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Saturday, November 30, 2013

November 30th Riots Over Bedouins in Negev with Prawer Plan

Nadene Goldfoot                                                                   

                                                     Negev Desert south of Jerusalem

Today, November 30, 2013 on Shabbat which is a day of rest and no work, time to be spent in the synagogue starting in the morning, turns out to be the Arabs' Day of Rage.  They are demonstrating right in Haifa with over 1,000  who turned into a riot.  Police were called in with riot squad who were pelted with stones.  This was against the Prawer Plan or Law which affects from 40,000 to 70,000 Palestinian-Bedouin who live in the Negev.  The Negev comprises 60% of the land allocated to be Israel.

Demonstrations and debates have been going on about it since about October 10th in the Knesset.  Thousands more demonstrators have planned to demonstrate on this day in Gaza, Ramallah, Berlin, The Hague, Cairo and 25 other cities in the world.

The Prawer Law/Prawer Plan/Prawer-Begin Plan is the step decided on  in September 2011 taken to bring about the Bedouins into Israeli society and reduce the economic and social gaps between their population in the Negev and the Israeli society.  It will then allow Jewish families to settle in the Negev to make the desert bloom.  Small gated farming communities have already developed close to the Bedouin villages that have water and electricity.

The Prawer plan is designed to be part of a campaign to develop the Negev.  Existing bedouin communities will be expanded.  Some unrecognized communities will be recognized and will receive public services.  Infrastructure will be renewed within the framework of the Beer Sheva District master plan.  Most residents are to be absorbed into the Abu Basma Regional Council and the nature of future communities will be decided in full cooperation with the local Bedouins as to whether they will be agricultural, rural, suburban or urban.

This might mean moving about 30,000 Bedouin in the Negev to more permanent existing Bedouin communities close by.  This might mean ending their traditional cultural and social life in the name of development which goes on in all American cities.  For example, right here in Portland, Oregon, South Portland was a neighborhood of Italians and Jews.  In the name of Urban Renewal, the city had the right to completely destroy this area which meant homes, school and synagogues (Neveh Zedek Synagogue, which was the synagogue I attended)  to put in revamping of the whole area.  It happened in the 60's.

The Negev was land given to Israel in the very beginning of the divide between Israel and Palestine, which Palestinians refused.  This is a big piece of the 20% left to become Israel and Israel has allowed the Bedouins much time to themselves.

The largest minorities in Israel are the Arabs and the Druzes.  In 1972 the minorities numbered 458,500.  Almost half lived in about 100 villages and 2/5ths lived in towns which included 73,000 in Jerusalem.  The rest which numbered about 44,000 were semi-nomadic Bedouin.  Some 75% were Muslims, 17% Christians and 8% Druzes and others.

Israel's law ensures equality before the law for all, without distinction of race, religion or language and gives its Arab citizens every opportunity to maintain their own culture and traditions.  There is, however, no peace between Israel and her Arab neighbors except for Egypt and Jordan.  Israeli Arabs are sometimes torn between their loyalty to Israel and their Arab kinship.  Coexistence between Jews and Arabs of Israel have had 65 years to get used to it and there has been a growing pattern of coexistence.   At least 27 Arab villages are represented in mixed Arab-Jewish local or regional councils.  Apart from the Bedouin, 82.5% of the  Arabs live in areas with local government.  
                                                                             
This 5 year plan is to improve the Bedouin  living conditions.  Israel claims they are nomads and they claim that they have settled in villages more than 100 years ago and have led a sedentary, agricultural based life for more than 20 years now.  "The rate of growth of the Negev Bedouin is the highest in the world – the Bedouin population doubles its size every 15 years." 

The Negev makes up more than half of Israel (60%) and has been a stark dry land that is a desert without the endless dunes of white sand like the deserts of Hollywood movies.  This is just plain dry wilderness going from mountainous heights to flat land far below sea level made up of dirt, rocks and canyons.    Once, it was land covered by the sea.  You can find fossils of ancient sea animals if you take a jeep tour of the desert.  For most of the year this is hot and dry land, but in early spring it has a beautiful carpet of green grasses and colorful wildflowers.  The Bedouins are an Arab people who travel the desert looking for fresh water and pasture land for their donkeys, goats and camels.  Their camps have an occasional TV antenna among them.  Israel has brought in modern irrigation which makes it possible to support new communities like development towns, cities and industrial centers.

Far to the south lies an experimental farm on Kibbutz Ketura that was founded in 1973 by Americans from the Young Judea movement.  Israeli agriculturists have had success in growing persimmons, pomegranates, kiwi fruit, litchis, kumquats, and have already sold them in European markets.  They have domesticated the "sabra" which is a prickly pear into one with no thorns now.  A field of sunflowers carpets the land in the Upper Negev at the right time of year.  Ketura has a garden of experimental fruits brought in from the wilds and marketplaces of Latin America, India and Africa.  They had worked on the black spote, a purple fruit with an inside like chocolate pudding.  This has become an ice cream flavor in the Negev town of Beersheba, which is probably the largest town in the Negev.  They also have developed the ber apple which is a dark brown plum tasting like a combination date and apple and many others.

The Negev can be viewed from the air where you can start at the southern tip of Israel and see Eilat.  Not far from Eilat which is a port, is the city of Timna where the mines of King Solomon's engineers built the country's fortune by mining rich deposits of copper.  Jordan and Egypt are its boundaries.  Beersheba is a modern city with 130,000 and goes back into our ancient history.  Kibbutz Sde Boker is where Ben Gurion lived out his life after being President of Israel in a hut. The Ben-Gurion University is here.   In the center of the Negev Desert is a valley with steep walls that looks just like a crater., Makhlesh Ramon.

This Negev extends over 5,138 sq miles or 60% of Israel.  Rainfall is less than 200 mm.  It's home to Israel's Badlands like in the USA where cowboys and Indians fought it out which is in the southernmost section  which is made up of eroded rocks.

After the Exodus with Moses leading out the Israelites from Egypt, the Beersheba-Egypt route was developed.  The southern Negev was occupied by nomadic tribes, the Amalekites.  The northern part belonged to the tribe of of Simeon, which later amalgamated with Judah.  David won over the Amalekites and Edom which opened up Elath and the copper mines to the Israelites under King Solomon.  At the same time, the Israelites had maritime trade going on with the Phoenician from Elath to Ophir which is in southern Arabia.

Back in the 1860's Mark Twain, author of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn, took a trip to the holy land.  He described the Bedouins that he saw as "tall, muscular, very dark-skinned Bedouins, with inky black beards.  They had firm lips, unquailing eyes, and a kingly stateliness of bearing.  They wore the parti-colored half bonnet, half hood, with fringed ends falling upon their shoulders, and the full, flowing robe barred with broad black stripes-the dress one sees in all pictures of the swarthy sons of the desert.  These chaps would sell their younger brothers if they had a chance, I think.  They have the manners, the customs, the dress, the occupation and the loose principles of the ancient stock.  They attacked our camp last night, and I bear them no good will.   Twain continued to say that he saw evidence of cultivation-a rare sight in this country-an acre or two of rich soil studded with last season's dead corn-stalks of the thickness of your thumb and very wide apart.  But in such a land it was a thrilling spectacle.  Close to it was a stream, and on its bands a great heard of curious-looking Syrian goats and sheep were gratefully eating gravel.  I do not state this as a petrified fact-I only suppose they were eating gravel, because there did not appear to be anything else for them to eat. "

In other words, 146 years ago they were lousy farmers and lousy shepherds and would  attack strangers.  They were pretty wild people from this description of one American writer who was not happy with them on his 1867 voyage to see the Holy Land.

Today, "The population of the Israeli Negev is around 640,000 and of that total there are around 210,000 bedouin. Few of the Israeli bedouin lead the nomadic lives that mist the eyes of European arabists and retired British foreign service personnel and expats. Indeed, a few thousand live in illegally built houses, many of them in shacks without basic services. Many settlements lack essential infrastructure, including sewage systems and electricity, and access to services such as educational and health facilities is limited. Around 14,500 bedouin have settled illegally within the danger zone of the Ramat Hovav Toxic Waste Disposal Facility in the Negev.  All residents will be given property rights. Already, a further 120,000 bedouin live in planned and regulated settlements in 7 urban centres in the Negev and in two regional councils with 11 villages.  Those moved will be relocated close by where they had been living.  

What Israel is doing is trying to  build a better country for all Israeli citizens including the bedouin minority.

Resource:  http://palsolidarity.org/2013/11/day-of-rage-against-the-prawer-plan-will-be-held-this-saturday-30th-of-november-in-the-naqab/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prawer_plan
Facts About Israel , Division of Information, Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Jerusalem, 1973
http://bothwellgardens3.wordpress.com/tag/negev/
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/vie/desert.html
A young person's history of Israel 2nd edition by David Bamberger
The Innocents Abroad by Mark Twain page 203.
http://www.pdc.us/our-work/urban-renewal-areas.aspx
update: 12/2/13  http://www.algemeiner.com/2013/12/02/the-guardian-misleads-on-bedouin-villages/

Friday, November 29, 2013

Earthquake Near Iran's Nuclear Power Plant

Nadene Goldfoot                                                    Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant          

A 5.7 earthquake hit near Borazjan, 35 miles from the Bushehr nuclear power plant in Iran.  It destroyed 250 homes and businesses and electricity pylons.  7 people died and 30 were injured who were in the hospital.

Iran was hit with a 7.8 earthquake in April in SE Iran and Pakistan in which 40 people died.

Before that on December 26,  2003, a massive quake of 6.6  had struck Bam,  a southern city in Iran which killed 26,271 people and injured 30,000.  It's ancient mud-built citadel was destroyed.  This is the medium used for many of their buildings and homes, mud bricks.  44 countries sent in people to help.  60 countries in total offered assistance.  Being it struck when people were sleeping at 1:56am did not help matters.

Earthquakes are very common in Iran.  It must be similar to be living in Anchorage, Alaska.  "This earthquake occurred as a result of stresses generated by the Arabian plate moving northward against the Eurasian plate at approximately 3 centimetres (1 in) per year."  People were affected psychologically years afterwards from this one as the people were in Alaska on March 27, 1964 which was a huge one.  Relations between Iran and the USA improved after this earthquake.  Before this, Bush had called Iran one of the axis of evil.  "Iran then  promised to comply with an agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency which supports better monitoring of its nuclear interests. This led U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell to suggest direct talks in the future. Sanctions were temporarily relieved to help the rescue effort.  

Of course earthquakes cause concern to the Arabs across the Gulf as to the reliability of the Bushehr plant and radioactive leaks it could have in case of another major quake.  Since 2002 there have been 13 major earthquakes that have hit Iran.
2002   6.5  262 killed
2003  6.6   26,000, (Bam)
2004  6.3    35 killed
2005  6.4  602 killed
2005  6.0     13 killed
2006  6.1     70 killed
2008  6.1      7 killed
2010  5.9    19 killed
2011 5.3       2 killed
2012 6.4   306 killed
2013 6.3     30 killed, April 9th
2013 7.8      40 reported killed, April 16th  SE Iran and Pakistan
2013 5.7       8 killed, 190 injured

To calm everyone's fears, Iran and Russia say that it is built by international standards under the supervision of the UN nuclear watchdog.  They had gone ahead and built it even though Iran stands on several seismic fault lines.

Resource: http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=652380&utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2003_Bam_earthquake
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_earthquakes_in_Iran

Wednesday, November 27, 2013

Israel Still in 1st Place as Scapegoat of World-UN: 6 out of 10 Resolutions Against Her

Nadene Goldfoot                                                                      

Usually Israel gets 10 condemnations but this year, only 6, which is way too much when you look at what's going on in other places on this planet. However, they must be making progress.   Of course, it's mostly all up to Ban Ki-moon, South Korean and  Secretary General of the UN,  as to how the UN doles these out. Ban Ki-moon will be head until December 31, 1916.  He's on his 2nd term in this position.   To understand why Israel is singled out and a thorn in the UN's side, you must look at the makeup of the UN groups who decide such things.  The vote went something like this:
110 Yes
   7 NO (Australia, Canada, Micronesia, Israel, Marshal Islands, Palau, United States)
 59 abstentions

The UN General Assembly voted against Israel with 6 resolutions.  They had their usual show of contempt and bias that they use to judge Israel.  I feel silly using the term with the UN, but what they do is showing the ultimate anti-Semitism/anti-Israel against Israel.  Knowing the facts involved, I cannot come to any other conclusion; that and stupidity.

Everything centers around the 1967 War.  This is when Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, along with Iraq, Algeria, Kuwait, Sudan and the whole Arab nations  attacked Israel and Israel not only won but got back the places that were to belong to her according to the Balfour Doctrine of which the whole League of Nations had signed naming this all as the Jewish National Home.  It was Jordan who helped herself to the sites of Judea and Samaria, East Jerusalem and Syria had the Golan Heights from where they bombed Israel.   Note how slimy the wording is about how the Palestinians are injured by the reclaiming of this land by Israel which has harmed them.

You must then forget that those in Gaza, called the Hamas terrorists, haven't stopped attacking Israel with mortars, rockets and missiles.  You must forget that Fatah in Judea and Samaria  are also the new PLO terrorists who are just slightly better than Hamas is, but who have supplied many a suicide bomber and such to harm Israel, causing the wall to have to be built.

Then you must remember that the Palestinians are being used as pawns to try to win back land that they couldn't by war, so they're using this type of scheming; Jewish land, land of our fathers in our history, Jerusalem, built by King David, a Jewish King.

You also must remember that by international law the places spoken of have law on Israel's side; that Israel has rights to it  both old and new by any law.

You must remember that there never was a country of Palestine.  The Palestinians are what Americans would call poachers.  They came in from surrounding territories to find work in the first place.  They didn't even think of wanting this land.  It was the Arab leaders who thought this one up and sold them on the idea.

The 4 resolutions not on Israel are on Syria, Iran, North Korea and Myanmar.  Each of those were only worthy of one condemnation each.  Note that Syria has murdered at least 120,000 of its own people and was using chemical warfare on the last group when Russia finally had to intercede and stop Assad.  So what sins has Israel committed that can top that, pray tell?

We also see that abuses committed by China, Cuba, Egypt, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Zimbabwe pale in comparison to the 4 ranking countries and definitely to Israel. They never were mentioned but we know have committed insults and injury  to the very idea of Human Rights.

  Wanting a nuclear-weapon-free world-risk of nuclear proliferation in the Middle East

    India, Israel and Pakistan are to sign promptly and without conditions and to place all their nuclear facilities under International Energy Agency safeguards.  Israel's accession to the Treaty is wanted and so they are singling out Israel with a vote of 165 Yes, 7 No, 5 abstain.; and again 153 Yes, 5 NO, 9 abstain.

 Whether or not Israel has nuclear capabilities is not known, but the illusion is that they do.  Only this thought is keeping Arab nations at bay.  Israel is a teeny country that has lost 80% of her promised land to Arabs right off the bat, made up of only 7.7 million; 6 million Jews and 1.7 million Arabs and a few Christians against the 2nd largest religion  made up of Arabs  that run into the billions.  Israel's closest neighbor, of which has had a peace pact signed by Sadat, has about 91 million in their country.  Syria has about 23 million, Jordan about 6 million, Lebanon has over 4 million, and these are the closest ones.

Other points brought up in the committees that condemn Israel.  

 Permanent sovereignty of the Palestinian people in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and the Arab population in the occupied Syrian Golan over their natural  resources.
    Accusing Israel of exploitation  of the natural resources of the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem and other Arab territories occupied by Israel since 1967.  Vote of 162 Yes, 5 No, 9 Abstain.

 Israeli Air force destroying oil storage tanks in Lebanese Jiyeh electric power plant.
  (Did Israel bomb missiles meant to hit Israel and get the tanks in the act?  How insane to store missiles by oil tanks)  (They didn't mention that the Palestinians never pay for their electric bill and are constantly in arrears.).  

 The right of the Palestinian people to self-determination-so the wall constructed by Israel, the occupying power, in the occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, along with measures previously taken, severely impedes the right of the Palestinian people to self determination.
(Never mind why the wall was necessary in that terrorists would enter into Israel and murder civilians and this was the only thing they could do to impede these results of death to Israelis).

 Assistance to Palestinian refugees, concern for them under occupation, including with regard to their safety, well-being and socioeconomic living conditions, displaced as a result of June 1967, and subsequent hostilities to return to their homes or former places of residence in their territories occupied by Israel since 1967.  Refugee camps in Gaza Strip as a result of continuing prolonged Israeli closures...and socioeconomic conditions in there.... rights about the Palestinian properties and their revenues in thinking of equity and justice, that policies and practices of Israel that violate human rights of the Palestinian people and other Arabs of the occupied territories, demands that Israel accept the Geneva Convention in Occupied Palestinian Territory including East Jerusalem, etc. occupied since 1967, that Israeli settlements and in the Golan are illegal and an obstacle to peace and economic and social development; violation of human rights, that Israel has imposed its laws, jurisdiction and administration on the Golan and demand that Israel rescind forthwith its decision. ..... women and children affected by living in occupied territory.  ...

( I don't know whether to laugh or to cry at this unbelievable accusation of the attackers of all the counties involved attacking  Israel in 1967 including the Palestinians.) It's the murderers suing the murder victim for causing them to have to get lawyers and pay for court expense and for losing their jobs because they tried to murder.  Looking at the UN's decisions, I've decided that crime certainly does pay.  They are like the children who murdered their parents and then cry because now they are orphans.  )

 UN is proclaiming 2014 the International Year or Solidarity with the Palestinian People; raising international awareness,  (Now isn't this going to be a fun year!)

Reiterates its determination that any actions taken by Israel to impose its laws, jurisdiction and administration on "the Holy City of Jerusalem are illegal and therefore null and void and have no validity whatsoever, and calls upon Israel to immediately cease all such illegal and unilateral measures.  (Do they remember that Jerusalem is the Jewish Holy City and that we  share it with all the religions under Israel's governorship?) (Do they realize that Jerusalem is now one united city doing very well and will not be divided again? or would South Korea like to give some more land back to North Korea?  How about dividing Washington DC and giving half to China., or of course-we could get California and Arizona to be given back to Mexico.  They'd like that.)  No, Israel has rights to East Jerusalem.  The whole city is what we have prayed for 2,000 years to return to.  We lost it in 70 CE to the Romans and never again shall we allow one iota to be under another's hand again.)  I don't care how much the Palestinians covet what isn't theirs in the first place.  Get over it!

   They want the Golan to be given back to Syria.  (Of course, they are thwarted in bombing Israel  from there now).

"UN chief Ban Ki-moon has rejected the criticism by a UN interpreter caught on an open microphone, saying through a spokesman that he “respects the right of [UN] member states” to adopt resolutions against Israel, which “need to be upheld by all countries.” But given that Ban himself has firmly criticized the singling out of Israel by UN bodies such as the Human Rights Council.   UN Watch expressed disappointment at the secretary-general's failure to support the UN interpreter’s virtually identical, candid and entirely correct observations."  The interpreter was heard to say accidentally that wasn't 6 a little too much for one country such as Israel?  

The United States delegate was the only one to speak up for Israel.  "Speaking after the votes, the representative of United States said that his country remained deeply troubled by the repetitive and disproportionate number of one-sided Assembly resolutions condemning Israel.  Only four other resolutions had been critical of other Member States.  All parties to the tragic conflict had a responsibility for ending it, and the United States was disappointed that the Assembly continued to single out Israel.  The United States urged a halt to one-sided actions that would disrupt or distract from the process.  Continued support for biased resolutions complicated efforts to reach a just and lasting peace.  Furthermore, the systematic bias and distortion of the conflict conveyed by the resolutions damaged United Nations’ credibility."  

Resource:  http://blog.unwatch.org/index.php/2013/11/25/this-years-22-unga-resolutions-against-israel-4-on-rest-of-world/
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/History/67_War.html
http://www.un.org/sg/biography.shtml
http://jewishfactsfromportland.blogspot.com/2013/07/so-you-want-to-talk-about-six-day-war.html
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151727363956561&set=a.10150106089111561.280686.102912096560&type=1&theater
http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/un-anti-israel-votes-are-indeed-a-little-weird/ by Hillel Neuer about 6 against Israel a little weird.  

Saturday, November 23, 2013

Iranian Deal Reached: Is It Good For the Jews?

                                                                                            

Nadene Goldfoot                                              President Rouhani of Iran

A deal with Iran has been signed which affects the next 6 months.  It's not a great deal, not a good deal, but a deal whereby we have unloosened sanctions that we'll never get back.  Pundits were talking about how hard they were to get in the first place.  We had people like Russia and China that had to come to agreement with England, France, USA and Germany.  One pundit described their nuclear plans like baking a cake.  They still have all the ingredients to make it.  They can wait for 6 months.

Obama spoke from 7:33 pm to 7:41 pm, all of 8 minutes.  He was late as usual in coming to the mike.  Kerry spoke for a much longer time.  Obama thinks more about politics and wanting to leave one legacy of something he brought about.  After 5 days, they finally got this signed in Geneva, Switzerland.  Iran has been in operation of starting a nuclear program for the past 10 years.

One thing we were all listening for was what was going to be done with enriched material they have on hand.  The second thing of interest was about the centrifuges.  In 2003 they had 164 centrifuges.  Today they have 19,000 centrifuges.  If these are destroyed, they can always make more.  The third thing is about their plutonium reactor they have in Iraq.  What about that?  The most important thing is the ability to verify what they say.  Iran has done nothing but lie about their capabilities.   They can pretend to drop the program but keep on doing it.

Evidently the European Union will be very happy to have this agreement as they are chomping at the bit to trade with Iran.  There's money to be made.  Iran gets a lot, in the billions.  Iran will get 6 to 9 billion dollars in relief.  The relief will be in the form of being able to retrieve gold and petrol dollars, for example.  They have had their economy hobbled by the sanctions so will get something like 4.2 billion in aid in foreign currencies, and 6 to 10 billion in the next 6 months because they will only continue with their enrichment program by 3.5%.  Inspectors will be able to keep tabs on their work daily through cameras, I believe they said.  That worried me right away after watching our American TV programs on Law and Order.  Cameras can be set to show what the   person owning the cameras want to show.  I hope I was hearing wrong.

What Iran was fishing for and got was to be active in a role pertaining to Syria, for one.  Probably they want to be in on the Palestinian talks and Israel talks, too, though nothing else was  mentioned beyond Syria.  They are hungry for power.

We do have people who are sceptical besides me.  Major General Bob Scales remembered the deal with North Korea when Clinton was the President.  .  He also thought the bones of the deal should be kept in place and not to make cosmetic concessions.

Saudi Arabia and Israel and others will not be resting comfortably with this deal.  It may impede Iranian  progress  but it isn't stopping it.  Kerry thinks they would wind up with nothing evidently if they didn't take this opportunity.  This is Western thinking dealing with an old easterner.  A pundit mentioned the fact that Israel and Saudi Arabia have intuitive feelings about this and have dealt with the the Middle East much more than our Western contingent with Kerry and they should be listened to.

No, the deal is not good for the Jews. A good deal would be to dismantle their program.   Netanyahu said that Kerry gave up too much.  I knew he'd do that.  He's never bartered in a shuk.  You don't pay the first price asked.  Evidently he had had it after 5 days of meetings.

Iran said they had no plans to destroy Israel and that there is a fatwa against that, but at the same time their religious leaders, mullahs, were calling Israel such pet names as stinking dogs and pariahs.  This, coming from religious leaders doesn't offer much comfort and trust.  Ahmadinejad did so much lying.  People on this team cannot count on trusting what they hear.  Seeing is believing.  They must verify everything.  Did they bring about any dismantling of the centrifuges?  No.  The Plutonium?  No.  We'll just have to see what's happening in around June the 1st.

Resource:  Fox News
Update: http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/charles-krauthammer-suckers-deal/2013/11/21/9d03e966-52dc-11e3-a7f0-b790929232e1_story.html  Excellent Article
Update: 12/10/13 http://www.algemeiner.com/2013/12/10/alan-dershowitz-now-doubts-obamas-promise-to-prevent-iran-from-gaining-nuclear-weapons/


Friday, November 22, 2013

USA In Danger: UnAmerican View of the World Today

Nadene Goldfoot                                                                           

Bloggers have been warning of the dangers of siding with Iran, but our newspapers haven't mirrored this fear.  Finally, Lt. Gen. Thomas G. McInerney voices concern when he warned that "we have an administration that has an entirely different view of the world."   He feels that Russia and Iran are influencing America's thinking. Ask most people today in the world and Russia is named as the top dog.   Our waning presence in the Middle East  is putting the US in a most dangerous situation, similar to where we were in the 1930's before WWII.
                                                                               
 Iran will not continue to feel the pain of sanctions-the slap on the hands for wanting to A Bomb Israel.  Who doesn't really understand her motives in this?  Iran has done the right thing religiously; warned Israel umpteen times of their motives.  It's not her fault that no one on the planet wants to heed their warnings except little Israel, the thorn in everyone's side, evidently.  Surely Obama must think so.  We're the pain in his neck, the teeny state raising all the ruckus of not wanting to be eliminated by their neighbors who reject their hold on their  real estate holdings.  How dare we insist on existing when nobody wants us!  Besides that, we just have the chutzpah to show up all the neighbors and make them look shabby with our Democracy, our strength and continual start up businesses that are being developed, not to mention all the fantastic medical technology coming out of this teeny state.

No, do you think that Iran will not continue because the USA has caved in and has offered $6 billion dollars to Iran to tide them over for the next few months while Kerry and staff stall around and try to come up with something they all love?  So isn't this the same as lifting the sanctions?  Well, I guess not, being the first offer was in the amount of $7 billion.  This would have allowed Iran to continue funding it's Lebanese proxy terror group, Hezbollah for 35 years, its military ICBM program for 21 more months or it's war budget for the next 9 months.  This is some crazy way to even dream while on drugs that this will end the problem with Iran and their outlandish plot to crush Israel and be the rulers of the Middle East.  Does the USA really want to partner up with such an evil empire?  Where, or where is John Wayne when we need him?  We've wound up with the wrong John and that's where our country is going.

Meanwhile, our ever alert administration is declaring that Israel's outlandish idea of needing Iran to totally dismantle its nuclear capacity will lead to war.  Oh sure, take away their toys of destruction making them unable to harm a country totally and finally and that's dangerous for the USA.  What kind of convoluted thinking is this?  Israel is very realistic while the USA is evidently thinking from cloud 9 these days.  Kerry actually said that Netanyahu's fear that this new deal of releasing money and easing sanctions will lead to Israel being vulnerable to destruction is unfounded.  Sure, I mean after all, nuclear weapons capability coupled with hatred and threats that are called for according to their religious thinking certainly can't harm anyone.  Where was Kerry when Japan was bombed by the USA?  Israel's fears are unfounded?  Oh yes, Israel lives in such a loving neighborhood.  Right?  We're not smoking weed, Kerry, we can still think straight.  Get off this kick.  The USA is losing or has already lost its status in the world.  You're adding salt to the wound with such statements.
                                                                         
Let's look at our nice neighbors, Hamas.  They are threatening Israel with their new missile range, probably missiles supplied by Iran that can reach Tel Aviv.  Mushir al-Masri, big shot Hamas in their parliament and but time terrorist said that if Israel hits Gaza-and it's been Gaza who has been hitting Israel during this cease fire period, they would fire missiles at targets north of Tel Aviv.  That means they're going to blast us for sure if we reciprocate with hits.  The fact that they upset the whole southern Israel full of over a million people is small potatoes to them-they feel that only they have the right to attack.  No one has the right to defend themselves in their eyes.

Getting down to the USA, we see that Iran and Russia now have influence over the USA, not Israel, not even in consideration that is noticeable except from the USA Senate.  The administration does not seem to listen to it.  The USA has used very selfish thinking in losing Egypt to Russia in that the USA was backing the wrong group, the Muslim Brotherhood, people who want to destroy Israel, for  Pete's sake.  Coupled with not having a presence in the Middle East that amounts to much, allowing the Ben Gazi embassy situation to go by the wayside, just ignored for so long that nobody knows nor cares what happened anymore,  has added up to the USA losing ground as the great country to be admired.  We are no longer number one in Egypt, I can tell you that much, despite what the politicians say to the microphones.  Egypt just signed a $4 billion dollar arms deal with Russia.  Egypt will now be able to be on par with the IDF.  Isn't that nice?  See how Israel is screwed again?

Somebody was able to delay Iran's capabilities via computers.  Remember?  Iran just got even by a a cybe-attack hit Wednesday that shut down a site for several hours of United With Israel's Stop Iran initiative.  It was a site with a petition to Obama to oppose any deal that didn't dismantle Iran's nuclear program. Rod Beckstrom of ICANN, a group overseeing the internet's architecture, thinks that the USA will give up their governance of the internet by 2018.  We're just giving up leadership in everything.   How about the show of probably forcing the Jews of Tehran to come out and protest against any interference.  The Jews in that country are most likely under a lot of stress and threats.
                                                                           
What we're not getting out of Kerry's deals are any meaningful nuclear concessions from Tehran.  We're just giving in a lot and giving back wiggle room that will be used to the utmost.  We've put a nerd into the ring with Goliath, and he ain't no David.  Not only have we lost our reputation but our safety net as well.  We're in bad shape and don't even care.

 The USA is also  in danger of an EMP (Electromagnetic Pulse) attack by Iran which would have the power to shut down our electrical grid and we'd be living the TV program of Revolution that is so popular.  It's the story of losing our electricity and our government at the same time, and evidently Iran's capability has this within reach as well.    Iran has repeatedly called for a world without America, and has already practiced attacks on us using EMP  from barges in the Caspian Sea. We are as unprepared for this as the TV scenario's people are.  This was discussed in Washington DC in a conference about it.  Who knew such a thing could be a reality?  We'll be thrown back into the Dark Ages.  Our lives depend on electricity.
                                                                         
                   Where 12 Tribes of Jacob lived in the Holy Land of Israel -1271-721 BCE, and then Assyria attack in 721 BCE and carried off 10 of the 12 tribes (27,290 Israelites)  leaving Judah, the largest and strongest.  Once strong, King Hoshea (730-721BCE) wasn't guarding the henhouse when he should have.  He was a prophet who forecast Israel's exile but also had visions of restoration after the people's repentance.  After 2,000+ years of sufferings, how much more repentance is needed?  

Where we once thought the USA had Israel's back, we're now understanding that the word "back" has a much different meaning.  It's more like "back" to the 67 "lines" that Obama urged about, or back out of a promise and a friendship that Israel had for 65 years.  It's more like being stabbed in the back.  It's not a condition of it's either him or us.  It's a matter of not standing together.  It's parents where each are taking opposite viewpoints with their children, making their children crazy.  The whole matter is that these two, USA and Israel, were never married to each other in the first place.  It was a bad match.

Reference:  Arutz Sheva, Senior General:  US in greatest danger since 1930s by Ari Yashar & Orli Harari; UWI's "Stop Iran" initiative hit by cyber-attack by Ari Yashar;  UN Ambassador:  Iran being offered $6 billion in relief by Ari Yashar; US Official, Israel's Position on Iran could Lead to War by Elad Benari, Hamas:  Our rockets will reach north of Tel Aviv by Dalit haleva, Ari Yashar; Experts:  US "unprepared" for potential Iran attack by Daniel Perez, Orli Harari, Washington













Wednesday, November 20, 2013

Muslim Crusaders Enter Syria From Europe to Fight

Nadene Goldfoot                                                                       

            Al Qaeda terrorist from Turkey killed by Assad's forces, Burak Karan

The Syrian Civil War is being invaded by Europeans who are joining the fight.  Muslims have moved into Europe, something they refer to as The Big Immigration.  When they do this they are active proselytizers so many Europeans have converted to Islam which is their goal.  Now, German Islamists are fighting against Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad by joining up with the rebels.  These new recruits have become more religiously radicalized since the civil war began in 2011.

In September it was estimated that there were 170 German fighters in Syria already.  50 had traveled there just recently.  Burak Karan, a German football (soccer) star who ended his career at age 20 to go to Syria and fight for al Qaeda,  was killed by Assad's army.  He wanted to be a jihadist.  He was from Turkey originally.  His coach said he could have lived safely in Germany as a soccer player.  He was 25 years old.

200 of them are now in the "German Camp" or on their way to Syria.  They are taking an old route from Germany to Istanbul and then through to the Syrian border.  Der Spiegel news magazine wrote all about it.  The Welt newspaper wrote that so many Islamists are heading to Syria from Europe that the German security services are concerned about the number.  They are afraid that they'll return to Germany even more radicalized after receiving terror training from Al Qaeda and other groups in Syria such as Hezbollah.

Teenagers as young as 15 are leaving Germany and Norway to fight against Bashar Assad in Syria.  Over 100  left Germany just this year.  They all adhere to jihadi ideology.  One child with Free Syrian Army was only 14 years old.  The Muslim Brotherhood is very radical and the Salafists are even more so.  "The Salafist community has also lured adolescents to radicalize them.”It appears that both immigrant Muslims and converted Muslims are becoming jihadists and want to be in the fighting.  

 57 radical Austrian Islamists are currently in Syria engaged in combat against Assad’s regime.  The Austrian intelligence agency stated that roughly half of the Islamists from Austria in Syria have a Chechen origin.

500 is the estimate by Gilles de KerchoveBelgium senior European Union official,  Director of Justice and Home Affairs (HJA) in the Council Secretariat of the European Union from 1995 – 2007.    He has since been appointed as EU Counter-terrorism Coordinator, succeeding Gijs de Vries.   The largest numbers come from the UK, Ireland and France.  "In the Netherlands, officials have raised the terror threat level there to "substantial" - partly over concerns about radicalised citizens returning from Syria.   It happens that they have large numbers of Muslims.  All share the fear of what may be returning;   fanatical terrorists all trained to kill.  

Several thousand Europeans and Americans can be the total now fighting against Assad.  Most are joining the al-Nusra Front, al Qaeda’s main terrorist group in Syria, along with smaller Islamist militias made up of nationals from more than a dozen foreign countries.  "Nicole Mansfield, a single mother from Flint, Michigan,  was killed traveling with al Qaeda fighters in Syria last May."

USA intelligence estimates that there are now 6,000 foreign fighters in Syria.  "Most of the foreign fighters are from Middle Eastern, North African, and Central Asian states, including Libya, Egypt, Jordon, Kuwait, Lebanon, Morocco, Tunisia, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Algeria, and United Arab Emirates. They obviously will team up with those that came from Europe.  

There is so much zeal to kill that al Qaeda accidentally beheaded the wrong guy, another rebel terrorist.  It happened to be one of their allies.  They had already put the head out on public display, such as people did 2,000 years ago.Then they found out what they had done and apologized.  
  
Just recently the rebels hit a Christian church in Syria.  A school was next to it and the playground was hit, killing about 5 children.  Anyone seen become targets.  In Damascus there are Christians living next door to Muslims and have been getting along well.  Most rebels all belong to some terror group that is being funded.  Of course now we have a more western? group being armed by the United States.  People that really do no want to be part of all this craziness have fled and are refugees with many not even registered as such.  They had to flee on tourist visas quickly.  Homes, offices holding birth certificates, schools, churches have been flattened amid a ground-shaking deafening scream of landing missiles.  Some of the places hit have been very ancient, worthy of having many historic artifacts, now all destroyed.  The rebels don't care and don't even know the value of what they are destroying.

Resource:  http://www.thelocal.de/20131021/52489
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2509784/Former-German-footballer-quit-sport-Jihadist-killed-fighting-al-Qaeda-Syrian-civil-war.html
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-22275456
http://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/German-TV-European-jihadist-teenagers-fighting-in-Syria-329480
http://freebeacon.com/american-european-jihadists-in-syria-raise-new-domestic-terror-fears/
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2013/11/15/al-qaeda-linked-rebels-apologize-after-beheading-wrong-man-report-says/

Monday, November 18, 2013

The Counterfeit Arabs, by Victor Sharpe

                                                                          

By VICTOR SHARPE—
Posted on November 18, 2013 by Jerusalem Connection
They are the Arabs who call themselves Palestinians.
They are indistinguishable from those Arabs who live in the surrounding artificial states such as Iraq, Jordan, Saudi Arabia or the other entities throughout the Middle East created by the colonial powers, France and Britain. Both powers were victorious after the Ottoman Turkish Empire lay defeated at the end of World War 1.

Both of these European powers carved artificial borders across the corpse of what had been Turkey’s empire in the Middle East, and both France and Britain have left a resulting legacy of war and violence ever since. One such territory, previously occupied by Ottoman Turkey for 400 years, was the geographical entity known sometimes as Palestine.

But there is no such thing as a Palestinian people; no such thing as a Palestinian history; and no Palestinian language exists. There has never been any independent, sovereign Palestinian state in all of recorded history – let alone an Arab independent state of Palestine.

You will search in vain for Palestinian Arab coinage or Palestinian Arab archaeological artifacts specifically related to any Palestinian Arab king or ancient leader. But what you will find are coins, pottery, ancient scrolls, all providing conclusive, empirical and millennial evidence of Jewish civilization dotting the land known correctly as Israel – not Palestine.

The present-day so-called “Palestinians” are an Arab people sharing an overwhelmingly Muslim Arab culture, ethnicity and language identical to their fellow Arabs in the Middle East and North Africa, with few if any distinctions.
Yasser Arafat, the arch-terrorist, who imposed himself undemocratically upon the Arabs who call themselves Palestinians, was fond of creating the absurd myth that Palestinian Arabs were descended from the Canaanites and the Philistines.  As we know, the bigger the lie the bigger the number of people will believe it. And so Arafat twisted history in order to disinherit the indigenous native people of the land: the Jews.

Canaanites, without doubt, were the first known inhabitants of the Land of Israel before the first Hebrews, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and their wives, settled there, and before Moses brought their descendants back to the Promised Land during the Exodus from Egypt.

The Canaanites lived both along the coastal plain and in the mountain regions, which run like a spine down the biblical territory of Samaria and Judea. Their language was similar to Hebrew and their territory stretched north into present day Lebanon and included the present day Golan Heights.

The Canaanites were finally subdued during the reign of King David. Most Canaanites were gradually assimilated into the Jewish people and were no longer a distinguishable people.

After the 8th century BC, the Canaanites no longer existed and the only people, therefore, who can trace back an historic link to ancient Canaan are the Jews, not the Palestinian Arabs. So much for Arafat’s nonsense and for the on-going attempts by today’s Palestinian Arabs, financed by vast Arab oil wealth, to hoodwink the world.

The term “Philistines” provides the source from which the term “Palestinians” is derived. Like the Arabs who gave themselves the concocted name “Palestinian,” the Philistines were alien peoples who entered the land from other lands, mostly from the Mediterranean island of Crete. That is why they were also known as the Sea People.

The modern “Palestinian Arabs” are primarily the descendants of those itinerant Arabs who illegally flooded British Mandatory Palestine from Arab territories as far away as Sudan, Egypt, Syria and what was Mesopotamia (modern Iraq). They were attracted during the early decades of the 20th century by new employment opportunities provided by the Jewish pioneers, whose heroic efforts were turning the desert green again and restoring centuries of neglect that the land had endured under a succession of alien occupiers.
Britain, during its Mandate over the territory, turned a blind eye to the flood of illegal Arab aliens entering, while at the same time often arbitrarily limiting Jewish immigration into their ancient, biblical and ancestral homeland. This was a betrayal of the Mandate given to Britain to facilitate a Jewish Homeland in the geographical territory known as Palestine.

The Philistines were non-Semitic peoples who had entered the land from their homes throughout the Aegean Islands in general and from Crete in particular. These ancient Cretans arrived in Southern Canaan and along the Egyptian coastline and were known as “Pelestim and Keretim” by the Hebrew tribes. It appears that their first settlement may have been Gaza. Later they settled in Ashdod, Ashkelon, Gat and Ekron: the Pentapolis.

Their territory was primarily along the coastal Mediterranean; interestingly, a territory not dissimilar to the present day Gaza Strip. They attempted at different times to invade Judah but were turned back by the various Jewish biblical heroes and finally defeated by King David. From that time onwards they were diminished as a threat and as a separate people, finally disappearing from history and any “Palestinian” Arab attempt to claim a lineage with them is as absurd as that of links with the early Canaanites.

Moving fast forward to 73 AD, the first attempt of the Jews to reclaim their independence from the repressive yoke of Roman occupation ended when Jewish warriors and their families fled to the fortress of Masada from Jerusalem. The Romans had destroyed the Jewish capital city along with the Second Jewish Temple.

Historically documented and universally recognized, Masada, which rises to great height overlooking the Dead Sea, is where the heroic last stand took place and where the surviving warriors and their families took their own lives rather than be sent as slaves throughout the mighty Roman Empire. The Land where these stirring and epochal events took place was in the province known as Judæa. There is absolutely no mention of any place called “Palestine” before that time.

After the suppression of the Second Jewish Revolt in 135 AD against the Roman occupation, the Emperor Hadrian replaced the name of Judea (Yehuda in Hebrew from where the name Yehudim, Jews, originates) to Syria-Palæstina after the “Philistines” who were the ancient enemies of the Israelites. Hadrian did so with the explicit purpose of effacing any trace of Jewish history.
Ancient Romans, as well as so-called Palestinian Arabs, have fulfilled the Hebrew Scriptural prophecy that declares: “They lay crafty plans against Your People… they say: ‘come, let us wipe them out as a nation; let the name of Israel be remembered no more’.” – Tehilim 83:3-4 (Psalm 83:3-4). They failed, as Israel is reconstituted as a modern Jewish state in its ancestral and biblical homeland.

No such name as Palestine occurs in any ancient document. It is not written in the Bible, neither in the Hebrew Scriptures nor in the Christian Testament, not even in Assyrian, Persian, Macedonian, Ptolemaic, Seleucian or other Greek sources. There is no “Palestinian” people ever mentioned, not even by the Romans that invented the term.

If “Palestinians” allegedly are the historic inhabitants of the Holy Land, why did they not fight for independence from Roman occupation as Jews did? How is it possible that not a single “Palestinian” leader revolted against the Roman invaders or is mentioned in any historic record?

Why is there no Palestinian rebel group mentioned, as for example the Jewish Zealots? Why does every historic document mention the Jews as the native and aboriginal inhabitants, and the Greeks, Romans and others as foreigners dwelling in Judea; but no “Palestinian” people, neither as native or as foreigner? What is more, there is no reference to any “Palestinian” people in the Koran, although Muslims claim that their prophet was once in al-Aksa (meaning the farthest place) which Muslims, for political purposes, chose to be Jerusalem – an event not even mentioned in the Koran.

Saladin, a Kurd, knew the Jews and invited them to resettle in Jerusalem. He had no trouble in recognizing Jerusalem as their eternal capital city and the territory as their rightful Homeland. But he did not know any so-called Palestinians and to claim otherwise that Palestinians are the original people of Eretz Yisrael, the Land of Israel,  is not only counter to secular history but also is opposed to Islamic history.

The so-called “Palestinians” who claim Jerusalem want it so that they can take it away from the Jews for whom Jerusalem, known also as Zion, is the eternal, 3,000 year old Jewish capital.

Perhaps what links the modern day Arabs who call themselves “Palestinians” with the ancient Philistines is that both are invaders. The Philistines wanted to take from the Israelites the Holy Ark of the Covenant, while today’s so-called “Palestinian Arabs” want to take from the Jewish people the Holy City of the Covenant – Jerusalem.

A wealth of information about this and related subjects may be found at the following website. I encourage all to read it:

So let me close, beginning with the words of a Christian Arab, Joseph Farah, who has made his home here in America and who knows of what he writes:
“There has never been a land known as Palestine governed by Palestinians. Palestinians are Arabs, indistinguishable from Jordanians (another recent invention), Syrians, Iraqis, etc. Keep in mind that the Arabs control 99.9 per cent of the Middle East lands. Israel represents one-tenth of one per cent of the landmass. But that’s too much for the Arabs. They want it all. And that is ultimately what the fighting in Israel is about today… No matter how many land concessions the Israelis make, it will never be enough.”
Joseph Farah, “Myths of the Middle East”

Let us hear what other Arabs have said:

“There is no such country as Palestine. ‘Palestine’ is a term the Zionists invented. There is no Palestine in the Bible. Our country was for centuries part of Syria. ‘Palestine’ is alien to us. It is the Zionists who introduced it”.
Auni Bey Abdul-Hadi, Syrian Arab leader to British Peel Commission, 1937
“There is no such thing as Palestine in history, absolutely not”.

Professor Philip Hitti, Arab historian, 1946
“It is common knowledge that Palestine is nothing but Southern Syria”.

Representative of Saudi Arabia at the United Nations, 1956
Concerning the Holy Land, the chairman of the Syrian Delegation at the Paris Peace Conference in February 1919 stated:
“The only Arab domination since the Conquest in 635 AD hardly lasted, as such, 22 years.”

The preceding declarations by Arab politicians were issued before 1967 as they had not the slightest knowledge of the existence of any Palestinian people.
How and when did they change their mind and decide that such people existed?
When the State of Israel was reborn in 1948 the Arabs had still not discovered that “ancient” people. They were too busy attempting to annihilate the reconstituted sovereign State of Israel, and did not intend to create any Palestinian entity, but only to distribute the seized Jewish lands among the already existing Arab states.

The Arab armies were miraculously defeated by a tiny handful of Jewish defenders. The Arabs attempted again to destroy Israel in 1967, and were humiliated in only six days, in which they lost the lands that they had previously stolen and usurped in 1948. Those lands included Judea and Samaria, which comprise the biblical and ancestral Jewish heartland, tracing its history back some 4,000 years.

Now the world forgets such empirical history and prefers to name the ancestral Jewish territory, the West Bank, which was illegally occupied by the Jordanian Arabs for 19 years from 1948 until its liberation in 1967.

In all those years, when Jordan occupied Judea and Samaria and Egypt occupied the Gaza Strip, neither of them created a “Palestinian” state, since the still non-existing Palestinians would have never claimed their alleged right to have their own state.

Paradoxically, during the British Mandate, which lasted from 1920 to 1948, it was not any Arab group but the Jews that were known as Palestinians!
But read what other Arabs declared after the Six-Day War:
“There are no differences between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese. We are all part of one nation. It is only for political reasons that we carefully underline our Palestinian identity… yes, the existence of a separate Palestinian identity serves only tactical purposes. The founding of a Palestinian state is a new tool in the continuing battle against Israel”.

Zuhair Muhsin, military commander of the PLO and member of the PLO Executive Council
“Never forget this one point: There is no such thing as a Palestinian people, there is no Palestinian entity, there is only Syria. You are an integral part of the Syrian people, Palestine is an integral part of Syria. Therefore it is we, the Syrian authorities, who are the true representatives of the Palestinian people”.

Syrian dictator Hafez Assad to the PLO leader Yasser Arafat
“As I lived in Palestine, everyone I knew could trace their heritage back to the original country their great grandparents came from. Everyone knew their origin was not from the Canaanites, but ironically, this is the kind of stuff our education in the Middle East included. The fact is that today’s Palestinians are immigrants from the surrounding nations! I grew up well knowing the history and origins of today’s Palestinians as being from Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Christians from Greece, Muslim Sherkas from Russia, Muslims from Bosnia, and the Jordanians next door. My grandfather, who was a dignitary in Bethlehem, almost lost his life by Abdul Qader Al-Husseni (the leader of the Palestinian revolution) after being accused of selling land to Jews. He used to tell us that his village Beit Sahur (The Shepherds Fields) in Bethlehem County was empty before his father settled in the area with six other families. The town has now grown to 30,000 inhabitants”.
Walid Shoebat

During the long years of alien occupation of the Land of Israel, though Jews were always living in the Land in whatever numbers they could sustain, visitors were always struck at how the land had become a barren waste with malarial swamps and a remarkably sparse population. The following reports from travellers to the desolate landscape that had become a mournful waste are quite telling:

“There is not a solitary village throughout its whole extent (valley of Jezreel, Galilee); not for thirty miles in either direction… One may ride ten miles hereabouts and not see ten human beings. For the sort of solitude to make one dreary, come to Galilee… Nazareth is forlorn… Jericho lies a mouldering ruin… Bethlehem and Bethany, in their poverty and humiliation… untenanted by any living creature… A desolate country whose soil is rich enough, but is given over wholly to weeds… a silent, mournful expanse… a desolation… We never saw a human being on the whole route… Hardly a tree or shrub anywhere. Even the olive tree and the cactus, those fast friends of a worthless soil had almost deserted the country… Palestine sits in sackcloth and ashes… desolate and unlovely…”

Mark Twain, “The Innocents Abroad”, 1867
One wonders, therefore, where were the “Palestinians” hiding so that Mark Twain could not see them? Where was that so-called “ancient” people in the mid nineteenth century? Of course, Arab politicians now attempt to discredit Mark Twain, retreating into that realm of all scoundrels by calling him a racist.
“In 1590 a ‘simple English visitor’ to Jerusalem wrote: ‘Nothing there is to be seen but a little of the old walls, which is yet remaining and all the rest is grass, moss and weeds much like to a piece of rank or moist ground’.”.
Gunner Edward Webbe, Palestine Exploration Fund
“The land in Palestine is lacking in people to till its fertile soil”.
British archaeologist Thomas Shaw, mid-1700s
“Palestine is a ruined and desolate land”.

Count Constantine François Volney, XVIII century French author and historian
“The Arabs themselves cannot be considered but temporary residents. They pitched their tents in its grazing fields or built their places of refuge in its ruined cities. They created nothing in it. Since they were strangers to the land, they never became its masters. The desert wind that brought them hither could one day carry them away without their leaving behind them any sign of their passage through it”.
Comments by Christians concerning the Arabs in Palestine in the 1800s
“The country is in a considerable degree empty of inhabitants and therefore its greatest need is of a body of population”.
James Finn, British Consul in 1857
“The area was under populated and remained economically stagnant until the arrival of the first Zionist pioneers in the 1880′s, who came to rebuild the Jewish land. The country had remained “The Holy Land” in the religious and historic consciousness of mankind, which associated it with the Bible and the history of the Jewish people. Jewish development of the country also attracted large numbers of other immigrants – both Jewish and Arab. The road leading from Gaza to the north was only a summer track suitable for transport by camels and carts… Houses were all of mud. No windows were anywhere to be seen… The plows used were of wood… The yields were very poor… Schools did not exist… The rate of infant mortality was very high… The western part, toward the sea, was almost a desert… Many ruins were scattered over the area, as owing to the prevalence of malaria, many villages were deserted by their inhabitants”.

The report of the British Royal Commission, 1913
Far too many otherwise decent people have come to accept Arab oil financed falsehoods masquerading as history about the origins of the so-called Palestinian Arabs. These lies now permeate the mainstream media, schools, colleges, and universities and are perpetrated by the tenured leftist professors and the colleges who all too eagerly accept Saudi blood money.
The historical facts given above may be of help to those who have otherwise fallen hook, line and sinker for duplicitous Arab propaganda and what constitutes one of the biggest scams ever perpetrated upon the world.
Victor Sharpe is a freelance writer and author of several books including a collection of short stories called The Blue Hour and Volumes One, Two and Three of Politicide: The attempted murder of the Jewish state.