Israel: From Monarchy to Democracy Through Zionism

Today's Israelis protecting their homeland.

Anti-Semitism created today's Israel  

Nadene Goldfoot
Israel came about 2,000 years after Jews were forced to leave their land that had been theirs for over 3,000 years.  They had experienced all these years of yearning to return because they had been treated so badly in host countries.  They had been turned off by the results of formal emancipation in Central and Western Europe which never did put an end to anti-Semitism.  They were tired of being discriminated against and putting up with social ostracism, such as the Dryfus case in France pointed out.  They had suffered from oppression and pogroms in Eastern Europe along with suffering from extreme poverty because of it.

They had to face the fact that Jews needed to follow a path of their own self-determination such as Greeks, Italians and Poles were then doing.  Zionism was the national liberation movement of the Jewish people.  Since the world had been anti-Semitic since at least 70 CE, they found they were alone in their cause.  Since their inception 65 years ago, they have managed to hold onto their value system to have a real democratic state for all its citizens, something they never had experienced in the world they were flung into.

Charles Kupchan, American professor, feels that Egypt was pushed into having a Democracy too fast and wasn't ready for it. He is a professor of international relations at Georgetown and a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.  He wrote in the New York Times that American policy should push for Egypt to be governed responsibly – not necessarily democratically – and that rapid transition to self-governance was ill-advised.  Their history and people are completely different from Israel.  Egypt with its 91 million are about 90% Sunni Muslim and Islam is their state religion.  

Israel, on the other hand, named a Jewish state on May 14, 1948,  made up of equal amounts of Ashkenazi and Sephardi Jews, as well as Muslims,  Christians, Baha's and  Druze,  had a 2,000 year experience of being exposed to Western politics through the Ashkenazi exposure which includes Democratic values.  How did Israel come to be Democratic?  Look at their history and how it developed.

Actually, it was Zionism who first introduced the idea of the perfect state.  In 1897 Theodor Herzl (May 2, 1860-July 3, 1904) organized the first Zionist Congress and founded the world Zionist Organization which talked about creating a Jewish state.  Zion is the synonym for Jerusalem and the land.  He was a Hungarian reporter and an idealist-turned writer  who had written "Der Judenstaat (The Jewish State) in 1895 and got it published in February 1896 and later the Utopian novel, "Altneuland (The Old New Land) in 1902.  What he created in his mind was better than a Democracy.  It was Utopia.  This was the groundwork for Israel as he is looked upon as the founder of Israel.  .

Israel's past governments must have led up to the creation of a man like Herzl-founder of Zionism 

Saul, was the first king of Israel who lived in the 11th century BCE.  He was the son of Kish of the tribe of Benjamin.  It was the people who had begged to have a king like the other nations had, so the prophet Samuel selected Saul.  He was a good choice who organized a trained army since they had been facing a military threat from the Philistines and Ammonites.  Internally, he did away with witches that people still  believed in which was against the Mosaic Law handed down from Moses (1391 BCE to 1271 BCE.  .  Evidently Saul and Samuel didn't get along, and Samuel had the power to appoint David as his successor.  Saul had accomplished the groundwork for national unity which was effective in establishing a strong and independent Israelite monarchy.

King David c 1000 BCE to 960 BCE of   the tribe of Judah, was an armor-bearer of King Saul, Israel's first king,.  This youngest son of Jesse,  and grandson of Ruth and Boaz, born in Bethlehem,  showed he had military prowess at the age of 25 when he fought against the Philistines.  He happened to have settled in Hebron and declared himself king of Judah before Judah had even parted from Israel in the next generation. He had taken what was to be Jerusalem and made it his capital when king.  The Psalms are said to be written by him.  Still and all, this was a monarchy, something quite new for the Jewish people 3,000 years ago.  David was sometimes known to rule by his passions, like with his love, Bathsheba.  The Bible lists his virtues and his vices.  Eventually he straightened out his conduct and became the Jewish religious symbol and a messianic hope has been attached to his descendants.

His son, Solomon, (961 BCE to 920 BCE) became King and was known for his wisdom.  He was able to build the Temple, a duty given to him but not to his father who was a warrior.  Solomon was a peaceful king, He was friendly enough with Hiram of Tyre who sent him architects and builders to work on his Temple.  The cedars used came from Lebanon, also.  So I am assuming that there was peace and economic cooperation between the 2 countries.

Solomon was relying on his father's achievements of political pacts.  His empire reached from Egypt to the Euphrates River and was the most energetic in the entire region.  They developed a culture including arts of historiography, parables, and elegant writings.  Several biblical works such was Song of Songs, Ecclesiastes, and Psalm  72 were written by Solomon.  He wasn't a modern 2013 ruler, though.  He needed more laborers so introduced forced labor into his nation because he needed workers for his extensive building program  and had impoverished the country.  This was a bad move.

Several groups of different people in the empire, the Edomites and Arameans began to revolt and even inside Israel were malcontented citizens.  Therefore, when Solomon died, Israel faced the ceding of Judah and internal division. Jeroboam (933-912 BCE) led the revolt against Rehoboam of Judah and the last king of Israel, the northern kingdom,  was Hoshea (730-721).  Judah's kings in this southern kingdom were  from Rehoboam (933-917 BCE) led to Zedekiah (597-586 BCE).  Though many nations came through the land, none stayed long.  Finally Jerusalem was done in by the Romans in 70 CE, and Jews have had to live in many lands facing hatred since then.

One of the leading politicians during Israel's fight to survive till its birth was Abba Eban, born 1915 as Aubrey Solomon in Capetown, South Africa and educated in England.  He worked in the political department of the Jewish Agency from 1946 and was a member of the Jewish Agency delegation to the UN in 1947-48.  He represented Israel at the UN in 1948-1959.  He was elected as a Mapai delegate to the Knesset in 1959 and was appointed minister without portfolio.  Then he became minister of education and culture in 1960, Deputy Prime Minister from 1963 to 1966 and foreign minister from 1966 to 1974.  He wrote "My People, a History of the Jews."

Jews had settled in South Africa in the early 19th century so were among the first to emigrate to Israel.  There was a large Jewish community  in  Johannesburg.  They had enjoyed political equality in Cape Colony and Natal.  Many Jews had immigrated there after WWI from Lithuania.  (Lithuanians had emigrated to Safed in the 1500's and had built large Yeshivot there).  Then restrictions were put on Jewish immigration during the 30's,  though there were some German Jews who made it there after 1939, which was a miracle.  When I made aliyah in 1980, I found many of the English speakers in Israel were South Africans.  The English Department was headed by Jews from South Africa.  They brought with them ideas of English Democracy.

Today, Israel happens to be a parliamentary democracy.  Supreme authority rests with the Knesset, an Assembly.  This is a unicameral legislative body (single legislative chamber)  of 120 members.  The Knesset is elected for 4 years.  The people may decide on new elections before the end of the term if need be.  Electors choose between national lists of candidates, seats being allocated in proportion to the number of votes obtained by each list.

The President of the State of Israel is elected by the Knesset for a period of 5 years. and may be re-elected for one more term.  His duties are to prerogative of pardon and of commuting sentences.  He accepts the accreditation of foreign ambassadors and ministers, appoints Israel's ambassadors and ministers, judges and the State comptroller.  He signs all laws except those concerning the presidential powers.  The Transition Law, 1949, describes the powers of the President.

If a new Government is to be formed, the President consults with the representatives of the parties and then calls on a member of the Knesset to undertake the task.

In June 1950, the Knesset decided not to enact a formal Constitution but to adopt basic laws which shall eventually be in a constitution.  These laws written were passed in 1958, 1960, 1964 and 1968.  There was a Basic Law of Human Right before the Knesset by 1973 and supplementary laws on the working of courts drafted then.

Hertzl never became President or Prime Minister of Israel because he died early on, but he was the battery all charged up for its creation and had laid out the plans for its creation and development.  Though Israel isn't following the exact precept of Hertzl's Utopia, they are adhering to its basic tenants which are complemented by democracy.  All the leaders have been impressed by the United States of American Democratic values and history as well.  I'm afraid that Hertzl was a little naive at the time, not knowing how Arabs would react to his ideas, though they were as lofty and worthy of calling his ideas the creation of  a Paradise.

Many children are given the task in their social studies classes of creating a Utopia on some outer space planet.  We may all have lofty ideas, but it is when our plans do not gel and we have to live and altar our plans that taxes and brings out the best in us.  Do we fling off moral values or somehow weave them into the plan?  That is the task that Israel has been presented with, and though difficult, are facing reality and are doing their darndest to do their very best job.  They  are still striving to be the light for the nations.

Resource: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Old_New_Land
 http://www.blog.standforisrael.org/articles/democracy-in-egypt-can-wait
facts about Israel from division of Information, Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Jerusalem
The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theodor_Herzl

Jews' Return to Their Land Sparked By Pogroms and Government Restrictions

Nadene Goldfoot                                                                    

                                           19th Century Pogrom in Russia
Ever since 70 CE, life was one event after another of persecution for Jews. 1096 saw Crusaders slaughtering Jews as they went through European towns on their way to take Jerusalem.  1492 was the year of the Spanish Inquisition and forced conversions of Jews in Spain.   In 1648 to 1656, 100,000 Jews were murdered in the Chmielnicki massacres in Poland.  In 1727 and 1747, Jews were expelled from Russia.   In 1838, the entire Jewish community in Meshed, Persia (today's Iran) were forcibly converted to Islam..

 Jews finally had a formal emancipation in Central and Western Europe from the 18th to 20th centuries, but it did not put an end to discrimination and social ostracism of Jews. This was supposed to be the removal of the disabilities imposed on Jews that had been in place from the 4th century  on.  The Christian Empire enacted an elaborate system of discrimination against Jews which was adopted and intensified in medieval Europe as well as in the Islamic world.  It brought in the Ghetto system aiming at keeping Jews away from the gentile society.      The Dreyfus case in France was a good example of Jewish discrimination and anti-Semitism in 1894 when he was condemned to life imprisonment and ordered to Devil's Island. This led to the affect it had on Herzl and to the development of Zionism.

Continued oppression and outbreaks of pogroms in Eastern Europe were combined with extreme poverty for most of the Jews.  The Hep Hep riots against them began on August 2, 1819 in Wurzburg, Germany. Hep! Hep! was an anti-Jewish slogan used during these riots.  The cry was then said to be of Crusader origin, being formed from the initials of the words Hierosolyma est perdita (Jerusalem is lost).   This continued and reached Denmark, Poland, Latvia and Bohemia.  By 1821 Odessa, Russia  had pogroms against them.  This started up a wave of pogroms.  More occurred in 1859.

A new movement came out of all this suffering of returning to their land and of a revival of Jewish national life.  The Yishuv-the Jewish community already living in Palestine that had never left, started it all.  In 1860, they built the first quarter outside the walls of the Old City of Jerusalem.  Two Hebrew periodicals were regularly published in Jerusalem calling for a return to the Land.  It couldn't have happened at a better time.

In 1870, the first Jewish agricultural college was established in Mikveh Israel which today is on the outskirts of Tel Aviv.  Back in Russia, the next year of 1871 and non-stop until 1921 were years of anti-Jewish pogroms in the towns of Russia including the Pale.  By being in the Pale, it was so much easier to attack Jews.  It was no wonder that the early 1900's saw the immigration of over a million Jews.

By 1881 and subsequent years, Jewish immigrants that belonged to the Hibbat Zion (Love of Zion) movement arrived in Israel from Eastern Europe.  Meyer Levin's "The Settlers", a historical novel, tells about their arrival from the turn of the century to the Balfour Declaration and covers over a 1/4 of a century of turbulent events and their hardships as pioneers.  Some had joined existing villages while others founded new ones.  Some of the villages established during the last 2 decades of the century are large towns today; Hadera and Rishon Le-Zion, for example.

From  1882 to 1890, 750,000 Jews living in Russia were forced to re-settle in the Pale of Settlement; 25 provinces of Czarist Russia,  areas under Catherine II's reign of Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, White Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and the Crimea.  In 1891 Jews were then expelled from Moscow and St. Petersburg and sent to the Pale.

The Jews who returned to the Land during this period are known as "the First Aliya."  Aliya  literally means: going up-spiritually, ascent;.  In practice, it has come to signify immigration to Israel.   The conditions in which the first Aliya-and subsequent waves of immigration-settled in the Land were extremely harsh.  The population was small and dispersed.  Communications were poor and insecure.  The Land had been completely neglected.  Pioneers faced swamps,and with it,  malaria,  The Ottoman Empire, which lasted for 400 years by 1917, was hostile and oppressive towards both Arabs and Jews, which is probably  why the native Jews hadn't been able to keep up the land.  Life for these pioneers was a continuous ordeal and new villages survived precariously.

By 1897, Theodor Herzl organized the First Zionist Congress in Basle and founded the World Zionist Organization.  Zion  had been the traditional synonym for Jerusalem and for the entire land, so was the proper word to use.  A growing realization that Jews should follow the path of self-determination which other nations were following such as the Greeks, Italians and Poles.  Zionism became the national liberation movement of the Jewish people.  It's aims were to carry out the return of Jews to the Land and the revival in it of Jewish national life; socially, culturally, economically and politically.

So a 2nd Aliya came to Israel in 1904 to 1914 which reinforced existing villages and founding new ones.  The Yishus began to organize itself politically with socialist groups figuring prominently.  In 1909 the first kibbuts-Degania-was establish on the southern shore of Lake Kinneret.  That same year was when Tel Aviv was founded on the sand dunes outside of Jaffa.

Hebrew was becoming the principal language of the Yishuv with the emerging Hebrew literature.  Life was still harsh and many of the newcomers left.  However, by 1914, there were 85,000 Jews in the Land.  The Land became occupied by Britain 4 years later with the end of WWI and they governed it for 30 more years.  They left and Israel was declared a state on May 14, 1948.  .

After all the suffering Jews have had to endure for 2,000 years at the hands of the governments of the world, they finally passed the Balfour Declaration that gave Jews the right to have their own land back, a decision on November 2, 1917 with the League of Nations.   The promise on paper was given to establish the Jewish National Home, and now even that is in limbo with nations today with discrimination in the UN.  The struggle continues for rights and recognition in our own homeland.  This time we're not going to be driven out.  

Resource: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pogrom
Facts About Israel by the Division of Information, Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Jerusalem 1973

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

Nadene Goldfoot                                                                

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Turkey's Erdogan Speaks Against Israel in UN

Nadene Goldfoot
A former passing friend, Turkey, is following the Muslim Brotherhood doctrine of hate for Israel.  The Turkish Prime Minister, Tayyip Erdogan,  just spoke at the UN saying that Zionism is a crime against humanity.  Up to the time Turkey had a boat try to land in Gaza as part of an invading fleet and Israel had to board it with shooting ensuing, any  friendship existing then has ended.  The former ruler of Israel's land had been the Ottoman Empire, which was Turkey.  They're still carrying over sour grapes from 1917, perhaps, when they lost WWI.

How things have changed!  In 1975, Kofi Annon presided over the Zionism is racism resolution that said this was an expression of anti-Semitism, and he had hailed its repeal.  So here we have the UN chief Ban Ki-moon, present on the stage, staying silent.  He did not speak out and condemn the speech.  The most disgusting thing about it is that this was said at the UN Summit for Tolerance.

Erdogan used the podium to incite hatred, and he used Ahmadinejad's style of declaration to spew his affirmation of being a good Muslim following the party line.  It  certainly is showing that Turkey will not become a friend of Israel again.

UN Watch urged Archbishop Desmond Tutu (not favorable towards Israel that I have seen), Rabbi Arthur Schneier and Professor John Esposito to denounce these remarks which contradict the very purpose of this forum which is dedicated to mutual tolerance.  Erdogan just made a mockery of it.

Erdogen is also speaking out against Islamophobia.  It's all right for him to denounce Zionism and fascism, but he thinks that people who are wary of Muslims today are committing a crime against humanity.  He's against politicians who have communication tools, probably meaning a good handle on the English language, TV, radio and cell phones to spread the news about  events in the world.  He doesn't get it at all, evidently, that he is committing the biggest crime of all, and the rest of the UN members are in such a  rapturous  state that they are not fighting against it.

A report showed that Jews and Armenians are exposed to more hate speech than others in Turkey's newspapers.  The researches found 39 instances of hate speech against Jews in Turkish newspapers during that period, which accounted for 25 percent of the total of hateful articles found.

What is the goal of Islam?  I was just presented with this bit of information.  "1.7 billion Muslims. By 2030 which will be increased into 2.2 billion, in-sha-Allah. Then the global population is set to reach over 8 billion and 26.4% of that population will be Muslim. At the very least, they are planning on a population explosion. of Muslims."  There doesn't seem to be any room for the world's 0.02% Jewish population, and certainly they plan on taking over Israel's little bit of land.

Update:  12:07 pm  US Secretary of State Kerry to Condemn Erdogan's Anti-Semitic Slur in Turkey Meeting Tomorrow

Resource: UN Watch
http://newsfeed.time.com/2011/01/27/2-2-billion-worlds-muslim-population-doubles/#ixzz2MCtwBd62"
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/turkish-pm-erdogan-islamophobia-anti-semitism-same.aspx?pageID=238&nID=42019&NewsCatID=338
http://www.jewishjournal.com/world/article/erdogan_at_un_forum_zionism_is_crime_against_humanity_video

Ahmadinejad and Khamenei Plot to Destroy Israel

Nadene Goldfoot
Yesterday Muslims met in Tehran at their 26th International Conference on Islamic Unity. Both Shi'a and Sunni attended from 102 countries.   Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was there as a speaker.  Was it a coincidence that they met on the International Holocaust Remembrance Day?  While Pope Benedict XVI spoke saying that humanity must always be on guard against a repeat of murderous racism, Iran's leaders were saying the opposite.

Ahmadinejad said that their goal should be "terminating the issue of Zionism:"  in other words, to uproot Zionism.  To uproot something is to take the root out.  He advocates the removal of Israel.  He called Israel words like corrupt, uncultured, murderous, occupiers and killing oppressed people and he didn't want to sit idly by or have others be idle about it.

Is he the leader of this goal?  He bows to Mohammad to get the Muslim world united, so he is looking for such a leadership.  Evidently he's depending on Islam which would bring in the Mahdi, a savior who will appear before the appearance of Jesus. The Mahdi is a man.   He is the Islamic redeemer who will rule before the end of times, a messianic deliverer who will fill the Earth with justice and equity, restore true religion (Islam) , and usher in a short golden age lasting seven, eight, or nine years before the end of the world. This is a major part of the Shi'a Islamists which Iran follows.

The United States did not get by without his criticism, either.  Global economy is led by the USA, according to him.  The USA aims to transfer the money of the world nations into the pockets of certain governments.  Well, that has been going on for some time with Empires who have done that, including Muslim countries run by Kings and such..  The USA is not an empire.  He calls the USA the enemy of humanity.  So he wants a call for liberation of all world nations from the reign of Zionists.  He got back to his theme of Israel controlling the whole wide world again.

All this comes from the Holocaust denier who claims that the Holocaust was just a fictitious story.  .  Last year he told a German TV that the Holocaust was a colonialist plan that resulted from a lie that Israel uses to put down Palestinian Authority Arabs  He tells everyone that Jews never were rulers of this land.

Ahmadinejad is guilty of believing his own lies.  He told people that "Israel was the axis of unity of the world hegemonic powers" and now he believes it himself.  The lies are almost funny but I cry when I hear them.  Another is that 400 years ago the Zionists were ruling the major world affairs and behind the scenes of major power circles in political, media, monetary and banking organizations in the world and have been the decision makers.

The Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic also states to all that Israel would be wiped off the map.  He's saying this today, not back in 1947.  Only last summer he confidently stated that the "Palestinians" will eventually retake control of their motherland. He also stated that the superfluous and fake Zionist regime will disappear from the landscape of geography.   Both men completely disregard historic facts when tossing about these lies.  They try to rewrite history.

Are either of these men listening to Obama who is not too happy about joining Israel in defense against Iran's seemingly realistic plot to destroy Israel?  Are these Iranians alleviating Israel's worry about being hit with an A bomb? Quite the contrary.  They're saying things to really worry Israel and feel that soon they will become a target.  Let's face it.  Israel is a lot closer to Iran than the USA is.

What I see is a large nation of Iran extremely jealous of Israel's ability to return home once again and their accomplishments.  Israel is showing up all the Muslim nations in technology.  This is not a good show to people following Islam.  Here they're being shown up by a teeny nation that is now 7 million against Iran's 76,923,300 plus population.  How is it that these Israelis can do so much?  There are only 6 million Jews in Israel.  As for world population, Jews make up only 0.03% of the world.

What I also see is a religious group being stirred up by extremists in their midst that intend to destroy Israel and have been trying ever since Israel's existence for the past 64 years with Israel coming out on top.  The things that they said about Jews and Israel were lies they use to pardon their own inadequacies.  What their leaders threaten to do should be taken as seriously as Israel takes it.  Like the rattlesnake, many people warn first before they strike.  It builds up their courage.

Update-1/28/13:  9:28pm Israeli Acting Defense Minister Avi Dichter stating that, “Any explosion in Iran that doesn’t hurt people but hurts its assets is welcome.”

Israel’s biggest daily, Yediot Ahronot, led its Sunday paper with a headline: “The most significant incidence of sabotage in the Iranian nuclear program to date.”

Resource: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/wap/Item.aspx?type=0&item=164631
http://www.truthnet.org/islam/Islam-Bible/4Islambeliefs/index.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahdi
http://abna.ir/data.asp?lang=3&id=385270  on Islamic conference
Update: 3:24pm http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/kissinger-iran-nuclear-crisis/2013/01/27/id/487585?s=al&promo_code=12346-1

The Zionist Dream and the United Nations

Nadene Goldfoot
To Jews, Zion refers to Israel.  It's a word used 152 times in our Tanakh "Bible."  In the 10th Centery BCE it started as a reference to the 2 eastern hills in Jerusalem and then came to mean all of Jerusalem and finally, all of ancient Israel.  When pioneers made their way out of Eastern Europe in the 1800's CE to return to the land, they called themselves Zionists.  They had high hopes of creating a marvelous Utopia.  For 2,000 years Jews have prayed daily for a return to Zion. 

Way back in January 1976, the Jewish Digest came out with an article about the anti-Semitic actions of the United Nations.  They had a vote that equated Zionism with racism.  This charge could not be more absurd.  What liberation movements are equal to Zionism's moral credentials?  The General Assembly had passed Resolution 3379 on November 10, 1975. 

Zionism is more than a political movement.  It's an expression of the Jewish religious belief and hope, geared to the more important aspects of Jewish faith.  It is the liberation movement of the Jewish people in modern times.  Its thrust has been and continues to be humanitarian and egalitarian (a belief in human equality; in social, political and economic rights and priviledges.-a social philosophy  advocating the removal of inequalities among men without becoming communistic.)  This all happens to be the very opposite of racism.

In fact, people have tried to make out that our people are a race, and in their hatred against us have been racists, and we have suffered from such racism ourselvles.  Isn't that why Hitler wanted to exterminate all the Jews in the world?  To him, racially, we were inferior.   In fact, Judaism is a religion and not denied to other people who wish to join us.  It may have started with the family of Abraham and Sarah, but they were living together with unrelated people who also took Abraham's new faith and belief, and this in turn became a tribe, then a clan, and so on till the people wound up in Egypt as slaves, joined by many others from all parts of the world.  These people were given the order to live in Canaan, and that's where they do best, their gifts of creativity and thinking are multiplied there. 

No doubt the surrounding 22 Arab nations' leaders were quaking in their boots hearing about such a state in their midst.  It's a wonder that the Arab Spring took 35 years to come about and rebel against their status in life. 

Zionism became an urgent movement with the massacre of European Jewry in the Holocaust where one-third of the Jewish people were slaughtered.  The United Nations, in voting that Zionism is racism, was terribly offensive to Jewish religioius sensibilities.  One must realize that Zionism and the Jewish religious faith is inseparable.  Vilification of Zionism is an attack against the central values of the Jewish religious faith.  The attack is geared against Israel and is inspired by an anti-Jewish animus, an ancient hatred.  "It is a spiritual expression of our Jewish fidelity to the biblical covenant which links a people, their faith and a land in an indissoluble religious unity"

The old anti-Semitism denied Jews their personhood, and this new anti-Semitism denies the Jewish people their nationhood.  Basically, Communists and Arab countries have joined in this attack, either out of ignorance of the Jewish religion or out of political necessity.  Those that have only bring dishonor and shame on themselves.

Resolution 3379 was revoked December 16, 1991, and is the only resolution that has ever been revoked at the UN.  However, religious leaders of Islam, such as Yusuf al-Qaradawi, continue to revile Zionism for leading to the creation of Israel and has now called a fatah to kill all Jews everywhere.  He has a following of at least 60 million owing to his TV programs on al-Jazeera. 

The Jerusalem Post, a newspaper out of Israel, is holding their annual conference after Passover,  "Fighting for the Zionist Dream" with Meir Dagan, former head of the Mossad, whose topic is For and against bombing the nuclear reactor in Iran, Gabi Ashkenazi, former Chief of Staff of the IDF, whose topic is The Arab world; spring or fall? Prof. Alan M. Dershowitz, lawyer and defender of Israel in many books and speeches, whose topic is Why is the international media afraid of Israel? Ehud Olmert, former Prime Minister of Israel from 2006-2009,  and Michael Oren, Israeli Ambassador to USA.  Others attending will be Steve Linde, Caroline B. Glick, David brimm, Yaakov Katz, Herb Keinon, Naomi Ragen and many others.  They will be meeting in New York. 

Resource: Jewish Digest, January 1976, out of Bridgeport, CT  by Synagogue Council of America
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_General_Assembly_Resolution_3379
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/UN/herzogsp.html
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Oren
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yusuf_al-Qaradawi

Zionism: Our Call To Freedom to Survive-and to Build

Nadene Goldfoot
Jews returning to their land  or becoming Zionists is not a modern idea only found in the 20th century.  Jews returned twice before from their Babylonia exiles and rebuilt their land, only to go through it a 3rd time in August of 70 CE when the invading Roman armies occupied and destroyed their ancient capital of Jerusalem, causing our Jewish independence to halt.  Thousands of Jews were driven out of their homeland then.  The exile lasted for 20 centuries but our nationalism never died.  It finally happened in the rebirth of the Jewish state on May 14, 1948.  The miracle was that the land had lain barren and empty; something nobody was interested in, as if it were just waiting for the rightful tenants to return because they were the only ones who really loved the land. 

Zionism now is a dirty word to many Arabs, some of who are even visiting Portland's  Lincoln High with a presentation about these "terrible racist Zionists" this week.  However, Zionism is the term of calling us back to our ancient homeland to farm and industrialize it, to build new towns and villages and live there.  Theodor Herzl was the founder of the Zionist Movement at the end of the 19th century.  Thousands of Jews began the "aliyah"-the going up to the land to live there once again along with Jews who had never left.  It was a time of buying land back that had once been in our hands.    

Along came the Bilu movement with Russian Jewish students who settled agricultural kibbutz'm in 1882 This had followed terrible pograms where Jews were attacked and killed in Russia. My grandfather, Nathan, must have been in those pograms as he was born in 1872, and I know my grandmother, Zlotta, was as she came out of it with broken legs. 

In 1893 Nathan Birnbaum coined the term Zionism as Mount Zion in Jerusalem has always symbolized the Land of Israel.

In 1897 the first Zionist congress was created by Herzl where the Jews defined their movement of establishing for the Jewish people their national home in Palestine.  Jews are a people or nation as well as having a religion  who wish to retain their identity as a national community.  By 1901 Herzl had created the Jewish National Fund with the practice of children giving their pennies of caronom'm to be used to buy land.  Land was bought at extremely high prices from Arab landowners usually living outside of Palestine who were glad to get rid of it. 
 
I was one of the recent people making aliyah, returning in September of 1980 to Haifa. It was a privilege to be a part of the prophecized "ingathering" of exiles from all over the world. 
 
The Arabs, meanwhile, have had ample time and chances to create their own state of "Palestine", since we took the ancient name of Israel to remember our roots, but they refused over and over, choosing instead to attack Israel with massive wars and constant bombings in their attempts to drive us into the sea and be gone.  Now they are saying that they intend to create a state but want part of Jerusalem as their capital.  Yet they refuse to sit down without preconditions and barter with us.  They use Israel's building as the reason why they won't even palaver.  They won't even accept us as a "Jewish" state.  Abbas, leader of Fatah, has recently stated that he regrets that they didn't choose to become a state in 1947-1848. 
 
Israel plans building 1,650 units in apartment houses in Jerusalem, it's capital in their annexed land regained from Jordan's illegal takeover that was recovered in 1967.  Other building will happen in Efrat and Maale Adumim, neighborhoods in the SE sector.  This land was already deemed to stay in Israel's hands no matter what the Arabs had decided to do with their statehood.  Yet the Palestinians claim the land as part of their future state and the international community has never recognized Israel's ownership.  In fact, they even have condemned Israel's building plans, much to their dishonor.  What irks Israel is that they had a moratorium of 10 months when they didn't build even a merapeset (balcony outside a window in an apartment building)or anything but the Arabs continued to not meet for a peace consult.  They had the chance to do something and balked.  The Arabs wouldn't discuss peace plans seriously when Israel wasn't building in Jerusalem and won't now, demanding that Israel have a complete halt in construction as a condition for resuming peace negotiations. 
 
Israel is in dire need of housing.  Most everyone in Israel lives in high rise apartment buildings.  Judea and Samaria were once part of the package offered by Britain and the League of Nations as the Jewish National Home, but the Arabs are claiming these places as well.   The land of Israel is but a postage stamp in size compared to other states, and yet the Arabs, who already have a majority in 47 or more states, want our capital of  Jerusalem as well.  They seem to want things only after they are developed and beautified by the Jews. 
 
The Arabs do not have a historical connection with Eretz Israel, or Palestine.  Their homeland is Arabia, which is the SW peninsula of Asia.  There they have 1,027,000 square miles or 2,630,000 square kilometers where Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Kuwait, Bahrein, Qatar, Trucial Oman sit on the Persian Gulf along with Muscat and Oman, and South Yemen.  They only came to "Palestine" through Damascus in the Omayyad dynasty and held the land for a little over a century.  They were overthrown in 750 by the Abbasids from Persia and then by the Turks.  The Abbasids were defeated by the Fatimids.  Their success wasn't in governing the land, it was in their language of Arabic and with Islam which became their major religion. 
 
As far as the present day Arabs living in Palestine,  most came there from the surrounding lands in order to secure jobs with the Jews that were building. 
 
What I can't understand is:
1. Why has the international community sided with the Arabs who do nothing but attack Israel's civilians with missiles and mortars and who refuse to come to peaceful terms with Israel?  Does oil really take priority in view of morality? 
2. How can Arabs call us racist when Jews are not allowed into any Arab land today such as Saudi Arabia?  Those that had lived in Muslim lands for centuries were forced out in 1948 with the rebirth of Israel, and had been living as 2nd class citizens or dhimmis.  They were not allowed to ride horses or camels, to build synagogues or churches taller than mosques, to construct houses higher than those of Muslims or to drink wine in public; were forced to wear distinctive clothing and were not allowed to pray or mourn in loud voices that might offend Muslims, they had to always yield to Muslims and give them the center of the road, was not allowed to give evidence in court against a Muslim and his oath was unacceptable in an Islamic court, and to get a witness in court had to buy them, leaving little or no legal recourse when harmed by a Muslim.  The attitude of Muslims towards Jews and Christians was that of a master towards a slave, tolerating them as long as they kept their place.  If you tried to act as an equal, this was repressed immediately. 

Resource:  Book: Battleground; fact and fantasy in Palestine by Samuel Katz
Oregonian Newspaper 11/2/11 page A8 Israeli settlements-Pace will increase in contested areas
Standard Jewish Encyclopedia : Zionism
Israel-Embassy of Israel, Washington D.C.
Book: From Time Immemorial by Joan Peters
Book: Myths and Facts-a concise record of the Arab-Israeli conflict by Dr. Mitchell G. Bard, Joel Himelfarb

There Goes the Neighborhood When the Jews Move In: Or-What Arabs Experienced

Nadene Goldfoot

The Arabs were not dispossessed from their land in Palestine.  Land was bought by Jews from Arabs.  Britain had given away large tracts of land to Arabs, including absentee landlords in Egypt and Syria when they sold their parcels to the Zionists.  Only 9% of land for Israel was received by concession from the government.  The Arabs selling land exploited Jews as the market was a closed one and the Jewish buyers were most eager.  The price for land kept rising so by 1944 Jews paid Arab sellers $1,100 per acre for arid or semiarid land that had lain fallow for hundreds if not thousands of years.  This was when rich soil in Iowa sold for about $100 per acre.  When Israel was established, 70% of all her land was from her allotment from the Mandate, and the British in turn had inherited it from the Ottoman regime.  The League of Nations had decided on the tract that was to become the Jewish Homeland and Britain was expected to carry out the decree. 

Arabs had been moving out of the area.  After all, what was there to keep them?  Mosquitoes, Malaria, flies, swamps or deserts and extreme heat or cold.    You could take your pick.  Very few Arabs really lived there.

Jews coming into the neighborhood were developers and brought the promise of jobs, causing a reversal of Arab migration.  The Zionists had been transforming the wasteland into farms and cities.  This resulted in modern health and sanitation.  The Arab death rate dropped.  Jewish methods of agriculture were adopted by the Arabs and their yields increased.  The standard of living was greatly improved.  No wonder the Arab potentates were alarmed.  Their citizens would clamor for such a change as well! 

After 1967 Judea, Samaria and Gaza fell into Israel's hands.  Jews  moved into these areas as well.  This land was loaded with ancient Jewish history.  The occupation has been extremely benevolent.  Israel established the principle of not interfering with the life of the Arab population except in education.  They insisted on replacing school texts containing anti-Israel and anti-Semitic demonology and justification of genocide with the textbooks they had.  Unfortunately,  the Arabs  have been replacing acceptable material with their own hateful propaganda.  The second thing Israel  did was to try to improve the Arab's economic situation with their own money.  Teams were sent to teach farmers modern methods and how to use modern equipment.  They loaned them money for new industrial plants or improvement of existing plants.  They opened up vocational centers.  Besides this, they opened the gates to Arab workers from Judea, Samaria and Gaza.  40,000 Arab workers came into Israel by 1972 to work.  The Arabs  were then able to sell  their products across the river  Jordan.  Thus unemployment was combatted, even for those living in refugee camps in Gaza.

In a few cases of an Arab preaching violence against Israel, the usual punishment was banishment into Jordan.  However, if somebody has given shelter to terrorists, the result is the destruction of their houses after due warning.   Israel has had the position of occupying a hostile conquered population and has had to take steps such as this to preserve law and order for both Arabs and Jews.  It's better than execution. 

Even when the cease-fire was not honored by the Arabs, when terrorists infiltrated, Israel kept the bridges open across the Jordan.  Arabs could visit their relatives and friends.  Students were allowed to go abroad to study in Cairo and other Arab universities.  Thousands of Arabs in Jordan cross the river each summer to visit relatives in Judea and Samaria.  In 1971 and 1972 Arabs at war with Israel and Arabs from Judea and Samaria went to the beaches in Israel for a holiday.  One Arab writer, Atallah Mansour, described his summer as "taking a vacation in the Zionist hell."  (Haaretz, July 30, 1971).  Life had been good for Arabs who had remained in Israel at the birth of its creation May 14, 1948.  These Arabs of Gaza, Judea and Samaria were discoving how the Arab citizens had been faring. 

Zionism has taught a positive Jewish patriotism.  It has aimed at fostering love:  love of the Jewish people, love of the country, and has never taught to hate.  It has constantly sought ways and means to have relaxed relations with Arabs.  Zeev Jabotinsky strove for a peaceful Israel enjoying a happy and prosperous coexistence of Jews, Christians and Muslims.  The knesset has had Arab members and since 1971 had an Arab deputy minister in the government. 

But the Arabs have had no clone of Jabotinsky and probably the history about Emir Feisal has been erased from their records, a man who welcomed Jews into the neighborhood. Now,  after constant warring from Gaza, the Arabs of Gaza, Judea and Samaria are seeking their own  creation of a state of Palestine while still being in a state of war with Israel.  Their idea of a state is to have Judea and Samaria all Arab, so will no doubt want to kick out all the Jews.  Their charter has not changed.  They wish to do away with Israel.  They refuse to  recognize Israel as a Jewish state. 

Jews are an ancient people who established the world's first laws of common decency in relationships with other people.  Up to this time, the world was a pretty savage place.  Treating people decently is part and parcel to the Jewish religion and culture.  It's in their soul.  The last thing they would ever do is to treat people inhumanely, even though they have been treated that way themselves.  It's even more reason to bend over backwards and treat others well.  They have done their best to win over the Palestinian heart.  Only time can tell if they ever succeeded.  They've gone the mile to gain an inch. 

Resource: Battleground: Fact and fantasy in Palestine by Samuel Katz

I Am a Zionist and Proud of It

Nadene Goldfoot

What does it mean to be a Zionist?  It's not a racist, that's for sure.  It's not saying that I'm an exclusivist, either.  What it means is that I belong to the modern national liberation movement of the Jewish people.  It's to be a part of an 1,800 years old dream to rebuild the Jewish  state of Israel after the destruction of the 2nd Temple which caused the expulsion of so many Jews.  After all, we were led there by G-d in the days of Moses and were told that this was to be our home.  Who dares argue with G-d?  Many of us stayed away for 2,000 years and finally, with great effort and purpose, have made it back home.  In 1948 our population was a little over 600,000, the same number that left Egypt with Moses that headed for our new home.  We had Jews and ties with the land for more than 3,000 years from the time of Abraham.  Jews speak their national language of Hebrew and have a distinct civilization.  Resettlement in Israel has gone on for centuries.   Beginning in 1881, Zionists were working on rebuilding their nation that was finally officially recognized in 1948. 

My husband, Danny Eskow and myself, will be leaving on our Aliyah to Israel in a few days.  
 

Our history shows the need to have a national home to ensure our Jewishness of our Jewish people. After living in the diaspora for 2,000 years, many have assimilated into the surrounding culture and religions.  I see this happening in my own life in the USA.  After existing for centuries through fire and pogroms and near extinction, I'd rather die than see this happen.  

 What is Jewishness?  Jews have a shared religion as well as culture and history.  In our Jewish population we have people of all colors. We come from the European lands and are Ashkenazi Jews.  We also come from the Middle East countries and are the Sephardic Jews.   More than 100 countries make up Israel's populaton and are co-mingling again as a united nation.

Zionism is the Jewish people's sense of origin and destination in the land linked eternally with its name.  Zionism is the fulfillment of the Jewish nation.  Abba Eban wrote that he remembered something from 28 years ago: "When Arab armies had attacked Israel on the day of its birth, Andrei Gromyko said in the Security Council on May 21, 1948, that Arab military operations were "aimed at the suppression of a national liberation movement."  They're still actively trying to do it 63 years later. 

This is a time prophesized in the Bible of the return of Jews to Israel.  Israel is even finding a return of some of the lost tribes of Israel as well.  I was a part of the group of Jews who made Alliote to Israel in this return.  Though I couldn't remain there, many others have been able to do so.  I saw the return of Black Jews of Ethiopia who were said to be the remnant of the Queen of Sheba who had visited King Solomon.  These people were practicing Judaim and lived in a very threatening environment. 42,000 Ethiopians came to Israel in three airlifts: Moses, Joshua and Solomon.   Arriving in Israel barefooted and in white sheets, our community of Safed quickly took care of their needs and with donated clothing  set up a boutique in an empty apartment where they could try on clothing.  They seemed to be all artisans and put on an art display of their goods.  I couldn't believe how quickly they integrated into our society and saw how capable they were in the supermarket.  I worked with Jews from Morocco and Egypt and Russia, from America and England and Australia.  My favorite female singer was a beautiful gal from Yemen, Oprah Hazah.  I couldn't take my eyes off of the gorgeous women from India in their special clothing.  It was thrilling to see people from all corners of the earth and to know that we were Jews with our own country once again.  Every step we took was in a special piece of our land with a history that went back thousands of years. 

 The word "Zionism" was coined by Nathan Birnbaum in 1890.  The United Nations  tried to befoul Zionism by creating a resolution slandering it in 1975 by connecting it to racism.  Chaim Herzog was Israel's ambassador to the UN then and noted that the vote came exactly 37 years after Kristallnact, (night of the broken glass) a terrible pogrom on Jews in Nazi Germany and Austria on November 9th and 10th 1938 which led to the Holocaust, the attempt of Nazis to kill all Jews in the whole world.  That was such a ridiculous resolution being Israel's ingathering of the Jewish people from all the lands results in  a showy bouquet of all colors and hues of people and is the very opposite of racism. 

Israel's scrupulous insurance of all religions and political rights of Christians and Muslims, citizens of Israel as well, rebut the charge of the UN's exclusivism. They should attend a Knessett meeting and see for themselves that Israel is more democratic than many other countries and is the only democratic state in the Middle East. Again, this was a ridiculous unfounded attack on Israel.

We certainly as a people are entitled to our own homeland, and have one to return to. It was desolate and nothing but swamps and desert when our pioneers returned in the 1800's.  It was nothing but a holding of the Ottoman Empire, used only by camels passing by, populated by a few Jews and Bedouins.  Mark Twain wrote about it while on his "pleasure trip" in "The Innocents Abroad" which he writes of his impressions and sights in his descriptive manner. He mentions that he thought he had seen it with impartial eyes and was sure he had written at least honestly, whether wisely or not.  It was as if the land were waiting for Jews to return to rebuild and turn it into a garden.  

 Martin Luther King said "When people criticize Zionists, they mean Jews.  They are showing that they are really anti-semitic."  To be a Zionist is to support Israel's existence. I hope others find they are Zionists as well.

 http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Zionism/Zionism_Is_Not_Racism.html

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

The Innocents Abroad by Mark Twain

Jewish Digest December 1975 "Myths & Facts on the Arab-Israel Conflict "Near East Report" page 5,6

Jewish Digest January 1976 "Zionism and the United Nations by Abba Eban/Synagogue Council of America

Jeff Goldberg's Obama Interview Asking the Kishke Question

Nadene Goldfoot
Today's Oregonian had an article about Philip Roth by Jeff Baker, and in it mentioned an interview by Goldberg where they talked about Israel. Barak mentioned that when a child in the 6th grade, his ideas about Zionism were shaped by a Jewish camp counselor who had spent some time in Israel. Their conversations about Israel made a big impression on Obama.

Obama admitted that his intellectual formation was through Jewish scholars and writers, though he wasn't aware of it at the time. Philip Roth and Leon Uris were mentioned. He said that when he thinks of the Middle East he has this enormous emotional attachment and sympathy for Israel, mindful of its history and hardship, pain and suffering that the Jewish people have undergone.

He mentioned the loss of the natual affinity between the African-American community and the Jewish community in the early civil-rights movement which has been estranged since then.

Obama thinks that the idea of a secure Jewish state is a just and necessary idea. However, he doesn't agree with every action of the state of Israel because he's a politician himself and understands the world of politicians. He's not alone. I haven't agreed with Olmert's decisions at all, though I'm sure I'm way to the right of Obama's thinking about Israel.

Jeff Goldberg asked the main question that I've been wondering so much about. He called it the Kishke question. Jews really don't know you. We don't know if you"love" us. You have Jim Baker, Zbigniew Brzezinski as advisors so we suspect you. I haven't been alone in this, then. There is a sense in some places that you don't feel Jewish worry the way a senator from New York would feel it.

Obama seemed surprised at this deduction, as he went on to say that Israel was important to him personally because of his own history of being uprooted. He said that he loved the way people were arguing about these issues and that we're asking ourselves moral questions. He went on to say that his deliberations over moral matters stems from Jewish thought, that your actions have consequences and that we have moral imperatives. He did mention that he had "ardent defenders" in his Jewish Chicago friends. When he started his community organizing, he had a few Jewish friends who also were organizers, and he was attacked for associating with them. I know that Reverend Wright felt like he was being taken away from his church group.

Finally, the big question came after much discussion. He was asked is he would denounce settlements publicly if president. Goldberg was referring to the "West Bank", what I call Judea and Samaria. Obama said "What I will say is what I've said previously. Settlements at this juncture are not helpful. Look, my interest is in solving this problem not only for Israel but for the United States."

Reference: Oregonian page o10 Sept 21, 2008 Philip Roth gets straight to the point, still by Jeff Baker
http://jeffreygoldberg.theatlantic.com/archives/2008/05/obama_on_zionism_and_hamas.php
See blog: http://www.israel-nadene.blogspot.com/ article 3/17/07 West Bank: It's importance to Religious Jews.
Other West Bank articles in my blog:
What International Law says about Israeli settlement, No Peace in West Bank, Israel Builds West Bank Housing, and Israel's rights to build Settlements 4/28/08.