OH BRAVE NEW WORLD OF OBAMA

Nadene Goldfoot
I have a strong feeling that Obama will win the nomination for presidency of the Democrats. He has a strong chance to actually win the presidency. This Jewish lady has reservations about what it will mean for Jews and Israel.

The country is Obama happy. Women are reported to be fainting at the mention of his name or seeing him in person. He is the youngest of the nominations without the same amount of experience, and this is working for him. All the younger citizens who never want to vote are mad about him. No one cares for how he differs from Hillary Clinton. News stories can't even talk about it for the desire to talk about other issues. The fact that he is new and fresh and wants to unite people is enough. It sounds like he is the Messiah.

Then we hear about his minister of 20 years in the church he and his family have attended. His pastor of this Chicago church, Pastor Wright, is quite an unusual pastor. He has been flailing against the United States at least since 9/11, and said that the United States invited the attacks by supporting Israel's treatment of Palestinians.

If this is what he teaches and feels, then I wonder truly where Obama's feelings about Israel are. He has to be influenced to some degree by this dynamic speaker. Obama gave a convincing speech to AIPAC, but I wonder. I wonder how much is said to gain votes and how much he really believes himself.

What is amazing is that the TV program I am now listening to is interviewing people and asking them if the information about his pastor bothers them, and they are pooh poohing it. They are so involved in promoting Obama that nothing said of a negative nature would bother them, as it is bothering the interviewer, Chris Wallace.

Even our former Mayor, Vera Katz, is voting for Obama. She doesn't even like Hillary. She said she's divisive and is drawn to Obama's unifying message. Well, his pastor certainly isn't preaching unification. He has condemned the USA and Israel.

Reference: Oregonian Newspaper, 3/15/and 3/16/08
My own personal feelings

Sderot Holding Onto Hope

Last night I attended a reception given for Yafa Arberboy about the plight of Sderot, Israel. She is a spokesperson for Paamonim, an organization that helps Israelis who are in financial trouble, and need loans and help in budgeting. Paamonim loans people money without interest and they learn to help themselves. When she moved into her office in Sderot, she saw that the situation was completely different there, as they have sustained rocket attacks since 2001, and were suffering from more than financial problems. She told us what life was like there.

Yaffa was born in Morocco and moved to a Moshav near Sderot when she was two years old. After marrying, she attended Sapir College which is at Sderot and was hired by Paamonim. She said that 30,000 people live in Sderot, and since 2001 they have lost less lives than the Palestinians, but are suffering in other ways. They have 15 seconds after a warning to get to shelter. Running is what they all have to do at any moment, and this causes injuries. A lot of glass is broken. People have to be taken to Barzelai Hospital, and an ambulance costs about $200. An operation can cost about $1,200. Even though they have socialized medicine, people need these things immediately and cannot wait, and evidently their medical insurance does not cover these things.

When a siren goes off, you run to a shelter, even if you are in the middle of a road in your car. You leave the door open, your purse and purchases on the seat, and run. Afterwards, you come back and nothing is missing.

The area has had cold winters this year. Rockets have hit so many places. One family's hot water tank was hit and they had no hot water. People are terrorized. Some cannot leave their homes out of fear. The exploding rockets are extremely loud and have affected many with hearing problems. They need hearing aids and cannot hear the sirens to know when to go to safety.

The alarms sometimes have had to warn people every 5 minutes. They have experienced 60 rockets a day, and that they rain on the city day and night now, whereas in the earlier years they only came during the day.

She told us the story of Evan, a Moroccan friend of hers. He and his family were at his mother's house, about 5 minutes away from his having dinner one night. He was ready to go home and go to sleep, and his mother said they were to stay with her that night. She said he must, even if she had to lock the door and keep him there. They didn't argue and stayed with her. In the middle of the night they had a phone call from the police. A Kassam rocket had fallen on his bedroom and they wanted to know if he had been home, and were greatly relieved to hear that he was with his mother that night. The family felt they had been through a miracle. Evan usually took their two-year old son to bed with them after visiting, and they all would have been killed, but for his mother's premonition.

One man didn't have a job, and was offered a chance to make some money by climbing up on the roof of a business and was promised the material up there that he could salvage. As he got on the roof, a rocket was shot and he fell off the roof. Yaffa said that the earth also trembles when the rockets land. Some families have had multiple injuries, and have needed help such as this man, whose daughter was also injured.

One fellow told Yaffa that he couldn't give up his cell phone when making out his budget. He needed to contact every family member when a rocket landed just to make sure they were all right. He'd rather give up meat on the table than his cell phone.

Parents take their children to school in a car and tell the child to run to school. That is, when they feel they can go to school. Yaffa said that everytime she sat down at her desk, the alarm would go off. Even if children got to school, they'd probably spend most of their time in a shelter in a fetal position. They're all pretty much in a state of trauma. No one sleeps. Some take turns. Children don't even know what it is to play outside. They are now conditioned to 2 minutes of movement.

One family was able to leave for two weeks and go north in Israel for a mental health break. Their children asked if they could play outside for 3 minutes. When told they could for an hour, they couldn't believe it.

One time Yaffa took her car to a car wash in Sderot. She could not stay in her car. You have to be ready to run to a shelter, and you can't hear the siren in the car in that place. The people are constantly hearing sirens; fire trucks, ambulances and rockets.

She told of a family whose 15 year old was wetting the bed due to trauma. The mother couldn't even wash clothes due to being in the shelter so much. Families get sick and cannot afford medicine. In one household, a father took medicine for one week and then his wife would take hers for the next week and so on. Of course this wasn't helping them at all, but they couldn't afford medicine for the whole family. I was shocked at this since medicine was so cheap when I was there. These people certainly are bad off.

She saw a home without a door, without roofs. One-third of the people have left Sderot, but the rest are remaining. They cannot afford to leave. They cannot sell their homes or apartments, or even find jobs elsewhere.

Yaffa is the person they turn to for help. She signed on as an advisor for financial problems, but has become their mental health counselor as well. So her visit to Portland was as an emergency appeal. I donated through the Jewish Federation and by writing: for Paamonim on my check. All the money will go directly to Sderot. You can also call 1-866-435-2200 to donate.

Nazis in Tigard, Oregon

Nazis in Tigard, Oregon

Nazis are turning up in Tigard, Oregon. Someone has flown a type of balloon with the swastika painted on it that has been shown on TV. That wasn't the end. Now it has been reported that there are flyers, banners, flags and anti semitic literature that is being found. A group of ANSWP has claimed to be the source of this ugly collection. So far, nothing has been in the paper; only on television about it.

The Last of the Jews

The Last of the Jews

Nadene Goldfoot
We have one state for Jews. There are more than a dozen states for the Muslims, and hundreds of countries for Christians. That one Jewish state is in dire peril. It is being attacked now on one front by the Hamas terrorists from Gaza. The West Bank contains its partners, Fatah, who are probably chomping at the bit to get into the action again, and are showing signs of it. There are the Hezbollah north of Israel in Lebanon who are ready to pounce, and most of them are being supplied by the threatening Iran with up to date long distance rockets. Israel is like Ladd's Addition in Portland, a little bit of land in the larger area of Oregon. It's not only our one Jewish state, but it's also extremely tiny.

The Palestinian Hamas are engaged in shooting at us. They seem to have no regard for their own people’s lives, and certainly don’t want peace with Israel, while Fatah has told us a little different story. However, when you get right down to it, neither will recognize Israel as a Jewish State. I doubt if anyone in their midst has the ability to form a peaceful state. What they have is a 20 year plan to drive Israel into the sea. They’ve hit on a working theory. They attack Israel, then cry and weep when we strike back in self defense. Their woeful words are copied and written down and the world cries with them and blames the victim; Israel. The world goes right along with their tactics, swallowing them whole. Very few analysts bother to write about why Israel enters the areas and fights back; they just write about how many Palestinians are killed. They pass up the turmoil and horror that the Israelis suffer from it all. They forget how small Israel is, only remembering that Israel has the better weaponry. Even rocks thrown can find a target and kill. That doesn’t even count anymore.

We may be going through our "Alamo" right now. Israel is nearing its 60th birthday in May, and is fighting to stay alive. Condoleza Rice has told us that it isn’t right for them to shoot rockets at us, but if we retaliate we shouldn’t hit civilians, as if this would be our goal. Unfortunately, Condoleza, the terrorists plant their rocket shooting enterprises right in the midst of their civilians for cover. They want them to be struck or they wouldn’t be there in the first place. They want the bad press for the Israelis. Please tell us how to accomplish this. We have developed weapons with better pinpointing accuracy, but some civilians are going to be hurt when they’re right in the path. We’re pinpointing, and they indiscriminately shoot rockets and only G-d knows where they will land. They’re never at soldiers, though, only at towns.

Palestinians never were a country or a state. They were wanderers who came following the scent of jobs with Israel. They came from many places around Israel. A few were squatters. They didn’t own the land. Israel paid dearly and bought land from Arabs who preferred to live in France and elsewhere. There was nothing in Israel but swamps and desert. They passed up the opportunity to have their own state when it was offered to them in 1948 and even again many other times. That’s not their goal. If they want to live and let live, they could move over to Jordan and be with other Palestinians who are having a normal life. They have many opportunities to live and be happy in other places. They have been brainwashed into giving up their lives in order to keep Israel from existing.

It’s too bad that the Muslims have developed such a disgust in having one Jewish state in the Middle East. After all, we have returned. We were there before their religion existed. We’ve been spoken of as cousins. We’re not leaving.

"And I shall make you like a fortified copper wall against this people; they will battle you but they will not be able to overcome you, for I am with you to save you and to rescue you-the word of Hashem."

Hitting Ashkelon Has No Bad Effect on Peace Process, Says Abbas

Wednesday's violence started when Israel finally had an airstrike in Southern Gaza after being bombarded by rockets into Sderot and now hitting Ashkelon. They killed 5 of the Qassam Brigade terrorists. The terrorists were seen carrying out a special operation against Israel. Militants responded by "firing barrages of rockets at Sderot" and killed an Israeli civilian. By Thursday they shot Katyusha-style rockets into Ashkelon which lies 10 miles north of the Gaza Strip. with 120,000 people.

The Ashkelon Marina was hit by a rocket on Saturday afternoon, wounding two residents. Outdoor cafes and bars were empty at lunchtime on Sunday, even though the weather was fine.

A long-range rocket hit outside the apartment house of Meram Levy, mother of two small children. This caused all the windows to shatter. Her husband and she sleep in shifts to listen to their new public address system alert.

Sunday afternoon, terrorists fired two more rockets into Ashkelon. One damaged a house. 16 people were in shock after this happened. One rocket landed near a kindergarten. 12 katusha rockets hit Western Negev.

Two shorter-range Qassam rockets, made in Gaza, fell inside Israel. Also hit was Netivot, a desert town in Israel.

Monday Condoleezza Rice visits Egypt. Abbas, head of Fatah which is located in the "West Bank" , complained that our IDF forces were destroying the peace process. We pulled out of Northern Gaza early Monday after a two-day operation against the squads firing rockets into Israel. Of course, the terrorists firing rockets were perfectly all right, he thinks. That is not destroying the peace.

Now that Israel knows that they can hit Ashkelon, they must strike back to protect their citizens. The IDF was trying to hit places where rockets were stored, and unfortunately, the terrorists store them in or near civilian homes. They also aimed at manufacturing facilities, a command center, and armed men. Israel must defend itself in a situation like this.

When Israel pulled out, Gazans had a victory rally of 20,000 people and fired more rockets into Israel. Among the Hamas terrorists are a wing called the Qassam Brigades, and Islamic Jihad and Popular Resistance Committees. They cheered, but all suffered casualties. Abbas of Fatah said that contacts with Israel had been temporarily suspended. He feels we are the aggressors. Evidently to him, firing rockets into Israel is not being aggressive. Abu Obeida, Qassam Brigade spokesman said they would continue firing rockets. In fact, if the terrorists and Israel have a truce, Zahar, spokesman for Hamas, said they would continue to train and make weapons. This is what Olmert fears. A truce would only give the terrorists time to prepare their fight against Israel.

Hamas may ask for a multinational force to protect the West Bank and the Gaza Strip from Israel. I wonder if it would work the other way, also, and be able to stop the terrorists from shooting rockets into Israel.

Reference: The New York Times
Jerusalem Post Newspaper
Yahoo News reported by Ibrahim Barzak, Ass. Press writer

Obama and Israel

Nadene Goldfoot
Obama said at a recent APAC forum: We should all be concerned about the agreement negotiated among Palestinians in Mecca last month. The reports of this agreement suggest that Hamas, Fatah, and independent ministers would sit in a government together, under a Hamas Prime Minister, without any recognition of Israel, without a renunciation of violence, and with only an ambiguous promise to "respect" previous agreements.
This should concern us all because it suggests that Mahmoud Abbas, who is a Palestinian leader I believe is committed to peace, felt forced to compromise with Hamas. However, if we are serious about the Quartet's conditions, we must tell the Palestinians this is not good enough.
But as I said at the outset, Israel will have some heavy stones to carry as well. Its history has been full of tough choices in search of peace and security.



My concern is that we've had some heavy stones to carry all along. We give in at every meeting and give land, but our opponents never do. We can't even get them to recognize us other than a target for killing. In order to accomplish his goal, I'm afraid he'll put added pressure on Israel to "give" another small piece of our already extremely small state. Jerusalem is land I'm thinking about. I'm not willing to part with one speck of it. If there is to be a Palestine next door to us, it will only come when they recognize and accept us and not do harm to us. They already live in East Jerusalem. We haven't kicked them out. I think it's safer all around if it remains under Israel's authority, considering what happened when Jordan was in control. For what they have done to us for 60 years of being terrorists and warring, I think we can say that they've never even had the option of taking Jerusalem from us. Israel has carried far too many heavy stones. It's the future Palestinians whose turn it is now.

Another problem I foresee is Abbas, who is said to be a moderate. Fatah is not as moderate as they should be. I'm afraid it's a ruse. One cannot be too naive. They talk with Hamas and plan. If Obama wins I would pray that he be wary of their intentions and promises. During February the Prime Minister of the Palestinian Authority (PA) Salaam Fayyad issued a poster to honor the 43rd anniversary of Fatah's party depicting Israel, Judea, Samaria and Gaza draped in an Arab headdress with a rifle and Yasser Arafat and honored the late terrorist George Habash by having 3 days of mourning, which included flying PA flags at half mast and publicly praising him as a great Palestinian hero. Mr. Fayyad is one of the "moderates" who is said to promote peace.

George Habash's terrorists murdered hundreds of Jews and Americans and instigated suicide bombings and airplane hijackings, were involved in the Munich massacre and murdered an Israeli cabinet minister, Zeevi. Even Fatah's office in Washington praised George Habash and dared to ask members of Congress to sign a book of condolence. American Jews who questioned Mr. Fayyad are just now realizing that the PA leadership is not moderate or peaceful. As they put it, "It's just Yasser Arafats in suits and ties. " Obama, our Israeli leaders had spoken with our enemies, but they were fully aware of whom they were speaking to. Our next president must have his or her eyes wide open and not be gullible. This must be the most important foreign relations skill. This is what I worry about. Enough with the heavy stones for Israel to carry. We've done our share already.

References: Obama speech to AIPAC
2/27/08 Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations: Palestinian PM Fayyad refuses to answer question about PA's honoring terrorist Habash & PA/Fatah Poster erasing Israel.

Portland's Sister City Ashkelon Hit For Third Time Overnight

Ashkelon and Sderot were hit with 21 missiles overnight. The rockets came in two waves for the third day in a row. five people were injured when two crashed into a house. Dozens of shock victims were treated. Eleven Qassam missiles exploded at Sderot early Saturday.

Ashdod, 27 km from Gaza and north of Ashkelon, is preparing its defenses now. They have 12 alert systems ready. Ashkelon had none. Ashdod is a port.

Olmert returned from Japan with his meeting with Condoleeza Rice and was presented with the facts that the IDF was prepared to target the Hamas rulers, and had gone after them with troops backed by tanks. Five Israeli soldiers were injured; two very seriously. Olmert is more of a peacenik than Obama, but realizes that Israeli cities cannot sit back and be attacked. They want to get Hamas and other terrorist groups involved out of northern Gaza where the missiles are coming from. Then Israel can avoid occupying Gaza again.

The terrorists know what their actions are causing, so they in turn have taken steps. They've taken over civilian homes as headquarters and have stocked them with ammo, water and food for three weeks of war. They are not using cell phones. Instead they are using children as runners with messages. Thousands of missiles and rockets are stored in homes and schools and refugee camps. This is the reason there have been casualties on their side. Evidently their leaders think they are dispensible.

Reference: Debka file: geraldrobins.