How Jewish and Muslim Women Are Treated

Nadene Goldfoot
Iranian women are stoned to death for adultery. They have to follow sharia laws, meaning only their face and hands can be exposed, so they wear something like a tent.  If they don't they will receive 70 lashes or a 2 month prison sentence.  Khomeini had curtailed all the rights in 1962 these women had won when the Shah was in power.  They were married off at age 9, which has been upped to age 13 after some protests.  If you're married you can't attend school.  Sports and beaches are gender segregated which isn't too bad, but they'll never have a judge Judy (who is Jewish, by the way) because women can't be judges.  That's because their whole judicial system is Sharia law and only men know about that.  My mother and I cried when the Shah had to divorce his beautiful first wife who could not give him children.  He married a 2nd to gain children.  It was sad, as he seemed so in love with her.  The law then couldn't help him.

 Syrian women are kidnapped, arrested,  tortured, raped and murdered by the Bashar al-Assad regime. It became a repressive police state in 1963.  "Personal status laws and the penal code contain provisions that discriminate against women and girls, particularly in marriage, divorce, child custody, and inheritance."  Syrians have also kidnapped and raped poor Iraqi girls, who were refugees living in Syria and then put them in their illegal sex trade.

Saudi Arabian women are just chattel.  They are practicing gender apartheid in many places. They came in 130th out of 134 countries for gender parity.  Women  haven't been allowed to vote or run for any office but will gain voting rights in 2015, said the king.  They are not allowed to drive a car.  Women cannot go out without a male chaperone.  They can work but must be driven there by a male.

Circumcision on women was practiced in the days of Egypt's Pharoahs.  Then the Romans in 25 BCE copied the procedure.  It's evidently a practice still happening in many countries.  According to a hadith reported by Bukhari, Mohammad married A'isha, a 6 year old Jewish girl who was very pretty, and consummated that marriage when she was 9 when he was already 50 something. One wonders if she were circumcised first.   Today we call that pedophilia, while it was common back then in the 7th century CE.

The UN finally did something worthwhile by approving a resolution Thursday which calls for a global ban on female genital mutilation.  This is a practice that has centuries of history coming from the belief that circumcising girls controls women's sexuality and will make them more fertile.  70 million girls aged 10 and up and women had this inflicted on them by 2010 quoted the UN, but another report from the World Health Organization states that it  has  happened to 100-140 million of which 92 million are in Africa.

  Every day at least 6,000 girls were circumcised.  Though more common in Africa, there are Middle East countries where several of the 3 major practices are done.  It is known to exist in northern Saudi Arabia, southern Jordan, northern Iraq (Kurdistan), and Nicholas Birch  claims there is circumstantial evidence for its existence in Syria, western Iran, and southern Turkey. It is also practiced in Indonesia, but largely symbolically by pricking the clitoral hood or clitoris until it bleeds.

On the other side of the coin, Jewish women have status. American Jewish females are referred to jokingly as Jewish American Princesses.  Golda Meier ( 1898-1978) was Prime Minister at age 71 in 1969. She was the world's 3rd woman to attain this.    Israel came in 11 out of 59 developed countries for women in the workplace being equal.  The Sergeants in the IDF often are women.  Deborah, who was Rebekah's nurse way back in 1150 BCE, married to Lapidoth, roused the Israelite tribes to revolt under Barak against the Canaanite king Jabin of Hazor and Sisera, his ally and commander.  The Israelites were victorious.  Ever since then, Jewish women have been listened to and revered.  No Jewish man would think of wanting their women circumcised.  No Jewish woman would allow it to happen.

Whereas men, wherever or whoever they are, do not lose sexual pleasure from being circumcised.  It was part of the covenant with G-d, and Jews do it on the males at the age of 8 days, and Muslims do it at age 13 years.  Many others not of these two faiths do it  for sanitary reasons in a hospital shortly after birth. It's healthier.  If they turned out to be any sexier they'd have to be locked up.  Women who have this destructive procedure done to them do become sexually impotent.  They lose all feeling.  That's the point of why they do it to them.  Then the men don't have to worry about infidelity.

Resource: http://www.honestreporting.ca/hrc-letter-published-in-calgary-herald-says-israel-a-beacon-for-rights-of-women-not-its-serial-abuser#.UNTFSuRLXqH
Oregonian newspaper, 12/21/12 page A9
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Female_genital_mutilation
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women's_rights_in_Saudi_Arabia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women's_rights_in_Iran
http://www.hrw.org/world-report-2012/world-report-2012-syria
http://blog.amnestyusa.org/middle-east/syria-a-tale-of-five-women/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9j4V8uOt9Ng
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/meir.html
The Truth about Muhammad by Robert Spencer

End of World or New Beginning? The View From a Jew's Position

Nadene Goldfoot                                                         

Here we are on rainy December 21, 2012, the day the Mayan calendar ended. It's also the day all the planets are lining up in a straight row with the sun, which caused a lot of eyebows to arch as this only happens every 26,000 years, which the Mayans knew about.  It's also the first day of winter.   They invented this calendar almost 2,000 years ago when Jerusalem was already under Roman occupation.  By the year 70 CE, Jerusalem would fall to the Romans who burned this important city down and marched away all the best of the population.

The Mayans of Central America and Mexico  measured time in 394-year periods called "baktuns."  A few anthropologists believe today is the end of the 13th baktun, (5,122 years) which is most interesting as the Jewish calendar states that this 2012 is the year 5,772. We're only 650 years off from each other.   but others have uncovered Mayan glyphs that speak of dates happening in the future, showing that this was not meant to be the end of the world.  Glad to hear that!  The way the world is going, they could have been right. As far as that goes, We Americans are preparing ourselves as we are all going to fall off the fiscal cliff by the middle of January!  They also counted every 260 day grouping as a Tzolkin, but maintained a 365 day solar year.  I'd never pass their tests on dating.

We had many Jews living in Greece.  The Holocaust killed about 60,000 Greek Jews.  When the Nazis occupied Greece they smashed their graves, but the Greeks have now gathered up 668 fragments of headstones that were buried in Thessaloniki's ground.  Daivd Saltiel said most of the gravestones found dated from about 1850  up to WWII.  Gravestones there not only would have had the names and names of their father in Hebrew but these also listed their occupations; a genealogist's fantastic find.

We knew that Abbas's gaining UN recognition  as a non-member observer state in November spelled problems for Israel as the UN is against Israel no matter what. This move gave the Palestinians undeserved power.  It's their reward for attacking Israel with mortars, missiles and rockets for the past 12 years.  It weakened the UN!

 It looks like Palestinians are now casting aspersions on Netanyahu, intimating they cannot achieve peace with him.  That's because he's very intelligent and not easily scared.  Netanyahu has been asking Abbas to the peace table ever since he's been prime minister in 2009.  He's just not giving away the baby in the bathtub.  Arabs and Jews are used to dealing in the shuk.  They never take the first offer, but the game is to get as much at a lower price as possible.  So Abbas is not dealing with Obama.  He's dealing with someone used to dealing, and that speaks for all Israelis.  They are also Middle-Easterners and shuk educated.

"2013  will see a new Palestinian political track.  There will be new rules in our relationship with Israel and the world," said Hussam Zumlot, Abbas's aid.  The Palestinians are chaffing over Netanyahu's statement about building in Jerusalem, where they think they can take over and make East Jerusalem their capital.  East Jerusalem is part of west, south and north Jerusalem and is the whole capital of Israel.  The city is doing very nicely and is under an Israeli mayor who keeps them all happy along with all the tourists who come to see Jerusalem.  Jews had to wait until 1967 to see East Jerusalem which includes the most dearest and precious areas to Jews, such as the Western wall, the wall that encircled the Temple of Solomon.  That's because Jordan had seized East Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria illegally and held it until 1967 when they and all their Muslim neighbors ganged up and attacked Israel for a sure enough win, which they didn't accomplish.  The outcome was that Israel took both which were on the docket to be part of the Jewish Homeland in the first place until Jordan had taken matters into their own hands.

Why is it that the Palestinians want East Jerusalem in the first place?  Jerusalem is not a part of their Muslim religion.  There is only one place that is holy to them and that is where Mohammed went to heaven on his white horse and came back.  Otherwise, Mecca and Medina are their holy cities.  No, they want it because it is most special to Jews.  When Jordan was occupying, they destroyed Jewish cemeteries, using them as latrines.  They didn't allow Jews or others there for tourism.  Under Israeli rule, all are treated fairly.  Many Israelis  wake up to the call of the muezzin from his minaret 5 times daily for Muslims who pray facing Mecca..  The Palestine Abbas is planning for will be Judenrein, meaning no Jew will be allowed to live there or enter.  We call this apartheid. "Judenrein ("clean of Jews") was a Nazi term to designate an area "cleansed" of Jewish presence during The Holocaust."

Evidently the UN thinks this is okay as they have recognized Palestine which is giving them the green light to do as they wish.  This creates huge problems for Israel as there are villages, towns and cities in Judea and Samaria that are built in zones that were acceptable to be under Israeli rule.  Some Jews have built outside the zones in places that had special Jewish history and were treasured to the most religious of us.  After all, this was the Jewish Kingdom of Judah originally, established after King Solomon died.  The first king of Judah was Rehoboam, his son in 933 BCE.  The place is full of our Jewish history.  

Sixty-Nine year old John Kerry (December 11, 1943) has just been named the new Secretary of State of USA.  Hillary has retired and Susan Rice declined.  We'll soon see how he treats Israel.  Will the new baktun bring us a man with knowledge for a change along with wisdom  and empathy or will he just be following orders?  It should be worth something to be so declared on December 21, 2012.

Resource: http://www.religionfacts.com/islam/things/minaret.htm
Oregonian newspaper 12/21/12 page A9
NBC 10:42 am in Obama's speech
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maya_calendar
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Kerry
http://www.newsmax.com/Headline/house-plan-b-vote/2012/12/20/id/468628?s=al&promo_code=113D7-1

School Massacre's Jewish Victim

Nadene Goldfoot
One of the 26 massacred at  Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Fairfield, Connecticut was a Jewish child, Noah Posner, aged 6, who was laid to rest first according to the Jewish custom of being buried within the first 24 hours.  Rabbi Shaul Praver of Edath Israel Congregation said that the massacre is "proof that much evil is in the world."  He told the worshippers on Saturday that what you've got right now is as good as life is ever going to be; your family, your friends and your house.  The congregation also paid their respects to  6 year old Ben Weiler, another child massacred at the school.  His parents used to volunteer at Edath Israel though he was not Jewish and said good bye to him as well.  20 children and 6 educators were killed in this shooting tragedy.  This New England town of 27,000 will be forever affected by 20 year old killer's rage.  

 Noah's  twin sister, Arielle, who he called his best friend, was in a different classroom.  They have an 8 year old sister, Sophia, and the three of them were always playing together.  Noah's mother is a nurse.

Noah was "smart as a whip," gentle and rambunctious, said his uncle, Alexis Haller of Woodinville, Washington.  "He loved to read and liked to figure out how things worked mechanically.  His birthday was 2 weeks ago and he received a new Wii.  He would have become a great man and would have grown up to be a great dad."

His mother would tell him she loved him and he would answer, "Not as much as I love you, Mom."

Resource:  Arutz Sheva news@israelnationalnews.com
Oregonian newspaper; 12/17/12 page A4 Victims:
http://www.cnn.com/2012/12/14/us/connecticut-school-shooting/index.html

The Jewish Ghetto of Florence, Italy

Nadene Goldfoot
Jews have been in Italy since the beginning of the Roman period as it and Judah and Israel were so close on the same Mediterranean Sea.   The Romans had attacked Jerusalem in 70 CE.  Then in 132 CE was Bar Kokhba's last stand in Judea after which in 135 the Romans named Judea and Israel "Palaestina."  10,000 Jewish slaves were taken to Rome to help build the coliseum.  The Romans even built the Arch of Titus as a reminder of their victory over the Jews.

 "The position of Jews in Italy worsened considerably under Pope Innocent III (1198–1216). This pope threatened with excommunication those who placed or maintained Jews in public positions, and he insisted that every Jew holding office should be dismissed. The deepest insult was the order that every Jew must always wear, conspicuously displayed, a special yellow badge."

A Jewish community was founded in Florence in 1437.  This was almost a whole century after the Black Death (bubonic plague)  had covered Europe and Jews were the scapegoats, sought out and many were burned alive at the stakes. In this particular year the Jews were invited to establish loan-banks for the benefit of the poor.  There was violence against the Jews in 1458 and 1471. 1492 was the year of the Spanish Inquisition where Jews were expelled in Spain.  Many moved to nearby Portugal.   By 1495 they were expelled from Florence.  The same thing happened again in 1527.

However, they flourished under the Medici. This was a political dynasty which later was the royal house.  It was a banking family, and became the richest family in Italy.  "The family originated in the Mugello region of the Tuscan countryside, gradually rising until they were able to found the Medici Bank. The bank was the largest in Europe during the 15th century, seeing the Medici gain political power in Florence — though officially they remained simply citizens rather than monarchs".

The Grand Duke Cosimo I sought the advice of Jacob Abravanel, a Sephardic Jew living in Ferrara. Abravanel convinced Cosimo to guarantee the rights and privileges of Spanish and Portugese Jews, and other Levantines who settled on his borders. This was the start of the growth of the Sephardic Jewish community in Florence.

The handsome Grand Duke Cosimo I enforced the papal policy of repression and made them wear a Jewish badge in 1567.    "Once Cosimo received the title of grande duke of Tuscany, his policies toward the Jews changed for the worse. He forced Jews to wear badges in 1567, closed the Tuscan border to non-resident Jews in 1569, shut down Jewish banks in 1570 and established a ghetto in 1571." This is where Jews were locked into their neighborhood at night.  This ghetto condition went on till the invasion of the French revolutionary armies with Napoleon at the end of the 18th century.  By the end of the 1700's there were less than 1,000 Jews living in Florence's ghetto.

In 1849, the Jews were partly emancipated with this process being completed by 1860.  France was the seat of the Jewish spiritual revival early in the 20th century, and the Collegio Rabbinico Italiano was situated there from 1899 to 1930.  In 1931 there were 3,000 Jews living in Florence.

During the German occupation of 1943-45, nearly 300 Jews were deported to death cams and the beautiful synagogue was severely damaged.  By 1990 the Jewish population was only 1,100.

In Portland, Oregon, the Jewish and Italian immigrants arriving in the early 1900's congregated in South Portland.  On one corner was an Italian deli which would either be across the street or next door to the Jewish deli.  The children attended the same school, Failing Grade School where they all did well.

Resource: The Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Medici
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosimo_I_de'_Medici,_Grand_Duke_of_Tuscany
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/vjw/Florence.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Jews_in_Italy
http://www.initaly.com/regions/ethnic/jewish.htm

When Nebuchadnezzar of Babylonia Took Jerusalem

Nadene Goldfoot
Athol Bloomer is writing that the House of David continued on in Babylon as a ruling house who had their own court and ruled over Jewish communities of the East until the beginning of the 15th century when Tamerlane came along in 1401.  Then a branch of the family moved to Baghdad to lead the Jewish community until 1700.  He's partially right but exaggerates.

There have been rumors all along in history that the Lost Tribes of Israel are indeed in the Royalty of Britain.  Lots of people claim to be of the Lost Tribes of Israel, but this is the first claim to be from the house of Judah, which would be David's house.

From the Tanakh (Bible) Kings II 25-
King Zedekiah Ben Josiah was in his 9th year of ruling in the 10th month of the 10th day that Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylonia and his entire army came to wage war against Jerusalem and camped nearby.  They built a siege tower around it and was under siege for two years.  On the  9th day of the 4th month the famine in the city was critical as there was no food left.  the city was breached and all the men of war left during the night by way of the gate between the walls, which was near the king's garden.  The Chaldeans were upon the city all around and the king fled by way of the Arabah.

The Chaldeans chased the king and overtook him at the plains of Jericho and his entire army left him.  The Chaldeans seized the king and brought him up to the king of Babylonia at Riblah, and they judged him then.  They slaughtered his sons before his eyes;  Nebuchadnezzazr blinded his eyes, then bound him in leg-irons and brought him to Babylonia. Zedekiah was the uncle of King Jehoiachin but his original name was Mattaniah.

Earlier, Jehoiachin (called Coniah or Jeconiah originally)  (reined from 597 BCE)  had become king at age 18 and ruled for 3 months and 10 days in Jerusalem.  He was the son of Nehushta, daughter of Einathan of Jerusalem. His father was King Jehoiakim.   He was evil like his father, called Eliakim originally.  He was the son of Josiah and reigned from 608 to 598 BCE.  who was made a king by the Pharaoh Necoh following his brother Jehoahaz.  He had been a subject of Egypt for 3 years, but then had become a Babylonian vassal in 601 BCE.   Jeremiah had warned him not to join up with a pro-Egyptian party, who thought this king was a tyrannical oppressor anyway, but he did.  Jehoiakim died when Jerusalem was under siege by the Babylonians in 598. BCE.

 Nebuchadnezzar had laid siege on Jerusalem then as well.  This time, the young king actually went out to Nebuchadnezzar who captured him  in the 8th year of his reign.  He also looted the Temple treasures and the palace, and took all the golden objects that Solomon had made for the sanctuary.  He then exiled all the people of Jerusalem, officers, soldiers amounting to 10,000 people including artisans and Torah scholars.  He left only the poorest of the common people.  Jehoiachin was taken to Babylonia along with the king's mother, his wives, officers and noblemen of the land.  This amounted to 7,000 soldiers, 1,000 artisans and gatekeepers (Torah scholars) who were all mighty warriors.  He then made Zedekiah king in Jerusalem.

The king is now without sight and his house is destroyed.  The 19th year of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylonia, on the 7th day of the 5th month, the chief executioner came to Jerusalem, burned the Temple, palace and all the buildings of Jerusalem and every great house.  The army smashed the walls surrounding the city.  Everyone was taken into exile except some of the poor workers who were left to  be workers in vineyards and in the fields.

The soldiers found copper and took it to Babylonia.  Gold and silver items were also stolen.  Some important men were killed.  Those who remained in Judah had Gedaliah, son of Ahikam, son of Shaphan over them.  The Israelite officers were in hiding and came out when they heard Gedaliah was the ruler who told them to serve the Babylonian king and all will be well for you. Babylon was the capital of a small city state of Mesopotamia, named Babylonia, located in what is now Iraq, near the modern town of Hilla and on the eastern bank of the Euphrates river. Babylon was founded at the end of the 3rd millennium BC, and lasted through the 2nd century AD.

In the 7th month, Ishmael, son of Nethaniah, son of Elishama of the royal family and 10 men  killed Gedaliah and the Jews and Chaldeans who were with him.  All the population arose and went to Egypt for they feared the Chaldeans.  Killing Gedalia was the final step of the Destruction, since it caused the land to be denuded of its remaining children, who fled in fear of being punished for Gedalia's death.

Now for Athol Bloomer's new theory examined:.

 During the 37th year of exile on the 27th day of the 12th month, Evil-merodach, king of Babylonia, in his coronation year, released Jehoiachin, former king of Judah from prison. For the rest of Jehoiachin's life he was treated well.  He was even given an allowance, and they ate meals together.  Nothing is said that he was to continue his royal House of David in Babylon.  That's all Bloomer's conjecture.  Evil merodach reigned from the Jewish year of 3363 to 3386.  This is the year of 5773.  That was 2,387 years ago or 375 BCE.  The Temple was destroyed in 3,338.  By 3,408 the Israelites were given the opportunity to complete the Temple.  .  The division of the kingdom into Israel and Judah took place in the year 2,964.

The kings of Israel were few before they divided.   Saul ben Kish, Ish-Bosheth ben Saul, David ben Jesse, and Solomon ben David were the original kings. David and his son Solomon were related to create the house of David.  Saul and his son were not related to them. Jeroboam, son of Solomon revolted against Rehoboam of Judah below in 933-912 BCE and thus the land was divided into 2 states.  Then there was Nadab, Baasha, Elah, Zimri, Omri, Ahab, Ahaziah, Jehoram, Jehu, Jehoahaz, Jehoash, Jeroboam, Zechariah, Shallum, Menahem, Pekahiah, Pekah, and Hoshea in 730-721 BCE.

The kings of Judah were many.  They were Rehoboam ben Solomon, Abijam ben Rehoboam, Asa ben Abijam, Jehoshaphat ben Asa, Jehoram ben Jehoshaphat, Ahaziah ben Jehoram, Athaliah mother of Ahaziah, Jehoash ben Ahaziah, Amaziah ben Jehoash, Uzziah ben Amaziah, Jotham ben Uzziah, Ahaz ben Jotham, Hezekiah ben Ahaz, Manasseh ben Hezekiah, Amon ben Manasseh, Josiah ben Amon, Jehoahaz ben Josiah, Jehoiakim ben Josiah, Jehoiachin ben Jehoiakim, Zedekiah ben Josiah.

The last Babylonian king was Belshazzar who ruled from 3386-3389.   After that the history goes to Persia-Media with Darius the Mede who defeated Belshazzar and ruled from 3389-3390.  Then there was Cyrus who authorized the return of the Israelite exiles and the rebuilding of the Temple.  He ruled from 3390 to 3393.  Finally we come to Queen Esther's story with King Ahasuerus, husband of Esther and he ruled from 3393 to 3407.  Their son is said to be Darius the Persian who authorized the Temple's completion and he ruled from 3407-3442.

Update: 6/23/14:  According to Babylonian records, the eldest king of Babylon was Nabonidus (556-539 BCE) whose eldest son, Belshazzar, acted as viceroy during his father's lengthy stays in Arabia.

The Ten Lost Tribes of Israel had been exiled previously and constituted a large Jewish population, many of whom remained in Babylon even after Cyrus permitted a return to Israel.  Certain cities like Nehardea, Misibis, Mahoza had an entirely Jewish population.

In the 1st century BCE a Jewish state was set up around Nehardea by 2 outlaw brothers of Nehardea, Babylonia, Anilai (Anilaos) and Asinai (Asinaios) and this lasted for some years.  They founded a small state on the Upper Euphrates and ruled in 20-40 CE.  They were supported by Artabanus III, king of Parthia.  Their raids led to anti-Jewish feeling among the Babylonian populace, and their prestige declined as a result of friction between them and their subjects.  Anilai was defeated by Mithridates, son in law of the Parthian king, and his supporters were all killed.  His defeat had disastrous results for the Jews of Seleucia.  I have no facts showing they were from the House of David.

During the Roman occupation, the Babylonian Jews rose against the emperor Trajan who ruled 98-117 CE. He ordered a massacre of Jews in 116 in Mesopotamia.  Judea was kept under firm control by his general Lucius Quietus. Various risings ended the good life attained in Egypt, Cyrenaica and Cyprus.

 Under both Persian and Parthian rule, the Jews of Babylon enjoyed an extensive measure of internal autonomy, being headed by an exilarch of Davidic descent who was the king's representative, while the community had a council of elders governing them.  This is when the Babylonian Talmud was written.   Persecutions took place in the 5th century.  400 CE led to the Jewish revolt under Mar Zutra II.  The Talmud was finished at this time.  Jewish position continued to be difficult and then the Arab conquest took over in the 7th century.

Again, watch what people write about our Jewish history and check it out.  Look for the references they use.

Resource: The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
The Tanach-The Stone Edition
The House of David in Babylon by Athol Bloomer
http://www.britam.org/Tribesman/AncestryAthol.html

History Channel's Take on Manna Made by Alien Machine

Nadene Goldfoot
Usually I love the History channel.  I was watching the History channel on TV this morning and a program was on telling about the Exodus, so naturally I was interested. They  stated that the Egyptians didn't allow the Jews to leave Egypt, which was wrong.  The Pharoah was finally worn down and consented to their leaving after many plagues hit their land, but changed his mind after they had left.  The Egyptians met up with them since they were on horseback and the Israelites weren't. If you saw the movie, you should remember the scene where the water parted allowing the Israelites to cross, but covered up the Egyptians chasing after them.

However,  the point the writers were making was that aliens from outer space helped to create Manna. "Oh, really?"  The narrators look like they might have come from outer space more than they look like Torah scholars.

They went on to say that Moses got some machine from Egypt before they left, of course, obviously created by the aliens, who had sympathy for their future starvation.  Where did they get such wild information about these seeds, they said manna was?  Why from the Zohar, of course.  Some scientist even showed a sketch he had drawn of the machine from the information given in the Zohar.

Not having a Zohar in my library in my house, I got out my trusty Haftorah, Volume I, and turned to Exodus XVI 11 and read..
 G-d, speaking to Moses, called it bread.  "In the morning there was a layer of dew round about the camp.  And when the layer of dew was gone up, behold upon the face of the wilderness,  fine, scale-like things, fine as the hoar-frost on the ground.  And when the children of Israel saw it, they said one to another; "What is it?"--for they knew not what it was.  And Moses said unto them:  "It is the bread which the Lord hath given you to eat."

Then they were told to gather it every man according to his eating; an omer a head, according to the number of your persons, shall ye take it, every man for them that are in his tent.  ...and Moses said unto them;  "Let no man leave of it till the morning."  For those who did, it turned into worms and was rotten.  They gathered it every morning, and as the sun waxed hot, it melted.

When the Sabbath was coming the people were told to bake and to seethe what they had and all that remaineth over lay up for you to be kept until the morning, and it did not rot or have worms.  Six days they were to gather it, but not on the 7th day.   And the house of Israel called the name thereof  Manna, and it was like coriander seed, white, and the taste of it was like wafers made with honey.

Moses said that they were to keep an omerful ( 1/10th part of an ephah) of it throughout the generations so they may see the bread fed to you in the wilderness. ( The term "omer" was a new term.  It is not found in the Torah anywhere whereas the term "ephah" was the well-known name of a measure.    He told Aaron to take a jar and put an omerful of manna in and lay it up before the Lord to be kept throughout your generations.  They ate manna for 40 years of their wandering before entering Canaan. Moses gave the complete history of the manna up to the end of his own life at age 120.  Then Joshua led the Israelites into Canaan.

According to the History channel, the reason we Jews have a Sabbath day of rest is because that's the day Moses had to clean out the machine so that it would work for the rest of the week.  Here I picture Moses preaching to rest on the 7th day while he himself, the role model, was busy cleaning a machine.  Sure!

First of all, the Zohar is on too high a level even for me to read and understand.  It is a book of mystical thought known as Kabbalah.  It contains commentaries on the Torah for people who have already achieved a high spiritual degree in understanding  the origin of their souls.  It's made up of allegories and legends, but it's like for the level of PhD's, not people unaccustomed to Jewish thought.  It's like starting with a doctoral course when you should start with a 101 course.

I have a feeling that the writers on History's programming were first digging for something to prove aliens from outer space were in on the Manna, came across some allegory and used that as their proof.  I don't believe this was very scientific of them and actually is making fun of the event.  This all goes to prove that you can't believe everything you see and hear on TV, even passed off as "history."

The lesson for us to derive from this section of the Torah is to have trust in G-d, belief in the providence and mercy of G-d.

Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_(TV_channel)
 Pentateuch and Haftorahs Volume I Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus
http://www.greatdreams.com/grlwhat.htm on Zohar and manna machine
http://www.alienexistence.com/index.php?topic=1267.0

Israel Building Plans Create Spark in Europe

Nadene Goldfoot
The morning newspaper is just coming out with the old news with headline : "Israeli settlement plans spark international uproar."   Israel announces it's plans to build new apartments, for that's all the room they have to build, not individual homes, and the US announces that their actions are "especially damaging" to peace prospects."  Did the US tell Palestinians that their rockets, mortars and missiles shot into Israel's communities were "especially damaging" to the peace prospects?  

Did the rest of the world ever come out and condemn the Gazans of shelling southern Israel and of late shelling Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, slightly more north?  For the past 12 years Israel has had to handle this problem alone in the press and in political circles.  Doesn't anyone realize that such war-like actions damages future peace prospects?  9 countries must have to have the courage to stand with Israel against the Palestinians gaining observer status in the UN and the USA was one, but outwardly they can't take the time to check out international law and stand by it and be the beacon of righteousness.  .

The Arabs have decided not to make peace way back in August 1967 at the Khartoom, Sudan Summit where they decided to never have peace, nor to recognize Israel and nixed any negotiations.  The Palestinians, both in Gaza and "West Bank" Judea and Samaria have been drooling over their plans to take Jerusalem as said in speeches, 9 to 1 that they mean all of Jerusalem, not just East Jerusalem.  Yet the Obama administration harshly criticized Israel, it's only Mideast ally over their building plans.  Who are they trying to impress?

They continue to remind us  that they have taken the stand for a long time of opposing Israeli. "settlement" activity and east Jerusalem construction.  Since June 10, 1967, this part of Jerusalem has been united with the rest of the capital.  That's the past 45 years 5 months and 24 days to today that the city is whole.  Do they think that Israel is going to sit back and allow east Jerusalem to be annexed to a people who will not even recognize them let alone negotiate?  Hamas's only goal is to destroy Israel.

 The state they just recognized in the UN is divided  both politically in sporadic moments  with 2 different leaders as well as by land mass.  It's so reminiscent of the 1920's when Arab leaders then demanded their country to rule from Britain's mandate and they got it.

The US goes on to state that "We oppose all unilateral actions, including settlement activity and housing construction as they complicate efforts to resume direct, bilateral negotiations and risk prejudging the outcome of those negotiations."

So that means that Israel has been a target since 1948 offering peace and giving up land in order to make such offers tempting.  In fact, Israel is always giving and the Palestinians are always taking.  What have they done in order to achieve peace and do they really want it?  Are their words reliable?  Are they trustworthy?

The Middle East produces sons that are tough nuts to crack.  Amadinejad in Iran  is unbendable in his hatred for Jews and plans to use atomic warfare to obliterate Israel.  President Mohammed Morsi of Egypt  has taken unrestricted powers in a Pharaoh-type ruling and is the past head of Muslim Brotherhood who plot to wipe Israel off the map.  Assad in Syria has has driven UN staff out and has chemical warfare stashed that they say won't be used on their own people but...probably meaning it for Israel, and Iraq had Saddam Hussain.  Is it a wonder that Netanyahu has also had to take a stern approach to the rights Israel has in its own capital?  Is it a wonder that international law backs his rights in plotting such  "evil" construction of apartments for a growing population?  Yee gads, he's building homes and not building rockets to smash people!  Israel is not about to wait another 100 years for the Palestinians to accept Israel and decide to live in peace before they build and live in their own land.

Let them sit back and see what a country will do when they are adamant about not making peace with them.  Arabs  lost land in 1967, not because Israel attacked them but because they attacked Israel and lost it all.  Not making peace only gets them mired deeper and deeper.  Israel has withheld attacking people with rockets like they have tried to do  to Israel with their blasting away with rockets, mortars and missiles, and this is one legitimate way Israel can punish their behavior and at the same time live productively in this era.

Netanyahu, a man not controlled by upcoming elections as some are,  added up all the facts and decided to go ahead with life in Israel.  Our motto is L'Chaim;  to Life!

Resource: Oregonian newspaper 12/4/12  page A7

Legally, Are New Apartments Fatal Blows to Peace?

Nadene Goldfoot
Abbas went through with his threat of going to the UN to get special recognition of observer status.  Netanyahu went through with his threat of announcing that his government will build 3,000 housing units in a suburb of Jerusalem, the El corridor, an undeveloped plot of land between Mt. Scopus, home of Hebrew University, and Maale Adumim, a Jewish neighborhood.  .  The capitals of Europe are having fits that Israel is doing this in their own capital.  British foreign Minister William Hague (b: 1961) said that Israeli "settlements are illegal under international law."  He's a graduate of Oxford in Philosophy, politics and economics, but I didn't see law listed.  Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton (b: 1947) , Yale Law School graduate,  joins Hague in this legal dispute.  Her interests were in children and medicine.

Israel has tried to get peace terms with the Palestinian Arabs for 64 years to no avail.  They still refuse to come to the table.  Israel feels it has every right to build on their own land.  The Arabs have been coveting all of Jerusalem, and right now say they intend to make East Jerusalem their capital, but to their people they broadcast that soon "Jerusalem" will be theirs.    East Jerusalem was in the hands of the Jordanians illegally in the first place.  Now Jerusalem is whole again with one mayor.

Argument Against Building

1. Palestinians want their future state to have geographic contiguity with defined borders and a functioning government.  Borders of Maale Adumim stretch out into the Judean desert to just a few miles from Jericho to the north and the Dead Sea to the south.  They say it will cut off the northern West Bank from the southern West Bank.

2. "Settlements are illegal under international law."  statement from foreign Minister Hague.  

Argument for Building

1. This is not "Palestinian Land". There was never a state or country of Palestine.  It was Judea, taken over by Romans and ultimately in the hands of the Ottoman Empire who left it as a wasteland.
2. Jordan took Judea and Samaria (West Bank) and East Jerusalem illegally.
2. By looking at the map one can see this above argument is ridiculous.  Unless Israel plans to vacate Maale Adumim, city of 39,000 people in a peace deal which is not in the works, the neighborhood will need to be connected to the rest of Israel.
3.  "After King Hussein’s disastrous decision to ally himself with Egypt’s Nasser during the prelude to June 1967, Jordan was evicted from the lands it had stolen in 1948. This ultimately led King Hussein  to disavow any further claim to the lands he had lost in 1967. Eventually, this stance was formalized on July 31, 1988.

4. "Eugene Rostow (1913-2002), former dean of Yale Law School and undersecretary of state for political affairs in 1967 during the Six-Day War, argued that the West Bank should be considered “unallocated territory,” once part of the Ottoman Empire. From this perspective, Israel, rather than simply “a belligerent occupant,” had the status of a “claimant to the territory.  To Rostow, “Jews have a right to settle in it under the Mandate,” a right he declared to be “unchallengeable as a matter of law.”

This argument against building was decimated 10 years ago by Julius Stone (1907-1985), English- born professor of Jurisprudence and international law, last at Hastings College of Law at University of California.  .  David Phillips, from NE University School of Law, a law professor and author of Commentary article below,  comes to the same legal conclusions. So did Eugene Rostow.

The conclusion that these eminent law professors came to was that Hague's cut and dry statement would be incorrect.  What is a fatal blow for peace is to take such a position that building homes equates war.  What creates war is not coming to the peace table to iron out difficulties and be determined to live in peace with one's adversary.

Alan Dershowitz (b: 1938), Harvard lawyer and author said that peace could be had if there is a "renunciation of all forms of violence, including terrorism, and an undertaking by the Palestinian state to dismantle terrorist groups and take all reasonable efforts to prevent acts of terrorism, just as Israel has undertaken to prevent and punish Jewish terrorism against Palestinains.  Then, and only then could there ever be a division of greater Jerusalem, with the Arab part becoming the capital of the Palestinian state and the Jewish part the recognized capital of Israel. "   It looks like that day is not on the horizon.  

Resource :http://blog.standforisrael.org/articles/europes-obsession-with-jewish-housing
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julius_Stone
http://www.commentarymagazine.com/article/the-illegal-settlements-myth/ by Prof. David M. Phillips
http://www.northeastern.edu/law/academics/faculty/directory/phillips.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugene_V._Rostow
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Hague
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/dec/01/hillary-clinton-william-hague-israel-settlements
Book: The Case For Peace-how the Arab-Israeli conflict can be resolved by Alan Dershowitz page 2
http://www.alandershowitz.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Dershowitz

One Reason Why Arabs Refuse to Recognize Israel: Caste System in 1920's Palestine

Nadene Goldfoot
India may have had a caste system going on for a long time, but the Arabs thought they had it too, in Palestine in the 1920's.  They thought Jews were their dogs. Only when they said that, it wasn't the typical American outlook on their pets.  It was a nasty derogative term.

At this time the French and the British held the mandates as to what to do with the land.  In March 1920, an Arab mob assaulted Jews in Jerusalem while calling out to slaughter the Jews, and that they were affronted with Jewish presence by chanting,  "Palestine is our land and the Jews are our dogs."  The Jews that lived in Arab countries were of a lower status or caste;  dhimmis, or 2nd class citizens who had to pay more in taxes  the Muslims.  They were restricted in many areas.

They felt that the fall of the Ottoman Empire had changed the order of things and word was out that the Jews were coming to live in the Jewish National Home and would stop being subordinates.  To the Arab, the Jew was a 2nd-class local who dared to overturn the natural order.  Whatever else they aspired to didn't affect the Arabs such as recent immigration in greater volume.

So the Arabs who lived in the area would cause riots and attack Jews with this call of "slaughter the Jews" and they would "ransack homes, rape women and destroy synagogues.  They killed the old people they found who were natives.  Riots usually caused hundreds of injured Jews as well.  Then the Arabs  would turn around and blame the Jews for starting the riot by cursing and blaspheming them them which led to killing Arab women and children.  The British would side with the Arabs, always blaming the Jews.  Chaim Weizmann's office was raided in such an aftermath.  Zeev Jabotinsky, leader of the Haganah and his men were sentenced to years of hard labor.  Jewish immigration was stopped.

This is what the Jewish people have been facing from the Arab people

1. Rejection of the Jewish right to exist as a nation

2. Violence against unprotected Jews

3. Lies to justify the violence

4. Moral equivalence between murdered Jews and dead attackers.  

A large riot happened in 1929.  Arab murderers said they were defending the Haram el-sharif.  Tension had been growing at the Western Wall where Jews came to pray.  This was what remained of Solomon's Temple.  Arabs dropped stones and garbage from the Temple Mount onto the Jews praying below.  They would hurdle nasty lies inciting Muslims to protect their holy places from the scheming Jews who wanted to occupy haram and desecrate it.  They would then call Jews rapists and murderers of infants.  By August 23, a Friday, thousands of Muslims listened to an inflammatory speech during their religious service, ran out of the Mount bent on murdering Jews, which they kept doing throughout the week.  133 Jews were killed.  Only a few were armed and trying to defend themselves.  116 Arab died mostly by the British security forces trying to quell the riot.  

In Jerusalem's Old City, hundreds of Jews whose families had never left the Holy Land and had been living in the Muslim Quarter were evacuated by the British and never were allowed to return.  Hebron, where our Patriarchs are buried, suffered the worst.  Jews had been living in Hebron for the past 2,100 years out of the past 3,200 years.  That only because they were not allowed to be there after Hadrian died for 550 years.  Hebron was the first capital of King David.  The Jews of Hebron were old family folk, and not Zionists.  In 1929 the Arabs  took out their fury at the stronger Zionists by attacking these Jewish Hebronites that were defenseless.  64-66 Jews were killed.  The British then forced the Arabs to bury the "Mutilated bodies of the murdered Jews" and they sang as they did this.  They could not see Jews as anything other than a subject minority and they decided on war at this time.  By murdering defenseless Jews who had been their neighbors demonstrated that there is no distinction between anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism.  

The Guardian: January 3, 2001

Barak's government had to make concessions as Palestinian violence was worse.  Faisal Bodi, a British Muslim journalist went back to original sources.  Citing G-d's biblical promise to Abraham, "unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the Euphrates,"  he expounded that whatever G-d meant, he must not have intended the land to be taken by force from its original inhabitants.  Having thus discarded the ancient Jewish claim, he then rejected their modern one.  This was under the title of "Israel Simply Has No Right to Exist.".  He said that even though the Arab had signed the Oslo agreement, they did so not realizing that Israel had come about falsely.  He then said that Palestinians could be prepared to follow these leaders in this" intellectual amnesia."  Bodi wasn't correct in his facts or his assumption about G-d.    

Arabs are intent to say that Jews have never lived in the land.  Their maps in schools do not even show Israel, but just all of it is labeled "Palestine."  Even though archaeology digs prove that Jews lived there, even though history books, Josephus, the Roman Jewish writer  and the Bible prove the point of our history, Arabs repeat this over and over so that even the UN has become brainwashed.  It is up to us to keep reminding the world that Israel is a nation honorably crowned as one with the world and has as much right to exist as the United States does.  

Resource: Book:  right to Exist by Yaacov Lozowick, a moral defense of Israel's wars p. 64-66

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dhimmi

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4267724,00.html

Why Israel Goes Ahead with Building Around Jerusalem

Nadene Goldfoot
Jews do not dwell on the afterlife, they work on their morality, which is something we care deeply about.  "This has been the source of our strength in the face of enduring adversity."  What goes on in Israel is under the auspices of a highly moral people, though it doesn't always agree with the wishes of the United States.

Israel has decided to go ahead with" plans for building in an area east of Jerusalem on the very day that the UN General Assembly voted overwhelmingly to upgrade the Palestinians' status.  The government would pursue "preliminary zoning and planning preparations."  This development would separate the cities of Ramallah and Bethlehem from Jerusalem--and prevent the possibility of a viable, contiguous Palestinian State.  El, the new neighborhood, would connect the large town of Maale Adumim to Jerusalem.  3,000 new housing units would be built in parts of East Jerusalem and Judea-Samaria.  "This is a new act of defiance from the Israeli government," Saab Erekat, Palestinian chief negotiator commented.

Goldfoot in her apartment in Safed on bottom floor,
notice bars on windows to keep out terrorists-put in by apartment builders.
and metal covering of windows.  Luckily, I never had to pull them down.  

Why now?  It's quite obvious.  Abbas went ahead to the UN to gain status for Palestine despite the objections of the USA and Israel  since this jeopardized the 2 state solution.  This 2 state solution cannot come about until the Palestinians quit shelling Israel and recognize Israel, which they refuse to do.  They have it in the Hamas charter to destroy Israel and take it over.  It cannot be a final Palestine for just Abbas's realm of Judea and Samaria (West Bank) alone.  Abbas has periodically shook hands with Hamas and joined in their efforts.  Right now since Abbas gained the vote in the UN, Khaled Meshaal of Hamas wants to unite with Abbas again.  That would mean that they again both  return to the state of plotting to destroy Israel.

Abbas went ahead to seek recognition for a state divided with 2 leaders on two separate pieces of land, east and west of Israel despite Mashaal's being against it.  They are not a unified twosome.   They refuse to negotiate and outright claim East Jerusalem as belonging to them.  It's part of Israel's capital.  They have plans to oust all Jews from Judea-Samaria.  It is to be Judenrein.  They have plans to bring in millions of so called descendants to live there in their place.  It just won't work.  The whole thing is a plot to destroy Israel and even a kindergarten child can understand this.

Israel has tried for 64 years to have a peace agreement with the so called Palestinians.  Since 1967, when Israel was attacked by all her neighbors to be driven out and won, much to the chagrin of the Arabs, she rightly owns the territory they anted into the pot; East Jerusalem and the West Bank and Gaza.  Jordan had previously held East Jerusalem and the Judea-Samaria.  Jews could not enter to see their holy sites at all.  Under Israel's ruling, all religions have benefited and are welcome; all except terrorists who want to blow things up, that is.

Israel has been fighting wars against a belligerent group of Muslims since its inception in 1948.

The 1967 War is of great importance because this is when Israel gained land.  This is when Egypt (United Arab Republic title), Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon attacked with 465,000 soldiers, 2,800 tanks and 800 aircraft that surrounded Israel with the promised backup, according to Nasser, of Iraq, Algeria, Kuwait, Sudan and the whole Arab Nation.  Israel was a little slow. It took them 6 whole days to win.  Johnson warned Israel not to go it alone, which they had to as the armies were at their doorstep and they found themselves alone.  Of course the USA remained neutral. Johnson imposed an arms embargo on the region (France, Israel's other main arms supplier also embargoed arms to Israel). If they ever planned to help, it was too late.  It was over.  By contrast, the Soviets were supplying massive amounts of arms to the Arabs. Simultaneously, the armies of Kuwait, Algeria , Saudi Arabia and Iraq  were contributing troops and arms to the Egyptian, Syrian and Jordanian fronts.   The Soviets were supplying massive amounts of arms to the Arabs.

  In 1973 they were attacked and that war was titled the "Yom Kippur War, because they were attacked on the highest holiest day of the year for Jews, Yom Kippur, when they asked "G-d for forgiveness for any sins they may have done.  It is a day of fasting.  Jews were in synagogues in Israel.  Many were killed in the ferocious war.

By 1978 Camp David with American, Egyptian and Israeli leaders was created.  Menachem Begin was Prime Minister then.  It was to bring about peace.  Young men-serving in the army never knew about peace when this was happening and dreamt of having a normal country.

1980 was when I made aliyah to Israel.  After living and studying in Haifa for 10 months, I moved to Safed in the northern Galilee, quite close to the Lebanon border where English teachers were needed.  My apartment was on the ground level with metal bars on the windows, an attempt to keep out marauding terrorists bent on killing.  On the way up the hill to my new home I passed an apartment who had just been missed by a rocket from the terrorists which landed behind it, causing a big hole in the ground.  I found out that our apartment and all others came equipped with a bomb shelter.

This turned out to be a life no American could possibly understand and thank G-d they've never had to experience.  Israelis know every second that they are under attack.  They have not been able to enter any store forever without having their handbags checked.  They know that they could be called up into reporting to duty at any time.  Every citizen serves in the IDF until age 55, at least that was the limit when I was there.  They go into service for a month out of every year, a time called "Millueem".  Women serve as well, though not on the front lines-again, that was the rule in 1980.  1993 was the Oslo Accords and was when Israel dismantled control over Palestinians.  Barak offered so much but Arafat turned them all down without any counteroffers.   On September 27th 19 year old David Biri, an IDF soldier from Jerusalem was killed by a bomb in Netzarim in the Gaza Strip.  Barak had offered to dismantle and evacuate Gaza along with other neighborhoods there but this had been ignored.  Israel suffered casualties that were senseless since the Palestinians were fighting for something they could have had without bloodshed.

The 2nd intifada had begun.  

July 2000 came with Prime Minister Ehud Barak going to a 2nd set of Camp David peace talks along with Bill Clinton and PLO chairman Yasser Arafat.  Would there be an agreement?  From 2001 till a few weeks ago with a cease fire, Gaza Hamas terrorists have been shelling southern Israel.  Evidently that was their answer.

So it's important to have a neighbor who doesn't want to kill you.  It's like having a rule in your neighborhood that serial killers have to be in prison, not on your doorstep.  That's so you can sleep at night.  Otherwise, you have to stand guard and live in a fort.

What the USA and UN really need to do is look into the reason why the Arabs will not accept Israel.  What's holding them back?  As Lozowick comments, "it is a scandal of calling into question a living nation's existence (Israel).  This ought to shame the prevaricators and defamers, whether they be professors in universities, media distorters, "peace activists" who justify terror, morally deformed intellectuals, self-deceiving unconfessed haters, or merely the herd of the easily led."   This world has become full of malice and mendacity and has lost its knowledge of morality.

Resource:  Oregonian  Newspaper, 12/1/12 page A4  Israeli plans for settlement defy US, UN, Palestinians
Book:  Right to Exist by Yaacov Lozowick, 1st chapter.
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/History/67_War.html