Why Israelis Are Such a Happy Lot

Nadene Goldfoot                                                                    

Nadene Goldfoot
They are home!  They waited for 2,000 years to come home.  They have been through hell to get here.   That's why they are so happy.  John F. Kerry doesn't understand this.  He's complaining about Jews being a happy and contented lot.  He thinks this is why it's they who won't end the conflict with the Palestinians.  That's like not understanding that a horse pulls the carriage, not the carriage that pulls the horse.

He just doesn't get it at all.  The fact of the matter is that Israelis know that it's the Palestinians who have been saying NO to having their own state ever since Israel was created.  After 65 years of hearing NO, and realizing that they think their whole state of Israel is being "occupied" and that they want all of the land, not just a portion, they are not holding their breath waiting for the peace table to be occupied.

Daniel Pipes wrote that in a recent survey, 93% of Jewish Israelis are proud to be Israeli.  I don't know what happened to that other 7%.  Maybe they didn't understand the question.  It's hard to believe.  Even with the threat of extinction from Iran, things are bubbling along quite well for Israel.  The shekel is not devaluing.

How do we know they are happy?  Usually, western women have 2 children only in a marriage and Israelis are more western-minded.  To maintain their population, they need 2.1 children each.  Their birthrate is 2.65.  Though the orthodox are having large families like our Catholic families in the USA have had, it's also the secular families that are having lots of children, too. I wrote an article about their sperm count falling.  Evidently it's not hindering their  production of a family.

All this time oil has never been discovered in Israel, where it lies in all the surrounding states.  Israelis have had to mine their own minds and be the most inventive to make up for this loss.  However, gas and oil finds have now been found with more modern technology and it could now be the most valuable country in the world.  In a way that's bad, because now Muslim countries will really want to take it away from the Jews.  It should, however, enhance Israel's position.  Jordan should be happy because they are still peaceful neighbors and at times have scratched each other's back.  This would mean they could rely on Israel for this energy.

When I lived in Israel in 1980-85, Iran and Iraq were fighting each other, leaving Israel alone.  We only had the Lebanon War to contend with at the time, and I, as a shaking American Jewish princess had my taste of war and fear.  Today it is Egypt and Syria who are very busy with their own internal problems to work on, keeping them off of Israel's back.  There are lots of threats riding the airwaves, but Israel has a most dependable service core such as the IDF, the best in the world.  When Israel has been in wars, the whole population knows it is life or death and they fight with their heart for each other.  The invaders have wondered if they were doing the right thing and really didn't have their hearts into death and killing their new neighbors.  There is a difference.  There is quite the story at Kibbutz Degania Alef about how a child and a very old man  held off the invaders.

Perhaps the reason why Kerry is demanding talks today is that it is his job to do so which is right on his resume.  His job description is to get Israel and the Palestinians to sit down and talk.  He is not to mind that the timing is not right, and the whole Middle East is ready to explode over a bad season of the Arab Spring.  He could be using his time to bone up on the history,  so I will help him.

Robbie Sabel, professor of international law at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem,  and of the Institute for Contemporary Affairs in the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs compiled  some facts Kerry should know and consider.  I've thrown in a few, as well.

1.  Israel's opponents have manipulated international law by inventing rules only applied to Israel, no one else.  .

2. Illegal Occupation is an invented concept that the opponents have pulled out of a hat, not a legal fact.  In an armed conflict or war, Israel is permitted military occupation.  The UN Security Council has never said their occupation is illegal.  The US occupied Iraq after the 2nd Gulf War and this was a legal act.

3.  The Green Line is not a binding border.  Israel and Jordan signed a peace agreement.  This terminated the Armistice Agreement and its green line.  There is no legal validity to the Green Line, though there have been problems along this line.  Some Christian friends were living near the green line and their children were hassled by neighbor thugs from the nearest Muslim community, putting their children in harm's way.  They have since moved to a safer community.  Israel is going to have to work a little harder to protect citizens.

4. Gaza is not under Israeli occupation.  They kept certain rights involving the protection of Israel, but there are no more Jews living in Gaza and haven't been for a long time.  Opponents have rewritten a new term called occupation that defies the legal definition.

5.  Opponents have made up their own tailor made rules for Israel.  A legal system is one in that a law pertains to all.

6. The USA is still Israel's ally.

7.  Israelis can be most proud of the contributions that they have made to improve the world in medical and technical areas.  They have helped the USA to combat terrorism, to protect their airports, etc.  They have contributed to culture all over the world, especially in classical music.  Israel is a "pocket superpower in the arts."  They stand for morality for themselves and for others.

8. They are the hub of Democracy in the Middle East.  Perhaps this is the reason they have not received the Welcome Wagon.  This upsets the apple cart in a sea of kings.

This is why Israelis are happy people.  They are a legal minded people, having been given 613 laws to follow by Moses himself, and respect law.  The USA is full of Jewish lawyers.  Israel has a most complicated legal system with laws left over from the Ottoman Empire to add to their own.  One has to be a genius to understand it all.  Each and every Israeli is a human rights advocate and genocide expert, having lived on the other end of the lollipop for a good 2,000 years.  Samantha Power, the new outspoken  UN representative for the USA,  may  have a degree in this, but she doesn't understand the half of it.  She's coming into her new position after having believed in invading Israel!  That's not what our friend, the USA, should be entertaining in her mind and papers.  Academic papers and reality are not always in sync.  However, Israelis are home.  It's a beautiful sentence.  It's music to our ears.  They had to re-buy the land and bleed for it.  They have the deed.

Resource: http://jcpa.org/article/manipulating-international-law-as-part-of-anti-israeli-lawfare/
 http://www.danielpipes.org/12962/happy-israel
http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/kerry-s-improbable-peace-process-lacks-israeli-and-palestinian-buy-in.premium-1.527575
http://jewishbubba.blogspot.com/2012/08/oy-sperm-count-falling-in-israel.html

Oldest Torah Scroll Discovered in Italy

Nadene Goldfoot                                                                  

It's quite exciting to find an ancient and complete Torah scroll as old as one just discovered in February in University of Bologna's library by the Professor of Hebrew at U. of Bologna, Mauro Perani.  It had been mis-catalogued in 1889 and had been thought to have been from the 17th century.  This Five Books of Moses on sheepskin is 40 yards long and 25 inches high, all rolled up as Torah Scrolls should be.  The print has been verified as the Babylonian tradition Hebrew script style.  Such a Torah is taken out ever Saturday morning and read by the congregation with the Cohens called up first, then any Levite, and then Israelites who want the honor.  This dated back to the 12th to 13th centuries.  It was sewed together in 1155 to 1225 CE.   Older bibles have been found preceding it by 200 years,  but this is the first Torah, which means it is the writings of the first 5 books of Moses:  Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy.

Torah's are hand-written and without any errors.  If the scribe does make a mistake, the scroll must be thrown out and he must start all over again.  This is why there has been no errors in Torah.

During the period of the life of this Torah the Crusaders were ruling in the Holy Land from 1099 to 1291.  The Jewish community in Jerusalem was massacred by them.  In 1096 the German Crusade massacred Jewish Communities in European towns who were riding on their way to get to Jerusalem.  By 1290 Jews were thrown out of England  "From the 1200's to the mid 1400's, treatment of the Jews in Italy varied from pope to pope."  They had little to no regard for Moses (1391 to 1271 BCE who had set down the 10 Commandments including "Thou Shalt Not Kill."

This Torah had lived a charmed life as Torahs are buried when they become tattered and worn, just as a person is buried. It was still in good condition and in a library.



Resource:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNqO578oLqI
http://www.jpost.com/Jewish-World/Jewish-News/Italy-prof-says-has-found-worlds-oldest-Torah-314734
http://www.tlvfaces.com/oldest-known-torah-scroll-discovered-in-italy/
http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2013-05-29/world/39594369_1_scroll-hebrew-torah
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/30/world/europe/italy-oldest-known-torah-scroll-found-scholar-says.html?_r=0
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/vjw/Rome.html
Added 6/4/13 http://mosaicmagazine.com/picks/2013/06/inside-the-oldest-torah-scroll/?utm_source=Mosaic+Daily+Email&utm_campaign=b13355c07d-daytwo&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_0b0517b2ab-b13355c07d-41144429

Jewish Contributions in Medicine for the World

Nadene Goldfoot                                                       

                                            Doctor Jonas Salk b: 1914-d: 1995

1.  Dr. Ehrlich, a Jew, invented Salvarsan, a cure for Syphilis.  It's used all over the world.

2. Dr. Wasserman, Jewish, invented the Wasserman Test, which is the test used to test for Syphilis.

3. Dr. Neissner, a Jew, invented the method used to diagnose if someone has Gonorrhea.

4.  Heart disease in people is improved upon with Digitalis, a discovery by Ludwig Traube, a Jew.

5. Many a toothache has been helped by  using Cocaine, a discovery of Widal and Weil, both Jews.  Watch it, though.  I'm not in favor of cocaine for anything.  Call me straight-laced.

6.   Diabetes is treated with Insulin, the result of research by Minkowsky, a Jew.

7. Headaches are helped by Pyramidon and Antypyrin, discovered by Spiro and Ellege, both Jews.

8. Convulsions do not have to be put up with because of the scientist who proposed the use of chloral Hydrate for treatment, Oscar Leibreich, a Jew.

9. Having trouble with psychic ailments?  Phobias, fears, etc?  They have been helped with psychoanalysis by Dr. Freud, a Jew who is called the father of psychoanalysis.

10.  Diptheria used to kill people who came down with it.  The "Schick" reaction was invented by Bella Schick, a Jew.

11. Ear and brain damage are treated from the work of Nobel Prize winner, Robert Baram, a Jew.

12.  Infantile Paralysis used to invade many people's bodies including Franklin Delano Roosevelt, former USA President when he was young.  It cripples for life.  The discoverer of the anti-polio vaccine was Jonas Salk, a Jew.

13.  Tuberculosis, spoken of as TB, killed many people before Streptomycin was invented by Zalman Waxman, a Jew.  It was considered as a wonder drug.

14.  Lung problems have been cured by the dermatologist, Judas Sehn Benedict or the lung specialist, Frawnkel with their discoveries.

Do you still think we are bad people?  Note that all these discoveries have have saved people rich and poor alike.  

Louis Farrakhan, America's Big Anti-Semite, At It Again Through Nation of Islam

Nadene Goldfoot                                                                

Islamic leader, Louis Farrakhan spoke at a Detroit Baptist Church and attacked Jews, calling them "Satanic Jews."  He spoke of the "Synagogue of Satan."  In his speech he claimed that Jewish people control the news media!  I have to laugh at this one.  He should know that the news media is the worst in the USA in promoting Israel.  They rarely say anything good about Israel and love to print anything demeaning if they can find it, and that goes for any Jewish scandal as well.   This is the ago old "say something with verbosity and people will believe you," but saying Jews control the media beats all.  This is ancient anti-Semitic propaganda.  Why, the only TV news station that says anything fairly good about Israel has been Fox, and they're always in trouble for doing so, and I have detected a softening even with Bill O'Reilly. CNN makes me shudder, especially from one of their prized commentators when covering the subject of Israel.

 Covering this speech of Farrakhan's, who is the well known leader of the mainly African-American religious movement, the Nation of Islam (NOI), was the Detroit Free Press.  He has been the minister of major mosques in Boston and Harlem.  Appointed by the longtime NOI leader, Elijah Muhammad before his death in 1975, he became the National Representative of the Nation of Islam.  So he's definitely a leader of anti-Semitic ideas with his people being so much anti-Semitism is coming out of mosques these days. I cite Qaradawi of Qatar as one big example who has a fatwah out to kill all Jews. he speaks out on al-Jazeera.    Farrakhan  is responsible for reopening over 130 NOI mosques in America and the world.  Perhaps it is he who has coerced the media into their anti-Semitic stand.

Farrakhan wasn't even letting Obama off the hook by saying that  he surrounded himself with Satan...members of the Jewish community.  This in itself is rather amusing, being he has had a few Jews on his staff, but they have been in complete harmony with him, being staunch Democrats.  It is their political viewpoint, not their religious one that connects them to Obama.  These Jews barely know a thing about Israel, which is my personal opinion based on what problems Israel has had to face with this administration.  I don't know what they could have coerced Obama into agreement with being they are just like him.  Being that Jews make up only 2% of our American population goes to saying that Farrakhan just can't understand why they can rise to such importance as being advisers to the president.  He shouldn't complain, though, not in this 2008-2116 period.  Blacks are only about 11% of the population of the USA.

Representative John Conyers was in the audience and was quite embarrassed.   He said, "Farrakhan made unacceptable racist, anti-Semitic and homophobic statements, which I condemn in the strongest possible terms."  He said he thought the speech would be about the challenges facing the city of Detroit.  Come on, Conyers.  You know who Farrakhan is and what he has stood for in the past.  His biggest thing is attacking Jews.  Here was his chance at age 79 to tell a congregation at a Black Baptist church how he feels about Jews.  I don't know of any leopard  that can change his spots.  He has changed his name a lot, though  Louis Farrakhan Muhammad, Sr, was born as Louis Eugene Wolcott  and was also formerly known as Louis X, which is rather like the famous Malcolm X.

Malcolm X was born as Malcolm Little in Omaha, Nebraska whose father was a Baptist minister and supporter of the Black Nation's leader, Marcus Garvey.  Malcolm studied the teachers of the NOI leader,  Elijah Muhammad.  "By 1942 Malcolm was coordinating various narcotics, prostitution and gambling rings in Harlem, New York."  What he learned from Elijah was that "among other goals, the NOI fought for a state of their own, separate from one inhabited by white people."  So he learned that white man purposely kept the black man down, to hate whites and especially to hate Jews.

Louis Farrakhan and  Malcolm X's mentor, Elijah Muhammad was born as Elijah Robert Pool in Georgia in 1897 and died in 1975.  His father was also a Baptist lay preacher and sharecropper and was only able to get a 4th grade education.   "In August 1931, at the urging of his wife, Elijah Poole attended a speech on Islam and black empowerment by  Wallace  D. Fard.  There you have the beginning of a movement lacking peace and promoting hatred.  

Rep. John Conyers is a man, also black,  of 84 in his 25th term in Congress.  He is someone who has an anti-Israel voice in Congress.  Now who do you suppose is his informant about Jews?  He has been against Iran sanctions and against the US funding the Iron Dome and anti-missile system.  His other side is that he's a typical left wing Democrat who wants things on his agenda fixed.  Luckily, others besides me attacked him for attending Farrakhan's night at the church.  Matt Drudge, an internet journalist who has the "Drudge Report" attacked him, and the ADA told Conyers and others to condemn these nasty remarks.  Conyers apologized to those who may have been offended by the "minister's" words.  Isn't he more like an Iman than a minister?  Well, I, for one,  am not only offended, but I am incensed at his words.  They're malicious and evil words that have nothing to do with truth.  .

Detroit is a big important city that has seen better days.  It has been going downhill fast in this economy.  They haven't tackled their deficit.  What has Farrakhan done to help his people get jobs and improve their lot?   His only religious lessons are to blame and hate Jews.  He reminds me of another leader in the 1930's and 40's who did this.  Better and more useful words have been spoken by Bill Cosby, who encourages education as the formula for successes and happiness.  I note that these anti-Semites have been very short on this end.

 I can throw in that my father, Jewish, also had to quit high school and not finish because he had to help support his widowed mother and younger sisters.  It happened, but he didn't blame anyone.  He worked hard, challenged himself and developed skills as a butcher, then a cattle buyer, and finally owned his own meat packing business.  That's the American success story.  He did it even though there were a lot of anti-Semitic people around, too.  You have to believe in yourself and like yourself and know that you can succeed.  You don't join a hate group and blame others for your lacking.  You build your own support group of a loving family.  You give life your best shot, again and again if need be.  That's how you become proud of yourself.

Resource:  http://www.jewishpress.com/news/breaking-news/rep-john-conyers-apologizes-for-louis-farrakhans-antisemitic-remarks/2013/05/24/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Farrakhan
http://www.malcolmx.com/about/bio.html
http://www.drudgereport.com/
http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1882089_1850973,00.html Detroit's Decline
http://www.freep.com/article/20130524/NEWS01/305240074/Detroit-budget-deficit
http://www.johnconyers.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Conyers
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elijah_Muhammad
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wallace_Fard_Muhammad

Jewish Tribes That Lived in Arabia

Nadene Goldfoot                                                                   

                                                                 Arabia Before Islam

When the 1st Temple fell in Jerusalem to Nebuchadnezzar in 586 BCE,  many Jewish people were taken as prisoners.  Nebuchadnezzar was the King of Babylon from 605-562 BCE.  He had conquered all the lands from the Euphrates River  to the Egyptian frontier, including Judah.  It was in 597, after Judah revolted, that he dispatched contingents which captured Jerusalem and replaced the young King Jehoiachin who was only 18 years old  ruling from 598-597 BCE ( 3 months and 10 days of ruling)  with his own choice of 21 year old Zedekiah (born 618 BCE) , son of King Josiah in 597-586 BCE. Jehoiachin was taken to exile in Babylonia and kept in detention until 561 when he was released after  36 years of imprisonment.

Zedekiah had a horrible ending after being a king for 11 years.  He had conspired with Egyptians causing the Babylonians to invade and capture Jerusalem.  He tried to run away but was caught and tried.  His sons were killed before him, his eyes were put out and he was put into prison in Babylon until he died at age 32.  Nebuchadnezzar had exiled 8,000 of the local aristocracy to Babylon. Zedekiah was the last King of Judah.   His accounts of these events are preserved in the British Museum.  Gedaliah tried to perpetuate Judah.  He had been a member of the former royal house, but this attempt ended with his assassination in 582.  The descendants of the exiles in Babylonia continued to cherish their national and religious ideals wherever they were living.

Some of the captured Jews must have made their way to the modern-day Saudi Arabia and settled there in Medina. Medina was originally called Yathrib and was about 200 miles to the north of Mecca, where Mohammad was born and raised in the Quraysh tribe of the clan of Hashim.  Medina had originally been settled by 3 Jewish tribes that arose in Medina well before the days of Mohammad (570-632 CE) .

 They were the Banu Qainuqa/Kainuka,  Banu Nadir and Banu Qurayza/Banu Kuraiza.  Arabs of the area, called the Yathribites, also lived there.  Evidently the Jews had told the townspeople about Moses and their prophets and had assured them of the coming of a Messiah someday.  When Mohammad came to convert everyone to Islam, the townspeople thought he was the Messiah and also a man of ability who was familiar with the inner councils of the Quraysh, and who could lead them in their rivalry against the city of Mecca.  He was then looked upon as not only  a prophet of Allah, but also the head of a state.  The two offices became combined.

Banu Kainuka had no land.  They lived from trading and as goldsmiths.  They were the first to suffer from the hostile attitude of Mohammad after his failure to win the Jews over to Islam.  They were attacked and besieged in their strongholds in the year of 624 CE and were forced to surrender after 15 days of holding out from attack.  Mohammad first wished to have all the men executed by spared them on condition that they leave Medina.  They had to leave all their property in the hands of the new Muslims.  The Jews migrated to the Jewish centers in Wadi-I-Kura and later further north to Adhriat.

Banu-L-Nadir had settled in a piece of land that they owned and had landed estates and strongholds.  They worked and cultivated the soil, engaged in moneylending and traded in weapons and jewels, so that they were a wealthy tribe.  They also were besieged in their forts by Mohammed and surrendered after about 2 weeks in 626 CE.  Their property that they couldn't take with them was confiscated.  They were permitted to leave, according to some sources.  Others say this tribe was the most hostile to the pressure of Mohammad, the Islamic Prophet who called for their conversion to follow Islam.  Many Jews from this tribe were killed.  Mohammed had amassed 10,000 followers to help in his conversions, so it must have happened.    They left by heading north and founded new settlements, partly in Khaibar and partly in Syria.

It was said that Raihana or Rayhana bint Zaayd ibn Amr, a very beautiful woman of the Banu Nadir tribe, was married to Mohammed, which is said not to be true.  The story is that she was married to a man from the Banu Kuraiza/ Qurayza tribe and when his tribe was defeated by Muhammad, she became a slave as the men were all killed.  Mohammad offered to marry her if she converted to Islam and she refused.  She could have been turned into his concubine, but she died a slave a year before Mohammad did in 631 CE, so she died very young.  She must have been living with him, and had refused to wear the hijab which caused a lot of arguing between them.  She was buried in Jannat al-Baqi cemetery.

 Mohammad  had taken Safiyya, who did convert but didn't enter into much  like his other wives, in total said to have had 12.  "Safiyya bint Huyayy was a noblewoman, the daughter of Huyayy ibn Akhtab, chief of the Jewish tribe Banu Nadir, and wife of Kenana ibn al-Raabi  a commander. Before her marriage to Kenana she had been married to the poet Sallam ibn Mishkam, who had divorced her.  In 629, at the Battle of Khaybar,  Banu Nadir was defeated,  Safiyya's father was killed in battle, her husband was executed, and she was taken as a prisoner. Muhammad freed her from her captor Dihya and proposed marriage, which Safiyya accepted."

Banu Kuraiza lived in several villages to the south of Medina and their main occupation was agriculture.  When Islam arose in about 610 CE, they numbered 750 fighting men and held some fortified positions in the neighborhood.  They were the last Jews to be attacked by Mohammed who charged them with treason.  When they had to surrender, they were treated more cruelly than their two other fellow-tribes.  The men were executed and the women and children were sold into slavery.    Among the Kuraizans were several poets who wrote in Arabic.  Their verses are still in existence.

Other Jewish tribes in existence during Muhammed's time were the Banu Auf, Banu Harith, Banu Jusham, Banu Alfageer, Banu Najjar, Banu Sa'ida, and Banu Shutayba.

There was a covenant made between the Muslims and the Jews of Medina who had been living on the land for the past 1,216 years.  It was the world's first constitution according to the Muslims. It gave various rights to Jews foreshadowing the Muslim treatment of the dhimmis-the People of the Book in Islamic lands. The document detailed the rights and responsibilities of outsiders, outlining the rights of the Banu Auf tribe and other Jewish tribes, mandating mutual defense and declaring off-limits any cooperation with the Quraysh tribe.   Saying that the Jews of the Banu Auf are one community with the "believers" was a remarkable statement, and one which Islamic apologists of today never tire of quoting.  It was soon superseded in the life of the Muslims by statements that were the opposite.  The mutual defense provision had one exception.   The Jews agreed to fight alongside the Muslims except in the case of a holy war.

"Jews who follow us shall not be wronged nor shall his enemies be aided.  They shall contribute to the cost of war as long as they are fighting alongside the "believers"  The Jews of the Banu Auf are one community with the "believers".  The Jews have their religion and the Muslims have theirs, their freedmen and their persons except those who behave unjustly and sinfully, for they hurt but themselves and their families.  The same applies to the Jews of the Banu al- Najjar, Banu al Harith, Banu Sa'ida, Banu Jusham, Banu al-Aus, Banu Tha'laba, and the Jafna, a clan of the Tha'laba and the Banu al-Shutayba."

Perhaps this meeting of Jews and Muslims caused certain ideas to be added to the Koran where matters did not go well, and possibly why we find a mingling of DNA between some of the 2 people.

Resource: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Jews_in_Saudi_Arabia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rayhana
http://moses.creighton.edu/jrs/2007/2007-29.pdf
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muhammad's_wives
The Truth about Muhammad by Robert Spencer
Middle East Past & Present by Yahya Armajani and Thomas M. Ricks, textbook, 2nd edition, 1986

The Battle of Fatah and Hamas: With Hamas Winning Over Qaradawi With a Visit

Nadene Goldfoot                                                

The Muslim religious leader from Egypt, 86 year old Sheikh Yussef al-Qaradawi (9/9/1926),  who has been living in Qatar for many years and is wheelchair bound has put out a fatwah to kill all Jews.  He just arrived with his wheelchair in the Gaza Strip to be supportive of Hamas terrorists.  He was the head of a delegation of 50 senior Islamic people from 14 countries.  There are 48 Muslim majority countries in the world and possibly more today.  This visit shows up Fatah, thought to be moderate by some compared to the missile tossing Hamas terrorists.  It was Arafat, the leading terrorist  who was the leader of Fatah up until his death.

Qaradawi is the special friend of the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thanki.  His Prime Minister is a relative, Hamad ibn Jaber Al Thani and no doubt is also a good friend to Qaradawi.  He was given refuge in Qatar when he was expelled from Egypt for his extreme radical attitude.   He's also the head of the International Union of Muslim Scholars.  They are in Gaza to tell the Palestinians to continue to "struggle" against Israel. Qaradawi wants to see a "conquered" Jerusalem and said this in 2011.  Again, he's saying that Jews have no attachment to Jerusalem and that Muslims must defend Jerusalem with their lives, money and all their possessions or else Allah will punish them.

This included to not give up one inch of land to the Jews and to not make any concessions on the "right of return" of millions of Palestinians to their pre-1948 villages and towns inside Israel.  They are telling people that "Palestine" was never Jewish.  He neglects the facts that there never was a state of Palestine, and that the whole land was a Jewish, made up of the Empire of Israel of Kings Saul, David and Solomon and their descendants and the state of Judah reaching back  back to Moses and the Exodus of 1,271 BCE to 70 CE.    The lies he tells Hamas is that "Palestine has always been Arab and Islamic."  He accuses Jews of seizing lands, shedding blood, burning farms and demolishing houses.

 The only thing here half true is the bulldozers used to demolish homes of terrorists  after much warning of non-compliance.  Otherwise, land was not seized.  Land was bought legally at very outrageously high prices for the time and the Jewish National Home was accepted through the League of Nations and the UN.  It was the Arabs who sided with Germany in WWI and lost the Ottoman Empire to the Allies who dispersed with it as they saw fit.  It was England who made decisions since they held the mandate.  But he doesn't want to see facts; just his own wild version of life.  It was even the high and mighty Arab leaders who sided with Hitler!

He's there because he's afraid that Fatah's Abbas is ready to sit down and talk about peace with Netanyahu at the urging of the USA's Secretary of State, John Kerry.   Qaradawi is telling Hamas that it is forbidden to make concessions to Israel and the only way to restore their rights is through Jihad-holy war. He has refused to take part in any interfaith dialogue.   Abbas tried to turn the tide by calling on supporters to boycott Qaradawi, but thousands turned out to greet him like a hero.  It's because this man has said  so many anti-Semitic things about Jews.  His followers are all for destroying Israel. Qaradawi views Jews as the enemies of Islam and as treacherous aggressors.

January 9, 2009's sermon over al Jazeera saw him praying and saying that Allah should take this oppressive Jewish Zionist band of people and not to spare one of them.  He asked Allah to kill them, down to the very last one."  He also said on January 28, 2009 that he will shoot Allah's enemies, the Jews, and they will throw a bomb at me, and I will be a martyr!

There are 1.5 million Palestinians in Gaza that have voted for Hamas as their leader.  His visit gives Hamas status and in the eyes of other Islamists, the Islamic party over Fatah.  It also shows that this difference between Palestinian Muslims and Jewish Israelis is a matter of religion;  the battle of Islam against Judaism.  They will not accept the Jewish presence in the middle of all the Muslim countries.  There were Muslim Palestinians in 2004 saying he was giving Islam a bad name.  Since then, Jews in Gaza left in 2005 to bring about peace and it became another all-Muslim territory.

I wonder if the anti-Christ is actually Qaradawi.  He's certainly carrying a vile message which is the opposite of peace.

http://www.jewishpress.com/indepth/columns/khaled-abu-toameh/al-qaradawi-and-the-new-religious-conflict-with-israel/2013/05/17/Al Qaradawi and the New Religious Conflict with Israel by Khaled Abu Toameh
http://www.adl.org/NR/exeres/788C5421-70E3-4E4D-BFF4-9BE14E4A2E58,DB7611AADL... article on Sheik Yusuf al-Qaradawi:  Theologian of Terror  from March 15, 2011
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamad_bin_Khalifa_Al_Thani
http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/3714/qaradawi-israel
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yusuf_al-Qaradawi

Malmo, Sweden and Anti-Semitism Goes Unheeded by Government-Eurovision Contest Marred

Nadene Goldfoot                                                             

   Jewish Yemenite Israeli singer, Ofra Haza, 1983 Eurovision Winner with "Chai"(Hi)

The Eurovision Song Contest is the best part of what comes out of Europe. 39 countries take part in this contest including Israel.     I enjoyed this time of the year so much when I lived in Israel from 1980 to the end of 1985.  The music was fantastic.  I was so proud in 1982 when Israel won 2nd place  with "Hora."   This year the contest was held in Malmo, Sweden, of all places, a place that has witnessed a lot of anti-Semitism.

Malmo has been a city where Holocaust survivors settled after WWII and is home to about 1,000 Jews.   The Scandinavian country had been one to treat people fairly.  My own maternal grandmother came from Lumsheden, a village in the north.  Lately, it has also been found to be a haven for Muslims who have turned on the Jewish survivors and their descendants for being Jewish. Today 30% of Malmo are Muslims.   Unlike the United States, the government has done nothing to stop this persecution. In 2010 and 2011 there were 480 complains of anti-Semitism but the court system didn't convict anyone of hate crimes.

 The outgoing mayor, llamr Reepalu is thought to be encouraging anti-Semitism because of the statements he has made in suggesting that Jews shouldn't be Zionistic and that only then will they stay safe.  In other words, he himself is against Israel's existence. A lawyer in Sweden accused him of being anti-Semitic, anti-Jew and anti-Israel and making the city stand for that.   Just last year, Muslims set off a bomb outside the city's Jewish Community Center and vandalized it.  The police wouldn't classify it as a hate crime.  No one has been found to have done this.  Born October 11, 1943, he said in February that he is stepping down from his position as mayor on July 1, 2013 when he will soon be celebrating his 70th birthday.  He was born in Nova, Estonia and his family had fled from the Soviets and went to Sweden.  Neither Estonia nor Russia have ever liked Jews.

On Wednesday, Daniel Sestrajcic, chairman of the Culture Committee, said Israel should be boycotted from the Eurovision and can only return when Palestine is free!  This was shouted at a demonstration commemorating the Palestinian "catastrophe," or Nakba- May 14, 1948 when Israel became a state through the UN.  It's as if many of Malma have turned into Palestinians who haven't a clue as to the facts as to why Israel was created at all or the history of the Arabs deemed as Palestinians.

It so happens that Israel took first place in both 1978 with "A-Ba-Ni-Bi",  and 1979 with "Hallelujah" (my favorite), and then came in 2nd in 1982 with "Hora" and 1983 with "Chai".  Israel came in 1st again in 1998 with "Diva."  France, Switzerland and Finland were high voters for Israel.  Israel was the host for the contest in 1979 and 1999.  In 2009 Noa and Mira Awed, Israeli Arabs were the contestants from Israel singing, "There Must Be Another Way".  They came in 16th.  .

Three Jews from the Israeli delegation to the Eurovision song contest were in Malmo and were accosted right on the street.  Alon Amir told the Swedish radio station that some young Muslim men accosted them.  The Muslims addressed them as Israelis and told them they wanted to bomb wherever they were staying, and they were quite serious about it.

Probably to the mayor's angst, the competition is scheduled to end Saturday and hundreds of Jews and non-Jews are planning to walk together through the street of Malmo while wearing kippahs as a sign of their opposition to anti-Semitism.  Good for them!  It's about time.

Resource: http://www.timesofisrael.com/israeli-eurovision-delegation-threatened-in-malmo/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ilmar_Reepalu
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel_in_the_Eurovision_Song_Contest
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hora_(song)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hi_(Ofra_Haza_song)

Who Believes in Witchcraft? Iran's Ayatollah Ali Khamenei Does

Nadene Goldfoot                                                                       

Nadene Goldfoot                                   Walt Disney's Witch in Snow White and Rose Red

The Middle East Media Institute (MEMRI)  found out that one of the Ayatollah Khamenei's closest men, Mehdi Taeb, said to students on April 20, 2013 at a religious seminary in Iran that "Jews are subjecting Iranians to a trial.  Jews have great powers of sorcery and they are using this.  All measures against Iran are from the Zionists.  The USA is one of their tools.  So far, they haven't used the full scope of their sorcery against Iran yet."

Moses (1391-1271 BCE) threw his cane down and it turned into a snake and swallowed up the pharoah's snake.  The belief is that G-d did that.   Almost 4,000 years ago, in King Solomon's day (961-920 BCE), there were those that believed in the use of supernatural power such as witchcraft.  It was a capital offence in Biblical law.  Deuteronomy 18:10-11 gives us the injunction against resorting to witchcraft, divination, and other magical practices of people of that day. "When you come to the land that G-d gives you, you shall not learn to act according to the abominations of those nations.  There shall not be found among you one who causes his son or daughter to pass through the fire, one who practices divinations, an astrologer, one who reads omens, a sorcerer; or an animal charmer, one who inquires of Ov or Yidoni, or one who consults the dead."

The traditional Jew has tended to view with suspicion anything of real or imaginary supernatural origin beyond the horizon of normal Jewish life.  Any new attempts to gain contact with the spiritual world was mistrusted as an attack on the sobriety and sanity of his faith.    The practice and belief were difficult to eradicate in ancient days.  In and around Israel about 4,000 years ago the few  using it were necromancers-those calling on spirits to tell of the future; the casting of lots and oracles and charms in connection with illness.  It has shown up in medieval and post-medieval times.  In America, it was thought that young women were involved in witchcraft and hung many witches in the 1600's in Salem, Massachusetts.  That's 400 years ago.  Today in the USA, we still do have people who  practice some form of witchcraft.

"In Medieval Jewish, Christian and Islamic legends (500-1500 CE) , the Seal of Solomon was a magical signet ring said to have been possessed by King Solomon.   This is not a fact from the Torah.  We Jews do not talk about Solomon and witchcraft.  He is known to us for his wisdom and for being a great king of Israel.  I was astounded that anyone would blame him for witchcraft practices.  Evidently the people thought that anyone who was successful had to be using witchcraft.  They couldn't imagine anyone getting anyplace without such help.  Jews remark that it is his sakhel, his brains that get him places.

In the book, What Does Judaism Say About..?" witchcraft is not listed.  Instead,  The Evil Eye is listed.  In Hebrew this is called the ayin ha-ra.  It denotes simply envy of good fortune.  I think this is Iran's problem.  They are so envious of Israel's good fortune to have been created a state and they are determined to destroy it. We know this from their statements, their religious leaders comments and the charter of the Muslim Brotherhood.  In Judaism, the evil eye had no occult significance.  In the book of Proverbs (28:22) it said, "He that hath an evil eye hasteneth after riches, and knoweth not that want shall come upon him.    Here,  the effects are on the envious man himself.  Perhaps that will mean that Iran, being the envious one, will fall on hard times, and they have with world powers coming down on them about creating nuclear weapons to use against Israel.  They have been undergoing financial hard times.

What Jews use is their heads, not ever witchcraft.    They are intelligent people.  Many are doctors, lawyers and scientists. Jews have received 187 Nobel prizes.  From 1901 to 2012, 22% of all Nobel prizes winners have been Jews,  In the USA alone they have won 36% of them.  The USA, which has more than 315 million people,  has about 6 million Jews.  Worldwide, the 14 million Jews are only 0.02% of the population.  

 Muslims have received 10 Nobel prizes of which 6 were just recent ones as peace prizes, like Sadat and Arafat received.  There have been 2 Muslim scientists; one from Pakistan and one Egyptian living in the the USA.  A woman, Shirin Ebadi, is the only Nobel prize winner from Iran.  She is a human rights activist speaking out for women and children.  The world is populated with over 7 billion people of which there are about 76,923,300 living in Iran.  About 98%  follow Shi'a Islam..

Back in March 2013, an article was found on an Iranian website about Jewish use of sorcery and numerology.  "the Jewish people think that ruling over man, nature and divine traditions can be achieved only by means of sorcery.  ...Sorcery is known to be a practice in the Old Testament, the New Testament and the Koran and the monotheistic religions disapprove.  But Jewish mysticism regards it as a legitimate means to uncover the secrets of the holy book (Old Testament.)"  This is what they are telling their people, that we are using witchcraft to this day.

In the same period, candidates in Iraqi elections reported using witchcraft.  Witchcraft is the  theme in Iran's weddings based on Harry Potter and fashions including pointy-toed boots and peaked hats.  It looks like it's the rage in Iraq.  As we in the USA have had our Egypt theme in jewelry and clothing, theirs is witchcraft.

People in this part of the world believe in genies.  "However belief in genies (or jinn, as they are better known in the Arabic world) is both serious and widespread. In his book "Legends of the Fire Spirits: Jinn and Genies from Arabia to Zanzibar" (Counterpoint Books, 2011), journalist Robert Lebling notes that "jinn are taken seriously and regarded as real, tangible beings by a large segment of the world's population.... They often appear humanoid or even human but possess amazing powers we lack. They can change their shapes, can fly through the air, and even can render themselves invisible."

Ahmadinejad has accused 24 influencial Iranian clerics of using witchcraft and summoning genies .  They are accused of being magicians.  He thinks Abbas Ghaffari  called up a genie which caused a heart attack of a man persecuting him.

Iran is doing something very dangerous, though. They are sending sophisticated and dangerous weapons to Hezbollah terrorists in Lebanon through Syria.  Their goal in life is to destroy Israel.  Who is the backer of the dictator, Assad in Syria?  Iran is by sending weapons and fighters.  Syria, has aligned itself with Iran, their big brother.   Russia seems to be the big brother of Iran.

Israel won't use magic against you, Iran.  They will use science and their own technology.  Israel has done much for the world in the field of medicine.  If you harm Israel, you will be harming a gift from G-d for the world.  Wise up!

Resource:   http://blog.camera.org/archives/2013/05/wheres_the_coverage_iranian_so_1.html  Camera
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seal_of_Solomon
http://www.jinfo.org/Nobel_Prizes.html
http://www.usnews.com/opinion/blogs/robert-schlesinger/2012/12/28/us-population-2013-more-than-315-million-people
http://www.census.gov/main/www/popclock.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Muslim_Nobel_Laureates
What does Judaism Say About..." by Louis Jacobs
http://www.livescience.com/14100-magic-genies-iran-politics.html

Falk's Mouth Full of Maliciousness

Nadene Goldfoot                                              

The UN is being made a fool of by Richard Falk. His words are weapons.   First he blamed the Boston terror attack by two brothers from Russia on the USA and Israeli policies.  This attack came out of the blue during a marathon and the people participating or watching had nothing to do with any policies.  Nothing ever came out of the mouths of the attackers as to what their motives were.  We just know that they were influenced by Muslim extremists on internet. We've had this almost happen in Portland during Christmas but the FBI intervened just in time.  The Russian brothers' sudden allegiance to terrorism didn't go over well with their uncle who was very much against such an attitude.  Their relationship with him was severed before they attacked the marathon attendees.  The USA had been good to them.  Their father had sought asylum because he was afraid of being killed in his home country.  The boys had received the best education and even financial aid to make their life here comfortable.  They received only kindness.  This is how they paid our country back.  It's a matter of warped thinking.

Then Richard Falk justified the bombings as a form of resistance bound to  result from US military undertakings.  That is just plain sick.  But he's right, it does have results.  The results are that Americans are waking up to some hard and cold facts of life.  They are realizing that Islam is not all made up of a religion of peace if leaders are reading into it such actions that Falk commends. In fact, he's defending the act of terrorism.    

Harming innocent people is a far cry from changing the world.  It is hardening our hearts. The kind and loving  family of Bill and Denise Richard is taking the brunt of these insane political agendas that is breaking our hearts.   Their 8 year old boy died in that blast.  His younger sister, age 7,  has undergone her 11th operation on her left leg which she lost below the knee.  That closed the wound and will allow for the eventual fitting of a prosthesis.  Hopefully she could be ready to be in the rehabilitation stage.  She still faces more surgeries.  The entire family was right by the bomb when it exploded.  One of the terrorists had looked right into their eyes as he laid the bomb down by their feet.  The mother still has not recovered sight in one eye.  The father is healing from shrapnel wounds and burns but has not yet recovered from a hearing loss. They are blessed by having  the older son, age 11, that was not injured.

In 2008, the United Nations Human Rights (UNHRC) appointed Falk to a six-year term as a United Nations Special Rapporteur on "the situation of human rights in the Palestinian Territories  that Israel had inherited after being attacked in 1967 in which the Arab nations lost and Israel won.   Some of his official reports, as well as other writings, have been criticized by United Nations secretary-general Ban Ki-moon and others.  He's due to be finished in 2014 which couldn't come fast enough.  It would save the world the pain of being accosted by his false accusations if he were just released from his position.  He really should be fired for spouting off like he does.  It's an affront to all those who lost their lives and have been maimed in such a senseless attack.  No one deserves terrorism.  

The only good that can possibly come out of Richard's ravings is that one can see how his mind works.  Blame the USA instead of the culprits, the terrorists.  It's just like blaming the victims of rape and not the rapist.  Usually he blames Israel, regardless.  Israel treats people far better than any other country does in the Middle East, and probably even some places in the USA.  He always chooses Israel as the scapegoat and praises the Palestinians, no matter what.  He's no Solomon, that's for sure. Falk's been one-sided from the get go.

Falk has  no convictions of honesty or the capacity to differ between right and wrong actions. He reminds me of Ariel Castro, the man in Cleveland who held 3 girls prisoners for ten years and then blamed them for getting in his car with him for his insane acts.  This man can't accept blame.    Falk has no excuse.  The man of 82 years should be retired.  He's gone past the stage of being  a curmudgeon.   "There is one whose rash words are like sword thrusts, but the tongue of the wise brings healing." Proverbs 12:18. 

UN Watch is trying to get him dismissed from his position but many feel this will open the door for other countries that will try the same thing if they disagree with their statements.  That isn't the point.  Falk continually takes the same stand.  There is no measuring scale for him.  Israel is always wrong and the Palestinians are always right.  Now he's including the USA.  Isn't there anyone available who has the ability to judge fairly without prejudice in the UN?   That's the challenge they are supposed to take on.

Resource:  Oregonian newspaper 5/10/13 page A6, bombing victim, 7, has 11th surgery http://www.unwatch.org/site/c.bdKKISNqEmG/b.1277549/k.D7FE/UN_Watch__Monitoring_the_UN_Promoting_Human_Rights.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_A._Falk
http://www.wickedlocal.com/waltham/news/opinions/x179153237/Michael-Gerson-Ideological-impairment-over-Islam#axzz2SuAOCIOi
http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/55096
http://www.openbible.info/topics/power_of_words
Malice: intent  to cause harm without legal justification or excuse

Jerusalem Day-May 8th and Why It is Important To Us

Nadene Goldfoot                                                                     

The song, "Jerusalem of Gold" pulls at my heart.  My eyes well up with tears.  I learned this song in my ulpan in Haifa with teacher Sarah, the one that also wrote letters to Natan Sharansky keeping his Hebrew lessons going.   The drumbeat with Ofra Haza singing is lifting me up to this wall above and over all of Jerusalem.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JH8gtdDA5x0.  I am back in Jerusalem.

"Tomorrow is Yom Yerushalayim, Jerusalem Day.  It is the day we commemorate and express thanks for the liberation of the Old City and the reunification of Yerushalayim. As we remember the dear price we Israelis, had to pay for it, we rejoice in the fulfillment of the ancient prophecies and express thanks to G-d, to the brave soldiers of the IDF and those who died for it. I would also like to express special thanks to our enemies for their help in making that dream a reality by imposing a war on us, a war we did not want and never wished for. That war, our enemies, that Six day war that you waged upon us, resulted in the greatest miracle of them all. Yerushalayim, our Eternal Capital is UNITED forever!" (quote from Bat Zion Sacks) She stated this so eloquently.  I cannot do better.  

Since Muslim leaders such as Mahmoud Ahmadinejad  have been busy trying to erase the Jewish presence and history of Israel,  Many want to take Jerusalem as theirs, but it was and is again the capital of Israel.  For starters, it is situated in the center of the  Judean Mountains.  The Torah holds much of our history and geography facts.  King David took the beginnings of a city in 1010 BCE and Jerusalem  became his capital of his united Israel.  He added the fortress of Zion and the "house of Heroes" for his guard.  There he constructed a tomb right inside the city for himself and his dynasty and transferred the Ark of the Covenant there as well.  David made Jerusalem the religious center of Israel.  It has remained so.  David was a conquerer and made it also the capital of an empire reaching from the Red Sea to the Euphrates, such as G-d had told Abraham that his seed would do.  At the beginning of the 1st century when Jesus was born, it is figured that about 80,000 people lived in Jerusalem.  Today there are over 800,000.

Skipping ahead in time to our near-present to May 14, 1948 when Israel was reestablished as a state through the British mandate and the League of Nations and the United Nations,  Jews had to fight for their lives after this pronouncement as Arabs attacked viciously.  Jerusalem was divided into 2 parts.  The Israel section included the whole of the west and south parts of the New City, including "Mount Zion" and an enclave on Mt. Scopus.  Herzl and other Zionist leaders were re-interred on the mountain, Mt. Herzl,  west of the city.  The city was the administrative center of the country.

On June 5, 1967, Jordanian troops in the Old City and the Jordanian sections of the city bombarded the New City.  Israel's army reacted and 2 days later the entire city came under Israel control.  This was the beginning of the Six Day War.

The first thing Israeli soldiers did was to go in mass visits to the Western (Wailing) Wall, something prohibited to Jews for about 20 years.  They cried, sang, danced and said plenty of prayers for Israel.  Tourists head for this site first, cry, sometimes kiss the ground, and leave their prayers between the rocks of the wall.

On June 29, 1967, the Israeli government formally united the 2 sections of the city and the barriers that had divided them were removed.  The population of the eastern part of the city, including 139,600 Muslims and Christians, are now part of the total population which was 493,500 in 1990.   By 2011 Jerusalem had 801,000 people.  64% were Jews and 36% Arabs.  The breakdown was:  497,000 Jews, 281,000 Muslims, 14,000 Christians and 9,000 undefined.  The growth to 2013 is at 2.5%.  Half of the Jewish people live in either Tel Aviv or Jerusalem.   The proportion of ultra-Orthodox Jews has grown rapidly as has the immigrants.

 They all felt the Arab-Jewish cooperation, but also the sabotage that exacerbated their relationships, like when the intifada started in 1987.  Arab states and outsiders instigated trouble.  There are those elements pushing Israel to go back to the 1967 borders, including President Obama with his speech on TV.  Not one to be stopped in progress, Israel continued on with life and their plans to develop the sacred city.  The Jerusalem Law of 1980 extended Israel sovereignty over the entire city.  Excavations which had been carried out at the site of the City of David are now supplemented by diggings around the western and southern walls of the Temple enclosure.

My 3rd cousin, Stanley Goldfoot (1914-2006) , was the Chief of Intelligence before 1948 for the Stern Group, young men who were fighting for Israel's creation before 1948.  He was able to live through it all as told in Genesis 1948 - about the first Arab-Israeli War of 1947-48 by Dan Kurzman.  He had come to what was then called "Palestine" at age 18 on a ship that put up the Swastika flag in the middle of the ocean from his port in South Africa.  He immediately was approached by Sternists upon stepping on shore and signed up which he willingly did.  Eventually he married and lived in Jerusalem on Dor v'Dor Avenue; from Generation to Generation.

Yes, Jews have lived in Jerusalem for generations for 3,283 years, which, when you figure 4 generations per 100 years, means about 131 generations consistently.  There never has been a time when Jerusalem was devoid of Jews.  The city was burned by the Romans in 70 CE, which caused many of us to scatter, but not all.

Israel went through many empires that walked through, mostly as nomads on camels. The conquering Romans renamed the land "Palestine."  Why?  It was to erase the Jewishness of the land, something they had a habit of doing to a conquered people.  There never was the state of Palestine, though.  No king, no president, de nada, nothing.   The Ottoman Empire held it lastly for 400 years and lost it by siding with Germany in WWI.  Before them were the Byzantine Empire,  Sasanids,  Umayyad, and Abbasids,  Many trampled through but did not live here nor care about it.  It was just a part of their empire. Through it all, Jews continued to live and love and learn in Jerusalem, their center.

As Stanley wrote in 1969: "I am not a creature from another planet, as you seem to  believe. I am a Jerusalemite-like yourselves, a man of flesh and  blood. I am a citizen of my city, an integral part of my people. I have a few things to get off my chest. Because I am not a  diplomat, I do not have to mince words. I do not have to please you  or even persuade you. I owe you nothing. You did not build this city,  you did not live in it, you did not defend it when they came to destroy it.

And we will be damned if we will let you take it away. There was a Jerusalem before there was a New York. When Berlin,  Moscow, London, and Paris were miasmal forest and swamp, there was a  thriving Jewish community here. It gave something to the world which  you nations have rejected ever since you established yourselves- a  humane moral code.

Here the prophets walked, their words flashing like forked lightning.

Here a people who wanted nothing more than to be left  alone, fought off waves of heathen would-be conquerors, bled and died  on the battlements, hurled themselves into the flames of their  burning Temple rather than surrender, and when finally overwhelmed by  sheer numbers and led away into captivity, swore that before they  forgot Jerusalem, they would see their tongues cleave to their palates, their right arms wither. "

This is but an excerpt of the letter, done in video below.  Hope you listen and watch.  It's how Stanley felt in 1969, shortly after that horrid war.  Yes, Stanley, I'll be thinking of you and all the others tomorrow and all you did to bring about this wonderful day.  

Resource: facebook friend:  Bat Zion Susskind-Sacks, Israel
Letter to the World by Stanley Goldfoot (1969) who lived in Jerusalem  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTM7EzhaG7I
http://www.icjs-online.org/index.php?eid=3461&ICJS=5849&article=1387 printout of Letter to the World
Song: Jerusalem of Gold http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JH8gtdDA5x0 by Ofra Haza (most beautiful)
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/155939
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Society_&_Culture/newpop.html