Portland Hadassah Board Installation Dinner

The Portland, Oregon Hadassash installation of new officers took place at a dinner at Neveh Shalom in the Atrium tonight. Afterwards, the group played a bingo game that tested their knowledge about Israel. One of the main goals of Hadassah is to help Israel. There is a Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem that it helps to support . 350,000 women throughout the United States belong to Hadassah. You don't have to be Jewish to belong. Today, men are joining, too.

Jewish Genealogical Society of Oregon's Brunch/Steven Morse, Speaker

A brunch was today's last meeting of the season with our Jewish Genealogical Society of Oregon. We had Stephen Morse as the speaker. He is one of the world's most outstanding computer geniuses who has done so much to help genealogists in their searches using the computer. His website is http://stevemorse.org/. If you go to it you will find all kinds of assistance.

One of his interests are calendars. He explained the Jewish calendar, which is based on lunar and solar movements. On his website you can find the Jewish date by inserting the date used today. He also explained the Julian, Gregorian and other calendars. We learned that on the Jewish calendar, one month is defined to be 29 days, 12 hours, 44 minutes, 3 and 1/3 seconds. On the Jewish calendar, the day starts at sundown, but the mathematicians say the day starts at 6pm and then count the hours. Of course, to know if shabbat is over, we look for 3 stars in the sky as most all do in Israel as the sky is so black and the stars are so big and shiny. Here, we just look on our calendars.

What I enjoyed was when he used the names of famous people and found them on the Ellis Island website and showed how to find people when there are many with the same names. As it turns out, Mayor La Guardia of New York had a Jewish orthodox mother who lived in Italy.

His website uses all sorts of other websites for searches such as:

zabasearch.com, birthdatabase.com, PrivateEye.com. Now I will just go to his website to do searches. Up to now I've used ancestry.com and haven't searched further. I sure will now.

If you need to know other languages and alphabets, go to his website. He even will show the Russian alphabet in the printed and cursive forms.

GRAD ROCKETS HIT ASHKELON BEFORE PLANNED LULL

With a lull in the shooting planned for Thursday, June 19th, the Hamas terrorists are shooting grad rockets into Ashkelon, Portland's sister city. One person was wounded. Later more were fired, hitting outside of Sderot and near Kfar Aza. Evidently they plan on continued shooting till the 6 am stopping time, if they will adhere to their own agreement.

Mayor Roni Mahatzri said that rockets keep on exploding in Ashkelon and the terrorists continue warring on Israel. We're at war.

One month ago two Grad Katyusha missiles fired by Hamas terrorists hit southern Ashkelon hitting a children's medical clinic inside a shopping center. Part of the building collapsed and trapped four people. Almost 100 people were injured.

Ashkelon is Israel's 13th largest city with 110,000 residents and home of one of the largest power plants. Terrorists have been shooting at it since 2005. Prime Minister Yitzchak Rabin signed the Oslo agreement and didn't believe this would ever be a result.

Sderot has 20,000 rewidents. There are surrounding kibbutzim and moshavim. They've been under attack for seven years. Last October terrorists in Gaza have fired rockets in Netivot with a population of 26,000.

Reference: Arutz Sheva, by Hillel Fendell: Hamas talks calm, fires Katyushas

NOT OCCUPIED TERRITORIES

Nadene Goldfoot
By continually calling the West Bank and the Gaza Strip "occupied", the Palestinians have convinced the world that they are, but legally they are not. Palestinians then continue with "resisting occupation"

Before 1967, Jordan had occupied the West Bank and Egypt had occupied the Gaza Strip because they had illegally invaded in 1948. Jordan then annexed the West Bank in 1950. This was only recognized by Great Britain and Pakistan, and rejected by most others, including the Arab states.

Then Jordan insisted on the 1949 Armistice Line that was the Israeli-Jordanian boundary until 1967, and this again was not a recognized border but only a line separating armies. With the West Bank and Gaza, there were no internationally recognized sovereign control previously existing, but the stigma of Israel being occupiers is being used.


Stephen Schwebel headed the International Court of Justice in Hague. He wrote in 1970 about Israel. He said, "Where the prior holder of territory had seized that territory unlawfully, the state which subsequently takes that territory in the lawful exercise of self-defense has, against that prior holder, better title.

On July 5, 1967, Israel entered the West Bank after much Jordanian artillery fire and ground movements across previous armistice lines. Jordan attacked Israel at 10am. Israel warned Jordan at 11am. Jordan continued to attack. Then Israel retaliated at 12:45pm. Also Iraq crossed Jordan and were ready to enter the West Bank. The boundaries of 1949 were then null and void. That's how Israel came into the West Bank. It was a defensive war.

This term has never been used with other countries and has been only applied to Israel.
Kashmir is referred to as a disputed area.
Azerbaijan's small patch calimed as an independent republic by Armenian separatistss is the disputed area of Nagorno-Karabakh.
Morroco is not occupying Western Sahara, a former Spanish colony.
Zubarah, the Persian Gulf island claimed by both Qatar and Bahrain is disputed territory.
Northern Cyprus, Kurile Island, Abu Musa in the Persian Gulf are not occupied territories.

Only we in the whole world are called "occupiers" whereas there have been similar situations in other lands. This language" has allowed Palestinian spokesmen to obfuscate this history." This is how they change the causes of the conflicts for Westerners. People now think that fighting over the West Bank and even Jerusalem is the result of Israel occupying these areas and covers the truth that the Arab states invaded Israel in 1967 and Israel won by defending itself.

Even describing the territories as "Palestinian" mars the truth. It has prejudged the outcome of future negotiations. Saying that they are "resisting occupation" is a ploy to cover their terrorist activities.

Ambassador to the UN Madeleine Albright had it right when she said in 1994, "We simply do not support the description of the territories occupied by Israel in the 1967 War as occupied Palestinian territory."

Reference: http://www.jcpa.org/jl/vp470.htm Dore Gold's aricle: FROM OCCUPIED TERRITORIES TO DISPUTED TERRITORIES

David Guterson, Author in Cedar Hills

David Guterson, author of "Snow Falling On Cedars" was reading from his new book, "The Other" on Monday night, June 8th in Cedar Hills at Powell's Book Store. He is the cousin of my cousin's wife once removed, so Lorraine and I drove all the way from Gresham to Cedar Hills to hear him and buy his book. Two other cousins showed up, and we were pleased to find most all the seats were filled with people who enjoy his books.

David's mother was from South Portland and lived very close to my grandmother near the Neighborhood House. David was brought up in Washington, but does get to Portland now and then. His new book is situated here and at Reed College, making it most interesting to me.

David made his name with the Japanese story taking place during the WWII in Washington winning a Peneaulkner Award with the book. I hope his new one does well. He used some words in his talk that I was unfamiliar with; what a vocabulary he has.

The two main characters in "The Other"graduated high school in 1974. They go in different directions.

Before he started writing he was a high school English teacher. I wonder if his students realized how gifted he is.

You Don't Mess With the Zohan

Last night my son and I went to see the new movie, You Don't Mess With the Zohan with Adam Sandler. My son is an adult. It's full of sex, so children shouldn't see it. It was so stupid that it was hilarious. What caught my ear were the Hebrew words and Israeli music that flowed through this absurd slapstick movie.

Adam plays the part of a superhero type Israeli terrorist fighter in the IDF. He can do things that even Superman can't do. But the poor soul doesn't like fighting. He really wants to cut hair, causing his parents to laugh and call him a faigalah.

Somehow he gets to the states where he pursues his desire to be a hair stylist and the hysterical antics continue. There is a lot of gross sex, mistreatment of animals, and fantasy fighting that takes the movie out of the reality realm. You laugh despite yourself. He is ridiculous. I can't decide who is funnier, this Zohan or Borat. They're both the same genre. Then again this has a message of peace. It shows how Palestinians and Israelis could actually get along.

None of us "normal" folks could ever think up a scenario like this movie presents. It truly has some shocking scenes. Some of the film was shot in Israel, so I got to see a glimpse of some beach resorts there. I enjoyed it very much. I needed a laugh.

Obama's Key Advisor is Anti Israel

David Edward Bonior, former Congressman, a Representative from Detroit, Michigan is Obama's right hand man. He was the campaign manager for John Edwards but quickly went over to Obama, even before Edwards did. Bonior is very much against Israel. Does graduating from Notre Dame High do that to you?

The AIPAC speech of Obama is still ringing in my ears. He turned so quickly after making such a persuasive speech. Such a speech was remarkable considering his background and friends, but there is always hope. I think that hope has just died.

Bonior is known for his strong opposition to pro-Israel policies, called by some as the biggest supporter of the anti-Israel Arab lobby in Congress. Obama just got rid of several of his men that were also Israel bashers, probably to gain votes, and now has the worst of all on his team. This man was one of 15 signing a letter in 1997 asking Clinton to pressure Israelis into making concessions to the Palestinians. In 2002 he was one of 21 opposing a bill 392 which affirmed support of Israel's right to self-defense and called for the dismantling of the Palestinian terrorist infrastructure. In 1990 he was one of 34 to vote against naming Jerusalem as the capital. In 1989 he was one of 6 to vote against preventing US funds from going to the UN entities that granted PLO membership. He has always opposed US aid to Israel and supported arms sales to Arab states opposed to Israel's existence.

What can we expect when we know that Obama has been hanging out with Arab groups who are against Israel. This is the outcome that Democrats have been unwilling to face.

Reference: http://web.israelinsider.com/Articles/Politics/12883.htm