Baghdad: City of the Ages Threatened by IS

Nadene Goldfoot                                                           

                                              Baghdad's Airport-Coveted Site by IS

Baghdad, 1st city in the world to reach a population of 1 million, had in the Middle Ages a population of 1,200,000.  It's the largest city in Iraq who's northern section has been taken over by IS terrorists.  In 2011 Baghdad had a population of 7,216,040.  It's the 2nd largest city in the Middle East with Cairo being first with 12 million and Tehran, Iran has 8.3 million people.   Iraq's population is 35 million  with 9 million living in the capital, Baghdad.
                                                                         

                  Baghdad sits on the Tigris River.  It became the capital of the Abbasid Caliphate.

The USA Embassy has 15,000 people working in it.  There are 5,500 Americans in Baghdad. IS is about 25 miles away and it's airport is always under threat of takeover.  

The city of Baghdad's foundation was built in 763 and that's when its Jewish community dates from.  A  Jewish traveler, Benjamin of Tudela, living in 1170,  said that he found 40,000 Jews living there at that time which included many distinguished scholars.  They also had poets, physicians and talmudists.

When the Mongols ruled from 1258, Jews were favored with many placed in high administrative positions. They were  not prejudiced against Jews like the Muslims were.  However, the Jewish administrator and physician, Saad ad-Daula was assassinated in 1291 and this was followed by a general attack on the Jews of Iraq.     Then when Tamerlane (b: 1336)  captured Baghdad in 1400, most of the Jews fled.  He was a Central Asian conqueror and a descendant on his mother's side of Genghis Khan, so he told people.  Mongols had converted to Islam and had reintroduced discriminatory laws.

Baghdad didn't become prominent again until Turkish domination from the 17th century onwards. In the 19th century, Baghdadi Jews moved to India and the Far East and built up new Jewish settlement.   By 1939, when things were at their worst in Germany for Jews, there were about 80,000 Jews living in Baghdad.  They were an important element in the economic life of Baghdad, probably as shopkeepers.

There was a rebellion led by Rashid Ali in 1941 that came in with pogroms in which hundreds of Jews were killed and wounded when thousands of Jews were being killed in the concentration camps in Europe.

When Israel announced its birth on May 14, 1948, most of Baghdad's Jews migrated to Israel and a few went to other countries.   Only about 5,000 remained in Baghdad.  By 1990 there were only about 200 left and most of them were quite elderly.  They had to live under great restrictions.  9 were hanged in 1969 after being charged as spies for Israel.  One of my co-teachers in the junior high in Safed told me his uncle had been one of them who had been hung, and he wasn't any spy.

Iraq itself used to be called Mesopotamia. It is considered as the cradle of humanity and sets the scene for man's 1st revolt against G-d by building the Tower of Babel.  Many biblical stories come from here such as the Flood.  It was Abraham who came from its famous city of Ur of the Chaldeans, but then left and migrated to what was to become Israel.  Babylon was to the prophets a symbol of insolent pagan tyranny .

Their Nebuchadnezzar II (604-56 BCE) inherited the Assyrian Empire and he then conquered Judah in 597 and 586 BCE and exiled many Jews to Babylon.  The 10 Tribes of Jacob had been exiled there in 721 BCE.  Finally King Cyrus permitted a return of the Jews to Jerusalem and they were told they should rebuild the Temple.  So,  it's pre-Moslem history was that of being Babylonia.  It was then conquered by the Arabs in 637.  Surprisingly, the large Jewish community already there favored and even helped the Arab advance in the hopes that it would give them deliverance from the Sassanid persecutions.  After the Arabs occupied Iraq, Jews expelled from Arabia settled in Kufa.

For centuries, Iraq continued to be the center of Jewish life.  Babylon became the spiritual center for all Jewry.  Its rabbis wrote the Babylonian Talmud that became more popular than the Palestinian Talmud.

It was such an important center of Jewish learning that Jews would write from all parts of the world to the Geonim (Jewish Scholars) about their religious problems and their answers were accepted as binding.  Newly founded Jewish sects were created among the Jewish population during this time called the Issawites and  Yudganites,  and Karaism rose.

Then Jews suffered under Omar.  Cultivated land was highly taxed so Jews tended to leave agriculture and  lived in larger towns, like Baghdad, Basra and Mosul.  There they were traders and craftsmen.  Some became financiers or worked in international commerce.

Now Baghdad is ruled by Shi'a Muslims while Iraq is populated by Sunni Muslims, and they fight each other to the death.  IS is a radical sect of Sunnis and is out to create their own caliphate once again and ignore the League of Nations who divided the Ottoman Empire up at the end of WWI when they lost WWI along  with Germany and a few other states being the Axis.

The government of Iraq in Baghdad decided to invade Kuwait on August 2, 1990..  The UN took a measure or two against Iraq for this act and  for every action the Council took against Iraq, they felt they must take a parallel action against Israel. "After the Gulf War began, the UN Commission on Human Rights  repeatedly voted to condemn Israel".  They condemned Israel for control of the Golan Heights and accused Israel of keeping Palestinians in "concentration camps" and demanded it withdraw from "Palestinian territory, including Jerusalem."  The reason for this craziness was that IRAQ was on the Human Rights panel.  Of course they were among the majority voting to condemn Israel.  Their idea was to deflect condemnation on themselves and throw it onto Israel, instead.

The United States has made some mistakes in dealing with Iraq.  The first went back to 1955 when the US armed Iraq, who was Egypt's hated rival, and promoted the Baghdad Pact.  This caused Nasser to turn to the Soviet Union out of anger for this move.  Nasser opposed that agreement, and would have opposed any defense alliance with the West.  The result was that he began to get Soviet arms in 1955.  In trying to appease him, the US then offered to build the Aswan Dam, but that didn't turn Nasser's head at all.  Instead, he increased his orders with the Soviets and spurned the USA peace initiative.  

"The Baghdad Pact was a defensive organization for promoting shared political, military and economic goals founded in 1955 by Turkey, Iraq, Great Britain, Pakistan and Iran. Similar to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization, the main purpose of the Baghdad Pact was to prevent communist incursions and foster peace in the Middle East. It was renamed the Central Treaty Organization, or CENTO, in 1959 after Iraq pulled out of the Pact."  I see that Egypt was left out and was the country with the largest population and had been the main leader of the Middle East Arabs.  Today Turkey has about 74 million  99% Sunni/ Shi'a;  Iraq with 31 million 97% Shi'a/Sunni, Pakistan with 173 million 97% Sunni/Shi'a;  and Iran has 77 million.98% Shi'a.    Egypt, left out of the mix, has at least 80 million with 90% Sunni.   

In 1978,Baghdad hosted an Arab League summit that condemned and ostracized Egypt for accepting the Camp David accords.  It seems to me the USA had picked the wrong team to back back in 1955.   

Then, Iraq and Iran fought the war of all wars against each other starting exactly when my husband and I made aliyah to Israel; September 1980.  It lasted until August 1988, and was the longest conventional war of the 20th Century.
                                                                     

A Marine Corps M1 Abrams tank patrols a Baghdad street after its fall in 2003 during Operation Iraqi Freedom.

The USA entered Baghdad to get Saddam Hussein in 2003 and didn't leave until 2010.  This cost the USA 1.1 trillion dollars of which 757.8 billion was spent by the Dept of Defense which includes money that was borrowed to pay for all of this.  This Iraq War was called the First Persian Gulf War or Operation Iraqi Freedom.  Now we see IS using arms left there against Iraq's soldiers.

Saddam Hussein (1937-2006)  was the most evil man one can imagine and comes in 2nd compared to Hitler.   "In 2003, a coalition led by the U.S. and U.K. invaded Iraq to depose Saddam, in which U.S. President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair accused him of possessing weapons of mass destruction and having ties to al-Qaeda."  Somehow, Assad of Syria  was able to get Sarin gas later which he used on his own people who were fighting against him, the odd man out, an Alawite.  It could be that Saddam had possessed this very gas and moved it over to Syria.   "Assad opposed the 2003 invasion of Iraq despite a long-standing animosity between the Syrian and Iraqi governments.  He also belonged to the Ba'ath Party in Syria, just like Hussein belonged to the Ba'ath Party in Iraq.  
                                                                   

                                                             Al Qaeda Terrorists
                                                                              

                                                IS marching towards Mosul 

Now, IS has taken control of Iraq's 2nd largest city on the way to taking Baghdad; Mosul.  They did it by forming a coalition of 41 armed Sunni groups and one was of the Ba'ath party known as Naqshbandis of Mosul. These fighters managed to kick out Al Qaeda.  However, "al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI), or al-Qaeda in Mesopotamia was an Iraqi Salafi jihadi militant organization affiliated with al-Qaeda. It was a major combatant actor in the Iraqi insurgency and played a central role in the establishment of the Islamic State of Iraq.    They've been tired of Baghdad's favoritism for Shi'as.  There's no way to tell who the players are in this battle when one group splinters up and joins IS anyway.  If they're Shi'as, they are out.  If they are Sunni, they are in.  Al Qaeda, organized by Osama bin Ladin, is "a radical Wahhabi Muslim movement calling for a strict interpretation of sharia law and jihad, the struggle towards Islamic ideals, at a global scale.  It stands for everything IS stands for.  

Resource:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baghdad
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embassy_of_the_United_States,_Baghdad
http://worldpopulationreview.com/world-cities/cairo-population/
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/10/13/iraqis-swear-baghdad-airport-is-safe-from-isis.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salafi_movement
http://2001-2009.state.gov/r/pa/ho/time/lw/98683.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egypt%E2%80%93Iraq_relations
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invasion_of_Kuwait
Book:  Myths and Facts-a concise record of the Arab-Israeli conflict by Mitchell G Bard and Joel Himelfarb
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran%E2%80%93Iraq_War
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Financial_cost_of_the_Iraq_War
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saddam_Hussein
http://www.businessinsider.com/saddam-husseins-old-party-is-behind-iraq-chaos-2014-6
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tanzim_Qaidat_al-Jihad_fi_Bilad_al-Rafidayn
http://www.ajc.org/site/apps/nlnet/content3.aspx?c=7oJILSPwFfJSG&b=8482195&ct=12481123&notoc=1

The Prophet Joel and Pastor Hagee's Comment About Obama's Wanting Jerusalem Divided

Nadene Goldfoot                                                                        

                                                              
Pastor John Hagee, head of  Protestant Evangelicals from San Antonio, Texas, is really giving it to Obama for trying to divide Jerusalem.  It happens that it is all one city today under Israel's domain as it's capital.  The USA still has not accepted it as such.   Hagee is  the leader of one Christian group that really is pro Israel and has done much to help Israel.   He's blaming the contagious Ebola virus  on Obama's  actions of having Kerry push for a divided Jerusalem.   Hagee quoted Joel 3:2, so I had to stop and look it up in my Tanakh (Bible)  and find in mine it is listed under 3:4, but has a little different wording-different translators.  The Evangelicals believe in the Old Testament writings, which makes them different from quite a few other Protestants and Catholics.
                                                                         

What thrills me is that this chapter tells about what happened to the Jews, and in genealogy, one of my interests and ancient history, this is important.  Here, Joel was also a historian.  He's saying that the boys were given for harlot's fee ( the price of a prostitute)  and they sold girls for wine and drank it.  The invaders sold girls in order to earn enough for a bottle of wine which they drank.  Evidently both girls and boys must have had very little value to these people.    In 6 he says that they sold the children of Judah and the children of Jerusalem to the children of the Greeks in order to distance them from their border.  However, in 4, he reports G-d saying,  "That in those days and at that time, when I will bring back the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem, " I will gather all of the nations and bring them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat and I will contend with them there concerning My people and My possession, Israel, that they dispersed among the nations, and they divided up My land."  He tells them that "Israel has done you no harm, and you cannot claim that you are repaying them or Me for past wrongs."
                                                                   

Joel  gets even with them by saying  that G-d will sell their sons and daughters into the hands of the children of Judah and they will sell them to Sabaeans, to a distant people.  They were from Sabea, a country in southern Arabia, home of a rich culture and a powerful kingdom from the 1st half of the last millennium BCE to 500 CE.  They spoke a semitic language.  The Sabeans carried gold and goods imported from India by caravan to Judah.  It's also mentioned in the Bible as Sheba.   As it was, there were several Jewish tribes found in Arabia living in Medina at the time of Mohammad (570-632 CE). Many were killed who would not convert to Islam.  Perhaps some Saudis have the DNA history of having arrived there as slaves in the past as Joel had prophesied.  .
                                                                           

                                                      Rashi, famous Biblical commentator

Joel was the 2nd in order of the 12 Minor Prophets.  He lived possibly as early as the 9th century BCE, and more probably as late as the 4th century BCE.   Rashi tells us he was the son of Samuel and was a contemporary of Elisha and Joel, Nahum and Habakkuk who all prophesied during the rein of Manasseh.(720-692 BCE)   The chapter Hagee is referring to, 3-4,  talks of  the "Day of the Lord" when G-d will restore his people from captivity and punish their enemies in the plain of Jehoshaphat.  The problem in dating his work is that the text doesn't clearly indicate his date.  We've had the Assyrians come and take away our people when they attacked in 721 BCE so he could be referring to this time.  Or, he could be talking about the Babylonian attack in 597 BCE and again in 586 BCE, which is the most likely one if you discount Rashi's opinion.  Rashi (1040-1105 CE) was born in Troyes France and studied in the Rhineland of Germany and is the most well known commentator of the Bible.  .Our Temple was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar in the last Babylonian attack of 586 BCE.  I tend to agree with Rashi and that Joel  wrote much earlier.  .
                                                                       

                                                 Hezbollah terrorists

It almost reads like a novel.  G-d says to announce this among the nations; " prepare for war;  arouse the mighty men;  let all the men of war approach and ascend.  Beat your plows into swords and your pruning forks into spears, even the weak one will say, "I am mighty."  Let all the surrounding nations hurry and come, and let them gather together;  there G-d will demolish your warriors.  Let the nations rouse themselves and go up to the Valley of Jehoshaphat, for there I will sit and judge all the nations from all around."

 One of the fears some people have today is that Jews can be wiped out being in one place, Israel, by Iran so easily with an A bomb. There would go half of all the Jews in the world again, which is what happened in the Holocaust.   Yet Joel saw this happening in reverse to the armies against Israel.  G-d will be able to wipe THEM out.

That does seem to be what's happening today.  Mostly men, but some women are coming from far and wide to join up with IS today, who will then want to attack Jordan and  Israel after taking Iraq and Syria.  I note that the usual beating swords into plows is reversed as they recycle their implements into war machines.

G-d will have the last word.  G-d has been addressing his agents of destruction who are now ready to "harvest the crops" of Divine vengeance.  In 4:21 he says-"Though I will cleanse the nations by forgiving many of their sins (and this is G-d speaking, not any other savior) I will not forgive them for the bloodshed they perpetrated against Israel.  When G-d dwells in Zion (Jerusalem), at the End of Days, they will be punished."

Joel's big prophecy was about warning the people of a 7 year famine caused by locusts which was first foretold by Elisha.  He was sent to elaborate on it.  He was hoping that the people would take the impending disaster to heart and avert it by repenting.  He pictured the locusts as invading armies.  He used the 4 species of locusts as an allegory for the 4 conquerors of the land;  Babylonia, Persia, Greece and Rome.

Isn't this interesting?  Babylonia is still with us as Iraq and it's largest city is Baghdad.  Persia is today's Iraq.  Greece and Rome haven't changed much at all but may be representing the rest of the West today.  The West has quit holding Israel as something to be defended against the countries coming under the umbrella of Babylonia and Iran  who are against her.
                                                                   

In his prophecy about the locusts, their total destruction is compared to the ravages of a raging fire and an invading army.  He sees the locusts causing total destruction as if they had been preceded and followed by a raging fire.  Isn't this what happened in 70 CE when Jerusalem fell?  It was burned down and then the Romans, who had been occupiers, turned it into a Roman city.
                                                             

Where is Jehoshaphat that is referred to at the End of Days?  "The Kidron Valley is the valley on the eastern side of The Old City of Jerusalem, separating the Temple Mount from the Mount of Olives. It continues east through the Judean Desert, towards the Dead Sea, descending 4000 feet along its 20 mile course. The settlement Kedar, located on a ridge above the valley, is named after it. The neighborhood of Wadi al-Joz bears the valley's Arabic name.  The Bible calls the Valley "Valley of Jehoshaphat - Emek Yehoshafat.” It appears in Jewish eschatologic prophecies, which include the return of Elijah, followed by the arrival of the Messiah, and the War of Gog and Magog and Judgment Day.

Resource:  http://www.breakingisraelnews.com/22991/hagee-god-punishing-obama-ebola-dividing-jerusalem/?utm_source=Breaking+Israel+News&utm_campaign=6541cde5c3-BIN+Email&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_b6d3627f72-6541cde5c3-83518689#50F9KfR0wJkwT2ou.97
Tanach, the Stone Edition (Old Testament) ArtScroll Series.
http://www.jhm.org/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Hagee
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kidron_Valley

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/128225
http://www.wnd.com/2013/01/obama-secretly-pledges-to-divide-jerusalem/
http://www.infowars.com/the-obama-peace-plan-includes-permanently-dividing-the-city-of-jerusalem/

England's Constant Anti-Semitic History

Nadene Goldfoot
When Jerusalem fell to the Romans in 70 CE, Jews were not allowed to live in Jerusalem again.  They became either slaves to the Romans, taken away and sold, or were able flee just before or after the fall and get to places past Rome, like France and Germany.  Some were able to get to nearby countries.

Jews did not arrive in England until the Norman conquest of 1066, some 900 years later.  Then a handful of financiers followed William the Conqueror from the Continent.  During the next generation, Jewish communities were established in London, York, Bristol, Canterbury and other cities.  The Jews traded, lent money to the baronage, and advanced money for current needs on the security of the revenue to the Crown.  This protected them.
                                                                         

Then the Crusades started in 1096 that lasted for 3 years in the first attack. On the way to Palestine they killed Jews in northern France and especially in the Rhineland where massacres occurred in cities such as Mainz, Worms, Speyer, Cologne; anyplace where Jews lived.  I had relatives living there at the time.  They also attacked Jews in Prague and later in Salonica where the reports of the Crusade caused a messianic ferment.  When Jerusalem was captured in 1099, Jews and Karaites were massacred.  They were there to win Palestine from the Moslems, but didn't mind killing Jews as well.  The crusaders were riding around in religious passion and constant stimulation.  Being in such a religious environment as Jerusalem seemed to bring out the worst in them.  They were in a messianic ferment.  After their Crusading Kingdom was established, they extended some toleration to the remaining Jews who managed to stay alive.

Along came the 2nd Crusade in 1147 to 49 which was organized to succor the Crusading Kingdom.  Similar outbreaks happened in France and the Rhineland again with a monk called Rudolf.  Bernard of Clairvaux helped to restrict the deaths, however through his humanitarian efforts.   Now the Pope urged that the debts of crusaders to the Jews should be paid up, and this became a regular demand on such occasions.  (imagine-they borrowed money from Jews to come and attack Jews).

The reason Jews were money-lenders is because they were barred from all other jobs; this was one left open for them because Christians thought it was beneath their dignity to do this.

 In 1144, the first recorded Ritual Murder accusation was brought against Jews in Norwich, England.

At the time of the 3rd Crusade of 1189 to 1192, there were riots all over the country resulting in much bloodshed, especially in London and York where their

business bonds were burned.
                                                                           

                                             3rd Crusaders
The 3rd Crusade had far more support than the other 2.  This led to preliminary attacks by the assembled crusaders on the Jews in many places, especially in York in 1190.  Later, Crusaders involved the Jews only
                                                                             

incidentally, though the so called Shepherds' Crusade in 1320 resulted in widespread attacks on the Jews in southern France and in northern Spain.  The Crusades may be said to have begun the age of unmitigated suffering for medieval Jewry.  The Crusaders also gave an impetus to the Italian maritime republics and to international intercourse and helped to displace the Jewish merchants from their former  favored position and so started the economic decline of the Jews.

To keep bonds from being burned  and the loss to the Exchequer, a system of registration of Jewish debts was set up in 1194 with Archae or chirograph chests in all the principal cities under the control of a central Exchequer of the Jews. This was not merely a financial institution, but it also had important judicial and administrative functions.

  This made it possible to have a systematic exploitation of Jewish resources by merciless taxation during the reigns of John in 1199 to 1216 and Henry III from 1216 to 1277.  The enforced sternness of Jewish creditors in exacting their dues now resulted in growing unpopularity evidenced in the Ritual Murder case of Hugh of Lincoln  in 1255 .  Hugh was the  8 year old illegitimate son of Beatrice, born in 1247 who  disappeared on  July 31, 1255.  His body was found in a well belonging to Jopin, a Jew on August 29th.  Through torture, a confession was that  the child had been crucified by a number of the most prominent Jews of England, who had gone to Lincoln on the pretext of a wedding.  Then Henry III came a month later and caused Jopin the Jew to be dragged around the city tied to the tail of a wild horse, and then hanged.  There were also  attacks made on Jews during the Barons' Wars in 1263 to 1265. 

The Ritual Murder case was a blood libel.  The typical allegation was that Jews murder Christians in order to get blood for the Passover or other rituals.  In England the first charge was in 1144 in Norwich, and concerned a Christian child named William.  The best known charge was of Hugh of Lincoln.  What the heads of the city did was torture Jews until they got a confession.  They would never have any proof.  Then they would usually  have "miracles" in connection with the dead body and this would be taken as proof that death was due to Ritual Murder.  

 The Jews had competition from the Italian bankers that  was making their services superfluous.  So, what happened was that the Jews' rights were progressively restricted from 1269 on, and in 1290 the Jews were expelled from the country.   They were not allowed back in the country until 1655, 365 years for England to be without Jews.  

In 1655, Manasseh Ben Israel was the negotiator with Cromwell for the readmission of the Jews.  A group of Jews today called Anusim, then called Marranos, Jews hiding the fact of who they really were, were the first to go to live in England and received official recognition in 1664.  The original Sephardi community (Spanish-Ladino speaking Jews) were joined by Ashkenazi immigrants from Germany and Central Europe and spread throughout England.  By this time there were no important restrictions on Jews and no ghetto system was used.  There was no violence to speak of, but there was a controversial JEW bill in 1753 which didn't cause any Jews to be molested. " While the Sephardim chiefly congregated in London as the centre of international commerce, Jews immigrating from Germany and Poland settled for the most part in the seaports of the south and west, such as Falmouth, Plymouth,Liverpool, Bristol, etc., as pawnbrokers and small dealers. From these centres it became their custom to send out hawkers every Monday with packs to the neighbouring villages; and in this way connections were made with some of the inland towns, in which they began to settle, as Canterbury, Chatham, and Cambridge, not to mention Manchester andBirmingham. Traders of this type, while not of such prominence as the larger merchants of the capital, came in closer touch with English life; and may have helped to allay some of the prejudice which had been manifested so strongly during 1753. " Some Jews moved to Ireland after being in England, and from Ireland moved to South Africa.  

In the 19th century with the activity of Sir Moses Montiefiore, English Jewry took a leading part in Jewish philanthropy.  In 1829 and onward, disabilities held against Jews were removed slowly.  Lionel de Rothschild was admitted to parliament in 1858.  

From 1881, the older Jewish community was reinforced by immigration of refugees from Russian persecutions and pogroms.  They soon adapted themselves to the English Jewish way of life under the Chief Rabbi, Board of Deputies of British Jews, and in London, the United Synagogue.  There were new communities in Leeds, Glasgow, Manchester, etc.  More arrived from Germany in 1933 to 1939 who helped to stimulate a weak and short-lived organized anti-Semitic movement.  Under Nazi influence, it grew. 

At the same time, the League of Nations had appointed Great Britain to hold the mandate of Palestine and to establish the Jewish Homeland.  What they did shortly after being given this responsibility was to turn 80% of the land over to Abdullah of Saudi Arabia so that he could be a king, and he named the eastern part he took as Trans-Jordan, later called Jordan by his descendants.  England then kept Jews out of the land that was left and allowed Arabs to enter.  Their White Paper put a limit of 75,000 Jews for entering Palestine from 1940 to 1945, the most important time when they needed a haven, their own state.  They were showing two things:  their anti-Semitic attitude and their greed for controlling land that could hold oil.   They were being influenced by the Nazi regime.  
                                                                 

       
Even after the war on July 11,  1947, just before the mandate ended, the English  turned away Jews from entering Palestine.  "Exodus 1947 was a ship that carried Jewish emigrants from France to British Mandatory Palestine on July 11, 1947. Most of the emigrants were Holocaust survivors who had no legal immigration certificates for Palestine. Following wide media coverage, the British Royal Navy seized the ship and deported all its passengers back to Europe. Then in 10 months, Israel was re-born on May 14, 1948.  That was when the British mandate was finished.  

England was the only important European country to escape the Nazi persecutions, but the air bombardment of the main cities caused Jewish populations to scatter in England, and weakened the traditional Jewish life.  

The Jewish population of Great Britain including northern Ireland was estimated in 1990 to be 330,000.   The 2011 census showed 263,346 or 0.5% of the population.  "The UK is home to the second largest Jewish population in Europe, and has the fifth largest Jewish community worldwide." 

They just recently recognized Palestine.  Palestine is ruled by Hamas, a terror organization jointly with Abbas, a former Fatah terrorist member  in Judea and Samaria and alone in Gaza.  Hamas was elected by the Palestinians living in Gaza.  There has been no peace agreement with Israel before or since Operation Defensive Edge.  Palestinians remain the enemy of Israel.  

Resource: The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia 
 http://www.thejc.com/news/uk-news/94111/census-2011-the-jewish-breakdown
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Jews
http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/7921-hugh-of-lincoln
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/1173williamnorwich.asp
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Paper_of_1939
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Exodus
Update:  edia.org/wiki/Jewish_Naturalization_Act_1753  on Jew Bill; naturalization 

The Asset That Israel Stands For in This World

Nadene Goldfoot                                                              

The Egyptian-Syrian surprise attack splintered and rushed Israel's army defenses.  Their deception of having practices had worked.  By the Suez Canal, 450 IDF with 50 artillery pieces tried to stop 100,000 Egyptian troops crossing the water under the covering fire of 2,000 artillery pieces.  The enemy also had an umbrella of one of the most insidious SAMs missiles in the world which quickly knocked 50 Israeli planes down.  In just a few days 2 whole Egyptian armies occupied the whole Israeli-held east band of the Suez Canal.
                                                                            

In the north, 1,400 Syrian tanks were going against 160 Israeli tanks.  The Israelis fought bravely against tanks, armored personnel carriers and howitzers and other lethal war machines.

The bloodiest battle was fought on the Golan Heights in the Kuneitra Valley called the Vale of Tears.  Golda Meir herself went to this front to see with her own eyes what was happening to her soldiers.  
                                                                          

                               Moshe Dayan, Sadat, Begin in Jerusalem 

This was the Yom Kippur War that occurred in 1973, only 6 years after the halting 1967 Six Day War with all the Arabs.  Golda and her staff didn't give up.  She had help from President Nixon, G-d Bless Him, a man I was not in favor of as an American, but who saved the day for Israel.  His help brought about Sadat to Jerusalem and Begin was able to say to the world, "No more war, no more bloodshed."    Then some malcontent Arab had to assassinate this man who had seen the other side of life, and ended something beautiful happening in the Arab world.  Luckily, Egypt has been holding their peace which honors such a great man as Sadat.  From this war, the Arabs realized that they would never beat Israel conventionally.
                                                                     

                                               Hamas Terrorists from Gaza

Along came Operation Defense Edge, a very unconventional war against Israel.  Israel didn't try to destroy Hamas once and for all, but only wanted to cripple them so they would accept the terms of the Egyptian-brokered ceasefire.  After 6 ceasefires, there is still no resolution for peace.  Israeli settlements are still being hit with mortar fire.  Hamas still has the ability to hit urban centers with their missiles.  The terrorists from Gaza and Qatar where they hang out in safety are making impossible demands.  From past experiences, Israel knows they dare not go back to the 67 lines or they will be wiped out.  Nixon is gone, and so was his personal goals for Israel  from the USA.  To him, Israel was a deterrent to the aims of the Soviet Union.  Now we have  a President in the USA who will not fill orders of ammunition already promised to the little state of Israel, even though they helped to create a machine that stops missiles a good % of the time that they are sharing with the USA.

In this latest operation, it has been found but has not made the headlines that damned Israel, that the casualties of the Palestinians were greatly magnified.  More than half of the dead were combatants from Hamas and the other terrorist factions.  Some of the civilian deaths were caused by misfired Hamas missiles, cases of which have been confirmed.    

Just like in 1967 and 1973, Israelis are saddened by civilian deaths.  They realize something others don't, however.  They are on the eve of an escalating war of survival against the terror group of radical Islam, called Hamas, their charter member.  Hamas chooses to fight in urban areas of the population who voted them in and chased Abbas out in 2005.  This is part of Israeli's price to save themselves and the world from the evil threatening to conquer them.  Like Golda had told Sadat, "We can forgive you for killing our sons, but we will never forgive you for making us to kill yours. "  Jews had to kill, something they find repulsive.  

When Golda went to the front to see for herself what was happening, she spoke with her boys.  She asked the men about themselves.  Then she asked them if they had questions for her.  One responded and said, "My father was killed in the war of 48, and we won.  My uncle was killed in the war of 56, and we won.  My brother lost an arm in the 67 war, and we won.  Last week I lost my best friend over there," and he pointed to the Vale of Tears.  and despite the odds at that moment, he bravely said that "we're going to win.  But is all our sacrifice worthwhile, Golda?  what's the use of our sacrifice if we can't win the peace?"
                                                                       

                                           Hamas from Gaza on the March

This is something still being thought about, and I fear that the West, who at first supported Israel, has already thrown the towel in and is no longer backing our little state of Israel as one might have backed youthful David against the giant, Goliath.    But, like Golda answered him, the facts remain the same.  Yes, it's worth all the pain.  If Israel goes, so does all of Judaism this time.  We have faced horrible bottlenecks of survival in the past.  
                                                                           

                 Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin al Husseini in 1938 with Hitler

                   Palestinian Arab leader plotting to rid Palestine of Jews

At one time we were down to 4 women of who most all Jews trace their lineage from.  We lost 6 million in the Holocaust and have just now reached 6 million Jews living in Israel.  There is a reason why we have been singled out to remain a people and a religion for the past 4,000 years since Abraham, who was born in the 2nd millennium BCE.  Our Torah spells out a set of conditions we are to follow to be a just and honorable people.  If we go, there goes the template for the rest of the world.  So for the past 67 years, Israel has never fought to kill people just because we thought they were unworthy of living, like the Nazis and IS is doing now.  We've had to fight to defend ourselves only against attacks.  

This Yom Kippur War that happened on October 6, 1973, the day of our holiest day of fasting and attending synagogue asking for forgiveness for our sins, had support for the Egyptians and Syrians from Iraq and Jordan and others.  The Soviets airlifted and replaced Arab arms, but Nixon sent Israel help by October 14th.  Then 2 days later, the IDF  crossed the Suez Canal and in a few days more cut off the Egyptian 3rd Army.  The USSR and Kissinger, Sec. of State, got together and worked out terms for cease fire, which were operative by October 25th.  Israel had  lost 2,600 men.  This is something they haven't forgotten and the reason why they will not let it happen again.  Israel needs defensive lines, so Golda wouldn't go back and neither will Netanyahu.  Arab oil seemed to be the asset the Russians wanted.  This asset spoke louder than what Israel stands for.  Even without such an asset, Israel remains the sacrificial lamb, the scapegoat of humanity, for who is willing to stand beside her today?  

Resource: The Prime Ministers by Yehuda Avner, 703 pages of 731
Jewish Life magazine, September 2014,  page 48, Operation Defensive Edge by Mylan Tanzer

Holidays of Succot Going Out and Simchah Torah Coming In; Time to Rejoice

Nadene Goldfoot                                                                  

                                                                                                    

We see the end of our holiday of Succot.  This was the time when our ancestors of the Exodus lived in little booths during their 40 year wandering of following Moses to the Promised Land.  It's traditional for the men to procure the Lulav, the palm-branch to be taken on the feast of Tabernacles together with the Etrog, myrtle and willow, called together the 4 Species, and other vegetation which they hold in their right hand and the etrog in their left hand.  They carry them during the time of saying in unison the Hallel ( palms 113-118, used at the time of rededication of the Temple after the Maccabean wars and said at all 3 pilgrim festivals.  It's like a commandment and used in opening and closing blessings.  The people shake these items  in all directions.
                                                                     

In the picture above, this is what all the men are holding in their hands.  They are wearing Israel-styled prayer shawls which are so much bigger than the American conservative style which are more like scarves.  When men pray under their prayer shawls in Israel, it's like they are under a tent and can shut out any visual distractions from what they are doing.  They can really meditate.  On top of their heads they are wearing a kippa (Hebrew) or yalmulke (Yiddish) , which is a skull cap worn for prayer.  Religious Jews wear it all the time.  A religious Jew is one who decides to follow all the rules and you show this by wearing your kippa all the time.  Whether it is knitted or made of satin or some other material also tells what group you belong to; something like the red or blue scarves the Crips and the Bloods wear to tell themselves apart.  Some are white and some are black and some are patterned.

It happened to my conservative husband when we moved to Israel.  The land, the people and the air itself overtakes one and you really start to get into the groove.  It's hard to explain.  After studying for 10 months in Haifa we moved to Safed where it happened.  You see all the cemeteries and visit all the sites and it's quite emotional.   What's thrilling is that this was expected of the people to do 3,000 years ago and we are still doing it.  It connects us to our history and to the land.
                                                                             

Whoever heard of an Etrog other than people living and practicing Judaism in Israel?  It's a citron you don't find in supermarketss outside this tiny state but seems to be found only in Israel.  It was a popular Jewish symbol used on coins, graves, synagogues and other places of Jewish origin.  People had silver boxes to keep the etrog and the boxes themselves became items of artwork.  To me it looks like a large lemon.  Another fruit used in this way is the pomegranate which is used in much art work in designs.  

Thursday and Friday, October 16th and 17th, are holidays for Jews again.  On Thursday we have  a holidy to remember and be happy about having the law of Moses called Shemini Atzores and the next day being called Simchas Torah.                                              

It marks the yearly completion of the synagogue reading of the Torah (Pentateuch) which are the 5 books of Moses.  What they do in the synagogue is take out all the Scrolls of the Law and carry them 7 times or more around the synagogue for everyone to see.  Sometimes some of the synagogues will do with with a dance movement as they go around.  It can go on for hours as they are happy.

All male worshipers are called up for aliyah at the time of reading from the Torah.  It's an honor given to them to be called up to read aloud.  The Torah is written all in Hebrew.  A boy age 13 shows the congregation that he is capable of doing this at his bar mitzvah.  It's like a graduation from a boy to a man.  

The last section of the 5th book, Deuteronomy is read by the Bridegroom of the Law, the Hatan Torah.  He is followed by the Bridegroom of Genesis, the first book of the Law.  Candies are usually given to the children and the "bridegrooms" act as hosts to the people in the synagogue.  

Resource:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etrog            
The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia