Memorial Day Thoughts for USA and Israel

Nadene Goldfoot                                                                                                               

                                                                                                                                                                                                                       Memorial Day 2014 Washington DC

                                                                       

                      Benny Gantz Paying Tribute to Fallen in Israel's Yom Kippur War of 1973

"Imagine taking a walk from New York City to Chicago. That’s about an 800-mile trek, and it would take about two weeks of non-stop walking to complete it – a lot longer if you stopped to rest.

Now, imagine that all throughout your walk there were a continuous line of people standing shoulder to shoulder, one after another through the streets of New York City, into the back roads of New Jersey, over each rolling hill in Pennsylvania – people as far as the eye can see. It continues through Ohio and Indiana into Illinois. Finally, you arrive in Chicago after having walked past 1,321,612 people.

That’s a LOT of people. It also happens to be the same number of people who have died in combat while serving this country.

It’s sobering to think of all those faces. Each face has a story – a soldier whose life was cut down in its prime and likely left behind a spouse or a child or both. Most (625,000) died during the bloody, gruesome close quarter combat of the Civil War. Another 405,399 died in World War II, and 116,516 died in World War I. There have been many different wars, and they’ve stretched across many different eras, but one thing has remained constant: The amazing courage and willingness of the American soldier to lay down his or her own life for the cause of liberty. "(1)

This means that from 1776 when the USA was created till now, we have lost over a million sons in battle to protect the rights of citizens of our country; rights that other countries still have not attained. We had to sacrifice the lives of  our 1,321,612 to die in battle protecting us over the past 238 years.    Today we are a country of 317 million people in a world of 7.1 billion.

Though Israel was re-created on May 14, 1948, it has an established history of more than 35 centuries long  with origins  in the Biblical period of the 17th to the 6th century BCE.   We know they started again with a population of 650,000  66 years ago in 1948.  By the 1972 census they had 3,164,000 and today have nearly 8.2 million.  Israel's population is made up of 6.135 million Jews and 1.694 million Arabs which is  75% Jews and 20.7% Arabs to be exact.  It was established as the Jewish Homeland but is a pluralist society.  This means that different cultures and social traditions coexist.  For example, in 1972 Jews numbered 2,636,660 and were 85.2%; Moslems were 343,900 and made up 11.1%; Christians numbered 77,300 and were 2.4%; and Druzes & others were 37,300 and made up 1.3% of the population.  Like the USA, it has a population from all corners of the globe.

The 10 Lost Tribes are already being found and are returning to Israel.  Others are returning from countries that have a high amount of anti-Semitism that has also taken lives, so they are moving to Israel after suffering from much persecution for being Jews such as what has been happening in France.

Out of its 66 years of present day existence, Israel has had 7 major wars.  9,745 soldiers have been killed in engagements and terrorist attacks up to 1997.

Before Israel was declared a state the Jews lost lives defending the Jewish Homeland declared in the League of Nations in July 24, 1922.  The Balfour Declaration was signed on November 2, 1917.

Resource:  http://www.usnews.com/opinion/blogs/robert-schlesinger/2013/12/31/us-population-2014-317-million-and-71-billion-in-the-world
http://www.jpost.com/National-News/On-its-66th-birthday-Israels-population-nears-82-million-351045
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israeli_casualties_of_war
Facts About Israel 1973; Division of Information Ministry for foreign affairs, Jerusalem
http://www.danielpipes.org/4990/arab-israeli-fatalities-rank-49th
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/History/73_War.html
http://www.mythsandfacts.org/conflict/mandate_for_palestine/mandate_for_palestine.htm
http://www.mfa.gov.il/mfa/foreignpolicy/peace/guide/pages/declaration%20of%20establishment%20of%20state%20of%20israel.aspx
Resource:  (1) Glenn Beck from his program

Wait a Minute: Abbas Has No Legitimate Power

Nadene Goldfoot                                                                  

                   Mahmoud Abbas, Elected by Fatah and Not Leaving 10 years Ago
                                                                             

                Hamas's Prime Minister, Ismail Haniyeh, elected February 16, 2006

Netanyahu and Kerry have been dealing with the PA official head who has no actual power to speak for all the Arabs calling themselves the "Palestinian Arabs."  Actually, they are not from one tribe or country but a conglomeration of all the neighboring states of Israel who came in seeking work in the late 1800's with the Jewish settlers who had previously arrived from Russia.  Like the Jews who had never left, there were Arabs who had been living on the land as well and some had even bought property.  Most of them had sold their land to the Jews and had taken off for better ports such as Beirut, Damascus or Paris.

Fatah was the PLO, the Palestinian Liberation originally led by Arafat .  Mahmoud Abbas was elected as their PA (Palestinian Authority) president 10 years ago.  He had been elected to serve one term of 4 years.  He never left and there has been no other elections.   His official term has expired a long time ago.  Therefore, he does not have the electoral legitimacy in his own party.  Fatah was grounded in Gaza, but when Hamas, a party of true terrorists won their election there putting Ismail Haniyeh, voted in on February 16, 2006,  as their Prime Minister,  Fatah was kicked out to live in Judea-Samaria.  By rights, he should be finished this February as well, having served 2 full after being voted on only once for a 4 year  term.  Hamas refuses to sign any peace deal with Israel.  They have a charter that calls for Israel's destruction.  One can only imagine the threats they were able to conjure up to receive the vote of their people, voting being very new to them.

1.7 million Arabs live in Gaza. 2,100,000 Arabs live in Judea, Samaria and East Jerusalem.  500,000 Jews live there as well.  1.7 million Arabs live in Israel and have Israeli citizenship.   Having Abbas speak for all the Arabs of Fatah and Hamas violates the Palestinian Basic Law according to Abu Toameh, Palestinian Arab Israeli citizen who is a reporter for "The Jerusalem Post."  .  This allows for "constitutional and legislative anarchy in the Palestinian territories, for he has remained in power past his allowed term.  He cannot sign a peace agreement with Israel in the name of the "Palestinians" being they are a divided group.

Hamas is so violent a group that at a recent gathering of young Arabs in Gaza, he preached that educating the future generation to love death for the sake of Allah as much as our enemies love life should be their motto.  It was Golda Meier who had said that peace will come to Israel when the Arabs will love their children more than they hate us.  To love death is not the way to bring about peace.  To buy into such a philosophy is a sad comment on their culture.  We all know we must die eventually, but it is not a normal act to seek death out and prefer death over life, especially when you are just reaching your adult years.  This must be why Jews seek out the profession of medicine, to assist long life for all.  "May you live till your 120th year" is our wish at birthday events, for Moses lived till he was 120.  Palestinians have talked young people, sad people, depressed people and underachievers to become suicide bombers and to seek glory in death.

The question is, if the Arabs of Fatah and Hamas were given another chance at voting, would they vote as they had been previously or would they want to choose life and peace?  Abu Toameh thinks they should be given this chance and has called for John Kerry to continue to negotiate with Abbas even though his term expired long ago.  He would like to see such an election.

Since 1948, the Arabs outside of Israel calling themselves the Palestinian Arabs have been brainwashed into destroying Israel.  If 20- 25 years accounts for a generation, they have had almost 3 generations brought up to think this way.  Gazans have been under the most violent philosophy so I would think that some may want peace by now, but that the majority would vote as they did in 2006.  This way of thinking has become their religion, and they do not love their children enough to stop hating Jews.  It is the Arabs of Israel who have acclimated to living with Jews and finding out it's not like living with lions or tigers but that the law includes them as well, so they have rights and freedom that neither Fatah or Hamas have in life.

Resource:  http://www.algemeiner.com/2014/01/24/in-10th-year-of-4-year-term-critics-say-abbas-has-no-mandate-to-sign-peace-deal/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khaled_Abu_Toameh
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahmoud_Abbas
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ismail_Haniyeh
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Bank

What Judaism Says About Deaths of Birds and Fish Since 2011

Nadene Goldfoot

New Years 2011 is bad news if you're a bird or a fish. Mass deaths of both were first reported from Arkansas, Louisiana, Kentucky and then Sweden, all within the past week. Reports are coming in fast and furious from other locals as well.

Judaism says that the world is God's creation and that whoever helps to preserve it is doing G-d's work. G-d told Adam when he showed him around the Garden of Eden the following: "See how lovely and how worthy of praise are My works. They have all been created for your sake. Take care not to spoil or destroy My world."

Events that have arisen since then are: development of many vast industries, fights against disease which also creates dangers of overpopulation, invention of the diesel engine; global wars, nuclear energy, and massive building activities. This makes it impossible to get direct guidance from Jewish tradition such as "And replenish the earth, subdue it, have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the fowl of the air, over every living thing that creepeth upon the earth". At the time this was written there was no ecology problem as there is now.

We are to have a clean and peaceful environment. For example a dovecot (raising doves) was to be kept at least 50 cubits away from a town or your own property in order to keep the doves from eating the seeds sown in neighboring field. Goats and sheep were not to be raised in cultivated areas so as to encourage renewed agricultural growth after the land was devastated by wars. It is forbidden to destroy animals. Now we have thousands of birds, fish and other small animals all dying with a very short time frame. Is this a usual event? What are the odds that this could happen normally?

This all started with 83,000 dead and dying drumfish found dying in a 20 mile stretch in the Arkansas River, and then 3,000 red-winged blackbirds falling out of the sky on New Year's Eve in Beebe, Arkansas. People gave reports of hearing a loud noise and then seeing birds flying low across the ground and smashing into homes, cars, mailboxes and whatever. Louisiana reported birds falling from the sky, then Kentucky. Sweden was next to report the birds falling. In recent days 2 million fish died in the Chesapeake Bay, 150 tons of red tilapia in Vietnam and 40,000 crabs in Britain and other places across the world are reporting losses of animal life. Doctors report that the birds died of blunt force trauma. I guess we all would if we dropped out of the sky. Brazil has reported 100 tons of sardines, croaker and catfish washed up dead. New Zealand reports hundreds of dead snapper fish with with missing eyes. It was thought that they were starving.

Biologists are trying to calm people down by reporting that this happens quite frequently which is usally caused either by disease, parasites, pollution or an unknown mystery. They say that an average of 163 events are reported to the federal government each year. They're blaming cold and wet weather like in Arkansas on New Year's Eve when the birds fell out of the sky. This is often associated with mass bird deaths according to some ornithologists. Our paper and TV news reported that fireworks caused the birds to be so scared that they dropped dead out of the sky. That was a new cause to be added to the list. Technology can be blamed says Harvard biologist E.O. Wilson. We now have internet, cell phone and worldwide communications so people are hearing about it faster. Somehow, I just don't buy any of this. For all these animals to die in the same short timeframe in water and air, here and far away is mighty mysterious and makes me wonder what technology could be causing this to happen.

We have been made aware of animals that face extinction and are doing something about it. However, this is instant death of thousands and millions of birds and fish, and we must find the reason behind it. In this day of terrorism where Israel has had to give its total population gas masks, and we are made aware of the ease terrorists could poison our water supply, we know that our environment is in jeopardy and must be guarded. We just haven't done it well enough to protect our fish and bird population on this planet. We have a responsibility, and we shouldn't take animal death lightly as something that just happens. What is the cause for this effect?

More reports have come in. Folly Beach, South Carolina witnesses thousands of dead fish. 10,000 Menhaden were washed up on shore dead. This is SW of Charlston. cold water temperature was blamed.

Italy saw hundreds if not thousands of dead birds. They have been identified as turtle doves and were found with blue stain in their mouths. This could be a sign of poison or hyoxia. Rockwall, Texas had dead birds on Highway 155. Florida saw fish floating dead in a creek. Reports just keep on coming in.

Resource; http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/2011-1-7/ap_on_sc_us_sci_dead_wildlife_fact_check/print

http://thediablodispatch.com/?p=839 on Arkansas birds and fish dropping dead.

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/3336425/The-end-of-the-world-is-nigh.html

http://www.ndtv.com/article/world/why-are-birds-dropping-dead-from-us-skies-77866
http://www.ndtv.com/article/world/500-more-birds-drop-dead-from-us-skies-77298

http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/features/green/2011/01/more_wildlife_dropping_dead.html http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/05/dead-birds-fall-from-sky-_n_804591.html
http://www.news-banner.com/index/news-app/story.18421-this one you've got to read.
http://www.economist.com/blogs/theworldin2011/2011/01/odds_birds_dropping_dead_sky

Book: What does Judaism Say About..." by Louis Jacobs from the New York Times Library of Jewish Knowledge.

http://www.ktsm.com/news/more-fish-bird-deaths-this-time-world-wide

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1344345/Animal-death-mystery-Jackdaws-Sweden-fish-Brazil-New-Zealand-crabs-England.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/06/birds-dying-in-italy-thou_n_805541.html