A Much Needed Lesson On Palestine

 Nadene Goldfoot                                            

 All this land was promised to become the Jewish National Home 

    Within 2 years the promised land was reduced by 77% of the original mandate.  Promises are for the birds.  

Poster displayed at The Kinkaid School’s Culture Fest: Wrong!

Wrong! Wrong!

labels Israel,

Gaza and the West Bank as Palestine as of today, prompting accusations of

antisemitism and criticism from Jewish groups .

(Photo: Courtesy of and of course it should: S

topAntisemitism)

This is being taught in a Houston, Texas school, and it shouldn't be as it isn't true.  

Here are the facts:  The Roman Empire renamed Judea to Syria Palaestina in 135 CE. Following the crushing of  Bar Kokhba, the Jewish general revolt (132–136 CE), the Emperor Hadrian sought to erase the Jewish connection to the land and chose the name to insult the Jewish people by invoking their ancient historical enemies, the Philistines.  So that's the start of the name, Palestine.  

   70 CE:  In 70 AD, the Roman legions commanded by future Emperor Titus besieged and captured Jerusalem, effectively crushing the First Jewish Revolt. 

Roman forces razed the city to the ground, completely destroyed the Second Temple, and starved, then  killed or enslaved much of the Jewish population, triggering a centuries-long global diaspora.

         Before the Simon bar Kokhba Revolt (132–135 CE), 

Judea was suffering under oppressive Roman decrees and the aftermath of the First Jewish-Roman War. The region was politically fractured and enraged by Emperor Hadrian’s plans to turn Jerusalem into a pagan Roman colony

     Simon bar Kokhba  was a Jewish military leader in Judea. He lent his name to the Bar Kokhba revolt, which he initiated against the Roman Empire in 132 CE, which was 62 years after the horrible Roman attack in 70 CE.  Though they were ultimately unsuccessful, Bar Kokhba and his rebels did manage to establish and maintain a Jewish state for about three years after beginning the rebellion. Bar Kokhba served as the state's leader, crowning himself as nasi (lit. 'prince'). Some of the rabbinic scholars in his time believed him to be the long-expected Messiah.

Judea was the last of the 12 states of Jacob.  In 135 CE, the land of Israel was the site of the catastrophic climax of the Bar Kokhba Revolt, the final major rebellion of the Jewish people against the Roman Empire. 

This was an embarrassment to the Roman Empire.  It took them 3 years to put an end to Simon bar Kokhba.  

The year's events reshaped the region's history:

• The Fall of Betar: In the summer of 135 CE, the Romans, led by general Sextus Julius Severus, crushed the three-and-a-half-year rebellion by capturing the rebel stronghold of Betar, southwest of Jerusalem. Leader Shimon bar Kokhba was killed, and the remaining resistance was systematically starved or burned out of caves in the Judaean Desert.
• Massive Casualties and Enslavement: The conflict brought about massive devastation and loss of life. Survivors were either slaughtered, died of starvation, or were heavily enslaved and exiled across the empire.

The ancient Romans pinned the name on the Land of Israel. In 135 CE, after stamping out the province of Judea’s second insurrection, the Romans renamed the province Syria Palaestina—that is, “Palestinian Syria.” They did so resentfully, as a punishment, to obliterate the link between the Jews (in Hebrew, Y’hudim and in Latin Judaei) and the province (the Hebrew name of which was Y’hudah).                                

                                    Sea-faring Philistines

“Palaestina” referred to the Philistines, whose home base had been on the Mediterranean coast.  Who were the Philistines?  Certainly not the Arabs who became the Palestinians.  The Philistines were an ancient people who dominated the southern coast of Canaan (modern-day Israel and the Gaza Strip) during the Iron Age. Best known as the formidable, long-time adversaries of the Israelites in the Bible, they were highly advanced seafarers who established a powerful league of five city-states.  The "Sea Peoples": Most historians and archaeologists believe the Philistines originated from the Aegean region—likely the island of Crete (referred to in the Bible as Caphtor)—and migrated to the Mediterranean coast of the Levant around 1200 BCE. This means it happened about 3,226 years ago.   

The 1st World War happened from 1914-1918.  All the people living in "Palestine" were called Palestinians; both Jews and Arabs. Things in Europe were getting impossible for Jews with all the Pogroms going on and rules pertaining to Jews only, so they started coming to Palestine, their ancient homeland, in 1880-1881 in the first of many Alliyot.  They were building their towns and cities, and the Arabs followed them, looking for jobs building.  It was a perfect mesh.  All were called Palestinians until Israel was pronounced a state on May 14, 1948.   5 minutes later, Israel was attacked by 7 Arab countries.  

Seven Arab states, Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and Algeria  were involved in the hostilities against Israel during the 1967 Six-Day War. While the primary belligerents engaged in active combat were Egypt, Jordan, and Syria, a total of seven nations actively committed troops or provided direct military support.  Again, this was a huge embarrassment for them all as Israel won in 6 days !!!

Several terrible events are associated with June 5th in relation to Israel, most notably the outbreak of the Six-Day War in 1967 and recent military escalation in Lebanon. 

• The 1967 Six-Day War (June 5-10): The war began on June 5, 1967, when Israel launched preemptive airstrikes against Egyptian airfields since Egyptians and others were lined up in view ready to attack.. While it resulted in a dramatic and swift military victory that dramatically reshaped the Middle East map, it came at a high cost, with hundreds of Israeli soldiers killed and thousands wounded. Palestinians also mark the devastating consequences of this event, often referring to it as the Naqsa, or "setback". 
• With their tails between their legs, they hurried to Khartoum, Africa for a pow-wow meeting and decided on 3 things:  The "Three No's" declared by the Arab League during the 1967 summit in Khartoum were: 
  1. No peace with Israel
  2. No recognition of Israel
  3. No negotiations with Israel
  These famous principles were outlined in the Khartoum Resolution on September 1, 1967, following the Six-Day War.  They have never been altered, but a few countries have joined the Abraham Accords.  
• Recent Military Escalation in Lebanon: June 5 brought reports of severe airstrikes across southern Lebanon following evacuation warnings issued by the Israeli military. These developments followed Hezbollah's rejection of a ceasefire agreement and demands for a full Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon.

Resource:

org/wiki/Philistines

The Jewish Homeland and the Jewish State: One In The Same and Why

 Nadene Goldfoot                                                 

      Israel and its neighbors

Zohran Mamdani, contender for NY City mayor,  wants to know what the Jewish Homeland is, and also what the Jewish State is,  so here's what they are all about:  

"According to Jewish tradition and sources, the Jewish homeland is the Land of Israel (Eretz Israel), encompassing the territory "historically"  known as Palestine, renamed to Palestine by the Romans after 135 CE in a 3 year battle with the Jewish general, Bar Kokhba.  They named it thus after Israel's worst  and longest enemy, the Philistines.  

                   The 12 tribes of Israel (Jacob) 3,500 years ago, documented in the Torah, our written history done by the Egyptian scribe and leader, Moses

 This land is considered sacred and central to Jewish identity, history, and religion. Jewish sources highlight a continuous historical and religious connection to this land, dating back thousands of years; at least 4,000 years."

The Land of Israel is central to Jewish belief in the Torah, written, as believed, by Moses himself, with the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh) depicting God's promise of the land to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Jewish history is deeply intertwined with the Land of Israel, with periods of self-rule and sovereignty, including the reigns of King David and King Solomon. 

Many Jewish laws and rituals are tied to the Land of Israel, and some religious authorities consider it a religious obligation for Jews to live there, according to JewFAQ. 

The Zionist movement, which emerged in the late 19th century, advocated for the establishment of a Jewish state in the Land of Israel, fulfilling a long-held aspiration for self-determination and refuge. The Jewish aspiration to return to Zion, generally associated with divine redemption, has suffused Jewish religious thought since the destruction of the First Temple and the Babylonian exile

In the 1920s, the 30 year British Mandate for Palestine encompassed the territory that is now Israel, the West Bank, and Jordan. It was formally established in 1922 and came into effect in September 1923. The Mandate was a consequence of the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in World War I, and it incorporated the principles of the Balfour Declaration, which expressed support for the establishment of a "national home for the Jewish people" in Palestine. 

• Transjordan: In 1921, the British divided the Mandate region in two, with the area east of the Jordan River becoming the Emirate of Transjordan, governed separately by Abdullah bin Hussein under British supervision. The Jewish National Home provisions of the Mandate were not to apply to Transjordan.
• Jewish Land Acquisition: The Zionist movement actively pursued land purchases in Mandatory Palestine throughout the 1920s, primarily to establish Jewish settlements. A significant instance was the Sursock Purchase, where a large tract of land in the Jezreel Valley and Haifa Bay was acquired from absentee landlords.
• Mounting Tensions: The influx of Jewish immigrants and land purchases led to increasing tensions and conflicts with the Arab population. Arabs feared displacement and the loss of their land and rights. This period saw violent clashes and riots.  The worst happened when Samuels of Britain appointed Husseini as Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, and he, of course, did not want to lose his newly found authority, so got the Arabs to riot against the arrival of Jews.  They were bloody riots.  

Golda Meir announcing the creation of the Jewish State after waiting  2,000 years , 

The modern State of Israel, established in 1948, is widely considered by Jews worldwide as the fulfillment of this aspiration and a central place for Jewish identity and culture. While the Land of Israel is widely considered the Jewish homeland, there are diverse views within Judaism regarding the extent of its borders, the relationship with the Palestinian population, and the role of religious law in the modern state.   We have a Chief Rabbi who helps to decide such things as a government.  During the 1920s and 1930s, the Chief Rabbis of Mandatory Palestine were:Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi: Abraham Isaac haCohen Kook; 

Sephardi Chief Rabbi (also known as Rishon leZion): Yaacov Meir 

They both began their terms in 1921. Rabbi Kook served until 1935, and Rabbi Meir served until 1939.                             

The current Chief Rabbis of Israel are Rabbi David Yosef (Sephardic) and 

Rabbi Kalman Ber (Ashkenazi), who both began their terms in 2024. 

Israel is the only Jewish state in the world and holds about 9.757 million of which 20%

are not Jews but Arabs and others in 2023.  There are over 48  countries with more than

50 % Islamic religion, and according to various sources, approximately 15-22 countries have

 Christianity as their official state religion in various forms, such as Catholicism,

 Lutheranism, Anglicanism, or specific national branches.

The Jewish state today does not include all the land of its original state.  Judea and Samaria had been taken by Trans-Jordan, and renamed as The West Bank.  Since the Oslo Accords, the land was

divided into areas A,B, and C with C belonging to Israel, A belonging

to Palestinians and B to both.  

Israel also gave-free in the name of PEACE, Gaza.  Palestinians

use it as a platform from which to shoot at Israelis ever since.  There

has been NO PEACE for Israel ever since.  

Resource:

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

The Law Of Opposite Attraction: Hellenization, Democracy

 Nadene Goldfoot                                                

Alexander the Great led Hellenization into the theocracy of King Saul and King David and Solomon's territory, and just about destroyed it.   He was king of Macedonia from 356 to 323 BCE, and swept into Judea with his great personality that made a deep impression on the Jews.  Josephus describes his visit to Jerusalem where as he was invading the country, he made the people feel he was honoring them. First he honored the high priest, Jaddua and praised him with flattery.  He showered the Jews with privileges to all Jews of Judah and the Diaspora.  The cause of Alexander the Great's death is debated by historians. He died in Babylon on June 11, 323 BC at the age of 32.                                                             

Saul (11th century BCE) son of Kish of the tribe of Benjamin had been selected for rule by the Prophet, Samuel out of great leader possibilities from the 11 other tribes.  It was at a time the people were being attacked by the Philistines and Ammonites and Saul was an organizer.  He organized a trained army and inflicted defeats on the enemy.  Internally, he carried out a purification of religion by eliminating witchcraft, but he kept arguing with Samuel.  This caused Samuel to go against Saul and he selected David as his successor who was becoming very popular with the people for his army fighting.  Saul became jealous, rightly, of David, and drove David out of the country. 

Then the Philistines launched a united attack and Saul fell with his 3 sons including Jonathan in the battle on Mt. Gilboa.  Saul's death led to a temporary domination of the Philistines, but the groundwork he laid for national unity eventually proved effective in establishing a strong and independent Israelite monarchy.  Solomon was king after his father's death and the line continued for Israel till Hoshea in 730-721 BCE, while Judah  continued to Zedekiah in  597 to 586 BCE.                                              

      Greeks and Minoans and their lives

                                                                       

     Jews during Greek and Roman days not faring well at all unless complying with Hellenization.  But in 332 BCE a young Alexander the Great led a Greek and Macedonian force that swept through the eastern Mediterranean and Egypt and extended east to include Persia and part of India. He died in the process, and as a result his empire splintered into successor kingdoms. Judah, now called Judea, lay at the boundary between two of these Greek successor kingdoms, the Seleucids in Asia Minor and the Ptolemies in Egypt. Fortune favored first one and then the other, and Judea remained a buffer state between them.

How Judea ceased to be the pawn in this imperial struggle and achieve independence is a compelling story, treated in 1, 2, and 4 Maccabees and texts of the Ethiopian Bible, and that kingdom was “comparable in Jewish history only with the kingdom of David.” Under the Persians, religious worship had remained a matter of local custom, generally protected by the benign paternalism of the imperial rulers. But the form of Hellenization in Syrian-ruled areas imposed a new kind of local administration. Greek colonization, coupled with the philosophical ideals of a universal world order, called for a more thorough transformation of local customs.   Greek cities founded colonies or reconstituted older cities by imposing the nomima, laws and customs, of the parent city. These included laws and a constitution, rituals, and a religious calendar. A dēmos, or roll of citizens, was established; a boulē or city council of aristocratic leaders was appointed; and a gymnasium and ephēbeum were constructed for the education of elite boys. A universal Greek education would ensure the inculcation of Greek values, and even native texts became increasingly modeled on Greek literature.

Greek or Macadamia and Judah civilization were opposites with opposing goals, yet wherever Alexander went, he charmed the population and his Greek culture was diffused over the Mediterranean and the Middle East after the end of the 4th century BCE as a result of his conquests.  It was about at that time that Judea (for it was not called Palestine until after 135 CE) fell under Greek rule and Judea was surrounded by a ring of hellenized cities.  At the same time, the Jewish Diaspora was expanding rapidly in Egypt, Cyrenaica, Syria and Asia Minor, which were all in process of hellenization.  By the 3rd century BCE, the Jews of Egypt had adopted Greek and the Septuagint translation of the Tanakh (Bible)  had been completed.                                                    

                                                Antiochus IV Epiphanes

There was antagonism between the traditional and hellenizing Jews in Jerusalem that brought on Antiochus IV Epiphanes' attempt to suppress Judaism and the Hasmonean revolt.                                                       

                                                        The Emperor, Herod

Though John Hyrcanus and Alexander Yannai broke the power of the Greek cities in Eretz Yisrael, later these were restored and strengthened as a result of Roman intervention aided by Emperor Herod and his descendants.  

By the Mishnaic Period, (70 to 200 CE) (legal codification of the Oral Law  done by Rabbi Judah Ha-Nasi;  Jewish material life in Eretz was mainly Hellenistic even though it had ended to be the political program of any Jewish faction.  Both the Mishnah and Talmud contain hundreds of Greek words that were absorbed into Hebrew and Aramaic and tomb inscriptions were in Greek, so that must have been the spoken language of the Period.  The Mishnaic period generally refers to the time period spanning from the late first century CE to the early third century CE, during which the Mishnah, a collection of Jewish oral laws, was compiled by rabbis known as Tannaim; essentially encompassing the period where the Mishnah was being assembled and the related rabbinic traditions were being codified.

                                             King Henry VIII of England

England was also ruled by Kings and was undemocratic.  Since the office of Prime Minister evolved rather than being instantly created, it may not be totally clear-cut who the first prime minister was. However, this appellation is traditionally given to Sir Robert Walpole, who became First Lord of the Treasury of Great Britain in 1721.  

The religious group of Pilgrims   left Holland, who had been Englishmen, for America on the ship, the Mayflower, seeking a democratic life in 1620.  The Mayflower carried 102 passengers in 1620, including Pilgrims, servants, contracted workers, and English families. The pilgrims who risked their lives to settle in a strange land were more – and less – than folklore heroes. They were extreme Puritans, that is to say they disapproved of several of the rituals and practices of the Church of England that had been established by parliament at the beginning of Elizabeth I's reign.  They had no say in the matter if they stayed in England, so they up and left for better lives.                    

                        " You don't need Fema! " The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is an agency of the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS), initially created under President Jimmy Carter by Presidential Reorganization Plan No. 3 of 1978 and implemented by two Executive Orders on April 1, 1979. The agency's primary purpose is to coordinate the response to a disaster that has occurred in the United States and that overwhelms the resources of local and state authorities.

Now we're almost back to a kind of kingship again with our President Trump, who is acting like one.  He's trying to overthrow the 14th article in our constitution saying that a baby born in the USA is automatically a USA citizen.  This is being used to eliminate Mexican Nationals who entered the US illegally, and he's sending them all back.  

Yet, talk about opposing values, he has been the first president to treat Israel righteously, and they were at the point of needing some understanding badly.  Sadly, there was a problem with Obama and his background, though he tried to be fair and square, his prejudice came through.  It's my opinion that Trump's son -in law, Jerad Kushner, is the guide of Trump's understandings, as Trump is not known to be a reader or historian, but relies on his listening techniques to others, and then his gut opinions.  Trump, in his first few days, has kept all his promises made when running for the office, so people should not be shocked. This part of history, Israel helped by the man least interested, though his daughter had married a Jewish man, would stand by Israel when criticized so much by his own country, defies all reason.   

Hellenization became the fad, the favorite of a religious group, undoing much of their understanding and practice to "fit in" with others.  Trump won the president's seat over people of much better character;  in fact his was one of the worst.  The Republicans and Democrats were almost divided 50-50.  In both cases, people turned around and did  a 180 which was astonishing!  

Even in sex, opposites have been attracting each other.  It may have started with Neanderthals and Homo Sapiens.  In my own DNA, I carry 2.9% of Neanderthal genes.  We've had soap operas of Abie's Irish Rose, and copy-cat versions since then-the Jewish and Catholic love stories.  

I feel the whole theory of opposite attraction is to stir up the pot.  Get opposing ideas.  G-d must adore real debates;  not the kind held during election time but real ones practiced in high schools and colleges.  It's all to get us to see 2 sides of an issue, and the possible outcomes;  trying to stretch our brains a little.  Things adored and fought for must be worthy enough.  Otherwise, why bother?  Israel's history is full of being saved at the last minute in miraculous situations, and Trump is a part of that.