Letter to Hostages' Parents

Dear Parents of the hostages by Hamas,

I want you to know that I also as a Jewish mother join you in grieving over your children still being held by the Hamas Terrorists.  Our children are our most important persons to us in this world.  To have any tsuris connecting to them is too horrible to imagine.  

The haunting images of Israeli hostages being held captive by Hamas are stark reminders of the horrors they have endured for more than 660 days. The immediate release of all hostages from Gaza is my prayer. My deepest thoughts are with all the hostages still held from Canada, USA, and the 23 other countries as well as their families and loved ones.

More than half of the approximately 250 hostages taken by Hamas on October 7, 2023, held foreign passports, representing 25 different countries. You may not have been aware of any dangers since the children themselves thought they were safe.  Some of the countries whose citizens were taken hostage include:  Argentina, China, France, Germany, Nepal, Philippines, Russia, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Thailand, United States, and United Kingdom .  Many of the individuals with foreign passports also held Israeli citizenship. Additionally, some of the hostages were foreign workers in Israel, primarily in the agriculture sector.

                           Here we are at our bon voyage party my mother gave for us

I made Aliyah in 1980 with my husband and German shepherd.  We both were teachers; Danny originally from Brooklyn, New York who met me in Ontario, Oregon, and we married, being the only Jews in that town, really.  Events happened that brought us to making Aliyah and we moved to Haifa going to school for New Olim for 10 months, then onto Tzfat/Safed.  My adult son remained in Portland, Oregon.  We were dedicated religiously and nationally.  We were teachers and Danny with the Master's taught English in high school while I taught English in Jr. High.  

Then my son became ill back in Portland and none of the doctors could find out the cause, so his wife wrote to us begging us to return, and with great sadness, we did, because as a mother, I could do no other thing than return.  It was the right thing to do since he became better with a new doctor who used a new technique in fighting bacteria by overdosing with a type of med that remains blurry in my mind, and he became so much better that he was able to finally live his life once more.  

There you are in Israel, being the bravest of any people on this planet, many living in Israel amidst all the danger of terrorism surrounding you, and when you should be given a medal for having made such a decision, find your child not only in danger, but having been taken away from you while celebrating a Jewish holiday when  dancing in celebration with friends, being happy and celebrating LIFE, is just too much to even imagine.  

You knew of our history, and had either been a Sabra or had also made Aliyah, or whose child was just visiting;   making that same decision I did , but probably  never expecting anything bad to happen.                                                          

  Here I am in my Safed apartment which is across the street from my junior high.  We have the main floor apartment and can use the mirpeset outside to hang clothes.  It came with bars on the only window of our living room.  The sofa is a bed with a throw on it.  We just moved in as the picture shows.  It's 1981.  In Israel, a "mirpeset" (pronounced meer-peset) is a Hebrew term for a balcony or veranda. These spaces are commonly used for a variety of purposes, including, as I  mentioned, hanging clothes to dry. 

With us, we had been shaken up with anti-Semitism happening in our little town of Ontario with Skinheads moving in from Boise, Idaho, known to be anti-Semitic and reserving a room for meetings in my husband's favorite restaurant where his Kiwanis group met every week.  They had called him asking what to do !  That and a comic book of anti-Semitism was circulating in his high school and brought to his history class.  The next thing I did was fly back to Portland to speak with the Shaliach there who made our plans for us to leave for Israel, a permanent move.  I was leaving my mother and large family.  We had never visited Israel but wanted to get there, especially when we found out that they needed real English teachers.  

To have your loved one, your family caught in this several years of planning by terrorists, attacking the very families they may even have worked for, knew, and then kidnapping them as hostages is incomprehensible.  Our good fortune of living in Israel from 1980 to the very end of 1985 was that at the time, unknown to us, Iran was at war with Iraq, and it kept them away from Israel.  I never dreamed that this could happen in 2023, 43 years later.

 May G-d give you the courage and strength to live through this.  We're all praying for a miracle to happen, and that all IDF searching for them will stay safe as well.  

All the best,

Nadene Goldfoot

Illegal Immigrants Under DACA and Judean Jews in Persia; Oh So Different

Nadene Goldfoot   
                                               

Central American illegals riding atop a freight train 

The USA has had a problem of not enforcing our immigration rules.  The numbers have been growing from Mexico as people have been able to sneak in easily.  Now we have 2 problems; what to do with the people here illegally and how to stop illegal entrance.      
                                           

Many of us are the product of immigrants who came here legally from across the oceans.  They had to swear to give up their former king or such ruler and abide by the USA laws.  Then many also  had to take a test to see if they knew our history.  We don't like to break rules.  German Jews had to have sponsors in the States taking on all responsibility of finances and jobs.  Many ships were turned back full of Jewish refugees facing sure death.  We don't want to repeat those cruel laws either.  

Our country's population has grown.  
    On April 1, 2010, it was 308, 745, 538.
 As on July 1, 2017, it was 325, 719, 178.
Increase of 16 million, 973 thousand, 640 in 7 years.  
Mexico's population in 2016 was 127.5 million.  
Mexico City in 2010 was 8.851 million, more than Israel's 7.2.  
                       

An article in the New York Times written on September 30, 2014, tells about how Obama was trying to assist children from Central America cross Mexico safely and get into the USA as refugees with this type of status.   He assisted their illegal entry.  
                                              

President Morsi of Egypt did this same thing, taking refugees from Syria with the idea that they would then vote for him.  Morsi was head of the Muslim Brotherhood which had been outlawed in Egypt.  Morsi was stopped.    
                       

In June of that year, over 10,000 children had crossed the border and were into the USA illegally.
By August the number had dropped to 3,000.   They said they were fleeing from gangs. 
                                                                             

Critics were worried since the USA was already struggling with problems involved in how to deal with the already millions of illegals already here. 
                                                                       

 

President Trump has rescinded his first idea of deporting DACA children who were here for a grace period.  They are not USA citizens.  In order to get his wall built to stop illegal immigration in the first place, he was easing up on his agenda towards the children.  This still didn't go over.  The Democrats want both plans their way and isn't about to give in to Trump. 
                                                               

One cannot compare the situation of exiling immigrants here illegally with killing all Jews in Queen Esther's day by Haman.  Haman had given to order to kill all Jews in Persia.  The order was about to be carried out.  In fact, it had even started when the king Ahasuaros interceded and stopped it from happening.  Haman and his sons wound up swinging  with nooses around their necks instead. 
                                                                       

Persia had grown huge from Assyria's holdings that later went into
Babylonia's holdings and then to Persia.  Judah was but a speck.
Cyrus let Jews return in 538 BCE

Jews were there because the Babylonians under Nebuchadnezzar in 586 BCE had kidnapped them from Judah and taken them as slaves. 

 Later, in 538 BCE, those that wanted to were allowed to return to Judah with the goal of not only living there but rebuilding the Temple that had been destroyed.   During those 48 years of  living in Persia, the political environment had changed for the better and a whole new Jewish generation had been born.  Cyrus was the Persian who allowed them to leave.   It is possible that Cyrus was related to Queen Esther. 
                                                                           

Judeans remembering Judah when at the water in Babylon.
By the waters, the waters of Babylon 
We lay down and wept, and wept, for thee Zion 
We remember thee, remember thee, remember thee Zion 
By the waters, the waters of Babylon

They were living in a land where they were not true citizens.  However, their numbers had helped to create large populations, and towns of Nehardea, Nisibis, and Mahoza had an entirely Jewish population, making it too hard for them to pick up now and leave.  Jews in Persia were given  their own internal autonomy and were led by an  an Exilarch of Davidic descent who was the king's representative, but the community was governed by a council of elders.  It was sort of a Jewish city within a pagan country.  The didn't remember Judah and so may not have felt the compunction to leave.  Thus, Persia had Jews in their population then and up to today.  The Babylonian Talmud was written there. 
                                                               

The Persians were in control of the world that they knew.  They took people and could send them back at will in those days.  The United States is limited.  Yes, it's a big country, but it's taken in many people.  The 1st thing one notices is a water shortage.  

The USA has been facing water shortages for many years in many sections of the country.  In fact, some city water supplies are targets for private companies, some who have been successful in this take-over.  Prices will be able to rise this way and companies will make large profits.  I learned about this while a group member of OREGON RURAL ACTION, led by a group in Washington DC. This was before 2006. 
                                                                  

Jobs, housing, education, all sorts of things are affected by sudden population rises, especially when it's not being stopped but has been helped by our own government to  exceed all expectations.  It's a huge problem our government is now grappling with.  

The situation has become so political.  Evan a Democratic rabbi is against Trump and compares the position with Queen Esther's day of the Jews being in Babylon with Esther speaking out to save the Jews.  He expect everyone to save the DACA refugees.  It is being saved by Trump himself who wants his wall also saved, and needs some cooperation to get both done.  In politics, like it or not, often give and take, like in marriages helps a lot to solve problems.  

Our leaders sure deferred action, much to the detriment of our country.  They should have made a completed program knowing that if they stayed as long as possible, they would need to become citizens or go back to their own country with skills to help their relatives. Now we face the decisions that were forgotten about.   

Resource:  https://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/01/us/obama-approves-plan-to-let-children-apply-for-refugee-status-in-central-america.html
https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/US/PST045216
http://jewishbubba.blogspot.com/2017/09/daca-changing-attitudes-towards.html
http://oregonrural.org/

When Israeli High School Students on a Field Trip Were Killed: The Ma'alot Massacre

Nadene Goldfoot 

                                           The Ma'alot School Massacre in Israel

What happened to these high school students in Israel who were  on an overnight field trip to another city is something that even elementary school students do in Oregon.  In their study of their state, they've taken buses and stayed overnight in another school. These Israelis were doing the same thing. Whoever could imagine that danger would come during the night?  "It is thought that around 100 pupils aged between 14 and 16 were in the school when the Palestinians stormed it in the early hours of this morning as the teenagers slept.

Fifteen people, children and teachers, managed to escape. A teenage boy was later sent out with a list of prisoners the hostage-takers wanted released in Israel."

                                                                 

The Ma'alot massacre was a Palestinian terrorist attack that occurred in May 1974 and involved a two-day hostage-taking of 115 Israeli people which ended in the murders of over 25 hostages. It began when three armed members of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) entered Israel from Lebanon. Soon afterwards they attacked a van, killing two Israeli Arab women while injuring a third and entered an apartment building in the town of Ma'alot, where they killed a couple and their four-year-old son.

From there, they headed for the Netiv Meir Elementary School, where they took more than 115 people (including 105 children) hostage on 15 May 1974, in Ma'alot.

                                                     

Most of the hostages were teenagers from a high school in Safed on a Gadna field trip spending the night in Ma'alot. The hostage-takers soon issued demands for the release of 23 Palestinian militants from Israeli prisons, or else they would kill the students. On the second day of the standoff, a unit of the Golani Brigade stormed the building.                     

                                                  

During the takeover, the hostage-takers killed children with grenades and automatic weapons. Ultimately, 25 hostages, including 22 children, were killed and 68 more were injured.

                                                                 

Deaths	31 Israelis (+ 3 attackers)
Non-fatal injuries	70 Israelis
Perpetrators	Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine

                                                                                           

The Guardian in England reported the story in a highly slanted manner. 

A Palestinian Media Watch bulletin on Feb. 28 revealed that a recent Palestinian Authority broadcast paid tribute to the terrorists (from the group, Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine) who committed the Ma’alot Massacre in 1974 in which 22 children were brutally murdered inside an elementary school. 

                                                   

 Pictures of the terrorists, labeled as “martyrs”, with their weapons were seen during the PA broadcast – another act of state sanctioned incitement which will likely go unreported by the mainstream media or the Guardian. 

I moved to Israel in September 1980, and went through a program preparing to teach English as a Foreign language. I already had 22 years of experience as a teacher in the USA. The first thing I noticed was a guard at the door of each school and every store that I had to enter. They checked our purses to make sure we had no weapons. At the junior high where I taught, a student was the guard at the door. They were trained as to what to look for and also knew of all the items that had held concealed bombs or weapons.                                                                    

One of the first pieces of history I learned about my city of Safed was about what had happened to our high school children who were on a field trip.  They had stayed overnight in an elementary school and 22 of them were killed.  I visited the cemetery where you see the headstones above.  Ma'alot lies in the upper Western Galilee formed by the merger of the development town of Maalot in 1957 and the mainly Christian Arab village of Tarshiha.  In 1990 the population was 8,770 of which 3,000 were Arabs.  

The bare bones of the story: In the early-morning hours of May 15, 1974, three members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a radical anti-Israel group,(Palestinian terrorists)  snuck across the border from Lebanon. Dressed as Israeli soldiers, they made their way to Ma’alot, where they killed three members of the Cohen family -- apparently chosen at random -- before entering an elementary school that was hosting more than 100 teenagers and teachers from a religious school in Safed for the night

A lot is in my book-an autobiography in the form of all my letters I sent back over the 5 years of living there.  Israel learned from that.  All schools had guards at the doors  after that.  This was unusual in that it wasn't during school hours.  

The school at my junior high where I taught English were well aware of all the small containers that hide bombs which have been found.  That's why we all become knowledgeable about not picking up anything off the sidewalks or any grounds.  A robot can be called to do the work; much safer for all.  

My husband and I also went through training on shooting the A-1 rifle as we had joined the Civil Guard. We didn't have any weapon in the schools we taught in, of course. This was 38 years ago and it's just now-2018-that the USA is confronted with how to keep children safe. Try following Israel's lead. It worked after their horrible experiences in losing children in schools due to crazy violent people. It happened just before I arrived in Safed, as a matter of fact. That's the story above.  

Resource:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ma%27alot_massacre

https://www.standwithus.com/news/article.asp?id=1858

https://ukmediawatch.org/2013/02/28/a-glimpse-into-how-the-guardian-reported-palestinian-terrorism-in-1974/

http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/may/15/newsid_4307000/4307545.stm

Letters From Israel by Nadene Goldfoot

Battle Continues: Weapons of Moment Being Lies From PA

Nadene Goldfoot
Just as wild as the Arabian Nights Tales but far more dangerous are the lies coming out of PA TV News.  PA (Fatah) mayor Mustafa Fuqaha said that the Israeli army targets children and young ones on purpose by leaving behind explosives shaped like pens and toys to get children to pick them up.  On December 29, 2012 the PA broadcast that Israel drops objects from jet planes that attract children to play with them and then they blow up.  These are bombs and mines designed as toys.  One thing Arabs are not lacking in is imagination for their propaganda, and this is indeed wild.  Needless to say, Israel doesn't do such things.

This to be said about the country that Haim Ginott (August 5, 1922-November 1973) , child psychologist and  physician psychotherapist,  was born in Pinsk, Poland and later moved to  Tel Aviv  is atrocious.  Haim wrote "Between Parent and Child, " a book still used today in the United States by parents. This psychologist who loved children was a survivor of death camps.   He was a school teacher in Israel in 1947 and then went to Columbia University in the USA, earning his PhD in 1952 in clinical psychology and died in New York.  The truth is that Israelis are very much aware of children and care for them.  They have been critical of the Hamas terrorists in Gaza for placing their weapons among densely populated neighborhoods, putting their children and women at risk.

Since 2001  such lies were being told about Israelis.  The PA daily claimed that Israel had taken a new step to kill more children by throwing large quantities of poisoned candies in front of 2 schools.  The newspaper went on to say that a medic collected 10 pieces of unwrapped candies and he felt the rubber glove he was wearing melt as well as having breathing problems, strong headache and dizziness.

On March 3, 2003 the PA TV told the same story they told in 2001 in the newspaper by announcing  that in a new step aimed to kill more children, Israel threw large quantities of poisoned candies in front of 2 schools, etc.  The people from which the 10 Commandments came out of would not do such a vile act.

As Golda Meier said, "peace will come when the Arabs will love their children more than they hate us."  Instead of working on teaching their children that Jews are people and working towards peace, they spread these lies among their citizens.  They are totally committed to reap hatred for Jews among all the nations with their blatant lies.

As for weaponry of Israel, Golda also said, "We have always said that in our war with the Arabs we had a secret weapon — no alternative. The Egyptians could run to Egypt, the Syrians into Syria. The only place we could run was into the sea, and before we did that we might as well fight"  Israelis don't fight children, and do not give  poisoned candies  to their worst enemies.

Maybe the Fatah members should remember what another Israeli said.  Keren Ann, a musician in Israel was quoted as saying : "When you record, you live with what you recorded for many many years, but when you play it's just an hour and a half and then once it's over it's over."  Airing such lies on TV is nasty propaganda and is obvious that it is a lie.  It makes you look like a sap for spreading such lies, which, by the way, is breaking one of the 10 Commandments.  What people won't forget  is that Palestinians  spread lies. After all, those lies are recorded now.

Reference:  http://www.palwatch.org/main.aspx?fi=157&doc_id=8331
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haim_Ginott
http://fixquotes.com/authors/haim-ginott.htm
http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Golda_Meir