Showing posts with label facebook. Show all posts
Showing posts with label facebook. Show all posts

Sunday, May 4, 2014

Iran's Big Fear is Facebook

Nadene Goldfoot                                                                    

                                                          Mark Zuckerberg

Social media is a big threat to the power of Iran.  This is why they have blocked test messaging service called Whatsapp, a new button to push on cell phones.  Iran's excuse for doing this is that Mark Zuckerberg, facebook's CEO and founder, is an AMERICAN ZIONIST.

 Zionism is a theory, plan or movement for setting up a Jewish national or religious community in Palestine according to Webster's Dictionary.  The word was coined in 1893.  Theodor Herzl, the newspaperman from Austria started it with the first Zionist Congress in 1897, a movement to get Jews to move back to the Land of Israel.  We are still a people or nation and most of us do not want to assimilate by religion or culture with other people but wish to retain our identity as a national community.  Whether we do it consciously or unconsciously, we have been treated as so; different, not accepted in the group until recently in the USA.

 That happened already.  It's a done deal.  The League of Nations voted for the Jewish National Home and it was created all legal through the United Nations.  The world reps voted and passed it.  Israel will be 66 years old next week.  I feel that Israel has every right to exist.  I even lived there from 1980 to the end of 1985 teaching English in Safed.  I'm a Zionist.  Even so, 5 minutes after their birth was announced on the radio, Jews were attacked by the Arabs, and so it's been going on for 66 years now.  Nevertheless Israel has grown and developed.  It is a creative country and has invented so many things that they share with the world.  I'm so proud to be a Zionist and to hold dual citizenship!
                                                                 
 Facebook bought this mobile messaging service in February 2014 for $19 billion and cash and stock.  Whatsapp was created in 2009 by Jan Koum and Brian Acton.
                                                                               
As for Zuckerberg, he is Jewish.  That's it.  Nobody knows how he feels about Israel. It just accidentally happens that he was born on Israel's birthday of May 14th, only Israel is 36 years older than he is.  That doesn't make him a Zionist but it is remarkable!  Mark is very intelligent, and attended Harvard U. He was a billionaire by the time he was 23 years old.  Today he's worth $25.3 billion dollars.  He's now married.

   Jews are not sheep that follow one opinion.  Each person has their own idea about things and acts accordingly, so just because he's Jewish tells me nothing about his political views, only that he believes in one G-d and if he ever attends anything religious, it probably will be a synagogue.  I only wish that we all felt Zionistic about Israel which I do.  I hope he does likewise.  In the USA, we have no way of knowing such things and like it that way.  We don't have cards with our religion stamped on them or our political views unless we carry our voting card showing if we're Democrats or Republicans.  Our passports don't relate any such information.  Why?  It's never been necessary.  We haven't had internal strife calling for such steps to be taken.  

What Iran doesn't want for their citizens is information other than what they print in Iran.  Facebook and Twitter are officially blocked in Iran, though a few people do manage  know how to get around in the Internet.  It's laughable, because Rouhani has accounts in both places, no doubt using it to spy on the world consensus about foreign and domestic matters.  What he reads he dares not allow his people to read.
                                                                         
Iran's Supreme leader, (sounds like g-d) Ali Khamenei saw the power of information coming from social media in 2009 in their so called "Green Revolution."  With cell phones in their hands, thousands of Iranians went into the streets to protest the re-election of their President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.  They realized that the elections were rigged, so held mass demonstrations throughout Iran, but were stopped with rifles.  Neda Agha Soltan, a beautiful Iranian lady,
 was shot right away just for being in the crowd.  Protest leaders are still under house arrest and the "Green Movement' has been broken apart by" crackdowns and intimidation."
                                                                                   
The way President Rouhani got elected this time was to promise to fix the economy, and improve their relations with the West and to promote greater freedoms.   Out of the contenders for the position, he's the one I also picked.  Think of it, to have more freedom.  Americans have every freedom imaginable.  In fact, we worry about losing our freedoms because of terrorism causing us to allow the government to have more freedom in snooping into our affairs.  Now we're between the devil and the deep blue sea.  It not a good position to be in as we've had lots of pride in having the most freedoms on this planet.  To protect ourselves, we have allowed the government new freedoms on our freedom of speech which involves phone conversations.  Cell phone conversations are being recorded and we don't know who has been caught in the web of secrecy.   Most of us are not worried if we're not doing anything wrong.

Iran is brainwashing its people by keeping them in the dark.  They're only hearing one side of the political agenda.  That should never happen to a country.  It's what we must watch out for, too.  There should be freedom of speech on our own news media and not put down stations like Fox News because they share a non-liberal viewpoint of politics.  Only if someone comes out and tells downright lies should they be stopped, and that's where Iran fills the bill.  No doubt that's what they are afraid of.  Social media such as facebook will expose their people to their lies.

This happened in Germany in the 1930's.  The value of their currency went down to just about nothing.  People were using wheelbarrows instead of billfolds to carry their paper currency to buy a loaf of bread.  Our country of the USA has had this happen, too, as recently as 2007, but never that extreme.  It's when people get itchy and start looking for scapegoats to blame matters on.

This is the beauty of living in a civilized world with 7 billion people.  Out of all our inhabitants, there are many ideas floating around that our simple little brain alone doesn't think of.  It's good to have differences of opinions. The USA has 316,148,990 people.   Out of many, one can come to the forefront and be used to improve living standards for many.  Iran has about 76,923,300 people.  Surely they all aren't thinking the same thoughts all the time.  China's population is 1,236,344,631.  Israel has 6,000,000 Jews and 1.7 million Arabs, totaling about 8,000,000.

 Facebook by September 30, 2012 had 937,407,180 subscribers.  Mark Zuckerberg was lucky to be living in the USA to come up with such an idea.  He would have enjoyed the same freedom of starting up such an enterprise in Israel as well.  I personally value the friends I have on facebook immensely.  My life is much fuller and my concept of people from other countries has changed for the better from my contacts and with what I have learned.  It's too bad that Iranians do not enjoy these same freedoms.  I doubt if Syrians have such freedoms as outside contact with people, either.  I wonder if any of them can have pen pals such as I did in pre-computer days of the 1940s?  Ugh, facebook is so much easier than that!

Resource:  http://www.timesofisrael.com/iran-bans-whatsapp-citing-zionist-owner-zuckerberg/
https://www.census.gov/popclock/
Fox News covering above
http://www.worldometers.info/world-population/wpc.php?utm_expid=4939992-7.scuhn054Q5WXvFD9uRG9Xw.2&utm_referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2F
http://www.internetworldstats.com/facebook.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WhatsApp
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Zuckerberg
Webster's 7th New Collegiate Dictionarycopyright 1971
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Neda_Agha-Soltan

Wednesday, April 30, 2014

IDF Faces Frame-Up By B'tselem And Arab Gangs For Propaganda

Nadene Goldfoot                                                                 

David, a  Nahal Brigade soldier,  was provoked by a teen-aged Arab gang who threatened and provoked him in Hevon, (Hebron).  Hebron has the Jewish  history of being a levitical city and a city of refuge of which there were 4 in Israel's early history with Joshua.  This is where King David ruled for 7 1/2 years before he moved to Jerusalem.  It's where Abraham bought land holding the Cave of Machpelah so that he could bury his wife, Sarah.  Hebron is now considered a Palestinian city which lies 19 miles south of Jerusalem which is in Judea/Samaria.   What is a soldier to do?  He was all alone so he warned one of the boys not to continue doing this but the teen pushed him  and continued to act in a threatening manner.  The soldier himself could have been no more than 18 years old himself.
                                                                     
                                                              Hebron
The problem is that the teens had been helped in their behavior by B'tselem, an NGO that gave out cameras to Palestinian Arabs for the very purpose of catching soldiers behaving in ways that could get them in trouble so as to have something on film for anti-Israel propaganda.   B'tselem gets funding from the New Israel Fund.  B'tselem says it has "championed human rights in the West Bank and Gaza Strip for over two decades, promoting a future where all Israelis and Palestinians will live in freedom and dignity".but their way is to frame the Israeli soldiers with lies, giving the Arabs ammunition to fight against them which is not bringing about peace and harmony between the two peoples.  

An earlier attack on a soldier turned out to be very successful.  They got a senior officer, Lt. Col. Shalom Eisner dismissed from service.  A teen-aged gang  had tried to disrupt traffic on a major highway and the gang was being violent towards Eisner by breaking one of his fingers.  So they're out for more IDF victims.

The Nahal soldier being threatened had cocked his rifle and pointed it at the teen.  Then he pointed it at another Arab who jumped towards him with what looked like a set of brass knuckles on his hand, so the soldier kicked the first first teen away, making ready to handle the 2nd who was coming at him. It is alleged that he was involved in another incident earlier in the week.  Then it would seem that he has been pointed out by the Arabs as someone to work on and break down.

All this was being filmed.  Arabs and left-winged allies uploaded the video to the Internet and onto facebook and called the media.  The IDF heads, in defending their own IDF values, mores and reputation, said that the soldier had acted in a way that wasn't the regular way and said that he might be dismissed from his unit.  Also, he wouldn't be serving in combat positions.  In fact, chances are that he could be jailed for acting in an "inappropriate manner" and will be tried in court.   The IDF may even take steps against the supporting soldiers who held up signs they uploaded on facebook.

What would have happened had not the soldier reacted normally?  No doubt in this soldier's mind that he would have been taken down by the gang and attacked which might have led to his death.

The reaction of the soldier's fellow soldiers was that thousands of IDF soldiers from all units are supporting him.  They are protesting the action taken against him.  These soldiers see that the lone soldier was in a tight spot and treated unfairly so that they are demanding that the Israeli government give them the word to properly deal with these types of problems.  Right now the rules are such that they are not allowed to protect themselves and they must respond to violence by the Palestinians.  This policy is evidently not made by the army itself.  It's being an ongoing happening that Palestinian Arab teenagers deride and provoke IDF soldiers into a defense position.  What happens in this type of media is that they cut out the Arabs' actions and only show the IDF soldier's act.

This IDF position is like that of a new teacher in a classroom.  He has to set down rules of behavior in the fall to set the scene for future events that will come up.  The teacher cannot be wishy-washy or weak.  If you say NO to something, there must be consequences if not listened to.  David is expected to act like the British guard in England with the high tall black furry hat, not to move a muscle or say a thing.  He cannot do this when confronted with taunting getting into his space.  One soldier facing a gang bent on causing trouble should be backed up by his peers who will have to face similar situations.   The rules of behavior should be altered to cover these situations.  If there wasn't a camera available, this wouldn't have happened.  .

Resource: Arutz Sheva; news@israelnationalnews.com, Unprecedented IDF Protest over Soldier's Punishment and As AIDDF Protest Grows, Nahal Soldier Faces Jail, by Gil Ronen
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hebron-has error listed.
New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia: Hebron
http://www.btselem.org/

Sunday, October 6, 2013

The Acts of Hostility While Sitting at a Peace Table: Fatah Instigates Such Acts

Nadene Goldfoot                                                                          

There is something terribly wrong with the morality of our Palestinian neighbors living in Judea/Samaria, the ancient land of Israel and Judah  taken over illegally by Jordan in 1948 and renamed West Bank.  That land was to be a major piece of the Jewish Homeland that the League of Nations had decreed.  Though Muslims and Jews both believe in one G-d and have come from Abraham, we do not share the same ethics, evidently, especially in cases of disagreements.  As I remember, that was the problem long ago in our family history.

While one of two leaders of the Palestinians, Abbas, who is the leader in Judea/Samaria sits at a peace table with Israeli officials, his people praise a sniper of theirs who bravely shot a 9  year old little Jewish girl as she played in her own front yard in Psagot right in her neck at close range (corrected-first account had said stomach)..   Obviously, he is out hunting Jews!    Two weeks before, this sniper had killed an Israeli soldier in Hebron.  Israel has soldiers there to patrol the streets in order to keep the peace.  These very young IDF soldiers of the Givate Brigade are so inhuman to this city that they were caught on television partying with Palestinian friends there in a club and dancing  with them Gangnam style in August.  They want to just live a normal life, too and are friendly.

The sniper is looked upon as a hero by the Palestinians. This is posted by a page administrator of a Palestinian page on facebook. It's called "Fatah"  and the main page is the official Fatah Facebook page.  They define it as belonging to the Fatah Mobilization and Organization Commission.  Each commission has their own official website.   His killing in this manner was called his work.  This "sniper of Palestine" is simply a nasty killer that preys on innocent people.  The soldier wasn't shooting anyone.  He wasn't killing during an attack of war between soldiers.  Most likely he was just walking on his patrol.  I hope he wasn't dancing in the street at the time.  


The blame lies with the Palestinian Authority and the desk of Abbas where the buck should stop.  The Palestinian media acts of continual incitement of their people will never bring a peaceful conclusion for them.  What Fatah and the Palestinian Authority do is engage is glorification of terrorists and their acts.  The people have been taught to hate Jews and that Israel doesn't exist for them.  They are being taught that this is their duty, to hate and kill Israelis.

PMW tells us that Abu Sukkar killed 15 Israelis with a bomb so the PA held a memorial for him and it was Abbas who stated that "Fatah lost a beacon", meaning a wonderful person who was so great to kill Jews..

It's very plain that though Fatah has taken on the stance of being a possible peace partner when it suits them to snow their Western listeners,  they have no intention of doing so.  They're just trying to show Hamas that they can get a state before they will who have chosen constant bombardment on southern Israel.  You can't say you're going to live in an area and follow the rules of conduct while you tell your family members that they're in a Hatfield-McCoy world and that they must always attack and hate Israel.  This will have to be one sniper who will not get released from prison in any peace negotiations!

What type of people take pride in committing such acts of brutality like killing children in cold blood?  This just recalls the horrendous slaughtering by Palestinian killers of Israelis living in Judea and Samaria.  In March 2011, the whole Fogel family in Itamar were knifed to death.  Udi, 37, Ruth, 36, and their 3 children ages 10, 4 and 3 months were slaughtered.  Such acts only hardens the hearts of the Jews and makes them see the Arabs as terrible enemies.

Whereas Israel has 1.7 million Arabs living in Israel peacefully as citizens, the future Palestine is planning on having no Jew live in their special country, which will be one of 23 Muslim majority states of the Middle East.  The competitors of Christianity already have  48 Muslim majority states as it is.   Israel is the only Jewish state in the world.  It is galling that there are those who continue to post ridiculous articles calling Israel the Apartheids.  Such thinking has not one iota of  logic in their propaganda  and goes along with saying that a brutal killer is a hero.

Reference:  Palestinian Media Watch; PMW Bulletins; Fatah praises terrorist shooter of 9 year old by Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik, facebook page, the main page, October 6, 2013.
http://www.jpost.com/Defense/Report-IDF-soldiers-left-patrol-to-party-with-Palestinians-in-Hebron-club-324605
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/victims-of-west-bank-settlement-attack-identified-as-fogel-family-1.348788
http://www.algemeiner.com/2013/10/04/analysts-hamas-fatah-split-elephant-in-the-room-for-israel-peace-talks/ added 10/6/13