Iran, Sponsor of Terrorism and an Atomic Bomb: Kerry Eased Up Sanctions

Nadene Goldfoot                                                                            

                                Mohammad Javid Zarif in Geneva, Switzerland

So far, the Obama Administration has "promised us a Cadillac but delivers us a 3 speed bicycle with 2 flat tires".  It's hard to tell where we have arrived with Iran at this point in time on this bicycle pedaled by John Kerry, but you can bet your booties that Israel and Saudi Arabia are not happy with it at all.   John Kerry doesn't seem to mind that.  However, "while the U.S. has welcomed the moderate statements by Rouhani, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said in a meeting with Netanyahu last week that no deal with Iran was better than a bad deal.

The negotiators  nodded positively to Iran to lift for 6 months some financial sanctions that have crippled the Iranian economy.  "Ah, fellas, we really didn't mean to do that!   So sorry."  After all, Iran has only threatened 100 times to drive Israel into the sea,  Israelis being only apes and pigs and such like saying they had no history in Israel at all.  Whatever is bothering Israel about their rants and ravings? The negotiators think they have reached a deal to curtail Iran's nuclear program and expand inspections in exchange for  lifting sanctions, which was keeping them from getting to their goal in the first place.  Wasn't it Obama that assured Netnayahu that they were standing together in this?  Obama wasn't going to let Iran get the uranium power?
                                                                               

                                             Baroness Ashton

Saudi Arabia joins Israel in their worry about a Shi'ite power threatening their Sunni position in the Middle East.  For some reason, John Kerry, Secretary of State of the USA and Javed Zarif, Iranian Foreign Minister are telling us that this will keep the Middle East from exploding into military action and that now there will be no nuclear standoff.

There has been this international demand that Iran halt the expansion of its uranium enrichment program.  We have had a freeze on the installation of new centrifuges.  They are high-speed machines that produce low-enriched uranium for power plants and highly enriched uranium for nuclear warheads.  It's the evidence that Iran would dare to make an atomic bomb and drop it on Israel that goes along with their vile threats because they dared to return to their lands.

So after putting in only 5 hours, ending at the late hour of 11:30 pm, Kerry, Zarif and the Baroness Catherine Ashton, the EU's chief foreign affairs official, had had it.  Goodness knows what they were doing before to wipe them out or where they went afterwards.   The meeting took place in Geneva, Switzerland at the EU's Mission to the UN.  Their days must start at a late hour.
                                                                         

They thought they would end the evening with a simple signing ceremony and see now that talks must continue next week!  They have been disagreeing over Iran's building a plutonium reactor which would lead to an atomic bomb.  This interim accord they want to reach just hasn't got there yet, and they've already said they'd lift these sanctions.

There was a time when Jews loved Iranians.  It was back in the days when Babylonia had conquered Jerusalem and had taken thousands as prisoners and hauled them to Babylonia in 597 and also in 586 BCE.  Then along came our Prince Charming, Cyrus, II who died in 529 BCE, King of Persia, who conquered the Babylonians who had power over the old Israel and Judah.   He took on an enlightened policy towards his subject peoples and in 538 BCE, granted permission to the Jewish exiles of Judah living in Babylon to return to their homeland and rebuild their Temple.  The Jews thought of him as a divine person and loved him for this.  Persia was the home of Jews who lived throughout its 127 provinces and many had lived in the capital, Susa (Shushan) from the 4th century BCE onward.  The Babylonian Talmud was written here during Persian rule.  Our history of the beautiful Queen Esther being married to King Ahashueros of Persia is celebrated in Purim every Spring when it was she who saved all the Jews in the world from total extermination from the mad Haman, the king's advisor.  I've even read that Cyrus could have been the son of Queen Esther.  Maybe it was Cyrus Ist.

WWI changed much of the Middle East with the Ottoman Empire losing along with Germany.  It also affected Persia where the British, Ottomans and Russians occupied it in 1910 before the war even started.  Reza Shah became King of Iran in 1925, establishing a new name along with his new government.

Jews fared well under the Shah, but not afterwards when he was exiled by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in 1979 .  Life for Jews in Iran started to change with the Khomeini revolution in 1978.  Many felt very uncomfortable under the strict Islamic regime which he established  and left for Israel and the west.  Their numbers went from 80,000 in 1978 to 20,000 in 1989.  I know of some teen-aged boys who had to escape on camels during this period as they were not allowed to leave, so I doubt if you'll find any Jews speaking out against the regime today.  Living under an Ayatollah is a fact.  The president takes orders from him.  This is a religious state with a population of more than 76,923,300.  Iran is bigger than Texas.

Kerry is not a man from the shuks (outdoor markets where bartering is the rule).  He doesn't know how to bargain like a Middle Easterner.  He was putty in Zarif's hands, and probably Zarif used his charm on the Baroness as well.  I can only imagine as I wasn't there, but what a setting for a movie.  He isn't thinking about Hezbollah, who hit our Marine Barracks in Lebanon in 1983,  and that Hezbollah is funded by Iran.  For the past 30 years this has been going on and they are now strategic partners with Iran.

These 3 negotiators think that they have solved a problem of Israel bombing Iran's uranium center. By easing the sanctions that did touch the nerve centers of Iran, they have eased up to give them just what they wanted; wiggle room.  During the next 6 months, Kerry thinks he can get a requirement that Iran will disclose their full history of their nuclear program that they have managed to keep secret for 18 years.  Why should they ever do that?  Where's the carrot to offer? They've got it!   We're giving them what they want.  They'll be free to secretly build now without economic worries.  Kerry can wait for another 18 years and won't see anything but what they will allow the USA to see.  They're big shots, now.  They have stared down the big powers and got the sanctions lifted with one negotiator before midnight.

This is changing the balance of regional power and is taking away the Sunni Muslim power in the Middle East and giving it to the Shi'a. Look what they just accomplished!   This means that Hezbollah will have a freer hand with more finances coming from Iran.

Does anyone remember the war in 1980's between Iran and Iraq?  That was Sunni and Shi'a.  It was pretty gruesome.  It started in September 1980 and ended in August 1988. Iran had become a power with an Ayatollah and the balance had changed.

Reference:  Oregonian newspaper, 11/9/13 page A7, Experts:  Benefits outweigh risks in Iran nuke deal., bky Roy Guktman, Hannah Allam and Jonathana S. Landay, McClatchy Newspapers
New Jewish Encyclopedia
http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/30-years-terror-sponsored-iran-article-1.1493410
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran%E2%80%93Iraq_War
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/173328#.Un62ndKOQ8o
http://amanpour.blogs.cnn.com/2013/11/18/bad-iran-deal-will-lead-to-war-israel-minister-warns/added 11/21/13 Amanpour interviews Natali Bennet, Economy minister, about Iran sanctions 

Are the Karaites Jewish?

Nadene Goldfoot                                                                         

Karaites  were Jewish people living in ancient Israel who followed the Torah along with all the rest of the 12 Tribes and others. They consider themselves following the original form of Judaism.  It is possible they were members of the Saducees.  Most all Jews  were dispersed at the fall of Jerusalem in 70 CE though some were not rounded up and taken as slaves and remained.  The earliest appearance as a sect of Judaism was in 1177-1187 CE by Rabbi Petakhya from Regensburg who met them in "the land of Qedar.  This could have been somewhere in eastern Europe.

They have been found in Constantinople/Istanbul, the Crimean, Asia Minor, the Balkans, Syria (Damascus) Cypus, Moslem Spain (Toledo), Ukraine, Poland and Lithuania. The Palestinian and Egyptian centers of Karaites surpassed those of Persia and Babylonia.  Part of this was because of lenient marriage regulations adopted in the 11th century superseding strict rules by Anan and the early Karaite scholars.  Anan Ben David of the 2nd half of the 8th century was perhaps not the  founder of the sect of Karaites, but was with a similar group that joined the Karaites.  He was the oldest son of the Babylonian exilarch and learned in Jewish law but followed one of the messianic sects then prevalent in Babylon.  His younger brother, Hananiah,  then was chosen  by the caliph in about 760 CE  as head of the academy.   Because they were found in  the Pale of Settlement (Ukraine, Poland and Lithuania), I become very interested as my grandfather came from Telsiai, Lithuania and we consider ourselves as Ashkenazis with the DNA haplogroup of Q1b1a, which is 5% of the Jewish population.

The Palestinian Karaites (those that remained in Israel and Judah after 135 CE) were austere, and settled in Jerusalem and adopted the custom of the Avele Zion who mourned for the Temple and prayed continually for redemption.  The Diaspora communities accepted the authority of the Jerusalem scholars.  Karaism was checked in the 12th century.  There was a verbal dispute in Spain that lasted for 150 years when Judah Ibn Ezra in Castile suppressed the Karaites.  They were also weakened in Palestine by the Seljuk Turks and the Crusaders.  Maimonides curbed the Karaite activity in Egypt.  Leadership of the Karaites then went to people in Constantinople, Adrianople, etc. where scholars added more literature.  By the 12th century, Karaism arrived in Lithuania.  It was found in Troki in the 13th century and Volhynia (Luck).

.  From early times in Israel there had existed a tradition of interpretation and analysis of the Written Law of Moses, and this was handed down orally from generation to generation, as each improved upon understanding the statements.  Thus, no one can say that our religion is "old" or stagnant.  Each time it was updated for better understanding and to fit in their contemporary society.  However, with the Karaites, they felt it was up to each person to interpret the law on his own.

Evidently when Assyria attacked Israel in 721 BCE and then Babylon followed up in 597-586 BCE, many Jews eventually found themselves living in Persia along with Queen Esther.  When Jews returned to Israel from the Babylonian Exile, it was most important that they retain knowledge of their descent and history.  Not only for historical reasons, but also this served as status in their society which affected their relationships with other prominent families, like the ruling House of David.  Jews who had assimilated with non-Jewish neighbors while in Babylon, something not often happening, found that their lineage was thought suspicious especially if they had been a member of the priesthood, the Cohens.  This is referred to in the Book of Ezra.

Judean Jews intermingled with previous exiled Israeli Jews from Assyrian times in Babylon. Their leaders were from of the Davidic dynasty.   Jews were able to return to Israel when Cyrus gave them permission.

During the 2nd Temple period of 538-515 BCE, the Oral Tradition handed down was upheld by the Pharisees and supported by the majority of the people, but it wasn't recognized by the Saducees or the Essenes who had developed their own interpretations of the written law.  When the Temple was destroyed in 70 CE, the Pharisaic view won out.  Students would study the Oral Law in many academies.  Then parts of the Oral Law were finally recorded so as not to be forgotten.  Thus, the Mishnah was compiled by Rabbi Judah Ha-Nasi.

The very discussion about the laws were recorded later as the Talmud (Gemara).  During the Gaonic Period, the Karaites rejected the Oral Law and denied the validity of the Talmud.  The Gaons were the intellectual leaders, often with power of the Babylonian Jewish community in the post-Talmudic period from the 6th to the 11th century CE.  They were the heads of the academies.  At the end of the 9th century, the academies of 2 different groups moved to Baghdad.

Conventional Rabbis avoided confrontation with the Karaite group until Saadyah Gaon who died in 942 CE attacked them violently and sought to exclude them from the Jewish community.  Various groups closed their ranks and united.  This caused the Golden Age of Karaite literature in both Arabic and Hebrew, producing much writings.  The Gaon failed in his act and much intermarriage continued.  Karaites studied with rabbis and were influenced by them.

 Thus, we find the Vilna Gaon in Lithuania (Elijah Ben Solomon Zalman 1720-1797), a Talmudist. We know he traveled in Poland and Germany, finally settling in Vilna, Lithuania.   He was one against the Hasidism spreading in Lithuania.                            
                                                                           

When the Russians annexed Lithuania and Crimea in the 18th century, Russian Karaites received privileges and rights from the Czars which were denied to the Rabbanites.  The Russian Revolution cut off the Crimean Karaites from others.  350 Karaites survived in WWII in the Crimea and the Russian 1970 census showed a population of the USSR at 4,571 .  In 1991 Troki had 288.  Many from Jerusalem and Damascus had moved to Egypt and then in 1948 they moved back to Israel in Matzliah and other places.  In 1990 Israel had 25,000 Karaites.

Karaites doctrine is conservative and more stringent than rabbinical teaching.  They forbid levirate marriage and all Sabbath illumination and is stricter on laws of purity. That means that  sexual intercourse is encouraged for married couples for Shabbat by Rabbinites, while it is forbidden by Karaites.  They have different laws of ritual slaughter which prevents inter-mingling with the Rabbanites.  They do not celebrate Hanukkah as that is a post biblical historical event.  They don't use tephillin or mezuzot.  Their own Oral Law has evolved with time and sometimes is the same as rabbinical tradition.  The only big difference we Ashkenazi or Sephardi Jews have with them is the sanctity of the Oral Law.  Their literature deals with practical observances and doesn't discuss ethics and metaphysics, with the exception of Aaron ben Elijah who was influence by Maimonides.  Anon abolished the afternoon prayer but he said this was from the post biblical period inserted by the Rabbinites.  He wrote prayers from biblical verses.

Intermarriage between Karaites and Ashkenazi Jews rarely happened, especially not in the Austrian Empire.  Some did take place  in the Russian Empire and Soviet Union.   Examples show marriage contracts with special clauses to fit a Karaite-Rabbanite marriage.  A few converts went over to Karaism, most likely with the wife converting.   The rule of being Jewish with Karaites is through the father which used to be followed by Rabbinical Judaism until the 4th century BCE.  Some men from both communities had a special inherited title added to their name.  Cohen shows a descent from the priests who served in the temple in Jerusalem.  Levi is the name of the tribe who served the priests.  This would be found in both groups.

Eastern European Karaites were found who spoke a Turkic language.  It is thought that perhaps they descended from one or more Turkic-speaking tribes who had converted to Karaite Judaism like the Khazars or Kipchaks.  I know that my grandfather b: 1871 in Telsiai, Lithuania, spoke Yiddish and had a Yiddish-German surname of Goldfus, so he wasn't a Karaite, though could have had a few of their genes.   "DNA study has led us to conclude that they also descend in part from ethnic groups that lived in the Byzantine Empire and in Asia. They may have small amounts of Western European and Caucasus region ancestries (the Byzantine Empire at times included portions of those regions)." Brook.  Today, Karaites are a very small minority, and most Rabbinical Jews do not even know that they exist.

Resource: The Genetic Signatures of East European Karaites
by Kevin Alan Brook, Leon Kull, and Adam J. Levin http://www.khazaria.com/genetics/karaites.html
The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia 
http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/9211-karaites-and-karaism
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crimean_Karaites
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karaite_Judaism
http://www.karaite-korner.org/
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Judaism/Karaites.html
http://www.karaites.org/
Corrected .  

Babylonians (Iraq) Couldn't Get Enough of Jews: Wanted More and More

Nadene Goldfoot 

 King Solomon was the son of King David of the tribe of Judah  and King of Israel about 961-920 BCE.  He and the Temple made news, probably causing other up and coming Kingdoms to covet their land and property.  The Queen of Sheba came to visit and was most  impressed.    This Queen of Ethiopia claimed to have returned home pregnant by Solomon.  Many Ethiopians have immigrated to Israel today, claiming descent.  They were practicing Judaism of the ancient days.  

Tiglath-Pileser III-Assyrians Take The Jews First

Ten of the 12 tribes of Israel were taken by the Assyrians a century before the Babylonians decided to take Judah and Jerusalem and almost all of the Jews that lived there.  We had 12 sons of Jacob that made up 12 tribes; Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Zebulun, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Asher, Joseph and Benjamin.  The tribe of Judah, the largest, was not taken.  Most of the others were deported in 732 BCE and then again in 720 BCE.  They were taken for needed manpower to service their expanding realm.  They were exploited people.  Then the Assyrian kings wanted them to assimilate and enforced mingling of the populations and their Assyrianization.  They managed to empty conquered areas of their original population and replace them with deportees from elsewhere.  This was also done in Samaria after the Israelites were uprooted.  

Today we are confronted with Afghanistan, Pakistan and parts of India's large Pashtun group  who claim to be from  the Lost Ten Tribes of Israel.  They are claimants who have converted to Islam but many continue to show traces of Judaism in some ways.  

Nebuchadnezzar  Continually Takes Jews

Babylonia conquered Jerusalem in 634 BCE which was a part of the Kingdom of Judah and took many of the Jews.   597-598 BCE saw deportation of 3,023 Jews to Babylon.  Babylonia is today's Iraq.  Ezekiel, the prophet was a captive with the others.  They were hoping for a speedy return to their homes and were from the leading families.  In 586 BCE Nebuchadnezzar destroyed the Temple built by King Solomon in the kingdom of Judah and again more Jews were deported to Babylon.  Then the deportees had to follow the words of Jeremiah and figure that they were in exile for a long time.    821 inhabitants of Jerusalem were deported.  Nebuchadnezzar ordered another deportation of 745 Jews in 582-581 BCE.  That makes 4,600 Jews in all had been deported to Babylonia.  King Jehoiakim (reigned 608-598 BCE)  had renounced his allegiance to Babylonia, which was a bad move.  His son was King Jehoichin (reigned 598-597 BCE ) , who was only 18 and had been a king for only 3 months when he was taken captive to Babylonia.

Nebuchadnezzar took the best treasures of the Temple and palace and sent them to Babylonia.  Along with Jehoichin as captives were his wives, 5 sons, mother, servants, eunuchs and thousands of the chief men of the land.  This was recorded when he was only 23 years old.  This young royal was treated quite well according to the cuneiform tablets found in Babylon around the fabled "Hanging Gardens of Babylon" area.  He was able to retain his royal title while there.  It sounds like what royalty who  have lost their country do so today as well.

Judah fell in the 2nd exile in 586 and Zedekiah (597-586 BCE) , another son of Josiah (637-608 BCE) , though swearing fealty to Nebuchadnezzar, planned an insurrection, bringing about a siege that lasted for 1 1/2 years.  Nebuchadnezzar tried to starve the inhabitants of Jerusalem by circling it with a wall.  Zedekiah and his companions were caught.  They forced the king Zedekiah to watch them kill his sons, and then they put out his eyes.  He was taken to Babylon.  On August 7 the Temple, royal palace and all the homes in the cityof Jerusalem were set on fire.  The survivors were taken to Babylon as captives.  70 or 80 distinguished Jews including the high priest Seraiah were sent to Riblah and put to death.

Another 3rd deportation of Jews occurred after the 13 year siege of Tyre.  (585-573 BCE).  Nebuchadnezzar kept a standing army in Syria.  Judah's Jewish governor, Gedaliah, had been murdered.  By 582-581 BCE another partial deportation to Babylon took place.

In total, more than 36,00-48,000 Jews were taken in exile then.  The total population of the Kingdom of Judah was figured to be about 120,000 or higher.  About 1/4 of the population or less were led captive into Babylonia.

Started in 538,  a 2nd Temple was finally built by 515 BCE by the Jews which included today's Western Wall, which is a remnant of it. This is because the Persians' Cyrus II in 537 BCE had sent 40,000 Jews back to Eretz Yisrael.  In other words, he freed them.  Cyrus had conquered Nebuchadnezzar.   The exiles had returned by 519 BCE after being in another exile of 50 years by Babylonia.

Cyrus of Persia Sends Jews Back Home

The Persian Empire was so big in those days that Jews lived in 127 provinces of the Persian Empire.  Many stayed right in Shusha (Shushan) and were living there with Queen Esther who was married to Ahashueros (King Xerses).  Her son was Darius, the Persian.  He's the one who authorized the Temple's completion.

The Babylonians resettled many nations in their land, not just Jews.  Of those who took up the offer of going back home to Zion organized themselves.  Those whose families were connected to the Temple in Jerusalem were able to identify themselves as priests, singers, gatekeepers and temple servants in planning the rebuilding of the Temple.  Others organized themselves in towns of origin of their families.

Those that remained in Babylonia were the only group to preserve their identity and way of life.  They survived for 2,500 years and were a spiritual center for Judaism.  It's where the Babylonian Talmud was written.  Many people of Judah moved eastward during the Roman period to escape severe drought and famine and wound back up in Babylon as well.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ten_Lost_Tribes

Reference: Tanach, Stone Edition
Jewish Encyclopedia: The Babylonian Captivity http://www.bible-history.com/map_babylonian_captivity"map_of the _
Jerusalem Post article Monday, July 20, 2009:  Whatever happened to the Jews exiled to Babylon?  http://jewishrefugees.blogspot.com/2009/07/whatever-happened-to-jews-exiled-to.html

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

Iran's Tenacles Reaching into Syria

Nadene Goldfoot
Right now the UN is meeting to discuss how to handle Iran, and it's taking many meetings to decide how they should act about this country's production of uranium enrichment which can be turned into atomic warfare.  While they are meeting, Iran continues to produce freely.

The Iranian army also continues to ship arms to Syria which is in violation of the UN Security Council.  Just this past year 3 shipments are known to have been made from Iran, 2 of which went to Syria and the other to the Taliban terrorists in Afghanistan.  Syria is going through their own Civil War fighting against the autocratic regime of Bashar Hafez al- Assad, 47 year old doctor.  Syria is the 17th largest country of Muslim population with 90% being Sunni and Shi'a with 22,505,000 people.  Their "Free Syrian Army" (FSA) is fighting against the Shi'a Hizbullah as well as the nation's army who remain loyal to their president. Hizbullah is the terrorist organization out of Lebanon from 2006 who are armed by Iran through Syria.   Assad had taken over from his father, and has already run twice and won. He doesn't believe in democracy and hates the USA and Israel.  Don't they all.

Once a long time ago, about 330 BCE,  King Ahasuerus of Persia stopped the plot of killing all the Jews made by Haman.  It was Queen Esther who helped to save her people.  Since the fall of the Shah, Israel has had reason to again be wary with the entrance of the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, born in 1902 who made a splash in 1979.  

 For years Israel has cautioned countries about the nuclear ambitions of Iran.  Ali Khamenei, born in 1939,  told the Spanish president in 2000,  Jose Maria Azner,  that Israel must be burned to the ground and made to disappear from the face of the Earth, and he meant it literally. He is the one who endorsed Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.   He also called Israel a historical cancer and an anomaly.  Russia wasn't worried about what Iran was up to and figured that Israel would take care of it.

I see that Israel certainly is a threat to these large monarchies.  It's the only democratic state in the Middle East, and is the light to all those under subservience living in such a state.  It is dangerous.  They see Western democracy being practiced and other Muslims living under it and enjoying freedoms they never had.  The United States has also been seeping ideas into peoples heads through music and movies and maybe even "facebook".

The anomaly is that these states are allowing the Muslim Brotherhood to take the place of the dictators.  The problem is that the population is conditioned to be of one mind, to do as they are told.  They haven't learned to think for themselves as we have in a democracy.  They're trading one misery for a worse one.  When you have a dictatorial father, you obey and just learn to take orders and not think beyond the scope.  .

Jews in Israel come from not only Israel as natives or "Sabras" but from all over the world.  They've had exposure to life and have still been able to maintain their religion and culture.  That is indeed an anomaly.  Along the way they've also picked up a lot of facts and survival skills as well.  They bring about competition in fields the surrounding nations have not even thought about.  This teeny country has the sting of bees, but they also produce honey.  After all, Israel has always been the land of milk and honey.  When attacked, they have the audacity to finally attack back when complaints go unheeded.  When treated properly, it is more than reciprocated.  We await the results of the UN meetings.  Is Israel going to be backed and defended?  More than that, will its attackers ever realize that they need not wipe out Israel to live an enjoyable life?

Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bashar_al-Assad
dailyalert@list-dailyalert.org of Arutz Sheva
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hezbollah
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruhollah_Khomeini
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ali_Khamenei
http://www.tnr.com/article/politics/khamenei-vs-khomeini

One Lone Jew Left in Afghanistan with the Taliban: Can They Be Related?

Nadene Goldfoot
After a 2,500 year history of living in Afghanistan, we have one Jew left there.  All that were there have emigrated, mostly to Israel, Pakistan and the USA.  Zablon Simintov, b: ca1920 has remained and cares for the run-down synagogue in the capital of Kabul.  Sympathetic Muslims and Jews around the world send him aid.  I'm glad to see that there are kind Muslims with the Taliban operating from there.  This is a hot spot, as of yesterday, the USA has had 1,740 soldiers die there since the Afghanistan War that started October 7, 2001. 

Zablon had a Jewish friend, Isaac Levy, also born ca. 1920 until he died in January 2005.  Simentov is alone amongst 30 million Afghanis.  He's trying to recover a confiscated Torah.  A man, a Taliban member,  had stolen it, now in US custody in Guantanamo Bay.  His wife and 2 daughters live in Israel.  Simentov ran a store selling carpets and jewelry until 2001.  He and Levy had lived in opposite ends of the synagogue and didn't like each other, winding up in Taliban jails. 

The Taliban are fundamental Sunni Muslims made up mostly of the tribe of Pashtun.  They dominate much of Pakistan by terrorism and want a puritanical caliphate.  They don't like democracies and feel they are an offensse against Islam.  Their brand of religion is close to Saudi Arabia's form of Wahhabism, though differs.  They are even stricter in following their Sharia law.  Al Qaeda supported them by importing fighters to help their cause.  They were the ruling political party in Afghanistan but have been replaced by Operation Enduring Freedom in 2004 with President Hamid Karzai who has been influenced more by the USA. 

The Taliban are opening a political office/mission in Qatar in order to negotiate over the endgame in the Afghan war.  Karzai agreed to this a week ago.  Karzai is interested in talking about reducing tensions rather than a comorehensive solution to the war.  Qatar's religious leader, Qaradawi, hates Jews.  He's the main leader of the Muslim Brotherhood and the Emir of Qatar's great friend.  Both men have been doing a lot to reach out and be most friendly and influential  with groups in the USA. 

It is believed by many Muslim and some Jewish scholars that the exiled Lost Tribes of Israel had settled here. They made up the largest ethnic group in Afghanistan, now the 2nd largest in Pakistan.  This would be the Pashtuns.  This theory was written in 1612 The History of the Afghans  by Nimat Allah al-Harawi.  I'd love to see them take dna tests through familytreedna so we could find out their deep history. 

How can the Pashtun tribe who is now the Taliban have a Jewish history and have become the most strict of all Islamists?  This is indeed wild.  They are a wild terrorist group that think nothing of killing.  The USA entered a war on 7 October 2001 and 1,742 soldiers have died.  USA has soldiers in NATO, and out of 566 troops who died, 418 were Americans.  8 NATO troops just died in 3 attacks in southern Afghanistan on the 5th and 6th and 4 of them were Americans  The US-led NATO command is slowly handing over responsibillities to the Afghan government. The Taliban is still strong in the south, like in Kandahar, where trouble began in the 1990's.  Roadside bombs are the usual method of killing soldiers. 

At any rate, Jewish history can be traced back to the Babylonian Exile and Persian conquest with records of a Jewish population going back to the 7th century (when Islam started) with the Tahqat-i-Nasiri that mentioned people called Bani Israel settling in Ghor. 

It is claimed that "Kabul" is deried from Cain and Abel and the name "Afghanistan" from Afghana, a grandson of King Saul.  Historians V. Minorsky, W.K. Frazier Tyler and MC Gillet say that "afghan" appears in a 982CE book called Hudud-al-Alam, with this reference. 

   Saul, a pleasant village on a mountain has Afghans living in it.  This village probably was near Gardez, east of Ghazni in afghanistan.  The book tells about a village near modern Jalalabad where the local king had many Hindu, Muslim and Afghan wives. 

Benjam in Tudela in the 12th century counted 80,000 Jews living there and in 1080, Moses ibn Ezra mentioned 40,000 Jews paying tribute to Ghazni.  Then Genghis Khan invaded in 1222 and reduced the Jewish communities to isolated groups.  In 1839, the population increased by receiving refugees from Persia and had a population of 40,000 again. 

By 1948, 5,000 Jews lived in Afghanistan, and were allowed to emigrate in 1951.  By 1969, 300 Jews remained but left after the Soviet invasion of 1979, leaviing only 10 Afghan Jews there in 1996, just enough for a minion in Kabul.  Probably there are 10,000 Jews residing in Israel with Afghan descent.  More than 200 families live in New York City.  However, Zablon is in no hurry to leave. 

Resource: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Jews_in_afghanistan
http://middleeast.about.com/od/afghanistan/ss/me080914a.htm
Oregonian newspaper page A3; Taliban's Qatar move may signal peace talks
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/talking/79_Qaradawi.html and all my references on Qaradawi in this jewishfactsfromportland. 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taliban
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/vjw/Afghanistan.html
http://www.jpost.com/LandedPages/PrintArticle.aspx?id =251913 Scrolls raise questions as to Afghan Jewish history by Gil Shefer
Oregonian newspaper 1/7/12 page A5  8 coalition troops killed in 3 attacks