What haplogroup Do Pashtuns Be?

Nadene Goldfoot                                                 

Pashtuns have the oral history of being Beni Israel, sons of Israel.  Pashtuns are the largest ethnic group in Afghanistan, accounting for about 42 percent of the population,

I see that the company, FAMILY TREE DNA has 219 members of Afghan Pakistani DNA, now.  This is good.  They say, "Please visit our blogsite at www.dna-afghan-pak.blogspot.com and our Facebook Page, where members share their research and opinions on issues."

Male Y haplogroups of Pashtuns

C3-M217, Afghanistan's ethnic group, found in East Asia 2.04% in Pashtuns, In ***** 3 people carried this in the sample, 1 found in FTDNA's testing, Originated in southern Asia, found with highest diversity in India. 

E,  In *****1 person carried this in the sample.  Originated in Africa some 50,000 years ago, common ancestry with D.  Found in Middle East. 

F, In ***** 1 person carried this in the sample first in Africa some 45,000 years ago, 2nd wave of expansion out of Africa, ancestor of the Y chromosome haplogroups, oldest one. 

*G2b-M377, part of G2 is found in some Pashtuns who are Iranic and on a much lower scale among all major Jewish groups, Palestinians, Lebanese and Syrians.  Up to the time of WW2, it was most common in Eastern Europe.  Distribution of G2b is sparse, unique.  The extreme rarity of G2b in northern Pakistan might mean it originated outside the country, brought there a historic period from further wet.  Pakistan was part of the Achaemenid Persian Empire conquered by Alexander the Great, then part of the Greco-Bactrian kingdom.  These 2 Pakistani G2b haplotypes are divergent from the Ashkenazi Jewish clade, do not indicate a recent common origin.  Turkish G2b is closer but not the same.  With Jews in Israel from many places, G2b was 3.7% of population in one study.  Afghanistan study of 5 Pashtuns in Wrdak region, 60% of sample, maybe due to local founder effect. Possible it started about 1,000 CE in NE West Asia from G2 (P287), highest frequency in Pashtuns, Sephardic Jews, Ashkenazi Jews, Mizrahi Jews, Palestinians, Lebanese, Syrians, SW Syria.  In ***** 12 people carried this in the sample.    4 found in FTDNA's testing  May have originated along the eastern edge of the Middle East or in India or Pakistan 30000 years ago .  G2 branch of this lineage containing the P15 mutation is found most often in the Caucasus, Balkans, Italy and Middle East.  7% of Ashkenazi Jews have this. 

H-M69, found in India' Pashtuns 20.41%, In ***** 4 people carried this in the sample. 6 found in FTDNA's testing, arose 20,000 to 30,000 years ago and almost entirely restricted to India, Sri Lanka and Pakistan where it probably originated. 

J1,  In ***** 3 people carried this in the sample.  3 found in FTDNA's study, 10,000 to 15,000 years ago in Fertile Crescent includes Jews, Arab, Armenians, Kurds, highest in Iran and Iraq, carried by traders to central Asia, India and Pakistan.  While the majority of J is not Jewish, the majority of Jewish men are J's.  The Cohen Modal Haplotype is found in haplogroup J1. 

J2-M172, Afghanistan's ethnic group, In ***** 7 people carried this in the sample.  Found in Central Asia, Mediterranean and south into India.   11 found in FTDNA's testing. connected to the spread of agriculture during Neolithic Period from Anatolia, found in central Asia, Mediterranean, south into India. Many Jews carry this, also.  

*L-M20, Afghanistan's ethnic group, also in India at 20.41%, In ***** 8 people carried Lin the sample.  6 found in FTDNA's testing
  L1a, 2 found in FTDNA's testing
  L1b, 1 found in FTDNA's testing
  L1c,  Known Pashtuns, 6 found in FTDNA's testing; L is common in India, likely originated here 30,000 years ago. 

P,   In ***** 1 person carried this in the sample, originated in Eurasia 35,000 to 45,000 years ago, in Europe, all indigenous people of the Americas.

Q, 1.3% finding 2 people.   In ***** 1 person carried this in the sample.in southern Afghanistan.   
       Q is found in 5% of the male Jewish Ashkenazi population.  13 found in FTDNA's testing. , originated 15,000 to 20,000 years ago migrated through northern Eurasia into Americas, lately found in Ur, Iraq where Abraham lived. My Jewish father's line is Q, and at 111 allele testing is QBZ67

*R1a1a-M17, Afghanistan's ethnic group, found in Eurasia, 51.02% in Pashtuns, in *****97 people carried this in the sample.  ( Overall, only haplogroups R1a1a*-M198 (62.1%), L3*-M357 (7.4%) and G2c-M377 (5.3%) display frequencies >5% and collectively comprise nearly three-fourths of the Afghanistan paternal gene pool in one study ). 18 found in FTDNA's study, 8 from India, Bangladesh, 9 known Pashtuns, Believed to have originated in NW Asia between 30,000 to 35,000 years ago. This is the line that so many Jewish Levites carry as their Y haplogroup that I've been writing about (12/22/2021).  
R-M512 , 9 Pashtuns of Afghanistan, Pakistan

R1b1b2, In *****, 1 person was found in the sample.  3 from Pakistan in FTDNA's study

R2a-M124, found in India's Pashtuns 20.41%, In ***** 5 people carried this in the sample, 5 from FTDNA's testing , Much rarer than R1, found only in Indian, Iranian and central Asian populations.

Undecided 31 people as yet not classified in a group on FTDNA's testing

Genotyping revealed 32 haplogroups present in Afghanistan's ethnic groups among our samples. Haplogroups R1a1a-M17, C3-M217, J2-M172, and L-M20 were the most frequent when Afghan ethnic groups were pooled, together comprising >66% of the chromosomes. 

Resource: https://www.familytreedna.com/public/dna_afghan_pak/default.aspx?section=yresults

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haplogroup_G-M377

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0034288

http://dienekes.blogspot.com/2012/03/rare-look-at-y-chromosomes-of.html

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/267787589_The_origin_of_the_Pashtuns_Pathans *****

https://www.familytreedna.com/groups/dna-afghan-pak/about/background

Book:  Abraham's Children, race, identity, and the DNA of the Chosen People, by Jon Entine

The Tribe of Dan and What Happened to the 10 Lost Tribes?

Nadene Goldfoot                                                                          

                                                                                 

Samson, our strongest man,  was from the tribe of Dan.  He was one of the Israelite judges, son of Manoah. He was born before Saul of the tribe of Benjamin  became a king which was in the 11th century BCE.   He was a Nazirite from birth, meaning for one thing that he was not to cut his hair or drink any alcoholic beverage.  His hair was where he got his strength and courage and was capable of doing feats against the Philistines.  Delilah, his love, a woman of the Valley of Sorek (grapes ?) , deceived him and told the Philistines where his strength came from,  for a price.1100 pieces of silver.  She then cut his hair for them.  The Philistines held a festival in Gaza where they mocked him by having him, now a slave of theirs, to turn the prison mill for them.  He ended his life by destroying the building  and killing everyone there, including himself.
                                                                         

The movie, Samson and Delilah came out in 1949 with Victor Mature and Hedy Lamarr. This certainly immortalizes the pair.

The twelve tribes of Jacob were from 4 mothers, the sisters Leah and Rachel and their handmaids.    Dan was Jacob's 5th son and his mother was Bilhah, the handmaid of beautiful Rachel, Jacob's first love.  Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Zebulun were the sons of Leah, daughter of Laban.   Joseph and Benjamin were the sons of Rachel.   Dan and Naphtali were the sons of Bilhah,  and Gad and Asher were the sons of Zilpah, handmaiden of Leah. Gad had developed  a warlike reputation.   This made up Jacob's  12 sons. Dinah, daughter of Leah, was the only daughter.

Moses conferred the priestly office on the tribe of Levi. This meant that Levi would not receive any land as they were to be teachers and would travel to each tribe and live there while teaching.   To maintain the number of tribes receiving territory at 12, which was a sacred number,  he divided the tribe of Joseph into the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh, Joseph's 2 sons.  Joseph was the son who had been kidnapped and taken away to Egypt where he rose in status to have a very high commission and be working just under the Pharaoh.  He had remained in Egypt.  The Levites must have been divided up between the Empires of Israel and Judah- the North and the South.

After the conquest of Canaan, Dan was allotted a portion south of Jaffa (today joined with Tel Aviv) , but was forced back into the hill country by the Amorites, and only a part of the tribe remained in the coastal region.  The greater part of Dan was forced to migrate northward where it eventually wrested from the Phoenicians a settlement area around Laish (Judg. 8:27-9)  On the map above it is shown as the farthest north in brown.  It is also mentioned in the MAR1 tablets( or Leshem (Jos. 19:47), the name of which became Dan.  The Danites had been expelled from their original inheritance by the Amorites so moved on to the sources of the Jordan River.  "The tribe of Dan  was one to be the avenger of his people.  Dan would be the snake that bites those that would come to harm his people."

Under Joshua's division of Canaan, Reuben, Gad, and half the tribe of Manasseh received territory in what was later called Transjordan, now just Jordan.  .  Naphtali and Asher were placed on the Sidonian frontier in the Galilee.  Issachar and Zebulun were settled in the Valley of Jezereel area.  Ephraim and the other half of Manasseh were to live in the mountains of Samaria with Benjamin to their south. and Judah even further south.  So Dan was to live basically along the seacoast around Jaffa and Simeon was placed in the Negev.

The rest of the tribe of Dan's   existence grew serious after the arrival of the Philistines.  Samson was a hero of the tribe.  The period of Saul and David helped.  The northern part of Dan was the site of a temple (Judg. 18:26-30) at which the descendants of Manasseh or Moses acted as priests.  This became one of the chief cult centers in the kingdom of Ephraim, and Jeroboam erected it it the image of a calf to deflect worshippers from the sanctuary at Jerusalem.

Some other tribes also didn't succeed in occupying the entire areas assigned to them.  Simeon seized further land in Seir and the territory of the Amalekites, a tribe of Caanan especially hateful of the Israelites who treated them horribly when they came through on the Exodus.  It is said that Haman in Persia much have been from the Amalekites, and possibly Hitler was, too.

Dan was captured by Ben Hadad of Syria during the rule of Baasha around 900 BCE .They would have been the closest tribe to Syria.

This tribal division of the land was maintained under the period of the Judges, but King Solomon (961-920 BCE)  changed the format of the division of land to suit his administration.

When King Solomon died, the land of Israel split into 2 halves with the southern half going to the tribe of Judah and Simeon, sons of Jacob and Leah,  and most of the tribe of Benjamin, son from Jacob and Rachel.  So Jews of today come from these 3 tribes.  

Then, in 732 BCE, the Assyrian king Tiglath-Pileser invaded and took away people of Israel in the north  as slaves.  While the state of Judah was crippled from the loss of warriors, in 721-715 BCE the King Sargon of Assyria also attacked and took away more people as slaves.  In all, 10 tribes had been exiled from the northern kingdom of Israel.  The kidnapped population had gone mostly to Assyria, of course, but also had been sold to Media and the lands neighboring  Aram-Naharaim.

Our 10 Lost Tribes to us were mourned.  This weakened the southern kingdom of Judah who were then attacked by Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon in 586 BCE   and many were exiled.

An Israeli communal settlement at the foot of Mt Hermon near the source of the River Dan was founded by pioneers of Romanian origin in 1939.  It withstood a heavy Syrian attack in the War of Independence in 1948.  Their population in 1990 was 554.  Nearby is a tel, the site of the biblical city of Dan (Laish) which has been excavated by Avraham Biran.

 Modern Israel has a Soreq Valley and even a Sorek Vineyard (since 1994/5) producing Merlot. Soreq, however, is the grapevine itself in Genesis 49:11, Isaiah 5:2, and Jeremiah 2:21. Samson had been dedicated as a Nazirite, "from the womb to the day of his death"; thus he was forbidden to touch wine or cut his hair.

Ezekiel's prophecies (Ezek. 37:16)  about these northern lost 10 tribes has much importance as it is associated with the final Redemption with the reunion of the whole House of Israel that is to happen in the FINAL DAYS.  There has been reports in many generations of their whereabouts;

1. Eldad Ha-Dani reported them apparently in the mountains of Africa.
2. Benjamin of Tudela heard of them in Central Asia.
3. David Reuveni claimed to be the brother of one of their rulers in some region in Arabia
4. Antonio de Montezinos stimulated Manasseh ben Israel's political activity in  England by his reports that he had found them in South America
5. Shabbetai Tzevi appointed rulers over the various tribes.
6. One story associates them with the Japanese
7.  Votaries of the Anglo-Israel theory place them in the Anglo-Saxon countries. After watching a travel show into Scotland and their food  customs, I would say they had no connection to any lost tribe.  They proudly proclaimed that hunting for their food was the best thing to do and ate bloody meat.  Jews don't.  Whatever traces showing of their connection are usually in the customs, so this doesn't comply.

Actually as a historic fact, some members of the Ten Lost Tribes remained in the land of Israel and Judah,  later after 135 CE to be called Palestine.  Apart from the Samaritans, which is another case, some of their descendants long preserved their identity among the Jewish population.  Others were assimilated, while still others were presumably absorbed by the last Judean exiles who in 597-586 were deported to areas adjacent to the place of exile of the Ten Lost Tribes which was Media, Assyria and Mesopotamia.
                                                                         

Bnei Menashe In North East India, in the land mass that lies between Myanmar (formerly Burma) and Bangladesh, there lives a small group of people returning to Judaism

Today Israel is receiving reports and taking in people claiming to be of the lost tribes of Israel, who were surprised to find that others thought them lost, as they knew where they were.  The problem was that the Jews didn't know where they were and could not bring them back.  India's tribe of Menashe, called Bnei Menashe, one of the sons of Joseph, has returned to Israel.  2,000 now live in Israel.  In 2013, 7,000 more were waiting to return. Bnei Menashe are also from Burma (Myanmar) Recently a return to Judaism began. Several thousand people of Menashe decided to observe the laws of the Torah and returned to Judaism. They have synagogues in Manipur, Assam, and Mizoram. There are also those who emigrated to Israel. Thousands long for returning to Israel.

" Several Christian organizations helped bring them home."In fact, the Hebrew prophets said when God gathered His Jewish people back from all the ends of the earth in the last days that there would be Gentiles helping and bringing them back," David Parsons, with the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem, told CBN News."

"India is also home to the Bené Israel, a group whose Jewish bona fides are not in question. India is also home to the Bene Israel, a group whose Jewish DNA is not in question. In fact, markers in DNA samples from the Bene Israel are consistent with descendants of a small group of hereditary Israelite priests or Cohanim—those descended from Moses’ brother Aaron. They now number less than eight thousand (most of them emigrated to Israel in the 1950s), but once, more than thirty thousand Jewish People lived in and around Mumbai (formerly Bombay). "That would be the dna Cohen gene of J1.  "Some associate them with either the tribe of Zebulon or Asher because of their tradition of working as oil pressers and merchants. Others think they are Jews who fled persecution from various Arab governments.

  It is thought that the Pashtuns of Pakistan and Afghanistan could contain some of the lost tribes as they have a history of descending from Benjamin and Joseph. Some Maasais of Africa claim to be of the lost tribe.  A few have returned.  A group from Burma has as well.

The Lemba tribe of Israel has been found to carry the Cohen gene.  They even believe they have the ark of the covenant.

"Ethiopians have finally convinced Israel's rabbis that they have Jewish roots.  65,000 have moved to Israel, starting in 1974.  They say they are either from the tribe of Dan, or are descendants of King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba of Ethiopia, who had come for a visit to Jerusalem.  DNA did not turn up any evidence of a Jewish connection, but they have been practicing Judaism up to a point in our ancient history. " They should have a few of Solomon's  genes."  Today those in Israel are having a hard time adjusting, especially with rioting Blacks in the USA on TV bringing out their similar problems of education and position.    

 Anthropologist Shalva Weil of Jerusalem has documented differing tribes and peoples claiming affiliation to the Lost Tribes throughout the world.  Dr. Shalva Weil is a Senior Researcher at The Research Institute for Innovation and Education at the Hebrew University. She focuses on Indian Jewry, Ethiopian Jewry, and the Ten Lost Tribes and specializes in qualitative methods, violence, gender, ethnicity, education, religion, and migration.  "Shalva Weil has published widely on the Bene Israel, Cochin Jews, Baghdadi Jews, and the Shinlung (“Bnei Menasseh”)."" Weil has published extensively on the Ten Lost Tribes and in particular, the Beta Israel, the Bene Israel, and the Pathans/Pashtuns, as well as on Judaising groups all over Africa, China and elsewhere. In 1991, she curated an exhibition at Beth Hatefutsoth: the Museum of the Jewish Diaspora on the Ten Lost Tribes entitled "Beyond the Sambatyon: the Myth of the Ten Lost Tribes".^[17] She is on the international board of ISSAJ [International Society for the Study of African Jewry]"

Resource:  The New Jewish Encyclopedia p. 254,928-929
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-GROcMlaGTA Shalva Weil
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ioYAjdDALqk Jon Entine
Book:  The Lost Ark of the Covenant by Tudor Parfitt-mentioning the Lemba Tribe in Africa
http://jewishfactsfromportland.blogspot.com/2014/06/found-lost-tribe-of-israel-right-in.html
http://jewishfactsfromportland.blogspot.com/2013/10/the-assyrians-who-carried-away-10.html
http://jewishfactsfromportland.blogspot.com/2012/12/lost-tribe-of-israel-living-in-india.html
http://jewishfactsfromportland.blogspot.com/2012/11/india-burmas-lost-menashe-tribe-of.html
http://jewishfactsfromportland.blogspot.com/2012/01/can-pashtun-tribe-of-afghanistan-have.html
http://jewishfactsfromportland.blogspot.com/2012/04/10-lost-tribes-and-what-happened-to.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delilah
http://jewishbubba.blogspot.com/2015/01/pashtuns-and-other-lost-10-tribes-of.html
http://jewishbubba.blogspot.com/2013/09/death-bed-prophecy-for-jacobs.html
http://jewishbubba.blogspot.com/2013/03/jacobs-twelve-tribes-of-israel-and-how.html
http://jewishbubba.blogspot.com/2013/01/claiming-to-be-one-of-lost-10-tribes.html  Maasais
http://jewishbubba.blogspot.com/2012/12/why-finding-israels-lost-ten-tribes-has.html
http://jewishbubba.blogspot.com/2012/08/part-iii-lost-ten-tribes-of-israel-and.html
http://www.jewishvoice.org/messianic-education/messianic-vision/lost-tribes-of-israel.html
http://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/1701071/jewish/Are-the-Ten-Lost-Tribes-Ever-Coming-Back.htm
http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/insideisrael/2013/January/Lost-No-More-Bnei-Menashe-Tribe-Returns-to-Israel/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ten_Lost_Tribes
http://moshiach.com/tribes/ns/2.html
http://www.bneimenashe.com/history.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shalva_Weil

Events Leading Up to December 21st

Nadene Goldfoot
According to the Hebrew Calendar, this is the year 5772.  That means that the world was created in 3760 BCE.  The following cultures gave 6,000 years as about the time of existence for our present mankind.

The Mayans had an extraordinary calendar system, better than ours today.  Their date was 3114 BCE for creation.  According to the Hindus, the world was created in 3102 BCE.  The Hopi Tribe of Native Americans have the same sort of history.  They all feel the time is ripe for the end of times; or another calendar.  "Like the Maya, Aztec, and other Native American tribal wisdom traditions, the Hopi tell of a series of 'worlds' which have existed. Each may be thought of as a cycle of civilization. A common aspect is that we are currently in the 4th world.

 The Hopi describe the demise of the other worlds"  They are known to have the Prophecy Rock in Arizona.which goes back 2,000 years.  The first was by volcanoes and fire, the 2nd with a pole shift and the ice age, the 3rd by water which sounds a lot like the story of the flood and Noah's ark.  The 4th or "The final stage, called "The great day of Purification", has been described as a "Mystery Egg" in which the forces of the swastika and the Sun plus a third force symbolized by the color "red" culminate either in total rebirth or total annihilation, we don't know which. But the choice is yours, war and natural catastrophe may be involved. The degree of violence will be determined by the degree of inequity caused among the peoples of the world and in the balance of nature. In this crisis rich and poor will be forced to struggle as equals in order to survive."

2500 years ago King Solomon's Temple was built.  Today it is covered over by a Mosque in Jerusalem built in 691 CE.  Jews have wanted to build a 3rd, for the 1st had been destroyed and a 2nd built on the same spot.  Jerusalem is a sacred city to not only Jews, but the Christians and Muslims as well. Many Christians are all for the Temple being built as it fulfills their requirement to bring on the Messiah they are expecting.  In fact, Jews and Muslims also are expecting their Messiah as well around the same date.  Author Hal Lindsey thinks the Temple could be built next to the Muslim's "Dome of the Rock."  Those interested in this are still looking into a proper site.  Cohens are ready to serve and have been DNA tested for authenticity and have the Cohen gene that shows they are descendants of Aaron, the first priest and brother of Moses.   Moses (1391-1271 BCE) and Aaron were Levites of the tribe of Levi.

This is all very interesting because so many cultures have come to this conclusion using  many different methods.  Now  we again see the end of times being prophesied in the same manner.  December 21, 2012 is seen by many groups as a day that something fierce could happen.  Something like fire could come from the sky.  There is to be an alignment of the planets with the sun in the center on that date that we have never experienced.  It only happens once every 26,000 years.  This comes from the Mayan Indian calendar.

The Dead Sea Scrolls tell us more.  They were found in a cave in Qumran in 1947. That location was in Judah when the scribes lived there near the Dead Sea which is now in the area called the "West Bank."   One one them was the War Scroll that dealt with the end of days.  The creepy fact is that it tells of the final days as fighting the Persians, who are today's Iran, the Mesopotamians who are all the countries east of Israel, and the Assyrians who are today's Iraq.  The sons of darkness are mentioned as Edom, Moab, Ammon, Amalekites, Philistia, and Kittim of Asshur which could be referring to the Romans.

In it, we see Good versus Evil fighting.  There are to be  7 important battles.  People say that 6 have already occurred.  The first could have been the battle of 1948 when Israel was attacked by Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon and Iraq when Israel was created once again.  The Lost Tribes of Israel are to return.  Some people wonder if they haven't already being Jews have returned to Israel from all corners of the world already of which we know for sure that the tribes of Judah, Levi and some of Benjamin are with us. According to scripture, it is they that will be fighting the sons of darkness.

However, if true,some of the sons of Benjamin  have found their way to Afghanistan and Pakistan along with many of the other tribes that were lost and now bear the new name of the Pashtuns.  They are Muslim and are not about to fight on the side of the Jews against their Muslim comrades.  They carry a convincing argument that they are our lost cousins but they hate us as we refused to accept Islam.  They are strong and mean fighters, according to them.  They are someone that the Russians couldn't bring down, so if one uses their imagination, one can easily see them fighting all the adversaries alongside Judah in the conquering of Canaan.  Tall, good looking men with a fierce trigger-happy temper, they haven't changed a bit.

Then again, all this could be relating about events of the days of the writers.  Perhaps it is just accidental that such correlations can be made.  When you think of it, it is amazing that Israel is in existence now and fighting the same old enemies of the past along with all these events coalesing at the same time.

On top of my computer sits a black and blue Y2K Bug.  He has 2 little white tusks and 2 black antennae on his head.  We thought the living end would happen in 2000 and here we are 12 years later about to embark on the 13th.  Nothing happened when we swung into the year 2000 and I'm hoping nothing happens on December 21st.  Are you ready for it?  One thing to zero in on is that all these horrid TV commercials for President will be finished.  Think of that and feel better.

Resource: TV Program, The History Channel-Program: The Nostradamus Effect channel 128 Frontier.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_of_the_Sons_of_Light_Against_the_Sons_of_Darkness
http://dss.collections.imj.org.il/war
http://www.templemountfaithful.org/
http://www.squidoo.com/templejerusalem

Jerusalem and the Lost Ten Tribes of Israel

Nadene Goldfoot
Jerusalem "Yerushalayim." was and is the capital of Israel.  It's located in the center of the Judean Mountains.  It is sometimes called "Zion," which was the name of King David's fortress.  It was also known as the City of David (1000-960 BCE)  .  Poetic names are city of righteousness,   faithful city, city of G-d, the holy city, and city of truth. King David was a warrior.  His son, King Solomon brought in the religious aspects of Judaism by building the Temple.  This city was and still is the most important religious city to the Jewish people.  Jews pray in the direction of Jerusalem.  We are told not to ever forget this city on the threat of losing the use of our right hand.  We are back.

Jerusalem was taken by the pagan Romans in 70CE.  From then on many countries have tried to take it since Christianity placed Jesus in Jerusalem and the area.  In 1099 it was stormed by the Crusaders under Godfrey of Bouillon.  They made it the capital of the Latin Kingdom.  Then in 1187 Saladin, the Ayyabid sultan retook the city for Islam.  Under the Ottoman Empire it decayed. In 1492 Jews were forced out of Spain and many removed to Jerusalem, but their numbers were restricted by the Muslim government.     By the 18th century the population of Jews and Muslims was under 10,000 with most of the city lying in ruins.  The 19th century brought the Aliyote of Russian Jews who had bought land and started building.  By 1838 there were 50,000 Jews from many countries with the population of 68,000.  They were able to bring about a railway line to connect the city with Jaffa by the 1880's.  In 1898 the German Emperor William II visited Jerusalem.  He met with Theodore Herzl who represented the Zionist Organization.

World War I came along in 1914 and the population fell to 50,000.  December 1917 found the city occupied by General Allenby of the British Army.  British were given the Mandate to rule the land. that had been under the Ottoman Empire called Palestine, named by the previous Romans.  Jewish immigration in 1946 caused the population to reach 165,000 of which 100,000 were Jews.  Fighting broke out between Muslims and Jews.  The Arab Legion shelled and starved the Jews living in Jerusalem but the Jews didn't surrender to them.   May 15, 1948 saw the re-birth and establishment of Israel once more.  By 1949 the government and Knesset were transferred to Jerusalem.  I note that King David and King Solomon's Israel was far larger than today's extremely small Israel.

East Jerusalem held the homes of Muslims.  The city was divided into 2 parts from 1948 till 1967.  East Jerusalem had been under Jordanian domination.  June 5, 1967 was the start of the Six Day War when all the neighboring Arab states attacked Israel and lost.  Jordan had bombarded the city. The whole city came under Israeli control.  The first thing Jews did was go to the Western Wall and pray.  They had been kept from this most important site by the Muslims for almost 20 years.

On June 29, 1967, Israel formally united the 2 parts of the city and barriers that had divided them were taken away.  The Eastern part of the city had 139,600 Muslims and Christians and were united with the rest so that the total population in 1990 was 493,500, which is the same population as Portland, Oregon..  The Jerusalem Law of 1980 extended Israeli sovereignty over the whole city.  This brought many updates to the Arab section.

Israel has 1.4 million Arab citizens today.  There are plenty of mosques throughout the state.  In Jerusalem, starting on November 8th of this year at the Edward Said National Conservatory of Music is a month long "Nights of Tarab" celebration as part of an Arab Jerusalem Festival.  I have one of Edward Said's books.  He was a Muslim fighter against Israel.  Here we see the only Democratic country in the Middle East truly practicing democracy.  I hope the Muslims appreciate the state they live in safely.  While the Muslim Gazan terrorists  are shelling southern Israel's Jewish communities, there are Muslims that are enjoying  living in Jerusalem.

The fight continues with Muslims from many countries threatening to take Jerusalem, Iran and her neighbors being among them.

 From the time of King David who died in 960 BCE to losing 10 of the 12 tribes of Jacob to the Assyrians from 721-715 BCE, we see that 239 years after King David died, we lost our 10 tribes, taken from us by force. which means the children of Zilpah and Bilhah the handmaidens, and Jacob's 2nd wife, Rachel.  Leah, the first wife of Jacob and sister of Rachel  was the mother of 6 tribes.  Out of those, only Judah and Levi remained.  Reuben, Simeon, Issachar and Zebulun were most likely part of the kidnapped group as well.  Judah was the largest of all the tribes that remained.

 We read from the prophecies of Ezekiel,  who lived in the 6th century BCE and probably served in Solomon's Temple before its destruction in 586 BCE what is foretold for the Lost Ten Tribes and the Jews.  .  He was one that was exiled to Tel Abib on the river Kebar in Babylonia where he prophecied for about 22 years from 592-570 BCE.   In   Ezekiel  37:16, our 37th prophet,  which associates the final Redemption with the reunion of the whole House of Israel, I read:  . "Now you, Son of Man, take for yourself one piece of wood and write upon it, "For Judah and for the Children of Israel, his comrades; and take one piece of wood and write upon it, "For Joseph, the wood of Ephraim and all the House of Israel, his comrades.    Then bring them close to yourself, one to the other, like one piece of wood, and they will become united in your hand.  ....Thus said the Lord Hashem/Elohim:  " Behold, I am taking the wood of Joseph which is in the hand of Ephraim, and the tribes of Israel, his comrades, and I am placing them and him together with the wood of Judah;  and I will make them into one piece of wood, and they will become one in My hand."

"Behold, I am taking the Children of Israel from among the nations to which they have gone;  I will gather them from all around and I will bring them to their soil;  I will make them into one nation in the land, upon the mountains of Israel, and one king will be  a king for them all;  they will no longer be two nations, and they will no longer be divided into two kingdoms, ever again.  ....I will purify them;  they will be a nation to Me,  and I will be a G-d to them.  My servant David will be king over them, and there will be one shepherd for all of them;  they will follow My ordinances and keep My decrees and fullfill them.  They will dwell on the land that I gave to My servant Jacob, within which your fathers dwelled;  they and their children and their children's children will dwell upon it forever;  and My servant David will be a leader for them forever.  I will seal a covenant of peace with them;  it will be an eternal covenant with them...then the nations will know that I am *Hashem/G-d Who sanctifies Israel, when My sanctuary will be among them forever.  

 Jews have been awaiting this time, and so the reports have come in from all over of finding them.  Eldad Ha-Dani reported them in the mountains of Africa.  Benjamin of Tudela heard of them in Central Asia.  David Reuveni claimed to be the brother of one of their rulers in some region of Arabia.  Antonio de Montezinos stimulated Manasseh ben Israel's political activity in  England with reports of finding them in South America.  Japanese and Anglo Saxons were thought to be them.  Finally it was thought that some were still in "Palestine" or assimilated, or absorbed by the last Judean exiles in 597-586 or were deported to an area  earlier such as Media, Assyria and Mesopotamia.  Today we see the Pashtuns of Pakistan and Afghanistan claiming descent of the Lost 10 Tribes.  Being Muslims, they are found to side with Iran in their hatred for Jews but with the desire to take their very teeny country.  What would  Ezekiel say to all this?  How are we ever going to be reunited peacefully?

* Jews do not want to over-use the word "G-d"  so use "HaShem" which means in Hebrew: "the name".  In respect, the orthodox do not even write out the word but use the dash instead of the o.

Re: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=xU9CauJP4Pg#! on Jerusalem
The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia on Jerusalem
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/vie/Jerutoc.html  Jerusalem
Tanach, the Stone Edition; Torah, Prophets, writings
Update: 6/14/16 http://www.israelrising.com/the-pashtuns-are-the-tribes-of-israel/?utm_source=fb-pashtun-tribes&utm_medium=post&utm_campaign=lost-tribes

JEWISH YEAR OF 5772-5773: Our History Back There With Persia (Iran)

Nadene Goldfoot                                                              

Update:
I wrote this article in 2012 for our Jewish New Year, and the leading problem then for Israel was IRAN.  Today, June 7, 2018, it is still the same problem, only this time Iran is in control of Syria and the Hamas terrorists of Gaza causing rockets to be fired into the Golan and the fields of Israel to be burned by kites on fire floating across the fence between Gaza and Israel.  

Ahmadinejad is no Cyrus the Great.  He's the big bully in the schoolyard that pokes fun at the little kid with glasses, calls him every name under the sun including throwing rocks at him, then runs home to Mama to say that the skinny little kid started it all.

In 2005 Ahmadinejad called Israel a tumor and a cancer, and now a vampire, just three of hundreds of derogatory names.  He has threatened Israel verbally and physically with an atomic wipe-out by building  secretive atomic facilities  and the threats to go with it like-"we'll wipe you out". He supplies the very people who attack Israel with weapons.   On Yom Kippur he told the whole General Assembly how bad Israel was and how they deserve such an end, which will come very soon.  It's as plain as day; Iran has been threatening Israel with total destruction while all along continues to build atomic facilities to manufacture such weapons.  He is using the UN to "spout paranoid theories and repulsive slurs against Israel"
                                                                           

Blowing the Shofar on Yom Kippur
During the synagogue service and at the end of this Day of Atonement

At least the USA had the good sense to not attend and listen today, on Yom Kippur, the most  solemn holy day for Jews when they ask G-d for forgiveness of their sins and are repenting. The USA didn't listen to his rhetoric along with Israel.  Others walked out on him.  Most of Europe sat and listened to Mr. A say that Israel would soon be eliminated.
                                                                               

Netanyahu reminded people that history shows that those who wanted to wipe us off the map failed and that the Jewish people overcame all obstacles.  Israel's goal is to prevent Iran from achieving nuclear weaponry.  Netanyahu's role is not to let the Holocaust happen again and have the 6 million Jews of Israel incinerated a second time.  You see, we've been burned once, and are not about to stick our finger into the fire again.  We know what can happen.  

Ahmadinejad, a man who just might have a few segments of Jewish genes himself, seems to know very little history of his own country, thinking it's been around since the mammoths 10,000 years ago.  Jews have been in existence right along with them since it was Abraham, (2nd millinium BCE)  a citizen of Ur "Iraq"  who created monotheism and is father of the Jewish people. Yet Mr. A tells his people that Jews have only been in the Middle East for the past 60 years.  We're like the swallows of Capistrano, Mr. A.  We're returned home to those who never left.  I doubt if history books are allowed in Iran, so it's possible his people wind up swallowing his lies.
                     

David

                                                             

Solomon

We'll skip to about a thousand years later to the Jewish King Solomon (961-920 BCE)  who built the first Temple in Jerusalem. His father was King David who developed Jerusalem.

Along Came the Assyrians

Hoshea of Israel in 726 BCE, last ruler of Israel,  tried to throw off the yoke  that led  to Assyria's King Shalmaneser V's siege of Samaria and his imprisonment and its capture in 721 BCE by his successor, Sargon, king of Assyria (721-712 BCE).  .  Sargon annexed the country and deported 27,290 Israelites to Assyria and Media who cooperated with the Babylonians in the 6th century BCE and replaced them with Syrian and Babylonian prisoners.  Manasseh of Judah was exiled to Assyria in 652 BCE.  Then Assyria declined quickly and was succeeded by Babylon.  Sargon was assassinated.  Sennacherib took over.
                                                                           

Then Came the Babylonians

  Nebuchadnezzar (634-562 BCE) exiled the Jews of the ancient kingdom of Judah to Babylon in the 6th century BCE.  The first time was in 597 BCE when they sacked the Temple and took many of the leading men.  Babylon was dependent on Assyria.  Nebuchadnezzar had attacked Egypt in 601 BCE which led to rebellions, including Judah and that's how he captured Jerusalem and kicked out King Jehoiakim, afterwards destroying the city and temple and deporting not only the best of the men but other prominent citizens and parts of the Jewish population of Judea to Babylon.
                                                                     

Persians in the Act                

Cyrus II of Persia (Iran) lived around 600 BCE to 530 BCE and was the founder of the Achaemenid Empire, creating the largest empire the world had yet seen.  He only reigned for 29 to 31 years, but respected the customs and religions of the lands he conquered.  He set the model for centralized administration and a working government to the advantage and profit of its subjects.  The Jews called him the "anointed of the lord" or the Messiah".

He is remembered for his achievements in human rights, politics, military strategy, and his influence on both Eastern and Western civilizations.  He came from Persis, which would be the modern day Iranian province of Fars.  His influence even went as far as to Athens, where they enjoyed a reciprocal cultural exchange.

Cyrus overthrew Babylonia in 537 BCE.  He allowed the Jews to return to their native land.  More than 40,000 returned.  Previous Assyrian and Babylonian rulers had not allowed the monotheistic Judaism to exist, but he did.  He even ordered the rebuilding of the 2nd Temple in the same place as the first, but died before it was finished.  Darius the Great, his replacement, saw that it was finished.  It was ready for consecration in the spring of 515 BCE, more than 20 years after the Jews' return to Jerusalem.
                                                                               

We know from the book of Esther that Haman, the forerunner of Hitler and Ahmadinejad,  was an Agagite noble and vizier under the Persian King Ahassurerus, known to the general public as Xerxes the Great (son of Darius the Great) in the 6th century BCE.  Haman and his wife, Zeresh, instigated a plot to kill all the Jews of Persia, and it was a huge empire then.  They might have well said the whole world.  The plan was stopped by the beautiful Queen Esther, who was married to the king. She and her uncle Mordecai were Benjamites.   Haman and his 10 sons were hung as a result.  Jews have celebrated every year since then with their happy holiday of Purim.  At that time, there were lots of Jews living right in the capital of Shushan.

But today there are very few left.  Many have immigrated to Israel, the USA and abroad.  About 30 some years ago a group of Jewish lads escaped out of the country on camels.  A few were shot.  It had become irrepressible to be a Jew and live in freedom in Iran.  In 1989 there were only 20,000 remaining there.

Ahmadinejad seems to love to stick it to Israel as to what horrors will happen to them, definitely mental cruelty.    He should be told about what happened in Queen Esther's day.  He wants to be the big shot and get rid of all the Jews and Israel so that Israel can become a totally  Islamic land.  Then he'll be the big savior to all the Middle Eastern Muslims and have the Western powers at his knees as dhminnis states.  They just might be next on his list.  Well, Haman probably had the same scheme.  He didn't get very far. Since Israel has combated his threats with warnings of taking out their atomic plant, he is sure yelling about it, just like the bully on the playground in the UN today.
                                                                               

Queen Esther and her son, King Darius

It's interesting that the 50-60 million Pashtuns of Afghanistan,  Pakistan and India claim descent from the tribe of Benjamin, Queen Esther's tribe and the other lost 10 tribes,  and that their respected countries are very close to Iran.  In fact, the Pashtun language has some Persian qualities in it as it belongs to an eastern Iranian language group from Avestan, the oldest preserved Iranian group, maybe from Queen Esther's day.    Their people are  fair-skinned and the men are outstanding fighters known for their good looks and height.  It could be that they were right there in the city of Shushan right along with Queen Esther and Mordecai, but had become  the Lost 10 Tribes of Israel later.

Book:  The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nebuchadnezzar_II
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyrus_the_great
httP://news.yahoo.com/netanyahu-promises-tough-response-ahmadinejad-181532401.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahmoud_Ahmadinejad_and_Israel
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/ahmadinejad-tells-un-uncivilized-zionists-are-threat-to-iran-us-boycotts-address/2012/09/26/738d12a6-0800-11e2-a10c-fa5a255a9258_story.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pashto_language
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FhaUVmYBXD0  Netanyahu's speech today at General Assembly