Jews in Arab Lands: Then and Now

                                                                          

                            Ofrah Hazah, singer from Yemen

At one time there were 100,000 Jews living in Iran. Persia, as it was called, was the home of Queen Esther or Hadassah, who was married to King Ahashuaros. It was she who saved her people by telling her husband of the plot of Haman to kill all the Jews. She had to expose herself to her husband who did not know that she was Jewish in order to do this. The brave woman readied herself on a diet of seeds and nuts for three days in order to approach him on this delicate subject, no doubt to fit into that special dress. 

   My favorite singer in Israel from Yemen, Ofrah Hazah

Today there are about 11,000 Jews left in Iran. In my own family, a cousin's husband escaped from Iran on a camel in order to leave the country.

Algeria had 140,000 Jews and now less than 100 remain.

Egypt had 75,000. I taught in the same school as an Egyptian Jewish gal in Israel. She was teaching English. Today there are less than 100.

Iraq had 150,000 Jews, much to my surprise, although Ur is in Iraq. This is the ancient city where Abraham was born and had left. By 2009 there were about 35 Jews remaining there.

Lebanon had 20,000 Jews. Now it has less than 100.

Libya had 38,000 but now has none.

Morocco had a whopping 265,000 Jews. The heads of our English Department in Safed were from Morocco. Michelle loved Paris and had clothes from her mother from there. Many Moroccans lived in Safed. Today there are about 5,500 Jews there.

Syria had 30,000 Jews. Today they have less than 100.

Tunisia had 105,000 Jews. Today they have about 1,500.

Yemen was the home of 55,000. Today there are about 200 left. I believe this had been the home of my favorite Israeli female singer, Ofrah Hazah. She became very famous in Israel, and fell upon sad times by dying from drug overdose. I was heartbroken. She was such a wonderful and young singer.

Israel declared itself a state in May 1948 with the blessing of the U.N. Immediately war broke out causing 800,000 Jews to be forced to leave Arab countries where they had been living for two millennia. They moved to their new country of Israel, ready or not, as their native country had turned against them.

Living in Israel was not easy for them. These Jews had to compete with Ashkenazi Jews, many of which were more educated. The army duty was a place where all were treated the same and became a place of integration. Many of the towns these Jews came from were quite primitive, so they had cultural changes. Now we see that this new melting pot is doing quite well.

Resource: Stand With Us's Pocket Facts of Israel

Jews Traveling TO the Ukraine To Rav Nachman

Nadene Goldfoot                                                                  

                                                      
Why would anyone brave traveling today with all the terrorists trying to blow up planes and go to of all places, Ukraine?  It's in the middle of a war between Russia and Ukrainian rebels.  If you happen to be one of New York's Breslov Chasids, you might be going there to make an annual pilgrimage.

Who was Rav Nachman to deserve such respect and daring?  His grave is in Uman, Ukraine.  He was born on April 4, 1772 and died on October 16, 1810 at the young age of 38.  Reb Nachman was the grandson of the Baal Shem Tov.
                                                                         

Now, who was the Baal Shem Tov?  He was Israel Ben Eliezer, born in 1700 in Podolia gubernia, Ukraine and died in 1760 and the founder of Hasidism.  In 1735, because of miraculous cures that he performed, he became known as the Baal Shem or Baal Shem Tov.  That means the master of the Divine Name, a title given to men who had the power to work miracles by using the Divine Name.

Rav Nachman had quite a grandfather to follow.  He managed to breathe new life into Hasidic movement by combining Kabbala with in-depth Torah facts.  He attracted thousands of followers during his lifetime and his influence continues to this very day. As a child, he followed the path of asceticism and prayer.  He warned his followers not to abuse themselves physically,  and emphasized having their life full of joy and happiness.  His famous saying is "it is a great mitzvah to be happy."  We can all adopt that one and benefit greatly.  I wonder if the flower children of the 60's weren't trying such a philosophy.

There are now many Hasidic movements besides the Breslov.  His religious philosophy was around the closeness to G-d and speaking to G-d in normal conversation "as you would with a best friend."  Tevia, in Fiddler on the Roof" written by Shalom Alecheim, did this.  This concept called hitbodedut is central to his thinking.  

Rebbe, as he was a Rabbi, was born in Medzhybizh, Ukraine.  Now, Jews went to Ukraine in the first place in waves from Khazaria, the Caliphate of the Ottoman Empire and Byzantium between the 9th and 12th centuries and then again from Central Europe in the 14th and 15th centuries.  Then they came also from Poland in the 16th and 17th centuries.

There were terrible massacres there during the Chmielnicki and Haidamak uprisings in the 17th and 18th centuries.  In the 19th century the Jews came from Galicia and White Russia.  Ukraine was always an anti-Semitic center and the scene of many pogroms in 1905 and from 1918 to 1920.  The soviet government in the 1920's promoted Jewish settlement in the Ukraine using funds of the American Joint Distribution Committee in the regions of  Kalinindorf, Zlatopol and Stalindorf.  By 1930 there were 90,000 Jewish agriculturists there.  About half of Soviet Russia's 3 million Jews lived there before WWII, but under Nazi rule, the Jews were wiped out by the Germans and Ukrainians fro 1941 to 1942.  Jews living there in 1970 numbered 777,126 and by 1989 there were 484,129.

This year in pilgrimage it is estimated that between 2,000 and 3,000 Breslov chassidim will go to Uman from the USA and that about 20,000 to 30,000 will travel there from Israel.  There they will visit the gravesite.  They like to be there for the high holidays of Rosh Hashana, and at Chanukah and Shavuot.  It's because this was when Rav Nachman delivered his formal lessons to his flock.  On the last Rosh Hashana of his life, he stressed the importance of being with him for that holiday in particular.  That's why this annual pilgrimage began.  Uman is 400 miles away from the fighting, so they are not too worried.  Security has been stepped up in Ukraine.

One of the strange occurrences involving the Rav happened in 1800.  Rebbe Nachman moved to the town of Zlatopol and the townspeople invited him to have the final word on who would lead Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur prayer services.  A man was chosen to lead the final prayer service of Yom Kippur, the Neilah.  This man did not meet the Rebbe's approval.  Out of the blue, the man was struck dumb and forced to step down, causing him great embarrassment.  Rav Nachman explained after the fast ended that the man's true intentions were not good and the man was so angry about what was said that he denounced Rebbe Nachman to Rabbi Aryeh Leib of Shpola (the Shpoler Zeide), another prominent Hasidic rabbi.  This started a nasty campaign against Breslov Hasidism.  Well, even rabbis are human.

Being my family came from Lithuania and were closer to the Vilna Gaon (Elijah Ben Solomon Zalman 1720-1797) who practiced Mitnaggedim Judaism (the opposition to Hasidim) , we were not involved in Hasidism in those years.
                                                                           

However, I moved to Israel in 1980 and settled in Safed, in the north close to the Syrian border.  There was a large cemetery there of many famous Rabbis.  A story was told by my friend, Dov Silverman, who put this story into a book he published about when he was walking guard duty on the outskirts of Safed, he had as a partner, a Hasid of the Breslau sect of Hasidim.  The Hasid pointed to a hill on the left of the Safed cemetery and said, "See that hill?  Under it are buried 10,000 tzaddikim.  When the Messiah comes from Meron to Safed, they will all rise and go with him to Jerusalem.
Dov asked when that would be?
                                                                                     

"When our Rabbi moves to Safed and lives opposite Mt. Meron where the famous Rabbi Bar Yokhai and his son are buried," he answered.
Building was already in progress to house the Rabbi and his followers in Safed, located opposite Mt. Meron.  By the time I moved there, I could see it clearly at night in the beautiful black Safed .night-time sky loaded with twinkling stars as it also was lit up with lights.
The word in Safed was that  the time was soon to come; some stretched it to be within the next 200 years.

References: The Jewish Press
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nachman_of_Breslov
The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
Legends of Safed by Dov Silverman
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/Nachman.html

Syrian Injured Find Aid in Israel

Nadene Goldfoot                                                                    

When Syria's Civil War started, their government  of Bashar Hafez al-Assad made it illegal for their doctors to give medical care to anyone suspected of supporting the opposition.  Many of their doctors have been targeted for death and have been attacked.

Reports estimate that more than 15,000 Syrian doctors, which is half of their profession there, have fled Syria.  60% of their hospitals have been destroyed.

In Aleppo, which used to be the major Jewish city, there used to be 1,171 doctors in their government hospitals, part of a very good medical care system that was cheap for the citizens.  Today these same doctors are in rebel hands with only 292 left.  Jews left in 1992-94, helped by Judith Feld Carr. Jews were not a part of the population at large but were confined in a Jewish quarter.  They probably weren't allowed into the medical profession of Aleppo.

In eastern Ghota outside of Damascus,  30 doctors of 1,000 are left.  All other medical personnel have fled.  Their medical facilities have been targeted for attacks by both the government and the rebels.
                                                                             

Word was out that Israel was giving medical care to Syrians,  and hundreds of injured have gotten to their border for treatment, and are never turned away.  The war has been going on for 3 years and Israel not only has been providing medical aid but go into refugee camps in Jordan where 600,000 Syrians are held which has put a great strain on Jordan, who haven't recouped from their previous Iraqi refugees, and give aid.

 Combatants and civilians streamed over in IDF ambulances to get to the Western Galilee Hospital and Ziv Medical Center in Safed and even further to Haifa for help at Rambam Hospital, which is the army hospital there.  They also have taken in the injured near Tiberias at the smaller Poriya Hospital.

Doctor makes claim after UN report shows child casualty rates in Syria are the highest recorded in any recent conflict in the region

Israel opened a new neuro-surgical department, the only one in northern Israel a year ago. A few months after opening, they saw that 20% of their patients were Syrians.  250 were war wounded with horrendous trauma like head injuries showing attempted execution-type shootings and attempted machete beheadings.  One patient had his whole lower jaw missing and couldn't talk of course and couldn't   write to communicate because he was illiterate.  His jaw took 17 hours of surgery with medical experts from all over Israel to rebuild his jaw from a part of his leg bone.  They have also treated women and children, civilians injured in the war.  Doctors have found that snipers deliberately shoot children in the spine.
                                                                               
The Syrians are Israel's enemies.  They have been told that Jews are the devil, Satan.  They are taught to hate them, but they must have been desperate and realized it was their own people who had harmed them, so how much more could the Israeli's show harm to them?  When they opened their eyes after surgery, they looked like they were in shock, but it only took a few days before they felt comfortable and were at ease.  Israel makes sure that there is an Arabic speaker available for them at all times.

It was the chief military medical officer of the IDF Northern Command that requested the Israeli doctors to treat Syrians at this particular hospital, but the head man, Dr. Masad Barhoum, a Christian Arab, said it was natural for him to accept the request.  "We have to do this," he told the reporters.  "It is our professional privilege and it is our moral obligation.  They've had to see 120,000 die in Syria already and know that people   are homeless being their homes have been bombed and crushed that are now suffering from disease and injuries without being able to get treatment.  "What we are doing is a drop in the ocean.  I thank G-d I have the opportunity to treat these injured."

All Israelis are reflecting the morality of the Jewish people.  The surprise is that Assad, president of Syria, is also a doctor, an eye doctor.  His value system for life is quite different, however.  His values center on punishing people who disobey him.  He is most vindictive.

This was brought out being he is an Alawite, a branch of Islam that is not accepted by the Muslim Brotherhood whose headquarters were in Homa.   Assad's family are a minority group.  This is the way Lebanon also rules, with the Christian minority.  When Assad took over on November 16, 1970, the Brotherhood began to plan for his overthrow.  The guerilla war started in the late 70's and bombs went off outside of Syrian government building.  Soviet advisers and members of Assad's ruling Baath Party were shot in attacks or taken hostage.  Assad responded with the same style, abductions and assassinations.

He was the main target and on June 26, 1980, the Muslim Brotherhood members threw 2 grenades at him and then opened fire.  He survived with a foot injury when he kicked away one of the grenades.  So he has no heart for rebels.  An election was held last week and of course he won.  He'll be reigning until 2021 now.
                                                                         

1980-85: My Safed apartment came with bars on the living room windows as we were on ground floor.    That was to deter terrorists from entering and attacking.  

During the 1982 Lebanon-Israel War, I was living in Safed in the northern Galilee and was teaching English right across the street from the Ziv Hospital/Medical Center where I sought treatment a few times.  My 9th grade boy students were asked to help out in the hospital with their skills of speaking Arabic and English, languages of the enemy that were also patients there from the war. We could hear the helicopters land on the hospital roof, and the children would hover in corners fearing they were bringing in their fathers or brothers who were called into the IDF during this period.   They came back after their shift and told me that they had seen things kids their age should never have to see, in telling about the injuries they witnessed.  They learned the hard way what war was all about.

Israel's religious learning is that of feeling that life is precious, valuable, and that means all life.  The toast is L'Chaim, to Life.  Many many Jews seek to become doctors, and indeed there are many among our people.  Here they are, threatened by Arabs who had a nuclear facility ready to use against them in Iraq, and even now have missiles pointing at them from Lebanon and Syria with threats to take over the Golan recently coming from Assad, and they are caring for their  unwanted, their injured, and making them whole again.  All this has to be done quietly so that their patients will not be murdered for having sought treatment when they return to Syria.

The estimate is that about 1,000 Syrians have entered Israel for medical treatment.  About 450 were treated at the army field hospital.   At the same time, Israel has been hit by Katyusha rockets fired into northern Israel from Lebanon by Hezbollah, and they wind up protecting these patients along with everyone else.

Resource:  Magazine: The Jerusalem Report, June 16, 2014, Treating the Enemy by Judith Sudilovsky
Book:  Messages From a Syrian Jew Trapped in Egypt, p. 4,5., by Nadene Goldfoot
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/syria/10697943/Israeli-doctor-treating-Syrians-says-snipers-deliberately-shoot-children-in-the-spine.html
Book: Letters From Israel, by Nadene Goldfoot

Israelis Saving Lives of Syrians

Nadene Goldfoot                                                                          

                                                                                    Ayatolla of Iran

                                          Hallway in Rebecca Sief Hospital in Safed

The Ayatolla of Iran and other leaders  repeatedly call Jews viruses, monkeys, apes and other hideous adjectives in their brainwashing of their followers to hate or feel disgust towards the Jews and their Jewish state of Israel.  Naturally, the whole Middle East seems to be reflecting this same attitude.  Abbas refuses to accept Israel as a Jewish state.  Jews are unacceptable to his Palestinian ideals, a state, if it reaches fruition, to be devoid of all Jews, truly a real apartheid state.
                                                                           

          Doctor at Ziv Hospital attending Syrian woman injured in Civil War

Yet, the teachings of Moses permeates in the Israelis who live by the credo that life is important, not death.  They have helped 200 Muslim Syrians who have dared to cross the border into Israel seeking medical help over these last 9 months.  The 200th patient updates the number as of December 25, 2013.  One of the latest was a very pregnant mother in labor who managed to get to Safed where her son was born in their Rebecca Sief Hospital, known as Ziv Hospital which serves the upper Galilee and northern Golan with 310 beds.  This was my hospital where I visited several times, being it was on my block where I lived from 1981 to the end of 1985 in binyon (building 213 on David Eleazar Street.)  .  .

These people are grateful that they were given care, the same all the Israelis would receive.  They have returned to their country but cannot tell their friends where they have been for fear of their own lives being threatened there.  However, the word is out.  Go to Israel if you have been injured.  Some even come with references and names of a preferred surgeon someone found was wonderful.  At least these people will not be so apt to believe leaders who curse Jews and want to kill them all.  If they ever get a chance to vote in an election, they may not be voting against Israel.

The hospital is now collecting donations to help purchase medical equipment for wounded Syrians through its website.

Reference: http://www.jewsnews.co.il/2014/01/01/syria-war-victims-saved-by-their-biggest-enemy-israel/ , video from BBC
http://www.safed.co.il/ziv-hospital.html
http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/.premium-1.565365
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XkdMJyuIU5U

THE Land, Ha'Aretz- PALESTINE

Nadene Goldfoot                                                                      

Territories for Simeon, Judah, Dan, Benjamin, Reuben, Ephraim, Gad, Manasseh, Issachar, Zebulun, Asher, Naphtali and Manasseh

Palestine was Jewish land.  It was a basic tenet to Christian theology that the loss of the Jews' national independence was an act of G-d.  It was designed to punish the Jewish people for their rejection of "Christ." Christians felt they had to help G-d so that some emperors' minimal criteria of oppression and restriction of the Jews was always maintained as well as the maximum sort, such as in the Spanish Inquisition of 1492.

Eretz Yisrael (Israel and Judea) was the country of the Jews of which even the size and geography is outlined in the Torah/Bible.  That it was his country was a part of his theoretical exercise, an article of his theology and a sophisticated political feeling.  It was a pervasive and inextricable part of his daily life.

Jewish prayers and Jewish literature are filled with the love and longing for and the feeling of belonging to Eretz Yisrael and has been going on for the past 4,000 years.  It's part and parcel of our DNA.  It's in our soul.  "There is no theme so pervasive in the literature of any other nation," no theme that has yielded so much thought and feeling and expression as the relationship of the Jew to his land in Jewish literature and philosophy.  After all, G-d had led Moses back to the land and through Moses directed the people of the Exodus  where they should settle.

Jerusalem was taken and burned in 70 CE by the Romans.  The Jews' attachment to this land has never wavered.  Though many of the Jews were led away then as slaves, there were others, especially in the Galilee, who had never left.  Jewish life was maintained in the country.

In 135 CE, Simon Bar Kochba led a revolt against the Romans which failed. It had been the fiercest and longest revolt ever faced by the Roman Empire.  There were 580,000 Jewish soldiers that died defending their land.  Many civilians died of starvation and pestilence.  985 Jewish villages were destroyed.

 That was over 60 years after the 2nd Temple was destroyed.  The Romans decided to waste the country then in a determined effort to stamp out the Jewish identity.  They plowed over Jerusalem at the direction of Emperor Hadrian.  Then they renamed it Aelia Capitolina, and Judea was renamed Syria Palaestina.

Banished from Jerusalem, Jews went to the Galilee in the northern section of their land.  Refugees returned.  Jews sold into slavery were redeemed and returned.   There arose some of the most important creativity of the Jewish people when the Mishnah and the Jerusalem Talmud were finished.  Most of the people farmed the land.

The Roman Empire became Christian by the 4th century CE.  Their policy was to stop any spark of Judaism that might show up.  Even so, 43 Jewish communities in Palestine in the 6th century were revived:  12 towns on the coast, in the Negev and east of the Jordan,  and 31 villages in Galillee and in the Jordan Valley were reborn.  National restoration was in the hearts of the Jews.  In 351 they staged another revolt which was put down.  In 438 the Empress Eudocia ended the ban on Jews' praying at the Temple site.

This caused the Jews to think that a period of restoration had finally come and they made an alliance with the Persians who invaded Palestine in 614.  Jews fought at their side and overwhelmed the Byzantine garrison in Jerusalem.  They governed the city for the next 3 years.  The Persians made peace with Emperor Heraclius and Christian rule was reestablished.  This meant that Jews were banished from the city again.  The Byzantine persecution started up again but was short-lived because in 632, when Mohammed died, the Moslem Arab invaders came and conquered the land.  By 640, Palestine had become part of the Moslem Empire.

They ruled for 450 years, first under the Omayyads (mostly all Arabs) who governed tolerantly from Damascus, and then under the Abbasid dynasty (mostly all Turkish) who governed from Baghdad.  So Jews were governed either tolerantly or persecuted and then ruled by the Fatimids from Cairo.  The Moslem Arabs took away lands from the Jews that they had held onto for 20 generations after the fall of the Jewish state.  The Crusaders came after them and had ruled Palestine or parts of it for a little more than 2 centuries and it was they who massacred the Jews in the cities.  Under the Moslems and Crusaders, the Jewish communities of Palestine held on with their prayers and chutzpah and survived.  The Jews had been some of the best fighters against the Crusaders.  When the city of Jerusalem fell, the Crusaders had gathered the Jews up in a synagogue and burned them.  Haifa was defended by the Jews for a month from June to July 1099.  In that year, 1,000 years after the 70 CE fall of Jerusalem, there were Jewish communities that had sprung up all over Ha'aretz (Palestine).  50 of them remain well known, such as Jerusalem, Tiberias, Ramleh, Ashkelon, Caesarea and Gaza.

In 1516 the Ottoman Turks were tolerant and fairly  friendly towards the Jews.  30 Jewish communities were recorded then:  Haifa, Sh'chem, Hebron, Ramleh, Jaffa, Gaza, Jerusalem and many in the north.  Their center was Safed (Tzfat) which became the largest in Palestine and took on the spiritual leadership of the whole Jewish world.  The mystic Caballa was developed.  8,000 to 10,000 Jews lived here in 1555 and the population grew to 20,000 or 30,000 by 1600.  Some of the Galilean villages survived, showing that Jews clung to the land for 15 centuries in succession.  Jews brought in the first printing press into Palestine, and Asia, for that matter.  It was brought to Safed and printed in Hebrew.  Maybe it was their prosperity that caused Sultan Murad III in 1576-77 to deport 1,000 wealthy Jews from Safed to Cyprus, where he needed some economic assistance.

                                          Chronology of Jews in Ha'aretz

1250 BCE    Moses' appointed leader, Joshua, led the 600,000 Israelites into the Land of Israel
1000-922 BCE  King David and son Solomon ruled a united Jewish kingdom in Israel
721 BCE           10 of 12 tribes of Jacob  are defeated by Assyrians and taken into exile, slavery
586 BCE           Babylonians defeat kingdom of Judah and exiled leaders, people to Babylon
539 BCE          Cyrus the Great of Persia sends Jews back to Israel, live and rebuild temple
458 BCE          Ezra leads exiled Jews back to Israel
332 BCE          Alexander the Great conquers Israel
167 BCE          Jewish Maccabees revolt against Greek  Antiochus IV Epiphanes
37-4 BCE        Herod, appointed by Rome, ruled over Judea, works on Temple
70 CE              Titus, emperor of Rome, crushes Jewish revolt
135                  Bar Kokhba Revolt
1096          First Christian Crusade massacre Jews across France, Rhineland, Bohemia on way to Jerusalem
1146                Second Christian Crusade, Jewish communities attacked
1453               Ottomans conquer Constantinople, invite Jews to return to the city
1880-1897      Theodor Herzl holds 1st Zionist Congress for return to Eretz Yisrael, Jews have returned
1904-1914      2nd Aliyah, 40,000 Jews from Russia return to Ha'Aretz, 3rd and 4th aliyote followed
Nov 2, 1917   Balfour Declaration of Jewish National Homeland Declared
May 14, 1948  State of Israel Declared; 600,000 Jews in Population
2013               Israel population :  6 million Jews, 1.7 million Arabs

There is no other people in the world who have maintained their love for their original land as much nor as long as the Jews have, nor has there been a people from the ancient days that have existed for so long as this people maintaining their religion.  Though Judaism has grown along with the generations, the main concept has remained the same.  It is not an "old time" religion but one that is prevalent in today's age along with its people who are  among the most creative and intelligent. Judaism is based on social righteousness.   Jews in Israel continue to cling to their beloved Ha'Aretz; the tiny speck of land of Israel;   the granted 20% of what used to be theirs.

Jews were chosen by G-d to carry out a heavy duty, and only G-d knows how hard they have tried to do this.  They were chosen not because they were the best of all people but because they had such a stubborn trait, a stiff-necked people.  They had been chosen to carry the message of G-d's law to the world, based on the covenant between G-d and Abraham and renewed at Sinai with Moses.  Isaiah described Israel as  those whose sufferings will bring salvation to the world.  One thing we know.  Jews have long suffered in the world.  Israel was said to be a kingdom of Priests and a holy nation.  How many people of the world still scoff at the Golden Rule today?

Resource:  Battleground-fact and fantasy in Palestine by Samuel Katz
Jews and Power by Ruth R. Wisse
The Source by Leon Uris

Atheists-Wanna Rethink? Miracles That Have Come Out of Israel

Nadene Goldfoot                                                                   

Amazing things have happened in Israel.During the War of Independence in 1948, Jews were outnumbered in Safed 10 to 1.  The Jews were also outgunned and out-positioned.  Somehow they were able to route the Arabs which some ascribed to Davidka, a homemade mortar which caused more noise than damage and less accurate than any gun.  Others thought the miracle was the off- season rain that fell during the siege.  The Arabs were sure the Jews had an atom bomb and the rain was the fallout.  Some thought the Arabs saw the rain as a sign from G-d that his hand was against them.

They left expecting to return victorious because their leaders promised this would happen.  Most of them  walked the road of the Wadi Amud and passed the water pumping station built by the British.  They didn't touch it.  Had they blown it up, being victorious would have meant little as the summer was beginning and the populous would have had no water.  They thought they were leaving it for themselves minus the Jews  This pump was still serving the city of 16,000 in 1983.

Safed is in the Galilee close to the Lebanon border.  It's where I lived for 4 plus years teaching English in the junior high on David Elezar Street.

Miracles are listed in the Torah, but I am awed by all the miracles that have happened in our day from Israel.  The very fact of the Six Day War of 1967 (June 5-11, 1967)  is a miracle in itself.  Moshe Feiglin wrote about it yesterday.  He calls this war The War of Miracles.  The reason is that suddenly Israel was attacked by all the Arab nations.  With insurmountable odds, Israel came out of it a winner in Six Days, gaining land they used to own a few thousand years ago.  Jerusalem, the center of our religion, had been divided since 1948.  Part of it still was in Jordan's hands. Israel's Labor Party and the national Religious Party  wasn't even thinking of liberating it at that time.  Moshe Dayan saw no reason.

It was General Avihu Ben Nun, a friend of Moshe Feiglin,  who was a young pilot in 67.  He told him an awesome story.  He, with the IAF were flying low and reached Egypt's airports without being detected which was a miracle in itself.  While they were bombing the Egyptian airfield, a heavy Egyptian bomber about to land surprised him as it came in his sight.  What should he do?  Hit the bomber or stay on target.  He stayed with the mission.  Some other jets chased the bomber but he escaped them.

Much later Ben Nun met a Jordanian who had been the Egyptian air controller at the airport.  As it turned out, Hussein had been told by Israel that if he stayed out of the group action of attacking Israel, all would be well between the two countries and he was going to stay out of it except something strange happened.  When the Israeli pilots were bombing Egypt, The Egyptian President, Gamal Abdel Nasser,  called King Hussein of Jordan  and told him that the Egyptian planes were bombing Tel Aviv and Haifa and asked him if he wanted to lose Jerusalem?  Hussein, checking facts, called the air controller who told him he couldn't see anything and while talking suddenly saw his screen fill up with hundreds of Egyptian planes on their way to Tel Aviv.  He reported this to the king.  What he really saw was Ben Nun and his comrades on their return flight to Israel after destroying the Egyptian air force on the ground.  They now were flying at normal altitude instead of flying low like before.  This phone conversation caused Hussein to enter the war which resulted in the liberation of Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria.

That's not all.  Ben Nun had made the decision to not go after the tempting Egyptian bomber.  Who had been in it?  Only the Egyptian chief of Staff and the entire army command.  That mistake turned out to be the best thing ever.  The pilot had to evade the chasing Israeli jets in so many skillful evasion techniques that it shook the poor Egyptian chief of Staff up and from the plane he ordered his army to evacuate the entire Sinai Peninsula.   The Israeli jets refueled, and then attacked the retreating Egyptian armored forces.  The Egyptians were hastily in retreat mode.

The moral of this story is that Jerusalem was liberated in spite of the Jews and the Arabs.

There are many other examples of miracles. I remember one about an enemy plane overhead and the Israeli gunner 's  gun froze. While he was trying to fix it, another enemy plane ran into the one he had spotted and they both blew up.

 The people of Safed felt a protection for their holy city.  The Lebanese border is only 14 kilometers or 8.6 miles away as a Russian katusha rocket flies.  Terrorists loved to fire them at Safed but usually always fell short and exploded in the wadi.  Once there was a direct hit on an abandoned warehouse and another time one hit the telephone pole.

During the Yom Kippur War from October 6-25, 1973.  a direct hit was on the fuel pumps in the central bus station on the 2nd day of the war.  There was no fire or explosion and the pumps remained workable.  The rocket that entered the air shaft in the only unoccupied apartment building in the block of 10 new buildings caused damage to 2 apartments but no injuries.

What protected the people is thought to be the 7 sons of Hannah of ancient days.  They were killed by the Greeks when the Maccabees started to revolt and are buried with their other on the side of the hill over which the katushas pass.  What they were doing was slowing down the rockets so they fell harmlessly in the wadi.

Dov Silverman told of when he was walking on guard duty on the outskirts of Safed.  His partner was a Hasid (very religious group) of the Breslau sect of Hasidim.  The Hasid pointed at the hill at the left of the Safed cemetery and told him to look at the hill where are buried 10,000 tzaddikim (holy Jews).  The belief is that when the Messiah comes from Meron to Safed, they will all rise and go with him to Jerusalem.
Silverman asked when this would take place.  The Hasid answered that it would happen when his Rabbi moved to Safed and lives opposite Mt. Meron where the famous Rabbi Bar Yokhai and his son were buried.    Building was already in progress to house the Rabbi and his followers in Safed, located opposite Mt. Meron.   Thus they await another miracle.

On Yom Kippur 1973 the people of Safed stood as one.  The Syrians were attacking and had reached within 12 miles of the city.  Elicu Pearl and Silverman had been driving for 3 days Casualties were coming in a steady stream.  They saw some little kids on the side of the road throwing dirt clods under cars on their way to the hospital.  Elicu later told Silverman that they had been keeping the road holes level so the hurt soldiers wouldn't bounce and feel the pain.  Silverman later wrote that on Yom Kippur 1973 the souls of the people of Safed appeared before the G-d of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob to be judged.  They stood as one before G-d, as they stood as one against their enemies.  Both times they proclaimed, "Hear Oh Israel, The Lord Our G-d Is One."

Israel has had to fight for its life after being attacked  in at least 14 different occasions from November 1947 to today; on the defensive for its 65 years.  From 1947 on, the Palestinian Arabs have been offered a state of their own and they have refused each time.  Instead, Israel keeps on getting attacked.  Is it any wonder that Israel is all for the Palestinians to have their own state when they can bring themselves to recognize Israel as the Jewish state and decide to live in peace with her?  Maybe a miracle will happen and they will finally come around to living in  peace with Israel.

Reference:
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yom_Kippur_war.  .
Legends of Safed by Dov Silverman
The Source by James Michener-chapter about the Miracle of Safed
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wars_involving_Israel
Moshe Feiglin website: May 8, 2013 http://www.jewishisrael.org/eng_contents/articles/73/article7340.html
http://www.jewishisrael.org/
http://www.mflikud.com/

Ma'Alot Massacre of 22 Israeli Children

Nadene Goldfoot
On May 15, 1974, 3 armed Palestinian terrorists belonging to the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine but dressed in Israeli uniforms  snuck into Israel at night from Lebanon and  attacked Ma'alot, located in the Western Galilee of Israel, only 6 miles away from the Lebanese border.  It was quite close to Safed, where I lived from 1980-1985.  Terrorists had taken 115 people hostage which ended with 25 dying. 

First they had attacked a van and killed two Israeli Arab women.  Then they entered an apartment building in the town and killed a 4 year old, Eliahu,  and his parents, Fortuna, 7 months pregnant  and Yosef Cohen. Their 5 year old daughter, Miriam, was wounded.  (This is why my apartment in Safed had bars on our living room windows as we were at ground level).  Several more people were killed along the route. 

After this slaughter they headed for the Netiv Meir Elementary School, where high school students from Safed were boarded who were on a field trip,  to take 105 children and 10 adults there as hostage.  This was to demand the release of 23 Palestinian militants from prisons in Israel and 3 other prisoners of which the Japanese Kozo Okamoto was one.  He was a part of the 1972 Lod airport Massacre.   Otherwise,  they would kill the students.  6:00 pm that same day was the deadline.   Students were forced to sit on the floor at gunpoint, looking at explosive charges near them. 

 The deadline could not be met, so the decision was made for the Golani Brigade to storm the school.  The terrorists had killed 22 children and 3 adults with grenades and automatic weapons during the takeover.  68 were injured in the melee.  In the end the 3 terrorists were killed.  The children were buried in Safed.  10,000 mourners attended.  Seven years later I taught English at the junior high in Safed while my husband taught in the high school.  Some of the teachers had been students in the massacre.  No one forgot as the cemetery is a reminder.

Last week the Palestine Authority (PA) TV broadcast tributes to these same terrorists (DFLP).  They glorified the terrorists as "Martyrs,".  They have been doing such things all along with honoring these same terrorist group last year as well.  They actually glorify the ma'alot massacre of murdering 22 children when they were in school!  This happens to be the anniversary of DFLP's founding, so broadcast such vileness 10 times just last week.  These "Heros" were in a collage which showed the 16 pictures of the men with their weapons.  What they called "Operations in northern Palestine" is in truth "terror attacks in northern Israel."

This is the type of morality these terrorists exhibit.  Knowing where their minds are, how can there be any Americans or Europeans, for that matter, that side with them and praise them?  Does this mean that most of the world thinks as they do? 

Ilana Turgeman, Rachel Aputa, Yocheved Mazoz, Sarah Ben-Shim'on, Yona Sabag, Yafa Cohen, Shoshana Cohen, Michal Sitrok, Malka Amrosy, Aviva Saada, Yocheved Diyi, Yaakov Levi, Yaakov Kabla, Rina Cohen, Ilana Ne'eman, Sarah Madar, Tamar Dahan, Sarah Sofer, Lili Morad, David Madar and Yehudit Madar and one unknown were high schools students killed in this attack.

Resource: http://palwatch.org/main.aspx?fi=157&doc_id=6520
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ma'alot_massacre

The Seven Ghosts That Have Protected Safed

                      A katusha rocket fired from the Golan Heights by Syria  hit this kibbutz school and destroyed the kindergarten.  This is the first picture of the Yom Kippur War showing Nathan Fendrich of Eugene, Oregon with a child looking at the damage. 

Nadene Goldfoot
 I lived in Safed, Israel  from 1981 to the very end of 1985 and taught English at the local jr. high.  The Lebanese border is only 14 kilometers  or 8 miles away as a bird flies.  Kiriat Shimona lies the closest to Lebanon and has the department store that I loved which reminded me a little of Meier & Franks.  We drove up there occasionally and also visited the "Good Neighbor gate."

The terrorists periodically had fired Russian katusha rockets from Lebanon.  They almost always would fall short and explode in the wadi.  One time there was a direct hit on an abandoned warehouse, and another time one hit an electric pole.  As I was driving up to Safed for the first time, I learned that a katusha rocket had fallen just two weeks before behind one of the apartment buildings we had just passed by.  It was then I realized that I was in dangerous territory. 

During the Yom Kippur War from October 6th  to 25th in 1973, the katushas  landed a direct hit on the fuel pumps in the central bus station on the 2nd day of the war.  There was no fire, no gas tank explosion and the pumps remained workable.  The rocket had entered the air shaft in the only unoccupied apartment house in the block of 10 new buildings.  It damaged 2 apartments but nobody was injured. 

The legend is that the 7 sons of Hannah, who were killed by the Greeks at the beginning of the revolt of the Maccabees slow down the rockets so they fall into the wadi without causing any damage.  They are buried with their mother on the side of the hill over which the katushas pass. 

In 167-166 BCE The 7 sons of Hannah refused to commit idolatry when ordered by Antiochus Epiphanes to eat pork.  This was the time of the Macabees who rebelled at the time this happened.  Because they refused, they were terribly tortured and then executed.  Hannah had a chance to save her youngest son but didn't, and then died after he was executed. What they died for was the preservation of Judaism.  This story has become a favorite of Christians as well, who have built shrines in many parts of the world in their memory and that of their mother, who they called Salome, but Hannah in Hebrew.

Living in Safed, I was so grateful for having these wonderful 7 sons and their mother protecting us.  I knew they would stop any bombs coming our way.    The cemetery in Safed dates back 2,000 years.  A very old book with a map in it of the ancient burial ground was found in 1945.  The site had been covered over by rubble from an earthquake.  The Ari, Caro, Alkabetz and others are also buried there.  Who could not be protected with such souls in our cemetery? 

We remember the Maccabee revolt with our holiday of Chanukah. 

Resource: Legends of Safed by Dov Silverman page 73
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yom_Kippur_War
Jewish Encyclopedia p. 615
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0008_0_08365.html

A Doctor Caught Throwing Rocks in Safed

Nadene Goldfoot
You usually hear of young teen age boys throwing rocks at the Israeli soldiers, but just now I read about a 28 year old doctor at my old hospital in Safed indicted with three other men for throwing rocks at young IDF soldiers.  This happened on the Palestinian celebration of Nakba Day, and this is how they celebrate.  This is the commemoration of Israel's winning the war in 1967 when surrounding Arab nations ganged up on Israel in a huge attack and to the Arab's utter horror, the Israelis surprised everyone by winning in 6 days!  The consequenses weren't what the Arabs had in mind at all.  It was that Israel gained all of Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria. 

I lived in Binyon 213 on David Eliazar Street.  Across the street was the junior high where I worked and down my street was the hospital where I had been a patient several times.  During the war of 1982 all the men of Safed were called into service in the army and we women filled their shoes somehow.  I taught more during that time, or tried to while my students curled up in fetal positions in corners and under desks worried to death about their fathers, uncles, brothers and cousins in the army.  My big effort for the army besides being with the students was to bake cakes for the soldiers who were getting to their appointed bases.  Cake and coffee stands were set up in the streets for them.  They were sure to enter the war on a sugar high, I thought. 

My students would panic when they heard the helicopters overhead bringing in injured to the hospital.  Whoever was injured, Israeli or not were taken there.  My 9th grade boys acted as interpreters for the hospital as they take classes in Arabic and English, and some were also native Arabic speakers.  They found that English, which I was teaching, was the language they could all use. 

To think that an intelligent mature medical doctor would do something like aim to maim or kill is just disgusting .  Dr. Mahmoud Mahmoud really disappoints me.  I have this idea of doctors saving lives, not taking them.  Being he is living in Israel, and is one of the million+ Arab Muslims that are citizens, I suggest he move out into the other Muslim states since he doesn't like us.  He has so many other choices to live in.  Or could it be that Palestinians really aren't so welcomed in the other states? 

People may think this is like the native American flexing his rights with a bow and arrow against the calvary but it's not that way at all.  First of all, the IDF are not shooting at them first.  They are there to guard citizens in their own country against bodily harm from rioters.  Rocks thrown by these seasoned throwers can kill.  Just get hit in the temple and see what happens.  We've already seen soldiers with busted legs from rock throwers during that past few weeks.  All the other Muslim countries are rebelling because they do not live in a democracy and have decided that they want to, and the Palestinians are in a democratic country and are rebelling because it's Israel and not Palestine.  I have news for them.  If the small section of land that Israel sits on had all been Palestine, they wouldn't be living in a democracy.  It would be like all the other surrounding states.

Resource:  http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/israeli-medical-resident-arrested-for-naksa-day-violence-1.368080

Israel's 1948 Fight For Birth and How Abbas Left Safed

Nadene Goldfoot
Abbas,  leader of Fatah in Judea and Samaria,  finally decided to tell his friends the real story of how his family came to leave Safed in 1948.  They were afraid of retribution for their killing of Jews in previous years, most likely in the riots of 29 and so they left quickly.   This riot happened on August 29, 1929 when 18 to 20 Jews were killed and 80 were wounded.  The Jewish street had been looted and burned as well.   What he had been telling everyone was that the Arabs had been forced out in 1948 , which was not true.  Safed had been designated as a Jewish city by the UN in their division of land, so the Jews had good reason to defend it. 

Americans may be thinking that the only reason that Israel has won its wars is because of American aid which has been extremely necessary, but I think we have had help from above as well.  There have been some outlandish situations with the outcome in Israel's favor.  Here's one of them.

Many times the Arabs of Safed had rioted against the Jews there because they had been incited to do so by their leaders.  The riots of 1930's were very brutal with much killing.    When Britain had the mandate, the Jews there had to seal themselves into a concrete building with enough food to last until the British authorities got around to coming and rescuing them.  Jews had been in Safed we know since Josephus in Roman days as he mentioned it, when it was called Sepph. Being the country had been ruled by King David, it most likely was in existence then as well.   It's mentioned in the Talmud and in the days of the Crusades.  A fortress was built there by the king of Jerusalem, Fulk of Anjou in 1140 AD.  It was then Templar property in 1168 and destroyed by the Baybars in 1266.  By the 16th Century it was a rabbinical and kabbalistic center.  Rabbi Isaac Luria and Joseph Caro lived here and L'cha Dodi was written then. They experienced epidemics that killed many.   A great earthquake happened in 1837 so that by 1845 there were only 400 people remaining.  In 1948 there were 12,000 Arabs and 1,800 Jews; a ratio about 12:2.    By 1990 there were 16,400 Israelis, and I was one who left there at the end of 1985.  It's a great summer resort as it's high up at 2,720 feet and is has an art colony. 

In 1948 the Jewish defenders of Safed were few in number.  There were two men and a 14 year old boy in a trench in front of a reinforced concrete building and the only  arms they had were one pistol, a sten gun with a broken stock and a few grenades.  Two of them were pleading with the Haganah commander for reinforcements when they heard the first shots fired in the battle for Safed.  They met up with more than a dozen armed Arabs and the older man just froze.  The  14 year old pulled the pins on his 2 grenades and threw them.  Then the three  turned around and ran, thinking they would be shot in the back when Hamous, the largest man on the Safed Defense Force ran toward them.  He had ammunition and weapons in his pockets and belt.  The two grenades had killed most of the group of armed Arabs and the others got away.  Hamous had picked up the weapons of the deceased.  Thus the four fighters held their position until the Palamach fighters came.

The Arabs were attacking here by the concrete building with many fighters because they thought the money and jewels the Jews had were in the  building  hidden for safekeeping.  One can see the walls are pocked with bullets so that you can imagine the battle that went on.

The birth of Israel was accompanied with much labor pain involving  fighting, and that fighting was miraculous.  It wasn't missiles against slingshots and rocks.  Israel had help of a higher power than man.   To me it's a miracle that the few Jews were able to win against so many Arabs, but this is only one of the miraculous events that happened.  . 

Resource: Legends of Safed by Dov Silverman, writer/school principal friend of mine in Safed
The Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1929_Safed_pogrom

Abbas Covers His Tracks When Speaking About Safed, Israel

Nadene Goldfoot
When I saw that Benny Morris, well-known historian and professor of history at the Middle East Studies Department of Ben-Gurion University, was writing about Abbas and Safed, I was very interested.  I lived in Safed from 1981 to the end of 1985 and learned a lot about it as I was teaching English at the junior high on David Eleazar Street.

Prof. Morris tells that when Mahmoud Abbas, leader of Fatah,  was 13 he was "forced " and "driven" out of his home in Safed by the Zionists.  To his friends on July 6, 2009 he told the true facts;  that  his family ran out of Safed on their own because they feared Jewish retribution for a massacre they had committed against the Jews 20 years before.  Prof. Morris comments that the Haganah troops entered on the 9th and 10th of May 1948 and there was no expulsion.

In Genesis 1948 by  Dan Kurzman we learn that there was a British General in Haifa, General Stockwell, and when Haifa fell, the British decided to help the Arab Legion reconquer that city after their troops had already departed.  The General liked to drink whiskey a lot and celebrate with the Jews, and he drank tea with the Arabs of Safed in eastern Galilee which he also commanded.  He told these Arabs that he was going to cooperate with the Haganah capture Haifa.  All the time he figured the Arabs would take Safed.  So he offered to turn over major strongholds to the Arabs when the British withdrew from Safed.  He told them not to attack the Jews until the British withdrew on April 16th.  Syrian Col Adib Shishekli agreed.  The deal was that the Arabs would have to permit British intervention in the fighting if the Jews requested it, and they had to treat the Jews humanely when they captured the town.  Oh, yes, Shishekli promised.  The Colonel  didn't care that Safed was to go to the Jews under the UN partition plan, but after all, there were only about 1,500 Jews to the 12,000 Arabs and the Jews couldn't win.  He had it all figured out.  The stubborn Jews would ask the British to mediate a truce agreement and then they would give Safed to the Arabs.

 The story goes on but after 14 hours of shelling and battle, peace came to Safed with the Jews holding out and like  the Jews had forewarned their Arab comrades, a unit of Palmach soldiers came through the Arab blockade to help the Jews of Safed.  The leader was 30 year old Yigal Allon.  The story is never boring.  Unknown to the Jews, the Arab Liberation Army units had left Safed right after the British did with only about 20 soldiers remaining to support the local Arab fighters.  The Arabs wound up under seige and surrendered.  In the rukus, an Arab man told a Haganah officer that 6 days ago he was with his wife and children in Syria and knew nothing about Palestine and then they came and asked me if I wanted 30 pounds and a white woman.  I said, "Yes, of course, and so I came here to Palestine."  He looked up and saw a Jewish female soldier standing there listening and then added, "Now I see my first white woman--just before I die.  The world is made of!@#$ I tell you."  She looked at him and then told the officer not to touch him, and cried.  After that the Arabs escaped and every other Arab in Safed had fled the town.

The refugees of Safed went down the road and came to 3 large parked cars.  Mayor Kaddoura asked the men in the first car  what they were waiting for.  They answered that they were waiting for Haj Amin (the Mufti) to guide him into Safed.  The mayor could hardly keep from laughing. 

My Hebrew teacher was a native of Safed.  She spoke English very well, I suppose because of the British soldiers there.  James Mitchener lived there while he was doing research for his book, The Source.  She was the lady who sent material secretly to the Russian Jews in Russia to learn Hebrew.  It was against the law to do this.  Well, people who are against our good Jewish people never do well, do they. 

Abbas is the man we are to work with and yet he doesn't tell the truth about his history or the history of Safed to people who need to know the truth.  Knowing he was making up a story must have bothered him to finally be honest with his friends, but it doesn't do any good in  making his people  stop hating Jews.  The British were such devious overseers, manipulating everyone to their liking and feathering their own nests.  They sold the Jews out and found they really didn't know them at all.  With all those Arabs, I find it wonderous that they had Syrians in command and had to lure other Syrians in to help with the fighting against Jews. 

 Resource: from Daily Alert: dailyalert@list-dailyalert.org Professor Benny Morris
Genesis 1948 by Dan Kurzman

Day of Rage

Palestinian terrorists are vowing attacks on Jews worldwide now that we have finally decided that enough is enough of being shot at for the past 9 years. A Lebanese Arab has shot at a group of Israelis shopping at a mall in Odense, Denmark.

Suicide attacks have been promised by irate Arabs that are Hamas, Al-Qaeda and Hizbullah. It's been typical in the past to kill innocent civilians, especially Jewish women and children. Any known Jewish establishment might be targeted. This isn't news to us, but we'll just have to be more wary.

When I lived in Israel from 1980 to 1985, we had to be careful all the time of planted bombs. Children at the jr. high in Safed checked people's packages that were entering the school. They had put on a display of all the containers that had been found to carry some sort of bombs. Bombs were found in loaves of bread that they would leave on a sidewalk. Schools had been attacked as well as buses and trains. At least I didn't have to worry about suicide bombers then, but citizens do now. We must be aware.

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/129193

Living With Terrorisms: A Personal Experience

Nadene Goldfoot                                                     

Israeli robot to pick up packages left on ground-
may have a bomb in them  

I lived in Israel from 1980 to the very end of 1985. My first lesson was how to live with terrorism. The first time I saw a loaf of bread outside on the patio of the building I was living in was a surprise. It wasn't wrapped; just a loaf of bread sitting there. I wanted to pick it up and put it in the garbage can, but nearby friends screamed at me not to pick it up, but to leave it. It could contain a bomb! Was I ever surprised. Then my friends went in and called the bomb squad. People have to be extremely careful of everything.

I went shopping in the Hadar area of Haifa. There was a bakery box on the ground, possibly containing cookies. Again, I saw the bomb squad come with a robot that shot the box when the crowd was far enough away. That was to do away with any possible bomb inside the box.

When we went into any store, there was always someone at the door that had to search our bags and purses, just in case. At the door of the junior high that I taught at sat several students whose job it was to search all people entering.

What a surprise I had when I moved into my apartment building in Safed. I had the ground floor apartment, and it had black bars on the windows to prevent terrorists from entering! It was a small window in our living room, too. I was thankful to get this apartment as I had easy access to the patio outside where I had clothes lines. There were many nights that I had nightmares of terrorists breaking in, breaking those bars.

At the school we had bomb drills, and a bomb shelter. In fact, all apartment buldings had bomb shelters. Safed was in the Northern Galilee and very close to Lebanon, as all of Israel is very close to someplace dangerous, so the country has to be protective. Just a few years ago Safed was shelled in the Lebanon-Israel War and many building were damaged. My neighbors wrote to me about their experience. Nearby was a school and a graveyard filled with students from a terrorist attack on the school! It seems that terrorists like to attack women and children especially. I remember a day when the school showed the community all of the containers that are used to conceal bombs of some sort or other. Big or small, every manufactured container was used. As soon as children start toddling around, they have to be taught not to pick a thing up outside.

Not only stores and schools have to check out people, but Israel's borders have checkpoints where people are entering. On November 2, 2002, a van with boxes of jeans wanted to go through. Soldiers found that one of the men inside was wanted. Soldiers found in the last searched box an explosive belt being delivered to a suicide bomber.

Two weeks later, a taxi was found two very heavy computers and inside again were explosive belts, plus a bag with a gun.

On June 8, 2008, an 18 year old Palestinian was arrested at the Hawara checkkpoint near Nablus because he was carrying 6 pipe bombs, an ammunition cartridge and bullets, and a bag of gunpowder. The military police said that it was routine for them to find bombs every day. They also find knives and other weapons. Three weeks earlier they arrested a Palestinians carrying 5 pipe bombs that he had on his chest to act as an explosives belt.

As recently as October 5, 2008, two pipe bombs were found in a package that a Palestinian man at the Hawara checkpoint near Nablus was carrying.

Anti-Israel propaganda is trying to make a case that Israeli soldiers are harassing Palestinians at checkpoints. Soldiers are not trying to harass, only trying to do their job. At one checkpoint north of Jerusalem, a Palestinian woman pushing a baby stroller was found to have concealed in it a pistol, 2 ammunition clips and a knife. On another occasion a woman was hiding her brother's gun in her underpants. Another woman hid a hand grenade under her baby!

Everytime our soldiers relax their policy and leave checkpoints, terrorists take advantage to launch more attacks on Israeli citizens, so it's necessary. The campaign of violence and terror that the Palestinians continue against Israelis causes checkpoints to exist. The goal is protection, not humiliation of Palestinians.

Reference: Mitchell Bard M&F #310 Does Israeli Use Checkpoints to Deny Palestinians Their Rights?
My experiences in Israel

Prophetic Event in 2006

Nadene Goldfoot                                        

Computer finding Bible Code

   
The Bible Code by Michael Drosnin, a reporter, was based on the findings of an Israeli mathematician, Dr. Eliyahu Rips. Rips had used a computer to discover codes in the Five Books of Moses. The two men decided that we are now in "The end of days." One of the codes revealed that 2006 would be a year of World War and "Atomic Holocaust." This was discovered in 2001. According to the code, what was seemingly predicted didn't necessarily have to happen. Our behavior could change the predictions.

What actually happened in 2006 was that Lebanon attacked Israel with rockets that reached Safed in the northern Galilee where I used to live from 1980-1985. The city was famous in the 14th century and contained so many historical places that I was familiar with. I remember going into my apartment's bomb shelter and hoped that I never had to use it. I cried when I saw the destruction of buildings in photos sent to me by my ex neighbor and friend, Sandy Hazen.

Now Hizbullah terrorists have completely taken over Lebanon, which borders Israel in the north. Their leader, Hassan Nasrallah, has announced that if Israel attacks them, they would exceed the shelling of the month-long war in 2006. In fact, they plan on destroying Israel, and that Israeli soldiers would see in their fighters (mujahideen), things unimaginable.

The threat is taken seriously. Prime Minister Olmert's office in Israel had to issue travel warnings to all Israelis abroad that this terrorist group intended to kidnap Israelis in revenge for Israel's Mossad having killed Islamist operations chief Imad Mughniyeh in Damascus. At least they have blamed Mossad. It hasn't been proven who killed him.

Of course, Iran, which lies on the east, constantly threatens the survival of Israel and either does have atomic capability or very soon will have. That is the greatest fear right now. Hopefully, what was predicted to happen in 2006 has been postponed but not forgotten. It's always a daily possibility. The situation right now makes it a big possibility.

Resource: http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1219572112092&pagename=JPost%2FJPArtic...
Bible Code I and Bible Code II The Countdown by Michael Drosnin

OPPOSING VALUES: TERRORISTS AND ISRAELIS

Last month the people in Gaza danced in the streets, gave out candies and celebrated the murder of eight yeshiva students in Jerusalem by one of their people. A trusted Arab driver turned terrorist that the school had trusted. The students were young boys studying as they were murdered. The act of celebrating this slaughter is contrary to Israeli belief and causes utter abhorrence to the Israelis.

Kahil Shikake, Palestinian pollster tells us that 85% of the Palestinians approved of this slaughter, and even he was shocked at the high number. A people has become approving of barbarism!

This wasn't the first incident. Several years ago two Israeli soldiers accidently drove into the city of Ramallah, populated by Palestinians. The soldiers were lynched, dragged through the streets and torn to pieces. The murders marched through the streets showing their blood-covered hands and the people cheered. How terrible can you get? I'm not even sure that the old Romans were that bad.

The highest medal of honor was just given to two terrorists who were murderers in the Sbarro Pizza Store massacre. President Abbas was speaking of peace with Israel but had okayed the medal. How schizophrenic can one get?

A few years ago a Palestinian mob mutilated the body parts of six Israeli soldiers killed in Gaza and this was shown on TV. Again, the mob behavior is beyond cruelty of anything seen from WWII, and of all things, turning out to be popular viewing.

It reminds me of the video I saw while living in Israel. We could get Lebanon, Egypt, Jordan and even Syrian TV programs when we lived in the Northern Galilee of Safed. I witnessed a Syrian program showing their soldiers biting puppies and snakes that were alive, and killing them in that fashion to show the public how strong they were. I vomited. I was in shock. I could not believe that people could be so gross and so horrid. That occurred sometime between 1981 and 1985.

On the other side of the coin, Colonel Eyal Eisenberg, Commander of the Givati Brigade of Israel , tells about seeing eleven of his soldiers blown to bits. In the midst of the attack, the soldiers had aided a Palestinian lady's baby being born and evacuated them. They also evacuated an elderly Palestinian woman who was injured by getting their Mogan David ambulance for her. She was probably taken to Barzilai Hospital in Ashkelon, Portland's sister city. While the ambulance was moving, terrorists ran and fired at the very soldiers who helped her from behind it.

The actions of terrorists has been mostly to attack women and children. I remember seeing a graveyard in Safed, where I lived, made up of children from the school where terrorists broke into and slaughtered the children. Bombs are placed in buses, stores, restaurants and places where people congregate and they kill civilians. This is not a war of soldier against soldiers. These terrorists usually hide behind their own children, causing them death.

Arab children are taught to become suicide bombers, as well as unhappy women or slow thinking citizens who can be taken advantage of. Their lives are unimportant to their parents or people in the way we think of lives being important.

It is no wonder that Israel decided to build a wall to separate them from us. Not only does it help to protect Israel from terrorists and thus prevents more bloodshed, but keeps people of such values apart from Israelis. Golda Meier once said that the horror of war is that our soldiers learn the hard way of practices that are revolting to us. Even the Torah teaches us that we are not to emulate the abominable practices of the Egyptians, thus now meaning the terrorists.

We are taught that the experience of being slaves in Egypt for 430 years was to teach us ethical sensitivity to the suffering of others. So we learned in the Exodus not to cheer when the Egyptians were drowned in the sea when they chased after us after promising to let us go.
So today we don't cheer when the enemy falls. We get no satisfaction from the suffering of others.

We may have a history of being "cousins", being joined at the hip to Abraham, but dna is not showing much of a connection, except with the Kurds, who are not Arabs and are being treated horribly in Iraq. We both believe in one G-d instead of more than one, but that G-d is certainly giving out different lesson plans to our two groups.

We leave vengeance to G-d. It is not for us to do. Judaism sees salvation as being open to all good people, not just Jews. We pray for the salvation of others, not for their downfall. Our values are very different from our proposed neighbors, and they are values that we can be proud of.

Reference: http://www.jewishworldreview.com/: Rabbi Mitchell Wohlberg's article, "How Judaism is different".
My recollections.

Hezbolla and Hamas's Value of Life

Nadene Goldfoot
I just watched a video on my computer this morning by a famous news reporter reporting the 2006 war between Israel and Lebanon. Though Keven explained how media can be used as propaganda, he continues to do exactly that and presented a very one-sided program viewing the Lebanese Hezbollah as innocent victims and Israel as the advanced technically armed army, and therefore the bad guys.

There are some differences. Israel received statehood after waiting 2,000 years for it. We never forgot Jerusalem, and remembering it has been in our prayers ever since. "Next year in Jerusalem" is said every year by our families. Israel was born again May 14, 1948 through the U.N.'s vote. We are a certifiable state.

One of the things we have had to do is to keep an army and be updated in whatever armies use. The difference between the USA and Israel's army is that every man and many women in Israel have to serve. We're a very small group of people. Work just about comes to a halt and no one takes your place when there is a crisis. The population becomes the army.

I was there in 1982 when Israel went into Lebanon and saw this firsthand, being I was living in Safed, which is very close to Lebanon. Suddenly all the men teachers were called into service and I volunteered to cover their classes. It was horrible. It was a traumatic time for all of us, more so for the civilians-turned-soldiers who had to rush to their posts.

We work very hard to protect our citizens from the attacks of terrorists, which continue at this time from Gaza. When you're attacked, you have to try to stop it. I am appalled at the populations who have been taught to hate us, our neighbors in Lebanon and Gaza. They attack us and then cry and scream when we retaliate in defense. Do they think we will just throw stones at them? It's like a teeny dog attacking a huge dog and getting the worst of it. One has to have the sense not to take on an opponent who will obviously win.

So I come to the conclusion that our enemies do not value the life of their compatriots. They use them as pawns in their propaganda fight against us. Getting people to side with them is more important than the lives they say they are working for. All their crying and screaming means that they have succeeded in rousing their people in a hatred for us. They cry for Israel to lift its import and export punishment and return the electricity to them, but they continue to bomb us. We have had to use something as punishment for attacking us, thus the cutting of electricity during certain hours and hurting them economically. What we should have done was just go in and attack them with our army, I suppose, and kill them all. I think that's what they would have done to us, and is what Iran is threatening to do with atomic weapons. They have bombed our station that supplies them with electricity and then they cry about it. These people are showing that their value system is completely different from ours.

We will not be driven into the sea, as our neighbors have threatened to do to us. We are fighting very hard for a "next year in Jerusalem and another year in Jerusalem." We mean to stay, cousins. Since there are millions and millions of Arabs and only about 5 million Jews, I am grateful that the numbers of casualties reflect this difference between countries. If we lost the same numbers as they, it would certainly be lopsided. Kevin, realize the difference in population when you print loss of lives on both sides. Perhaps percentages would be a more accurate number. And remember, we didn't start this war. We don't want it or need it.