Cutting To The Quick: Middle East Is Now As If On Fire

 Nadene Goldfoot                                                    

44 Nations have condemned Hamas, calling them terrorists, after October 7th  but....

Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Syria and Iraq pinned the responsibility on Israel. 

Iran is backing Houthis of Yemen to attack Israel.  Iran is also backing Hamas terrorists living in Gaza to attack Israelis.  They were responsible for October 7th.  Syria and surprisingly, Turkey, are falling apart in their fighting.  Trump may have to cut aid to Jordan and Egypt which they will be in dire straights without, and Egypt is occupying the Sinai when they had signed an agreement agreeing not to; Saudi Arabia is holding meetings for parties to talk to each other about peace even though they are accused of abusing human rights, restricting freedom of citizens and doling out severe punishment of their own people.  Qatar is another where meetings have been held, but they had hosted Qaradawi, a TV and internet personality of hatred for Israel. "

Syria regime on 7–8 December 2024, Israeli forces initiated temporary military operations in Syria's Quneitra Governorate. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated that the goal is to prevent any threat until an agreement was reached with the new Syrian government. He also said their desire is to establish neighborly and peaceful relations, and offered a hand of peace to all the Christians, Druzes, Kurds, and Muslims in Syria who want to live in peace with the State of Israel. A Turkish news report claimed that Assad provided Israel with a map of Syria's military sites before fleeing to Russia.

 To illustrate how the religious-historical language in the Middle East is unlike the modern Western language of political-interests, this article will analyze the way Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, one of the top religious personalities in the Sunni Muslim world and the religious leader of the Hamas movement, understands the religious sources of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.  Born in 1926, Qaradawi is a popular Egyptian-Qatari scholar with great influence. Many researchers have described him as the most influential Muslim jurist in our generation.4 His popularity and his influence are mostly credited to his successful use of television and the Internet and the distribution of his books. His weekly program on Al-Jazeera, al-Sharia wa-l-Ḥayyat (Islamic Law and Life), draws 60 million viewers from around the world. In addition to condoning the use of suicide bombers and a struggle without concessions to free Palestine, Qaradawi is a supporter of Hamas and the Islamic Jihad morally and economically through many charitable donations that pass through his hands.5"  He did all this from Qatar.  He was their darling.  

In Lebanon, the Israel–Hamas war sparked a renewed Israel–Hezbollah conflict, beginning one day after the October 7 Hamas-led attack on Israel. The conflict initially consisted of tit-for-tat airstrikes and shelling. The conflict escalated in September 2024, beginning with the Israeli explosion of Lebanese pagers and walkie talkies. Israel then began an aerial bombing campaign throughout Lebanon, killing at least 569 people on 23 September; the largest conflict-related loss of life in a single day in Lebanon since the Civil War.

Jordan is unhappy with Israel.  In October 2023, during the Israel–Hamas war, King Abdullah condemned Israel's blockade of the Gaza Strip and the "collective punishment" of Palestinians in Gaza. On 1 November 2023, Jordan recalled its ambassador to Israel, accusing the country of creating an “unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe” and “killing innocent people in Gaza”. Jordan also declared that Israel's ambassador, who had departed Amman following Hamas' attack, would not be permitted to return.

Egypt is testing the waters:  Satellite images reveal Egyptian tanks near the border with Israel. Experts warn: 'Four times the permitted forces'. IDF: 'Operating while respecting the peace agreement'. Attempts to smuggle weapons using drones, satellite images indicating changes in the Egyptian military's force deployment in Sinai, and concerned security coordinators in Israeli border communities all paint a concerning picture regarding developments in Egypt.

Turkey is anti-Israel:  “Whoever is on the side of Israel, let everyone know that we are against them,” Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Saturday, according to Iran’s Press TV."Under the conservative leader Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Turkey has become a stalwart supporter of the Palestinian militant group Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip. Unlike Israel, Turkey has never listed Hamas as a terrorist organisation."Erdogan made the comments as he addressed senior provincial officials from the ruling AKP party in Ankara.“We do not approve of silence on the state terror that Israel blatantly carries out in Palestine,” Erdogan said.  The recent arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, a prominent political rival of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has sent shockwaves through Turkey's financial landscape. While the current political instability in Turkey is a cause for concern, it is not unprecedented. Lessons from past episodes of unrest, such as the importance of swift and decisive government action, the risks of overreaction, and the need to address the root causes of instability, can be drawn to navigate the present crisis.  

The news about the Middle East is scary.  Each country of the Middle East is either fighting or ready to fall.  These seems to be days prophesized about and in deep trouble, arriving at the End Of Days.  The Middle East comprises 16 countries, including: Bahrain, Cyprus, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, , Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, and Yemen.  

 Arabs include Palestine, but that has not come about with land;  onlysocially/politically.  What with October 7th slaughter, a 2-state solution must be off the table.                                                       

The sky goddess Nut and human figures representing stars and constellations from the star chart in the tomb of Ramses VI. Ramses VI, a king of ancient Egypt, reigned in the mid-12th century BCE, roughly between 1145 and 1137 BCE. Jews, slaves in Egypt for 400 years, had to build storage cities for a Pharaoh Ramses.  There the  Jews, called Israelites, learned about calendar-making, it appears.                                            

                 Leaving Egypt after 400 years of being slaves (toiling for Pharaoh) 

Our Exodus of leaving Egypt after living there for 400 years was from 1445 BCE 

according to some researchers or 3,470 years ago.   The year of 2025, on a Jewish calendar is really the year of 5785;  so we are only 215 years from the year of 6,000 which takes us back to Egypt 5,025 to  6,000 years ago, the creation of the world, which shows how long mankind has had to perfect themselves and catch onto how they should be living.   

In the context of the Jewish calendar, the year 6000 is traditionally viewed as the year when the Messianic Age, or the "cosmic Shabbat," will begin, marking the end of the current world and the start of a new era.   In Judaism, the Messianic Age, or "Olam HaBa" ("the world to come"), is a future era of universal peace, justice, and spiritual understanding, where all Jews return to Israel, the Temple is rebuilt, and the dead are resurrected, ushering in a time of abundance and harmony.   The Messianic Age will not bring about conflict, but peace and understanding between all people. The Messianic Age will be a sign of the end of the world and the physical resurrection of the dead. 

Jews have been returning from all corners of the world to Israel, leaving impossible conditions of anti-Semitism.  The world now is in complete disarray, with the ability to blow up the whole planet if not careful by Iran.  The Temple Mount organization is ready for the Temple to be rebuilt.  

Many Reform Jews do not believe that there will be an end to the world, or that the dead will be resurrected. Many people of Christian and Muslim religions also believe with Orthodox Jews that we are about to enter the Messianic era and are in the End of Times right now.  Of course, the 3 major religions have completely different ideas as to how that is to be brought about along with the different outcomes. 

 

Corruption and Degradation Will Precede Redemption

One statement from the time of the rabbis describes the era leading up to the Messiah in the darkest terms of societal corruption:  

Resource:

 panel of 3 men; 2 were Christians and 1 was Jewish Israeli, chatting about Israel for about 2 hours, most informative; found on  you tube

  

https://www.amnesty.org.uk/saudi-arabia-human-rights-raif-badawi-king-salman

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel%E2%80%93Syria_relations  

https://www.hudson.org/node/39679  

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israeli%E2%80%93Lebanese_conflict   

https://www.ainvest.com/news/turkey-political-turmoil-economic-uncertainty-2503/    

https://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/series/tracking-international-reactions-hamas-israel-war        

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/10/us/politics/trump-jordan-egypt-gaza-development.html            

https://www.israelhayom.com/2025/02/13/egypt-increases-sinai-military-presence-violates-peace-treaty/                

17 More Years and What Is In Store For The World?

 Nadene Goldfoot                                            

We now have a building in the shape of a UFO.  

from ruddy media in Netherlands featured in Architecture & Interiors; Evoluon, Eindoven, Netherlands, published on February 24, 2019.  After a long day walking around Eindhoven (NL) the photographer had to take some pictures of the Evoluon.  

                                                                        

We are living in the Past's Future.  We're just people surviving each day but we are in unusual times where we have already traveled to the moon and back and are planning further excursions into the universe. It's hard to accept that we are living in the Past's spoken of Messianic Times, but it's a huge possibility.

One thing we're still trying to accept is that of Unidentified Flying Objects that have been seen throughout time are turning out to have a great possibility of being transportation from other planets.  The idea of other planets in other star systems sounds so fictional, but our scientists confirm this fact, and there seems to be those planets that are older and wiser than we are.  

We living on earth in the Western world  count our time by the Past's  Julian Calendar which was created in 45 BCE.  It's a  revision of the Roman Republican calendar, in use in the Roman empire and the Christian Middle Ages, and remains in use as the liturgical calendar of the Eastern Orthodox Churches. It is a solar (sun) calendar and I am writing this in the year of 2022. 

The Gregorian Calendar, created in 1926-1930 is the World Calendar we all use.  It's a Perpetual calendar with 1–2 off-week days, preferred and almost adopted by the United Nations in 1950s, a solar calendar .  

Our Sun, known as the G2V star, is a middle-aged star, as it is around 5 billion years old. It is the largest Sun in our solar system, but this title is not difficult to achieve, as it is the only one, as far as we know, and the same applies to the Moon.

NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) claims that there is an infinite number of stars, so naturally, some will be bigger, and some smaller than ours. While our Sun is an average-sized star, it is still ridiculously large. Our star’s brightness does not vary by much and that may be one factor key to the evolution of life on Earth. 

Our earth is 4.543 billion years old  plus or minus about 50 million years. Scientists have scoured the Earth searching for the oldest rocks to radiometrically date.  Our calendar is based on our sun, a star.    

A lunar calendar has 354 days while a solar calendar has 365 days.  Jews altered their calendar to get the agricultural festivals celebrated in the proper season so they also have 12 months on their calendars

   In 1,000 BCE, which was about 3022 years ago, when King David of Israel ruled (1010-970 BCE) Israel/Canaan used the lunar Gezer Calendar:  years are divided into monthly or bi-monthly periods and attributes to each a duty such as harvest, planting, or tending specific crops. It was in use throughout the Mesopotamian world. This is the oldest reckoning of time I've found.   

Jews for purposes of knowing dates of holidays use the Hebrew calendar  that was recorded by Maimonides or Rambam (1135-1204), as philosopher, halakhist and medical writer who at 13 went to Palestine from Cordova, Spain with his family escaping the Almohade persecutions and wrote a treatise on the Jewish calendar called Sepher ha-Ibbur on intercalation in 1158  in the Mishneh Torah, resulting from various reforms and traditions developing since Late Antiquity.  The [Anno Mundi era] gradually replaced the [Seleucid era] in Rabbinical literature in the 11th century. It is a lunisolar calendar or "bound lunar type"calculated according to the moon, depending on the moon as well as the sun used by the Babylonian/Seleucid derived of the 11th and 12th centuries.  This is the year 5783. 

 For religious purposes, the years are divided into 3 two-thousand year segments, and we are close to the year of 5800 which is deemed as a very messianic age and is very close to the western world's year of 2039---which will be the present in 17 more years.    

 The Chinese used the first Chinese calendar to use the true moon motion created in 619,  Wuyin origin.  It's also lunisolar. For them, January 25, 2020 was the Chinese year 4718:  the year of the rat. The Chinese calendar does not use a continuous year count! They used a 60 year cycle and a system of regional years (starting with each emperor). Before the 1911 revolution, Sun Yat-sen wanted to establish a republican alternative to the imperial reign cycles. According to Chinese tradition, the first year of the Yellow Emperor was 2698 B.C.E., so he introduced a counting system based on this. Under this system, 2000 is year 4698. An alternative system is to start with the first historical record of the 60-day cycle from March 8, 2637 B.C.E. Based on this system, 2000 is year 4637. Years of the Rat in Chinese zodiac are 2032, 2020, 2008, 1996, 1984, 1972, 1960, 1948, 1936...The Rat is the first zodiac sign in the Chinese zodiac cycle.

Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt, etc.  also use a calendar based on the observational lunisolar calendars used in Pre-Islamic Arabia. Remains in use for religious purposes in the Islamic world.  This started in 632 and is a lunar calendar. As of 30 July 2022 CE, the current Islamic year is 1444 AH. In the Gregorian calendar reckoning, 1444 AH runs from approximately 30 July 2022 to 18 July 2023. 

Where will the world be in 17 more years?  We are still putting up with countries that are invaders, wanting others' property.  Iran wants Israel to be extinquished, Russia wants its old USSR back, meaning Ukraine is to be under their rule,  and then there's the Palestinians.  Will they become peaceful?  What about earth's water situation?  Oil?  heating homes?  Hunger?  Clean air?  Can all these problems be solved in 17 more years?  What a heavy responsibility this is on our high school graduates of 2022.  They will be 35 years old and they will have to do most of the solving of these problems.  

Resource:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_calendars

Book: Destiny by Ken Spiro

http://www.webexhibits.org/calendars/calendar-chinese.html

https://www.optics-trade.eu/blog/is-the-sun-a-star/

Are There to be Jewish Prophets In End Times?

Nadene Goldfoot                                                                         

One thing that has come out of Israel and Judea  in plenty have been prophets.  Moses (1391-1271 BCE) , lawgiver, prophet, and founder of the Jewish religion was from the tribe of Levi.  He told us what would happen if we didn't follow the laws he gave us through G-d.  Following in his footsteps were Joshua, the Judges, Deborah, Samuel, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi.  They were said to be men designated by G-d to convey His message to men and to give guidance for the future.  It was an ancient ability starting in primitive times.  The Hebrews believe that they had been chosen by G-d who had sent them prophets to point out the right path to follow.  The prophet was mainly the protagonist of monotheism and morality.

"The Talmud (Megillah  says that there had been twice as many prophets as the number of people who left Egypt (2,600,000), but only those whose messages were for future generations were recorded. This count was 48 male and 7 female Prophets."

Moses and his prophecies were a continuous flow of information and not from sudden inspiration.  The others following him were religious leaders guiding the nation in times of difficulty like Deborah and Samuel.  Then our land of Israel was guided by kings and the prophet became a fighter for social morality that kept them busy when necessary to rebuke the King for his moral lapses such as Nathan, Ahijah the Shilonite.  They would have sons who became their disciples and they zealously opposed any manifestation of paganism, like Elijah and Elisha did.  From the times of Amos, the prophet wrote their  own words down, generally in a lofty language that made up the culmination of biblical poetry.  As before, they concentrated on attacking religious corruption that would come about in lapses and drove against social corruption.

Deborah, who lived around 1150 BCE, was the nurse of Rebekah, wife of Lapidoth,  and a prophetess who roused the Israelite tribes  to revolt under Barak, son of Abinoam (Barak Ben Abinoam) , against the Canaanite king Jabin of Hazor and Sisera, his ally and commander.  Barak led the forces of the tribes of Naphtalli and Zebulum, 2 of the 12 tribes of Israel, which defeated the army of Sisera.

 Samuel in the 11th century BCE (1000s to 1100s)  was also a prophet and last Israelite judge, also of the tribe of Levi.  He foretold the destruction of the House (dynasty) of Eli.  Apparently, groups of prophets were formed to guide the people .  In his old age and under pressure from the people, he relented to popular demand and chose Saul as the first king for Israel.  Later, he anointed David (1010-970 BCE)  as Saul's successor.
                                                                   

Ezekiel by Michelangelo

Ezekiel was a prophet in the 6th century BCE (500-600 BCE)  who was exiled to Babylonia and most likely had been in the Temple before it was destroyed in 586 BCE.  After Jerusalem was destroyed, he consoled his people and encouraged them with his vision of the future.  He uttered prophecies of catastrophes to the gentiles.

The prophet foresees national disaster to be followed by consolation.  They expect Israel to set an example for all the nations and Israel bears the punishment of failure.  They stick to the belief, shared by other religions today, that all evil men will be destroyed at the "end of days."  What we do must be accompanied by good deeds.  The Prophet could foresee the future, and later generations felt that prophecy contained vision down to "the last generation.  

The prophet would speak and/or write down what he is saying.  How did he receive these prophecies?  During waking and sleeping hours, and the prophet would later recapitulate the message before the people.  

The spirit of prophecy stopped with the last of the Minor Prophets of Zechariah, etc, according to Jewish religious leadership.  So, the role of the prophet was assumed by the "men of the Great synagogue" and the sages who succeeded them.  They had the faculty of interpreting the Bible prophecies.  The saying was that, "A sage is higher than a Prophet."

In the messianic age, however, the faculty of prophecy would be renewed.  Many people feel we are in that stage right now and we see Benjamin Netanyahu risking his reputation and position as Prime Minister of Israel coming to speak to the mightiest state and greatest friend, the USA Congress,  to warn them of what he sees happening  between Iran, USA and Israel. By doing this he has fractured his already strained  relationship with Barack Hussein Obama, President of the USA. 

 The fact that he came and spoke 2 days before Purim, when Haman, chief advisor to the Persian king,  also wanted to kill off all Jews in the Persian Empire, which was huge, is telling us that what happened in the past can be replayed in the future.  History repeats itself.  "If history repeats itself, and the unexpected always happens, how incapable must Man be of learning from experience."  So it is that through our Jewish historical experience, Netanyahu came to warn us of impending disaster.  

George Bernard Shaw

                                             

 Netanyahu is also trying to put an end to the capabilities of Haman's descendants who also want to do this to the Jewish people and to Israel according to all the verbage they have thrown at the Jews. 
                                                     

 Beautiful Queen Esther was the cause of the deliverance of the Jews of Persia in the time of King Ahasuerus.  Netanyahu is not Esther, but his act is more like the prophets of old.  He's warning the USA and the world that the present deal on the table is a bad deal and needs to be altered.  By the time of Elijah and Elisha, prophets were found in both the northern and southern kingdoms and were often in conflict with the kings. They had clearly taken on their well‑known role as critics of the Israelite society of the day, but had not yet developed into literary figures.

People did not always like what the prophets had to say, either.  It was a divided population, similar to the House Chamber of Senators where Obama spoke to Democrats and Republicans alike.  Netanyahu is either highly respected and admired greatly along with  his monumental and straight to the point speech or greatly hated for his accepting Boehner's invitation to enlighten the senators in a speech.  

Netanyahu is gifted with something so many of us have been endowed with and that is Chutzpa;  nerve.  He had the nerve and the need to come and  share his fears.  He could not bottle them up.  Perhaps we will certainly be in the end of days if Netanyahu is not heeded, for then Iran will have atomic capabilities to manufacture 
                                                  

IBM missiles, the A bomb and anything else they so desire.  

Resource: The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Judaism/The_List_of_Prophets.html