They all have different theories.  I must say that he did spend an awful lot of his time with his terrorist pals who were all men.  Isn't this what happened to Alexander the Great who was in love with a soldier, Hephaestion,  in his company, ?

The man was 75 years old, having been born in Cairo, Egypt on August 24, 1929 to an Egyptian mother and Palestinian father and was one of 7 children. Arafat had lived a rough life as a terrorist, sometimes never staying at one place more than a night.  He died 8 years ago on November 11, 2004.    When the scientists opened his casket, they said it looked like the remains of a man dead for 8 years.

Testing was done before but nothing was found.  This summer they tried again when a Swiss lab detected elevated traces of a lethal radioactive substance, polonium-210 in stains on his clothing.  The lab said they needed to examine the remains to get more information.

This is against Islam to exhume the body but Mahmoud Abbas gave permission.  He was not present when the body was presented to the lab. Experts from Switzerland, France and Russia will examine the samples in their own country.  The results will come back in 3 months.

Al Jazeera, Qaradwi's TV station where he preaches from, took some of Arafat's clothes that his widow, Suha gave to the  Swiss lab for testing.  Polonium-210 decomposes rapidly and they don't know if anything will be showing.

Israel had confined Arafat to his Ramallah compound and Arafat was there for more than 2 years before he became ill and fell into a coma.  He had been accused of ordering attacks against Israelis, something he had been doing since 1948.  He was also in trouble with his own political circle, accused of corruption and pocketing large amounts of money earmarked for aid for the Palestinians.  Sura, his wife, lived in France and had money to spend.

The Arabs will probably blame Mossad, Israel's secret service.  If the electricity goes out, they think Mossad caused it.  If a building collapses in the town, it's Mossad trying to kill them.  If there's a repeat on TV, it's the Mossad's fault.  If an Iranian nuclear scientist is killed, Mossad saw to it that he had an accident.   Whatever would the Muslims do without the Jews to cast blame on?

Arafat was two-faced.  On one hand he would speak of a 2 state solution living in peace while on the other hand he said, "The struggle will continue until all of Palestine is liberated."

Yasser Arafat
Voice of Palestine Radio, November 11, 1995

Resource: http://blog.standforisrael.org/articles/the-freakish-and-fictional-long-arm-of-the-mossad
http://www.jewishjournal.com/world/article/arafats_body_exhumed_to_test_for_poisoning
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yasser_Arafat
http://www.allgreatquotes.com/yasser_arafat_quotes.shtml
http://www.debbieschlussel.com/51278/arafat-exhumation-poison-rumors-meant-to-cover-up-aids-gay-lifestyle-of-terrorist-leader/
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/123347

Islam Superceded by Fatah-Hamas Ethics

Nadene Goldfoot
Golda Meir (1898-1978) once said that Israel would have peace with the Arabs when Arabs loved their children as much as  Israelis love theirs.  She could not imagine how bad mothering has become with her enemies.

Islam's basic ethics have been replaced by Fatah and Hamas terrorism gangs in Gaza and Judea/Samaria.  They have managed to convince mothers to sacrifice their children. They are being martyrs.  Is this really being done in Allah's cause?  Is it Allah that says it's okay to kill your children in order to gain a 49th Muslim majority state?   If it is, it's the only religion in the world who says this.   Most normal mothers do everything to protect their children.  Even animal mothers will die in the protection of their babies.  How can these mothers go from that instinct to sacrificing their children?

 This is what Islam says about martyrdom: "while a martyr may die as a consequence of fighting. It is used as an honorific for Muslims who have laid down their life fulfilling a religious commandment, or have died fighting defending their country or protecting their family."  "The Islamic prophet Muhammad is reported to have said these words about martyrdom:

By Him in Whose Hands my life is! I would love to be martyred in Allah's Cause and then get resurrected and then get martyred, and then get resurrected again and then get martyred and then get resurrected again and then get martyred.

—Collected by Muhammad al-Bukhari, Sahih al-Bukhari

Palestinian Media Watch, a site run by Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik, have found a Facebook page for Fatah in Lebanon who have posted a picture of a mother dressing her young son with a suicide belt.  With the picture is a conversation between the two discussing why she was doing this.  The son asks why she wants him to die and she tells him it's for the sake of Palestine.  He asked why not her instead of him and she answers that she can keep on having children to sacrifice for Palestine.

"The Facebook page states that it is "the official page of Fatah's Information and Culture Commission in Lebanon," and is linked to from the official website of the Fatah Information and Culture Commission (www.fatehmedia.ps)."  "During the years of the Palestinian Authority terror campaign (the Intifada, 2000 - 2005), Palestinian Media Watch documented that the PA actively promoted Martyrdom (Shahada) as an ideal that children should strive for. Music videos for children indoctrinating them to see Martyrdom as "sweet" were broadcast hundreds of times on PA TV. In recent years, Martyrdom for children continues to be glorified by the PA in contexts for children but with lesser frequency."

This has become a sick, sick religion.  Back to the days of sacrificing one's children in order to get rainfall or good crops and now a state?  These people have gone backwards into the past with their logic instead of having forward thinking like making peace with their neighbor.

Is this what Mohammad wanted?  Is this in the Koran?  Hamas and Fatah are using their own religion and twisting it in order for their own gains.  They will do anything and say anything and lie in order to achieve their  evil ends; to destroy Israel and all its inhabitants and take over successful Israel.  I don't see any moderate Muslims stepping up to the plate and telling these terrorist gangs that they are in the wrong.  I found this an an Islam website.  "In fact, Muslims serve for life, not for death. In Islam and other religions, all men are equal, regardless of color, language, race, or nationality."  It seems to me that they have completely forgotten about this fact.  

Mahmoud Abbas, whose term as president or chairman ran out January 15, 2009,  will be asking the UN for recognition with a nonmember status on November 15th or 29th.  .  This goes against what the USA and Israel have said which will cause an ending to funding for the Palestinians. It will get him what he wants, evidently; recognition and he thinks power in negotiating with Israel if that ever happens.  

Just as sad is the fact that the UN and so many countries have gone right along with them in their muddled thinking.  I think I'll have to say that we will have peace when people are no longer afflicted with insanity. Let's get this straight.  Hamas and Fatah are not fighting in protection.  They are fighting against their neighbors and are refusing peace.

What's pathetic is that the nomadic Arabs have never wanted the responsibility of having their own state.  Those that lived in the "Holy Land" were nomadic wanderers.  Many came from neighboring states seeking jobs with the Jews who were building and thinking of the future.  They only want to replace Israel as they don't have in their religious principals room for a small Jewish state.  It's a sick sick reason to have a state in the first place.

Resource:   http://www.palwatch.org/
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/palestinian-officials-abbas-moving-forward-with-bid-for-un-recognition-1.472764
http://www.ou.org/about/judaism/rabbis/meier.htm
http://discover.islamway.com/articles.php?article_id=47
http://islam.uga.edu/norms_values.html

So It's Okay For Muslims To Call Jews Nasty Names?

Nadene Goldfoot
Along the theme of saying slanderous things about another's religion, the biggest purveyors of this crime are the Islamists who call Jews every despicable name in the books.   One remark that made me laugh is when on the official PA daily on Israel's independence day said that Israel's goal was to turn a "Jewish monarchy in Palestine into a basis for their [the Jews'] eternal rule over the world, that others, 'goyim' [non-Jews], must submit to their will.  It must be the Islamists who started the original rumor that Jews would take over the world and now they're saying it so much they themselves believe it.  Jews, who make up far  less than 1% of the total world population, more like .03-.04%,  are not trying to take over the world.  They're just trying to stay alive, which isn't so easy with Qaradawi's fatwa telling their followers to kill us all. On the other hand, Muslims number 1.6 billion or 23% of the world population.

Islam almost succeeded in taking over the world with empires reaching into Spain and into Eastern Europe from Saudi Arabia, as Mecca, Saudi Arabia is their center. The last was the Ottoman Empire.   They seem to be trying it again as they already have 48 Muslim majority countries and are trying for the 49th with a Palestine.    After the loss of Jerusalem in 70 CE, Jews haven't even had their own state until 1948 , and have had to fight off Muslim invaders ever since.  Now Obama doesn't see why Israel shouldn't be forced back to the 67 borders that really were indefensible.

The weirdest thing I have discovered is that it is Judaism, of all the religions, who calls saying false things about another a crime. Judaism believes in free speech, but this is considered something apart from it.   It is Judaism who frowns on Loshen hora, (gossip, untruths about someone).  Obviously it's okay for Muslims as far as they are concerned to beat the heck out of Jews with their malicious lies, the latest being that Jews are vampires. Other pet names for Jews are Satan with a tail, apes, being void of wisdom, sin and filth, cancers and, tumors.   Oh really! Isn't calling all Jews such names also including our prophet, Moses?   I just printed off 12 pages of lies that Palwatch collected of horrible things that Muslims say about Jews which are said  by their leaders such as Abbas and Ahmadinejad.

When you come right down to it, many distasteful  things are said about us right in the holy books of Islam, so I think that it's a miracle we ever were able to live just as dminnis in the Muslim world for so long.  We must have been seen as harmless folk up till 1948, when they suddenly realized that we might have some clout and they might lose out on taking over Palestine, which they never wanted in the first place.  When Mohammad saw that he couldn't convince all the Jews to convert over to his new Islam, he was angry and added comments that were against Jews.  So this enmity between Jew and Muslim goes back to the origin of Islam.

I admire my Muslim friends who can treat me as another fellow human being without all the thoughts of these horrible adjectives.  They are people who have progressed along with Western civilization and wish to live in peace, just as I do.  Keeping all those horrible attitudes alive just doesn't get us anywhere or help this poor planet to keep on rolling.  These friends are very special to me because they have bucked the prevailing attitude towards Jews.  Their very friendship has caused me to see the whole problem in a new light as well just by their kindness.

And who did this idiot videomaker of blasphemy of Islam blame as having made it?  Of course!  We could guess in a half of a second.  He'd blame the Jew.  It turns out it was a Coptic Christian who was the culprit.

Resource: http://palwatch.org/main.aspx?fi=157&doc_id=7475
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Muslim_majority_countires
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muslim_world

Assad Blames Israel For His Problems

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Religious Significance of Jerusalem to Islam

Nadene Goldfoot
When Mohammed lived(570 CE-632 CE) , there was no mosque in Jerusalem.  The Koran tells only that Mohammed in a single night was taken to heaven by Buraq, a horse with wings, a woman's face and a peacock's tail.  He was first taken to a place the Koran called the "uttermost mosque": --il masjad al aksa.
أقصى مسجد.  
Jerusalem is not mentioned in the story at all.  After his death, the tradition was that the "uttermost mosque" must have been the Temple Mount in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah.  The 1st Temple was built by King Solomon (961 BCE-920 BCE)  of the Jews.  It held the Ark of the Covenant, the sacred vessels and offerings and had a court for worshipers.  The makeup of it was a hall, shrine and inner sanctum for the holy of holies. Then it was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar in 586 BCE and was rebuilt in 538-515 BCE by the Jews and called the 2nd Temple.  This time it included the Western Wall (also called the Wailing Wall).

The Western Wall is part of the wall enclosing Herod's Temple still standing in the Old city of Jerusalem. Herod lived from 73 BCE to 4 CE and was the King of Judea who had been appointed governor of Galilee by his father, then was appointed king by the Romans.   The wall  is very close to the Holy of Holies which was at the western end of the temple.  It's regarded as sacred.  Regular services had been held before it.  Though Jordan had taken over this part of Jerusalem in 1948, a paragraph in the Israel-Jordan  1949 Armistice Agreement  affirmed the Jewish right of access to it which Jordan denied to them anyway.  It wasn't until 1967 that Jews could again go to the Wall.  It's the first place Jewish tourists go to when they visit Jerusalem today.  The tradition is to place a prayer  written on a little piece of paper into the niches of the wall.   One good thing about Herod is that he had rebuilt the Temple in Jerusalem on a magnificent scale.

The Temple Mount was the existing sacredness of the place that had been holy to Jews for nearly 2,000 years before Mohammad.  This must be why Mohammed's followers chose it as being the fitting and awesome place for Mohammed's ascent.  A mosque is the Arabic name for a temple, a building used for public worship by the Muslims.

The Moslems called the site, Buraq, which has become a memorial to Islam's recognition of the Jewishness of the Holy Place.  It's why the Dome of the Rock and the Al Aksa Mosque were built on the Mount.  They called this Haram-A-Sharif, and it became the 3rd holiest place in Islam after Mecca and Medina, which are in Arabia.  Nobody knows if Mohammed ever came to Jerusalem or not.  There is no proof.

What is known is that Mohammed was establishing Islam in Arabia and hoped that both Jews and Christians would adopt the new religion.  He called on them to accept him as the successor of both Moses and Jesus.  First he ordered that when praying, the Moslem should copy the Jewish custom of turning his face towards Jerusalem, which was at that time under Christian rule.  When neither Jews or Christians were converting to his new religion, he got angry and 18 months later after his decree changed it and they were to turn their faces towards Mecca.

In fact, when directing the needs to build a mosque, it was then built so that the worshippers could face Mecca for prayer and they built in a prayer niche.  Most mosques built during the Umayyad and Abbasid periods have been destroyed.  Ones remaining are one in Damascus and the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem.   The Dome is the golden shrine on the Mosque of Omar.  The intentions of the builders was to outdo other religious buildings.  It was constructed from 689 CE-691 CE in the Muslim conquest of Syria of 637 CE by the Rashidun Caliphate.

Mohammed  and his followers knew that Jerusalem was a Holy City to the Jews and then to the Christians.  In following in the tradition to its holiness,  they made Jerusalem's Temple Area the site of his ascent to their 7th heaven.  It was not Mohammed's dream that made the Temple Mount holy to Islam.  It was the existing sanctity of the place.

In the siege of Jerusalem during the Roman war, the 2nd Temple served as a center of military activity and then was destroyed by the Romans soldiers with only the wall remaining.  In 70 CE Jerusalem fell to the Romans.  A Roman temple was later built on the site.

In the Moslem Period, the Mosque of Omar had been built over the Temple area.  This is the only claim to Jerusalem that the Moslems have.  Jerusalem was never a holy city to Islam.  Palestine has no significance in the Moslem religion.  It never existed as a country under Arab or any of the other Moslem administration.  The city of Jerusalem as such has no significance in Islam.  It was just that they were able to take over a site that had been holy to both previous religions of Judaism and Christianity.  That was a feather in the cap for Islam.

Resource: Battleground, fact and fantasy in Palestine by Samuel Katz
The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
Middle East Past & Present by Armajani and Ricks
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dome_of_the_Rock

Morsi's Feelings Towards Israel

Nadene Goldfoot
The Oregonian newspaper continued with information about Mohammed Morsi b: 1951, Egypt's newly elected president,  this morning.  He has a long record of opposition to the Egyptian-Israeli ties. He was elected to the Zionism Resistance Council in his home province.  Later he co-founded the Egyptian Commission for Resisting the Zionist Project.   However, he has declared on Sunday that his Muslim Brotherhood government will follow the Egyptian international commitments, including the peace treaty with Israel.  During the campaign he promised to be a centrist ruler despite his Islamist background and roles in the Muslim Brotherhood.

Morsi joined the Muslim Brotherhood in 1977.  This is when the movement was banned.  He was elected to Parliament in 2000 where he was in charged of the Brotherhood's unofficial parliamentary bloc from 2000 to 2005 when he was defeated.

By January 28, 2011, Morsi was detained with 34 other leading Muslim Brotherhood officers by Mubarak's government, but escaped when security guards left their posts at the prison where he was held.  He was a member of the Muslim Brotherhood's guidance council .  Then  he became head of its Freedom and Justice Party of which he just resigned from on Sunday. This resignation seems to be a symbolic move.

The military arm has dissolved the Brotherhood-led parliament and has seized legislative power.  The generals have guns and tanks and armored vehicles to hold authority.  The Brotherhood leaders and ruling generals have had face-to-face meetings last week between the Brotherhood's parliamentary leader, Saad el-Katatni and Gen. Sami Hafez Enan.

Jihad el-Haddad, Brotherhood spokesman, said on Saturday that that the Brotherhood made its demands for the reinstatement of the parliament and the empowerment of an elected president.  They had agreed on Friday that further talks with generals would be conducted by a new "national front" it had formed with more secular advocates of democracy.  They will have greater collaboration and openness than formerly.  The Brotherhood happens to be thought of as Egypt's best-organized political force.  They barely won over Ahmed Shafiq, who was a former air force general and Mubarak's last prime minister.  The vote was 13.2 million for Morsi, and12.3 million for Shafiq, or 52% to 48%..  

Now he promises to build a coalition government and promises that his prime minister will be independent and his governemt would include Christians.  He promised not to turn Egypt into a theocracy but said Islam should provide governing principles.

He also calls for Egypt to not be subordinate to the USA and suggests he will confront their close ties to Washington they had under Mubarak.  Jay Carney, press secretary, is concerned about human rights and the minority Coptic Christians that have been attacked.  I'm concerned about keeping the peace treaty with Israel.  I have a feeling that the only thing holding Egypt to this will be the money that the USA doles out to Egypt.  Morsi sounds like he will try to free them from this line of economic aid.

Resource: Oregonian newspaper 6/25/12  page A4, New Egyptian president was a professor in US, and front page, continues on page A5, McClatchy Newspapers 
Oregonian newspaper 6/24/12 page A9, Results of Egypt's vote still up in air by David D. Kiripatrick, NY Times

Gabriel, An Angel to All Three Religions and More

Nadene Goldfoot 
 The Archangel Gabriel appears to all three religions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam.  He first appeared in the Jewish Book of Daniel around 300 BCE by explaining Daniel's visions.  Here he is a messenger of G-d (YHWH) a way of spelling the unspoken special name for our higher power by using the Hebrew alphabet letters of Yud, Hay, Yud and Hay again.  There is no W in Hebrew. Daniel was a Jewish captive who was taken to Babylon along with most of the best of the men in Jerusalem and had been praying and fasting.  Gabriel is also then mentioned in the Talmud.  His description given is "the man in linen."  He's again in the Book of Ezekiel and this time his role was to destroy Jerusalem for its wickedness and idolatry in the time of the kingdom of Judah.  He would separate the few righteous Jews that would not be killed and would exile them from all the wicked ones who failed to return.  In the Kabbalah, he appears as one of G-d's archangels.  He works with Michael, another angel.  People didn't pray to him directly but  to G-d who answers prayers and might send an angel down as an agent.  Gabriel was the leader of 4 angels and was sometimes referred to as the "angel of the presence."

Christians know of Gabriel through Zacharias, a priest and father of John the Baptist(1st century. CE) .  People were praying and Gabriel appeared, frightening Zacharias who told him not to be afraid and that his wife Elizabeth would have a son and he was to name him "John."  He will be a son that:  will not drink  wine or any other strong drink and shall be filled with the "holy ghost" and that many will listen to him in order to get ready for "the Lord".  His proof was that he told Zacharias he was sent to speak to him and that from that moment on Zacharias would not speak until the baby was born because he didn't believe him.  Gabriel also tells of the birth of Jesus.  Catholics refer to him as Gabriel the Archangel.

The Latter-day Saints (LDS or Mormons)  believe that Gabriel lived a mortal life as the prophet Noah.  They regard them as the same individual with Noah as the mortal name and Gabriel being his heavenly name.

For Islam, Gabriel had an even bigger job.  He is the angel that revealed the Quran (Koran) to the prophet Muhammad (570-632 CE ) and also told other prophets what their obligations were.  His name appears many times there.  "Who is an enemy to Gabriel!  For he it is who hath revealed (this scripture) to thy heart by G-d's leave, confirming that which was (revealed) before it, and a guidance and glad tidings to believers.  He's also mentioned in the Hadith of Gabriel where he quizzes Muhammad on the core tenants of Islam.

 Gabriel is also in the Koran with Mary where it says that "And mention, (O Muhammad), in the book (the story of) Mary, when she withdrew from her family to a place toward the east.  And she took, in seclusion from them, a screen.  Then We sent to her Our Angel, and he represented himself to her as a well-proportioned man.  So here we have the Mary and Joseph story written in the Koran.

Jewish tribes lived in Mecca and Medina after 70 CE when Jerusalem fell.  They had been taken away as slaves before that at the fall of the first and 2nd Temples and may have entered the land then as well.  Both people to become Christians and Muslims were exposed to a Jewish culture and learning this way.

Additional:4/16/14  In LDS (Latter Day Saints or Mormons) theology, Noah was also known as the angel, Gabriel.  They also believe that the angel Michael was Adam, the first man.  The Mormon prophet, Joseph Smith, taught that Noah stands next to Adam in authority and in holding the "keys of salvation."  They believe that Noah was a 2nd Adam given the job of repopulating the planet.  The flood was to them a baptism of the earth.  They teach that North and South American continents became a choice land after the flood waters receded (Ether 13:2).  They teach that Noah was ordained as a priest by his grandfather, Methuselah when he was 10 years old (Doctrine and Covenants 107::52).  They believe that Noah was already a Christian and was teaching faith in Jesus Christ, repentance and baptism to his peers.
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Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gabriel
New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
http://www.jewishjournal.com/jews_and_mormons/item/why_russell_crowe_should_play_a_mormon_noah by Mark Paredes

Egyptian Islamists Attack Egyptian Army

Nadene Goldfoot
An extremely important neighbor of Israel is Egypt, and what goes on there always affect them.  Right now Islamists in Egypt are trying to overthrow their own country's army.  At least we are to learn that not every single Egyptian is favoring a Sharia rule in their country.  The Egyptian army has been very popular, and it is they who are now under attack.

Last week the extreme Islamic group of Salafi lost out in the presidential elections coming up the end of this month.  Abu Ismail was not very happy about being disqualified among others, so his cohorts started the Jihad slogan chanting while getting ready for a Million Man protest they had last Friday on the 4th.  It was an Islamist protest and not a general demonstration.  Leading the protest was someone just released from prison, Muhammad al-Zawahiri, brother of al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri.

They're calling for Jihad against their own people and have been attacking Egypt's own soldiers. This was not a good move as the army holds a special, respected pace in Egypt, and they wound up killing one of the soldiers.   A news anchorwoman asked who they were liberating Egypt from when she heard their cries of "Alahu Akbar and Jihad!  Jihad!  and read banners carried that said, "Victory or Death!"   Many see  the Muslim Brotherhood, Salafists and others as Islamists  touting the same philosophy.  They're all against Israel.  Hopefully, an Islamist president will not be running who will bring "more chaos and oppression" to their people and hatred for Israel,  ready to break the peace pact we have with them.  .

At the beginning of the Arab Spring, I was afraid that the Muslim Brotherhood would gain all the power as they were said to be the best organized.  It looks like they've angered most of the Egyptian people.  It would be a shame for Egypt to lose tourism from Israel.  One thing I enjoyed while living in Israel from 1980 to the end of 1985 was being able to watch Egyptian movies on Israeli TV.  You get to know a people a little better this way.  Who wouldn't like to watch a film with Omar Sharif?

Resource: frontpagemag.com/2012/05/10/jihad-comes-to-egypt/print