Those Who Bash Israel

Nadene Goldfoot                                                                           

Jews make up less than 1% in this world, and Israel's Jewish population is 6 million.  About 6 million live in the USA and possibly about 2 million are scattered through other parts of the world.  It's become the social and acceptable thing to do:  bash Israel. It's a small group of people living in a small country.   So many journalists are doing it.    Israel's become the scapegoat of the world right now.

 Right after 1967 Israel  was the most popular entity when single handed and with the tiniest force on earth of IDF soldiers, Israel withstood the attack of the surrounding and even more distant Arab countries-and lo and behold, little Israel won the battle which not only allowed her to survive such an immense attack, but also to regain land she had lost to Jordan that was rightfully hers in 1948.   Egypt, Jordan and Syria were the main countries attacking.  Nasser had even had the UN troops sent away, giving him more of a free reign.  Then Nasser blocked the Straits of Tiran.  He moved 100,000 men and 1,000 tanks into the Sinai while the other Arab states quickly made their  moves of attack on Israel.  The Arab world was hysterical in wanting to attack Israel.  It was over in 6 days.  Israel won.   She gained East Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, and Gaza.  Now, Israel  was being praised instead of being kicked around.

Before 1967, the Arab nations were not really interested in helping the Palestinian Arabs do anything.  They wouldn't assimilate them into their countries of which had much land.  They just wanted to hold them in abeyance as a thorn in the sides of the Jews and did so with refugee camps.  " The Palestine-for -the Palestinians" cause had been met with complacency and crass ignorance. Musa Alami, an Arab Palestinian activist, writer and innovator tried to interest the Arab world in a propaganda program in 1948 and was told that all that was needed was a few brooms to drive the Jews into the sea."  Now they saw that they needed more than that. They should have known because they lost the war of 47-49 and 1956.  This was the 3rd attack.  It wasn't the last, either.  They tried again in 73 and lost that one, too.

The bashing has even reached Australian journalists who have really never known many Jews as the population there had gone from extinct to having been quite small, but now has reached 100,000 in a country of 22.5 million.  Jews were not allowed into Australia during the 1930's or WWII.  It wasn't until after the war and with a lot of pressure was this island country accepting any Jews into their Anglo country.  Today Australia has the 9th largest Jewish population in the world.  

Isi Leibler, from Australia, points out that reporting is relying on untrustworthy and prejudiced sources such as false testimonies from Arab propagandists.   Some people quoted  might be disgruntled or retired officials who have an ax to grind against Israel.  Human rights organizations have taken sides without having any background so are also highly questionable.  People forget to ask the basic question, What's Your Source ?  What do you know about it?  Don't just state it and say that's it.  Isi has even seen quotes that are merely uncorroborated accusations that Israeli soldiers beat a child "to a pulp" that that is used without being checked.  Islam has also grown in Australia with 475,000 now, which is 4 times more than Jews living there.
                                                                         

Are journalists aware that no country has a better record of military practices than Israel?  Soldiers are trained to follow a strict moral code and punishes those to do not follow it.  The country lives under a stricter moral code anyway than most countries.  Isn't that a basic difference anyway between Israel and other lands?  Only the Jews were ready to follow a lot of laws of behavior?   How about the fact that the USA doesn't even allow the Ten Commandments to be on public property but in Israel, it's basic law.  Muslims have their worship and so do Christians and others in Israel.  There's freedom of religion in Israel, but it is a haven for the Jewish people, since that's why it was created in the first place.
                                                                                   

                                                  Jerusalem, City of David

The UN is the first site to use double standards, attacking only Israel 99% of the time.  Look at the people who are on the Human rights committee for 2014, 2015 and 2016.  .  11 Muslim majority countries of the 47 on the committee as well as Russia and China.  There is Algeria, Burkina Faso, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Maldives, Morocco, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Sierra Leone and United Arab Emirates.  Israel's size compared to the Arab world is about 1/625 or  1/6 of 1%.  Israel is the only country who has come back to its original land of its history.  It's the only country in the Middle East where the Christian population is thriving instead of disappearing-by any reason, attacks, or being forced to leave.  Israel now has 6 million Jews and 1.7 million Arabs in a sea of 300 million Middle Eastern Arabs and Muslims.  Can they ever get any justice?

There is so much bashing and lying going on that I work to find the truth and present such facts.  There is no need for me to criticize Israel as there is enough negativity already presented by their own reporters.  Israel doesn't mind someone bringing out a mistake made.  "Israel itself is made up of hyper-self -critics and their highly critical public who always demand transparency and rectification of mistakes or misdeeds.  "Israel's hyper self-criticism, at times even masochism, underlines the highly developed sense of morality to which the Jewish state holds itself."  Nobody is under a magnifying glass more than Netanyahu is.   Though he is a Prime Minister of such a little country of only 8,019 square miles, no leader from another country is under more pressure or surveillance.  Israel is smaller in size than El Salvador, New Jersey, Taiwan, UK, California or France.  The Jews of France are suffering under so much anti-Semitism today that many have already made aliyah to Israel.  France is made up of 211,209 sq miles yet can't contain their people from being so hateful against Jews. 2,185 French Jews made aliyah in 2013.  There are about 2.1 million Muslims in France.  Roman Catholicism is first and Islam is 2nd in this country.
                                                                       

There are 56 Islamic countries in the world of which 48 are the majority.   Islam has 1.3 billion adherents.  Christianity is still the most populous with 2 billion people.   Roman Catholics make up 49 countries.  Protestant countries of majority number 20.  There are 12 Eastern Orthodox countries.    4 Hindu countries have  900 million people.  Let's not forget that there are 360 million people who are Buddhists, and then there is our 1 Jewish majority country, Israel.

Jews spent many years in the planning stages of creating Israel. "Yusuf Diya al-Khalidi, Mayor of Jerusalem in 1899 said, Who can challenge the rights of the Jews in Palestine?  Good Lord, historically it is really your country."   Emir Faisal, the head leader of the Arab world in 1919 said, "We Arabs, especially the educated among us, look with deepest sympathy on the Zionist movement...We will wish the Jews a hearty welcome home...Our two movements complement one another."  And he was right, except that England botched up the plans and the Jews and Israel have been suffering from the errors of Great Britain's decisions.

There are 2 kinds of journalists:  the real kind who checks their sources and those who just want to sell papers with gossip.  That's the kind that people have become when they hear the word "Israel" today, the gossipy kind.  If you pick up a new item about Israel and they are bashing it unrestrained, use it for trash.  Go to a better source that you can trust.

Update:  3/15/14" Unlike its commercial competitors (such as ABC, CBS, CNN, Fox, MSNBC, and NBC), the network, Al Jazeera in USA,  doesn’t care that much about general viewer ratings. Rather, it aims to influence opinion makers like teachers, broadcasters, and editorial writers.
Read more at http://www.breakingisraelnews.com/12228/al-jazeera-america-twisting-israel-news-targeting-opinion-makers/#MzOjGHQdxHiEcfGz.99"
Resource:  Isi Leibler, http://wordfromjerusalem.com/?p=5009  Bashing Israel
The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
From Time Immemorial by Joan Peters
Israel 101 from Stand With Us
http://www.haaretz.com/jewish-world/jewish-world-news/australia-s-jewish-population-rises-to-100-000-1.443623
http://www.ibtimes.com/aliyah-french-jews-fleeing-israel-escape-rising-anti-semitism-muslim-extremism-economic-crisis
http://www.jewishpress.com/indepth/opinions/france-the-looming-battle-over-muslim-integration/2014/01/01/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islam_in_France
http://web.wm.edu/so/monitor/issues/15-1/2-kepple.pdf

USA's State Department Still Doesn't Understand Meaning of Jewish Recognition

Nadene Goldfoot                                                                 

The number one expectation that Israel needs from the Palestinians is that they recognize Israel as a Jewish state.   The USA's spokeswoman for the State Department, Jen Psaki, told the "Al-Quds" (name for Jerusalem in Arabic) newspaper that the Palestinians don't need to recognize Israel as a Jewish state in the peace agreement if they don't wish to do so!!!

What?  Has Israel now become occupied and run by the USA and they can change the provisions of a peace treaty at their will?  What kind of peace negotiating is this?

Sorry, but this is not going to be met by Netanyahu or the knesset with joy and approval.  This is such an  important point yet the USA doesn't understand what the consequences are legally that can happen if they don't recognize Israel as a Jewish state and yet they are so obvious.  Israel cannot be in a situation where they will be forced to accept millions of Palestinians in Israel.  It's only 8,000 square miles as it is and would be flooded with Palestinians changing the country completely into another Muslim state to be run by Emirs or Kings, whatever, people like the rest of the Muslim states.  Then the Jews would be slaughtered and Israel would be destroyed.
                                     
The reason Israel was created in the very first place was to have a safe place for Jews to live in, free of hatred and Holocausts and people trying to convert them to their religion.  It is to be a haven for our people.  After being set upon for the past 2,000 years by others, the League of Nations saw that it was high time that Jews could be left alone in peace, and this was before the Holocaust.   Stating it is a Jewish State is their only protection from keeping it from being consumed by the Muslims states.  Netanyahu knows why they won't accept Israel as a Jewish state, and it has to do with the Arabs then having the right of return on the table to flood Israel with Arabs.  Why can't the USA state department see one move ahead?

Showing that there is no way that Palestinians are even considering to make peace, like Jordan did, was the Chairman of the Palestinian Authority, Abu Mazen, who said  "There is not a chance that he and the Palestinian nation will recognize Israel as a Jewish state".  Jordan already took over 80% of the promised Jewish Homeland and has been peaceful with Israel since the War of 1973.  The same goes for Egypt.  Sadat came to Jerusalem and made peace.  Egypt hasn't been trying to take over Israel's land.  Neither Egypt nor Jordan have accepted Israel as a Jewish state, however.  Their behavior so far hasn't called for Israel's needing it.  They made peace.
                                                                       

The concept and goals of a Palestine have been very undemocratic and quite like the Nazis.    They're demanding that Judea and Samaria must be all theirs and that no Jew can live there.  That's calling for the removal of about 400,000 Jews.  They want East Jerusalem, and Jerusalem is and has been since the beginning of recorded time the capital of the Jewish people.  To have a people drooling at the mouth to take over your country including a quarter of your capital  is just not going to happen.  Besides that, they've had many a Freudian slip that they plan on taking over all of Jerusalem.  It goes with the Hamas charter.   Fatah has joined Hamas in the past, only to be divided over who is the leader of both.  The only difference is that Hamas is hitting at Israel directly while Fatah has pulled the wool over the eyes of the world in pretending to want peace.  Sure, peace, like teaching their children with maps showing Palestine and no Israel, teaching songs of hatred for Jews.  They are fighting the battle between Jews and Palestinians with massive brain washing of their own people and this in turn has brain-washed many others as well.

 There has to be space between for security with a people unable to accept Israel on any count.  This is a people who have been attacking Jews since 1948.  There hasn't been much let-up.  Israel is still being attacked by Hamas terrorists and Fatah has had it's attacks as well; human walking bombs into restaurants and schools and such.  Hamas follows the Muslim Brotherhood Charter of destroying all of Israel and killing the Jews.  That's why it is absolutely necessary that they come to the conclusion that if they expect peace, they must accept Israel as being different from them; that they are a Jewish nation, democratic and wanting to enjoy life, and that 6 million of them, Jews, are following the laws of Moses.  Why is this so hard to accept?

Israel can't have a Palestinian state right next to them which will continue to fighting with the goal to destroy Israel.  One thing Israel is not is stupid.

All along, the Fatah Palestinians living in Judea and Samaria have been promoting hatred and denial of Israel in their culture, starting in their schools. They even celebrate the killers of Jews with lots of recognition and praise in city-wide programs.   They have done nothing to show that there will be peace between the two people.  Hamas continues to shell the parts of Israel within their scope of missile distance and vows never to make peace but to destroy Israel.  Abusive people we've got for neighbors.  And the state department thinks Israel can let them get away without recognizing them as a Jewish state?  They've got to be kidding.  Israel is not about to sign away their own land to a people who have been their enemy for the past 67 years.

Resource:  http://www.jerusalemonline.com/news/middle-east/israeli-palestinian-relations/american-state-dept.-spokesman-palestinians-need-not-recognize-the-jewish-state-4155

Abbas Rejects Another Netanyahu Offer

Nadene Goldfoot                                                                  

               Palestinian leader, Mahmoud Abbas,  rejects deal on Syria refugees Offered by Netanyahu  The scuttlebutt is that Jews would remain and Palestine could not be Yudenrein (free of Jews.).  Of course they didn't go for that.  Abbas isn't going against the Muslim Brotherhood Charter which is to take all of Israel and kill the Jews which seems to be what Hamas is carrying out.  .  

Is the world ready for another Muslim majority state bringing the total up to 49 or more?  Wikipedia's count is 49.  This would be Palestine, the name the Romans gave to Judah and Israel in 135 CE when they finally won a 3 year battle with the last Jewish leader, Bar Kokhba.  The name was a take-off of an enemy of Israel's, the Philistines, which was really rubbing the  defeated Jewish state the wrong way, which was their intention.  Evidently Abbas is still holding out to make his state Yudenrein, free of all Jews, for none can ever live in his state, which is the original land of the Jews.  


As long as Netanyahu has to deal with Obama on St. Patrick's Day with another meeting about "Palestine" being created out of part of Israel's 8,000 sq miles which make up the only Jewish state in the world, let me remind these American fence menders that the Arabs were not all  indigent to the land of Palestine, but many slipped in with Britain's help when they were holding the mandate to create a Jewish Homeland!  Just read  Joan Peter's revelations  in "From Time Immemorial.  At the same time, the British kept the Jews out, even when Nazi Germany was trying to exterminate them.
                                                                             
Jews started building projects in the 1880's.
By 1914, at the beginning of WWI, the population of Palestine's land west of the Jordan River was estimated at 680,000 of whom 85,000 were Jews.

In 1920, 202 Arabs came into Palestine.
In 1921 190 Arabs came in.
In 1922, 284 entered Palestine.
By 1929, 1,117 Christian Arabs were entering.
By 1935,1,390  Muslim Arabs came into Palestine.
By 1945, there was a total population in Palestine of 401,149.  Out of that, 367,845 were Jews.  The Christian and Muslim Arabs combined made a total of 33,304.  These were the number of immigrants who registered as immigrants in the British Report.
 In 1934, only 1,784 non-Jews were recorded as immigrants, keeping out the list the Hauranis, or southern Syrian Arabs in the number of 30,000 to 35,000.  They had immigrated to Western Palestine, which was where the Jews lived, and were not included in British calculations.

The birthplace that Muslims listed in 1931 in Palestine were;  Palestine, Syria, Transjordan, Cyprus, Egypt, Hejaz-Nejd, Iraq, Yemen, Other Arabian Territories, Persia, Turkey, Central Asiatic Territories,  the Indian Continent, Far Eastern Asia, Algeria, Morocco, Tripoli, Tunis, Other African Territories, Albania, France, Greece, Spain, UK, USSR, USA, Central America; South America, Australia.

1893-total  of Arabs  within main Jewish-settled areas     92,300
1893-total of Arabs of Western Palestine                      466,400

1947-total of Arabs   within main Jewish-settled areas   462,900
1947-total of Arabs of Western Palestine                   1,303,800

AP, in their story about how Abbas is going to leave Palestinian refugees in Syria, expanded the population number of Arabs by saying, "Palestinians in Syria are descendants of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who fled or were driven from their homes in the war that followed Israel's creation in 1948.  "In addition, several million Palestinians live in neighboring Arab countries, including more than half a million in Syria." 

Please note that Israel is made up of 1.7 million Arabs as citizens and 6 million Jews.  Those that followed their leaders' orders to leave went into refugee camps and haven't changed their status.  They can only blame their leaders, not Israel when in those days they were in much smaller numbers.  

It must be those same leaders who have encouraged them to have their 4 wives and produce many many children to jump their numbers.  Notice that none of the surrounding Arab states have taken in any refugees because the leaders want  to take over Israel and are using their bodies for this purpose.  It's just like Abbas is doing today.  "The Palestinian president said he has rejected a conditional Israeli offer to let Palestinian refugees in war-torn Syria resettle in the West Bank and Gaza, charging it would compromise their claims to return to lost homes in Israel."  Their eyes are on the 8,000 sq miles making up Israel; Tel Aviv, Safed, Haifa, the whole state of Israel.  They are not interested in creating a state of their own and living in peace with Israel. 

The fact remains that the War of Independence began as a civil war between the Arabs and the Jews in Palestine after November 29, 1947.  It was started by the Arab who refused to accept the UN partition resolution.  From April 1948, units of Arab irregulars crossed into the country from Syria, Lebanon and Egypt to reinforce local Arabs in their attacks on the Jewish towns and in an attempt to block the main roads.  

May 14, 1948, Israel was invaded by the regular armies of Egypt, Transjordan, Iraq, Syria and Lebanon and a Saudi-Arabian contingent.  The next day, Azzam Pasha of the Arab League proclaimed in Cairo that "This will be a war of extermination and a momentous massacre which will be spoken of like the Mongolian massacres and Crusades.  Israel at the time was about 15 minutes old.  

Israel's population on its birth date was 650,000, about the same number that entered Canaan with Joshua during the EXODUS.  6,000 Jews were killed in this 1st war, more than in all the following wars combined.  

Resource:  http://bigstory.ap.org/article/palestinian-leader-rejects-deal-syria-refugees, AP
From Time Immemorial by Joan Peters, page 255,  432.  

Netanyahu's Fantastic Offer to Arabs Will Be Squashed and Why

Nadene Goldfoot                                                                      

   
The New York Times reporters, Mark Landler and Jodi Rudoren reported on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's speech to the American Israel Public Affairs committee.( AIPAC) yesterday.

Netanyahu  gave a pitch for peace with the Palestinians by saying that it would enable Israel to tighten ties with its Arab neighbors and "catapult the region forward" on issues like health, energy and education.  "We could better the lives of hundred of millions,"  he said.  "We all have so much to gain from peace."

We know that Netanyahu and Israel want peace with their neighbors.  They've wanted it before Israel became a state in 1948.  They worked and planned to create Israel but at the same time to have peace with their neighbors.

 He said that after his big meeting with Obama, where they discussed some very tough issues for Israel in this peace process.  Evidently he's trying to convince the Arabs what they would gain instead of the perpetual war, blood and guts and their stand to never ever accept Israel as a Jewish state. However, the Palestinian Arabs  follow the Muslim Brotherhood Creed on this which is to never have peace with Israel.
                                                                             

Netanyahu is also locking horns with Obama,  Kerry and the Arabs over Jews living in Judea and Samaria, which is land originally set aside as being part of the Jewish Homeland by the League of Nations in the 1920's.  The big world powers call them "Jewish settlements," and probably call Tel Aviv a settlement as well.  1967  was when Israel won back Judea and Samaria and east Jerusalem after being attacked by all the surrounding Arabs and then some more beyond the perimeter.  It has been 47 years, and Jews that moved there are still being hit with the "settlement" word.  They settled  long ago already in 1968, after the war was won with the latest established in 1984 except for one which was established in 1998-16 years ago.  In all, there are 321,179 Jews living in Judea-Samaria. Israel had stopped building for one whole year and the Palestinians didn't come around.  It was a waste of time.
                                                                             

  Netanyahu praised Kerry as the man who never sleeps.  Kerry had warned Israel that they could be ostracized if they failed to make peace with the Palestinians but as far as we know has said absolutely nothing like that to the Arabs.  Kerry didn't make himself popular with that comment with Israel.  Besides that issue, he has shown that he sides with the Palestinians by making all sorts of incredible demands on Israel and nothing for the Arabs.

Obama wants the Palestinians and Israelis to sign a framework accord which Kerry is drafting and expects it to be signed by the end of April.  This is  evidently written out in general terms only about Israel's security and the borders of a future Palestinian state which is already a done deal in the UN as far as accepting a Palestine as an observer state.  It is to allow the 8 month old negotiations that have been going on with Kerry to be extended.  An unofficial statement from an official said that the agreement would have enough in it that was good for Israel.  That is the official's opinion, not Netanyahu's.  Like we say, "Is it good for the Jews"?  The answer for the past 8 months has been, "NO."  

Obama is now taking over in the talks from Kerry.  He's meeting on March 17th, St. Patrick's Day, with Abbas to urge him to sign.

Netanyahu told Obama that they were pressing up against very tough issues for Israel.

Netanyahu also brought up the growing boycott movement that hits on Israel.  He said that "this links it to the darkest chapters of anti-Semitism in history. "   The Arabs and their siders took his comment as showing how well the boycott is working.  He's just disgusted by being singled out when so many other nations are doing so many destructive things in this world, such as Assad in Syria or the Ayatollah in Iran and the nuclear bombs they are creating.  Being singled out for something others find an excuse to fault Israel for is anti-Semitism, pure and simple.

 We've had over 2,000 years of it and can spot it easily.  Israel has every legal right in the world to allow people to move into Judea and Samaria, but being Jews-are being given a bad time about it.  Legal, shmegal, the powers to be don't give a hoot evidently about legalities.  Jews, who believe in Judaism which has been faulted by other religions as being too full of laws that people don't need to follow, has international law on their side about living on the land, and THAT is now the worst evil of the century.  How about that for logic today?    So the Arabs are using boycotting as another form of their rockets, mortars and missiles that Hamas uses almost every day against the civilians of southern Israel, a teeny land of only 8,000 sq. miles.  Hit southern Israel and the wind from it hits the rest of Israel. So does the pain and anguish making its citizens more determined than ever not to be driven out of their country.  .
                                                                       

                                     Hezbolla terrorists fighting in Syria

Sorry, Syrians.  Abbas can kill as many of his 22,505,000 Syrian citizens as he wants.  ISRAEL is continuing to live and love and worship G-d in their own land and that's what's arousing the world to pounce on Israel instead of Assad.  What's good and what's bad today has taken a new direction.  What Netanyahu has  pitched to the Arabs is too logical.  That's not what their Palestinian charters  of the PA or Hamas or the Muslim Brotherhood stand for.  It's not what they want at all!  When someone convinces them to change their goals, then you can talk about peace.  The war ain't over till the fat lady sings and the fat lady ain't sung yet.

Resource:  http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/05/world/middleeast/netanyahu-promotes-efforts-toward-a-peace-deal.html?_r=0
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Peace/wbsettle.html
http://www.algemeiner.com/2014/03/05/report-state-department-sources-say-obama-sabotaged-peace-Update: 3/5/14 talks-with-goldberg-interview-conducted-behind-kerrys-back/  Read this one!  

Archeological Finds in Israel Proving Bible History

Nadene Goldfoot                                            

                                                        The Exodus

In 2011, archaeologists Uncovered  the  ruins of  the biblical city  of Shechem, or as we know it today as Nablus,  in war-torn Israel.  The biblical ruin lies inside a Palestinian city in Judea-Samaria; the (West Bank,) where modern researchers are writing the latest chapter in a 100-year-old excavation that has been interrupted by two world wars and numerous rounds of Mideast upheaval.  Excavation on Shechem was started in 1913 to  1934 by German archaeologists.   From 1948 to 1967 this land was in Jordanian territory illegally and since the 1967 War is under Israel's control.  It's earliest walls date back to 2000 BCE.  It was under Egyptian control as early as the 12th dynasty BCE.  Our biblical patriarchs camped under its walls and it was pillaged by Simeon and Levi as told in Gen.34.   Later, it was in the territory of Ephraim, and was a Levitical city and a city of refuge as well as the center of the House of Joseph.  Joseph is buried there.  

Before naysayers say that the Old Testament is just a bunch of myths, they should check out what archaeologists have already proven.  

Nelson Glueck took a Transjordan survey which is thought by some scholars to show that the Israelite entry (Exodus into Canaan) did not happen earlier than the 13th century BCE.  My encyclopedia has Moses dying by 1271 BCE  and our history is that he was not able to enter the land as he was already 120 years old by then, so had chosen Joshua to lead the Israelites in.  So they are in agreement with this.  It would not have happened, say, in the 14th century.  

The Merneptah stele which is dated c. 1231 BCE sets a terminus ad quem   (to which there) for the Exodus.   Others thought the same and this resulted from the researches at Jericho, Bethel, Lachish, Tel Bet Mirsim, Hazor, etc.  
                                                                     

                        King  Solomon's Temple, from Description

Pottery study has identified the Philistines, and work at Gibeah (Tel el Ful and Jerusalem which we also call Zion has cast light on King Saul's and King David's reign, just as digs at Tel el-Hesi and  other places may have revealed King Solomon's chariot stables, and Tel el-Khalife, which is also called Ezion Geber, his trade and mining center.      

Bible study is illuminated by archaeology both in and outside what was then, Palestine, now mostly Israel.    The Mesopotamian discoveries of Ur of where Abraham was born do indicate a period of great floods which are reflected in the biblical Flood Story found in Genesis.  

Both the Egyptian Execration of the 20th and 19th century BCE and the Mari along the Euphrates of the 19th and 18th century texts show the patriarchal period.  Transjordan researches show contemporary Middle Bronze Age life as semi-nomadic.   

There are the well known Tel el Amarna tablets from the 14th century BCE which illumine the Israelite advent.  The Hammurabi  and similar legal codes of the 18th century give us the background of Mosaic legislation  and the legal habits of the patriarchal period.   

Edward  Robinson in 1838-1852 was an archaeologist who tried re-identification of biblical sites.  "Robinson traveled to Palestine in 1838 in the company of Rev. Eli Smith, leading to the publication of Biblical Researches in Palestine and Adjacent Countries for which he was awarded the Gold Medal of the Royal Geographical Society in 1842 He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1847. Robinson, together with Smith, made scores of identifications of ancient places including the tunnel dug by King Hezekiah shortly before the Assyrian siege of Jerusalem in 701/02 BCE, though the inscription at the southern end of the tunnel was to be found later.  The Robinson's Arch in the Old City of Jerusalem is named after him."  Edward was a farm boy from Southington, Connecticut born 4/10/1794.  He is a direct descendant of the Reverend John Robinson who sent the Pilgrims over from Holland to America on the Mayflower in 1620.  Most likely his Christian religion was the motivation for his digs in Palestine.  

He was followed by a lot of travelers in the 19th century.  F. de Suley carried out the first excavation of the Tombs of the Kings in Jerusalem in 1850.  The English Palestine Exploration Fund in 1865 started C. Warren's Jerusalem excavations in 1867 and a survey of Western Palestine was done in 1872 to 1878 by Conder and Kitchener.  His digs coincided with important work by C. Clermont-Ganneau, G. Schumacher and others.

By 1890, W. Flinders Petrie was at Tel el-Hesi and devised the system of pottery dating by looking at the stratification and cross dating it with Egyptian finds.  This started the methods used afterwards at Gezer, Samaria and other places.  They were able to go back to the Old Stone Age, or the Middle Paleolithic Age found in the Carmel and Nazareth skeletons, intermediate between Neanderthal man and Homo Sapiens. The Mesolithic's Middle Stone age culture is represented by the Natufian cave-dwellers, the first cultivators who lived around 8,000 BCE, and Neolithic, most strikingly by the Yarmukian settlement of Shaar ha-Golan.   

By 5,000 BCE, walled village settlement had evolved as in Jericho.  The use of copper began c 4,500 which started the Chalcolithic age in Jericho, Telulat Ghassul, and in the Beersheba district.  In 3,200-2,100 BCE we find the Early Bronze Age.  The Middle Bronze Age was from 2100 to 1500 BCE.  The Late Bronze Age was from 1500 to 1100 BCE which had walled towns that were spread out as revealed by excavations at Bet Yerah.  Megiddo, Jericho, Bet Shean, Tel Bet Mirsim, and so on are examples of that period.  

Research has even revealed the famous Hyksos of the 18th century BCE with fortresses at Hazor, Shechem and Horite or Hurrian migrations from the 17th century and growing Mediterranean contacts under Egyptian rule such as in Bet Shean from the 1500 to 1100 BCE period.  

Discoveries of the Ugarit (Ras Shamra) include  old Canaanite texts from 1880 to 1200 BCE. They shed light on the earliest poetical parts of the Bible.  Epigraphical finds at Sinai, Gezer Calendar, Siloam, the Moabite Stone, Lachish letters and the Arad Ostraca show the development of the Hebrew alphabet.  

Archaeology in Samaria has uncovered the palaces of Kings Omri, Ahab, and Jeroboam II and show the Phoenician affinities of their culture.  Many sites such as Megiddo and Lachish have  given us dates and show the extent of the destruction that came before the Babylonian exile.  

Excavations at Samaria, Beth Zur, Marisa, Beth Shean and Transjordan Tobiad Palace of the 2nd century BCE date form the Hellenistic period of the 3rd to 1st centuries BCE.  

The later Second Temple Period has brought researches into the tombs and ossuaries of the Jerusalem area and into the Herodian structures of the southern and western walls of the Temple area, the Jerusalem Citadel, Mamre and Masada with its remains of Herod's palace, the Zealot living-quarters and the Roman siege-lines.  
                                                                                 

Finally, in the 1st century belong the DEAD SEA SCROLLS with their affect on Bible study and knowledge of Jewish sectarianism.  Another important find in caves of the Judean desert was the correspondence of the Bar Kokhba period.  He was the leader who fought against the Romans from 132-135 CE but was finally killed.  

The catacombs at Bet Shearim gave us information about Jewish art, language, and religion of the 2nd to 5th centuries CE.  The Israel Government Department of Antiquities has from  1949 carried out the supervision and protection of antiquities, investigation of chance finds and systematic excavations.  The Israel Exploration Society has worked at Bet Shearim and Masada.  

PS 3/5/14:  Besides all this, check out Simcha Jacobovici and his TV programs where he shows what he has discovered and worked on.  Entertaining as well as factual, he's a delight.  Simcha Jacobovici was born on April 4, 1953 in Petah Tikva, Israel. He is a producer and director, known for The Naked Archaeologist (2005), The Lost Tomb of Jesus (2007) andCharging the Rhino (2007).

50 people from bible confirmed archaeologically from the reference-mosaic magazine cites below.  

A web-exclusive supplement to Lawrence Mykytiuk's “Archaeology Confirms 50 Real People in the Bible” feature in the March/April 2014 issue of BAR.  Purdue University scholar Lawrence Mykytiuk lists 50 figures from the Hebrew Bible that have been confirmed archaeologically. The 50-person chart in BAR includes Israelite kings and Mesopotamian monarchs as well as lesser-known figures.

http://mosaicmagazine.com/picks/2014/03/right-out-of-the-bible/?utm_source=Mosaic+Daily+Email&utm_campaign=e9a97c3ced-2014_3_5&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_0b0517b2ab-e9a97c3ced-41144429
Resource: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Robinson_(scholar)
The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/07/22/in-palestinian-city-diggers-uncover-biblical-ruin/

Proving King Solomon of Israel Existed

Nadene Goldfoot                                                                        

The world must be coming to an end because so many young intelligent people of today think that whatever is in the "Old Testament", which we Jews call the Tanach and is a slightly different order and sometimes translation, is just a bunch of myths.  They refuse to understand that it is a conglomeration of our history of all kinds; genealogy, geography, history of battles, families, politics and rulers, sociological as well as other kinds of information, poetry, literature,  and of course, beliefs.  It is not to be compared to the New Testament.  If in today's world, each would be in a separate category in the publishing business.  Even the first 5 books, called the Five books of Moses, hold various types of knowledge, all very sacred to us and has always been so revered.  The rules regulating the writing of this was so explicit that if one error occurred, the whole roll had to be thrown away.  One had to be an expert and successful scribe to get anything written to be kept for all time.

The first thing I have discovered is that the well known King Solomon is thought of in several circles as a myth.  This is a basic fact of history to us Jews which is very pertinent in our Judaism.  Is it in today's college classes that young people are taught to be so snide in their understandings of some point of history because it comes from a "Bible"?  Especially the "Old Bible?"  No wonder we're getting static from Obama, Kerry and others about the rights of Israel, which is based on our religious history and our origins?  What?  Do people think we just appeared and are making all our history up?

Thank goodness that Israel is spending time in archaeological digs proving our history to these uppity dissers. {To diss is  to show disrespect to, often by insult or criticism}:  That's what happened to me in the discussion about King Solomon being a factual person today.   
                                                                         

Most people have heard of his wisdom in the story of the 2 mothers who claimed a baby, and he said to cut the baby in half and give half to each woman.  The real mother of course could not allow this to happen so said to give the baby to the other woman instead, and he saw she was the true mother that way.  Don't we all wish that our rulers were as wise?  Well, he was, but then again he was also known for building too much and not paying the laborers enough which resulted in the split after he died of the southern part of Israel which left the union to form themselves into Judah.  Our writings differ from Egyptian writings in that we're known to write down the errors of our ways as well as our proud moments.  Egypt just scraped off the distasteful parts of their history and wrote over it, more of like billboard writing advertising how good and wonderful they were.  Our history tells about David and his loves and how he deceived Bathsheba's husband in order to marry her, and all that sort of soap opera history that makes it so wonderful to read.  We are human!!  King Solomon is revered and loved by Jews.  

Information was brought to light on January 27th of this year that helps to prove King Solomon's existence.  Found in July in Israel is the earliest alphabetical writing ever found in Jerusalem, and is called the  Ophel inscription.  Gershon Galil, a professor of ancient history and biblical studies at the University of Haifa said that it proves the real basis behind the parables and stories found in the Bible.                        

" We are dealing here with real kings, and the kingdom of David and Solomon was a real fact," Galil said to the newscasters on a phone call from Israel.  
Galil feels the existence of the text is as important as its meaning, and he offered the only reasonable translation.  Galil felt it was most important that this discovery tells us that someone knew how to write this.  

What did this say on a piece of pottery?  The first half of the text indicates it was written in the 20th or 30th year of King Solomon's reign.  This was evidently a label for a jug telling what was in it, and it had held wine.  Three letters of the inscription were incomplete, but Galil was able to translate it anyway and identified the letters and read it in Hebrew, being "Yah-yin chah-lak"  This means "Inferior wine."  I love it!!  Maybe it's their way of saying; cheap wine.  

Galil said that it was written in an early form of southern Hebrew, the only language of the time to use 2 yuds (aleph-bet-gimel-daled -hay-vuv, yud)   to spell the word, wine (Yahyin).  This wine of course must have been given to laborers who were busy building the city of Jerusalem.  Our history is that Solomon wasn't paying them, or at least not well, so we see they were given the cheap wine.  

This shows that Solomon's administration were collecting taxes, preparing storage jars and doing all these things as early as the 2nd half of the 10th century BCE.  My Jewish encyclopedia places Solomon's birth as 961 BCE which would be in the middle of the 10th century, and his death being 920 BCE.  My research uncovered writing happening in Canaan as early as the 18th century BCE.  

Information about King Solomon is abundant, and found in our Tanach under Kings I and  and Chronicles I and II.  There we read about Solomon building the first Temple that was then destroyed later. He also enlarged Jerusalem with a lot of building projects.  In fact, he had too many, and many rebelled and when he died, broke away from the body of Israel to form the southern state of Judah out of Israel.  We read and see that he was the one to build the temple and not his father, David, who was a warrior.  Solomon was a king of peace, thus was the one designated to build the temple where the Israelites worshiped.  Where it stood is where the Dome of the Rock is standing on top of it today.  

There are so many political reasons why there are groups teaching that the Jewish history is all a bunch of hogwash, that I can't count that far, and I've taught math to many people.  This act works to justify their stand in life.  There are those that say that they may recognize Solomon's existence but then can't bring themselves to see that Solomon and not his descendant, Hezekiah (720-692 BCE)  built the temple.  In fact, it was Assyria in 721 BCE that attacked Israel and carried away 10 of the 12 tribes, which we call the Lost Ten Tribes of Israel.  Today, we are finding them again through the help of DNA testing, and find they were keeping enough of the culture and practice to think of themselves as one of the tribal members.  To them, they weren't lost.  They knew just where they were.  Many have returned to live in Israel. 

Writing was an old skill by now.  Galil said that somebody then had the ability to write a little later, the book of Samuel and Judges.  

Like Galil said, "The evidence that we have today -- and each year we have so much more,  that David and Solomon were real and important kings and not just tales of the Bible.  

To Jewish people today, Kings David and Solomon are as real as are George Washington and Abraham Lincoln.  We know that Moses wrote and was educated in writing as a prince of Egypt, and he lived c1391-1271 BCE.  Historical facts are gleaned from Egypt in hieroglyphics and they are accepted as parts of history.  Why is there a vendetta against Hebraic writings?  

 So if our history of that event is to be believed by historians, perhaps someday they will join us with all the evidence collected to understand that these historic figures of Kings David and Solomon did indeed exist.  You don't have to be a religious zealot to understand this.  

Re: http://www.foxnews.com/science/2014/01/27/message-decoded-again-3000-year-old-text-may-prove-biblical-tale-king-solomon/
The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia

Messages From A Syrian Jew Trapped In Egypt: Authorhouse, Publishers

Nadene Goldfoot                                                                      

The novel, Messages From A Syrian Jew Trapped In Egypt, is hot off the press.  Use the publisher's page below to  read the overview and have a free preview of the book.    If you're interested in how the Syrian Civil War started, this book explains it with the fight between the Muslim Brotherhood and Assad, an Alawite.  It also tells about the Muslim Brotherhood and how they have affected Syria and Egypt.

The book is up to date telling about the plight of the Syrian refugees and one particular one, young tall, dark and handsome Vick, who is different from the rest.  He has a Jewish mother, making him by definition Jewish as well. This he must keep a secret as he lives in a Muslim world.    While he tries to find his mother,  he finds beautiful women who are  attracted to him.  All the while he works on defending Israel among his Muslim friends, a very dangerous step to take.

http://bookstore.authorhouse.com/Products/SKU-000905812/Messages-From-a-Syrian-Jew-Trapped-in-Egypt.aspx
Also found at amazon.com and Barnes and Noble online.
Update 4/20/14