The Hyksos of Egypt and the Exodus

 Nadene Goldfoot                                      

A man described as "Abisha the Hyksos"
(𓋾𓈎𓈉 ḥḳꜣ-ḫꜣswt, Heqa-kasut for "Hyksos"), leading a group of Aamu.
Tomb of Khnumhotep II (circa 1900 BC).
This is one of the earliest known uses of the term "Hyksos".

The term "Hyksos" is derived, from the Egyptian expression 𓋾 meaning "rulers [of] foreign lands".Hyksos  "ruler(s) of foreign lands"; Ancient Greek: Ὑκσώς, Ὑξώς) is a term which, in modern Egyptology, designates the kings of the Fifteenth Dynasty of Egypt (fl. c. 1650–1550 BCE). 1500 BCE is the date that Simcha Jacobovici, archaeologist and historian,  declares to be the date of the Exodus led by Moses.   

Hyksos in hieroglyphs
ḥḳꜣ-ḫꜣsw / ḥḳꜣw-ḫꜣswt,[17][18] "hekau khasut"[4][b] "Hyksos" Ruler(s) of the foreign countries

The first century AD Jewish historian Josephus gives the name as meaning "shepherd kings" or "captive kings" in his Contra Apion (Against Apion), where he describes the Hyksos as Jews as they appeared in the Hellenistic Egyptian historian Manetho. Josephus's rendition may arise from a later Egyptian pronunciation of ḥḳꜣ-ḫꜣswt as ḥḳꜣ-šꜣsw, which was then understood to mean "lord of shepherds." 

In his epitome of Manetho, Josephus connected the Hyksos with the Jews, but he also may have called them Arabs. In their own epitomes of Manetho, the Late antique historians Sextus Julius Africanus and Eusebius say that the Hyksos came from Phoenicia. Until the excavation and discovery of Tell El-Dab'a (the site of the Hyksos capital Avaris) in 1966, historians relied on these accounts for the Hyksos period.  According to ancient classical authors, the Phoenicians were a people who occupied the coast of the Levant (eastern Mediterranean). Their major cities were Tyre, Sidon, Byblos, and Arwad. These cities are in today's Lebanon, which is now falling apart as a country due to the Hezbollah terrorists who have taken it over.  

           We believe these are Israelites entering Egypt, now understood as the foreign Hyksos. All their clothing is woven with patterns and colors, similar to Joseph's coat of many colors.  Jacob was starting a trend.  They had fled to Egypt at a time of famine due to a drought that had hit Canaan and were led there by Jacob, leader of his family of 70 dry Israelites.   Picture above is from this panel.  They remained until they had multiplied, scaring the Egyptians of their large numbers that caused them to become Egyptian slaves.  Altogether, they were in Egypt 400 years before the Exodus began in 1500-1311 BCE.  The difference of 189 years ended 40 years later by arriving in Canaan with Joshua leading the final number of 601,730 Israelites of 12 tribes of Jacob.  It actually was 603,550 people who had left Egypt.  They had a loss of 1,820 along the way as it was rough going, fighting along the way with natural dangers besides.  

         Joseph wearing his coat of many colors that his father had made for him special.  

Wouldn't Joseph, 11th son of Jacob, be the 1st Hyksos ruler in Egypt?  He was bought as a slave by Potiphar, chief of Pharaoh's household, but imprisoned on a false accusation brought by Potiphar's wife.  His reputation as an interpreter of dreams eventually reached the pharaoh (king) who released him from prison and was so impressed that Joseph was appointed viceroy (just under the pharaoh).  Joined by his father and brothers (12 tribes of Jacob)  he received grazing land in Goshen, thus beginning the Israelite settlement in Egypt.  The story of Joseph has been dated during the Hyksos domination of Egypt of the 18th to 16th centuries BCE.  

                                            A fragmentary statue of Ahmose I, Metropolitan Museum of Art.

The pharaoh in this history was Ahmose I.  pharaoh and founder of the 18th Dynasty of Egypt, classified as the first dynasty of the New Kingdom of Egypt, the era in which ancient Egypt achieved the peak of its power. He was a member of the Theban royal house, the son of pharaoh Seqenenre Tao and brother of the last pharaoh of the 17th dynasty, Kamose.

In the Bible, the pharaoh's daughter raised Moses (One of the reasons for associating Moses with various pharaohs is because of the shared name “mose” or “moses” in their monikers. The biblical definition of “Moses,”  משה Mosheh in the Hebrew, is given simply as “drawn,” as at Exodus 2:10:)as her own after the baby was fished out of the river (Exodus 2:10); her other son is thus the older stepbrother of Moses, with the theory that the name Ahmose means “brother of Moses,” and therefore it was during the reign of pharaoh Ahmose I that the patriarch lived.  This takes care of the naysayer who said, " Furthermore, if the date for a “historical” Moses in the 15th or 13th century were accurate, then he could not have been the brother of a pharaoh from the 16th century"and  Egyptologists are certain that the name means “born of the moon” or “the moon has given birth.

 During the reign of his father or grandfather, Thebes rebelled against the Hyksos, the rulers of Lower Egypt. When he was seven years old, his father was killed, and he was about ten when his brother died of unknown causes after reigning only three years. Ahmose I assumed the throne after the death of his brother, and upon coronation became known as nb-pḥtj-rꜥ "The Lord of Strength is Ra".

The details of the 10 plagues that Moses brought on the Egyptians because of Pharaoh belligerence against freeing the slaves could account for some of these deaths.  

During his reign, Ahmose completed the conquest and expulsion of the Hyksos from the Nile Delta, restored Theban rule over the whole of Egypt and successfully reasserted Egyptian power in its formerly subject territories of Nubia and Canaan. The archaeological evidence for an Egyptian presence in Canaan outside Gaza seems to start with Thutmose III. He then reorganized the administration of the country, reopened quarries, mines and trade routes and began massive construction projects of a type that had not been undertaken since the time of the Middle Kingdom. This building program culminated in the construction of the last pyramid built by native Egyptian rulers. 

Ahmose's reign laid the foundations for the New Kingdom, under which Egyptian power reached its peak. His reign is usually dated to the mid-16th century BC which would be 1550 BCE.                        

Was Ramses II the Pharaoh depicted as "Moses's brother" in the Bible? The Torah lists the places where the Israelites rested. A few of the names at the start of the itinerary, including Ra'amses, Pithom and Succoth, are reasonably well identified with archaeological sites on the eastern edge of the Nile Delta, as is Kadesh-Barnea, where the Israelites spend 38 years after turning back from Canaan; other than these, very little is certain.

RAMESSES I-who everyone thought was the pharaoh of the Exodus

One scholarly tradition places the Exodus around 1290  , reducing the time between that and the accepted date of Solomon’s temple to a mere 329 years, not the 480 of God’s Inerrant Word.

 (Jews still say that Moses was born in 1391 BCE and started the Exodus at age 80) which would have been in 1311.) In this timeline, the pharaoh of the Exodus has been identified as Ramesses/Rameses/Ramses I (fl. 1292–90). The same dearth of evidence for this contention in the historical/archaeological record occurs in this era as well, but now the apology is that, since the Exodus represented a military defeat, it could have been ignored, because Egyptian rulers “never recorded their reverses and, in fact, transformed some of them into victories.”

  

If Egyptian rulers were prone to transforming defeats into victories, in such an extreme case as the Exodus tale one would expect that the pharaoh would boast loudly about having vanquished such a mighty foe with its powerful god. Nothing of the sort occurred, however, and there remains no other outside verification for any event of the Exodus, either during the time of Ramesses I or at all.  (My comment-what does the writer expect 3,333 years ago (1,311- 80th birthday of Moses+2,022=3,333)?  Moses was the only one who was a scribe.  There were no TV stations or reporters along the way with them recording.  Moses did it all which turned out to be the Torah, known as the 5 books of Moses.  He was the 1st reporter for the Jewish people and had to create his own newspaper/book.    

         Shaded green area is the Middle Kingdom

Israelites were the Hyksos, the foreigners who spent a good deal  of their 400 years in Egypt as slaves.  They were known to be Semites, and lived as a large population of the Middle Kingdom.  Excavations in Egypt have revealed royal Hyksos scarabs, etc. bearing names similar to Hebrew, while Hyksos remains have also been uncovered in Israel before 1948.  The Hyksos ruled in Egypt in about 1720-1580 BCE, and during this period, the Israelites entered the country and were favorably treated;  the period of bondage is believed to have begun after the expulsion of the Hyksos.  Remember, Joseph came first, lived alone, and finally his father and brothers came during the drought finding him ruling as the viceroy.  

The word Hyksos is apparently Egyptian, meaning "rulers of the foreign lands",  It was first applied to his people by Manetho, a 3rd century BCE Egyptian priest and author of the history of Egypt, who erroneously took the word to mean "shepherd kings."  His history included the story of the expulsion of the lepers who he connected as the Israelites, from Egypt at Divine behest.  This bit of anti-Semitism could have also started with Alexandrian anti-Semites.  

Resource:

The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia

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

https://live.jewishexpert.com/moses-pharaoh#:~:text=In%20the%20Bible%2C%20the%20pharaoh's,I%20that%20the%20patriarch%20lived.

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

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/ramses-ii-pharaoh-depicted-mosess-brother-bible-dr-tony-mariot

https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/phoe/hd_phoe.htm#:~:text=According%20to%20ancient%20classical%20authors,Sidon%2C%20Byblos%2C%20and%20Arwad.

The Exodus Investigated By Naked Archaeologist, Simcha Jacobovici

 Nadene Goldfoot                                           

My favorite historian and archaeologist, who has devoted his life to studying our ancient history, Simcha Jacobovici, has bagged the events of the Exodus whereas most others think The Exodus is just a myth. The Exodus Decoded is a 2006 documentary film by "investigative archaeologist" and filmmaker, Simcha Jacobovici. In fact, his other productions are under the name of the Naked Archaeologist, so he's one archaeologist who is also a serious historian as well of our Jewish history. 

The Naked Archaeologist is a television series on VisionTV in Canada and History International in the US, that was produced and hosted by the Emmy Award–winning journalist Simcha Jacobovici together with Avri Gilad. The show examines biblical stories and tries to find proof for them by exploring the Holy Land looking for archaeological evidence, personal inferences, deductions, and interviews with scholars and experts.          

    Simcha lives in Israel with his family.  Himself the son of Holocaust survivors, Jacobovici was born in Israel and raised there and in Montreal. He made his home in Toronto from 1980-2006, before making aliyah and now lives with his wife and five children in Ra'anana.Apr 1, 2014.  

Subsequent to its original run on VisionTV, it was picked up in the U.S. by The History Channel and its sister network, History International. The third and final season began airing on Vision TV on March 22, 2010 and on History International on November 8, 2010.

"The documentary deals with The Exodus, the founding myth  history of the Israelites. Jews take the Exodus very seriously if they're any kind of a Jew.  The Torah tell about this event, a basis for our history with Moses.  It's kept us being Jewish for the past 3,522 years!  I take it as an affront for others to call it a myth. While few mainstream historians would consider the Book of Exodus as a reliable narrative, Cameron and Jacobovici present a speculative question as to whether the events as described, particularly relating to the plagues of Egypt, could be explained naturalistically. Central to its thesis is the volcanic eruption of Thera/Santorini.  In other words, he has set about to prove that the Exodus did happen and was possible; was truth.

A suggested date of 1500 BCE is made for the Exodus, during the reign of pharaoh Ahmose I. The "palpable darkness" described as the 9th plague, is hypothetically attributed to the cloud of volcanic ash caused by the Minoan eruption, which is identified as the events described in the Tempest Stele. A conjectural limnic eruption in the Nile Delta, similar to that of the Lake Nyos disaster in 1986, is explored as a further source of mass death.  Jacobovici is actually quite adamant about the date of 1500 BCE as the volcano eruption sets the date of events, and that seems to have a sturdy date already.  

The documentary first aired on Discovery Channel Canada on April 16, 2006."  It is 92 minutes long.  

1500 BCE is not the date that our Jewish history uses.  Moses was born in 1391 BCE and died at age 120 by 1271 BCE according to the findings of our best rabbis according to my New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia.  Moses was 80 when he started out on the Exodus which would have been the year 1311.  1500 comes from today's world and is a speculation, so Simcha had to use that date.  The difference between 1500 BCE and 1311 BCE is 189 years, 189 very important years.  I could round that out to 200 and realize that 200 years is not much in ancient calculations, though.  Hmmm.                                 

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcT0O9Ext8bi-epxEWIXZ8g

Wikipedia continues:  As a popular history documentary, The Exodus Decoded attracted few critiques from mainstream scholars. The Washington Post described the use of CGI as "stunning", a view shared by The New York Times, which placed the documentary's content firmly in the realms of conspiracy theory. A review in The Jerusalem Post noted that none of the arguments made in the film were accepted by mainstream archaeology and that film-maker Jacobovici freely admitted his lack of academic credentials.

One has to be a fan of his work to appreciate his knowledge, 

though.  Not only is his productions highly entertaining,  he 

manages to prove his findings. 

Simcha Jacobovici's parents were Holocaust survivors from Iași, Romania. He was born April 4, 1953, in Petah Tikva, Israel. In 1962, the family relocated to Canada. He's 7 days younger than my daughter.  Simcha Jacobovici’s religion is Judaism. The undeniable fact that Jacobovici lives on the Danforth and practices Orthodox Judaism is noteworthy. 

     A pose from Naked Archaeogist as I remember

Simcha Jacobovici, an Orthodox Jew, is married to his partner Nicole Kornberg. The couple tied the knot in December 1991. They are dad and mother to their 5 children (4 women and one boy). The pair keep merely outdoor Toronto in a 3,700-square-foot Thornhill home. Nicole Kornberg is a Canadian-Israeli artist. Dr. Ciniza Chiari, a paintings curator, has described her work as a present of historic forces in updated sorts. Nicole and her husband appeared on the favored current “The Naked Archeologist” from 2005 until 2010.

He earned a B.A. in philosophy and political science (with honors) from McGill University and an M.A. in International Relations from the University of Toronto. From 2015 to 2018 he was an adjunct professor of religious studies at Huntington University, Greater Sudbury, Ontario. He is married and the father of five children.

He seems to be into the Jewish ancestry of New Mexican Hispanic households and discovers that a number of them have always been aware of their Jewish origin. Jacobovici investigates the Crypto-Jews of New Mexico, along with the Nuevos Cristianos, a small group of Jewish ancestors in Spain and Portugal (“new Christians”).

As an early advocate of airlifting Ethiopian Jews to Israel, he wrote an op-ed piece on the subject for New York Times and made his first documentary, Falasha: Exile of the Black Jews (1983). The Economist credited Jacobovici's documentary as one of the factors leading to the 1984–85 Israeli airlift of Ethiopian Jews to Israel.

Jacobovici's film on the Arab-Israeli conflict, Deadly Currents (1991),won the Genie Award for Best Documentary, a gold medal at the International Documentary Festival of Nyon, and was the runner-up for the Peace Prize at the 1991 Berlin Film Festival and was the only documentary screened in both Israeli army bases and Palestinian Refugee Camps.  Rotton Tomatoes said, "In Deadly Currents, Simcha Jacobovici ambitiously set out to make a film that explores the complexities of the 4,000 year old conflict between Israel and Palestine.

After shooting 100 hours of film, he began the editing job, a process that that lasted 18 months, but he came up with a film that does not attempt to take sides but to present an open a dialogue.

Jacobovici got the idea to do this film after seeing a photograph that seemed to caricature the people involved. He decided to put real voices to the caricatures he saw in grainy photographs by interviewing some of the most dangerous players in the long-embattled Middle-East conflict.

The director also interviewed the people who were attempting to build bridges between the warring sides. Jacobovici didn’t want to make a film that would only touch those involved or related to the conflict, but instead wanted his docu to resonate in remote places like Belfast and L.A.

This aptly titled documentary seems particularly interesting because of the dangerous places it takes its audience, the physical danger of violence and the emotional danger of taking sides.

Jacobovici has made three documentaries with James Cameron, The Exodus Decoded (2005), The Lost Tomb of Jesus (2007) and Atlantis Rising (2016).  I've only seen many of the Naked Archaeologist and the Exodus and the Lost Tomb.  

I note that Simcha has done a great deal of exploring the history of Jesus.  He has come up with facts that might be upsetting to the Christian community or wonderful, depending on one's mindset. The same goes for us Jews.   We should all remember that Jesus was a very common name, and so was Joseph.  The one I watched, with finding the "box" with the bones and Jesus son of Jacob written on it in very very old Hebrew, could fit many families, but he went on and on, finding other names in the family of Jesus that I had never known about.  Simcha does find resources beyond the normal person's ability to do so.  He stumbled onto the cave where all the boxes of this family were stored, in the middle of the city, as it was, and with another special tool could see inside.  Simcha's desire to find the information knows no bounds !  It seems to me that no one really cares as much as he does, and he brings it all to life for his audience.    

Update:9/4/22  I just watched his 2 hour program on Finding the Lost 10 Tribes, and it was wonderful.  My opinion is that he deserves a PhD for the work he has put into this.  I've done a lot of writing and reading about it myself, especially about the people in Afghanistan, Pakistan and India who follow Pashtunwali, and are of the lost tribes, and appreciate what Simcha has done. 

Resource:

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

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

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

How a News Commentator of India Saw Zelensky of Ukraine

 Nadene Goldfoot                                              

I was just crushed seeing my favorite Wion News Commentator,  

Palki Sharma Upadhyay,   editor and anchor at WION.  She hosts India's only international news and views prime time show called "Gravitas." on TV of India,    give the most shallow condemnation on Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine, comparing him to

Nero as he watched Rome burn.  She asked what had he ever done for Ukraine other than pose on TV?  She accused Zelensky of romanticizing Ukraine by posing with his wife.

Oh my gosh!  How crass!  How shallow can anyone get?  I had admired her comments so much before and the way she questioned and came to conclusions, but this shows that what you see is not the whole picture and shouldn't draw conclusions.  It's like judging a book by its cover.  There's more inside the book and there's more that Zelensky does besides sitting for the camera once in a while.

Now I'm going to draw a conclusion.  A lot of the people in the world draw conclusions about world events only from what who minutes they devote to news on TV, and it's all depending on the programming, like the differences between Fox and CNN as to how people are shaping their minds. Interestingly, both Fox and CNN on Smart TVs are stations one must pay to view. ABC is free and stating that they are number one.  Viewers aren't any different than Palki was this time with Zelensky.  I wonder if this isn't India's view as well.  

 I personally watch ABC.  I also use my computer a lot to further my information on subjects I'm interested in. Of course I have many personal books to turn to for further information.   So TV acts as my general moment to moment textbook and the computer is my supplementary material along with books.  

Zelensky himself and others'  "hope was, at the end of the day, to have better relationships with Western neighbors, to have an activization of relations with the E.U. and the U.S. and have some sort of conflict regulation on the way with Russia. " 

“If three years ago, [Zelensky] was definitely different, he was absolutely from another world with an image which he imposed on us from his movie. It was not actually a human being playing resilience… he would come and transform the country in a way how he promised in the movie. And what we all experience these two and a half years it’s an absolutely different personality, absolutely different way of behavior and treating of people.”

“As someone who knows our president personally very well told me once, ‘he believes in his luck, in his star, and in himself.’ He doesn’t believe in reasonable alliances, consensus of interest, balance of different groups of influence, that’s why he encircles himself only with loyal people and you're either under him as his servant or your enemy.”  Vasyl Filipchuk  

Vasyl remembers that Zelensky started his term before Russia attacked Ukraine.  Zelensky was a fresh soul, fighting against the  previous methods of presidents who were not honest.  Zelensky was a lawyer, but his strong suit was that he was a comedian playing the part of the Ukrainian president on TV, and that got him elected for real. he's also listed as a politician, but I haven't found any evidence of that as yet. He was a political novice.    This admired 5'7" Jewish comedian had to do a 180 turn-around in his new real role that called for previous experience he didn't have, so he's been doing his best.  He's young, only44.   He was born on January 25, 1978 in Kryvyy Rih, Ukraine.  

Zelensky’s anti-corruption platform won him widespread support, and his significant online following translated into a solid electoral base. He won a landslide victory over incumbent Petro Poroshenko in the second round of the 2019 presidential election. President Zelensky’s leadership during the Russian invasion of Ukraine won him global acclaim.

Personally, it was remarkable that Ukraine, a country who was very hard on Jews during WWII, did a 180 turn around by electing a Jewish man.   What has he done?  More than any of others coould have done, that's what.  He's thrown his whole heart and soul into trying to end the attack and losing Ukraine's freedom.  Vasyl attacks Zelensky for not buddying up with certain elements which is exactly what happened previously with other presidents.  No, he has an honest approach. He's the SERVANT of the people, and they want to remain free.  He's going as far as he can and from what I see on TV, gages that by what the people say to him.  Mainly, what is viewed by the world are these huge goals he has tried to bring about: 

1. Bring up trying to become a member of NATO for protection.

2. Ask the USA and others for ammunition.

3. Speak with Russian officials.  

4. Receive the backing and trust of nations in the world and admiration of many Americans by his actions.  

“Zelensky started out with an incredible amount of credit with the Ukrainian people, as much as he seemed like an unlikely candidate, he was the underdog, he had so much trust from the people, and this trust persevered again in parliamentary elections and I think it took him all this time, it took him two years to run out of that credit, and he did run through, he ran through it by firing his ministry squad again and again, by sending it by for eve of the pandemic totally unprepared, and he made multiple mistakes, he came to the international arena multiple times with empty hands.” Anastacia Galouchka.

Zelensky is in a terrible position.  He's a newbie trying to save his country from Putin!  Ukrainians have been under Russia's thumb and finally broke away from something they've thought they would  give their life to defend, and now may be thinking that they've bitten off more than they can chew.  He needs help, not criticism.  He needs honest Ukrainians to work with that he wouldn't think of firing.   Wasn't that people in the eastern section in cahoots with the Russians?  As it stands, Russia plans on taking over Ukraine and the first thing on the list is to kill Zelensky and his family.  

Update:  Palki herself just told her viewers how much trade is going on between India and Russia.  They are buying all kinds of products and goods, especially oil.  All the other countries, including the USA, are not because of Russia's attack on Ukraine.  No wonder she's knocking Zelensky.  It's political, a decision quite possibly from India's president.  Quite a coincidence at any rate.  

These comments were from "The Kennan Institute.  It is the premier U.S. center for advanced research on Russia and Eurasia and the oldest and largest regional program at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. The Kennan Institute is committed to improving American understanding of Russia, Ukraine, Central Asia, the Caucasus, and the surrounding region though research and exchange. " 

8/19/22 Palti did it again. In commenting about Abbas's slip of answering a question about the 1972 Olympics in Munich when 11 Israeli athletes were murdered by Palestinians, he called Israel's defensive moves after being attacked as Holocausts for the Palestinians, Palti commented, on Abba's error in saying this in Germany, and she went on mentioning that no one was saying anything about Israel's excesses ( reaction of killing more Palestinians than they had killed Israelis).  Oh Palti !  I could go on and on with this issue, about how Israel pin points targets, but Palestinians put their people out in the open on purpose to get hit, thus getting more points against the Israelis.  They put ammunition in schools, mosques, etc,  while Israel's people have bomb shelters for protection along with a 45 second warning system often-times, that's all being they are so close to the enemy.  Israel defends life, but the Palestinians evidently don't.  To Life! L'Chaim!!

Resource:

https://www.wilsoncenter.org/event/achievements-and-failures-zelenskys-presidency-its-midpoint

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Volodymyr-Zelensky

WION from India, Gravitas News program

I Am A Jewish Zionist

Nadene Goldfoot                                               

                                                 Jerusalem 1900

Being a Zionist is nothing to be ashamed of, yet Zionism is being attacked right in Boston, Massachusetts.  The BDSers are putting Jews on a list to be stopped.   They are listing pro-Zionist groups in order to stop them.  

In fact, one should be proud that you believe Jews deserve their ancient land of Israel once again. Jews had lived on the land as a country since the days of King Saul and lost it to the Romans in 70 CE.  

Because of Judaism, Christianity and then Islam developed from it, though most will not admit it.  Yet these are the very folks who are the most virulent anti-Semites, Muslims to be the last to join the "hatred for Jews" group. There have even been Jews who have been against Zionism.  They didn't understand the connection. 

 Jews tolerated being attacked, beaten up physically and mentally for 2,000 years and our leaders saw what it was doing to the Jewish people.  Enough!  Isn't that a phrase used in one of our holidays? diy-ay-nu.  Enough!  Time to have a refuge for our people.  And this coincided with the end of World War I. 

 They considered Africa as a refuge.  They considered many other places, but we knew, our hearts belonged in Israel, and it was Israel that G-d told us to live in.  What shocks me is that the most orthodox Jews of all weren't active Zionists.  In reading the Torah, this is what its says.  We are to live in Israel.   

Now I see that Boston is on the warpath against Zionism.  I bet they don't even know what the word means.  It means: a movement for (originally) the re-establishment and (now) the development and protection of a Jewish nation in what is now Israel. It was established as a political organization in 1897 under Theodor Herzl, and was later led by Chaim Weizmann.  They labeled it as Jewish so that we had one place on earth where we couldn't be thrown out because we were Jewish.  This was before the Holocaust.  

Then the Holocaust has come and Israel is firm on the fact that it is indeed a Jewish state.  In a world where there are 48 Muslim majority states, is that so shocking?  A Palestine run by Abbas would be the 49th.  Jews are trying to hold onto their one state made of the scraps from dividing their land again and again.  The largest section the Jews have is the desert.  

People should know that there never has been a country of Palestine with a head of state and all.  Palestine was the name the Romans gave to Eretz Yisrael to erase its history and the name was of the Philistines, the greatest enemy of the Israelites.  

On November 2, 1917, Arthur James Balfour, the British foreign secretary, is the official statement called the Balfour Declaration.    The White Paper stated that Britain stood by the Balfour Declaration of 1917, which promised British support for the establishment of a Jewish National Home in Palestine but also attempted to calm Palestinian Arab fears that their life or culture would be subordinated. The Arabs, however, didn't calm the Jewish fears.  They attacked Jews as early as 1929.  The Balfour document was approved by the governments and incorporated in the mandate in 1922.  

At this time, Arabs referred to themselves as Syrian Arabs being so many came from Syria and had moved south into Palestine seeking work with the Jews who were building.  

 By 1918 after World War I,  the Ottoman Empire, who had forcefully taken Palestine and held it for 400 years, lost it by being on the side of the Axis, countries such as Germany, who lost the war they had started.  Palestine was the Roman name for Israel and Judah, and first they had occupied Jerusalem, then burned down the Temple and the city along with it.   They used it as a source of money;  they collected taxes from people who lived on the land.  They remained in Turkey but sent their collectors there to collect money and police it.  

      Jerusalem 1900

The land was thinly populated by Arabs and Jews.  They were both labeled as Palestinians. Safed (Tzfat) was a major city besides Jerusalem where many Jews had never left. In fact, Jews were living in  all part of Judah and Israel throughout the years in small numbers.

By 1849 Jerusalem had 7,120 Jews, 5,000 Arabs and 3,390 Christians. Jews were the largest populations in the years of 1949, 1853, 1857, 1862, 1864, 1866, 1869, 1874, 1882 and every year from then on.  By 1944 there were 97,000 Jews, 30,000 Muslim Arabs, 29,400  Christians, totaling 157,000.  

  During the 1880s, there were years when Jewish population was greater than the Arab population.  By 1881 Jews arrived from Europe's pogroms where Jews were attacked and killed.  The need was great as the world was already very anti-Semitic because Jews didn't believe in Jesus like everyone else.  That arrival was called the 1st Aliyah (going up).  There would be 5 Aliote altogether.                       

By losing the land, it was in the hands of the Allies who had the right to do as they so decided.  They decided to give the land back to the Jews who had been homeless for the past 2,000 years.  The League of Nations gave the 30 year mandate to Britain to manage and gave them the direction to help the Jews to create their Jewish Homeland.

The Brits managed to give away most of the land to a Prince of Arabia who needed land, and he was given TransJordan.  That was

Prince Abdullah.                        

Now, the land allocated for Jews has been cut away to create "The West Bank."  This is out of the original land of Israel and Judah-Judea and Samaria.  To use the name, West Bank," which is the name Jordan gave it, is to erase its history of being part of the country of Israel, which was the southern end of Israel.  It's a political ploy to erase history.                               

In June 1967, following the Six-Day War, Israel captured the Golan Heights, the Gaza Strip and Judea and Samaria, known as the West Bank of the Jordan River. The Jewish settlement in Judea and Samaria is one of the main issues of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and any future agreement will demand an innovative solution to the issue.  

In May of 1967, three Arab countries, Egypt, Syria and Jordan, imposed an unlawful siege and blockade on Israel and amassed their armies in attack positions in order to destroy the state of Israel. As a result of the Arab aggression and within its right of self-defense, Israel captured the Sinai Peninsula, the Golan Heights, as well as Judea and Samaria, in June 1967.

I feel that Israel has every right in the world to exist.  They saw the land had become barren, nothing but swamps, mosquitoes and weeds, and it was time to act.  

They went to the victors and spoke their piece as to why they needed the land for their people.  They presented a great case, and in the end was left with scraps of the original, but took it.                                         

Now, the great city of Boston, Massachusetts, city of Pilgrims originally, feels that Zionists are bad people because it is their fault that the Palestinian Arabs don't have the land.  Do they realize how many times the Arabs were offered the land but refused it because they didn't want the Jews to have any of the land?  They expected to take all of it. They were instigated to think like this by the Arab countries who were against the Jews.  Look at their meeting in Kartoum, Africa in 1967:  No peace with Israel, no recognition of Israel, no negotiations with Israel.  When the Palestinians decide differently, let me know.  They haven't changed an iota.  

 A Mapping Project of sorts has created a map and address book of nearly 500 allegedly “pro-Zionist” organizations that Boston BDS believes should be dismantled because of their support of “local entities and networks that enact devastation” on Palestinians.  We already know that the BDS groups are anti-Semitic groups.  Greater Boston is home to the fourth-largest Jewish community in the country with 248,000 Jews. Of these, 190,600 are adults and 57,400 are children. The quarter-million Jews in Boston reside in approximately 123,400 households. This represents a population increase of approximately 4.6% since 2005. Now Boston is punishing Jews there for being Jewish.  

Many of the groups mapped by the group have the word “Jewish,” “Israel” or “Zionist” in their names—like Jewish National Fund, Jewish Teen Foundation, Israel360 and Zionist Organization of America, but most do not.

Boston BDS also—ambitiously—aims to dismantle such “Zionist” offenders as Apple, Microsoft, Harvard Law School, Boston United Pentecostal Church, JP Morgan Chase, Cambridge Fire Department, Synagogue Council of Massachusetts, and Boston Herald, plus some 250 greater-Boston police departments.  

 If you're more of a Jew that doesn't care for your religion or history but feel you are Jewish when asked, are counted in this being a Zionist offender category no matter what you think about creating Israel again.  They're no different in listing people in categories than Nazis were who included people with one Jewish grandparent as being Jewish.  

Actually, being Jewish is more than what you believe about G-d.  We Jews are closely related to each other, more like being Italian than being a Protestant or Catholic.  We started as a family and have picked up people along the way, but most have become related, like so many of us are 30th cousins.  We are a people, and as in Italians where there are differences, so we also have differences.  

Jewish Voice For Peace is one of the worst groups.  Even they blare out that they are against Zionism.  If it wasn't for Zionism, they most likely couldn't say they were Jewish.  I have found that extreme Orthodox group have been against Zionism in the beginning.  Their rabbis could have been frightened of losing their fiefdoms.  Since then many have moved to Israel.  

Jews have suffered from anti-Semitism ever since the days of the Greeks and Romans.  It's never stopped.  Crusaders killed Jews along with the Arabs.  Christianity has never provided any love for Jews without a devious reason like Luther had to convert us all.  Just to be treated as human beings no different than the rest of the population never came. Jewish high school students couldn't join sororities and fraternities.  Jews weren't hired by others for work.   Jews were too smart, so there were limits as to how many could enter medical schools.  They couldn't join clubs established for socializing for they didn't want to socialize with Jews.  We didn't need to be of a different color to be isolated. We were discovered anyway.   

The attacks against Zionism come when Israel is held to double standards that are not applied to any other nation such as what happens in the United Nations.  Only Israel has been selected to be picked on  and accused falsely.

 Anti-Zionism is anti-Semitic when the Jewish people as a whole are held accountable for the actions or policies of the Israeli government.  People  do not understand government policies without education, especially Israel's evidently.       Why some  Jews  live in Judea and Samaria is one example.  Arabs had planned on taking all of Judea and Samaria as Palestine and that is not to be the case.  Education can explain why.   

Anti-Zionism typically results in discrimination, harassment, or violence against individual Jews.  Zionists were tired of being 2nd class citizens of Europe and the Middle East.  They wanted what every American citizen has; certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, that to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, and that meant that it was time to revive Israel for the Jewish people if that's what it took to be treated civilly. ” 

Resource:

Flame: https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?tab=wm#inbox/FMfcgzGpHHPnJllGqtslJGpNwMfmDxnB

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

https://www.brandeis.edu/cmjs/community-studies/boston-report.html#:~:text=Greater%20Boston%20is%20home%20to,of%20approximately%204.6%25%20since%202005.

https://justvision.org/glossary/white-paper-1922

http://www.thetruthaboutisrael.org.il/qanda/comprehensive-guide-truth-judea-samaria/#:~:text=Judea%20%26%20Samaria%20%E2%80%93%20Occupied%20Territories%3F,Bank%20of%20the%20Jordan%20River.

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

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Muslim-majority-countries

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Safed#:~:text=Antiquity-,Safed%20has%20been%20identified%20with%20Sepph%2C%20a%20fortified%20town%20in,during%20the%20Second%20Temple%20period.

https://www.brandeis.edu/cmjs/community-studies/boston-report.html#:~:text=Greater%20Boston%20is%20home%20to,of%20approximately%204.6%25%20since%202005.