Portland, Oregon's Human Rights Commission Voted to BDS Companies in Israel

Nadene Goldfoot                                                 

Portland's Willamette Week's headlines were:

Portland’s Human Rights Commission Sparks Anger With Vote to Divest of Companies in Israel

Oh, they are so smart, the HRC Human Rights group in City Hall..

 Human Rights Commissioners are appointed by the Portland City Council.   The Human Rights Commissioners are volunteers who work without pay.   They had 2 people on their committee who voted for BDS against Israel and chatter is they didn't even know what they were voting for.  Since then they have renounced their votes but are not allowed to do so by the Human Righters.  Once you've voted, you've had it!

Portland is going wild.  This Portland government council dumped all their Walmart bonds.  Not appropriate for them.  Politically incorrect company. 

 "The idea, championed by City Commissioner Steve Novick, led to Portland City Hall last December expanding its "do not buy" list of corporations in which it refuses to invest its $940 million portfolio. That list currently includes Wal-Mart and fossil-fuel companies such as Chevron and Exxon Mobil.

                                                                           

Barzeli Medical Center in Ashkelon, Israel, Portland's sister city.  This city has suffered greatly from rockets, mortars and missiles from Gaza.  They've had to move underground to do surgeries quite often.  They care for Arabs as well as Jews.  

A step further to controlling Israel came their way.  "Earlier this month, the Portland Human Rights Commission, an independent offshoot of the city's Office of Equity and Human Rights, endorsed a proposal that would ask the city to grow its "do not buy" list—to include companies that activists say play a role in the state of Israel's occupation of Palestine."

As a teacher and  student of history and a publisher of 3 blogs defending Israel and her rights to exist, I am appalled!!  Their history of Israel and their knowledge is worse than a 1st grader. 

 Israel is a legitimate state and there NEVER WAS A STATE OF PALESTINE!  And these people are making blind votes pertaining to the existence of Israel!  Evidently we have several left wing anti-Israel groups in town today.  "Bob Horenstein of the Jewish Federation   says the true goal of groups such as Occupation-Free Portland", one of them, " is to undermine Israel. 
 "This has nothing to do with human rights," says Bob Horenstein of the Jewish Federation.. "It is yet another attempt by the boycott/divestment/sanction movement to de-legitimize the state of Israel and demonize the supporters of the state of Israel."  

So all the Jews assembled yesterday afternoon at 4pm were demons, to the Human Rights Commission, including a few rabbis.   Israel has been legitimate in 1922 to the League of Nations and in 1948 to the United Nations, and yet after 67 years it still has to defend itself.  

I was born and raised in Portland, and this is the first time such anti-Semitism has shown itself, to come down on Israel in such a way. 

The BDS Movement stands for Boycotting, Divesting and Sanctioning somebody you are tying to control and change.  It's an unsuccessful effort to isolate Israel and create new Boycotts against the only democratic state in the Middle East. 

The first reference I've noticed is to BDS G4S, a British security company that provides equipment and services to Israel's 5 prisons.  Political prisoners are held there.  The BDSers claim they are held without trial and are tortured.  By being the supplier of goods and service, the demonstrators against this company claim they are participating in Israel's use of torture and holding them in prisons.  More than 6,000 Palestinians are held this way to discourage them from resisting Israel's apartheid policies.

None of these claims are true, including the accusation that Israel is an apartheid state.  Quite the opposite is true.  1.7 million Arabs are citizens.  Arabs serve in the Knesset.  Everyone votes.  

  This is what happens in Israel:

1. Proper custody and internment resources - improvement in the living conditions with the goal of reaching international standards, through optimal utilization of resources and development of alternatives to imprisonment.

2. Corrections - maximum utilization of the period of imprisonment to efficiently treat the offenders in order to enable them to successfully reintegrate into society.

Security Prisoners

There are some 4,500 security prisoners and detainees incarcerated in the Israel Prison Service, about 50% of whom are considered prisoners “with blood on their hands.” These prisoners include men, women and minors.

Among the security prisoners one finds senior members of Palestinian terrorist organizations, terrorists who were on their way to a suicide mission and were apprehended by the defense forces; dispatchers; attack planners; those responsible for preparing the explosives, etc. As the primary incarceration authority, the Israel Prison Service is responsible for the incarceration of these prisoners, while accommodating their basic needs in accordance with the law.

 B'Tselem - The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, tells a more accurate report than the Portland council.  Their report is on Gaza of which holds Palestinian terrorists who have been shelling Southern Israel for years, through the past 2 Intifada at least since 2001.  Far from being tortured, the criminals; terrorists and all, are paid by the PA for being in prison. 

Hamas from Gaza, terrorist

According to the PA  more than 4,500 Palestinian prisoners (as of December 2012) serving time for terror-related offenses are recipients of PA salaries. This means that Palestinians convicted of crimes such as theft do not receive a salary, but Hamas and Fatah terrorist murderers do. 

 The Israeli Police noted that since 13 April 2008 the police is no longer responsible for any prison facilities(thereafter, the responsibility of the Prisons Service). The police no longer hold Palestinian detainees, other than for interrogation purposes." They are questioned.  That's it.  The police are not like those in Syria or any other Middle East country.  
                                                                 

"Updated: 

  14 Oct 2015

At the end of August 2015, 5,373 Palestinian security detainees and prisoners were held in Israeli prisons, 341 of them from the Gaza Strip.* An additional 977 Palestinians were held in Israel Prison Service facilities for being in Israel illegally, 13 of them from the Gaza Strip. The IPS considers these Palestinians – both detainees and prisoners – criminal offenders. A few dozen other Palestinians (we do not have precise figures) are held in IDF facilities for short periods of time. The following data were provided by the military and by the IPS."

" In January 2015, the PA Ministry of Finance announced that the PA budget includes ‎transfer of salaries to prisoners in Israeli jails who were from Gaza. [Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, ‎Jan. 6, 2015] This openly contradicts the PA claim that the PA no longer pays salaries ‎to prisoners.‎"  When they are released, the PA pays them anywhere from $10,000 to $50,000.  

Students who protested and were for BDS in London were made up of many Arabs, I noticed.  All the women pictured were wearing scarves.  Politics against Israel are showing.  

There have been a lot of terrorists trying to kill Jews, and many of these have been a slaughter, horrible murders against Israelis.  

Portland invests with the farming company of Caterpillar. That's one company out of 4 they are divesting from.   "The city isn't currently invested in Motorola, Hewlett-Packard or G4S. It is invested in Caterpillar, and does buy products from the companies, including fire equipment from Motorola paid for with money fromPortland's $72.4 million fire bond issue, which voters approved in 2010.  

"The Human Rights Commission didn't do their homework," says the federation's Horenstein. "The fact that they could consider a controversial issue like this without reaching out to the mainstream Jewish community is mystifying."  Evidently the meeting yesterday went pretty badly.  All the board wanted was reasons WHY they should not invest and they felt they didn't hear them.  It didn't make any difference, since it seems they already had made up their vote before the meeting had started. 

 The meeting was called for one building, and then changed a couple of hours before they were to start in another building about 8 blocks away.  It's amazing at least about 50 people made it there and wanted to have a chance to speak. 

 Human Rights?  Where are the rights of Israelis against a mob of uneducated and highly biased people  bent on doing BDS to fracture the  economy  of Israel  ?  

" The Jewish Federation of Greater Portland has accused the volunteer group of legitimizing a campaign that could foster anti-Semitism, and Mayor Charlie Hales has said he would block the effort to divest from the four companies."  I certainly hope he succeeds.  

I see from the article by the Human Rights Commission that the Sabeel Movement is mentioned.  This is a religious movement. "The  Sabeel Movement,  connected to the Presbyterians who is working hard to delegitimatize Israel and refuses to see that its goals amount to anti-Semitism.  Their creed and teachings have also reached the Methodists, I'm afraid.  They both are groups that believe in the replacement theory of Christianity in that Israel is no longer important and has been replaced by them.  This is the motivation behind their being against Israel so much.  Some peace movement they are.  They are nothing but a strictly anti-Semitic group.  

"For those of you who may want to “relive” the Portland Human Rights Commission meeting or see it for the first time, go to: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A9ybZ3UuTv8 . Our effort to persuade the HRC to reconsider their misguided endorsement of a BDS proposal to boycott or divest from four companies doing business in Israel failed by a vote of 6 to 5. We are awaiting word from the mayor’s office on next steps to ensure that this goes no further." from Michael and Bob H. 

Update: 11/11/15,  from the commission, advertizing Sabeel (anti-Semitic religious group) . 

http://jewishfactsfromportland.blogspot.com/2012/01/attacks-on-israel-with-and-without.html

http://jewishfactsfromportland.blogspot.com/2012/01/how-sabeel-movement-is-harming-israel.html

11/11/15  http://fosna.org/occupation-free-portland-  

The mayor of London thinks BDS people are fools.  http://www.israelvideonetwork.com/the-mayor-of-london-just-proved-that-bds-supporters-are-fools/?omhide=true&utm_source=MadMimi&utm_medium=email&utm_content=Allen+West%27s+Message+to+all+Those+Still+Willing+to+Stand+up+for+Freedom&utm_campaign=20151110_m128177901_11%2F10+Today%27s+Israel+Connection%3A+Allen+West%27s+Message+to+all+Those+Still+Willing+to+Stand+up+for+Freedom&utm_term=mayor-of-london_png_3F1447136493

update-1 Update: Does the commission want to also boycott this?  It's something to help people with eye problems.    It's made in Israel.  https://www.facebook.com/israelmakingtheworldabetterplace/videos/477540789084466/?fref=nf

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WV6K08RFRQs facts about Israel

Additional note: > 

> Jewish Boycott - Very informative (Read to the end)

>

> A short time ago, Iran's Supreme Leader Grand Ayatollah Ali Khomenei urged the Muslim World to boycott anything and everything that originates with the Jewish people.

>

> In response, Meyer M. Treinkman, a pharmacist, out of the kindness of his heart, offered to assist them in their boycott as follows:

>

> "Any Muslim who has Syphilis must not be cured by Salvarsan discovered by a Jew, Dr. Ehrlich. He should not even try to find out whether he has Syphilis, because the Wasserman Test is the discovery of a Jew. If a Muslim suspects that he has Gonorrhea, he must not seek diagnosis, because he will be using the method of a Jew named Neissner.

>

> "A Muslim who has heart disease must not use Digitalis, a discovery by a Jew, Ludwig Traube.

> Should he suffer with a toothache, he must not use Novocaine, a discovery of the Jews, Widal and Weil.

>

> If a Muslim has Diabetes, he must not use Insulin, the result of research by Minkowsky, a Jew. If one has a headache, he must shun Pyramidon and Antypyrin, due to the Jews, Spiro and Ellege.

>

> Muslims with convulsions must put up with them because it was a Jew, Oscar Leibreich, who proposed the use of Chloral Hydrate.

>

> Arabs must do likewise with their psychic ailments because Freud, father of psychoanalysis, was a Jew.

> Should a Muslim child get Diphtheria, he must refrain from the "Schick" reaction which was invented by the Jew, Bella Schick.

>

> "Muslims should be ready to die in great numbers and must not permit treatment of ear and brain damage, work of Jewish Nobel Prize winner, Robert Baram.

>

> They should continue to die or remain crippled by Infantile Paralysis because the discoverer of the anti-polio vaccine is a Jew, Jonas Salk.

>

> "Muslims must refuse to use Streptomycin and continue to die of Tuberculosis because a Jew, Zalman Waxman, invented the wonder drug against this killing disease.

>

> Muslim doctors must discard all discoveries and improvements by dermatologist Judas Sehn Benedict, or the lung specialist, Frawnkel, and of many other world renowned Jewish scientists and medical experts.

>

> "In short, good and loyal Muslims properly and fittingly should remain afflicted with Syphilis, Gonorrhea, Heart Disease, Headaches, Typhus, Diabetes, Mental Disorders, Polio Convulsions and Tuberculosis and be proud to obey the Islamic boycott."

>

> Oh, and by the way, don't call for a doctor on your cell phone because the cell phone was invented in Israel by a Jewish engineer.  

This is also posted on my Jewish Bubba blog.  

Reference:  http://www.bdsmovement.net/activecamps/g4s
https://www.portlandoregon.gov/oehr/62221?
http://www.btselem.org/statistics/detainees_and_prisoners
http://mops.gov.il/ENGLISH/CORRECTIONSENG/Pages/IPS.aspx
http://ips.gov.il/Web/En/Default.aspx
http://www.wweek.com/2015/10/28/portlands-obscure-human-rights-commission-sparks-anger-with-israel-palestine-vote/
http://www.haaretz.com/jewish/news/1.611971
https://t.e2ma.net/message/gepgq/kxahhk HRC's endorcement of BDS
http://www.palwatch.org/main.aspx?fi=1005 Palestinian prisoners being paid by PA
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4454760,00.html PA pays upon release huge sum
http://www.haaretz.com/world-news/1.634334 how other countries keep terrorists
http://jewishfactsfromportland.blogspot.com/2015/06/palestinian-backed-bds-movement-abetted.html
http://jewishfactsfromportland.blogspot.com/2012/01/attacks-on-israel-with-and-without.html  (Sabeel) 

Results of Operation Defensive Edge in Gaza

Nadene Goldfoot                                                                

                                                                                                

                                                                                                         
I am truly disgusted with Europeans who demonstrated against Israel during the recent Protective Edge Operation by Israel who had to go into Gaza in order to defend themselves.  This shows anti-Semitism is still alive in Europe.
                                                                       

How quickly they have forgotten what it was like for their grandparents who were attacked by the German air force, or what it was like to be attacked at all by them.  At least they had the USA join their forces and fight with them.  This was the predicament Israel found itself in; the whole little state was being hit by rockets, this time including Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, and the population of Israel had to find safety in bomb shelters.
                                                                       

                                                       Iron Dome hits incoming rocket

That Israel's government had the where-with-all to pick themselves up and march onto Gaza is a credit to their organization.  Nobody else was stepping up to the plate to come and defend them.  Little Israel had to do it all alone, and they were able to take out 1,923 rocket launchers and storage facilities while their own country was the target of a total of 4,564 launched rockets.  197 of those launched never made it but were duds.  Out of those, only 735 rockets were intercepted over cities and communities by the Iron Dome.  It took the IDF and reservists to answer the call for service to protect their country.  While rockets were screaming down on Israeli cities and villages, young teenagers of 18 and veterans of both sexes dodged them in order to meet together and go into Gaza.
                                                                             

 A few IDF (Israel Defense Force) friends.  All men and women serve in the IDF in Israel, going in at 18.  

The intention and training of Israelis is to not attack citizens, but of course the world now knows that Hamas kept their own civilians as their own protective wall from Israel's weapons and for purposes of using the statistics as a weapon against Israel.  Israel gave more than ample warning to get out of harm's way, which only gave the terrorists the knowledge to keep them there.  Out of the 2,100 Gazans who were killed, a good 1,000 were terrorists themselves shooting at the IDF.  253 were Hamas terrorists, 147 belonged to Islamic Jihad and 603 were militants from the various other terrorist groups working with Hamas.  Israel was able to hit rocket production facilities, command and control centers, and other targets that were part of the IAF's close support for ground forces.  In all, Israel was able to take out 5,226 targets in Gaza, hopefully enough to slow down the rocket attacks that had been coming daily for years of which no one bothered to hold demonstrations about.
                                                                           

It's a good thing that Israel entered Gaza when they did, since they found and destroyed 32 attack tunnels that ended up in Israel.  They were going to be used to kidnap Israelis and for an entry into Israel for attacks.
                                                                   

All this time, amid hits raining down on southern Israel, the Israelis kept up their part of a bargain to keep Gaza supplied with whatever they needed, except ammunition, of course.  That's why they feel they must examine all boats coming into the area.   74,602 tons of goods from Israel went into Gaza by trucks.  Besides that, 1,742 tons of medical supplies were trucked in.  They had no shortage of fuel and gas as 843 tankers rolled in from Israel.  I might mention that the other half of Palestine, Judea and Samaria, owe a lot of money to Israel for their electricity which they've been taking freely with payment.  Any normal company in the USA would have cut off such a customer long ago, but being these are countries, Israel hadn't taken such steps. Since they have declared Hamas and Fatah as unified and are Palestine now, perhaps the accounting books will look at this differently.  Because Gazan Palestinians are sworn enemies with the intent to wipe out Israel, this has to be handled this way.  There is no peace pact between them though there had been a chance to think Fatah was more willing.  It's not a situation like Canada and the USA.  It's an enemy trying to wipe out Israel-who wants peace with all.  Fatah-Hamas unification has already been broken over disagreement of who is the boss.  That seems to be their main problem.  Fatah did embrace Hamas's covenant.

Resource: magazine, The Jerusalem Report, September 22, 2014 pp 18, 19.

Why Distrust and Contention Between Palestinians and Israel

Nadene Goldfoot                                                                

                                                                                                      

Having served 6 years already for stabbing  killing an Israeli chocolate manufacturer, Sasson Nuiel.  Saeed is leading a good life in an Israeli prison.  

Hamas refuses to change their charter which is the same as Muslim Brotherhood-to destroy Israel and kill Jews.  Both Fatah and Hamas refuse to recognize Israel as a Jewish state.  They've refused offers of their own statehood for the past 66 years and just now declared it without any peace accord with Israel.  It's taken them only one week to commit acts of destroying Israel with continued rocket attacks from Gaza and now a kidnapping of 3 Jewish teenagers.

Israel's prisons hold about 5,000 Palestinian terrorists.  Hundreds are serving life sentences for murder.  The Palestine authority run by Abbas sees them as heroes for fighting against Israel.  The murderers get extra attention and honor.

The PA sees kidnapping as a legitimate act that will bring about the release of these terrorists.  What Israel's neighbors would do to people who would terrorize them would be to kill them.  Instead, Israel puts such people in prison.

In fact, the PA encourage Hamas to kidnap Israeli soldiers and hold them hostage for the reason of using them to exchange prisoners for release.  This was stated by the Deputy-Secretary of Fatah's Central Committee, Jibril Rajoub, a senior PA official on January 2, 2014.
                                                                             

                                                       Hamas Terrorists
               
PMW, Palestinian Media Watch keeps an eye on such goings on.  On October 24, 2011 Abbas said on  the official PA TV that Hamas kidnapped a soldier, Galad Shalit, and managed to keep him for five years, and that's a good thing.  The a week later on October 30, 2011, his representative, Rajoub said that "We salute those who dug the tunnel to kidnap Gilad Shalit;  we salute those who captured the captive, Gilad Shalit, and salute those who guarded the captive until this deal was completed.
                                                                             
Abbas said  on October 6, 2009 on their official TV program that "We have 11,000 prisoners.  We will definitely, always and forever, act to free them using all means."  Notice that they never tell them not to attack Israel to keep them out of prisons, but they instigate and encourage them, then promise to get them out.                                                  

                                                                Fatah emblam
This year on January 2, 2014, Rajoub said that "if Hamas wants to kidnap soldiers...we encourage them.  When they kidnapped Shalit we congratulated them.
                                                                           

                                                                  Fatah Terrorists

Just this April 16, 2014 on their Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas promised that "The kidnapping of Israeli soldiers.....will continue.

Since they became a recognized Palestine a week ago, Hamas has been busy talking up recruits from Fatah to join them in attacking Israel.  They now are connected and can reach Judea-Samaria because of this recognition.

A week ago the USA recognized Palestine, followed by the EU which goes against Israel's expectations of a peace accord first.  This terror state could only wait one week before they are actively committing this act, even though they had promised Kerry and Obama to distance itself from terror.  This is an act of terror.  To rub salt in Israel's wound, they continue to glorify terrorism and promote kidnapping Israelis as hostages.

Their comments have been, when hearing of a kidnapping, "That's a good thing.  We don't deny it.  On the contrary, it's good because in that small strip of 40 X 7 km (Gaza) , they managed to guard Gilad Shalit and hid him- that's a good thing.  This was heard on October 24, 2011's TV program.

Two years earlier Israel had released 20 female terrorists in exchange for information about Gilad.  The Palestinians took this as hope to use this method to free 11,000 more and this is but one of many means they are ready to use.                                                

  Palestine Authority, Fatah's origins- from Arafat of PLO terrorists

Why are there so many Palestinian prisoners in Israel's prisons?  "It is a fact that over 1,000 Israeli civilians have died as a result of suicide bombings and other terrorist attacks since the beginning of the conflict (most of them during the Second Intifada between 2000-2005*), but violence and terrorism is far from the whole story.  Since 2001 southern Israel has been peppered by rockets, missiles and mortars from Hamas' terrorists.  This is true terrorism.  

First Israel suffered from suicide bombers in the 90's.  Palestinian militants first employed suicide bombing as a terrorist tactic then.  Some are in prison for throwing rocks at Israelis.  In September 2000, the 2nd Intifada started and went on till February 8, 2005.  The bombing is southern Israel has never stopped but continues today.  

The Arabs are anti-Semitic and keep on attacking Jews.  "

Columnist Richard Cohen wrote that "The Arab world is the last bastion of unbridled, unashamed, unhidden and unbelievable anti-Semitism.  Hitlerian myths get published in the popular press as incontrovertible truths.  The Holocaust either gets minimized or denied, as Iran does.  ....How the Arab world will ever come to terms with Israel when Israelis are portrayed as the devil incarnate is hard to figure out.  

I have news for Richard Cohen.  anti-Semitism has mushroomed again all over the world.  He's right in blaming the Arabs, for they have fed the propaganda and lead the charge, though.  Of course, not every Arab feels this way.  We do have supporters from them as well, but when those against us have given false testimony against us such as anti-Semites of yesterday, again they are being listened to as seriously as those reading their bibles believe in that.  
                                                                         

  
What is it like in an Israeli prison?  Israel's prisons are closely watched by the whole world.  One reason is that the government has allowed representatives of the Red Cross and other groups to come regularly to inspect them.  Does Iran allow this?  A relative of mine was imprisoned there on her vacation for buying some little chatchka from a pesky salesman.  She was in there for years, and had to cook her own food.  Prison is not a hotel, and shouldn't be a pleasant place for anyone, but these prisoners are being paid by Hamas for their acts, which causes more to become terrorists.  

Israel is not allowed to arbitrarily arrest its citizens.  Defendants are innocent until proven guilty, just like the USA.  They have the right to writs of habeas corpus and other safeguards.  Israel doesn't jail political prisoners like Russia has.  Israel keeps an independent judiciary.  

Israel was born in May 1948.  Years ago, some Arab prisoners who were suspected of participating in acts of terrorism were interrogated that one could call severe methods.  They were criticized as using excessive methods and their Supreme Court issued a landmark ruling in 1999 that prohibited the use of many of the practices that they considered abusive.  The USA went through the same steps.  We've all heard about how USA police used to use the rubber hose.  

Israel never has had the death penalty.  Only once, when Adolf Eichmann was condemned, has it been used.  He was the man  most responsible besides Hitler for the "Final Solution" to kill all Jews in the world.  No matter what the Arabs have done, and some cases are too ghastly for me to even write about, have they decided on the death penalty.  

Prisoners get to mingle with each other, throw parties and study for advanced degrees.  they can stay in touch with their fans on Facebook using their 3G mobile smartphones.  Life is more like a vacation.  They just don't get to have bagels and lox, that's about all.  They even get a salary from the PA, even Hamas terrorists.  The money comes from American and EU taxpayers.  10% of the PA budget pays salaries of prisoners and benefits to their families and families of terrorists who weren't lucky enough to end up in prison but who tried to shoot it out.  So they eat very well.  The Jews they murdered have families who don't eat as well.  This is how  $100 million dollars is spent on benefits for terrorists.  How could any government fall for their words that they oppose terrorism when they are subsidizing the terrorists which the instigator and they go on aiding and abetting terrorists ?  

Knowing all this, Kerry and Obama's government tried to force the issue and demanded that Israel bend to their wishes to accept a Palestinian government.  Oh sure, Israel must be the only little state in the world who would just love to have the killers of their families be allowed to profess their statesmanship, a position that gives them extra rights in the world---to accomplish their goal of doing in Israel.  No way does it spell out a psychological change of their hearts.  If anything, this has given them fuel to steam ahead with their goal---with the slipshod promise to Israel that they will keep their eye on the Palestinians.  It's only gone from bad bad bad to worse and worst.  

Now Israel has to watch the west which is Gaza and the east which is  Judea-Samaria, both only a few blocks away from their own homes. All the while Israelis have to watch what's happening in the north where thousands of missiles lie pointing at them from Syria and Lebanon.  Somebody must think that I'm ready to buy the Brooklyn Bridge.   We know the whole world watches once in a while, but nobody cares anything about Israel's enemies who are out to destroy them.  That's because they are under a subtle attack themselves and are morphing into the same thing.  

Human rights groups are just as much at fault of the situation.  They condemn Israel every moment with unfounded accusations which has caused Israel to bend over backwards to show how well it treats Muslim terrorists.  IDF is under the same rules of engagement as the USA which are causing serious US casualties in Afghanistan.  Those in charge of Israeli prisons are allowing the terrorists to post propaganda on Facebook from the prisons!  In their defense, it could come from not being able to read Arabic, for I'm sure it's not in English.  

Human rights groups even are as one-sided that they describe Gaza as a prison.  They have free electricity and free water supplied by Israel because they have not paid their bills.  While Israel is carefully measuring out their water use, Gaza has opened up a water park.   Tell CNN and BBC that they are full of prunes in their reports about how awful Israel is.  Their prejudice is showing.  The newspapers are just as bad so they get money from them.  

1700 Iraqis have just been murdered by ISIS who are about 30 miles from Damascus now.  Yes, the world is in good shape and it's all Israel's doing according to many.  No wonder Israel finds it difficult to trust a terrorist state that has just been accepted by the US and EU.  Thanks buds.  

Resource:  pmw@palwatch.org.
http://www.frontpagemag.com/2011/dgreenfield/the-hard-life-of-muslim-terrorists-in-israeli-prison/
http://www.frontpagemag.com/2011/dgreenfield/the-hard-life-of-muslim-terrorists-in-israeli-prison/2/
http://www.supportisraelfreepalestine.org/documentary_site/palestinian_violence.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Intifada
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/myths3/MFrights.html

Baghdad: One Day Away From Jerusalem

                  The Cradle of Humanity

Nadene Goldfoot                                      Babylon-Babylonia 

                                                                                       

                             ISIS Terrorists Ready to Attack Baghdad

You know what's happening to Baghdad, capital of Iraq right now.  ISIS Sunni terrorists are approaching like a hoard of locusts, killing everyone in their path brutally.  CNN just showed them forcing a father and his two sons to dig their own graves, and the father pleaded for their lives, but they were all shot while in or near their graves.  They do a lot of beheading.  The aim of ISIS is to create an Islamic state across Sunni areas of Iraq and in Syria and they are doing it as brutally as possible.  It's causing soldiers to run and leave their weapons, weapons that were given to them by the USA.  

If we go back far enough, the land was also known in the bible as the land of Shinar or of the Kasdim (Chaldees).  It's the cradle of humanity and the scene of the Tower of Babel.  Abraham was born in Ur of the Chaldeans.  To the prophets, Babylon was the symbol of insolent pagan tyranny.  It was home to Nebuchadnezzar II (604-561 BCE) who attacked the Jewish kingdom of Judah. We read in the Torah, "By.the waters, Of Babylon. We lay down and wept, And wept, For thee Zion. We remember, Thee ..."    Zion was another name for Jerusalem.  They had been captured and taken to Babylon for slave labor.

Babylon became Iraq which became independent in 1932 when they then turned on the Jews and persecuted them. From 1932 to 1934 there were 5 governments. In 1939 there were 80,000 Jews living in Baghdad.    In 1941 when Nazi thought permeated the Middle East , there were violent acts against Jews in Baghdad.  A pogrom against Jews was from the Muslims there.  This was called the Farhud, a riot, and they killed about 180 Jews and is attributed to the hateful attitude Arabs kept towards Jews from then on.  This was during the revolt of Rashid Ali.  The population was led by Haj Amin al-Husseini, the Sharif of Jerusalem, called the Grand Mufti.  About 1/3 of Baghdad at that time was populated by Jews.  There are probably Muslims who carry genes of their Jewish ancestors today.

Iraq soldiers attacked Israel in 1948 a few minutes after Israel announced its statehood.  Iraqis lost but refused to signed an armistice agreement with Israel.  So 123,500 Jews left Iraq then for Israel in Operation Ezra and Nehemiah.  Their property was confiscated by Iraq.  For those that didn't leave, they were given severe restrictions, especially after the Six Day War of 1967 when they had attacked Israel again with Syria, Egypt and Jordan.  Their treatment was so bad that it aroused international protests.  By 1991, the Jewish population was 150 living in Baghdad where one synagogue still continued to operate.

In 1981 Israel bombed the Osirak  nuclear reactor the French had built for Iraq.  It is the world's first air strike against a nuclear plant. The reactor was 18 miles south of Baghdad.  "The 70-megawatt uranium-powered reactor was near completion but had not been stocked with nuclear fuel so there was no danger of a leak, according to sources in the French atomic industry."  The atomic bombs from this "would be of the Hiroshima size. Thus a mortal danger to the people of Israel progressively arose."

It acted then because it believed the reactor would be completed shortly - either at the beginning of July or the beginning of September 1981."

 Jews had been living in Babylon way before Islam ever came into existence in 637.    The Babylonians had attacked Jerusalem in 597 BCE and had carted off all the best Jewish men and again in 586 BCE.  They took them to their home and made them slaves, so sold them to neighbors for a high price.

Speaking of neighbors, Aleppo, Lebanon had an ancient Jewish community also.  Jews had been praying there in their Great Synagogue since the 400s CE.  Jews had been in that city since 300 BCE and were the oldest native sect in the city.  They were there first.  If a car leaves Jerusalem in the morning they will arrive in Aleppo by mid-afternoon today.  Baghdad is only a day's drive from Jerusalem, but the borders will cause it to take a little longer.

Iraq used to be called Mesopotamia.  When the Muslims conquered the city in 637 and converted everyone, the Jews were happy, hoping they would be delivered from the cruelty of the Sassanid persecution.  Jews had come there from Kufa who had been expelled from Saudi Arabia a few years before.  It was a famous Jewish center where the Exilarch, head of the Jewish community and the Gaon were thought of as the most knowledgeable Jews in the land and who came to them for matters that needed to be decided upon.  Benjamin of Tudela in 1170 said that 40,000 Jews were living in Baghdad when he visited there.  Many were distinguished scholars. Among the Jews were poets, physicians and talmudists.    Under Mongol rule from 1258, Jews fared well.  Some even reached high administrative positions.  A massacre happened in 1291.  Then Tamerland captured Babylon in 1300 and the Jews fled.  The Ottoman Empire counted Baghdad as a conquest in 1534 and held it until 1917 when they lost WWI to the Western Allies.

Today Iraq is the 11th largest Muslim majority country with 31,234,000 population before fighting.  97% are Muslims, who are both 27% Shi'a and 70% Sunni.  The state is listed as secular.  As a state, they have 254,418 active troops.  "Mainstream Sunnism has been said to be "about" Sharia, sacred law.   In contrast, the Shia also follow Islamic law with great "vigilance", but their belief is added with Ijtihad "Research" in the light of teachings of the Quran."

So this was the cradle of civilization.  It has been working on  becoming  the cemetery of civilization at this rate.  The leader of ISIS, a PhD, is Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi.   He even served four years in a U.S. prison camp for insurgents, at Bucca in southern Iraq -- a time in which he almost certainly developed a network of contacts and honed his ideology.   He was released in 2009 and went to work.

Resource:http://mosaicmagazine.com/essay/2014/06/mizrahi-nation/
 The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/293631/Iraq/22903/Independence-1932-39
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islam_in_Iraq
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shia%E2%80%93Sunni_relations
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ijtihad
http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/june/7/newsid_3014000/3014623.stm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six-Day_War
http://www.cnn.com/2014/06/12/world/meast/who-is-the-isis/

Palestine Copying Hezbollah-Run Lebanon Government

Nadene Goldfoot                                                                    

                                            Hezbollah, who run Lebanon today

Kerry went to Beirut, Lebanon yesterday to tell that country to pick a president and end their stalemate.  They haven't been able to do this because Hezbollah is in charge of the country.   Hezbollah (Party of God) came into power in 1982 when Israel let Major Hadad of Lebanon to go it alone and go to stop the PLO in their camp.  They had been fighting against Hadad and attacking Israel.  Hadad and his men were Christians, and the country, according to Lebanese law, needed a Maronite Christian to be the President of this Muslim majority  state.  Hadad was helping Israel to guard its northern border.

According to Wikipedia, Lebanon has a president who is Tammam Salam born 1945 and who started his term in office on May 25, 2014.  He is the incumbent of the Independent Party.  He had to step in because they hadn't been able to choose a Maronite Christian.  "This agreement had to be suspended three times, when two Muslims, the former Prime Ministers had to step in as Acting Presidents, Selim Hoss in 1988, Fouad Siniora in 2007 and Tammam Salam in 2014"  Since this isn't the first time they have had problems in picking a Maronite Christian but had solved the problem, did they really need Kerry to tell them to get with it and  end their political stalemate?  

Now, this united Hamas-Fatah government of Palestine that the USA is already accepting (PUG) is based on Hezbollah's model in Lebanon.  The deal is this:
1. Hezbollah terrorists are a part of the government
2. They  get to run their own large and independent army.
Conclusion:  Hezbollah controls most of Lebanon.  Lebanon is in an official state of war with Israel.

Hezbollah fought a guerrilla campaign against Israel in southern Lebanon until Israel withdrew in 2000.  Then they emerged as a leading political party in post-civil war Lebanon.  On July 12, 2006, Hezbollah launched a military operation against Israel and killed Israeli soldiers and abducted 2 as prisoners of war.  This caused Israel into having a major military offensive against Hezbollah. This 2nd Lebanon War ended on August 14, 2006.   The war lasted 34 days and 1,000 Lebanese were said to be dead from it in Lebanon.  1,000,000 were displaced. It was a stalemate.   This was seen as Lebanon coming out of it as heroes.  This helped them to topple Lebanon's government.  It looks like they are still in the driver's seat.  It was Iran who backed and supported Lebanon during the war and probably afterwards, too.  .

Hezbollah dominates the country's domestic and foreign policy and their military machine is better than the national army.  It makes the final say on appointments.  Hezbollah subscribes to the Iranian paradigm of wilayat al-faqih. The doctrine of Wilayat al-Faqih forms the central axis of contemporary Shi’a political thought. It advocates a guardianship-based political system, which relies upon a just and capable jurist (faqih) to assume the leadership of the government in the absence of an infallible Imam. However, although the guardianship of a high-ranking religious scholar is universally accepted amongst all Shi’a theories of governance, any disagreement is focused on the details such as the role of the jurist and the scope of his authority.  

 Ahmad al-Asaad, leader of the Shiite party, believes that "we must get rid of Hezbollah in order to build a viable state. Washington is funding the Lebanese Armed Forces which everybody knows is under Hezbollah control.
                                                                           

                                              Hamas Terrorists will have free reign.

Aren't we thrilled that Palestine is copying the Hezbollah terrorists' model for government?  Hamas will be just like them. They will run much of the show behind the scenes and also keep its independent army of terrorists and weapons.  Lee Smith, author of " THE STRONG HORSE, Power, politics, and the clash of Arab civilizations"  notes that their independent military organization will engage in terrorism.  The PA is only a legitimate cover while they wage war against Israel.  No doubt Washington will be funding the PA because Kerry is calling the Hezbollah terrorists a legitimate player when speaking in Lebanon and Syria.

Why bother labeling groups as terrorists when they are still involved and accepted by the USA?

Some are talking about the reason Kerry went to Lebanon, and don't think it was just for pushing for stability by electing a Maronite Christian as president.  It was to send a message to Israel.  Since Israel didn't bend in Kerry's running of a peace table, this could be quite vindictive of Kerry.  The USA is accepting a Palestine that has terrorists running the government, just like Lebanon has, and thus the USA will then be able to work with them.

Resource:  http://www.jewishpress.com/news/breaking-news/john-kerry-visits-hezbollahs-lebanon-sends-message-to-israel/2014/06/05/
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/264741/Hezbollah
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Presidents_of_Lebanon
http://www.al-islam.org/shia-political-thought-ahmed-vaezi/what-wilayat-al-faqih
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2006_Lebanon_War