The Importance of a Jewish Education For Russian Jews and Others

  Nadene Goldfoot                                            

Russian-Jewish rapper sparks diplomatic spat between Israel  and Ukraine

Ukraine’s embassy in Israel filed a formal protest after Russian rapper GeeGun was invited as part of an Israeli Tourism Ministry campaign, saying the Odessa-born artist supports Russia’s war and appears on Kyiv’s sanctions list.  (each country lies and makes out they they are the best, especially Trump!) 

Ukraine’s embassy in Israel filed a formal protest with the Foreign

Ministry after Russian-Jewish rapper GeeGun was invited to Israel as

part of an Israeli Tourism Ministry campaign, calling the move

“immoral and unacceptable.”

He was born in Russia, all right; in Odessa which the Jewish community

founded in 1798. Up to WWI, it controlled 90% of its grain trade and

50% of its shop-keepinag and banking. In the 19th century, Odessa was

a center of Russian-Jewish assimilation with the 1st school for Russian

Jews in 1824; Russian synagogue with choir, 1st Russian Jewish news

paper 1860, people like Bialik, and 1880 was center of haskalah.

After WWI and after 1941's WWII of Nazi occupation, the 180,000 Jews

fled or were slaughtered. 26,000 were massacred on October 23-25,

1941 alone. Jewish population for Odessa province in 1988 was up to

120,000.

Kyiv, also Kiev, is the capital and most populous city of Ukraine. Located in the north-central part of the country, it straddles both banks of the Dnieper River. Jews moved there in waves from 

Khazaria, the Caliphate, and Byzantium between the 9th to 12th

Centuries; then from the 14th-15th cents, and from Poland in the 

16th  to 18th centuries.  Severe massacres happened there 

during the Chmielnicki and Haidamak uprisings in 17th-18th cent.

This was close enough to bring about Zionism.  Pogroms took

place in 19th century-from Galicia and White Russia and in 1905

and 1918-1920.  

Russians encouraged Jew to be educated in agricultural settle-

ment in southern Ukraine from 1804-1859.  By 1897 there were

21 Jewish colonies in Kherson province and 16 in Yekaterinoslaav with 26,326 people.  The Soviet government in 1920s promoted

Jewish settlement in Ukraine using money from American Joint Dis-

tribution Committee in regions of Kalinindorf, Zlatopol, and Stalindorf, a and by 1930 there were 90,000 Jewish farmers there.  In Jan-

uary 1918, a regime of national autonomy was established in the

Ukraine.                                        

Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin (born 7 October 1952) is a

 Russian politician and former intelligence officer who has 

served as President of Russia since 2012, having previously 

served from 2000 to 2008. Putin also served as Prime Minister

 of Russia from 1999 to 2000^[i] and again from 2008 to 2012

 He has been described as the de facto leader of Russia since 1999.

Born in Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg), Putin worked as a 

KGB foreign intelligence officer for 16 years, rising to the rank

 of lieutenant colonel. He resigned in 1991 to begin a political 

career in Saint Petersburg. In 1996,

Jewish economy and culture suffered under Soviet Rule.   Half of

Soviet Russia's 3 million Jews lived there before WWII.  Under

Nazi rule  were wiped out by the Germans and Ukrainians from

19411942.  The Jewish population was officially part of 777,126

in 1970 and at 484,129 in 1989.  It grew because people were

born, were familiar with it and could speak the language and no

other.                                             

Now these young people, all of them, need to understand that

Russia has been the aggressive one and Ukraine is defending  

 themselves in this war.  

Preventing Western Integration: Russian President Vladimir 

Putin sought to stop Ukraine's pivot toward the West. He viewed Ukraine's growing alignment with the European Union and

 NATO as a threat to Russia's historical sphere of influence and

 a challenge to his regime. 

Imperial Ambitions: Putin has repeatedly questioned Ukrainian statehood, asserting that Russians and Ukrainians are "one single people". Moscow aims to reclaim territorial control and restore a large Russian sphere of influence.

He's thinking of the days of USSR (The Soviet Union, officially

 the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from

1922 until its dissolution in 1991.  We reading teachers said it

stood for undisturbed silent sustained Reading.  Ha ha!  

Ideology and Propaganda: At the onset of the 2022 invasion,

 Putin justified the military action through the false claim that 

the Ukrainian government was a neo-Nazi regime committing genocide against Russian speakers in the Donbas region.

Escalation of the 2014 Conflict: The 2022 full-scale invasion 

was an escalation of a conflict that began in 2014. After mass protests in Ukraine ousted pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych, Russia illegally annexed Crimea and backed armed separatists

 in the eastern Ukrainian regions of Donetsk and Luhansk.

USA Just Emptied Their Embassy in Sudan

 Nadene Goldfoot                                            

 refugees from fighting

By JACK JEFFERY and NOHA ELHENNAWYtoday

KHARTOUM, Sudan (AP) — As foreign governments airlifted hundreds of their diplomats and other citizens to safety, Sudanese desperately sought ways to escape the chaos Monday, fearing that the country’s two rival generals will escalate their all-out battle for power once evacuations are completed.  

For Sudan's more than 45 million people, the conflict between Lt. Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and Lt. Gen. Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo is set to deepen an already intense economic and humanitarian crisis.  A bitter rivalry between Sudan’s top two generals erupted into open warfare this weekend, further destabilizing a country that has been at the center of geopolitical power competition from the Middle East, the U.S. and Russia.   It will also further delay a promised transition to civilian rule.                                  

States of Sudan, more like our counties in Oregon, showing well-known Darfur on the SE and Kartoum in central East.  

Sudan is huge, about as big as Alaska.  Everyone wants a piece of it, and the USA is at the end of the line these days.  It is Egypt's neighbor to the south, shown as purple.  Thousands are trying to leave the country and are stuck.  

Sudan is the 8th largest Muslim populated country with a population in 2011 of 43,939,598. of which 70% were Muslims. Out of them about 104,500 belonged to their military power of active troops.  They are Sunnis.                        

It has a population of 45.7 million people as of 2022 and occupies 1,886,068 square kilometres (728,215 square miles), making it Africa's third-largest country by area, and the third-largest by area in the Arab League. It was the largest country by area in Africa and the Arab League until the secession of South Sudan in 2011, since which both titles have been held by Algeria. Its capital city is Khartoum and its most populous city is Omdurman (part of the metropolitan area of Khartoum).

The name derives from the Arabic bilād as-sūdān (بلاد السودان), or "The Land of the Blacks". The name is one of various toponyms sharing similar etymologies, in reference to the more or less dark skin of the inhabitants. Prior to this, Sudan was known as Nubia and Ta Nehesi or Ta Seti by Ancient Egyptians named for the Nubian and Medjay archers or Bow men.

UN warns of lab risk, more displacement amid Sudan conflict

By JAMEY KEATEN and SAMY MAGDYan hour ago

GENEVA (AP) — U.N. officials said Tuesday that one side in the Sudan conflict has seized control of a national health lab in the capital of Khartoum that holds biological material, calling it an “extremely dangerous” development.

Which countries are evacuating citizens from Sudan?

today

NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) — As continued fighting 

raises fears that Sudan could plunge deeper into chaos, foreign governments are scrambling to get their diplomats and other citizens safely out.

US helping from afar as Americans flee fighting in Sudan

 

     Iftar in Omdurman:  Ambassador John Godfrey and several staff from the US Embassy attended their first Ramadan Iftar in Khartoum with family of singer Mayada Gamar Eldin in Abbasiya, Omdurman.  By ZEKE MILLER, AAMER MADHANI and ELLEN KNICKMEYERyesterday

WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House said Monday the U.S. is helping from afar as thousands of Americans left behind in Sudan seek to escape fighting in the east African nation, after the U.S....." 

Location: Countrywide  Event: On April 22, 2023, the U.S. Embassy in Khartoum suspended its operations, and the Department of State ordered the departure of U.S. direct hire…

Jews visited the Sudan from remote times.  In 1885, the Mahdi compelled all Jews and Christians to embrace Islam. So much for Dhimmi status and remaining as Jews.  The community dated from the end of the 19th century, but few Jews now live there.   Their descendants should be in Israel.  

Resource:

http://en.wikiipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Muslim-majority_countries

The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia

wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Jews_in_Sudan

Who The US Embassy Serves in Jerusalem: USA's Desire for a Palestinian-State

 Nadene Goldfoot                                          

A view of the damage to the U.S. Embassy after the bombing in 1983 in Beirut, Lebanon of an Islamic Jihad car bomb that destroyed the embassy in which 17 out of 63 killed were Americans.  Embassies are often targets of terrorists.                                  

   Hady Amr  is a Beirut, Lebanese born April 8, 1964)  American government official serving as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Israeli and Palestinian Affairs in the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs within the U.S. Department of State.  The Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs, also known as the Bureau of Near East Asian Affairs, is an agency of the Department of State within the United States government that deals with U.S. foreign policy and diplomatic relations with the nations of the Near East. Whether in a U.S. Embassy or a consulate, consular officers at post are the State Department employees whom both American citizens overseas and foreign nationals are most likely to meet. Consular officers protect U.S. citizens abroad and their property. Seems like Hady is the go-between for USA with Israel and Palestinians in East Jerusalem.  

The primary purpose of an embassy is to assist American citizens who travel to or live in the host country. U.S. Foreign Service Officers also interview citizens of the host country who wish to travel to the United States for business, education, or tourism purposes.  In this case, Israel is the host country and there to help American citizen tourists.  

     Israel's Embassy in Washington DC., capital of USA  

The main function of a consulate is to undertake administrative duties such as processing visas for citizens of their host territory, as well as providing  providing information and guidance about immigration processes....not to create a new state of Palestine. 

  The Old city was Israel's original land, where Saul, David and Solomon lived.  It is part of Judea-Samaria, the homeland.  

 The Old City today (including the already mentioned Muslim Quarter)The Old City (Hebrew: הָעִיר הָעַתִּיקָה,  is a 0.9-square-kilometre (0.35 sq mi) walled area in East Jerusalem, part of the territory considered to be occupied by Israel by the international community but is all inclusive as the capital of Israel with the rest of Jerusalem. has an Arab population of 36,681 and a Jewish population of 3,847. In 2016, the population of East Jerusalem was 542,400, comprising 61% of Jerusalem's residents. Of these, 214,600 (39.6%) were Jews, and 327,700 (60.4%) were Arabs.

               USA Embassy in Jerusalem, capital of Israel

Trump's plan was to merge the U.S. Consulate General in Jerusalem which served as the United States’ principal venue for communication with the Palestinian people and Palestinian leadership, into a subunit of the U.S. Embassy in Israel—which Trump moved from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem in May of 2018.  Now they are both in the same building, in the US Embassy.  

The Arab citizens of Israel, who comprise slightly more than one-fifth of Israel’s total population, possess the same rights as Jewish Israelis under the law. They are distinct from most Palestinians in the West Bank, who are governed by the Palestinian Authority, and Palestinians in Gaza, who live under Hamas’s rule, as well as most Arab residents of East Jerusalem, who have more restricted rights.

President Biden had proposed to reopen the Palestinian consulate in Jerusalem, used during Obama's Presidency,   but Israel objected to this on the basis that serving Palestinian Arabs only and operating from Jerusalem, the capital of Israel, was an encroachment on Israeli sovereignty.  It was the first step in a land take-away. 

     The Mandelbaum Gate , Jerusalem is a former checkpoint between the Israeli and Jordanian sectors of Jerusalem, just north of the western edge of the Old City along the Green Line. The first checkpoint for the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan/Israel Mixed Armistice Commission at the Mandelbaum Gate, from the close of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War in 1949 until August 1952, was moved from the Israeli side of the Gate to the Demilitarised Zone after the "Barrel Incident".^[1] The second checkpoint existed until the 1967 Six-Day War. The Gate became a symbol of the divided status of the city.

 Jerusalem is a untied city after suffering from being divided for too many years before 1967. Jews could not enter East Jerusalem from 1948 to the end of the 1967 Six Day War.  It was divided by Jordan with barbed wire.     

Hady Amr and Ilan Goldenberg write that the merger of the U.S. Consulate General in Jerusalem and the new U.S. embassy there does major harm to the U.S. ability to act as a mediator in the conflict and serves as a severe blow to the prospects of Israeli-Palestinian peace through a two-state solution. This piece originally appeared on ForeignPolicy.com.  You can see that their main focus is to push the creation of Palestine right along Israel at a time when both countries are not in any peaceful mode.  The fear for many is that this is an invitation to be attacked easier by the Palestinians, which they have been doing non-stop from Gaza for years.  Israelis along the border are saying, "Enough-already!"  

He was appointed to the role under President Joe Biden on January 20, 2021. He was born in Lebanon, and has close ties to the region, being praised by both Israeli and Palestinian leaders alike.

He is a policy analyst and author in the area of U.S. relations with the Muslim world and on the Arab-Israeli conflict, Lebanon, Jordan, and the economic and social development of the Arab world. He has served as a Senior Advisor in the Office of Policy at the Department of Homeland Security, as a Deputy Assistant Administrator for the Middle East at the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), and as United States Deputy Special Envoy for Israeli-Palestinian Negotiations from 2014–2017.

Members of Lebanon’s Hezbollah take part in Ashura commemorations in a southern Beirut suburb. Anwar Amro/AFP/Getty Images

Lebanon is a failed state. Hezbollah wields significant power in Lebanon, where it operates as both a Shiite political party and militant group.  It opposes Israel and Western powers operating in the Middle East, and it functions as a proxy of Iran, its largest benefactor.  The group has faced unprecedented scrutiny from the Lebanese public amid the country’s political and economic crisis.

 Jordan is actually a Palestinian state already where King Abdullah runs the show, not the Palestinians, which is why there is still peace between Israel and Jordan.   

Hamas militia members patrol a street in Gaza City, April 23, 2021. (Ashraf Amra/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

The problem as I see it is that the Palestinians have been squatters, demanding the land, while Israelites not only were there first 3,000 some years ago, but the creators of the land today, continuing where their ancestors left off.  These squatters attack even when Israelis offered peace.  It's as no win proposition dealing with them.  

Israel says it killed 14 senior Hamas commanders and officials; wave of communal clashes between Jewish and Arab Israelis spreads--Wall Street Journal

Palestinians:  Fighting between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas has escalated drastically in the first few weeks of May 2021, leading to fears the conflict could develop into a protracted war.  That was last year.  The Palestinians and other Muslim countries signed an oath at the end of the 1967 War, doing it in Africa at a meeting saying NO to 3 facts, NO PEACE was one of them.  Even though the Abrahamic Accords have a good start, the Palestinians are not part of it.  They don't have the good intentions of being a peaceful neighbors, their intention is to destroy Israel and take it over as their Palestine.  In May 2021, Hady Amr was sent to the Middle East to help in trying to defuse tensions between Israel and Palestine.

After restoring aid to Palestinians, Biden endorses two-state solution, which is a type of appeasement.  Reversing Trump policies, US president tells Jordanian king that ‘United States supports a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinianconflict.’'

Update: 6/7/22: from Flame:  https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?tab=wm#inbox/FMfcgzGpGKjcGFTLjqFftWhhphlMPvSD

 Nides’ boss, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, repeatedly challenges Israel about actions he believes “endanger the Two-State Solution” . . . as if such a solution exists. Even if it did, the Palestinian Arabs and their leaders stand staunchly against any permanent “two-state solution.”

Update: 6/10/22  from  Axios:https://www.axios.com/2022/06/09/palestinian-office-jerusalem-state-trump-reversal?utm_source=email

The Biden administration has rolled back a Trump administration decision to place the department that deals with the Palestinians within the U.S. Embassy to Israel, the State Department said Thursday.  Why it matters: The move carries symbolic meaning by differentiating the U.S.-Israel relationship and the U.S.-Palestinian relationship. It also comes ahead of President Biden's expected trip to the region next month and as his administration seeks to reassure Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas that it is committed to the Palestinians.  

Israel last week rejected a proposal by the Biden administration to hold a high-level summit with the Palestinian Authority, three Israeli officials told Axios.  Why it matters: The Biden administration is trying to create a “political horizon” or diplomatic process between Israeli and Palestinian officials in an attempt to strengthen the PA.  The big picture: Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has expressed frustration and warned Israel and the Biden administration about the potential consequences if the stalemate in the peace process continues.

Resource:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1983_United_States_embassy_bombing_in_Beirut

https://www.timesofisrael.com/after-restoring-aid-to-palestinians-biden-endorses-two-state-solution/

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

https://www.brookings.edu/blog/order-from-chaos/2018/10/24/merging-the-us-consulate-and-embassy-in-jerusalem-shows-us-is-no-longer-truly-pursuing-a-two-state-solution/

https://www.onlinevisa.com/faq/what-is-the-difference-between-a-consulate-and-an-embassy/

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