Polygamy In Israel

 Nadene Goldfoot                                                    

Jacob, son of Isaac and Rebekah,  with Leah, his first wife, and Rachel, 2nd wife and sister to Leah, with them being 1st cousins;   with their possibly Egyptian handmaidens who were 3rd and 4th concubines or considered as wives,  Bilhah and Zilpah.  Jacob was 130 years old when he went to Egypt. (Genesis 47:9) He remained in Egypt until he died at 147, when his body was returned to Hebron in Canaan. He married his uncle Laban's 2 daughters in Haran. a trading town of NW Mesopotamia that was also known as Canaan.   (Gen30:18;  35:25-26).  To give one a general idea of when this took place, " Jacob lived 147 years, so he died 2255 years after Creation, otherwise known as 1505 BCE. In other words, Jacob lived 1652–1505 BCE, or born 261 years before Moses, which would be 3, 656 years ago.  

Polygamy, or the practice of having more than one spouse at a time, is legal in some countries, including many in sub-Saharan Africa. In these countries, polygamy is often legal to some extent, and is more common among Muslims than Christians. However, some countries have recently banned polygamy, while others have unique laws regarding it:

In the ancient Jewish culture, Isaac,  who was married to Rebecca, was regarded as the model in later monogamous  households.  Proverbs 31 shows a monogamous family.  It was the first Jewish kings, Saul, David and especially Solomon who practiced polygamy.  Solomon's concubines were even numbered and recorded.  He did this to keep peace among countries he dealt with, and it seemed to work on the most part.

During the Talmud period  only had a handful of rabbis who were recorded with more than one wife at a time.                                      

By 1000 CE in the takkanah of Rabbi Gershom, it forbid polygamy and gave formal sanction among Ashkenazi Jews to what was already generally accepted.   "Among these Takkonoth the most well known are the prohibition of polygamy (taking more than one wife), the decree against opening a letter addressed to others, and so on."

 However, among the Spanish and oriental Jews, on the other hand, polygamy continued to be legal, though by no means general.

In Italy, down to the 17th century, a person whose wife was barren, was occasionally permitted by papal license (Catholics) to take a 2nd wife.  Europeanization of many oriental communities in recent generation,  has seen polygamy becoming increasingly rare.

In Israel, monogamy is now enforced by law, though existing polygamous marriages are recognized.  Around 20 to 30 percent of Bedouin men practice polygamy, according to government figures, with the rate climbing as high as 60 percent in some villages. Bedouin polygamy takes many forms, from several wives cohabitating under the same roof to men picking up and moving on to second wives without looking back.  The Bedouins are Muslims and Islam permits a man to take up to four wives, though the practice varies greatly among different Muslim communities, often depending on education and income. 

 Polygamy is allowed by Sharia law, which governs family laws for Muslims in Israel, and tradition and custom also permit it. However, the Israeli state rarely enforces the law against Bedouin citizens, and many Bedouin are unaware that it's illegal. Some say that the Israeli legislature and legal system's ambivalence on the issue violates the human rights of Arab Bedouin women. 

Most modern Muslims view the practice of polygyny as allowed, but unusual and not recommended due to normative pressures for ordinary men. The practice of polygyny is often viewed in its historical context, as the marriage was the only way for a woman to be provided for during the time of Muhammad.

Polygamy is illegal in Israel under Israeli marriage law, which applies to all residents of East Jerusalem, including Arab Muslims. However, polygamy is permitted under Sharia law, which governs Muslims' personal status issues in Israel. As a result, polygamy is practiced among Israeli Arabs, especially in the Bedouin sector, where authorities often turn a blind eye to it. According to Israeli government data, at least 20% of Bedouin families are polygamous, but women's rights advocates estimate the figure is closer to 40%. 

Traditional Sunni and Shia Islamic marital jurisprudence allows Muslim men to be married to multiple women . Men can have up to four wives at a time according to the islamic jurisprudence.

Since the beginning of Israel's occupation of the West Bank in 1967, all of the territory's Jewish settlements have been subject to Israeli marriage law. Additionally, all residents of Israeli-annexed East Jerusalem (including Arabs) are also subject to Israeli marriage law.

In the Gaza Strip, which is ruled by Hamas, polygynous marriages are legal. They are also legal for Palestinians who are governed by the Palestinian National Authority (PA)  in the West Bank.  Polygymous marriages means many children come from such unions. 

 Iran: Men can practice polygamy if their first wife consents.

Polygynous unions are illegal under Israeli marriage law, which applies to Israeli settlers in the West Bank and to all residents of East Jerusalem, including Arab Muslims.

Polygamous marriages are not allowed in the USA, Great Britain, France, Italy and Germany.  

Resource

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polygyny_in_Islam#:~:text=Traditional%20Sunni%20and%20Shia%20Islamic,according%20to%20the%20islamic%20jurisprudence.

https://apnews.com/general-news-486a1223036f436eb39bf497652a11ec#:~:text=Around%2020%20to%2030%20percent,second%20wives%20without%20looking%20back.

https://www.quora.com/When-did-the-patriarch-Jacob-live#:~:text=Jacob%20was%20born%2060%20years,Jacob%20lived%201652%E2%80%931505%20BCE.

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

Taliban Brings Sharia Law's Strictest Code to Afghanistan With Promises

Nadene Goldfoot                                                                         

Fighters of the Islamic Taliban militia rehearse at the frontline south of Kabul ahead of their offensive against the Afghan capital, October 1995. (Credits: Reuters) Everyone has known of their intentions and now 21 years later, they have done it;  they took Kabul yesterday after the USA had announced they were leaving.  

"Acts of frenzied terror already are being unleashed in Taliban occupied areas and mirror the summary executions of Christians, of women and children buried alive, of people crucified, of American journalists beheaded and of the enslavement and mass rape of Yazidi women that occurred throughout Iraq and Syria by the Islamic State – all committed to the sound of the Arabic war cry, Allahu Akbar, (Allah is Greater)." Renew America                              

An Afghan woman clad in a burqa walks past Pakistan’s paramilitary soldier, as she along with others enter Pakistan via Friendship Gate crossing point at the Pakistan-Afghanistan border (Photo: Reuters)  Women were predominantly barred from working or studying under the Taliban’s previous Afghan rule between 1996 and 2001 and were confined to their homes unless accompanied by a male guardian.

Adultery, false accusation of unlawful sexual intercourse, wine or general alcohol drinking, theft and highway robbery generally fall under hudud, meaning perpetrators can be flogged, stoned, amputated, exiled or executed.

The Taliban follows a narrow and extreme version of Sharia characterised by its public executions and amputations, banning music, television and videos and beating men who failed to pray five times a day or cut their beards.                                                            

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — The Taliban vowed Tuesday to respect women’s rights, forgive those who fought them and ensure Afghanistan does not become a haven for terrorists as part of a publicity blitz aimed at reassuring world powers and a fearful population.

The Taliban said earlier this year it wanted a “genuine Islamic system” for Afghanistan that would make provisions for women’s and minority rights, in line with cultural traditions and religious rules.                

Afghan women wait to receive free wheat donated by the Afghan government during a quarantine, amid concerns about the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Kabul, Afghanistan April 21, 2020. REUTERS/Stringer/File Photo  To do that, we see they had to don the burkha for their clothing.  It does help as a huge mask, though.                                                           

             Taliban insists on only men in banks, no women working there.  

Aug 15 (Reuters) - In early July, as Taliban insurgents were seizing territory from government forces across Afghanistan, fighters from the group walked into the offices of Azizi Bank in the southern city of Kandahar and ordered nine women working there to leave.  "It's really strange to not be allowed to get to work, but now this is what it is," Noor Khatera, a 43-year-old woman who had worked in the accounts department of the bank told Reuters.  "I taught myself English and even learned how to operate a computer, but now I will have to look for a place where I can just work with more women around."

However, the group’s plans to end mixed-gender education and escorting nine women working in a bank home and telling them their male relatives could take their places earlier this month have fueled fears a return to the hardline movement will reverse the past two decades of progress. So far, the Taliban are in denial and say they will not bring that back.  
                                                                             

                       
Women were required to wear burqas and were prevented from accessing healthcare administered by a man under the previous Taliban rule, while girls could not attend school.

A Taliban spokesman yesterday went so far as to say, “We have reached what we were seeking, which is the freedom of our country and the independence of our people.”  I say, what freedom?  They will force all to live under Sharia Law even though they are all Muslims.  They bring the most severe side of the religion.  There is no freedom in their rigid ways.   Freedom to Taliban is to be free of Russia and the USA and have their own way with their people; to impose Sharia Law at its fullest.  

Yet, the dark mark of that deal and the reality facing the international community is that the Taliban, despite its political rhetoric about change and peace, continues to demonstrate its regressive policies on women’s rights, its lack of authority over diffuse factions, and, perhaps most importantly as it relates to the origin of the Taliban’s international status as a pariah organization, its continued ties with al-Qaeda.

"  In 2019, the Taliban and the affiliated HQN increased terrorist attacks targeting Afghan civilians, government officials, and members of the international community.  

Additionally, ISIS-K continued to attack civilians and especially targeted religious minorities.  The enemy-initiated attack trend in 2019 defied its usual seasonal pattern; while in most years, such attacks decrease in cold-weather months, they remained consistently high following the summer fighting season.  ISIS-K, elements of al-Qa’ida, including affiliate AQIS, and terrorist groups targeting Pakistan, such as TTP, continued to use the Afghanistan-Pakistan border region as a safe haven.  Afghanistan is also the only member of the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS from South and Central Asia.

2019 Terrorist Incidents:  Attacks attributed to terrorist activity continued to increase in 2019.  While the majority of attacks occurred in Kabul, Jalalabad, cities in Afghanistan, and other major population centers, incidents also targeted Highway 1 (Afghanistan’s national Ring Road highway).  Militants conducted high-profile attacks through complex assaults involving multiple attackers wearing suicide vests to target ANDSF, Afghan government buildings, foreign governments, and soft civilian targets to include international organizations.  According to Resolute Support Mission reporting, between January 1 and September 30, insurgent and terrorist attacks were responsible for 1,618 civilians killed and an additional 4,958 wounded.  Among the significant terrorist incidents in 2019 were:

• On May 8, the Taliban attacked USAID-funded, U.S.-based aid organization Counterpart International in Kabul, killing four civilians and a policeman, and wounding 24 others.  All attackers were killed after a six-hour battle with Afghan security forces.
• On July 1, a Taliban attack against the Afghan National Army Logistic and Armory Directorate involved a VBIED and five gunmen attacking the compound.  The attack killed 40 civilians and wounded more than 100, including men, women, and children, in an adjacent school.
• On August 17, ISIS-K conducted a suicide bombing that targeted Shi’ite celebrants in a wedding hall in Kabul, killing at least 80 people and injuring more than 140.
• On September 2, the Taliban detonated a suicide car bomb at a facility in Kabul that housed numerous international organizations, killing 16 people and injuring more than 119.  Those killed included five Nepalis, two Britons, and a Romanian diplomat.
• On September 5, the Taliban detonated a suicide car bomb in Kabul killing 12 people, including an American paratrooper and a Romanian soldier.  The explosion also injured more than 40.
• On December 11, the Taliban conducted an attack on a hospital adjoining Bagram Airfield killing two and wounding 80 others, mostly civilians.  No Coalition fatalities were reported."                                                                 
• 
  The GOP has pulled a webpage praising Donald Trump over his administration’s “historic peace agreement with the Taliban.” The page, which has been archived here, was first instated in the midst of last year’s presidential election.
• So, by February 2, 2020 when Donald Trump was president of the USA, Trump signed a preliminary peace agreement with the Taliban.  The Taliban agreed not to use Afghanistan for terrorism and in return, Trump said he'd pull out the 5,000 troops in 135 days. The Taliban and the Afghan government  began peace talks as part of the deal.  The talks included the subject of disarming terrorist groups, rights of women, minorities, an permanent ceasefire.  
• The Taliban takeover yesterday was a forced one with the president of Afghanistan fleeing for his life , the first to leave.  If he couldn't trust the Taliban, why should others?   
• Yesterday, almost 20 years since the fall of the Taliban in September of 2001, the world watched in horror as the Taliban took the Presidential Palace in Kabul – the last symbol of control held by the government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan. The news cycle has been filled with stories asking how and whether the Taliban has changed since 2001, how they have taken control so quickly, and what is next for Afghanistan and its people.
•                                                                  
  

  Efforts to restore a synagogue are underway in Herat, Afghanistan, according to The Jerusalem Post. According to Ghulam Sakhi, a caretaker of heritage sites in Afghanistan, out of the six synagogues that remain standing in Herat, “one was given to be as a school, another was given to be turned into a mosque and four that were badly damaged were set to be restored.”                                                                                                          
• 
  Zablon Simintov, an Afghan Jew, blows the traditional shofar, or ram's horn, at a synagogue in Kabul. (file photo)  Simintov is not the only one leaving his homeland, which in the mid-20th century boasted a 40,000-strong Jewish community.“If the situation in the country gets worse, I will escape,” Simintov told Reuters.  He has family in Israel.  
• Mindful of Afghanistan's conservative Muslim culture, Zabulon Simintov tries not to advertise his identity to protect the kebab cafe he opened four years ago. He plans to leave Afghanistan now, being the only Jew who had remained in Afghanistan to take care of his synagogue. ( https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-asia-47885738 )
• As advisors to Pakistan's PM Imran Khan resort to antisemitic slurs to delegitimize more evidence of contacts with Israel, a strange, contradictory geopolitical quadrangle will actually decide potential recognition: the Taliban, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Israel.  He's denying that he made a trip to Israel and Pakistan is in a fury.  Last year’s report about the Pakistani delegation to Tel Aviv came days after reports resurfaced that Saudi Arabia was pressurizing Pakistan to formalize relations with Israel. Senior military and diplomatic officials who told me at the time that Saudi Arabia was arm-twisting Pakistan over Israel, also confirmed then that Pakistani officials had indeed visited Israel. The fact is, diplomatic and military engagements between Pakistan and Israel have been a regular occurrence, even in past decades when formalizing ties between the two countries was inconceivable."  Will this also happen with the Taliban in Afghanistan?  
•                                                            
  
  Medieval Bulgaria particularly the city of Sofia, was the administrative center of almost all Ottoman possessions in the Balkans also known as Rumelia.
• The one thing I have noted is that those in Taliban who were interviewed on TV stated that the goal is to spread Islam to the whole world.  They mean to take over the whole world as they tried so long ago to do.  "The Ottoman Empire began its expansion into Europe by taking the European portions of the Byzantine Empire in the 14th and 15th centuries up until the 1453 capture of Constantinople, establishing Islam as the state religion in the region."
• Resource:
• https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?tab=wm#inbox/FMfcgzGkZsrVlpgFVMqScbVngvZkNMpj
• https://www.state.gov/reports/country-reports-on-terrorism-2019/afghanistan/
• https://twitter.com/daveweigel/status/1427018983379640323/photo/1
• https://www.justsecurity.org/77786/in-afghanistan-lest-we-forget/
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islam_in_Europe#:~:text=The%20Ottoman%20Empire%20began%20its,state%20religion%20in%20the%20region.
• https://inews.co.uk/news/world/sharia-law-what-meaning-countries-women-taliban-afghanistan-explained-1154160
• https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/afghan-women-bankers-forced-roles-taliban-takes-control-2021-08-13/
• https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/the-taliban-will-decide-if-pakistan-recognizes-israel-1.9953445
• https://www.worldjewishcongress.org/en/news/efforts-underway-to-restore-synagogue-in-afghanistan-in-latest-in-a-series-across-middle-east-2-2-2020
• 
  

4th Surprise Leading Socialitsts : Linda Sarsour

Nadene Goldfoot                                                 

Linda  Sarsour, born March 1980 in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, New York City
38 years old.  She's the oldest of 7 children.  Unlike the other 3 socialists,  she is still married to her husband, "Maher Judeh aka Maher Abo Tamer who she married at the age of seventeen. The couple  has three children, a son, Tamir;  6 years old and two daughters; Sabreen and Sajida; 14 and 12 years old respectively." According to her write-up, she stands 6'2" tall and is very wealthy.   I have found this fact of wealth mentioned in several articles but was in shaky and incorrect wording that was impossible to understand.  

Women's March led by Sarsour 
Women's March, held the day after the inauguration of Donald Trump as the 45th president of the U.S.

Linda Sarsour is a Palestinian American political activist.  She's not a leader in our government yet, but was "co-chair of the 2017 Women's March and the 2017 Day Without a Woman strike and protest, and former executive director of the Arab American Association of New York. "

Linda endorsed Senator Bernie Sanders for the President of the United States in 2016. She was arrested along with another activist in March 2017, when she was a co-chairman of the Day without a Woman protest. 

"In March 2017 interviewing with The Nation, she linked feminism to end Israeli occupation and settlement growth, saying, “ You can’t be feminist in U.S. and raised for the rights of the American Women and then say that you don’t want to stand up for rights of women in Palestine. It is all connected”.   Palestinian women know how to speak out for themselves.  I've heard plenty.  Linda hasn't met many in Brooklyn, evidently.  Maybe her mother is shy.                                         

She's another of the young women in power who is against Israel, and also a Muslim like two others.  "Sarsour, who is of Palestinian descent, has publicly advocated for the rights of Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied territories and spoken in "full support" of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) campaign. A Muslim, she has stated that she views the hijab as a symbol of empowerment and often defends sharia law.  

"In Germany, in 2014, the Interior Minister (Thomas de Maizière) told a newspaper (Bild), "Sharia law is not tolerated on German soil.  Some countries and jurisdictions have explicit bans on sharia law. In Canada, for example, sharia law has been explicitly banned in Quebec by a 2005 unanimous vote of the National Assembly, while the province of Ontario allows family law disputes to be arbitrated only under Ontario law.
                                                   

 
 In the U.S., opponents of Sharia have sought to ban it from being considered in courts, where it has been routinely used alongside traditional Jewish and Catholic laws to decide legal, business, and family disputes subject to contracts drafted with reference to such laws, as long as they do not violate secular law or the U.S. constitution. After failing to gather support for a federal law making observing Sharia a felony punishable by up to 20 years in prison, anti-Sharia activists have focused on state legislatures. By 2014, bills aimed against use of Sharia have been introduced in 34 states and passed in 11. These bills have generally referred to banning foreign or religious law in order to thwart legal challenges."

I'm getting tired of writing this, but Israel does not occupy anything in Eretz Yisrael.  Judea-Samaria is run by Abbas of the Fatah Terrorizing politics, and Israelis left Gaza for the Arabs lock, stock and barrel, even moving out their deceased that were buried there, for the sake of peace-of which Hamas terrorists became their leadership.  Palestinian Arabs voted them in.  
                                                       

Farrakhan,  born Louis Eugene Walcott; May 11, 1933), formerly known as Louis X, is an American black nationalist and minister who is the leader of the religious group Nation of Islam, and is one year older than myself.  Farrakhan has been described as antisemitic by the Southern Poverty Law Center, the Anti-Defamation League and others. The NOI promotes an anti-white theology, also according to the SPLC. Some of his remarks have also been considered homophobic.

   Her political activism has been praised by some liberals and progressives, while her stance on the Israeli–Palestinian conflict has been criticized by some conservatives and Jewish leaders and organizations. Her leadership in the 2019 Women's March was also controversial, with several chapters and its former co-founder calling for her resignation along with those of her three fellow co-chairs for their perceived refusal to clearly condemn Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan.                                                                                

Tamika Danielle Mallory
b: September 1980
is an American activist who currently serves as co-president of the 2019 Women's March. She was one of the leading organizers of the 2017 Women's March, for which she and her three other co-chairs were recognized in the Time 100 that year.

Anti-Semitism appears where she is.  "In September 2018, Sarsour announced that she would lead the 2019 Women's March on Washington along with Tamika Mallory, Bob Bland, and Carmen Perez. In 2018 Sarsour and Mallory were the focus of a controversy over their perceived refusal to clearly condemn the Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, whose rhetoric has been deemed antisemitic and homophobic by the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Anti Defamation League. There were also accusations that the organization's leadership had excluded Jewish women. In November 2018, Teresa Shook, the march's founder, called for the Women's March leadership to step down, accusing them of having "allowed anti-Semitism, anti-LBGTQIA sentiment and hateful, racist rhetoric to become a part of the platform by their refusal to separate themselves from groups that espouse these racist, hateful beliefs. "Linda was the former executive director of the organization until stepping down from the position in 2017.

Sarsour first gained attention for protesting police surveillance of American Muslims, later becoming involved in other civil rights issues such as police brutality, feminism, immigration policy, and mass incarceration. She has also participated in Black Lives Matter demonstrations and was the lead plaintiff in a suit challenging the legality of the Trump travel ban.

When Sarsour and Atweh (a relative and head of the American Arab Ass.) were returning from the 2005 gala opening of the Arab American National Museum in Dearborn, Michigan, their car was struck by a tractor-trailer. Atweh died of her injuries, and two other passengers suffered from broken bones. Sarsour, who was driving, was not seriously injured She returned to work immediately, saying of Atweh, "This is where she wanted me to be". She was named to succeed Atweh as executive director of the association at age 25. Over the next several years she expanded the scope of the organization, building its budget from $50,000 to $700,000 annually.

I can find no information about her Palestinian parents or when they came to the states.  What's dangerous is a Palestinian without any knowledge about the history of either Palestine or Israel.  They do not bother to read but go by hearsay and gossip.  I'm afraid that's her experience from what she has said.  

Resource: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linda_Sarsour
https://articlebio.com/linda-sarsour
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sharia