Thursday, March 5, 2020

THE PRESIDENTIAL RACE: WHAT AMERICAN PRESIDENT WILL BE BEST FOR ISRAEL?

Nadene Goldfoot
                                                               
Joe Biden, former 47th Vice President with Obama  in 2009-2017, age 77
Senator in 72, ran for president in 88,
born November 20, 1942 in Scranton, Pennsylvania
Education: Archmere Academy in 61 and played football, U. of Delaware 65 with double major in history and political science, College of Law at Syracuse U 1968, 

Democrat
Irish Catholic
Parents:  Joseph and Catherine Biden nee Finnegan
 Work: joined the faculty of the University of Pennsylvania, where he was named the Benjamin Franklin Professor of Presidential Practice. He announced his 2020 candidacy for president on April 25, 2019, which was a late decision.
Israel:                                     

Vice-President Joe Biden speaks at the home of the Israeli President, Reuven Rivlin, earlier in this week in 2016.  ILIA YEFIMOVICH / GETTY photograph

"Democratic primary candidate says in video message that annexation plans and settlement activities ‘choking hopes for peace’; calls on Palestinians to end incitement, rocket fire.   Joe Biden told the Israel lobby group AIPAC this week that it is “dangerous” for Israel to become “another issue that divides Democrats and Republicans.” But he warned that Israeli moves to build more settlements and annex occupied territories were threatening that divide by alienating young Americans.";  Biden had moved on to the Palestinians. Yes, he acknowledged, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu deserves criticism for proposing to annex parts of the West Bank. But he was “tired of everybody giving the Palestinian Authority a pass.” 

Biden was a long-time member of the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations. In 1997, he became the ranking minority member and chaired the committee in January 2001 and from June 2001 through 2003. When Democrats re-took control of the Senate following the 2006 elections, Biden again assumed the top spot on the committee in 2007. Biden was generally a liberal internationalist in foreign policy. 
In October 2002, Biden voted in favor of the Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq, approving the U.S. invasion of Iraq.
In late 2019 he became embroiled in something in Ukraine with his son, Hunter.  Trump was said to be needing to know what was happening.  Biden's son was involved with Ukrainian business.  It is suggested that Joe pushed for the removal of a Ukrainian prosecutor in order to help shield his son, who at the time was working for Ukrainian gas company Burisma Holdings, from scrutiny.
                                                     
Bernie Sanders, junior Senator from 2007 till now for Vermont, and Representative from 91-2007,  age 78
born September 8, 1941, Brooklyn, New York
Education: U. Chicago in 64, BA Political Science
Long-time Independent,  Democratic Socialist, ran as Democrat

Work:   Mayor of Burlington, VT 81-89, ran for president in 2016,
Jewish
Parents: Elias Ben Yehuda Sanders of Galicia and Austria-Hungary (Poland)  and Dorothy Glassberg


Israel:  Bernie is considering moving the embassy from Jeru-
salem back to Tel Aviv.  He has not backed Israel in my opinion.  He's against AIPAC.  The front-runner is lending legitimacy to a movement that seeks to make AIPAC toxic within the Democratic Party.
On June 12, 2017, U.S. senators agreed to legislation imposing new sanctions on Russia and Iran. The bill was opposed only by Sanders and Republican Rand Paul. He supported the sanctions on Russia, but voted against the bill because he believed the sanctions could endanger the Iran nuclear deal. Therefore he was for the Iran nuclear deal. They now 
have an abundance of uranium stockpiled.  


In 2018, Sanders sponsored a bill and was joined by Senators Chris Murphy (DCT) and Mike Lee (RUT) to invoke the 1973 War Powers Resolution to end U.S. support for the Saudi-led military intervention in Yemen, which has resulted in hundreds of thousands of civilian casualties[ and "millions more suffering from starvation and disease." After the assassination of Jamal Khashoggi in October 2018 (which, according to multiple intelligence agencies, was ordered by Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman), his bill attracted bipartisan co-sponsors and support, and the Senate passed it by a vote of 56–41. The bill passed the House in February 2019 by a 247-175 vote and President Trump vetoed it in March, saying, “This resolution is an unnecessary, dangerous attempt to weaken my constitutional authorities, endangering the lives of American citizens and brave service members, both today and in the future." Bernie's view of the Middle East is the
opposite of President Donald Trump. 

                                                                                                                                             
Donald Trump, 45th President USA, age 73
Born:  June 14, 1946, New York, New York
Education:  NY Military Academy 64, Fordham U 64-66, Wharton School of U. of Penn. 66-68, BA in Economics
Democrat, ran as Republican,

Presbyterian 
Parents: Frederick Christ Trump with parents from Germany and Mary Anne MacLeod of Scotland.
Work:  Family business of Elizabeth Trump & Son-real estate,
builder of hotels, golf course
, casinos, own TV programs
worth about $3 billion dollars
Book:  Art of the Deal
Israel:  Trump has supported the policies of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. 

                                                   

He officially recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel on December 6, 2017, despite criticism and warnings from world leaders. He subsequently opened a new U.S. embassy in Jerusalem in May 2018. The United Nations General Assembly condemned the move, adopting a resolution that "calls upon all States to refrain from the establishment of diplomatic missions in the Holy City of Jerusalem". In March 2019, Trump reversed decades of U.S. policy by recognizing Israel's annexation of the Golan Heights, a move condemned by the European Union and the Arab League.

Summary:  Sanders is the  only one that is Jewish and is the most against Israel.  Biden is not a friend for Israel.  Trump, has proven in his first 4 years to be the best friend that Israel has had.  We can thank his son in law, I believe, for that attitude.  

Resource: https://www.timesofisrael.com/biden-tells-aipac-israels-policies-undermining-support-among-us-youth/
https://mondoweiss.net/2020/03/thats-dangerous-thats-dangerous-biden-says-of-israel-becoming-a-partisan-issue-in-u-s/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Biden
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernie_Sanders
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Trump
https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2020-02-26/bernie-sanders-aipac-boycott-shows-threat-to-us-israel-ties
https://jewishcurrents.org/joe-bidens-alarming-record-on-israel/
https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/486054-trump-says-biden-ukraine-dealings-will-be-a-major-campaign-issue
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/views-on-israel-of-u-s-presidential-candidates-2020-joe-biden

Monday, March 2, 2020

Who Were the Crusaders That Attacked Jerusalem? A Timeline

Nadene Goldfoot
                                                      
Crusaders fighting the Moslems

Palestine had been taken over by the Moslems.  The Christian rulers in the Middle Ages could not stand for that being Jesus had been from there and the Romans had then become Christians, keeping a hold on the area.  Then they moved their quarters to Constantinople.  The Crusades were the wars waged by the Christian rulers to win it back.  

 This caused serious consequences for the Jews.  In the first place, the Crusaders came from Europe and as they rode through to get to the Middle East, they slew Jews that they found.  This happened especially in Northern France and especially in the Rhineland where massacres happened in many cities that had heavy Jewish populations such as Mainz, Worms, Speyer, Cologne, etc.  Similar attacked happened in Prague and later in Salonica where the reports of the Crusade started a messianic ferment.  
                                                   

1096-1099 The First Crusade:   was the first of a number of crusades that attempted to recapture the Holy Land, called for by Pope Urban II at the Council of Clermont in 1095. Urban called for a military expedition to aid the Byzantine Empire, which had recently lost most of Anatolia to the Seljuq Turks.
                                                   

1099: Jerusalem was captured:  
                                                      
                                                             
Godfrey, king of Jerusalem
Godfrey of Bouillon was one of the German leaders of the First Crusade. He was the first ruler of the Kingdom of Jerusalem from 1099 to 1100. He is also known as the "baron of the Holy Sepulchre" and the "crusader king".

Siege of Jerusalem 
             
1147-1149 Second Crusade:  50 years later:  This was organized to come to the aid of the Crusading Kingdom so similar outbreaks took place in France and the Rhineland as the results of the actions of a monk called Rudolf. The Crusaders were restricted in scale through the humanitarian efforts of Bernard of Clairvaux.  When the Crusade began, the Pope urged that the debts of crusaders to the Jews should be remitted, and this became a regular demand on such occasions. 
                                                  

1187    Saludin regains Jerusalem: 

1189-1192  Third Crusade:  40 years later:    For the first time, this crusade had wide support in England.  It led to preliminary attacks by the crusaders on the Jews in many places, especially in York in 1190.   Later, the crusades involved the Jews only incidently through the next crusade.

1200-1204  Sacking Constantinople

1212  Children's Crusade:   was a failed popular crusade by European Christians to regain the Holy Land from the Muslims, said to have taken place in 1212. ... Many children were tricked by merchants and sailed over to what they thought were the holy lands but, in reality, were slave markets.
                                                      

Shepherds' Crusade in 1320:  Fourth Crusade: 128 years later:   This resulted in widespread attacks on the Jews in southern France and northern Spain.  The crusades may be said to have begun the age of unmitigated suffering for medieval Jewry.  

Spanish Crusade:  1100-1492  Spanish Inquisition: forcing Jews to either convert to Catholicism or leave the country with the result of breaking this law-death.  
                                                       
Through their achievements, the Crusaders gave the impetus to the Italian maritime republics and to international intercourse in helping to displace the Jewish merchants from their former favored position and so stimulated the economic decline of the Jews.  
A Crusader ship with supplies


On the other hand, the demand for credit on the part of the participants stimulated Jewish financial operations in some countries of Europe.  

PS from Victor:  
In 1099, the Christians (aka the Crusaders) captured Jerusalem and immediately herded the Jewish community into the largest synagogue in the city, locked the doors, and set the building alight.

They then marched around the burning synagogue singing "Christ we adore thee" to the terrible screams of agony from the dying Jewish men, women, children and babies.

That is known as "Christian love."

Resource:
Saxons, Vikings, and Celts by Bryan Sykes: The genetic roots of Britain and Ireland
Origins of the British by Stephen Oppenheimer;  The new prehistory of Britain and Ireland from ice-age hunter gatherers to the Vikings as revealed by DNA analysis
The Tribes of Britain by David Miles:  Who are we?  and where do we come from?  
Wikipedia