USA's Foreign Aid for Israel and other Countries Program

Nadene Goldfoot                                                                   
In 2011, The USA set aside $49.5 billion dollars for foreign aid to other countries.  Back in 2002, only $19,153.10 billion dollars was spent in foreign aid.
                                                                               

 They divide the money into two basic categories of need, military assistance and economic assistance.  In 2011 They spent $17.8 billion on military assistance and $31.7 billion on economic assistance for others out of which $14.1 billion went to USAID.  "The government channels about half of its economic assistance through a specialized agency, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). Countries they give the money to are: developing countries, countries of strategic importance to the United States, and countries recovering from war.
           

United States foreign aid to Israel is only 6%.  On top of that, 75% of this 6% must be spent in the United States!  This is the law pertaining to Israel's foreign aid.  The reason for this is that in turn, by spending it in the USA, it creates jobs and boosts America's defense industry.  So if Israel needs a new tank, they are going to buy it from the USA and that helps the USA's economy.
     
Israel receives the FMF aid in a lump sum in the first month of the fiscal year. The funds are placed in an interest bearing account and that interest is used to pay down Israel’s debt to the United States, which was $1 billion as of December 2006.  The Bush Administration in 2007 increased the foreign aid to Israel by $6 billion dollars over a period of 10 years.  From 2013 to 2018 Israel is to receive $3.15 billion per year.  

By the same token, the USA's military, intelligence and homeland security and defense systems benefit from dealing with Israel, for they share their knowledge with the USA.  Israel has created battlefield innovations that have helped the USA improve their equipment and tactics.

USA homeland security and military agencies use Israel's technology to solve their technical problems.

Israel provides invaluable intelligence and training to the US forces in the region.

"No other country in the Middle East advances America's interests like Israel."  It's the only Democratic state there and has been since its inception on May 14, 1948.  "While Israel has been the single largest recipient of U.S. aid since the 1970s, that support has established a two-way street and the United States now cashes in on Israel’s experience and know-how."

From 2011 facts, Israel did receive  the 2nd largest amount out of the top 25 countries that receive aid.  They are:  Afghanistan, Israel, Iraq, Pakistan, Egypt, Haiti, Kenya, Jordan, South Africa, Philippines, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Sudan, Nigeria, Uganda, (West Bank's PA government-which Jews call Judea and Samaria) Columbia, Congo, Mexico, South Sudan, Mozambique, Zambia, Somalia, Liberia, and Indonesia.  Note that out of the 25 countries, 15 are in Africa and 7, counting Egypt again, are from the Middle East.  The top 5 receiving the most are from the Middle East.  Egypt, Israel and Jordan are all neighbors.  Pakistan and Afghanistan are neighbors of each other.   Haiti and the Philippines had suffered from weather factors.  Mexico and Columbia are American continent countries of Central and South America.

Israel had received a total of $3,026.40 million dollars whereas Afghanistan had received $12,924.40.  Egypt had received $1,471.20, and their money was threatened to be halted if they didn't reinstate Morsi, head of the Muslim Brotherhood, as President of Egypt after they had recalled him on the grounds that this was not a very democratic move.  The Palestine Authority received $463.60 million dollars.

One of the retired generals in the Obama Administration was asked a question at a well-known American university about how much foreign aid Israel received and he did not know the answer.  Few people do but have had the mistaken idea that they received almost all of it.  This general went along with an assumption that they got at least 25% of it and that was wrong.  America should educate their military personnel as to where all the money is going and how much is used so that people do not continue to have the wrong ideas.

Resource:  http://www.charismanews.com/opinion/42479-a-complicated-matter-america-s-support-for-israel
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/US-Israel/foreign_aid.html
http://www.mythsandfacts.org/NOQ_OnlineEdition/Chapter17/unitedstatesisrael1.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_foreign_aid

Europe's Anti-Semitism Lying Fallow Has Bubbled Up Again With Blood Libel, Etc.

Nadene Goldfoot                                                                           

 Rashi, Jewish biblical commentator who was born in Troyes, France in 1040 CE, studied in the Rhineland and died in 1105 CE.  His ancestors had fled Jerusalem in 70 CE and found refuge in France where anti-Semitism is again very high.  Jews had been living in France before 70 CE, however and most likely were merchants and traders.  When Christianity was introduced there, the Jewish position deteriorated.  By the 8th century under Charlemagne and his house, things had  improved.  Murderous attacks became common after the 1st Crusade of the Christians in 1096.

Anti-Semitism has risen in the past few years in Europe.  In Warsaw, Poland, the acts are happening worse than other places in the world where such acts are happening every day.

1.  13% of Poles still think that Jews are guilty of the "blood libel."   In this country alone, 3 million Jews were killed in the Holocaust.  They had held the largest Jewish community in Europe.  That was 90% of the Jews living there.  This was something that came out of Christianity in the Dark Ages.  People made allegations that Jews murdered Christians in order to get blood for the Passover or other Jewish rituals.  The first mention of this was in Josephus (Against Apion II, viii 95) who said that Apion made the charge that Jews sacrificed a Greek every year in connection with the Temple service.  Democritus, a writer, said that Jews sacrificed a stranger once every 7 years.  Many centuries later the charge was used to stir up the masses against Jews.  In the Christian world, the first charge, in 1144 CE,  was that at Easter the Jews martyred a young boy in mockery of the Passion of Jesus.  Easter and Passover happen almost at the same time, so they added that the blood was used in the recipe of making matzos.  A child, William, in Norwich,  England, was said to have been used for his blood. In 1913 in the Beilis trial in Kiev, the blood libel was used which shocked the world.   The charge has persisted in such places as Poland where in 1928 it was used in a ritual murder charge.  It was used in 1929 in Lithuania and in Bulgaria in 1934.  The Nazis made great efforts to revive the libel during their period of power.  The Catholic church of Poland unveiled a very anti-Semitic painting earlier this month that had been kept hidden since 2006.  Why did they do this?  They had protests from both Catholics and Jews who opposed the depiction of Jews murdering Christian children in the classic anti-Semitic blood libel propaganda.  It only added fuel to the fire of anti-Semitism.

The most important fact here is that since Moses gave Jews their Mosaic Law back in c1311 BCE, Jews must make the utmost care not to ingest any blood.  They have rules about what part of an animal is allowed to be eaten, and it is the least bloody part. First, when an allowed animal for consumption is slaughtered, blood is drained out so as not to be eaten.   They must soak the meat in salt water to get rid of any blood.  In cooking, meat is to be well done so as not to ingest any remaining blood.  Blood is regarded in the Torah as the seat of life or even as life itself.  The prohibition of its consumption is one of the 7 laws given to Noah and is repeated many times.  The punishment for violating this prohibition is to be "cut off" from the people.  Jews only eat certain animals such as cows, sheep and goats.  They would never ever eat a human or desire their blood!  This blood libel is an anathema to the truth of what Jews eat, but these primitive people have no sense or desire to seek out the truth, evidently if they continue to believe such a fallacy.

2. 63% of people in a poll believe in a "Jewish conspiracy" to control the banks and international media.  The Jewish people are only 0.02% of the people in the world.  The 6 million in Israel are very busy defending themselves against their Islamic neighbors like the 22 million Syrians, 5 million Lebanese, 6 million Jordans, and especially the 77 million Iranians who wish to drop an A bomb on them from their uranium  goals.  Jews are good at making money and have been forced into this profession from the Christian acts of not allowing them to own property or being in any other business except money lending which they thought was beneath their own Christian people.  Today, more Jews are into being lawyers and doctors and scientists than in banking.  If Jews controlled the international media, they are doing a terrible job as most all of the media is against Jews and especially Israel!  How dumb to believe this.

3. 18% still believe that Jews were responsible for the death of Jesus Christ.  The same Christians tell us that Jesus was a Jew, so how the Jewish leaders convinced the Romans, who were nailing thousands of Jews to their crosses every day that Jesus should be included is beyond our mentality but not with the anti-Semites.  It was the execution of the Roman army.  Anyone who threatened their status was put on a cross.  Don't blame the Jews for this.  Being Christians believe Jesus is the son of G-d, surely, in my mind, he would have had the power to not allow this to happen if he didn't want it to happen being he was on a higher level than the average human being.  Take it from this Jewess, he knew it would happen and didn't stop it for his own reasoning.  A thought of mine is that he was never recorded to have claimed he was the son of G-d.  In Judaism, we are taught that we are all the children of G-d.  That's why we should act on a higher level and not have such carnal  behavior as some possess.

4. 35% believe that Israel is a country that does not stop at nothing to achieve its goals.  Jews of Israel do not intend to be slaughtered.  They have the Holocaust as a great reminder of what people were capable of doing to their ancestors.  They are also people of a religion that demands that they follow laws of humanity and justice which does not include harming civilians who are innocent of any wrongdoing.  During the 3 weeks from December 27, 2008 to January 18, 20009 of going into Gaza in Operation Cast Lead, after being hit with rockets, mortars and missiles since 2001,  they used the utmost restraint and put themselves in harm's way many times.

5. 21% believe that Israel gives the Palestinians the same  acts that Jews received from Hitler during WWII.  They may believe in doing that to people, and I believe that many Arabs also felt this way and quaked in their boots knowing how they had treated Jews and expected the same treatment in return.  However, Jews have the opposite attitude.  They know how they felt when oppressed and do not treat people other than humane ways.  Since the Syrian war, many injured have come to Israel's border for help and have been treated in their hospitals, and they are not rich in medications or bandages, but are using what they have on hand for these people.  Do you think that a Jew could have received medical help from the Germans or Poles during WWII.  Those who were helpful towards Jews are recognized in Israel as righteous people and are honored for their behaviors, but they were few and far between.  This idea of an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth is not followed.

ACTS OF ANTISEMITISM RISING

1. The reverse Nazi salute or quenelle is being practiced by athletes around the world.  

2. Desecration of Jewish cemeteries and revelations of anti-Semitic violence against Jews is on the rise.  

3.  European governments should be held responsible.  In Malmo, Sweden, the mayor was very anti-Semitic and not even a native Swede and allowed all sorts of atrocities to happen against Jews so much that many were forced to flee to Israel.  Germany's government has taken great steps to enforce anti-Nazi behaviors in order to quell anti-Semitism.  

Resource: Arutz Sheva, news@israelnationalnews.com
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaza_War
The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
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Differences Between Kosher and Halal Meats

Nadene Goldfoot                                                                      

Kosher                                         

Moses, through G-d,  laid down laws for Jews as to how to prepare the killing of an animal that is allowed to be eaten. Cattle have been domesticated since 6,500 BCE, and Moses  lived from 1391BCE to 1271 BCE, so there must have been a lot of inhumane practices going on before his laws.

 These are found in the Oral Law and by rabbinic regulation.  The basic law is in the Pentateuch.  Dealings with this law  are found in the talmudic tractate HULLIN as well as the Shulhan Arukh code of Yoreh Deah of the 2nd part of it.  Kosher, or the Laws of Kashrut, means: fit, proper, in accordance with the religious law.

 Jews do not eat any animals on the planet, only certain ones.  The slaughter of an animal allowed has certain steps in the laws of keeping kosher, or Kashrut.  Every precaution is taken to avoid eating any blood or eating any meat with milk products.  This means Jews do not drink milk from an animal not allowed to eat as well, such as camel milk or camel meat.  The milk-meat law comes from not wanting to cause pain to the mother who gave us milk who would feel stress and pain if she knew we were eating her milk mixed with her flesh.  This is to teach us to have feelings for animals and thus for people.

  The animal must be slaughtered quickly and humanely.  This means that a special man trained in doing this called the shokhet, does the deed. He must also be very pious and be certified by the rabbis.  This goes all the way back to Deut. 12:21. He says a prayer before the slaughter.    He must use a very sharp knife.  The throat of the animal is cut quickly so as not to cause pain. This severs the trachea, oesophagus, two vagus nerves and both carotid arteries and the jugular veins.  The animal then loses consciousness in two seconds.   The blood must drain cleanly from the animal after death.  This takes away toxins that are released the moment of death that got into the bloodstream at that time.

The killing of the animal is hard on meat packing houses as the killing cannot be done in an assembly line fashion.  The rules for this are called shehitah and are in the Oral Torah.  The rules are for meat and fowls but not fish.  The cows do not see an animal being slaughtered which could cause fright.    Therefore, there is hopefully no cortisol or norepeneherine (stress chemicals) found in the meat.  The animals should not experience the scent of death.  The spinal cord is sectioned which cuts off pain to the brain.  This is done to make sure there was no pain.

We are to eat only animals that have cloven hoofs and that chew their cud.  All others are forbidden.  Cows, sheep and goats are permitted. So is a deer, but one cannot hunt this animal as that would not be a kosher kill.   Camels are not.  Neither are pigs, rabbits, badgers and all the other mammals.  Fish allowed must have fins and scales, so lobsters, oysters, shrimp, clams and crabs are not allowed.  Swordfish and sturgeon are also on the list of no no's.  Birds are mostly allowed but not birds of prey such as eagles, and ostriches, pelicans, storks, herons are not allowed.  We eat chicken, turkey, geese, ducks and doves.  We do not eat amphibians and insects so we say no to mice, rats,, snails, snakes, ants and other insects.  These are said to defile us and are prohibited right in the Torah.  Honey from bees is good.  After all, the bees produce honey from the nectar of flowers.

We do not eat an animal that died from a natural death. This rule would certainly rule out any cow that died from the Mad Cow disease that farmers or meat packers might want to pass on to keep from losing money.

In preparing the meat, it is soaked in salt water to get rid of any blood that might be there.  Then it is cooked to be well done.  This gets rid of any stress chemicals as well.  Also, only certain parts of the animal is used for food and that means parts where the main artery is not in, so this means the tough parts are allowed to be eaten.  Often, this means cooking in  a liquid such as water to help soften the meat.  The steaks so popular are not allowed unless the vein has been taken out originally, something that requires more skill.

Halal
Halal means lawful or permissible according to Islamic law.  It refers to meat that Muslims are allowed to eat under Islamic Shari'ah Law.  Pork is also not allowed, so pigs are not used, as in Jewish law.  This is the only animal mentioned in this law, but other foods can be haraam (not allowed).  The criteria is the source and cause of the animal's death and how it was processed.  Halal processes means the slaughterer is a Muslim and before death invokes the name of Allah by saying "Bismillah"-in the name of Allah, and then three times saying "Allahu akhar"-G0d is the greatest.  They also use a sharp knife and cut the throat, windpipe and blood vessels in the neck while the animal is conscious causing the death without cutting the spinal cord.  The blood is also drained from the veins.  Muslims also exclude blood for consumption.

The method of slaughting animals  is called Dhabihah.  This also excludes fish and other sea-life, per Islamic law.   "

• The animal must have been fed a natural diet that did not contain animal by-products.  Muslims may eat kosher killed meat as the laws are so similar if Halal meat is not available.  
• There are eight Halal stores right in Portland, Oregon's area.  Kosher meats can be found in Albertson's store on Beaverton-Hillsdale Highway.  Two more stores are now selling kosher meat;  Safeway on Barber Blvd and Trader Joes.    

Resource:  http://www.jewsnews.co.il/2013/11/03/some-differences-between-kosher-meat-and-halal-meat-thank-g-d-i-keep-kosher/
The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
To Be a Jew by Rabbi Hayim Halevy Donin page 97-120
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halal
http://www.thekitchn.com/good-question-what-is-halal-me-60979
Update: 4:11pm  Oregon Kosher
Update: 10/29/15 edit.