Friday, June 27, 2014

Irony That Famous Jewish General's Last Stand Now a PalestinianArab Village

Nadene Goldfoot                                                            
  
There  is an Arab village named Battir in what is now called Palestine-what used to be only last week, Judea and Samaria.  The name of the place is a Hebrew name; Beitar/Betar.  Here is where Bar Kochba, our general in 132 CE made his last stand against the Romans that lasted for 3 years until 135 when he was killed by them.  As Simcha said, it was comparable to the Alamo in Texas.  The Romans took 50 fortresses and 985 villages.  There were 580,000 Jewish casualties.  Many died of hunger and disease.

Back then Judaea had been occupied by the Romans.  The Jews kept on revolting, like Judah the Gallilean and Jesus of Nazareth ended up on a Roman cross along with tens of thousands more Jews.  Josephus, Jewish historian and writer, said they killed a million Jews on the crosses.  In 70 CE Jerusalem was destroyed.
                                                                         
Then in 73 CE the Masada fell to the Romans.  The Masada was  a refuge for Herod's family in 40 BCE when Antigonus Mattathias tried to besiege them there.  Later, Herod built his palace on this high rock of a mountain.  It is located only a mile from the Dead Sea.  It had become a Zealot fortress until 73 when the garrison of 960 under Eleazar  committed suicide after holding out against the Romans for 3 years.  They refused to be taken as slaves.The Romans then exiled the native Judeans they could catch and took their children for slaves and their women for prostitution.  They had left only the weak and the vulnerable, probably the old people.

Even so, some must have been in hiding because 62 years later after Jerusalem fell, they rose once again to join a final revolt with Bar Kokhba (Son of the Star) as leader.  His real name was Bar/Ben Kosiba Simeon and he was the nephew of Rabbi Eleazar of Modiin and of Davidic descent.  This general was fighting the Roman Hadrian who had an army of 35,000.  .  There are many thoughts as to why he revolted at this time.  It could be attributed to the Roman building going on of Jerusalem or the prohibition of circumcision.  They captured Jerusalem but probably didn't take a whole Roman legion.   .In the Torah is the prediction in Numbers 224:17 that a "star will come out of Jacob".  Most people interpret that as meaning the Messiah.  Basically, this was a title for a Messiah.  He held out against the Romans who were the greatest military power on earth  at this time.  He made them very angry, so angry that they renamed Judaea as Palaestina, the name of their enemies, the Philistines.  "The Jerusalem Talmud relates that the number of slain was so enormous, that the Romans "went on killing until their horses were submerged in blood to their nostrils." Hadrian had prohibited their burial, and it wasn't until his successor, Antoninus (Pius), that the dead were afforded a decent burial.

He and his warriors left a labyrinth of tunnels.  They hid below ground and came up for air and to fight.  The tunnels are "monuments to the longest liberation struggle in history, the Jewish struggle for the land of Israel.  Items have been found there of their presence; letters, the lulav leaves and citron for the Feast of the Tabernacles and such.   Coins have been found that were minted with the names Simeon and Eleazar the Priest.

His fall meant the end of Jewish independence for the next 2000 years.  Judea fell into desolation; its population was annihilated, and Jerusalem was turned into a heathen city, barred to Jews.  Today there is a Beitar soccer club in Israel.  UNESCO has dubbed it as a Historical Heritage Site for the Arabs who requested this.  They're not interested in Israel's history, however.  They just want to keep Israel's security barrier from running through the village lands.

The barrier is to keep out Palestinian terrorists out of populated Israeli areas.  It's there to stop suicide bombers from blowing up buses and restaurants as well as themselves, and to keep kidnappers from taking Jewish children.  The Palestinians see it as an infringement on their rights and want it all unfenced.

This just doesn't work, because when something awful happens, it's never condemned by the UN.  "It's the Israeli reaction to the terror that gets that Jew-hating institution going."  So Israel need this security as long as the situation hasn't changed.  

Resource: http://www.simchajtv.com/history-as-parody/  Excellent article
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betar_(fortress)
The New Standard Jewish encyclopedia

Wednesday, June 25, 2014

Palestine Brings On the Third Intifada Against Israel

Nadene Goldfoot                                                                   

Ismail Haniyeh, Hamas Prime Minister from March 29, 2006 to June 2, 2014, declared on Monday, June 23rd that the 3rd Intifada against Israel has now begun.  Sounds like a declaration of war to me.
  1. This is the Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, beginning in 1987.  Ismail is  actually saying that they will just continue fighting against Israel and have no intentions of being peaceful neighbors.  Israel hasn't "occupied" Gaza since they pulled out in 2005.  Judea and Samaria the original Jewish names for what Jordan renamed as "The West Bank" in their act to eliminate our history in the area, is also populated by Jews.  They have a right to be there as it all had been zoned off between Palestinian and Israel sites.  

Kerry neglected to say that when Gaza stopped shelling Israel, then recognition would be possible of a Palestine.  
  1.                                                                        
 This 51 year old father of 12 children  has been replaced in the new formation of Palestine by Rami Hamdallah. He is Palestine's new Prime Minister and a Fatah member, selected by Abbas.   He's been actively encouraging Palestinians to kidnap IDF soldiers.  Then he is sitting back and declaring that Israel's frantic searching is only increasing their willingness to resist.  To resist what?  Peace, evidently.  They're certainly not helping to search.  In fact, they are throwing stones at searchers and trying to prevent it from happening.
                                                                           
It actually started with the USA and the EU recognizing their state of Palestine and the unification of Fatah and Hamas as its people. The only clause given by the USA was that Obama would be watching their activities.   Evidently as soon as they were recognized, Hamas infiltrated into Judea and Samaria.  By doing this, they were set up to cause havoc against Israel which they have done.  While rockets have been raining on southern Israel from Gaza Hamas terrorists, others in Fatah-held Judea-Samaria kidnapped  only a few days later, 3 teen-aged boys on their way home from Yeshiva, a religious school.

To mess with Israel's children is a huge crime.  Israel knows all about kidnapping, having gone through this before with Gilad Shalit, a young  IDF soldier held over 5 years by terrorists.  Israel had to act quickly and hoped that Glad Shaar, 19, Eyal Yifrach, 16, and Naftali Frankel, 16 were still alive.  Their school was in Gush Etzion, south of Bethlehem.  They were hitchhiking home.  Within minutes of the kidnapping, one boy was able to send a text message that they had been kidnapped.  They evidently accepted a ride with terrorists unknowingly.

IDF and police went through towns and open areas in Judea and Samaria in what they called "Operation Brother's Keeper. They have searched around Hebron.   They found many Hamas members that were not there before the recognition of Palestine.
                                                                   
The Palestinians are enjoying the theater and are using it to their advantage.  They are actually celebrating the kidnapping.   They're handing out sweets.  Even Fatah students at Bir Zeit University near Ramallah handed out sweets in the act of celebrating.  Palestinian Arabs also celebrated wildly when they heard about the Twin Towers of 9/11.

  On the other hand, the PA Prime Minister Hahmoud Abbas sees this as a problem to his formation of Palestine and has been extolling the wrongness of the act to Netanyahu and the Israelis.  Netanyahu praised him for his remarks made in Saudi Arabia for saying that "There can be no alliance with the kidnappers of children."   Yet Abbas is the one who encourages such acts by his Fatah celebrations and TV programs.  He aids and abets such activity a lot, so really is to blame.  He does nothing to bring peace between the two peoples. By uniting with Hamas, he has signed onto their destructive and deplorable charter calling for the destruction of Israel.  Netanyahu asked him to abrogate the recent unity pact between  Fatah and Hamas. Dollars to donuts, he won't.  He's being very 2-faced, if you ask me.
                                                                         
Khaled Mashaal, Hamas political bureau chairman since 1996, seems to be in the dark about this kidnapping.  He probably wasn't the organizer and has been left out of the loop, because he said, "If it turns out that the kidnapping really happened, I welcome it."  Netanyahu commented that "Mashaal once again made it clear that Hamas remains committed to its war against Israel and its war against every Israeli citizen, and coincidentally, against every Jew around the world."  They did not discriminate the fact that one of the boys kidnapped has USA citizenship.

Resource: http://www.tlvfaces.com/hamas-chief-haniyeh-third-intifada-begun/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ismail_Haniyeh
http://www.jpost.com/Breaking-News/Hamas-leader-Ismail-Haniyeh-encourages-abduction-of-Israeli-soldiers-348596
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2014/06/15/this-is-how-some-palestinians-are-celebrating-a-kidnapping/
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/1.600275
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rami_Hamdallah

Friday, June 20, 2014

Gazan Rocket Attacks Result in Israel Retaliation, Search Hebron for Kidnapped Teens

Nadene Goldfoot                                              
Last week on Saturday "Shabbat", June 14, 2014,  2 rockets were fired from Gaza at Israel  early in the evening and landed in the southern section of Hof Ashkelon Regional Council, where the main hospital is that services everyone including Gazans.  Like the old adage, they bite the hand that feeds them, in this situation, they bite the hand that can save their lives. That very morning another rocket had been fired which brought about the IDF hitting another armory and other targets in the southern Strip.  Again, another direct hit.

Israel answered the attacks by striking 6 targets later on Saturday evening with the 2nd attack on the coastal territory within the same 24 hours.  They hit 4 terrorist headquarters of which 3 were in the southern Strip and 1 was in the center.  They also hit 2 weapons storehouses (armories)  in the south. It was a  direct hit.
                                                                       
Mohammed Awar, an officer in the Hamas police,  was the terrorist responsible for the past rocket attacks against Israel over the last few years and in the last month. He was a Salafist, the most extreme of the Muslim religion and an extreme terrorist. They "deem unnecessary and un-Islamic other ideologies such as liberalism or humanism.  The group of Salafists,  Takfir wal-Hijra, who kidnapped and murdered an Egyptian ex-government minister in 1978, inspired some of "the tactics and methods" used by Al Qaeda.   It was Awar's  group that was behind the April 21 rocket strikes on Sderot and other towns within reach of the Hamas terrorists.    Israel targeted him while he was riding his motorcycle in the northern Strip and he died soon afterwards. Hamda Nasser, in his 20's, was injured.   Killed also accidentally along with him was a 7 year old boy, Ali Abed al-Latif Alawar.  This is the problem.  Usually the killers surround themselves with the innocent women and children.
                                                                         
This week should bring some news about the 3 teen agers who were kidnapped by Hamas living in the PA territory of Judea-Samaria.  Abbas is not happy about the act but can only blame himself for having all their energies go to hatred of Israelis and continued encouragement of this sort of thing.  Israel is furious and rounded up about 355 men hoping to find a lead.  It's important to give the terrorists a reason to not do this again to anyone, so are making life pretty miserable for them.  Israel has to find these children.  50 of those were arrested;  and  were some of the 1,027 prisoners freed by Israel in 2011 in the exchange deal to free Gilad Shalit, an IDF soldier who had been kidnapped.

Seconds after they were kidnapped, one had used his cell phone to report to the police that they had been kidnapped, but the police thought it was a prank.  Eyal Yifra 19, Gilad Shaar 16 and Naftali Fraenkel 16 were kidnapped late Thursday, June 12th.  Nothing has been heard since.

The kidnappers, Hamas terrorists,  are finding it might not have been worth the trouble, since now a Palestinian 16 year old who was participating in a riot in Judea in the village of Dura early Friday was shot by the IDF for throwing rocks.  An Israeli soldier was wounded by stone-throwing in Qalandiyah in Judah overnight on Thursday.   A 22 year old rioter was  injured by gunfire in a clash near Qalandiyah checkpoint against the IDF and later died in hospital.  The violence came with the search for the kidnapped children.  Searching was not made easy for those worried soldiers.

This is what happens from recognizing a Palestine made up of united Fatah and Hamas terrorists.  Hamas is stirring up Fatah and this has happened from it.  It has allowed Hamas to move into Judea and Samaria.  Instead of having peace in mind, they have war instead.

Resource: http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/1.598772, by Jack Khoury, June 15, 2014
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salafist_jihadism
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/.premium-1.600059

Wednesday, June 18, 2014

Israeli Jews Fighting Western Anti-Semitism Along With The Muslim World

Nadene Goldfoot                                                                    

Before WWI was over, the West knew they would be ready to rule Palestine.  "In 1916, Britain and France concluded the Sykes–Picot Agreement, which proposed to divide the Middle East between them into spheres of influence, with "Palestine" as an international enclave."

On November 2, 1917 the Balfour Declaration in essence created the right of the Jews to regain Palestine as the Jewish Homeland because the allies had won WWI and the Ottoman Empire was beaten.  They had sided with the Germans.  It took 31 years for the Jews to be able to announce that Israel was accepted in the United Nations.

"At the Peace Conference in 1919, Emir Faisal, speaking on behalf of King Hussein, asked for Arab independence, or at minimum the right to pick the mandatory.  In the end, he recommended an Arab state under a British mandate. The World Zionist Organization also asked for a British mandate, and asserted the 'historic title of the Jewish people to Palestine'"

Why did it take so long?  England was given the mandate to rule Palestine for 25 years. It was confirmed on England on July 24, 1922.   It started on September 29,  1923 and ended May 14, 1948 at midnight.  That's when the Jews were able to announce the birth of the Jewish state on May 14, 1948.

During the 25 years of waiting to have their own state once again and  being homeless for the past 1,847 years, WWII emerged.  The main victims of this war were the Jews.  Jews are followers of Moses, the people of the "Old Testament."  Since the New  Testament for Gentiles replaced the "Old", the Jews became those repulsed despicable people.  Religion certainly is strange.

Six million Jews were slaughtered in Germany's plan to exterminate them all in the whole world before the allies again won the war.  What they did to deserve being slaughtered was that they were different.  They were not of everyone else's religion. They wouldn't convert.   In Germany they had been residents there since 70 CE or even before when Jerusalem was attacked by the Romans.  They had a long history of being good patriotic citizens even though  they had been  attacked by the Gentile Germans on occasion.  Many had reacted from these attacks by moving into other countries.  They worked their way into the Pale of Settlement held by Russia.  The Nazis of WWII were able to reach all the Jews of Europe and tried to get the ones in Africa before they were stopped.  In 6 years, 6 million civilian  Jews were slaughtered.

WWII ended on May 5, 1945.  Three (3) years separated the end of the war and the birth of Israel.  A whole generation had gone by since it was decided that a Jewish Homeland should be created.  The generation that lived during  the Holocaust must have realized that the waiting period  caused the death of 6 million innocent people.  They could have been saved if they had been allowed to enter Palestine, but the British stopped them from entering.  They even turned back shiploads of Jews who were so close to freedom.  Not the Arabs, though.  They aided and abetted their entrance.  Could be their strong anti-Semitism  of a few thousand years was guiding their decisions?

England's history with Jews is shameful. Jews lived in England since Roman times, and were noticed as Jews in 1070.   Jews lived in Jerusalem after its attack in 70 CE, but along came the Crusaders led by England in 1099 and massacred their Jewish community.  By 1290 King Edward of  England expelled any Jews from   living there. Jews couldn't return until Oliver Cromwell in 1656 changed that, though there were a few Sephardic Jews there in 1655. Cromwell died 2 years later after the Jewish admission.     In their defense, there isn't a country that didn't treat Jews in the same manner.  England was just earlier than most in being so anti-Semitic.  Cyprus, the Byzantine Empire and  Germany preceded England in their anti-Semitic acts.  France and Spain were close behind, following England.  England was without Jews for 366 years, from the Middle Ages to the Age of Enlightenment.    300,000 Jews were living in England  about 10 years ago, but the 2011 census counted 263,346.

During those 25 years of holding the Palestine mandate, England turned their heads when Arabs were entering Palestine illegally.  The whole world had been suffering from anti-Semitism since the time the Jews lost Jerusalem, anyway because of their own religious reasons.  It wasn't until 1967 when Israel was attacked unmercifully by all their neighbors in a take-over and the massive combined armies lost the battle.  Suddenly the Jews were heroes being they were then the underdogs.  Like a soccer game upset, the little state of Israel overcame all the odds and were the winners.  Their popularity didn't last long and anti-Semitism settled back into the hearts of the world again.  Oh-they are the Jews!

We all know what the Muslim world is doing to drive out Jews from Israel.  Does the western world see how they are in cahoots with such a goal?  Take Amnesty International, supposedly a group promoting universal human-rights principals- evidently for all except for Jews.  Being the most influential NGO in the world,  they're silent when it comes to Jews' rights.  Jewish civilians, young children included, have been severely injured from stone-throwing Palestinians, stabbing attacks, and have been killed in shootings.  Israelis are consistently dehumanized and demonized by Muslims.  

They're first to enter the political scene against Israel.  April 2002, an Amnesty official on BBC confirmed IDF massacre in Jenin, which never took place.  It was a blood libel that continues to be propagated.  In 2009, they were participating in the Goldstone Report which was filled with many false indictments against Israel after Operation Cast Lead in Gaza.  They are obsessed against Israel.  Israel of late has been peppered by petrol bombs but Amnesty International says they pose little or no threat to the lives of the IDF.

 How about the BDS Movement?   .  It was started by Palestinians on July 9, 2005 and is still continuing.  It's a Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against Israel that is trying to attack Israel's economic growth and development which a state needs to exist.  Almost all American universities as well as European ones are on the bandwagon against Israel on this.

I have news for you all.  Israel's Jews aren't going anywhere.  They've been there, done that in being homeless, something that lasted 2,000 years.  They know what you all are like.  They have faith in their religious belief in that it promotes goodness, something they really have seen very little of in the rest of the world.  They know they're onto a good thing.  Their ancestors told them so, and they see that they were right.  Somebody has to be the light of the world even though the world is throwing a lot of water on their light in trying to put it out.  Like the Burning Bush that radiated without fire, the Jews continue to radiate their goodness in an evil world.  If anti-Semites would only take their blinders off, they might see it.

Resource: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Mandate_for_Palestine_(legal_instrument)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_II
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balfour_Declaration
Facts About Israel 1973, Division of information, Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Jerusalem.
Book: "From Time Immemorial"  by Joan Peters
Magazine:  The Jerusalem Report, April 7, 2014, Political theater of the absurd by Prof. Gerald M. Steinberg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boycott,_Divestment_and_Sanctions
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Jews_in_England
http://www.olivercromwell.org/jews.htm
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/sep/15/jews-new-sense-of-identity

Tuesday, June 17, 2014

Happenings In Our Crazy World This Week (June 17, 2014)

 Nadene Goldfoot                                                                        

                    The kidnapping of 3 Jewish school boys by Hamas Terrorists

The biggest disappointment happened last week in Athens when a proclamatiion was adopted by EU foreign ministers and their Arab colleagues.  It was one-sided and said that "it hails the Fatah-Hamas union and praised the Palestinians committed to DEMOCRACY and HUMAN RIGHTS.   Yet Hamas continued to shell Israel more than usual.  The declaration included harsh criticism of Israel.  Seems they can practice terrorism such as shooting  and terrorist acts of kidnapping, and that's okay.                                    
                                                                             
         Judea-Samaria and Gaza  in red, Israel in yellow.  One can see the katusha rocket range from "Palestine."  This week it's still hitting southern Israel from Gaza.  

ISIS, IRAQ  and  IRAN
The USA had  meetings with Iran about Iraq, the state they had a war with in 1980 that lasted for 8 years. Iraq and Iran  had fought so long and hard that the war was down to children fighting.   They met on Monday in Geneva, Switzerland about the ongoing nuclear negotiations and discussed the crisis in Iraq.  They discussed how ISIS threatens many countries in the region, including Iran.   (TIME).
                                                                         
                          ISIS now 35 miles from Baghdad, Iraq

Israel is against such an unparallelled meeting.  Yuval Steinitz, the Israeli Strategic Affairs Minister, said Iran should not be helped to extend it's sway in Iraq.  Tehran would then have more control in Syria, where the Iranians back President Assad.  They'd get their foot in the door in Lebanan, where they have their Hizbullah allies.  This would wind up softening the American positions on the issue of the Iranian nuclear issue more than they already are, just what Iran would love.  It would be that the USA and Iran would be on the same side of supporting the government of Iraqi Prime Minister al-Maliki.

It may be that both are rooting for Maliki, but each has their own different reasons.  ISIS, the branch of al-Qaeda, is the enemy in this case, and is the worst Shi'a group in history.  For a group that started with little finances, they fixed that by robbing a big bank in Iraq, so that now they are loaded.  Right now ISIS is about 35 miles away from Damascus, supposedly a well-fortified city.

                                               KIDNAPPING OF 3 ISRAELI TEENAGERS
Two (2) months ago, PA's Abbas asked that Palestine be included in 15 international conventions.  One was the 1989 UN convention on the Rights of the Child...and Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in Armed Conflict.  At the same time they are responsible for the kidnapping of 3 Jewish teenagers by Hamas.

Israel holds the PA responsible for this act.  Hamas terrorists took the boys, of who one holds dual citizenship- USA and Israel.  The terrorists were staying in Judah which is under PA control.  Israel is holding many people in the act of searching for them.  Israel said that the 3 boys' lives are in danger and they will have to move in anyway possible to get information as to where they are to rescue them.  The clock is ticking.  Netanyahu promised that those who try to attack Israeli citizens like this will be hit for doing so.

He asks that the international community condemn this abduction and support Israel's legitimate acts of self-defense.  All the while Israel has been attacked by rockets from Gaza during this period from Hamas.  When a state is under attack by a terrorist group, it is a far more serious situation than if some gang of thieves kidnaps someone for financial gain.

                                                    RANDOM ACTS OF HOSTILITY
Three (3) Palestinians tried to break through the security perimeter of Kochav Yaakov in Judea-Samaria late Monday night and IDF soldiers shot at them, injuring one.  The others got away.

Two (2) firebombs were thrown at the Beit Orot Yeshiva on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem which set off a  fire , but it was small.          

Resource:  www.dailyalert.org
Time
Reuters
BBC News
Prime Minister's Office-Israel
Times of Israel
Wall Street Journal