Peace With Abbas' anti-Semitic Accusation Against Israel ?

Nadene Goldfoot                                                                         

Representation of a massacre of the Jews in 1349 Antiquitates Flandriae(Royal Library of Belgium manuscript 13076/77)

The 3rd president of the USA is again trying to bring peace between the Palestinians and Israelis and will fail again.  First it was Bill Clinton who tried to force a peace in his last days in office.  Then it was Bush who tried and failed, and now it's Obama in his last days who along with his co-worker, John Kerry, thinks they are capable of making a deal that will satisfy both parties but will fail.

The problem is this:  The Palestinians belong to a terroristic group of Arabs who swore never to make a deal 68 years ago.  They were first led by Arafat who rejected every offer.  Now it's Abbas, his replacement, who does the same.  They must really not be interested in peace, for their main goal seems to be trying to wipe Israel off the map, and indeed, their maps show no Israel at all, and their schools teach this, also.
                                                                   

 
Even Israeli President Reuven Rivlin has pronounced any peace deal today as currently impossible with a situation of Israel wanting peace and have gone the mile needed for peace, but with the Palestinians now lying about Israel so pronouncedly, that it is a joke.  They are trying to show why they cannot go for peace by accusing Israel's rabbis of calling for the poisoning of Palestinian water supplies, the old accusation going back to the Middle Ages of Jews poisoning the wells.  This is so wild that it makes me choke.  How can one discuss a peace deal with people who think like this?   His people may be ignorant of Jewish history, but I certainly hope that leaders of countries realize where this comes from and the history of anti-Semitism.  Abbas is again trying to bring hatred against Jews, hatred that causes political views to be hated as well against Israel.  He figures that since the world has hated Jews in the past, they will ignore whatever is true about the Palestinians and only remember charges against the Jews, like they have poisoned water of Palestinians.  With their own people, it seems to have worked, since they are being brain-washed against Jews since they enter school, and even before with their parents.

Anti-Semitism was the outgrowth of Christian teaching of hatred for Jews to cause them to convert.  People were taught to hate Jews.  This medieval anti-Jewish prejudice was religious in nature and could generally be obviated by conversion to Christianity.  On the other hand, anti-Semitism has some affinities with the anti-Jewish prejudice in ancient Alexandria and later, against the Marranos in Spain.  Abbas is doing the very same thing, only this goal is to end Israel completely, and one can't make peace with a nation one wants dissolved and destroyed.

We have been accused of all sorts of terrible things, including using human blood in the making of our special bread, matzos.  "When the Black Death raged through Europe (1346–53), the charge was given that the Jews had poisoned the wells.  The only court of appeal that regarded itself as their appointed protector, according to historical conceptions, was the "Holy Roman Emperor."   The emperor, as legal successor to Titus (79-81) , who had acquired the Jews for his special property through the destruction of the Temple in the year 70, claimed the rights of possession and protection over all the Jews in the former Roman empire.  The king at the time of the Black Death was Charles IV, the king of Bohemia, called the German king, born May 14, 1316  in Prague, Czechoslovakia.

Similar to accusations made during the Black Plague, Jews were accused of encouraging lepers to poison Christian wells in France. An estimated five thousand Jews were killed before the king, Philip the Tall, admitted the Jews were innocent. Then, Charles IV expelled all French Jews without the one-year period he had promised them, as much of Europe blamed the Black Plague on the Jews and tortured them so they would confess that they poisoned the wells. Despite the pleas of innocence of Pope Clement VI, the accusations resulted in the destruction of over 60 large and 150 small Jewish communities.

Netanyahu has condemned Abbas' incitement saying, "Abbas showed his true colors in Brussels.  Someone who refuses to meet with Israel's President Reuven Rivlin and with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for direct negotiations, and someone who promotes blood libels in the European parliament is lying when he claims his hand is outstretched in peace.

Oh, I know that prejustice develops against countries from the family.  My own Swedish grandmother used to say, 'Oh, those Norwegians!."  That was it.  Her tone of voice showed displeasure towards this rivaling Scandinavian country.  But they were not being used as scapegoats of the world, as Jews have been, someone to pile all the ails of the world upon.  My hope is that everyone is smarter today and realizes that this present accusation of Abbas is showing his true colors and what Israel is up against.  Israel does not have a "normal" situation to deal with in coming to peace terms with another people, because if Abbas has is way, there won't be an Israel.  After 68 years of defending themselves and having been given the OK to be created in the first place by the world politicians, this is not going to happen.


Resource: CUFI Action Fund  garybauer@cufiactionfund.com  ; Palestinian Lies, Here We Go Again
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Jews_in_the_Middle_Ages
http://www.britannica.com/biography/Charles-IV-Holy-Roman-emperor
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Death_Jewish_persecutions
http://www.palwatch.org/main.aspx?fi=157&doc_id=18247

Blood Libel Against Jews by Hamas Over CNN

Nadene Goldfoot                                                                    

CNN's Wolf Blitzer reported this morning that the blood libel was being used by Hamas spokesman, Osama Hamdan, 49 year old representative of Hamas in Lebanon and a Yarmouk Univeristy educated person,  against Jews, to their horror.  He insisted that Jews use the blood of Christian children in making matzos for Passover.  Blitzer was hoping for a denial, and was surprised that this Muslim actually believed in such a thing.  Put it together with all the other lies, Wolf, and it'll start making sense to you as to how these leaders think.  Like what was said on the program, the young people are brought up on this libel, but there was no excuse for Osama Hamdan believing such a thing.

""We all remember how the Jews used to slaughter Christians in order to mix their blood with their holy matzos. This is not a figment of the imagination or something taken from a film; it is a fact acknowledged by their own books and historical evidence." shouted Osama Hamdan"

 His facts are not our facts, and therein lies our problems with each other.  

I swear that terrorists must all be pathological liars, and that's why they have become terrorists.  This is outrageous!  The blood libel is something started in the Middle Ages against Jews.  The first incident was in Norwich, England in the 12th Century. It was in 1290 that Jews were expelled from England.   People of the town claimed that Jews used the blood of children to make matzos.  They knew nothing about Jews except what's written in their New Testament.  Such an accusation usually ended with mob violence and pogroms against Jews.  Hundreds of times Jews have heard this accusation with thousands of Jews dying because of them.  They didn't know that Jews have certain dietary laws, and one thing they are not to eat/ingest, use for rituals, is BLOOD.  Jews go to the extreme not to eat any blood.  

First of all, Jews can't eat the meat from any animal like they might in China.  Jews can only eat cows, sheep, or goats, but not pigs, camels, horses, bears or any other such animal.  Then the animal has to be killed in the most humane way; slitting the throat quickly with a very sharp knife that is often inspected.  The animal must be drained of all blood which is not used.  Then the animal is butchered and soaked in salt water to take out all the blood.  Only certain parts are kosher, fit for eating.  Parts with the large vein are not used, or it must be taken out which is a long process.  It winds up that Jews do not eat T bone steaks or rib steaks because of this.  The cook of the house would soak the meat in salt water again before cooking to make sure there is no blood.  It is always cooked well done, with a liquid that I can remember.  So to hear the blood libel is such an anathema to our culture, it makes MY BLOOD BOIL!

After enduring such drivel throughout the Middle Ages, the Blood Libel came up again in Damascus, Syria in 1840.  I wrote about this in my novel, Messages From a Syrian Jew Trapped in Egypt. as I explained why Jews in Syria had been kept in a ghetto called the Jewish Quarter and were not allowed to leave by Assad.  They were finally rescued after much degradation by Judith Feld Carr in 1992 and 1994.  These were Syrian Muslims of Damascus who believed in this blood libel at least in the 1800's.  

In 1913 it cropped up again in Ukraine, which was a state known for its inhuman treatment of Jews in Eastern Europe.  It happened in Massena New York in 1928 when there was lots of anti-Semitism in the USA.  A 4 year old girl was missing and Jews were immediately accused and people dragged out the blood libel.  And now Hamas, as backwards as they come in their ideals of having a Muslim Caliphate-by not accepting Israel as a Jewish state in their midst.  

Hamas is the same as the Muslim Brotherhood and they both read such articles as the Protocols of Zion, which is anti-Semitic literature full of lies.  Yet this is one of the popular readings in the Middle East.  

"Scholars have documented about 100 blood libels that took place from the twelfth to sixteenth centuries. Many of them resulted in massacres of Jews."  Was this is what Osama Hamdan was trying to stir up again?  Or was this his Freudian slip showing his prejudice against Jews that he denies so much?   

Resource: http://www.adl.org/anti-semitism/united-states/c/what-is-the-blood-libel.html
http://www.jpost.com/International/WATCH-CNNs-Wolf-Blitzer-challenges-Hamas-spokesman-on-blood-libel-comments-370128
http://www.myjewishlearning.com/holidays/Jewish_Holidays/Passover/History/Medieval/Blood_Libels.shtml

How Jews Became Merchants

Nadene Goldfoot                                                                         

On their way to Jerusalem in 1096,   the 1st Crusaders were riding through France and Rhineland  slaughtering Jews.  Rashi, born in France in 1040, was studying  in Worms, Rhineland before this happened.  He was 56 when the Crusaders came through.   He died in Troyes, France during other Crusades.  Worms was a big trading center.  Many Jewish merchants lived there.  

Merchants from the Middle East started off as being mentioned in the Tanach.  The society was agricultural and  merchants are mentioned in Zechariah. 14:21 where he is telling that so many offerings will be brought to Jerusalem that all the vessels of Jerusalem will be needed to cook them, and there will be so many vessels that there will be no need for merchants who sell cooking utensils.  Merchants were described as doing what merchants do today. Also in   Prov, 31.:24 where it says, "She makes a cloak and sells it, and delivers a belt to the peddler."   Then there was the itinerant merchant called a rokhel who specialized in spices, mentioned in Song of Songs 3:6. "Who is this ascending from the wilderness, its way secured and smoothed by palmlike pillars of smoke, burning fragrant myrrh and frankincense, of all the perfumer's powders?' 

 Israel bordered the Mediterranean Sea, the Syrian Desert, the Brook of Egypt, and from the river Arnon to Mt. Hermon including most of Syria and covered about 58,000 sq miles under King David and King Solomon, his son.    Josephus said that Jews had no taste for trade.  He was writing for the Romans and possibly didn't want them to know their long history of being merchants.  

 Jewish merchants of importance were already  found at Alexandria, Egypt  and other cities in the early Roman Empire. "The history of the Jews of Alexandria dates from the foundation of the city by Alexander the Great, 332 B.C."It is curious to notice that they were often employed as soldiers in Egypt, and even attained to high military positions. Ptolemy I., Lagi, is said to have distributed 30,000 Jewish soldiers over the land as garrisons.. Jewish camps have been found in several places in Egypt, which were without doubt the barracks of those Jewish troops;   Those soldiers needed the benefit of Jewish merchants.  

By the Dark Ages, Jews had become merchants and were the go between between the Christian and Islamic worlds. For one thing, they spoke many languages.   They were playing an important part in international trading.  This was found in 9th century documents.  Jewish merchants from Baghdad were trading with India and China during this time.  "The Radhanites  were medieval Jewish merchants. Whether the term refers to a specific guild, or a clan, or is a generic term for Jewish merchants in the trans-Eurasian trade network is unclear. Jewish merchants were involved in trade between the Christian and Islamic worlds during the early Middle Ages(approx. 500–1000). Many trade routes previously established under the Roman Empire continued to function during that period largely through their efforts. Their trade network covered much of Europe, North Africa, the Middle East,Central Asia and parts of India and China."

Worms, Rhineland was the center of trade and of Jewish studies as well as the homeland of the first kings of England.  "  The Germanic tribes controlled Worms when they were brought into the Roman Empire.  After the fall of the Roman Empire, the cityh was under many Germanic tribes.  When it was under the Franks, the city became Christian and Worms became a center of the Holy roman empire.  It was the seat of both the Emperor and the Bishop.  

We find RASHI, the most famous Biblical and Babylonian Talmud commentator of Ashkenazi Jews born in 1040 CE in Troyes, France.  No doubt traders followed the Roman paths to France with a sea route on the Mediterranean following the fall of Jerusalem to the Romans.  

The father of many English Kings and Queens was Robert the Strong (III of Worms) Rhineland before it was called Germany. His grandfather, Robert of Hesbaye, Count of Worms, and father, Robert "Rutpert" III Count of Worms and Rheingau, were all from Worms.   The kings thereafter were born in France. That would be starting with Robert I,(Robertians) King of West Francia b: 866.  

 About 100 years after Rashi died, the Rabbi of Worms, Germany, a descendant,  lived in what had become the center of Jewish learning.  with Jews who had arrived in the 10th century. Rashi himself had also studied in Worms in 1055-1065.   By the 11th century the community was well established. 

Emperor Henry IV(11 November 1050-7 August 1106) the Holy Roman Emperor,  was given financial assistance (loans) and rewarded them with privileges in 1074 and 1090. He had been a king from a different family line.   One privilege was freedom of commerce, security of property and imperial protection.  When the first Crusade in 1096  came through, they slaughtered the entire community.  It was re-established only to be destroyed again in the Black Death of 1349 and then they were kicked out in 1615. The Spanish Inquisition of 1492 had a global affect of cruelty and lack of rights on the Jewish people that permeated to all nations eventually.   They must have returned later for they  then had restrictions in 1641 and a massacre by the soldiers of Louis XIV in 1689.  Finally, when the French Revolution took place, they were emancipated.   

In western Europe except in Spain, the Jewish merchant was eclipsed after the Crusades starting in the 11th century  with the 1st Crusade in 1096 CE when Jews were forced into money lending because it was felt to be beneath the dignity of Christians to dabble in such things. In all there were 8 Crusades.  All forms of incomes were taken away from the Jews except money lending.  To top it off, Jews in northern France and the Rhineland were massacred by the Crusaders as they rode through the land on the way to take Jerusalem back from the Muslims.

It was during the Middle Ages that all the rich people in Europe such as the priests, burghers and  Jewish merchants were approached for loans.  The Catholic Church was against all forms of interest .  By the 12th -13th century this was the decree.  At the same time, Jews were kicked out of northern Europe from trading and handicraft productions.  Money lending was left for the Jews to do.  Then the Jews were highly over- taxed and they saw their profits depleted.  Money lending for them had become a profession and was taken over as a government monopoly which the Jews had to manage for the royal treasury.  Rates of interest were carefully monitored and regulated.  If one went to a rare Gentile moneylender, one found their rates to be exorbitant.  In southern Europe, moneylenders was practiced by only a few Jews, however.  In Central and northern Italy, the Jews were responsible for establishing Jewish communities in the 13th and 14th centuries.  They removed the economic restrictions on the Jews, so it was not a characteristic occupation there.
                                                                       

However, Shakespeare wrote his famous play in the late 1500s that was set in Venice, Italy, called "The Merchant of Venice,"  the merchant being a Jew, Shylock.  His lines say a lot:  Here, Shakespeare got serious.  
                                                              
"He hath disgraced me, and hindered me half a million, laughed at my losses, mocked at my gains, scorned my nation, thwarted my bargains, cooled my friends, heated mine enemies; and what's his reason? I am a Jew. Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions? Fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same means, warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer, as a Christian is? If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die? And if you wrong us, shall we not revenge?

If we are like you in the rest, we will resemble you in that. If a Jew wrong a Christian, what is his humility? Revenge. If a Christian wrong a Jew, what should his sufferance be by Christian example? Why, revenge. The villainy you teach me I will execute, and it shall go hard but I will better the instruction." 

 A description of the play found today is : Shakespeare's next comedy, the equally romantic Merchant of Venice, contains a portrayal of the vengeful Jewish moneylender Shylock, which reflects Elizabethan views but  appears highly  derogatory to modern Jewish audiences.  That's a sad comment in that he wrote it to be a comedy, making fun of the Jewish merchant.  That is a description of anti-Semitism.  

Here I see   he is saying that he's being treated badly because he is Jewish and that they are both humans.  They will react in the same manner,  He has learned how to get even from the Christians  but Shylock says he will improve on the lesson.  He's giving a threat.   Considering that Italy had not many Jewish merchants at that time, one wonders why Shakespeare wrote this.  Shakespeare was baptised c26 April 1564 and died April 23, 1616 in London, England. 

 Looking at the history of Jews at this time, I note that  1497 was the year that Jews were expulsed from Sicily and Sardinia, an island of Italy  as well as from Portugal.  This was the continuation of the Spanish Inquisition.  In 1502 all Jews of Rhodes, Greece (an island)  were forcibly converted, expelled or taken into slavery. "But in 1309 the Knights of Saint John of Jerusalem conquered Rhodes. They built strong fortifications to protect the island, turning it into an important administrative centre and a thriving multinational medieval city. In 1523 Rhodes was conquered by the Ottoman Turks, and the Greeks had to settle outside the city walls. In  1541 Jews were expelled from the Kingdom of Naples.  

                                                                         

Undeveloped areas of Europe were places like Poland where the Jews continued to play an important part as merchants till the time they immigrated to England and the United States.  There were Jewish traders there from the 17th century on.  The communities made up of hidden Jews that had fled the Spanish Inquisition, then called Marranos  considered merchants as their economic basis of living.
                                                                       

In the USA, many Jewish merchants from the Pale of Settlement in the early 1900s started life with a pushcart and were walking  merchants.  They saved their pennies and were known to later be opening local stores, of of which grew into department stores.  This helped to open up the South and the West of the USA.  Meier and Franks Department Store in Portland, Oregon is one example.

An area of achievement "which is unquestionably the product of Jewish genius is the retail industry as we know it.  That industry was begun by the German Jews who came here in the 1840’s and peddled clothing and household items from door to door all over the South. These peddlers moved all the way from New York to the Santa Fe trail and settled in remote areas of New Mexico and Utah. There they established department stores, a Jewish invention of the greatest consequences for American life, ipso facto. When the great Russian and Eastern European Jewish immigration came here after 1881, these Jews expanded these enterprises and became the founders or developers of such enterprises as Sears, Roebuck, which was indeed founded by Richard Sears but reached its  eminence through the genius of Julius Rosenwald. Both Gimbel’s and Macy’s are legendary Jewish success stories.
                                                                           

  " Then there were the Jewish storekeepers and department store founders who not only became wealthy but who were elected governors of their states. Included were the governor of Idaho, Moses Alexander, Arthur Seligman of New Mexico, and, believe it or not, Simon Bamberger of Utah, and  Herbert Lehman of New York  Successful Jewish merchants were also elected to the U.S. Senate in the 19^th and early 20^th century.  David Levy Yulee became senator from Florida as did Ernest Gruening, the territorial governor and the first senator of Alaska.  Again, the list goes on and on. 

Consider also that the stock market as we know it today was largely founded by Jewish immigrants who came here with nothing and created enormous wealth, not only for themselves but for America generally. It all started from being merchants and honing their craft." .  

Resource: The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/1171-alexandria-egypt-ancient
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radhanite
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_IV,_Holy_Roman_Emperor
http://www.notmyshoes.net/monologues/shylock.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhodes
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Shakespeare
http://www.jbuff.com/c122100.htm  Jewish acheivements
http://www.maggieblanck.com/Goehle/Worms.html
Facts About Israel, Division of Information, Ministry for foreign affairs, Jerusalem
"The Source, " by James  Michener