How Syria's First King Led to Having Presidents

 Nadene Goldfoot                                                 

Message was sent to Israel's king Ahab who was Israel's 7th king reign of (876-853 BCE) from Ben Hadad, 2nd king of Syria.  

 Ben Hadad:  This name appeared for three different kings of Aram-Dammasek mentioned in the bible.  The first reigned in about 908-886 BCE.  He was an ally of Baasha of Israel, king of Israel (908-885 BCE) who declared himself king after killing Nadab, son of Jeroboam I who was the Ephraimite who acted as a superintendent of forced labor for Solomon to build the Temple,  and killing all his family members. until bribed by Asa of Judah to attack the northern kingdom (I Kings 15:16-21). This was after King Solomon had  died and his son caused Israel to be divided into Israel and Judah. The 2nd Ben Hadad reigned in the middle of the 8th century BCE, and was son or grandson of the 1st Ben Hadad.  He declared war on Israel in 856 BCE but was defeated and captured, then freed by Ahab with whom he allied himself in the war against Shalmaneser III of Assyria (853 BCE).    Hazael of Aram (Syria) (842-808 BCE) was a powerful 9th-century BCE king of Aram-Damascus, known in the Bible for usurping the throne by murdering his predecessor, King Ben-Hadad II, and becoming a formidable enemy of Israel and Judah, expanding his empire and fulfilling prophecies of judgment against them, as detailed in the books of Kings and 2 Kings. In his victorious campaigns he reduced the kingdom of Israel to vassaldom and limited its armed forces.  Joash, king of Judah (836-797 BCE), subsequently saved Jerusalem from attack by paying tribute.   Archaeological evidence confirms his historical existence as a major regional power, but he eventually faced Assyrian dominance, according to Britannica and the Bible Archaeology Report. 

(ܒܪ ܚܕܕ) or Ben-Hadad III (Heb.) (בֶּן-הֲדַד) was king of Aram Damascus, the son and successor of Hazael. His succession is mentioned in 2 Kings (13:3, 13:24). He is thought to have ruled from 796 BCE to 792 BCE, although there are many conflicting opinions among Biblical archaeologists as to the length of his reign.

The title King of Syria appeared in the second century BCE in referring to the Seleucid kings who ruled the entirety of the region of Syria. It was a Macedonian Greek royal family, which ruled the Seleucid Empire based in West Asia during the Hellenistic period. It was founded by Seleucus I Nicator, a general and successor of Alexander the Great, king of Macedonia (356-323 BCE) after the division of the Macedonian Empire as a result of the Wars of the Successors (Diadochi).

At this time, Antiochus III the Great was the sixth ruler of the Seleucid Empire, reigning from 223 BCE to 187 BCE. He ruled over the region of Syria and large parts of the rest of West Asia towards the end of the 3rd century BCE. He settled Babylonian Jews in cities of Phrygia and Lydia and he then conquered Palestine (named by Romans). Through its history, the Seleucid dominion included large parts of the Near East, as well as of the Asian territory of the earlier Achaemenid Persian Empire. A major center of Hellenistic culture, it attracted a large number of immigrants from Greece who, encouraged by the Seleucids, formed a dominant political elite under the ruling dynasty.

It was also used to refer to Aramean kings in the Greek translations of the Old Testament, mainly indicating the kings of Aram-Damascus. Aramean kings ruled various city-states in ancient Syria, notably Aram-Damascus, with prominent rulers including Tabrimmon, Ben-Hadad I, Hadadezer (Ben-Hadad II), Hazael, Ben-Hadad III, and Rezin,** leading powerful kingdoms that often clashed with Israel and Assyria, as detailed in the Bible and Assyrian records from the 9th and 8th centuries BCE. 

Faysal I was the first king of Syria.  Faisal I bin Hussein bin Ali al-Hashimi was a Hejazi statesman who served as the King of Iraq from 23 August 1921 until his death in 1933.  A member of the Hashemite family, he was a leader of the Great Arab Revolt during the First World War, and ruled as the unrecognized King of the Arab Kingdom of Syria from March to July 1920 when he was expelled by the French. In 1919 he met Chaim Weizmann and signed an agreement in Paris.  The Agreement: On January 3, 1919, at the Carlton Hotel in London—shortly before the main proceedings of the Paris Peace Conference began—Emir Faisal, representing the Arab Kingdom of Hedjaz, and Dr. Chaim Weizmann, representing the Zionist Organization, signed the Faisal-Weizmann Agreement.  

                              Weizmann and Faisal

 In August 1921, in accordance with the decision made at the Cairo Conference, the British arranged for Faisal to become king of a new Kingdom of Iraq under British administration.

 During his reign, Faisal fostered unity between Sunni Muslims and Shia Muslims to encourage common loyalty and promote pan-Arabism in the goal of creating an Arab state that would include Iraq, Syria and the rest of the Fertile Crescent.  He did not live long enough to think or have PEACE with the new state of Israel, however, and I think he may have done it.  

Here lies Syria problems:  There wasn't a direct successor as King of Syria after Faisal I because the French quickly dismantled his short-lived Arab Kingdom of Syria in 1920; instead, France established the French Mandate for Syria and Lebanon, and Faisal later became King of Iraq, succeeded there by his son, Ghazi I, after his death in 1933. 

After 1933, Syria was ruled by a series of leaders during the end of the French Mandate, followed by a period of instability and military coups after independence in 1946, and finally by the Ba'ath Party and the Assad family from 1963 to 2024. 

• 1932–1936: Muhammad Ali al-Abid (First president under the constitution of the First Syrian Republic)
• 1936–1939: Hashim al-Atassi (National Bloc)
• 1939–1943: French Administration (Suspension of the constitution, including rule by Bahij al-Khatib and Taj al-Din al-Hasani)
• 1943–1949: Shukri al-Quwatli (First president of independent Syria, 1946)
• 1949: Husni al-Za'im (Staged the first military coup)
• 1949–1951: Hashim al-Atassi (Returned to power)
• 1951–1954: Adib Shishakli (Military dictator)
• 1954–1955: Hashim al-Atassi (Third term)
• 1955–1958: Shukri al-Quwatli (Second term)
• 1958–1961: United Arab Republic (Union with Egypt under Gamal Abdel Nasser)
• 1961–1963: Nazim al-Kudsi
• 1963–1966: Amin al-Hafiz (Ba'ath Party)
• 1966–1970: Nureddin al-Atassi (Ba'ath Party, with effective power held by Salah Jadid)
• 1971–2000: Hafez al-Assad (Seized power in 1970; solidified Ba'ath Party rule)
• 2000–2024: Bashar al-Assad (Son of Hafez, inherited power)
• December 2024–Present: Rebel/Transition Government (Following the collapse of the Assad regime, Ahmed al-Sharaa (Abu Mohammad al-Golani) emerged as a key figure in the interim) He was appointed by the terrorist groups as the #1 terrorist ruler.
• I suppose you have to seize power but holding it is another matter, especially if someone like Trump is around.  By the way, Trump used the old Democratic recipe, money and voting which must be validated.  Watch out for money donations like who and why and how much. Israel uses a very complicated Democratic method borrowed from England.     

Resource:

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

https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9780203816776-18/faysal-muhannad-salhi

Prophecy and Facts About Damascus, Syria

 Nadene Goldfoot                                                  

According to the Bible, the city of Damascus will be destroyed and will no longer be inhabited: Isaiah 17:1-3:  "Behold, Damascus will cease from being a city, and it will be a ruinous heap". The prophecy also states that the cities of Aroer will be deserted and used by flocks, and that the kingdom of Damascus will be gone.  Isaiah prophesied in Jerusalem from 740 BCE-701 BCE) He was from a noble family, closely related to the royal court and active in public affairs;  lived from the death of Uzziah until the middle of Hezekiah's reign .  

                              Jordan River, Amon River, Zered River is shown above;  Ammon is shown

The Bible mentions two cities named Aroer, one on the Arnon and one on the border of Ammon:

• Aroer on the Arnon

  Located on the north bank of the Arnon  River, east of the Dead Sea, in present-day Jordan. It was an ancient Moabite settlement that was later given to the Reubenites and Gadites by Moses. The city was famous in the history of Jephthah and David. It is now known as the modern village of 'Ara'ir.   The Arnon River is in Jordan, not Lebanon or Syria today: Also known as the Wadi Mujib, this river is located in Jordan and empties into the Dead Sea. It was an important boundary in ancient times, separating the Moabites from the Amorites and later the tribes of Reuben and Gad. The name Arnon is Hebrew and means "torrent valley". 

  
• The cities of Aroer are mentioned in the Bible in the following passages:  Deuteronomy 4:48;  Judges 11:26;  2 Kings 10:33;  Joshua 12:2;  Numbers 32:34;  Joshua 13:25;  2 Samuel 24:5;  Isaiah 17:2 :   and 

  
• Jeremiah 48:18-20;  and   Jeremiah 49:23-27 ;  The prophecy states that Damascus will be in fear and anguish, and that her young men will fall in her streets. 
• It also says that the Lord will kindle a fire in the wall of Damascus and consume the palaces of Ben-Hadad I, who ruled from 885–865 BCE, Ben-Hadad I was the son of Tabrimmon and grandson of Hezion. He formed a league with King Asa of Judah to attack the northern kingdom of Israel. 
• Ben-Hadad I was murdered by Hazael. The name "Ben-Hadad" is Hebrew for "Son of Hadad". Hadad was the name of a senior Aramean deity.

  

                       Ephraim, one of Jacob's 12 sons' tribes and the Arameans:  
• Judah, with Benjamin and Simeon cooperated while the 9-10 rest were captured as Israel by Assyria later on   in 721 BCE.  
• 
  
• 'Behold, Damascus is about to be removed from being a city and will become a fallen ruin. The cities of Aroer are forsaken; they will be for flocks to lie down in, and there will be no one to frighten them. The fortified city will disappear from Ephraim, and sovereignty from Damascus…. and the rest of Aram '”* Isaiah 17:1-3  This was telling of the breakup of the land of the  Ephramite-Aramean alliance,  also being used as a prophesy for the End of Times.  
  

  

       Damascus today: Damascus  is the capital and largest city of Syria, the oldest current capital in the world and, according to some, the fourth holiest city in Islam. Known colloquially in Syria as aš-Šām  and dubbed, poetically, the "City of Jasmine" Damascus is a major cultural center of the Levant and the Arab world.

  

  
  
• Between 1975 and 2000, Judith Feld Carr smuggled 3,000 Jews, living mostly on "Jew Street" in Damascus, out and into freedom.  Judy came across an article from The Jerusalem Post that reported on the tragic deaths of 12 Syrian Jewish men, who ran across a minefield while attempting to flee the country to Turkey. Judy was struck by the fact that the Syrian guards callously stood by and watched them die, one by one.

Which reminds me.  Every evening when the TV news was over, Syria had a routine of saying good-night with their army troops.  On our TV  in Israel we could get stations from Jordan, Syria and Egypt that I remember.   I remember seeing that they would show how scary they were by harming puppies.  I won't say more, but it is a gruesome memory.  I can say that I was very glad my Syrian friend from facebook was a very kind person and loved dogs.  He had thought his birth-mother had been Jewish, daughter of a jeweler from "Jew Street."  

Damascus is a significant city in the Bible, appearing in both the Old and New Testaments.  Damascus is where my message-friend lived who was living in Damascus at the time of their Civil War.  He and his family fled to Egypt.  He had a college degree from Lebanon and was an engineer.   

Today, Israel is at war with the terror groups Hamas and Hezbollah, supported by Iran who wants Israel's downfall.  Two days ago Israel hit military sites in Damascus;   the attacks targeted military sites and the headquarters of the Islamic Jihad group..  Syrians reported that 15 were killed, but most likely far less including injured.  Israel has been carrying out strikes against Iran-linked targets in Syria for years but has ramped up such raids since last year's Oct. 7 attack by Palestinian militant group, Hamas on Israel that sparked the Gaza war.

Israel’s military says Islamic Jihad participated alongside the Palestinian militant group Hamas in the Oct. 7, 2023 attacks from Gaza into Israel that killed some 1,200 people — mostly civilians — and saw 250 others abducted.  Aji reported from Damascus, Syria. 

Reference:

Book:  Messages From A Syrian Jew Trapped In Egypt, by Nadene Goldfoot with Jack Huffman, Storyteller

Tanach, The Stone Edition (Bible)

https://flashtrafficblog.epicentermedia.net/2012/06/28/does-bible-prophecy-foretell-the-destruction-of-damascus/#:~:text='Behold%2C%20Damascus%20is%20about%20to,'%E2%80%9D

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

https://www.jpost.com/jerusalem-report/judys-story-the-heroism-of-a-canadian-who-smuggled-jews-out-of-syria-620693

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben-Hadad_I#:~:text=Ben%2DHadad%20I%20(Hebrew:,of%20the%20Kingdom%20of%20Judah.&text=According%20to%20the%20biblical%20book,stele%20to%20this%20particular%20king.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aroer#:~:text=Aroer%20(Hebrew:%20%D7%A2%D6%B2%D7%A8%D7%95%D6%B9%D7%A2%D6%B5%D7%A8%2C%20%D7%A2%D6%B2%D7%A8%D6%B9%D7%A2%D6%B5%D7%A8,Aroer%20on%20the%20Arnon

https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/syrian-media-report-israeli-attacks-damascus-2024-11-14/

Jewish Encounters With Syria Including Golan Heights Today

Nadene Goldfoot                                                                     

The Bible called today's Syria "ARAM."  Aram had many kings ruling but never succeeded in creating a homogeneous state.   Their coastal strip along the Mediterranean was settled by the Phoenicians.
                                                                     

In Kings I and II in the Bible is described a constant contentious battle with the kingdoms of Israel and Judah until the 700s BCE when Syria was overrun by the Assyrians who attacked Israel in 722 BCE, leading Israelis off as captives, and again in 721 BCE.  It was in 853 BCE when the Assyrian King Shalmaneser II attacked Ben-Hadad II of Damascus and King Ahab of Israel was the ruler at the time.

Ben Hadad was a name used by 3 Aram-Dammasek (Syrian) kings.
1. Ben-Hadad I reigned c 908-886 BCE and was an ally of Baasha of Israel until bribed by Asa of Judah to attack Israel.  (Remember that when Solomon died, the southern part of Israel broke off to be the state of Judah).
2. Ben-Hadad II was the first's son or grandson.  He declared war on Israel.in c856 BCE but was defeated and captured.  He was then freed by King Ahab and so he allied himself in the war against Shalmaneser III of Assyria in 853 BCE.  Later he turned against Ahab in a battle at Ramoth Gilead where Ahab fell.

3. Ben-Hadad III was king from the end of the 9th to early 8th centuries BCE.  He was 3 times defeated by Jehoash of Israel who recaptured the towns previously ceded to Aram (Syria).  .  

The Jews who lived in Syria suffered from the hostility of the Greeks.  These were the ones living in Antioch during the Seleucid era. (After the death of Alexander III of Macedon in 323 B.C., the territories he had conquered were divided between his generals, the so-called Diadochi. Alexander's friend Seleucus Nicator (r. 312–280 B.C.) became king of the eastern provinces—approximately modern Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon, together with parts of Turkey, Armenia, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan. The huge kingdom had two capitals, which Seleucus founded in around 300 B.C.: Antioch in Syria and Seleucia in Mesopotamia (Iraq). Seleucus established a dynasty that lasted for two centuries, during which time Hellenistic art, a fusion of Greek and Near Eastern artistic traditions, developed and flourished."

 There were few Jews there in the Talmudic Period and under Theodosius II in 408-50.  Their religious freedom was restricted and many synagogues were converted to churches.
                                                                               

Everything improved for the Jews with the Arab conquest from 634 to 637.  This is when Jews were allowed to maintain their faith but were forced to become dhimmis and pay a poll-tax..   It was sort of like paying for protectia.  There were all sorts of restrictions put on Jews.   In the 1100s, the largest Jewish communities were in Aleppo with 5,000 Jews and Damascus with 3,000 Jews and Palmyra with 2,000 Jews.

Jews immigrated to Syria from Spain's 1492 Spanish Inquisition decrees and they also came from Sicily.  Syria became important in the transit trade between Europe and Asia because of these Jews.  However, the very well-known DAMASCUS BLOOD LIBEL in 1840 was shocking and caused worldwide reaction.
                                                                             

French soldiers in Syria 

By 1920 Jew finally had equal right under the French mandate that came at the end of WWI.  These were infringed on during WWII in the French Vichy regime, meaning that the French were going along with Germany. During this period from 1940 to 1944 when the Vichy government was headed by Marshal Petain during the German occupation of France, anti-Jewish legislation was introduced.  A commissariat for Jewish affairs, aimed at outlawing Jews, was directed.  The Vichy authorities didn't hinder the deportation of Jews by the Germans to extermination camps.  It carried out its policy through the Union Generale des Israelites de France, founded in 1941.  What was happening to Jews in France was repeated in Syria because they held the mandate-were the ruling party.  The  Jews who could then emigrated to the USA, Lebanon and Palestine to the Jewish cities.  Syria had about 30,000 Jews in 1943 and by 1947 found they only had 14,000 left.   More then left because of terrorism against Jews during Israel's War of Independence (1947-1949), material decline and moral isolation.

1992 Jewish class in Maimonides School in Damascus before leaving with Judith Carr.

1991 girls class in ghetto of Damascus 

                                                                         

Jewish Boy in  Ghetto in Damascus, Syria 1991 

From then on, the Jews of Damascus were prisoners in their Jewish quarter which became a ghetto.  Jews lived on Jew Street.   By 1973 only 4,000 were living there.  Syria was consistent in the virulence of its anti-Israel policy  and has continued acts of hostility since 1948 when it joined up with the Arab invasion of Israel.
Syria's extremism was responsible for the SIX DAY WAR in 1967  when Israel defeated the Syrian army and occupied the Golan Heights from which the Syrians had been bombarding kibbutzim along the upper Jordan Valley.  The Golan Heights became extensively populated with Israeli towns.  Its 1985 population was 22,500 including  the Druze population.Since 1988, Druze clerics have been permitted to make annual religious pilgrimages to Syria. Since 2005, Israel has allowed Druze farmers to export some 11,000 tons of apples to the rest of Syria each year, constituting the first commercial relations between Syria and Israel.

Since the breakout of the Syrian Civil War in 2012, the number of applications for Israeli citizenship is growing, although Syrian loyalty remains strong and those who apply for citizenship are often ostracized by members of the older generation. Israel annexed the Golan Heights causing President Ronald Reagan to suspend a strategic cooperation agreement in 1981.    Right now the Syrian army, backed by Iran and Hezbollah terrorists, are trying to take back the region. 
                                                                       

Judith Feld Carr and her husband, a Canadian couple, found out about how the Jews were imprisoned in Syria without even having telephones and came to their aid.  Miraculously during the 1990s, she was able to talk Assad into letting them out of Syria with her to live in the USA.  Many wound up in Brooklyn, New York. Only a few remain today.  They are a few older women who stayed to tend the Jewish Cemetery.

Resource:  The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben-hadad
Novel:  Messages From a Syria Jew Trapped in Egypt
http://jewishbubba.blogspot.com/2015/01/10000-jews-in-damascus-and-what.html
http://jewishbubba.blogspot.com/2013/07/modern-day-female-moses-judith-feld.html
http://mikeabrahams.photoshelter.com/image/I00001he_1jG7lAk   picture of Jewish ghetto